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dougi

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Everything posted by dougi

  1. Our miniature poodle, Sterling, destroyed our curb side window shade. Replacements are not available in the original white color. Also, the shades are different colors than the originals. Also, the brackets the originals fit into will not work with the new shades. Be forewarned. If you need to replace one or more of your window shades, it's not possible to get them in the original white color. If you want all your shades to match, you will have to replace them all with the new ones, which are a light tan color, and you will probably have to have the replacements installed at the factory, due to the change in the mounting brackets.
  2. I had these batteries installed at the Factory. No problem fitting then into the battery cavity on the battery tray. I have replaced them with a new set earlier this year. No problems.
  3. I share your concern regarding the drain valves and cables. If and when I upgrade, I will look to Drainmaster for the best 12V RV drain valve products. These are used on the million dollar rigs. I hear they are fabulous. Link: http://www.drainmaster.com/site/products/full-view/165
  4. This park is a great place to spend some time camping. The scenery is great and the campground is beautiful, with full concrete pads, water, showers, restrooms with flush toilets, but no hookups. If you are in Southern Arizona, this place is a MUST in my books. Good hiking trails and car tours. Prime Sonoran Desert habitat.
  5. I've towed our Oliver with a Chevy Traverse. It does a great job towing the Oliver. We averaged 14.3 MPG with the Traverse and it is a very comfortable vehicle. However, since the Oliver has no outside storage, it's hard to beet a pickup for long trips with the Oliver.
  6. I think our windows are Hehr brand. Here is their web site: http://www.hehrintl.com/ I've seen them for sale on eBay.
  7. I think many of us got these ovens in our trailers because they were supplied by Oliver in the Elites. Untill recently, I got very little use from our oven, which is a Sylvania SC-11100. I really didn't know how to use my oven, nor did I realize its capabilities. Fortunately, I have my Owners Manual, which is essential to learning how to operate the oven. I was referred to a web site about using these ovens in our RV's and our homes. It is: http://www.microwaveconnect.com. I recommend going to this site and reading it thoroughly. I have purchased the necessary things to use my oven. I have started cooking in the oven and I'm very impressed at what it can do. These ovens have the capability of cooking with a combination of microwave AND convection at the same time. This allows us to cook things, like a roast, in almost half the time it takes in a conventional oven, and it is more flavorful to boot, and don't think it can't brown your foods because it can, just as good, or better, than a conventional oven. So, if you have one of these ovens in your Oliver but are not using it much, or at all, I suggest you investigate what it can do for you and how you can tap into that benefit. The only negative is that in order to use the oven you have to have 115V AC current, from shore power or a generator. Happy cooking.
  8. I have extended my trailer tongue enough so that the factory aluminum basket clears the ends of the bumper on my tow vehicle. I took the trailer for a short test tow and it towed great. I had to get a new electrical cord to reach the tow vehicle. The chains were long enough to reach, so no problem there.
  9. HI Sherry, Geneva and I are doing just fine. Thanks for asking. Not much camping lately but we have a big trip out West and back planned from February through April, with a trip out of LA to Hawaii during Spring Break, with our Daughter and her family. Here is where we got our mattress. Very quick service: http://www.houstonmattress.com Hope you and Paul are doing great. We would like to camp with you again sometime.
  10. My wife and I ordered our Oliver with the twin bed configuration. We used it for two years that way and decided we didn't like our beds, primarily because they were not wide enough and required extra foam cushions for the comfort we wanted. We had to deal with sleeping bags and foam pads, making for a inconvenient switch out between the Oliver and the tow vehicle every morning and evening. I can't recommend the twin bed option. The pantry is nice, and it adds more counter space, but the extra table is really not all that usable, as it blocks the entry to the pantry, so we had already removed that table and had it in storage prior to our modification. So, I took out the fiberglass pantry that comes with the twin be option, which freed up the back of the Oliver for a custom made, (almost) double size mattress. I had to craft a piece of plywood to cover the space between the benches. It fits nicely on the lips built into the front edge of each bench. We had the mattress made in Houston, with rounded back corners to fit the interior walls of the rear of the Oliver. The mattress is three pieces of foam, with varying densities, glued together, with a nice cover that makes it look like a quality home mattress. We had the mattress hinged at each end so we could access the storage and equipment access areas under each bench in the rear of the Oliver. I's very comfortable, and no more dealing with sleeping bags and extra foam cushions. Some of you owners with the double bed option may want to think about getting a permanent, custom made matters for the rear of your Oliver. We sure like ours.
  11. I HAD the aluminum cargo basket mounted on the tongue of our Oliver. The sharp corners of the basket damaged the bumper of my old tow vehicle during tight turns, so I took off the basket and haven't been using it since getting a new tow vehicle. Have any on you experienced the same problem? How have you dealt with the problem? I was thinking about further extending my trailer tongue, so as to make it long enough the basket would clear each end of the tow vehicle bumper during tight turns. Any advice or ideas from anyone who may have had the same problem?
  12. Pam, I hate to hear that the fridge can't be removed without removing the bathroom wall. I wonder if Oliver is still willing to work on our trailers if we take them in for repairs or modifications? I suppose I should ask them this question. Thanks, Doug
  13. Steve, only the top of the fridge is loose and protruding into the cabin. The bottom seems secure. I can see where the screws are loose at the top of the fridge when I look into the area above the fridge from outside the trailer. Oliver epoxied two pieces of aluminum angle metal to which they screwed self tapping sheet metal screws into the lip of the fridge and into the aluminum. It appears these screws have fatigued and broken the holes in the lip of the fridge and allowed it it lean into the interior of the trailer. These screws are about 1 1/4 inch long and it appears they may have to be cut out to remove them. There is inadequate space to back them out by unscrewing them. IMO a different method of securing the fridge should be devised and implemented. The way they did mine at the factory was, IMO, inadequate. It is not a serious problem, however. I may just let it be as it may be very expensive to remedy. I may just fill the space above the fridge with insulation material to keep the outside air from coming in around the top of the fridge. The fridge will operate just fine as it is. Take a look at yours and see how it is secured at the top. I wonder if they were all done like mine. Thanks, Doug
  14. Our refrigerator is protruding into the cabin at the top by almost an inch. This let's hot or cold air into the cabin. I took the top outside plastic cover off to take a look to see if I could fix it. It doesn't look promising for a quick fix. We have the Norcold fridge, BTW. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, what was your fix?
  15. I think Junior bird Man has the right idea with his gutter over the rear half of the rear curb side window. The rubber awning strip can dump far more water into the window than the four drain holes can possibly discharge from the window sill, regardless of how free of debris and open they happen to be. I am definitely going to copy his fix, and I will be cleaning my window channels regularly so the drain holes won't clog with dirt and debris. Thanks for the ideas and the suggestions.
  16. The larger window also has only four drain holes at the bottom of the frame. They are spaced further apart than the holes on the two smaller rear windows. I had only an insignificant amount of leakage at the large forward window where I was sleeping, probably due to: (1) the wind and rain was blowing stronger on the curb side windows (2) the rubber awning grommet diverts and dumps a large amount of rain from the roof right into the rear curb side window, where the largest leakage occurred. We have the twin bed configuration. You are exactly correct in your assessment of the problem. It is a design flaw of the trailer. I think a gutter placed over each window to divert the water from the roof to each side of the windows would be the only fix. The bottom window channels are further outboard than the top window channels so when they fill up with water, the excess water that can't drain out the four drain holes dumps into the trailer and runs down the INSIDE trailer wall, right onto the foot and head of the bed. This rain was heavy but not nearly as heavy as I have seen it rain. The wind was blowing at 20 plus miles per hour. It rained and the wind blew for at least five or six hours, hard and steady. I expect it rained at least six inches total, probably more, so a rain of this magnitude is uncommon and that is why others have not experienced the same problem, but I can assure you that if you are in a torrential downpour, you will. You will have to take all the bedding and cushions out of your trailers and let them air dry. We had at least three inches of water standing inside the rear plastic curb side under bed storage tub, where we store our owners manual and all our factory instruction manuals. Even the wooden board under the rear bed cushion was throughly water soaked, even though it is located under the center of the rear bed. No permanent damage occurred, but such an event could really put a damper on your fun if it happens early or mid trip. Fortunately, we were headed home and we could air dry all our stuff after we got home. I encourage Oliver to develop small permanently mounted fiberglass gutters to go over the windows. It may be possible to mitigate the problem by drilling/cutting more drain holes in the outside bottom of the windows, but I don't think that would entirely solve the problem because the drain holes have to be small and could never dump all the water coming off the roof onto the rear curb side window.
  17. Geneva and I were coming home and stopped for the night at a rest stop in far NE Oklahoma. That night it came a gully washer, raining hard all night long. When we got up the next morning, September 9, 2010, the back bed, head and foot, was soaked near the windows. I looked at the windows and could see small streams of water running down the inside of the trailer walls from the windows onto the bed. Several quarts of water had already soaked the head and foot of the bed. My best analysis is that the windows were receiving more water than they could discharge from the four small outside rectangular shaped weep holes at the bottom of each window casing. Much of the water that falls on the roof of the trailer goes down the side of the trailer some of which dumps into the windows causing them to overflow into the interior of the trailer. The only way I think this problem could be prevented is if a gutter was placed over each window to divert the water from the roof off and to each side of the windows. If anyone else has encountered this problem you might want to weigh in on the matter. I checked the weep holes at the bottom of each window and they were not blocked. However, dirt and debris can get into the bottom of the window channels and could block these weep holes. I suggest you all take a look at your windows and your weep holes. If you find a good way to clean the dirt and debris out of the bottom of the windows, please let us all know. If you can think of a simple and effective way to stop the water from the roof from dumping into the windows in a hard rain, please let us know.
  18. Geneva and I are very interested in a 2011 Alaska trip. Such a trip is on our bucket list. We've never been to the interior of the State. It's none too early to start talking about it. Some of you may know the best time of the year to be there. I have heard you want to miss the mosquitoes that are so bad in early summer, so maybe mid July to mid September would be a good time to be there? We would like to minimize our camping fees so we would like to dry camp, hopefully free, as much as possible on our way up and back. We would like to take our time going up and coming back, maybe not traveling every day, and going only 250-300 miles or so during days we do travel. We have plenty of time to burn on the trip up and back, and would like to stay in Alaska at least a month, since we will only get to go once in our lifetime. We are not fast drivers and would like to take a leisurely trip. Let's hope fuel prices don't go up much between now and then.
  19. Hex key you need is 1/2 inch. I got one on eBay, but I expect you could get one at a good hardware store. Most hex key kits come with a 3/8 inch as the max size. Doug
  20. My advice is to call the company. Mine went out and that's what I did. After I described my problems they sent me some kind of electrical device that filters out any signal interference from other electronic devices so that my remote control could work properly. It was easy to install and I've had no problems since. Doug
  21. Cherie, thanks for the information. All of those applications look worthwhile to me. How do you like the GPS capability of the 3G model? Is it something for me to look forward to having? I'm thinking it might be smart to go for the 64 Gig 3G model iPad? I don't see how doubling the memory capacity, from 32 Gigs to 64 Gigs could ever be a negative. Thanks, Doug
  22. Here is a link to an inexpensive product that Geneva and I have found to be very handy. It serves as both a screen door handle and a towel rack. We put two of these on our screen door. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/it ... 72#reviews
  23. An iPad is in on my shopping list for July. I will certainly get this application for my iPad. Also, if you know of any other applications for the iPad that would be good for on-the-go RV travel reference please let us know. I am wondering if Google maps and Google earth will work on the iPad. I don't see why they wouldn't. Also, I would appreciate your opinions about the AT&T 3G broadband service throughout the USA. I know it's not as wide spread as Verizon, but it will sure be a lot cheaper for the iPad, and NO CONTRACT. Happy travels. Come see us when you can. Doug
  24. This TV is an option in the Oliver Elite, but I bet some others out there upgraded to the 19 inch model. My TV picture never takes up the entire horizontal screen. The picture is always about 1 1/2 inches shy of reaching the left or the right side of the TV screen, thereby leaving me with about a 16 inch picture. The picture does takes up the entire vertical screen, top to bottom. It is the side to side that I'm having the problem with. Can anyone tell me if there is something I can do to cause the picture to fill the entire TV screen? There does not seem to be any adjustment for this on the menu, as there is on some TV's.
  25. Has anyone tried it? We did and it didn't work. Big mess. Butter everywhere. Tried it twice. Same results both times. I'd be interested to know if others have successfully popped corn in their microwaves in the Oliver.
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