Frank C

With that gap, it looks like the awning brackets are actually loose/not tightened down fully against the hull, and that movement probably caused the caulking to pull away and crack. That’s a potential water ingress problem so you should check with Oliver service to see what the bracket mounting hardware should be tightened/torqued to, and then check under all the mounts as John suggested, tighten the hardware and then re-caulk everything after tightening.

A lot of news stories lately about the chip shortage in the auto industry causing production disruptions and very limited availability of some vehicles. But maybe the real cause of the auto industry production issue is a different kind of “chip” shortage. Potato chip shortage due to an increase in cases of the munchies. 😆 https://www.thedrive.com/news/41097/gms-policy-on-cannabis-use-partly-to-blame-for-worker-shortage-uaw

One of those annoying little failures of RV hardware. One of the battery spring contacts in the RVLock keyless lock battery compartment broke off after just over 2 years. Red arrow in first photo points to where the missing spring should be. Out of warranty, and I tried contacting RVLock but received no reply. Fortunately I found replacement AA battery contacts on Amazon. An easy fix. The upper contact plate just slides out. Second photo shows the old contact plate on the left (missing the spring), and the new one from Amazon on the right. Although the Amazon sourced contact plate is a slightly different shape, the contact spacing is standard for AA batteries and the plate fit into the compartment perfectly. Lock working perfectly again.

On our recent 6,000 mile round trip out to Utah and back, all that time on the road gave us an opportunity to see a lot of other people hauling trailers. And we saw some absolutely horrible decision making by some people on their tow vehicle & trailer combinations. Some with such high tongue weights that the nose of their tow vehicle was pointed towards the sky with the front wheels almost completely unloaded. Headlights pointed towards the sky at night. And a disaster waiting to happen with their lack of front end steering and braking control on a rainy/slick road. Some that were obviously exceeding the payload rating of their tow vehicle, with the entire tow vehicle squatted down to the point the that the tires were almost rubbing in the fender wells. Others towing massive travel trailers with tiny SUVs and struggling to get up the mountains on I-70 through Colorado. That Eisenhower tunnel section of I-70 in Colorado at 11,000 foot elevation is a real test of tow vehicles. Normally I’d say let the Darwin principle weed out the bad decision makers, but the problem is that they sometimes take out innocent bystanders too.

Yeah, fast, easy setup at campgrounds is one of the keys to making things more enjoyable. I did the same as you and added quick connects to all the water connections. Got mine at Lowe’s.

So we have an interesting long term experiment now. Patriot with the mat, I have the halo rings, and Russell as the control sample with neither a mat nor the rings. Now we just wait and check back in on an annual basis to see which option works. 🙂

Welcome to the forum, and glad you are doing your research. If you’ve never done any camping/RVing, or even towed anything before, and you’re planning on just jumping right into full time 4 season living in a trailer, you really should consider trying a rental first to understand the reality of living in and maintaining a travel trailer. This forum just had a very interesting saga with a member that had never done any RVing before and had the same dream of living full time on the open road with their dog in their brand new Oliver Elite I, and discovered the reality was very different than the dream. They sold the Elite 1 after their very first trip. It made for very entertaining posts on this forum.

I just received and installed the tank “halo” rings today (purchased from Amazon). They fit perfectly on the tanks and in the tray. I considered the idea of the rubber mat but I think that will have an issue with moisture/road-spray getting trapped & retained between the mat and the tray. I’ll check these rings & the underside of the tanks occasionally to see if any water gets caught inside the rings. They do have small weep holes molded in, hopefully that avoids moisture buildup. Mopeka 024-5002 LP Check Tank Halo https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HQZRR9F?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Also, given the age of the trailer and that it sat unused for a long time, the exterior caulking around all the hull penetration areas (roof vents, windows, rear camera bracket, awning brackets, etc.) may be long overdue for re-caulking. Oliver recommends that all exterior caulking be checked/re-done every 12 months. The caulking does age/degrade with time and exposure to the sun & elements.

Batteries just installed at the start of this season were new Energizer coin cells purchased at Walmart, so I’m thinking it’s either a bad sensor ($40 replacement 🙄) or interference from other RF sources. I haven’t installed the booster/repeater yet but I think that will be the next step.

The batteries are replaceable and I had installed new ones a couple months back. And per the TireTraker site, a low battery in the sensor gives either a “no signal” message or a “sensor” warning icon indicator on the monitor. But I’m getting intermittent incorrect pressure readings indicating a leak. I’m thinking a bad sensor or interference. I’ll contact TT.

It happened after being underway for a while. System was working normally until the alerts sounded a few hours into the drive. And I’ve had the system for two years now and never had a problem before.

I have the TireTraker TT-500 TPMS installed and on a recent trip I had the system give false alerts several times indicating a rapid leak on two different tires at different times. Each time I pulled over and checked the tires with a gauge and all were fine. No actual leaks, and then each time, the tire tracker system updated its readings soon after and the alerts cleared by themselves and the pressure readings returned to the correct values. Anyone ever experience false alarms with this system? Nothing on the TireTraker website about this. I’ll probably change the batteries in the sensors as a possible fix, but wonder if the sensors have gone bad? Or if external interference from other wireless devices (even passing other vehicles with the same TPMS system) could cause the issue.

What position do you have the tank selector lever set to? And just closing the valve on the tank won’t necessarily cause the indicator to change to red right away. If there is still enough propane pressure in the line the indicator will stay green. If you have both tank valves closed you can try turning on the stove to bleed off any propane still remaining in the lines and then see if the indicator turns red.

As delivered from the Oliver factory, we had rubber grommets on both door hook receivers to provide a snug fit for the hook and also provide a bit of cushioning, rattle reduction when hooked.

I’ve had to replace the little rubber grommets in the door hook receivers a couple times as they’ve degraded/torn. Lowe’s has grommets available in the hardware section. Now I just keep extras in my spares kit.

Welcome and congratulations on acquiring #184. I think you’ll find a lot of the issues you are having are due to mineral deposit buildup in the water lines, valves, etc. from that Ollie sitting for extended periods of time. We met Ron and Char (Ron let us see #184 when we were making our decision to order ours). And sadly it seemed that Ron and Char didn’t get to use their Ollie very often due to health issues. I think their son mentioned it was only used 3 times. To answer your question #1, you do have to move the mattress to get to the valves under the curbside access hatch to change the valve position to “boondocking” to draw water or vinegar mix into the fresh water tank from the rear inlet. There should be a diagram for the various valve position settings on the underside of the hatch. If not, it’s in the manual.

Welcome to the world of RV/trailer ownership, where if something isn’t loose or broken, it’s about to. And Olivers are at the top of the quality list for trailers. Other brands have far more problems. Unfortunately the RV industry in general just isn’t up to the same standards as the automobile industry.

We had a similar issue. The fitting on the pump outlet had vibrated loose over time. Check all the fittings you can reach under the curbside bed and make sure they are all tight. You said you can hear hissing under the bed so it should be pretty easy to spot the leak once you open up the access hatches.

I like this idea. I think I’ll do this the next time the wheels are off.

Yeah, those show as currently unavailable but I’m hoping to find a cheap generic cap on Amazon that I can buy in bulk quantity 🙂 so I don’t have to call Oliver every time I lose one. And maybe I’ll go with the Mercedes Benz caps to confuse people. 🙂 Sparkle-um 9-Piece Set 75mm MB Emblem Badge Wheel Hub Caps Centre Cover +Tire Valve Stem Caps Cover with MB Keychain for MB. (Silver) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y2XXDK7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_HZS0T52GDJW8XFHP6SKN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Anyone know the brand of aluminum wheels used by Ollie in 2019? I lost one of the small center caps (see photos). Looking for a source for replacements. I saw the tires listed in my owners manual but not any info on the wheel manufacturer. Or is that little cap a custom part from Oliver?

We’ve used HH stops quite a bit, and we have really enjoyed them, and they are great for quick overnight stops when on the road, but you are correct that probably over half of all the HH locations are wineries or breweries. Our stops have been about a 50:50 split of wineries vs. museums and farms. But the winery gift shops typically always have plenty of other things to buy besides wine as a way to support the business. Some examples of great HH locations that we’ve stayed at that are NOT wineries have been the Glenn Curtiss aviation museum in Hammondsport NY, Paw Paw’s pecan farm in Atkins Arkansas, and the Thomas Stafford air & space museum in Weatherford Oklahoma. All great overnight stops with non-alcohol related things to do. Some other hosts have offered electric hookups for a small fee. We think the HH membership is a bargain, even if you only use it a few times a year.

Yeah, I think next winter I’ll try the compressed air method for winterizing.

Doing my pre-camping season checkout of the Oliver, along with de-winterizing, and I noticed the clear plastic filter screen cup on the pump inlet showed a pinkish-white discoloration, and also some stress cracking probably related as well. I’m thinking it’s the pink RV antifreeze solution used (the standard stuff sold at Walmart for RV potable water system winterizing). Anyone else noticed this? I’ve already replaced it with a brand new one, and that’ll now become an annual maintenance check/replacement item. It’s on the intake (vacuum side) of the pump so not really a major water leak issue if it did crack, but it could create an air leak on the pump intake side that would affect the pump efficiency.