Frank C

Gasoline? or large quantity of urine from the driver pissing his pants?

There’s a post on the Oliver Facebook page with a lot of scary photos of this. But this one photo shows the hitch area of the truck. A few extra chains from the crane holding it at this point, but you can see the hitch and safety chains on the truck. The ball popped out of the trailer hitch of course with that kind of angle, and it looks like that was a weight distribution hitch as well. But thankfully the safety chains and the truck safety chain attachment points on the receiver held the load. Wow! Those are some lucky folks. And everything that was in the truck bed now at the bottom of the canyon.

Did Ford SuperDuty trucks that far back (2004) have the death wobble issue? I thought that was recent. I already had the steering damper replaced once under warranty on my 2019 F-250. It wasn't a severe "death wobble", and I haven't added a lift kit or bigger tires that seem to make that wobble issue worse. But my F-250 did have a very annoying steering wheel vibration between 60 and 65 mph, even though the tires were perfectly balanced, and even in 2 wheel drive with the front hubs unlocked to rule out a front drivetrain imbalance issue. The replacement steering damper solved it.

18-8 is a good choice for that environment, and any anti-seize or thread-locker will help to interrupt the conductive path that causes the galvanic reaction. You mentioned lanolin, and like every other subject on the internet, you can find pro and con arguments about lanolin as a anti-seize/corrosion inhibitor. Here's an example from the sailorsolutions.com website, for anti-seize products. One brand (teflon based) of course mentions that the use of lanolin in a competitor product is not ideal: "Tef-Gel® is a US Navy specified non-lanolin synthetic formulation. Lanolin, (an extract of wool) used as the base for the popular anti-seize product can absorb small amounts of moisture which will allow for corrosions and seize your stainless steel to aluminum joint after a few years. The paint will blister in the surrounding area.' But lanolin has a lot of history to back up its use, and the marine world is a good example to follow with the Oliver. The Ollie is built more like a boat than a typical sticks and staples SOB trailer.

I'll have to dig a little deeper but most of the galvanic charts just lump all "aluminum alloys" together, so 6061 probably isn't much different, close to steel and zinc. The use of a stainless screw threaded directly into the aluminum frame could be a long term issue if towing on salted roads in the winter.

I haven’t seen any issues with the Andersen steel frame brackets or with the Oliver galvanized steel subframe for the suspension causing any problems with the Oliver aluminum frame (yet). Steel, zinc and aluminum are all pretty close to each other on the galvanic series chart, which means minimal galvanic reaction (but not zero). This is from my good old metals handbook. The farther apart two metals are on the chart, the greater the galvanic corrosion reaction. This is seawater exposure so pretty much a worst case, but road salt & moisture would be just as bad. The order can change a little depending on the exact environment. As an example, 316 stainless against aluminum is very bad. And the lower number metal becomes the sacrificial material in the pair. It’s why zinc is used as a sacrificial anode in a lot of systems with dissimilar metals and water, like boats and water heaters. A dielectric material barrier between the metals helps, even a layer of paint. And if the aluminum is anodized, that helps as well.

The manufacturer says this warning light system works on any trailer hub/brake/bearing system, and it requires no special skills to install. In fact, people with no trailer maintenance skills probably already have this warning light system installed and just don’t realize it yet. My only complaint is that it’s hard to see from the driver’s seat, except at night on really dark roads.

Yeah, since the gas tank upgrade isn’t looking like an option, I’m considering adding a Rotopax system to the Ollie, or to the truck bed, to carry some extra gas. Rotopax has a wide variety of cans and mounts.

👍 Range is my bigger fuel concern that causes my anxiety when towing, not cost. I wish I could find a big 50 or 60 gallon chassis mount gas tank kit for an upgrade for my gas F-250, but all the aftermarket larger tanks I’ve found so far like this one state they are just for the diesel versions of the truck. Haven’t found one yet for the gas versions of the F-250.

The price of postage stamps too... And today’s music.... And those damn kids on my lawn... And I’m cold!!! 😆

Fuel cost doesn’t really factor into our travel plans. It’s tiny compared to the other expenses of this Oliver addiction. 🙂 The amortized per mile cost of the Ollie itself, the new truck, all the camping gear, meals, campground costs, buying bottles of wine at Harvest Host overnight stops, etc. are by far the bigger expenses. $3 per gallon gas would cost me about $270 for a 1,000 mile trip (I get about 11 mpg, so about 90 gallons for a 1,000 mile trip). At $4 a gallon it would be about $360 in gas for the same 1,000 mile trip. That extra $90 over a 4 day trip isn’t going to make that much of a difference compared to everything else.

There’s also this option. Proven Locks 2178 B| RV/Trailer Coupler Lock | Trailer Hitch Lock Will ONLY FIT 2" Bulldog Side Latch Couplers Shown in Picture |to Avoid DELAY Please Contact Seller IF Unsure WHICH Lock You Need! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IRA72NC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_A5TTPKV2VA81HCV435AH

Even with the poles I’m still very cautious (paranoid?) with the wind levels, and will stow the awning if things get above “mouse fart” level wind gusts. 🙂 And ALWAYS stowed away if we are away from the campsite.

The Carefree poles have a cradle and strap setup to hold the awning arms. They also include a small jaw clamp attachment option to clip to the edge of the awning rail instead but it’s useless. The cradle/strap option works well. Here are some pics of our setup with the poles. We have the Dometic power awning. We shut off the awning power when using the poles and straps so we don’t accidentally try to retract it when it’s anchored down. And then turn the power back on when it’s time to retract. Carefree HD Stabiliz’r Awning Support Pole Kit - R019399-002 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08528L363/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_7WGPCPPHQ46HZ5NZ6FXZ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I’ve had that same idea, but can the one wing of the big sheet metal wing nut be bent or folded over, by hand or with pliers, to allow the lock to just slide off?

I have the Tire Traker 500 also. It’s worked very well, and I haven’t needed the amplifier. I do have a question though for those who buy extra sensors and mount them on the spare tire of the Ollie or the spare of the tow vehicle. The sensors go into sleep mode after a time interval when the tires aren’t rotating, and only send new readings after waking up when the trailer starts moving and the tires start rotating (takes a few minutes on mine to get updated readings when just starting out on the road). Does the sensor on the spare tire actually wake up and send a new reading? The spare tire is only getting random road vibrations. Is that enough to wake up the sensor on the spare tire to send a new reading every so often? Or is the receiver unit sending a “wake up” signal to the sensors when the receiver is turned on?

Already tried the polishing/buffing route. Just a little too deep for that.

Did a search on the forums but didn’t find anything. Anyone have a recommendation for a DIY gel coat repair kit for fixing some minor gel coat scratches? A few encounters with campground tree branches have left some minor scratches. Not huge gouges, just a little too deep to buff out. A few kits available on Amazon. Just looking for recommendations on a good kit that works and has a good white color match with the Ollie.

Check the O-ring seal on the clear plastic cup of the filter just before the pump inlet. If the O-ring is missing, or out of place or twisted, the pump will suck in air and run for a while after turning the faucet off. We had the same symptoms. The O-ring wasn’t properly seated in the groove, allowing air into the pump. And the water line between the fresh tank and the filter can also become clogged with plastic bits & shavings.

I built a truck bed bike rack that mounts to the truck bed side rails over the tri-fold rigid bed cover on my truck. When I remove the bikes, I loosen the bolts holding the rear cross rail and can either slide it forward or remove the rear cross rail completely to allow the cover to fold up for bed access. Since I took these pics I modified the rear cross rail with large threaded knobs to allow the bolts to be loosened by hand to remove the cross rail. The rail framing is T-slot aluminum extrusion from McMaster Carr, along with the brackets and hardware, and the bike fork mounts, wheel holders, and rear wheel trays are from Amazon. And this way it let’s us use the truck to still be able to take the bikes on side trips during the day away from the camper.

The rubber flaps have molded cut lines and pilot hole locations to trim the top of them as needed to the correct length and punch through the holes to mount to the support arms at the length you’ll need. The top edge get trimmed and new holes punched since the Rocktamers have the metal logo plate at the bottom. The as-is length just happened to be perfect for my F-250.

Sounds like you may be inadvertently turning the air conditioner fan on as you’re scrolling through thermostat settings. There are fan settings for low and high and “auto”. You want “auto” mode.

Wow! Thanks for the detailed project report. I don’t plan on doing anything like this (yet) but I enjoy reading about your modifications, and the thinking, materials and fabrication that goes into it. We tow pretty much on all paved roads. The only place we encounter gravel is usually on the roads inside the KOA campgrounds, and we’re driving very slowly (5mph) at that point. I’ve had the Rocktamer flap system and after 2 years of towing, no stone chips at all on the Ollie, or the back bumper of the truck either, but again, we are on paved roads pretty much all the time. As we explore more, maybe getting to more of the unimproved road areas, I’ll keep your design ideas in mind.

As John said, the 5.7 looks ok for towing but a little marginal for payload. And check the actual cargo/payload sticker on your Durango. It’ll usually be on the driver’s door jamb. The payload varies based on how your Durango is optioned. Everyone tends to look at towing rating, but cargo/payload is the overlooked limiting factor for most people towing with SUVs or even 1/2 ton pickup trucks. The tongue weight of the Oliver (500 to 600 lbs. depending on Oliver options), driver and passenger weight (and be honest 🙂), luggage, camping gear, a toolbox, a cooler, etc. put in or on the tow vehicle all count towards the payload limit. Even the weight of the Andersen hitch has to be counted (about 50 lbs.). Your sticker will tell you your specific limit. It’ll look something like this with a max cargo / payload number. This is my F-250. 3,334 lbs payload. We carry a lot of stuff when camping, so we are probably around 2,000 lbs. when traveling. I like to have a nice safety margin.

I think the key wording is that using third party “mobile services” labor and fees for repairs aren’t covered, but if the Ollie is taken to an RV service center then labor usually is covered.