Frank C

Yep, that’s what I use. It’s a good high quality grease.

For a degree or less of side to side leveling I’ll just use the jacks. For any more I use the Lego block style leveling blocks under tires on the low side to get it mostly level and then the jacks to stabilize and fine tune the side to side leveling.

That’s an odd one. I’ve never seen that one before. I always used Interpower as a reference for cord types, but I don’t see one like that. It looks a bit like the Euro IEC 60320 rectangular C19/C20 form factor, but the C19C20 has the two power connections offset to one side, and has a ground. Might be a proprietary one. https://www.interpower.com/cgi-bin/ic.cgi/p65list2.p?w_country=North+America&w_pc=truep:// https://www.interpower.com/ic/designers/in-depth-product-line-information/More-Information-on-IEC-60320-C13-Connectors.html

I never said the welds broke on my jack mounts. I just said I didn’t trust them for lifting the trailer completely because they are small welds and I don’t trust them for lifting ~ 1/2 the trailer weight when I’m working on the trailer. Mine have the steel angle channel brackets. Next time I have the access hatches open I’ll take a picture.

I have the good old fashioned lead acid wet cells. Cheap proven technology, but they are heavy and bulky for the given amp-hour capacity. They’ve worked well in the 4 years since we purchased our Oliver. Minimal maintenance (I check the water level about every 6 months). The 4x12v parallel setup I have only gives about 100 amp-hours usable of capacity to a 50% to 60% state of discharge (not recommended to go lower with lead acid batteries), but it’s worked fine because we typically stay at full hookup campgrounds. No factory solar or inverter on our Ollie. HOWEVER, when they do need replaced I’ll probably upgrade to 2 x 100 amp-hour BattleBorn lithium batteries, just to gain capacity and save the weight, and the BattleBorn batteries claim up to 100% usable depth of discharge as usable capacity

After seeing how tiny the welds are on the rear jack mounting brackets, I don’t trust them for anything other than leveling the trailer at a campsite. I know they are rated for 3,000 lbs each but I still prefer to use a very large heavy duty scissor jack (rated for 3 tons) to raise the trailer for tire and bearing work when I need the trailer completely off the ground. I do use the stabilizer as a backup. Sorry for hijacking the thread again. 🙂

I had a 2016 Ford Expedition as our original tow vehicle, with the same 3.5 liter turbo engine, and had the same problem with a failure of the electronic throttle control. Cruising at highway speed (not while towing), the engine suddenly dropped in RPM and was unresponsive to any movement of the throttle pedal. I was able to get to the shoulder of the road and the engine “rebooted” after shutting off and restarting. I had about 50 miles to home and the problem repeated twice more, but rebooted each time after restarting and I was able to make it home and then drop the vehicle off at the local ford dealer. So the problem didn’t leave me stranded but it could have been bad if it happened while towing. Problems do happen now and then. You just have to prepare for the more common problems that can be dealt with on the road like a flat tire. And hope the other rare problems like computer glitches don’t leave you stranded. We’ve seen Oliver owners stranded just from a flat tire because they didn’t have a decent jack to even handle a flat tire on their trailer while on the road. And it is a good reminder of why you should stay in the right hand lane, unless passing, so you can get to the shoulder quickly if a problem happens, especially when towing. I don’t think the problems are widespread. All my recent vehicles are far more reliable, comfortable and better equipped than anything I owned back in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. I owned a 1975 Chevy Nova and like clockwork every 30,000 miles it needed a new water pump, starter motor and wiper motor due to failures, and was completely rusted out by 100,000 miles.

Here’s the instructions from Truma if the unit is stuck in CLEAN mode.

I did get the entire replacement window from Oliver. I used DICOR butyl foam core round profile gasket seal tape (link below) between the outer window frame and hull to bed the window, and this caulk to finish it. Available at Lowe’s. Exterior caulk, UV resistant and recommended for multi-surfaces including fiberglass and aluminum. It’s held up very well so far. I used painters masking tape to mask the frame and the hull to get a clean straight bead. I smoothed the bead with a finger while wearing a disposable glove. https://dicorproducts.com/product/seal-tite-butyl-foamcore-roll/

I like the double pane windows for insulation and noise reduction. I have had to replace one window due to fogging so far after 4 years of ownership. It was the small bathroom window. A fairly straightforward DIY replacement if you’re handy with tools/home remodeling projects.

After 4 years of camping and towing with our Elite II, I wouldn’t want to be towing anything any longer than 25’. The Oliver size gives a lot more freedom for travel overall and is still very well equipped and comfortable. And it’s not just about campground site choices, although that is a big factor, both for site options and cost at campgrounds. Longer/bigger spaces cost more at most campgrounds. It’s also taking into consideration things like getting in and out of gas stations, parking spaces at restaurants and other roadside stops and attractions, very narrow construction zones, etc. We have even encountered roads with length limits because of tight corner switchbacks on steep climbs. The Elite II is a nice comfortable compact trailer that is short enough, narrow enough and low enough to avoid most of the common obstacles you will encounter on the road like low clearance bridges, tunnels, etc. The Zion Mt. Carmel Tunnel in Utah is one example that we drove through. There is a 7’ 10” width limit and a 11’ 4” height limit. Anything over a combined length limit of 50’ for tow vehicle/trailer combinations is completely prohibited in the tunnel. Anything much bigger than towing an Elite II and you have to arrange (and pay for) the park rangers to allow special access with traffic temporarily changed to one direction only instead of two way traffic so larger vehicles can fit through the tunnel. My wife and I are both retired and we do extended trips of 4 to 5 weeks on the road and we are very comfortable in the Ollie. And we added a shower curtain with 3M command hooks so it gives us a “dry bath” setup. The shower curtain can be easily removed to take outside to dry.

Agreed. We carry this large format road atlas/national park guide. Using this in conjunction with the Google Maps app, Harvest Host app, etc. has been great for our trip planning.

Our Oliver had 1/4-28 thread size Zerk grease fittings but this may not be the same for all Olivers. I think some owners have found that their Dexter suspension assemblies have a 6mm-1 metric size Zerk. Best to remove one of your existing Zerk fittings to confirm the thread size.

Definitely a simple worthwhile addition to keep the fittings clean to prevent dirt contamination. I added the caps shortly after our Ollie purchase, and I also changed to angled Zerk fittings to make re-greasing easier.

If he’s an aerospace fan, the Thomas Stafford museum in Weatherford Oklahoma is a great stop, just off of I40, and it’s also a Harvest Host location. We did an overnight stop there on one of our long cross country trips. The Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo TX is still a popular stop but the cars are covered in graffiti now and pretty well stripped of most parts.

Just for reference, here’s the typical Oliver hull fiberglass & gel coat construction. This is from a hole I cut for a modification. The white gel coat layer is about 1/32” thick, MUCH thicker than an automotive clear coat/base coat paint over metal which are typically only a few thousands of an inch thick. So it’s pretty safe to use cutting/buffing compounds and a motorized orbital polisher on the Oliver to buff out any light oxidation without risking going all the way through the gel coat layer.

Unfortunately, if your Ollie is the same as ours, the reading lights are riveted in place, so if a rivet works loose it can’t be tightened, the rivet has to be replaced.

I think he means using the pump and the outside shower as a way to get rid of fresh water without it draining into the gray tank.

Since the issue just started on your recent trip, unless you’ve recently changed valve positions to winterize or boondock, it’s doubtful that it’s a valve under the bed that suddenly changed position on its own. It’s more likely that the internal check valve in the water pump is faulty. Sometimes using the pump a bit will clear possible debris from the check valve and may fix the issue. But otherwise the pump may need replaced. And there is a fresh water tank drain valve that’s accessible from under the bed if you want to drain the fresh tank before hitting the road again.

Congratulations on the new addition to the family!

Yes, available from Pelland Enterprises. Sold by the foot in both white and black. https://www.pellandent.com/Half-Inch-Glass-Vinyl-Seal I changed mine to black since the white was so hard to keep clean.

Are you sure it’s not there? It certainly appears to be tucked in there in your photo. The first photo below is your photo with the original filter there (the arrow pointing to it) and the second is my Truma with that area circled.

Thanks Steve 🙂. But it’s a pretty easy part to identify for us long term Truma owners. That’s the outer end of the original filter showing on the right tucked inside the Truma in Dave’s original photo that I added the red arrow to. And here’s a photo below that shows what that end of the filter looks like when it’s not hiding inside the Truma.

Isn’t that the original filter tucked in there on the right in your picture?

That’s odd. Might be either a defective piece of weatherstripping or the window frame may be deformed a bit too wide. I’d try swapping that piece of weatherstripping with the piece from another window to see if the problem follows the weatherstripping or the window.