GraniteStaters

Not trying to add fuel to the Truma fire, but we had problems with our Truma last spring after 4 1/2 years and the symptom, delayed ignition and the smell outside adjacent to the Truma. I was directed by Oliver to reach out to Truma, as I recollect and that wasn't unexpected. When I open the case with Truma support, an Elkhart based engineer reached out to me and said they didn't want me to use the Truma anymore. They made me promise as they felt it was a health and safety risk. I naturally agreed, particularly when they said they would have a certified technician of my choice replace the unit for free and document the installation of the Truma with pictures. We went with out hot water in the Oliver for a week at the Maine Rally. I reached out to Tim's RV in Erving, MA and explained to Tim and Brandon that Truma would be shipping a unit to them and compensating them for doing the pictures and installation. We arranged for a late June for the 1/2 day installation. Truma requires certified and trained technicians and extended a courtesy approval after discussing Brandon's experience and in light of our needs. Truma sent the brand new unit to Tim's. We were notified when they received it. Brandon confirmed the delivery too before I made the trip from Concord, NH to Erving. Tim and Brandon were very gracious and Brandon did an outstanding job on the install.

Was it colder than 40 degrees overnight, because a Truma will come on automatically to prevent freezing in the closed loop portion of the water heater.

We have EZ-Pass and we don't have the trailer plates registered, but the transponder covers us and we have never had a problem with being billed for the travel trailer when we have it attached. We have used it in the Northeast for years.

We had a 2019 Ram 1500 Longhorn Laramie with 5.7 Gas E-torque engine. It had air suspension too. It had all the bells and whistles although we didn't use them all. The issue we had was payload with the 1/2 ton. We knew that we wanted to make longer trips and wanted to have our Weber Grill, then a Q1200, and stand, plus a small griddle someone gave us, plus generator, Clam quickset, and assorted other gear, plus my golf clubs. We wanted to have extra clothing for longer trips to be able to do seasonal changes. We only had 400lbs of payload after, my wife, myself, a forty pound dog, and a couple of back packs after connecting the Oliver LEII which had a tongue weight of about 700lbs. It really meant we had to keep too many items in the aisle that we had to transfer in and out of the Oliver before and after we traveled to the next campground. The E-torque was sweet and allowed us to have increased low end torque for pull outs onto the highway and starts from red lights and stop signs. We did love the Ram, so we eventually traded it for a 2021 Ram 2500 with 6.4L Gas engine. We have air suspension on this truck too. We have over 1300lbs of additional payload over and above what we had on the fully loaded Ram 1500. We love our current truck, but the 1500 with E-torque got better mileage and the engine would completely cycle off at long stops if we weren't towing and just traveling in and about town.

Bulldog HD Shock Absorber Replaces 555001 For Trailer Leaf Spring Retro Kit 19-050000007 These are the shocks that I ordered based on other folks recommendations. They are pretty substantial shocks and I haven't installed yet as they didn't come until November, 2024. The guidance I received from this forum suggested that the top rubber cushions might need to be compressed a bit more than you would be inclined to do because of they are a bit larger than the originals. I paid $128.00 for 4 for our LEII.

We try to never have our AGM batteries discharged beyond 12.6V. This can be very challenging in cold weather as our Dometic Furnace squirrel cage can use a lot of Ah overnight. If you can keep your SOC over 80 percent at all times, we never go below 90 percent, you will double the life of your batteries otherwise you can expect only so many cycles. The advantage of Lithium is that they can be discharged more deeply and cycled many more times. The usual expectation for LiFePO batteries is about 3000 cycles. The best you can hope for AGMs are 750 cycles if you keep SOC above 90 percent.

We love Lost Dutchman. Took this last winter. Paula

We had The Swallow, #509, done in June at the Maine rally. I was a bit appalled at the price but we could see some oxydation beginning on the top and the nose even though we waxed twice a year. Our Ollie does sit uncovered in our driveway in NH so it takes a hit from the weather. I didn't mine the washing, but the waxing was hard on the arms! Anyway, after watching the CGI guys work for an entire day and a half it was clear that they earned their money. What a nice and hard-working crew! The shine is amazing but the ease of washing off the bugs and road grime, then giving it a quick "spritz" and wipe with the the ceramic spray is worth every penny. Paula

Chris, On our LEII, 2019, there was a yellow ground wire from the negative post on one of the 6V batteries that ran back to a bus bar that was grounded to the frame. I discontinued this yellow wire in favor of an additional bus bar that I connected to the Oliver ground bus bar to allow grounding of the inverter and the shunt. This means that our batteries are grounded by the 4/0 inverter negative wire that runs from the new bus bar to the battery negative post on the first 6V battery.

Mine is sitting in the dining room while I try to work up the mental energy to tackle it. I am getting confused just reading this thread! Things that look like mazes baffle me. 🙂. Paula

The step for winterizing the fresh water inlet is really to prevent damage at the check valve where some water may accumulate and not drain due to the design of the check valve. I have never added any significant winter antifreeze in the freshwater tank because if it drained, there is very, very little chance that any freezing would damage the tank. Imagine an ice cube tray with a bit of water in the bottom of the tray. Any freezing water would just fill the void and not press any significant issue to the sides of the water tank.

Not sure what you mean, but here is what I have seen on the Lippert and my original hose. If there is any water in it and I stretch out the hose I create negative pressure. On the Lippert, when I stretch the hose to its entire length, the vacuum was so pronounced to cause the beginning of the hose to collapse. It was the downward leg of the connection and was laying against the bumper which probably contributed to the collapse.

There is a DIY video on Dexter YouTube channel that showed checking the magnets as a part of the bearing repack and shows how to check the face of the magnet where it activates on the wheel. If there is uneven wear the magnet won’t be as effective. I don’t believe they explained why the wear would be uneven.

Welcome from #509, and it is nice to have more New Hampshire Ollie owners! Paula

ScubaRX, I was surprised to see that you have several Oliver owners visiting you for your assistance in replacing their springs. Now that you have announced this and considering my order from Alcan will be here on Friday, I may inquire about whether you are “scheduling” and whether you are an HH stop too. GraniteStaters aka David Caswell

Wayfinder, you will need to replace your seals too, so you should had those, qty 4.

There is a kit available to rebuild the diaphragm pumps for Shur-Flo. It a very straightforward rebuild and worth it if the pump motor is working. The part is very compact and is good to have in the vehicle if you don’t travel with a spare.

We decided to replace our sewer hose with a Lippert Cam Lock version. They are expensive but have a nice design that includes a smooth interior and that improves flow. I used the honey pot option so I wouldn’t have to modify the interlocking connection on the Oliver. I purchased the primary hose, a coupler, and the honey pot cable for the same functionality. I also received an adapter that can be used to permanently modify the Oliver, but don’t anticipate ever using it. I did purchase the hose adapter to convert the honey pot hose to allow a garden hose connection as we only dump grey water and want to be able to dump to a container for longer stays where we don’t have sewer hookups at the campsite. I have attached a video. IMG_0349.mov

The math on the credit for Lithium Pro on LEII looks like it is off. 30 percent of $7120.00 isn't $7120.

When I think about tire manufacture's recommendation for tire pressure, I always consider tire failure. I know that if I have sufficient air in my remaining tire on the same side to support half of the trailer's weight, then I have n+1 redundancy. I consider that pretty important when towing.

If the shower/bathroom Valterra valve seal has been compromised or worn out, then there might be leak there too. The collar that ScubaRx is referring too is there to facilitate the replacement of the valve or seals in this 1 1/2 inch drain. If you do want to replace the Valterra seals, you will need to eventually slide the collar of the union on the 1 1/2 inch PVC drain pipe to allow the pipe connecting that side of the valve to be backed off enough to do the seal replacement on both sides of the valve. Be careful not to lose the screws and nuts on the valve as you disassemble. The cable can be temporarily removed by using an Allen wrench on the SS piston that moves the valve to open/close. If the valve requires much force to close it, you may have a seal that is being pushed by the blade itself which compromises its integrity.,

I received my replacement parts ordered from Amazon directly from Dexter. I assembled the shackle bolt assembly for both sides of our Oliver to insure that all the components were correct and discovered that the Shackle assembly with the wet bolts already pressed in on one side wouldn't line up with the other shackle on just one of the 4 assemblies. I reached out to Dexter for assistance as I assumed they would either replace the incorrect shackle assembly or authorize me to make a minor adjustment to the alignment of the bolts to correct. Hope to hear back from them today as I want to complete the install on the street side of the Oliver tomorrow or no later than Friday if they don't ship immediately. I did finish the curbside today and am waiting on new seals to complete the reinstall of the remaining hub on the curbside. The install of the wet bolts when well, but required elaborate adjustments to jack stands, hydraulic jack, screw jack and stabilizer to line up all the holes. The chassis attachment required me to lower spring eye hole to remove the mostly warn out copper bushing and to install the new bushing and naturally to realign everything to install the new wet bolts. I had one wet bolt that didn't show grease at the far end of the wet bolt due to pressure so I did adjust to loosen same and it allowed me to complete the lubrication. I suspect the other side will be quicker. I expect that due to the deterioration of the bronze bushings that we will need to disassemble the spring eyes every 36K miles to replace the bushings. None of my bolts showed any wear, so the bushings did their job.

I ordered a whole new set to Dexter HD bolts and plan to replace all the bolts and bushings. While I have the entire curbside of the trailer open for access, I will be repacking all the bearings too. I should receive the new sets of bolts later this week. My bushing on the EZ-Flex was about 40 percent gone after over 34K towing miles on our LEII.

I also used the Titan, but I didn't mount it to the outside cover. I added the stand off legs on the back of the fan and place it into the hot air exhaust opening and used a rubber hose to secure the fan against the back wall. It has never moved. I wanted to install the switch on the inside of the cabinet above the microwave, but Oliver discouraged me from trying to snake the wires between the hulls and thread it to the outside access opening. I did install two bus bars to power the fan and fridge with the fridge's 12V supply. We have had zero issues with this setup and have never run the temp passed 4.

Today's installment of the shackle wet bolt replacement on the rear axles where the spring connects to the EZ-Flex. I supported both front and rear axle with my jack stands. Both wheels are removed to give me easy access to the rear EZ-Flex connection on the rear axle. I used a screw jack to take pressure off the EZ-Flex joint closest to the rear axle. I used a small hydraulic jack placed under the leaf spring to assist in adjusting pressure on the shackle wet bolts. Because I have to replace one bolt because the zerk broke, I will be replacing all the shackle components on that connection. During disassembly, I left the nuts on the existing bolts so they would protect the threads and tapped the wet bolts a little at the time until I had enough space to gently pry out the bolts and link assembly. The nuts were removed and when I pried out the bolts the inside link fell off as expected. I adjusted the screw jack pressure on the EZ-Flex to facilitate removal of the wet bolts link assembly on my side of the spring. After removal, I found that the EZ-Flex didn't have any bronze/brass bushing and the spring eye hole had deteriorated and there looks to be just a small sliver. The wet bolt on the spring was greased last fall before our 6 month long trip. We had 11K towing miles so it was over due for greasing, but I suspect that with the amount of grease in the wet bolt and spring eye that just the mileage wouldn't account for the wear, but I defer to others on that question. The bolts looked fine, but I intend to replace them and the links as long as I have them disassembled.