taylor.coyote

I thinking you should likely be good for 80 miles as long as the rubber is still supple and the sidewalls are good unless flat spots don't round out. We have hull number 124 (like your trailer a 2016 production) with the same original the Michelin tires. We just got home from a 3,000 mile trip. Even after inspections and the tires being in good shape, we will be replacing them based on age before our next significant trip.

I have been running cooper AT3 LXT tires many years. First on my Tundra and now on my F250. They have been great all-around off/on road tires in all conditions but only mediocre running in snow (although the reviews seem to like them more than I do for snow driving) . The only negative is they tend to throw rocks. Regardless of these shortcomings, they are the best tires I have used for towing on/off road. In my quest for new trailer tires, I'm considering the Cooper HT3's. This tire is the all-season highway tread 10ply. Does anyone have experience running the HT3's on a trailer? https://coopertire.com/en-us/find-tires/all-tires/discoverer-ht3

If your truck is used for only towing, a 3/4 ton diesel does an amazing job and you don't need to mess with a weight distribution hitch. A 3/4 ton diesel is expensive to purchase / operate, and less than nimble beast as a daily driver. We just tow with our 3/4 ton truck and have other vehicles for daily drivers. If you need your truck as a daily driver and for towing, a well equipped 1/2 ton + WD hitch will do a good job. You will not have to park a beast while running errands around town with a 1/2 ton as a daily driver. We love towing with our F250 6.7 Diesel.

We live on the Northern Ca coast and are still running on the original 10 ply Michelin's that came on the trailer. The trailer was delivered in 2016 and had traveled about only 4,000 to 5,000 miles when we purchased it mid-year 2019. We had to take a year off due to medical issues but have put on about another 20,000 miles. Estimated total milage of 24,000 on tires. Lots of tread left but have been concerned about their age, UV and general abuse due a lot of off road activity. Took them in for a good inspection while rotating last November. I was ready to purchase new tires due to age. Joe, my tire guy said they have evidence of off road travel but the rubber is still supple, no aging on the sidewalls, plenty of tread and in good shape. He talked me out buying new tires and told me to run them one more year. Still concerned about age of the tires, I had My RV guys inspect the tires when repacking the bearings In Feb. He gave me the same report. Nothing wrong with the tires, run them another year. Although in good condition, I hope i'm not operating on borrowed time. Why all this information when you are asking about tire covers? If you live west of the cascades, our climate is much like yours. Our trailer lives outside year around. A lot of our off road adventures are in the hot desert. The tires are 6+ years old and we have never used tire covers. UV tire damage is a real thing but but after getting 7+ years from my tires, I question if tire covers are worth the hassle for trailers stored west of the cascades. I have invited some conversation on the need for tire covers but please don't let my post hijack John's original post wanting recommendations for good tire covers

We travel with one 80 lbs Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She does not stand that tall but is very thick through the chest. She sleeps on the floor on a thin dog bed that is exactly the width of the floor between our twin beds. When the furnace is on, we move her bed forward so it fits between the two heater vents. If we get up during the night, we turn on the floor lights and have to step over her. She is very mellow and hardly knows of the activity. When cooking inside we have her lay down on the entry carpet in front of the door. The water bowl goes in the bath. It's cosy with us and pooch during winter travel. Travel during warm months, we are mostly outside except for sleeping or fighting bugs. We love our pup and consider this as only a small inconvenience to have her travel with us. We have chosen to be one dog family because two is more than we want to manage. I can't speak to two large dogs inside, seems viable but very cozy if you love them and are use to dealing/living with two dogs under feet. d image

A basement light? That's a great idea. Either I don't have one or I don't know where the basement light switch is located. I have an older hull number (124), maybe it was not part of the trailer when mine was produced. Can someone please tell me where to look for the basement switch?

Lots here to digest. I will reiterate the most important thing is never hurry to do anything when towing unless its a true emergency. If you miss your exit, it's ok, you will figure out how to get back on track. In three lane traffic, flow with traffic in the middle lane. You can own your space in the middle lane if you flow with traffic. Never feel the pressured to move over unless you are the bottleneck from not flowing with traffic. From the middle lane you are in the position to be the courteous driver to let people in your lane. Make sure you manage a safe distance in front of your rig. Aggressive drivers will tend to fill this space ahead of you but just back off a little to create new space ahead so you are never tailgating then continue flowing with traffic. If someone is pushing you from behind, it is up to them to go around if you are flowing with your lane of traffic. In heavy traffic, actively track all traffic beside and behind in your mirrors so you know where you can safely move if you need to change lanes. I think of alert/active defensive driving in traffic as hard work to eliminate truly stressful situations and emergencies. Your LEll is only 7 feet wide, it's easy to see and track everything alongside and behind with even modest towing mirrors. Towing is an acquired skill that is not difficult learn. Get clear in your head the task at hand, get out there and practice. If you are a good alert driver, you can be great at towing a modest sized trailer. If you are not a good driver, it's time to get your head in the game. And least of all, don't let a backset driver stress you out. If they think they are such a great driver, let them drive.

Dear kitchens, No need for anxiety. I think ADKCamper's advice is very good. Having a substantial tow vehicle (3/4 ton) makes your towing much more comfortable but is less maneuverable is tight spaces. In general, don't put yourself in a position of feeling you need to be in a hurry or cover a lot of ground in a day. If the weather or road conditions become bad, just find pull off the road. Avoid city traffic until you gain some experience. Even with experience, we usually plan for low traffic times when going through big cities. Hitting the road at 4am to beat LA traffic makes for a low stress day. We live 5 hours north of San Francisco. We often plan to stay north of the Golden Gate aways off the 101 near Pt Reyes State Park and go through the city very early the next morning. This relaxed low pressure and flexible schedule makes for low stress travel. As stated before, never be in a hurry when towing your trailer. Backing up is a skill everyone has to learn. A classic situation is having to make several attempts backing into a camping spot and you are holding up traffic. You have two choices, continue to work at parking and know that everyone has been in this position. Put your head in a space you do not pressure yourself about them waiting or pull out and go around for another approach to your parking space. Within reason, ether choice is ok. If the folks behind you have a problem, they need to get a life. Hey, we are all out here camping and having a good time. The Oliver tows very well but for sure you need to slow down or just take the day off from towing if you find yourself with a substantial cross winds on two lane roads. ADKCamper talks about "gust Velocity". This is a very real situation. In my youth, was driving fast crossing the Montana prairie between Great Falls and Billings with strong cross winds. Every time I would pass an oncoming truck, the truck would block the crosswind, my car would move toward the truck as the truck blocked the crosswind. After clearing the truck and its "vacuum effect" and again being exposed to the crosswind would "blast" my car a few feet to the opposite direction. I was foolishly / fearless racing down the road until I passed this one oncoming truck and the blast was so powerful it ripped the front hood latch welds apart. The hood of the car buckled / folded the half way to the windshield. The moral is to do some planning, practice driving on the backroads, use common sense, don't be in a hurry and enjoy being on the road.

Interesting article on possible future tow assist system. Makes your compact car tow like a 1 ton https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/03/gm-files-patent-for-tow-assist-system/

We are towing with 2019 F250 6.7 Lariat , short box 4x4 18" wheels / slightly oversize tire 275/75/18. We have a 2" receiver and use the B+W height adjustable two ball option (2 and 2 5/16). This hitch as served us very well because we also tow utility trailers and need the two ball sizes and height adjustability. The B&W has held up very well. No rust. You do need to service the adjustable pins with a bit of grease so they remain easy to slide out/in for adjusting height. This is especially needed if you spend time off paved roads. The very top position is perfect hight for our Oliver... I believe this position has the top of the ball at 24" with the weight of the trailer on the hitch. We used an Anderson with our 1/2 ton but no need for the weight distribution hitch with the f250. We have towed thousands of miles without the Anderson in all conditions on and off paved roads. Our Anderson has been holding down the shop floor since we purchase the F250. (https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch-Ball-Mount/B-and-W/BWTS10037B.html

Stranded, your help was invaluable and contributed to my success. Unfortunately we did not have a SD card in the bore scope so i don't have any images to share from inside the roof line. I do have a set of custom backup plates threaded as 1/4 20 and a hollow 1/4 20 brass bolt I'm willing to share with the next person needing to mount solar that does not have plates glassed into the roof. Based on my hull being #124 , I'm thinking few trailers are without plates in the roof. Wow, plates glassed in the wrong places and they hacked in your plates. Of all the trailers, you are the guy ends up needing to replace your L brackets on your roof. What are the odds?

we have ton's of content about choosing TV in this forum without making an example and making fun of these people. We do not need to alienate these people.

SeaDawg, I feel the content after snakeriveridaho should be taken down. Regardless of the TV choice, I'm sure these are very nice people that feel attacked and are the brunt of several jokes. My first TV was a light duty 1/2 ton and marginal to pull the LEII. I knew this when I purchased my trailer. I took one short trip as a test run to see if my truck would do the job. Although my truck was marginally qualified it became clear I needed a new TV. A week after the test run, I purchased an adequate TV. I had hoped my first truck would do the job because it was a nice truck and the price tag for more robust TV was a financial stretch at the time. I'm willing to guess several of the current LEII owners are on the edge of the TV's payload but have the power to pull the trailer. We are not making fun of them. Please take down what is most likely received as unkind content .

My follow up after all the help, especially from Stranded. Per Stranded's instructions, i made custom plates, drilled a brass screw so it was hollow, made a false roof to prove we could drag the plates into place and thread the bolts into the plates. All was good. after proving everything worked, the next step was to pull the fan and probe between the hulls to inspect inside the roof line with the bore scope. What we learned looking through the bore scope came as a great surprise. My hull #124 had mounting plates glassed in from the production of the trailer. I will reenforce Stranded's recommendation. "Do not attempt this project without the aid of a bore scope." The scope saved us who knows how much grief with the discovery of factory installed back up plates. Additionally, the scope was super helpful routing wire. The installation of the solar panels was straight forward. We located the panels and Am Solar L foot brackets on the roof of the trailer. Drilled into the factory back up plates and taped them. Bolted the Am Solar L foot brackets and completed the standard Zamp 340 watt solar panel installation. All reasonably straight forward. The trailer was not pre-wired from the factory. Per Jason's recommendation, we pulled wire inside the roofline from the solar panel along the driver's side of the fan and air conditioner into the attic. From the attic, down the driver's side of the back window into the basement. From basement, under the driver's side bed and into the pantry. From the pantry we were able to access the battery compartment and kitchenette seating. We located the controller and battery monitor shunt under the kitchenette seat next to the negative bus bar. Once started, the whole project (excluding making the custom back up plates and other custom parts that we ended up not needing) took about 12 hours. The wire routing and location of the controller varies from a factory installation but the installation is clean and I feel access to the components is easier under the kitchenette vs. being under the bed. Again, thanks to everyone, especially Stranded and Andrew K.

We use the same hitch lock systems and are happy with its function. We like the small size for storage. The down-side is we grease our hitch ball. This results is the 2" locking ball becoming greasy. We wrap the "greasy 2" ball in a small work rag when storing.

Big Cat, Be sure to follow up with Andrew K.. He helped me and has solved all the issues. He is an excellent resource.

I have respect for the elegant and creative solutions on these mods. I have given my voice on prior mods to the trailer bumper rack system. I spent 20 years as an executive and partner at Yakima Racks and can speak from experience. There is a good reason for the factory set weight limit. The length of the back half of the fulcrum (trailer axles to the trailer bumper) is many times greater than from the axles of any TV to its bumper. Not to mention the forward distance from trailer axles to the bulldog hitch. Consider these distances and the vertical distance the bulldog hitch instantly travels up and down when your rig encounters dips, rises, steep driveways and potholes. The results of these encounters are nothing less than absolute violence at the trailer bumper. The forces applied at the trailer bumper are magnitudes greater than almost all receiver hitch systems are designed to withstand. Of the many receiver hitch mounted bike systems Yakima produces, only one is approved to withstand the extreme forces of being mounted to an RV bumper. I cannot judge your mods and if they will withstand the test of time. The test of time being constant vibration, sudden jolts, and that once in the life compression or frost heave that rocks your rig like never before. The scope of actual experience of trailer bumper systems within Oliver users is very small as there are 1,200 +/- trailers on the road compared to the well more than a million Yakima systems on the road. I can only advise to operate with an abundance of caution when modifying your bumper system and or exceeding the factory load limit.

No problem. You will be on a steep learning curve. Some coaching from the staff will lower the hurdles. I purchased my trailer used and when through the learning curve without much help. You will likely thank yourself for simplifying your life with the hitch. best of luck. You are off on what can be a great adventure.

JDE, tracks are good tip and simple project. thank you

I can add an additional idea. We have twin bed configuration. On occasion I go on photography trips without my wife. I completely take out the mattress on one side and roll out a couple of yoga mats to create friction on the fiberglass surface. I use the space for my photo gear (4 packs, tripods, flash gear, computer), plus some other gear the is normally packed deep in the back of the truck that I want to have easy access (packed in crates). The bed wing with the upturned edge does a great job containing the gear. I love having easy access and a place to stage/clean/recharge my camera gear each morning and end of day.

Hello ShhQuiet, i have just skimmed this stream and noted that you may need an Andersen Hitch. I have one lightly used that you may have at no charge. It has been holding down the cement slab in my shop since i got my F250 in 2019. The hitch will be free but shipping could be a big number (weighs around 60 LBS+ packaging) and would be at your cost. The hitch cost something like $570+ new. Shipping would be from California / zip code 95519 if you want to investigate the cost of freight. I will give you the right of first refusal then anyone else needing the hitch may have it. Please let me know if you wish to have the hitch. And congratulations, you have purchased a fine trailer.

My trailer is also off site at this time but it's easy to open the fuse panel under the dinette seat. my recollection: its pretty standard stuff 7.5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 amp. Seems, I recall the 7.5 amp fuse for the furnace and fan may have been a bit unique but not hard to find. I do have a larger fuse ( maybe 40amp ) under the drive side bed next to the master power re-rest and in the battery compartment (positive side cable) . Not sure is this is stock from the factory I'm not the original owner of the 2016 trailer. check the owners manual starting on page 35 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/wp-content/uploads/oliver-university/Owners_Manual/2019/2019-Owners-Manual.pdf

we are getting off the core topic but i have plenty of power to run the trailer components with the generator(s). the issue I experience: I don't seem to have enough propane flow to run the generator and trailer components that run on propane at the same time. This could be solved by switching the hot water and refrigerator to AC and run them from the generator's power. I believe the author of this post is having trouble with getting propane to the generator when tapped into the trailer propane line. I was suggesting they might try turning off the propane flow to these trailer components and see if this gives more propane flow to run the generator.

I have run both the Champion 3500 duel fuel and a Honda 2200 converted with the Hutch Mt gear as a single and/or paired (two 2200's) successfully from the quick release propane value at the nose of the trailer. I have found the generator can get starved for fuel if I'm running the furnace and refrigerator at the same time as the generator. I simple turned off one of the appliances inside the trailer to run the generator.