katanapilot

The Atwood Air Command is very quiet and more efficient than the standard Dometic units. Unfortunately, it appears that Dometic is slowly phasing them out, but there are still a few units available. We have one in our MBS motorhome and we love it. https://www.allrv.com/air-command-16k-btu-rv-ac Based on all of the complaints, I am planning a swap as soon as we get our Oliver next month. The Atwood is not low profile, but that is not really an issue for me.

I'm curious why you would install plywood over the PVC? I understand plywood might have better retention of the screws, but the PVC is waterproof and some plywood generally is only water resistant.

I hope this is not the case. We are paying a big premium for what is supposed to be a premium built trailer. Picking ours up in a couple weeks.

We have had a TST 507 system for 5 years for our motorhome and Toad (Honda Fit). We will use it for the Oliver as well. Oliver doesn't use the "china bombs" that many trailer manufacturers use, but I still think it's a great investment. TPMS wasn't required either on cars or trucks for many years, but it is a safety feature that has probably saved a few lives. I've had both the older B&W monitor, but upgraded to the newer color screen. Both work well.

I love the LTV. Wish we had known about them before we bought our Forest River MBS motorhome. If we had, we probably would not have decided get rid of our FR MH and buy an Oliver (not yet delivered). The FR quality control was poor to non-existent, warranty service a cruel joke and build quality was poor - although probably average for mass produced RV's. Hope the Oliver turns out to be a better choice for us. I do trust my Toyota tow vehicle a lot more than either the FR or MBS chassis. As to the spare tire on the LTV, I thought there was a rack under the Sprinter chassis that will hold a spare? It's not easy to access at least on our 2015 model. I know FR has removed the spare tire/wheel on the newer chassis - primarily to save weight since they are building MH's that only have a few hundred pounds of cargo carrying capacity. We tow a Honda Fit behind our MH and the MBS chassis handles it fine. I do all maintenance myself, although admittedly the complex and very expensive emissions system has given some folks fits. Rear wheel sensors, too.

That is great to hear. We also have a Tundra and will pick up our E2 some time in June. I'm buying an Anderson from another Oliver owner who no longer needs it and will probably convert it to the larger ball. As to a new Tundra, I'm waiting to see what late 2021 brings with the next generation. Twin turbo V6 I hear, although I really like the Lexus designed 5.7 V8 we have now.

RV owners need more folks to take the manufacturers/dealers to task as this one Illinois couple did. https://cookcountyrecord.com/stories/514144420-il-supreme-court-buyers-of-defective-rv-not-required-to-allow-dealer-to-fix-it-before-demanding-refund

So John, how did you get an Atwood Air Command (quiet) a/c installed in your Oliver?

With a few suspension updates, you can have that today. A little pricey, though. https://dieseltoys.com/tundra-diesel I have wanted a later model Land Cruiser 6 speed manual diesel for years.

If you want something a little less harsh on the nose than Goof Off, try WD-40. It's a good adhesive remover and then can easily be cleaned up with denatured alcohol or even Simple Green.

Hope this is not a sign of things to come. We are supposed to take delivery on May 5. We are spending as much on our Oliver trailer as we did on our Mercedes chassis motorhome. If quality control is slipping on the line due to COVID-19, then Oliver needs to shut down until this is under control. I will not be at all tolerant of shoddy QC given our previous experience with our motorhome.

The Atwood Air Command a/c is much quieter. We replaced the Dometic (not a Penguin) on our MBS motorhone a few years ago. It is taller than the Penguin by several inches. It cools (and heats) well and has a lower current draw. if the Penguin is too noisy, I’ll install a 13.5K btu (cool only) Atwood on our Oliver when we get it. It is about $700-800 to purchase. Was the unit that John Davies has installed at the factory?

Newer Honda models have a three position shutoff switch that allow you to shutoff the fuel and not the ignition. Probably not a popular opinion, but I’m going on a no China campaign (like the Champion Honda knockoffs). Not achievable in the short term, but what has been unleashed on the world economy by the Chinese is unconscionable. I work for the airlines and we are being very quickly decimated. If you think we brought this on ourselves I will respectfully disagree.

John, did you replace your original a/c with the Atwood or did it come standard from the factory? We replaced our Dometic on our motorhome with the Atwood and I've considered doing it on the Oliver. In our case, the Dometic was so noisy, we couldn't eat at the dinette directly under the unit with it running. The Atwood was much quieter, cooled better, had lower amp draw and the fan speeds were noticeably different (low, med, high) - unlike the Dometic. The only thing I was slightly concerned about was the additional height of the Atwood versus the now standard low profile unit.

We don’t get our Oliver until early May. Are you guys saying the Dexter axles are equipped with Chinese bearings? Have any of you installed bearing buddies or equivalent devices on your trailers? And I agree with John - it’s unlikely a $5 bearing is a genuine made in USA Timken. I would be fine with most of the Japanese bearings too.

Great picture! No, I'm a little too risk averse for that. I have a neighbor that flies the smaller ones (single seat). He does that for fun and is a doctor the rest of the time. As mentioned, my hobby is building airplanes like this one - Sorry for the thread drift...

John, I can only assume you are an engineer or an A&P (or maybe both). Please take this as a compliment. I'm an engineer by degree, airline pilot by trade, airplane builder as a hobby and future A&P when I retire in a couple years. Your attention to detail is impressive. If you haven't built a plane, you should. Krea Ellis

Nope, have one and it's on the way outta here when the Oliver arrives. Spending almost as much on the Oliver trailer as we did on the Mercedes chassis Forest River motorhome. Not happy with the quality at all on the FR. Frankly, not thrilled that some of the same components are being used on the Oliver, but at least it sounds like Oliver will provide real warranty service. FR "warranty service" is a cruel joke.

I haven't done much towing with the Tundra - mostly an 18' utility trailer, so with the additional weight of towing the Oliver I wanted better front brakes. I could have installed the Tundra big brake kit or some other aftermarket setup, but they were all pricey. I wanted new rotors anyway, the cost of the cryo treating plus shipping to me was reasonable. I ordered all the rotors online and had them shipped to 300 Below (I had two other sets done at the same time). I am hopeful these will last longer and perform better, as that has been my experience with other "freeze-dried" rotors. Rotors were $50 each set to treat plus $100 to ship all three sets to me with insurance. So an average of $83 per set. I drive the truck about 7500-10,000 miles per year, but that may go up significantly when we get the Oliver, sell the motorhome and retire in 2 1/2 years.

The OEM rotors were starting to show some signs of warping. I'm not a fan of turning rotors as it removes some of the mass and therefore the heat absorption capability - which leads to additional warping. So I bought new OEM rotors and had them cryogenically treated. There is a good article here and in fact, was written by the firm that treated my rotors. I had a couple of other sets done at the same time. There are cryo rotors available directly for many models of cars and trucks - I just preferred to stay with OEM. As to the pads, given the slight warping of the original rotors, I had some concern that the old pads were not perfectly flat and would not provide even grip on the rotor - so I replaced them too. The rotor and pad replacement took less than an hour for both sides and I had never done them on a Tundra. Very easy. My old 4Runner - takes hours, since you have to pull the 4WD hubs to remove the rotors.

I have a 2011 Toyota Tundra CrewMax Platinum. I know it's not the most capable, the most luxurious or the highest rated - but I love my truck and would not buy anything but Toyota. I think many people are partial to whatever they own, so take my review with a grain of salt. In 90,000 miles, the only issue I've had is a defective driveshaft. It was a known problem and Toyota had a TSB for it . Fortunately I had bought an extended warranty (I don't normally do that) - so it covered the close to $2000 repair. If I had caught it earlier, Toyota would have paid under factory warranty. I replaced the rotors with cryo-treated OEM rotors at 85,000 miles. The pads were still like new, but I replaced them anyway. What I don't like about the truck - Toyota's are expensive, the interior on mine is a bit "cheap" feeling, transmission could use a couple more gears, mileage is not great, would like a diesel (Toyota 1VD-FTV engine, not a Cummins TD). The normally bulletproof reliability is what sold me. It's a pretty solid truck. People love their Chevys, Fords and Rams. I think the competition is better in most areas except overall reliability.

Got the list from Anita. Thanks all. I have a pretty good list of additional items that we carry on our Sprinter MH. I'll duplicate many of those things for the Oliver, plus items to support a pair of Honda EU2200i's when they are available for sale again. Seems like a stop sale order has been issued once again for a recall.

This is a very helpful post. Oliver will do this work for you, but they charge about $250 plus tax for the installation. They keep the 2" coupler. Seems to me, there ought be a bit more credit since they will be able to bolt the 2" coupler on a new trailer, but so be it. I don't doubt there is an hour or so of labor to install this. The PDF of the hole layout is very helpful. A 5/8" annular cutter mounted in a drill press and some cutting fluid ought to make quick work of drilling these holes. If you are worried about aligning the holes, you could probably go to 11/16" to take care of any misalignment. Planning to do this mod once I get the Oliver home. Anyone have the part number of the 2 5/16" Bulldog coupler?

Thanks for the info. Saved me ordering one!

Does anyone recall if a 30 amp power cord comes with an Oliver?