routlaw

Must be something with that Texas heat, took me a few hours of really messy work. You are lucky.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Was able to remove it with bug and tar remover but still a lot of messy work. Will do a final clean, polish/wax later today if it doesn’t rain. Not sure why Oliver ever made the decision to install these things in the first place. All mine ever did was create a damn for debris and organic detritus. Thanks again.

The white neoprene rubber (I think) gasket that is installed just below the awning to sort of but not really divert water on my Elite II was deteriorating and rotting significantly. This afternoon I finally decided to take the thing off which has now left a long line of black rubber where it was glued down. I have tried Acetone, denatured alcohol, naphtha, and mineral spirits to loosen or dissolve the remainder none of them worked. Its my understanding heat guns will only harden neoprene and it doesn't sound like a safe method around FG anyway. For those of you who have removed this gasket just curious what method you used to remove the final residue? Thanks

Some of you might have seen my recent post on another thread, Shake Rattle and Roll, regarding items including screws etc coming loose while towing. My situation had become considerably worse as previously stated in regards to the entire set of drawers and associated hardware with the kitchen cabinet drawers. Cutting to the chase I had to replace all of the soft close glides for a litany of reasons which I will detail below then rebuild and redesign the entire drawer setup and arrangement. Some of the glides had corroded severely preventing their ease of use, and in other cases the boxes themselves were made in what can only be described as sloppy construction, inconsistent sizes, and most of them considerably too small for their respective cabinet openings allowing for the glides to come completely out of, or off their rails. If this isn't enough the cabinets themselves were built out of square, out of plumb, and not parallel from front to back or side to side. Hopefully this will provide help to those who might be having some of the same issues. Let me know if you have any questions be glad to help if I can. For starters attached are some photos of the errant issues we were having. Image below illustrates how poorly this set of drawer glides were installed which of course imposed a closed drawer that pointed downward, top portion closed while the bottom tilted outward. The red arrow on this drawer points to the corroded glide rail. This is the worst example in all fairness. closer detail that illustrates the above perhaps better. In the photo below you can see where these drawers were only stapled together and with no glue anywhere. To make matters worse the cheap plywood used for the plastic face frame inserts was never treated for moisture and thus over a period of time would expand contract then warp and pull away from the drawer box itself. The only method for installing these drawer faces was nothing more than caulk, no screws nothing to hold them in place over a period of time in different weather or humidity patterns. Effectively each of the faces had warped convexly as seen in this photo. This is an example of the old drawer boxes once the plastic fronts were removed with scrapers, pry bars and chisels. Note how the 4 inch drawer is 1 inch longer than the 6 inch drawer, and this was consistent throughout for no discernible reason that I could determine. All of my new drawers are a full 20 inches long with the exception of the 12 inch drawer that mounts under the kitchen sink otherwise it would collide with the sink drain, probably not a good idea. Most but not all of these plastic face mounts to the drawers are cracked severely or in some cases mild cracks as illustrated below. Eventually I will replace all of the drawer faces with something else in the future and just be done with the cheap 1/2 inch plywood glued/caulked into these plastic cavities. Now for the rebuild. Below you can see where the drawer positioning is much different. Rather than the 4 inch depth drawer to 6 inch depth drawer, then back to the 4 inch on the bottom row it seemed to make much more sense to do two rows of 4 inch drawers (with 6 inch face fronts) then install the 6 inch drawer with 8 inch front on the bottom row. In addition the upper right drawer as originally installed was only 12 inches deep much like the drawer that mounts underneath the sink. This made no sense to me because there was plenty of room for a full 20 inch drawer to easily slide beneath the cooktop stove. In order to make sure there would not be an overheating issue I ran the both burners for a period of time with my hand touching the bottom of the stove. Never even got warm. It is important to note this stove is built with a second dead air space layer. This allows for much better usage of kitchen tools and storage. Details from the rebuild. Basically I used Kreg Pocket Hole jigs and screws to build the boxes but also used reinforcements below with right angle corner hardware and ran a bead of hot wax glue across all of the underside of the boxes/drawers. Materials were half inch baltic birch plywood, with 1/4 inch birch plywood bottoms dado'ed into the sides and fronts. Closeup detail of hardware and messy hot wax glue. I also used a small painters palette knife to spatula the glue while still hot and pliable further into each joint. It was fairly easy to run the heat gun for 6-8 inches of glue line then press the glue further into position, then start on the next 6-8 inches. Pocket holes can be seen in the photo below. To mount the face fronts back onto each drawer I used 3/4 inch Big Timber screws that are self tapping, however in order make sure they were solid each drawer front was clamped to its respective drawer during installation of screws. As you can see each screw is counter sunk as well allowing for a deeper bite. Note didn't want to glue them on in addition to screws knowing I would eventually replace the fronts with completely new materials. The photo below shows two sets of new drawer glides installed properly that being with front of the glide recessed approximately 1/16th of an inch as illustrated by the red circles, not the full 1 inch as originally installed by Oliver. By installing the glides so far back into the cavity of the cabinet boxes the glides would never fully come to their closed positions. Not sure why the water hoses to the kitchen faucet were installed to the front of the rear cabinet brace at the back as seen in this photo. There was plenty of room to route those blue and red lines between the hull and cabinet which I just might do the future. It is also worth pointing out the opening space on the plastic trim for the cabinets is about 1/4 to 3/8 th's different from right to left side which translates into building each side with different width drawers. The space allowed for this type of drawer glide accommodates 1/2 inch on either side for a total of 1 full inch smaller width drawer compared to the cabinet opening. This is and always has been a tight specification. The original drawers were off by at least 1/4 inch or more. View from the basement. Honestly I have no idea how the entire assembly of the kitchen cabinet drawers even stay in place going down the road. Boxes are screwed together with 3 drywall screws and sort of situated into these pockets made of 2-3 inch depth plywood. I have no idea how those pockets are held in place and it doesn't appear there is any support at the back of the cabinets as they set hovering over the wheel wells by perhaps half an inch. Would love to hear a more informed opinion about this. A few finished results installed. Some of you might see that instead of implementing 4 drawers at 4 inches I ended up building 4 inch on top, 5 inch in the middle, then the standard 6 inch for the bottom drawer. Increasing the middle 4 inch to 5 inch depth provides a bit better depth of space while still allowing plenty of adequate space between each drawer.

This is not necessarily true, when we picked up our Oliver E2 March of 2015 (#70) tires were at 50 or perhaps 55 PSI certainly not 80 PSI. For the first few years we ran them also at 50 but in the last 2 to 3 years have kept them at 45 on normal paved roads. I certainly agree though running them at 80 makes for a very hard ride.

If only my repairs were this simple, as difficult as your positioning is in the photo. Nice approach however given your height. What I am having to do is completely rebuild all drawers, replace all glides. Some of my glides, right side only are rusty, why I don't know as there are no leaks. Effectively the drawers built by Oliver were 1/4 to 5/16ths too narrow for the actual opening of the casings. I'm not making this up or exaggerating. This does not even include the spacers used to half a** make up for the difference which in this case were small washers glued with caulk to the back of the glides. Hoping to do a full report once I have everything built and reassembled which might be as early as today. Just started spraying on my first coat of varnish to the right side drawers a few minutes ago.

After nine years our kitchen cabinet drawers and glides have all but come apart. Am in the process as we speak of rebuilding all of them now but otherwise no can't think of anything coming loose to speak of and make no mistake we have seen our share of rough backcountry gravel roads. As @jd1923 suggested you might want to look into your tire pressure. We run ours at 45 PSI and lower if its rough gravel roads. More on the kitchen cabinet drawers in a later post.

Surprised to hear from you guys regarding diesel requiring more maintenance than gas powered. Had always thought the opposite to be true. Shows what little I know. That aside will throw in my two cents worth on trucks for the E2. For now years now we have been using an F150 with 3.5 E-Boost engine and while 95%+ this is completely adequate enough I agree with others given the weight of the Oliver E2 a half ton truck really is the lower limit to be considered. Let me also add the first 8 years we had our Oliver we towed with no issues what so ever WITHOUT the Andersen WD hitch and only adopted it due to some potential or theoretical legal issues. In the early years of Oliver I was not alone within this endeavor and just recently (past month) saw yet another Oliver E2 owner with half ton truck and no Andersen hitch. My own personal opinion is I hate the thing 90% of the time, so its very easy to understand why so many have gone to 3/4 ton trucks or larger. There is another issue worth considering too. Last year while heading down to the Wind River Range in WY we decided to go over Teton Pass rather than taking the longer route via Idaho Falls and through the Snake River Canyon. This descent of 10% grade for miles should not be taken on by such rigs as ours. With a 6 cylinder eco-boost engine there simply is not enough engine brake power from the smaller engine to take on such loads and while being as cautious and careful as I could right from the beginning of the pass it required far more conventional braking than was ideal to the point all brakes from the truck and Oliver were smoking half way down while trying to maintain the required speed limit which was futile. It is worth noting the rig in front of me, half ton or larger pickup with 5th wheel was having the same trouble. Effectively I had to escape to the nearest pull off, to allow time for brakes to cool off. Granted this is an intermountain west situation and not likely to be a concern for those of you traveling and camping back east, but I will not repeat this endeavor again. @Patriot hinted at this issue in an earlier post and I would emphasize take this warning seriously if money is not an issue. I constantly see people out on the road towing with what appears to many as far too little tow vehicle for the trailer they are dragging around. Scares the stew out of me. We once met a couple down in Utah towing a 25ft Flying Cloud Airstream with a Tacoma, not making this up. To this very day, Tacomas have still not integrated rear disc brakes on those pickups. Safe travels and happy camping.

Truly an ugly vehicle, could hardly refer to it as a truck. I would choose a Rivian hands down over this POS. We have one running around our town, see it ever so often. I just don't get it how this appeals to anyone. Regardless none of these EV trucks will suffice for towing anything. Apparently there is new battery technology on the horizon however that is far more environmentally friendly with more power than Lithium.

Be careful in how you plan for fall in Montana. Understand seasons in this neck of the woods can come and go in nearly a split second, and what most people think of the autumn months can be the dead of winter compared to their normal view of this season. Lived here for nearly half a century and have seen temps plunge to sub zeros mid September when the day before it was in the 70-80's or more. Colors start turning much sooner than other states too, usually by mid September and all but shot by the 3rd week of October if not sooner normally. Elevation plays a key role in this. The Flathead Valley area as well as Glacier will usually have color lasting a bit longer due to the lower elevations at base but again there is no guarantees other than to expect rapidly changing weather patterns. Yellowstone elevations are much higher as well and thus tend to end sooner. Hope this helps.

I concur with what @jd1923 said about Snow Canyon State Park, orders of magnitude better than Sand Hollow. Very pretty, some great hiking and will have all of the amenities that Sand Hollow has and then some. As others have stated hiking poles are good too with the steep hikes you'll likely encounter at Zion and other places in the SW.

Lots of good spots here but honestly having stayed at Sand Hollow in the past this is one I would cross it off the list as a waste of time. There are much better places in the SW or even SW Utah than Sand Hollow. I would also encourage while exploring those popular areas to get off the beaten track and venture into many of the awesome BLM areas of the SW that are every bit the equal to the National Parks and Monuments but without the crowds or fame. Regardless have a great trip.

Have done it both ways, full and partially full, which depends on my attitude at the time of departure, how long will the trip be and whether its a solo trip or if wife is coming along. Regardless we always carry two BPA free water jugs that are filled for drinking and cooking water. Never drink from the holding tanks which is only used for cleaning dishes and people.

I guess it's each to his or her own as long as safety is fully accounted for. Personally I would not consider this TV (Landcruiser) for the Elite II especially if bringing along everything but the "kitchen sink". Interesting while up in Glacier this past week there was another Elite II from Missouri camped a few spaces away from us, using if memory serves me correct a Tundra half ton but did not have the Andersen WDH as far as I could tell. Never got a chance to talk with them. We did the same for 8 years with our half ton F150 and had no issues what so ever, but in yet another thread on this forum someone had warned me that I was on the cusp of being right at or over the threshold of weight limits which I already knew of course. The thought of a law suit did not seem appealing to me so I bellied up to the bar and purchased and install the Andersen last year. At best it is a love hate relationship with the damn thing too. The ride is a bit better but not night and day, breaking is a bit more efficient but what a pain to deal with on anything but level ground. It's certainly easy to understand why so many Elite II owners have gone to 3/4 ton trucks due to this situation. Having said all this truth is I suspect the vast majority of people towing RV's, travel trailers etc are considerably out of their advised weight limits. And lets not even bring up the extremely poorly set up rigs going down the road with tongue down/front TV up or just as bad the inverted V where twin axels are virtually riding on the rear axle only. Thanks

I live in Bozeman, just north of YNP by about 90 miles and yes we have had an abnormally cooler than normal spring and heading into summer season. Rain, wind, and even some snow of late. However this is supposed to change in a day or two with temps heading into the 90 range. Mid to low 70's today with light wind. Mostly 70's to low 80's next week or so. No fires… yet. Glacier NP received 10 inches of snow a day or so ago at upper elevations and around Logan Pass.