routlaw
-
Posts
621 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
14
Posts posted by routlaw
-
-
FYI, logged into my account yesterday and it did state there would be a $3.50 monthly charge. Tried to spend mine yesterday but it was declined due to an incorrect PIN #. What a racket by the banks.
-
1
-
-
I hear you, time to spend it for sure. Had no idea this was developing
-
Just checked this morning to view the amount on my Oliver debit card, and found the new institution has a month service charge just for the money setting in this account which is apparently $3.50 per month. What racket. Oh well.
Thought everyone else might want to know if they are invested in this situation.
-
1
-
-
Well now I am setting on the edge of my seat waiting to find out the true engineering intent for these cross braces. Maybe Oliver will share with us some day.
-
1
-
-
That downward sag is about the same as on my Oliver too and as others have pointed out these are C channel not L channel as I previously referred to. Regardless the H2O heater surely can't weigh so much with only 6 gallons of water and maybe another 20 lbs for the actual heater itself.
Mystery to me why so much more structure in this one area and yet so many still break. Still nothing from Tech support.
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, Rivernerd said:
So, the welder who told you to never haul your Elite II with a full tank of water was wrong, since the fresh water tank is forward of the broken welds?
One could come to that conclusion but there are still cross braces under the fresh water tank which could also fail under the right conditions.
-
On 3/14/2024 at 8:37 AM, DaveAndBecky_NorthernMI said:
Well Oliver gang, as usual, this forum has provided not only a fundamental understanding of the spring issue but options for mitigation and replacement. Hull #1047 will be sauntering soon with anticipated travel of 5000 miles including the daunting road to Chaco Canyon. Planning and executing @Geronimo John
Good luck, wonderful place to travel to. Have been on that road a number of times and sometimes it's terrible and once or twice fairly smooth sailing for a gravel road at least. Maybe you'll hit it just after a fresh grading.
-
1
-
-
Another update for those interested. Heard back from tech support on my ticket this morning asking for photos which I forgot to initially send. Uploaded those, received a quick reply that all info would be forwarded to the higher up engineering folks and that the ticket would be closed. Not much really to go on, oh well.
In the meantime, after considering another post earlier on, apologies don't recall who posted it, but they are correct the fresh water tanks are quite a bit further forward than this one doubled up L channel supports. Its curious that all of the people who have had these weld breaks are at the same place, same brace and yet have nothing to do (directly) with the support of the heaviest item the water tank.
Why did they not use a square tube, instead of stitch welding two L brackets? Why is there so much apparent weight distributed at this one point? I'm baffled.
Thanks
-
1
-
-
12 minutes ago, rideandfly said:
Question, would doubling the crossmember material create more stress on the welds due to less flexibility?
Interesting concept and good question. In the meantime have not heard back from Oliver on my ticket.
-
1
-
-
3 minutes ago, jd1923 said:
Looks like the broken welds are in the same location behind the curbside leveler.
Yes and where the fresh water tank apparently presents the heaviest load.
-
Submitted a ticket first thing this morning. No response yet of course.
-
1
-
-
What does EBITA mean?
For over 40 years I have been a professional photographer and in that time worked for a number of companies mostly in the outdoor recreation market. In that time many of these companies have sold to other larger entities, actually everyone of them as I think about it, and not a single one of them still exist to this day except for one. Most of them did not last more than a year or two after merging with a larger corp.
Corporate America is littered with such mergers and acquisitions too. A close friend of mine, a retired corporate attorney, worked on cases like this and told me this is how and where many companies go to die. Not predicting this about Oliver, but worth considering assuming the long range goals are to sell the company.
For me given that I live 2000 miles from Hohenwald it will have little to no effect. Apparently one of their new service centers is Bretz RV and Marine in Missoula, MT. I’ve been there on several occasions but still a 3 hour drive, yet this is the first I have heard of them as being an exceptional RV dealer and service center. Bretz comes to Bozeman periodically to do dog and pony shows with their products, but not sure I would place them in the same sector with Oliver.
For those of you who are considering selling their Olivers on the used market my guess is your travel trailer just reduced its value overnight by at least a few grand and perhaps a lot more. Something to think about.
-
10 minutes ago, Rivernerd said:
So, no boondocking? By definition, the places we boondock do not have potable water supplies, so we carry our fresh water in the tank from home.
Please include that advice from your welder in a service ticket. Oliver Service needs to know that at least one reputable welding establishment believes the Elite II cannot safely carry a loaded fresh water tank as designed.
Good point, thus far I have not contacted Oliver about this but your advice is well taken. I will add this in all fairness, we have owned this TT for 9 years, some 25K miles and driven many backroads in that time and this is the first time we experienced this failure. However I still stand behind my previous comment, this is a poor design for its intended use. Like you we also camp most of the time where fresh water is not available, and just as important its deep backcountry for our adventures which requires gravel backcountry roads. Thanks
-
4
-
-
Likewise in over 9 years with our fixed panels have never run out of electricity or not able to get back to 100% SOC. However our Lead Acid batteries do appear to be at the end of their life and will need to replace those probably this year and most likely with Lithium. We have camped in rain, cloudy and over cast, you name but still get to 100% every day. For the trouble one would go to creating tilting panels and for only a few degrees just don’t see it being worth the trouble. Hope this helps
-
1
-
2
-
-
Another update. Just returned from Midwest Welding here in town. They have been in business ever since I have lived here and as far as I know have a great reputation. They were able to fit me in almost immediately this afternoon and make the welding repairs. While I was not allowed to watch them make the repairs, I would like to point out even the superintendent could not move by hand the brace back into place. He was a bit bigger and most likely much stronger than me.
These guys are experts and here is what he told me and said it more than once emphatically. Do not go down the road with a full fresh water tank ever, otherwise there will be more breaks in these crossbeams. I think he has a very good point and this is something Oliver needs to address due to what I feel is a very poor structural design for its intended purpose. FWIW and with all do respect, I do not agree with @CRM with above comment, the belly still sags and the brace sags along with it indicating an enormous amount of downward pressure and this with an empty tank. I don't know what this says about traveling down backcountry roads vs paved highways either but the design is probably not cut out for this sort of travel.
Sorry but I am a bit miffed at the moment and slightly venting. Repair was $103 and change.
-
4
-
-
Folks I just want to post a quick followup. The good news is I do not see any other broken or cracked welds on our cross braces. But there is some bad news here too. For those of you have had seen the photos I previously linked there is yet another issue to be dealt with. Using all the strength I could muster I cannot push the dangling end of that brace back into position, can't even get it close to where it needs to be welded back into place.
What does this tell me? As much as I hate to say this, it's an extremely poor design concept. Oh and for those wondering I emptied all the holding tanks including fresh water. Cutting to the chase how does anyone have any faith that a repaired weld with continue to hold this brace in place. The only way to get this brace back in position would be with a jack or lift of some sort. Might try it later this afternoon with my bottle jack and see how that goes.
In the meantime for those of you who were not able to see the pics when the website was having issues with photo uploads I have included two below.
Thanks
-
1
-
3
-
1
-
-
That's good news and good luck with the weld.
-
1
-
-
@rideandfly bummer but at least yours has not completely come apart… yet.
Had a busy week and have not had the time to get mine repaired but did some research on aluminum welding. As you might guess opinions are all over the place from boat builders in Australia using adhesives instead of welding to TIG welding and other methods. There seems to be a lot of concern with aluminum welding weakening the material. I don't have an opinion yet but the Aussie who builds aluminum boats using adhesives really caught my attention.
The big question now is, how many more of these broken welds are running around out there being unnoticed?
Thanks and good luck with the repair.
-
2
-
-
37 minutes ago, Wandering Sagebrush said:
Lots of wonderful glyphs at VOF, but have you found the mysterious Bat Woman glyph? It’s shown on the signs at the Mouse’s Tank trail head.
Darn I'm not sure we saw that one, will ask Trudi if she remembers.
-
It appears a lot of you are familiar with Valley of Fire State Park but thought I would upload a few images from that part of our recent trip. First two images are with my Nikon Z7 and the remainder with iPhone 13 Pro in RAW mode for anyone interested in the technicals
White Domes Road view to the south
White Domes Road view to the north
White Domes Loop trail with remnants of old movie set
Trudi taking a break on the hike
Detail of sandstone geology
One of the many petroglyphs found along the Mouses Tank trail.
Fire Wave Trail
Firewave trail and Pastel Canyon
End of White Dome Loop trail
-
3
-
3
-
2
-
-
9 hours ago, topgun2 said:
p.p.s. Snow Canyon (just west of St. George) is also a place to visit.
p.p.p.s. GPS for the dino prints - 37.15604, -113.50169
Not familiar with those particular Dino tracks but will definitely check them out the next time we are there. Snow Canyon is another beautiful state park, also very crowded now so plan ahead if you want to camp there. There are many BLM boon docking locations in the nearby area as well, nothing special but adequate.
Also worth checking out is Babylon Arch. While the arch compared to many is nothing special the area around it is excellent and very reminiscent of Arches NP without the crowds. It's difficult to find and absolutely in no way should you take you Oliver down this soft sandy road with no place to turn around. Beautiful hiking and exploring though. The road is up by Leeds north of St George.
-
1
-
-
8 hours ago, Wandering Sagebrush said:
Rob, thanks for a great trip report! Valley of Fire used to be one of our favorite parks, but since the explosion of COVID camping, the crowds have made it not as pleasant a stay. The good news is that Nevada now has a reservation system that removes the uncertainty of finding a place in the park. The Mesa near Overton is another place to spend the night boondocking, as is the BLM land around Lake Mead. Buying a season pass is another way to reduce hassle.
We actually ended up camping on BLM land from the east side closer to Las Vegas but considered the Poverty Flats area you mention too. I knew there wouldn't be any available spots at the VOF campgrounds since we made the decision to go there as a spur of the moment affair. We enjoyed some great views and it was only a few miles out of the park and not nearly as crowded as Poverty Flats or Lake Mead area. Thanks for the heads up info though.
-
2
-
-
No worries, but thanks for getting it done. I can attest its working fine now just uploaded a large batch of pics myself.
-
1
-
-
15 minutes ago, Patriot said:
Thanks
Unhitching
in General Discussion
Posted
Lot of good points made here, have not thought of putting TV in neutral to let it settle but on more than one occasion have discovered there is a tension between TV and Oliver based upon how the last movements went, usually from backing up with a significant turn. What I always do now is take the tension away from the two by pulling forward usually a few inches or a foot max will do while straightening the TV front wheels.
Some ground can be difficult to read the slope certainly and in this case front and back chocks work well. Like a few of you I have always taken a big rubber mallet and pound the crap out of those things so they are in tight both for rubber chocks as well as the Anderson leveling blocks. As for the X Chocks the company warns they are not meant to hold the camper in place, only to stabilize it once setup claiming the device is not strong enough to hold most campers steady. That said I have no doubt a lot of people use them in this manner.
Good luck in the future