routlaw

Agree with Mike and Carol, getting through El Paso is mostly a non event and especially compared to DFW or worse yet Houston which are both a major long drawn out PITA.

Depends on how you view things I suppose. However it is by any measure the most stark example of the 1st World juxtaposed to the 3rd World you're ever likely to find thrown into a mix of industrial wasteland. The first time is a bit of a shock.

Indeed they should.

FWIW I have seen it worse here than today but it still is awful and only going to get worse as the summer wears on. On another note had not realize there was another Oliver owner here in the Bozone, how about that. Congrats.

Having been out of the loop for the last week had not realized the smoke from these fires had reached the east to this extent. That should be a warning to any and all. Looking at todays current fire map and AQI reports my suggestion would be to travel the southern route across the country as SeaDawg mentioned. Yes it will be warmer or in some cases hotter than the northern route although much of the NW have seen record breaking triple digits off and on this summer. NM and AZ have been receiving copious amounts of rain this past month too which helps mitigating clearer air. Safe travels.

Allow me to add some thoughts to the conversation. True, Glacier NP is a not to be missed place but do NOT underestimate John's comment about the conditions out west currently and they are NOT likely to change even through September. You would be well advised to keep checking and paying attention to the wildfires throughout any part of the west before departing on your trip. The AQI in Bozeman, Montana where I live was 163 at the top of the morning and will most likely reach near or above 200 before the day is over. Just 80 miles west of here in Butte where our daughter lives it has been 200 or near so for days. My wife and I were in the Wind River Range of Wyoming this past week enjoying very clear air, deep blue skies and puffy whites punctuated with a few thunderstorms but by Friday afternoon and Saturday morning the smoked had rolled into the area and as of this morning the AQI there is in the 130's or so. None of this is likely to change until some major and drastic change in the weather patterns. Understand too, smoke from wildfires will and do travel hundreds and thousands of mile away. It is not the least uncommon for us living in Montana to have a summer filled with smoke from CA, OR, WA, NV or ID fires. On most days the mountains are completely invisible due to the smokey conditions this summer. I'm not making this up. Not trying to rain on your parade by any means and with some luck hopefully things will clear up before your departure and if they do understand there are campgrounds within Glacier that are all first come first serve and those include Apgar and Avalanche Lake on the west side. Two Medicine and Swiftcurrent on the east side are a mixture of RSVP's and FCFS however both of these are fairly remote and require some time to get into. The roads are windy with lots of elevation changes and take some time to negotiate. Plan ahead! This will be nothing like driving around the eastern part of the US. On a more positive note I am finding lots of USFS and BLM campgrounds that do not take reservations and are all on a FCFS basis and better still do not fill up even on the weekends. IOW's there are still plenty of camping sites to be had out west even without reservations if you know where to look. However as John has implied the more popular national parks, such as YNP, Glacier, Grand Tetons are more likely to be booked. This year GTNP went to the Advanced Reservation System exclusively meaning there are no walk-ins or FCFS sites throughout. YNP does have some campgrounds on FCFS basis but most are RSVP. The Ultimate Public Campground app is a must but I also use the Free Roam app which shows hundreds and thousands of dispersed or boon docking sits that are free. Allstays is worth having as well but it will include RV parks and the like, sort of a jack of all trades but not an expert at anything. Let us know if you have more questions. Be glad to help if possible.

Really good points John, and if using a crossover SUV or even a shorter truck frame based SUV like your Land Cruiser stronger consideration for a WDH would certainly be in order. If not mistaken the wheel base on my F150 (Super Crew/6.5 foot bed) is 158 inches which goes a long way toward stability as you have pointed out. Just wanted to emphasize my previous post was not meant as dissing those who choose to implement the WDH, far from it. Everyone should do what is comfortable and sensible for their situation. Safe travels.

Probably not much new to add to this conversation other than to say we have had our Elite II for just over 6 years now with well over 20K miles of towing and in all sorts of weather from howling winds (side and headwinds), to torrential downpours for days and do not have the WDH. FWIW I was the one who started the initial conversation some 6 or so years ago back in the day when Robert Partee was still with us. At that time Oliver did not use or suggest any WDH and no one who owned an Oliver used them either. I only brought up the issue having looked into the the specs on all towing vehicles and thought it curious Oliver did not recommend them and wanted a better understanding. The result of that thread led to Oliver adopting the Anderson. There are two specs for all tow vehicles, one with and one without a WDH and this includes not only the towing capacity but the load limits on the hitch itself. Typically a decal or equivalent is applied to the underside of the hitch stating its load and tow limit and typically those values are cut in half by approximately 50% + o - when towing without a WDH. Given my tow vehicle (an F150) my values were just under or right at the limits, so with much cogitation on the subject I chose NOT to use the Anderson. Keep in mind most all newer trucks have electronic anti-sway devices built into the system and at least on my truck this seems to work admirably. I say this because on more than one occasion I have been subjected to some harrowing emergency maneuvers on the highway while towing, or extreme wind conditions while the Oliver stayed where it should, right behind me. None of this is to suggest others do not adopt the WDH, each individual has to figure out what they are or are not comfortable with. Perhaps I am being a penny wise and pound foolish but thus far I have not seen, with my tow vehicle, the need for a WDH. Worth mentioning in the initial thread some 6 or so years ago a few comments suggested outside of the RV industry these towing specs are either completely ignored or completely unknown to the towing public, ie horse trailers, construction trailers and so on and so forth. Sure enough not sure I've ever seen anyone outside the RV industry hooked up to a heavy trailer of any sort with anti-sway or WDH hitches. Oh well. As others have suggested, tow safely and sensibly at all times with a light foot on the gas pedal. As a rule I tend to stay around 65 on the major highways a bit slower 55-60 on two lanes and will rarely get to 70 unless under idea conditions with virtually no traffic near me. My own general rule is to travel at least 5-10 mph slower than the given flow of traffic. YMMV of course. Hope this helps.

Thanks for all of the comments. The simplicity of the gutters is appealing not to mention the price of admission difference compared to the window awnings. Additionally Carefree of CO recommends mounting them a minimum of 3 inches above the window frame which puts the awning literally right under the porch lights and even that does not provide a full 3 inches of clearance over the window frame. The full view fabric which Carefree now offers also has appeal. Might just go with the Eze RV gutters though. Thanks again.

I've not heard of the Northern Lite Boreal before, but the potential looks very nice and accommodating. Regarding the RV industry in general, if the automotive industry built to the same standards as the RV industry the amount of Class Action law suits would be off the charts and rightfully so. Its really shameful. One company that caught my attention a few years ago before being an Oliver is the Lance Travel Trailers. I don't care for their looks but do believe these are a significant cut above the typical travel trailer on the market. While the my look "stick built" they are anything but and like Olivers seem to enjoy a cult following. Something else to consider.

Several of the members here have installed the Eze RV Rain Gutters and at least initially were very pleased with the results. My questions, are you satisfied with them and how much water do they actually keep from entering into the weep holes and sliding tracks? I can't imagine the gutters eliminating 100% of the water and contamination but hopefully the majority. Considering an alternate approach has anyone here ever installed dedicated windows awnings? An internet search brought up 3 companies that manufacture them, although they all look nearly identical except for the fabrics. Lippert, Dometic and by far the one company that seems to gain the most use are the Carefree of Colorado, link below. https://www.carefreeofcolorado.com/simplyshade/ Their website leaves much to be desired and trying to contact them directly seems impossible. Phone lines don't seem to work and their email system is completely worthless. You actually have to have a serial # from one their products to complete their email form. General sales questions for newcomers do not allow one to complete the form. Thanks

Can't blame you for going the extra mile to eliminate as much crud as possible in those window tracks. Just spent the last two days cleaning mine and what a chore that was, all sorts of organic detritus compacted in those tracks. However if nothing else I have learned a way to completely remove the sliding window and associated rubber track, then reinstall fairly easily. One mishap along the way, that being one of the sliding panes developed a seal leak between the double pane glass and now I have to replace that one. Suffice it to say I'm not a fan of these windows, way too much maintenance to deal with.

Why not just use silicone caulk to plug the weep holes at the top? Thanks

Nice looking heater, although 475 watts is not much heat to throw out, and of course you would have to be plugged into shore power or run a generator to use it. On more than one occasion with really cold Montana weather even a full blown 1500 watt electric heater could not adequately heat our Oliver and I've tried 3 of the darn things all to no avail. Not sure what the best solution is for your heating requirements but I would be skeptical of this unless using it in some coolish to only slightly cold weather. For that matter I would have preferred the installed heater system in our Oliver to have been more than the 16000 BTU's currently implemented. While adequate it seems slightly lower than it should have been.

Yes there will be anti freeze deposited in your fresh water tank, assuming you go through the proper de-winterization procedure. You should flush this out before using your fresh water tank. It is my understanding this is the same product used by the medical industry when performing some medical test procedures. I'm not an expert on this however. Its doubtful very small amounts of water left in a line could cause the failure you speak of. Not buying into that one. Not sure about the hose part, we purchased ours separately but perhaps Oliver is handling things different these days new deliveries. Don't know anything about the last paragraph, all new to me. In conclusion we never ever drink water from the fresh water tank. For one thing it taste terrible after only a few hours setting in one of those tanks. Not sure of the chemical makeup of these tanks but they appear to leach into the water. Personally I think anyone is asking for trouble by drinking from the holding tanks anyway. We always carry extra supplies of fresh water along stored in 5 gallon BPA free jugs and use this for drinking and cooking. The fresh water in the holding tanks is use for washes dishes and people and nothing else.

Perhaps, but this would be far from a dependable scientific process. FWIW I feel far more comfortable knowing the lines are treated to -50 as oppose to somewhere between 32 degrees and hypothetically 10 degrees.

I totally agree with you, but the hot water tank had long been emptied so it could not have come from there. That much water seemed incredulous to me as well especially given the amount of time allowed for the gray water tank to drain on the first effort. Agreed also one could not imagine that much water setting in half inch lines. Its all water under the bridge at this point anyway, though still a mystery. Thanks

Yes trailer was level while blowing the lines, but tilted to allow better drainage from the gray water tank which tends to drain much slower than the black tank and needs all the assist it can get. Still scratching my head on that amount of water, unless I missed something during the process but felt my procedure was very thorough.

This afternoon I raised the hitch once again to acquire a decent angle for the remaining water left in the gray tank after flushing the kitchen and bath faucets from the previous effort with pressurized air. Much to my surprise there was a full 3-4 gallons of water that drained from the dump valve. Keep in mind I had already emptied the gray tank previously and did a thorough purge a few days ago. Effectively this is a lot of water to potentially dilute the anti-freeze in the lines.

This makes a good point. I might add while blowing out my lines over the weekend, with the help of my wife, I was astounded at the amount of water that still flushed through the faucets both kitchen and bath. Effectively as Steve states there is a significant amount of dilution within the water lines if not blown out. Whether its enough to compromise the integrity of winterization is anybodies guess. However my suspicion is a full tank of water in the northern climates I live (Montana) will freeze fairly soon. Its not uncommon here to have sub zero temps with howling winds where anything freezes quickly.

Thanks for all the responses. In the past I have always used the RV anti-freeze method but was curious about trying the blow out method. Its not clear to me why 40 PSI air pressure would damage a water pump though. I will do the anti-freeze method in addition to what I've already done tomorrow. FWIW at one time Oliver did produce and link this method on their website a few years ago.

What toilet valve is this? Are you referring to the valve mounted on the flush out line that cleans the black tank? If so my Oliver does not have that valve, perhaps this was a later day installation.

I see from the videos for winterizing Oliver no longer recommends using the blowout method with pressurized air. Something about damaging the plumbing system, whats up with that? In the past they recommended either or method with pressurized air or anti-freeze. I like the idea of air if for no other reason far less to do come spring when its time to de-winterize. Went through the process of pressurized air yesterday @ 40 PSI approximately, but wanted to double check I got it completed correctly. All of the faucets inside and out were completely blown out but the two areas I was not sure about were the fresh water fill inlets, the one at the back of the trailer and there other next to the city water connection. Thanks, look forward to replies.

Nope once again, never saw a pin, nor was it on my key ring. It just wasn't there. No big deal I have a much better far more secure way of latching the bull dog coupler and would encourage all others to do the same. FWIW my hull # is 70, March 2015.

Nope, sorry for the misunderstanding. Our Oliver did not come with any pin at all, probably got left out by mistake, but we have been using a long neck master lock similar to what you would use for a Yeti Cooler which works great plus its an additional security lock also.