routlaw

I knew AZ was getting some rain, but it would never have occurred to me there is a monsoon season down in the southwest this time of year. Let alone green, and relatively cool. I've always thought of the SW as being the inferno this time of year, shows you what I know. Long haul from here but something to think about.

Got busy with a few things yesterday and couldn't get back. Thanks for the comments. We tend to camp in wilderness areas, i.e. BLM, USFS and National Parks rarely with hookups or boon docking depending on how you look at that. We do a lot of hiking, cycling, some kayaking though not so much this summer for obvious reasons. I do have the geezer pass, what a great deal that is. Talk about cheap vacations other than paying for gas to there and back. Got to love it. Unfortunately my window is not big this time around so at this point I'm either considering bagging it until the fall when the skies clear or a short jaunt down to the Tetons or over to the Beartooths on the MT/WY border. I can't seem to get a clear read on whether or not the Tetons have much smoke or not, might give them a call today and see. On the other hand I suspect that place is filling up fast due to the solar eclipse and Jackson being in the middle of the path.

John we have been flirting with triple digit temps all summer until this past week where we have had a cooling trend down to the low and mid 80's and we've even had a shift in winds on some days coming from the east. It has not made one iota of difference ± 10%. That said I'm thinking the Beartooth Plateau with elevations well over 10,000 feet might be above much of this stuff, but even that is crap shoot. Funny I used to live here for the magnificent summers, now we almost look upon them with dread. Most of our summers over the last decade or so have been like this plus or minus.

I just found the following website links that have a great deal of info on the western wildfires, includes satellite photos and all as well as graphics and AQI's that John refers to above. So for those folks considering a trip out west hopefully you will find this info helpful in making your plans. Cutting to the chase it ain't looking good though other than NV, UT further south, NM etc. http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/ https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=topics.smoke_wildfires http://svc.mt.gov/deq/todaysair/smokereport/mostrecentupdate.aspx

Have the Elite II's gone up in price this much? Woo Hoo! Steve is correct the link is DOA

Thanks Steve, you guys must have been "cooking" down in the southwest this time of year. Quite the inferno this time of year. We've spent a lot time in the Sawtooth Wilderness and Recreation Area but not familiar with Cascade Lake, will check it out. Thanks

Ed and Marsh. Its very bad currently. This mornings paper reported the town of Seeley Lake being evacuated. For a month now visibility here in the Gallatin Valley has been so bad on most days you can't even see the mountains that surround the valley. There are 11 major fires in the state of Montana alone plus we are getting smoke from fires in other states. I had heard as of last week the Tetons might not be too bad and that Wyoming only had one fire within the state. I believe Glacier is about as polluted as our location in the southwestern part of the state. Our daughter and son in law live in Butte which is also a mess, they even had ash falling last week. A lot can happen in two weeks but the long range prediction was there is no end in sight for this stuff clear through Sept. Unless you like to breath a lot of carbon my suggestion would be to have a back up plan.

Is there any place out west not inundated with these fires? I have a window of opportunity and would like to take off for several days, but its an ugly mess here in Montana, and hardly worth camping anywhere in the state. How about ID, UT, WY or other areas, anyone been to these places recently? Thanks, odd request for sure.

Interesting this conversation came up. While just emptying our Oliver about an hour or so ago at one of the local dump stations a nice couple pulled up behind me towing an Airstream. They got out of their truck, said really nice camper, they new all about the Olivers and seemed envious but had never seen one in person. Their Airstream was only two years old but has had every possible problem you can imagine with theirs. All of them were fixed by their dealer, but still it seemed to have left a bad taste for the lack of quality control. Anyway gave them a tour of ours, they seemed impressed. Apparently they had just been camping in the mountains south of us and were on pins and needles due to the hail storms going on. Apparently the skin on the Airstreams doesn't fare to well in a hailstorm.

We have a 2013 F150 Lariat. If we've been towing, then disconnect the F150 will then tells us we are disconnected, but its never done while being connected… so far.

Weird, I'm late to the party on this one, but I've never experienced this issue with my F150 either with the Oliver or our T@b before that. Now that I've stated this it will probably happen soon enough.

And what a huge difference that would have made Dave. It would have been an easy fix rather than hours fiddling with this. I'll probably be on the lookout for a hatch to install from inside the compartment in the future. If any of those other wires come loose I sure don't want to go through this again. Thanks so much

Success at last! For those interested and for anyone who runs across the same issue here goes. The fast tab connectors had indeed come loose from the pump switch located under the pantry. I removed the 4 screws holding the backing plate for the battery, water, gray water & black water gauge which provided just enough light and access but only if you have very small hands. Effectively when the Oliver crew terminated these wires to the switch they provide absolutely no slack at all, and in fact those wires were pulled quite tight and in the large harness with a bunch of other wires. The weight of the harness with tight wires pulled them from their connections. I re-terminated all three of the double pole switch wires with two foot long extensions of 12 AWG wiring. Tested the system before reinstalling the entire enchilada and it all worked fine. Hopefully no one else has to go through this because it is a major PITA to accomplish. I did not have to drill any holes either in the battery box or hidden compartment either, however it would have provided far better access to do so from the compartment. As Dave pointed out one can wiggle the switch out of its socket with a putty knife and flat head screw driver, but start with the putty knife first. The bathroom switch comes out much easier just wiggling and pulling with your fingers. And oddly enough they provided plenty of slack with the bathroom switch. I'm attaching a few relevant photos for future reference. Hope this helps. The first image is provides the size of the cut out hole once the plate is removed for the battery, water etc gauge. Its small, the second image shows correct wiring for the switch, note the purple wire is always in the middle, and the gray & brown wire to the outside terminals. It matters not which terminal the gray and brown wires are attached to, same for the bath switch which is the 3rd image.

The battery compartment would not provide access to the back of the mounting plate for those switches unfortunately. Even if it did the stretch would prevent any way of finessing wires. Good idea on the jumper to the pump though, the same thing occurred to me later in the evening. I will try that shortly. BTW we do not have a switch anywhere near our stove, only in the bath room and just under the pantry area. Ours is an Elite II, but probably an earlier model than yours, ours is 2015. Thanks

Just brought back our Oliver this afternoon, but unfortunately its not looking too good. Tried all of the appropriate suggestions for our particular model year all to no avail. But for those interested and for whom it might help in the future the following is a short rundown of what I have done. Checked and double checked the appropriate fuse, even temporarily replaced it though it measured fine, and it fits snug in its receptacle. Pulled the two wires from the pump and measured for voltage there only got fluctuating mili volts, not good. Measured also at the fuse box receptacle and received more or less the same fluctuating mili volts. Its a double pole switch and the bathroom one comes outs quite easily and all 3 of those fast tab connectors were in solid. I was able to barely pull the main pole switch just below the pantry but not well enough to see all 3 wires with fast tab connectors. There is a lot of tension from the back of this switch. And this is where it gets really ugly there is absolutely no way to get access to these switches without either tearing the mounting plate off the interior body or drilling a very large hole on inside of the hidden compartment below the pantry. What the hell was Oliver thinking on this install? To the best of my knowledge there are no inline fuses upwind from the actual pump back to the fuse box. I suppose its remotely possible one of the pole wires at the fuse box has wiggled loose, but man oh man talk about opening a big can of worms to sort through that. Presently I'm a bit too aggravated to start drilling on the interior body just to examine fast tab connectors on the other switch which I am inclined to believe are intact in the first place. In the meantime I'm at a loss for the remedy on this one. Again thanks for all the suggestions.

Same here no insulation, and its not been an issue what so ever.

I don't think I've got that in my rear cabinet, can't remember ever seeing any circuit breakers there but will look again. To the best of my knowledge all circuit breakers are in the same fuse box mentioned previously.

Spike if you look in your fuse box just below the small dinette seat facing the bath you will see a slew of different fuses that vary from 10 amp to 30 amp all color coded. You could take one out with a pair of needle nose pliers to your local auto or hardware store to match. They probably have a name but I don't know it. The fuses are U shaped once they are pulled from the fuse box with two metal tabs that connect into the female arms that John Davies referred to earlier in the thread. You'll need to purchase a multi pack with all values hopefully with at least 2-3 per amp value. Piece of cake, don't let it intimidate you.

Thanks Dave, great info, but remember this is a two way switch. One in the bathroom and one under the pantry next to our solar controller. The bigger question though is how on earth did you get access to the back of this switch. In my first post I had mentioned the back plate or mounting plate for this switch seems to be glued onto the interior Oliver body unlike the other mounting plates that have 4 screws at each corner. Getting access to the one in the bathroom becomes and entirely different nightmare requiring taking out the wash cloth rack below the sink. Its great you were able to solve your similar problem so easy.

They will set it up for city water access until we can get back home to work on properly. She should be able to get by without the pump for 3 days. All good suggestions and comments, much appreciated. rob

Good points, make sense. I will do this when I get the trailer back home, probably Wed or Thurs. Will do on the followup as soon as I can bring it back.

John thanks for the reply. I have implemented most of your suggestions, except trying a different fuse mainly because I didn't have my tool box with backup fuses along with me. We had just towed our Oliver up to Butte yesterday for my wife to stay in while babysitting our new grandson for a few days next week. I got caught with this surprise unprepared. The available fuse is tight indeed and for sure it seated properly. What I found odd was no tiny sparks occurred as normal when pulling a fuse and reinserting with live voltage. In the past anytime I've done this, normally you will see that tiny spark which to me indicates somewhere else along the line this circuit is perhaps NOT receiving any current. Why I don't know, which is why I wanted to check the wiring at the pump & switch, thinking something was amiss there. I will not have time until next week to get back up there and work on it, but for sure will try the fuse replacement. I agree with your assessment this is not a high quality fuse box. I do keep bevy of back up fuses, learned my lesson on that years ago, just forgot to put the toolbox back in the camper this time. Thanks

Yesterday I just discovered a non functional water pump. Took the fuse out, it looked good but didn't have my multi meter with me to make sure. Inspected all of the wiring and connects at the water pump didn't see an issue there either. When I turn the switch on for the pump, no green light either which might indicate no electricity is getting to the pump. There doesn't seem to be a way to get access to the switch wiring either given that the backing plate does not have any screws for attachment. It appears this plate is perhaps glued to the Oliver body. Long and short of it, has anyone else encountered this in the past and if so how did you solve the problem? My gut instinct says the pump is not DOA itself but something else is amiss. Thanks

Never mind that last note about C range, my bad

I remember seeing that video regarding increased gas mileage for exactly what you're describing, sound like it might not be hype. Interesting tire chart you found there Randy. But when I went to the C load range the chart returned a 50 PSI result for my tires. Thats a bit more than I'm comfortable with for now.