routlaw

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

Interesting concept and good question. In the meantime have not heard back from Oliver on my ticket.

Yes and where the fresh water tank apparently presents the heaviest load.

Submitted a ticket first thing this morning. No response yet of course.

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.

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

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

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.

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

That's good news and good luck with the weld.

@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.

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

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.

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.

No worries, but thanks for getting it done. I can attest its working fine now just uploaded a large batch of pics myself.

Thanks

We just returned last week from another camping trip down in the southwest. Great time, with great hikes and weather although the first few days were a bit more chilly than normal. Hit some of our past best hits, San Rafael Swell, ST George Area, and finally a new one which has been on my bucket list for a long time, Valley of Fire State Park in NV. Beautiful place but have to say we were surprised by the crowds even in mid week. Thought I might share several pix including a few taking on heaps of mud while traveling down 25-30 mile gravel roads in the outback. Thanks BLM campground at Swinging Bridge shot of mud bath mud was inches thick, started falling on its own weight. Once this stuff dries it is hard as a brick. Took over an hour of pressure washing and $20+ to get most but not all of it off swing bridge now retired swinging bridge pictographs

We come from a backpacking and tenting background so tend to travel relatively light but do carry extra fresh drinking water and use the holding tanks sparingly. Seems like we always over pack for food too. You just never know what might develop

No worries, it’s all good. First world problems anyway. But thanks for info

@jd1923 we have never run out tires at 80 PSI nor would I, usually keep them at 45 unless we are on long rough gravel roads then I drop the pressure even more. We did travel a very well maintained gravel road on this last trip, going into San Rafael Swell. It was muddy going on but not rough at all. On the way out to I-70 to the south the gravel road was in great shape, easy cruising. My guess is the weld was weak from the start and over time collapsed after 9 years of use.

We were below average the first half of winter but second half we have seen quite a bit of wet heavy stuff. Not sure what the snowpack is now but probably a bit lower than normal.

@John Dorrer yeah love the Winds and that lake. We have been there the last couple of summers love it. Hell of road getting in though.

Thanks for all the feedback folks, good info. Once the weather clears I will look into the repairs, crappy wet snowy weather up here in Big Sky country these days.

Roads were a mixed bag from Interstate to backcountry gravel roads none were terrible though and nothing compared to the road up to Green River Lakes in the Wind River Range. Fresh water was nearly full most of the recent trip.