routlaw

Tire pressure, tire temps and TPM systems, a few more observations. This might not be the right place to post this so moderators please feel free to move it to another spot if it is inconsistent with the OP's @johnwen post on blowouts. Just returned a couple of weeks ago from a trip to the southwest mostly around San Rafael Reef and Capitol Reef National Park. Weather was all over the place during the tip down, while there and then on the return and thus it became an excellent opportunity to explore the results via the monitor on my new TST TPMS device. As stated above I only have 4 sensors and used them for my TV rather than the Oliver. Earlier in the year I replaced tires on both the TV (F150 Super Crew Cab) as well as the Oliver using Vredestein Pinza AT LT's. Honestly I have mixed emotions regarding putting them on my half ton truck, not because I don't like them but simply because once you start going down this path by default you are re-engineering the suspension system. As all of you know installing LT tires on a vehicle designed for PT tires, inflation rates can change dramatically. In this case tirepressure.com recommended going from the factory setting of 35 PSI all around to 50 PSI all around. Les Schwab stated emphatically to keep them at 35 PSI as the door jamb implies. While this conundrum has not been dealt with to my satisfaction, I decided to run 40 up front and 45 PSI in the rear for the recent trip. FWIW 50 PSI with 10 ply tires installed on a half ton truck with suspension set up for lighter weight 4 ply passenger tires is a brutal ride unless you are on the smoothest of roads. So how did things go? At no time did my tires overheat and pressure only increased by 5-7 PSI depending on a number of factors such as shade, sun exposure, type of driving and so on. Consistently tires facing the sunny side ran warmer and with about 2+ PSI more inflation after warm up, highway speeds tended to level things out while stop and go traffic oddly enough ran tire temps higher. Typically tire temps tended to hover between 8-14 degrees above the ambient outside temperature. At one point driving through stalled SLC traffic tires facing the sun rose to 114 degrees but it was also around 100 degrees outside and no telling what the pavement temps were. So with 40/45 PSI set front and rear respectively at mild temps pressure increased to 45/52 front and rear traveling down the road normally at 65 MPH with a few descents hitting 70 mph. How does one interpret all of this? It tends to fly in the face that one needs to inflate LT tires considerably higher than PT tires for the same vehicle. Clearly the load capacity of each LT tire is not being encountered with my F150, same for the Oliver which incidentally were all inflated to 45 PSI and which were only lightly warm to the touch each time they were checked. There are those who firmly believe in the chalk tire test for proper inflation of LT tires and while I have experimented with this it is not exactly scientific to my way of thinking. Regardless hope this info will be of some help to new comers and veterans alike while out on the road and towing their Olivers. Happy Trails

@johnwen Just purchased one of those myself earlier in the year. Thus far I have only four sensors and have been using those on my TV for now figuring it much better to monitor the tire pressure and temps with the tow vehicle. For this alone it has been quite the education looking at the results depending on driving conditions and ambient temperatures.

Couple more thoughts on this discussion. Several years ago while traveling to a photo shoot in SW Montana I had a blow out on my right front tire but was able to pull over safely and change the tire on the spot. Upon arriving at the next town stopped off at the local tire store and as it turns out on the trip over I had taken on a sharp rock that created a slow leak in the tire which as you all might guess built up some serious heat enough to cause the blow out. I suspect this is what might have happened to the OP in this thread. Fast forward to a couple of summers ago while camping up in the Seeley-Swan Lake area I noticed one morning what appeared to be a deflated right rear tire. Immediately went into Seeley Lake township for repairs at the local tire store. Turns out we were the third customer to come in with slow leaks that morning. Ours was the result of a nail but the mechanic had a jar full of culprits that had caused past customers the same issues. Looking at some of the culprits for flat tires was educational for sure with many of them being quite large such as bolts some bent others straight, various hardware pieces and so forth and so on. Items one would not normally think to be able to puncture a tire but there they were. Anyway glad the OP was able to correct this without undue harm to life and possessions. Blow outs can be scary stuff.

Have wondered and considered the same myself just too busy with other things to dive in. However it might be worth checking with Shock Surplus a mail order company that specializes in after market high performance shocks. There are most likely other mail order companies doing this but these guys seem to be informed.

@MAX Burner Very nice.

I would be lying if I didn’t say I am so jealous, a 30x30 garage! Good luck

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them. It truly is beautiful area, and that road keeps it from ever becoming over crowded or loved to death. Love the quote. Up in our neck of the woods I laugh and call it all both days of summer.

@Paul and Santina Most of the grades you will encounter will be 6% max and not that long, so not too challenging. Now if you really want a challenge head up to Jackson and over Teton Pass, it's 10% and the difference is not subtle.

Both routes should not be an issue, have done many times with an F150 with 3.5 Eco-Boost. Yes there are some hills along the way but nothing insurmountable. As for overdoing it, depends on how much time you have. If you are doing Canyonlands I would highly recommend the Needles District south of Moab. You will not be disappointed. Campground fills up each day and they now are RSVP's but there are quite a few BLM campgrounds on the road leading into the Needles. Do not even think out loud about the Maze District unless you hire a guide to take you in there. However if you have the time, Horseshoe Canyon a very remote part of Canyonlands and also adjacent to the Maze is well worth while. Beautiful area and pictographs that will blow you away.

I have spent a lot of time in this area though I do not live there (live in Montana). Understand this area has had a lot of rain these past few days from Hurricane Hilary that hit CA so flash floods are still a high warning especially in the slot canyons. Arches NP now requires advanced RSVP's just to get in the door, timed entries but the last time I checked a few weeks ago visitation was down about 20% for the year, evidently people didn't want to put up with this system and decided to go elsewhere. It will be VERY CROWDED still. Same for Zion NP too. Thats the bad news the good news is there are places within BLM land that is equally good just not the crowds. I personally prefer to boondock or stay in more remote campgrounds. Also consider the San Rafael Swell & Reef as well as some of the state parks such as Goblin Valley but that campground books up way ahead of time getting an RSVP this late might be iffy. Cell service in all these areas is sketchy at best or non existent. Grandstaircase-Escalante National Monument is huge but also well worth the effort although you will have to work for the rewards a bit more than some of the other national parks where everything is laid out on a silver platter for you. Consider stopping in at some of the outdoor recreation stores and pick up maps. The National Geographic Illustrated Trail maps are excellent and waterproof too. Moab does have an excellent visitor center in the heart of town where they sell maps, books etc. I could go on for hours on places to go without the crowds but much depends on what you are looking to do and where you like to stay. Hope this helps but ask away if you have more questions.

Nice work! This begs the question, where and how do you folks store you dirty clothes for laundry. We have used the a large net basket affair stored on the floor, however like many I've never been completely satisfied with the storage shelfs and situation as they are but also don't want to give up that space for the laundry.

It would appear the first sentence of the note says it all, "sales and service". As for service well I've done everything that needed to be serviced so far. Not sure how any of this will be of much help to me. In the meantime we will just have to wait and see how this pans out apparently.

Yes Green River Lakes. Link to what? Be glad to just not certain what you are referring to in this case for a link. FYI the area is located north of Pinedale, WY and while not that far via miles it is a slow go due to two hours of dirt road driving towing. Beartooth Publishing here in Bozeman produces an excellent weather proof GPS map of the "Winds" well worth the money. I'm sure you could purchase via them directly or probably Amazon. Gaia and Alltrails are also very good resources.

I had this happen to me once several years ago, turns out the connecting wires at the switch itself had fallen off their terminals. This could happen at either end, ie the bath or the main cabin since the pump uses a double pole switch. Gaining access to either is not easy. In my case the wires came off at the cabin end which required taking off all of the control panels to gain access. Even with that it was a tight squeeze getting my hand through the cavities to deal with the wires. The FG will scrape the stew out of your hands too. It was near impossible to access the wires from the bottom access where my solar controller and main power switches are located. This might be a big different on the Elite 1. Good luck.

You will probably receive a lot of different answers on this question but allow me to start. Assuming you have had experience with travel trailers, camping and RV'ing to any degree I wouldn't worry about it too much. Make no mistake you will always need to be prepared to do some maintenance on any camper, bar none. There are no exceptions. Bearings will need to be serviced periodically and how often depends on many things, understand too Oliver does not make any of the appliances, only the frame and the cabin plus the engineering of the units. Things break from time to time, it's the nature of the beast. FWIW I have a 2015 model and when people tour it are amazed at how well it looks. Cutting to the chase the Olivers hold up extremely well if taken care of, waxing, cleaning and maintenance. Age, wear and tear, other than appliances not made by Oliver I wouldn't think would matter much, assuming previous owner hasn't neglected their Oliver which would be very rare. To answer your question, much will depend upon your budget, and how much you are willing to invest. Hopefully you'll find this helpful.

Gonna add just a few more photos from this recent trip. These from a hike on the Continental Divide Trail, heading north toward Gunsight Pass. Wildflowers were abundant in the area.

@Wandering Sagebrush I have a Slime unit, can’t remember the model # but it was one with the highest specs on the shelf at our local Auto Zone. Thanks

All this discussion about storing our Olivers has me re-thinking things again. For the first 5 years of ownership we kept ours in a covered, not enclosed, RV storage facility until they raised their prices to absurd levels. We pulled out. For this winter I am thinking about leaving our Ollie down in the SW probably Utah. Have a trip planned to rendezvous with an old buddy for some adventurous hiking and just might store for the winter rather than bring it back to MT.

Forgot to include one image of our Ollie in the campground, so it's attached below with Osborn Mountain providing the backdrop. BTW the campground is actually fairly nice about 35 or so campsites, each one spaced far apart and some of them quite huge by comparison to many other public USFS or BLM campgrounds. In two different years of being in there I am fairly certain we have not seen it fill up and this in mid July. Suffice it to say the road in is a deterrent but make no mistake RV's are in there everything from 5th wheels to tents.

@SeaDawg I hear you, well spoken.

Two summers ago my wife and I took a trip back into the Green River Lakes area of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. This is the headwaters of the Green River that connects with the Colorado River further south. Had a great time, gorgeous place comparable to anything else in North America so we just had to endure the trip again a couple of weeks ago. When I say endure, its the road into this place, calling it a rough ride would be an understatement and this year was no different considerably worse in fact. Literally took us just over two hours from where the paved road ends and the dirt begins to arrive at the USFS campground. Figure about 10-12 mph the entire way in. As one local puts it, "what isn't tied and strapped down will break". Knowing what we were getting into this time we came better prepared. At the end of the paved road we deflated the tires by some 15 PSI on the Ollie, took the window shades off and laid them on the bed and made sure everything else was secured and shut. Yes the shades came off the windows on the previous trip among other things. I purchased a portable battery powered inflator for the return trip out to inflate the tires back up to their normal highway pressures. Money well spent, but one wouldn't confuse one of these devices with a real air compressor by any means but it works just takes extra time. Posting a few photos below, hope everyone can at least vicariously enjoy the trip, even if you never decide to embark on this journey. We took our kayaks this time, those lakes are just too irresistible not to paddle them. Thanks for looking. Paddling the lower Green River Lake, fortunate this morning to have glass smooth conditions, such a treat. My wife Trudi, cutting a path to the beach on the south end of the lake As we approached the south end of the lower lake a view to the east at Clear Creek Canyon comes into view Incoming, low flying clouds once we hit the beach on the south end of the lower lake, time for a quick lunch before hiking down to the upper lake further south Once we beached our kayaks on the lower lake we hiked up to the head or south end of the upper lake. This lake is much different in color due to the glacial silt and yes it really is this color but maintains a somewhat milky appearance. From the head of the lake you can attempt to summit Square Top Mountain seen in the upper left corner. Maybe someday but not this time around for us. On the return trip back to camp on the lower lake there are some dramatic cliffs on the west shore that come right into the lake. The boats were disrupting the reflections though. All images (except the upper lake) from an iPhone 13 Pro, using RAW capture mode for those interested in hobby, upper lake from a Nikon Z7 & 24-70 F4 lens.

Old topic, but have to say waxing these things is a PITA especially the roof. Just finished doing mine for the year and each time I do this swear I'm going to buy one of those scaffolds rather than up and down, move, up and down over and over again. At my height of 5'7" it's an almost unsafe stretch at times too. Like others on this thread have spent quite a bit of time looking into the various methods and products but for the last few years have used the Maquires Marine wax. It works but have to admit due to the slow and arduous process for the roof the finish can look less than ideal, sides are fine. Getting the thing chemically clean helps and by that I don't mean the standard car wash. So far the best method I have found is using glass cleaners but not the windex variety, but rather products like Glass Doctor, Invisible Glass and a litany of other companies that produce these streak free glass cleaners. It's almost as though the gel coat allows dust, dirt and debris to become embedded within the surface and a simple wash just doesn't cut it. Surprised to hear some of you do not like the Rejex method and products. Another company is NuFinish with similar system for about 1/3rd the cost. First I've heard of DuroGloss too. Need to look into that one. In the meantime there has to be a better safer way to do the roof area. FWIW have been using the articulated type of A frame ladders, heavy and cumbersome but work for the job.

Wow, what an ordeal. Glad you made it back.

We don't use one ourselves but have seen them at Costco and would suspect Camping World and other such RV stores might stock them too.

I have stated this many times in the past but it bares repeating. We never drink out of our storage tanks, ever. IMO you're just asking for trouble if you do even though I know others will disagree. For one the water taste terrible after only a few hours of storage, this alone should be a warning. However we carry two 5 gallon BPA free water jugs along with us with water from our house and another 1 gallon BPA free jug. The two large jugs are stored in the truck bed and the smaller 1 gallon stays either in the camper or back of truck cabin depending on what we are doing for the day. The storage tank water is used for dishes and personal hygiene only. We do not even cook with the storage tank water. Hope this helps.