Wayfinder

I'm also considering placing the Starlink mini on the cap of the truck, that way it's always available for the truck or camper use. But put it on a removable mount to find clear sky if under light tree-cover.

@jd1923 I'll drive out to see you soon enough. I'll bring your favorite ice cream and drink.

I wish I had see the performance of the RecPro before I put it on this year. I'm not happy with it. I will try Trim-LOK next time. It won't be long before the rest just falls off.

Does everyone's outdoor shower head basically stink? As in horrible water pressure? I even replaced mine in the past two years with the same model as original, because original cracked as they all do. Maybe I have junk in the Pex line to the shower head, or the head stinks. I'm sure there's a thread around here somewhere. I figured I'd ask since it's being talked about. Thanks.

When I installed my accumulator tank in my old #110, I put a new mounting board up for it, I think it was PVC board maybe. Anyways, my first attempt to glue it to the fiberglass hull near the water pump did not hold long. I then tried Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive (white). Oh man, was I impressed with that. That board has not moved since, and may never. I've used it now on other projects. It seems good to me. I'm also surprised that the remainder of the adhesive, in the opened tube, has not hardened up yet, nearly two years later. Then again, I keep it in the air conditioned house. I need to add a small tube or two of this to my tool packing list for long travels.

@jd1923 I'm going to be keeping things as simple as possible when I travel all around that nation soon. I'm hoping just having a Starlink mini will be good enough. Naturally trees as obstructions will kill the Starlink performance. My first thought when I see all the cool things you've done with the cellular booter and stuff is.... "No! I'm doing all that. I just retired from my IT job." Give me all the bad things I'm not thinking about. Maybe I bring some old DVDs, books, and cuddle more with the woman. 😉

Yeah, I like having a freezer for ice and a good ice pack for the back & neck. Looks like the Nova fridge uses a lot less power at about 4.5A on 12v. My old 3-way burns at least 10amps on DC, but my 4 good AGMs sustain that all day, with Solar coming in. I'm estimating that the Nova, without a freezer, might run on a Jackery 1000 for approximately 30 to 35 hours. I always travel with at least one of my Jackery 1000s portable power units, for among other things, running my 12v Truma Cooler that I either carry in the cab of the truck or in the camper itself. The Truma cooler runs at least two days on that portable power unit, and I seldom charge past 85%, depending how hold I want things and the ambient temps. I'm estimating that the Nova, without a freezer, might run on a Jackery 1000 for approximately 30 to 35 hours. But that remains to be seen, and weather dependent. In theory, and if I put my money where my mouth has been, I'll be retired in 122 days. (Fine, yes, I'm counting)

I will get an external screen cover to put around the overflow pipe, like those that cover furnace exhausts.

I grabbed my borescope and not only grabbed some pics of the rusted screen in the overflow pipe, but a short video of my borescope magnet attachment trying to pull more screen out. Some of the rotted screen simply fell out upon touching it. I got the rest out with a long angled pick. Also, I had drained my fresh water tank on Sunday after a trip, but did not raise the nose of the camper high enough to remove enough water. You can see the reflection of the borescope light in the water. So I raised the rear jack stands, and raised the nose up a good bit more to drain even more water. I bet no one has shown the inside of the water tank before. LOL I can now see how an old rusted screen mesh could block the overflow. Also time to clean tank. fresh-water-overflow-screen-removal.mp4

That's all I can figure happened - the overflow got blocked. Since my screen in the overflow is falling apart with rust, it's letting most of the water out fast. I was wondering of those plastic strands, from making the tank holes, blocked that person's overflow, instead of going through the pump screen. When I purchased my #110 used in 2021, the pump screen was full of those strands from the drill holes. But have not seen them since. I also got push-back that the trailers do not have built-in 40-50 lb water regulators. Well, mine came with them in the basement, under the floor board (discovered last year when replacing check valves). I typically push 70 PSI of house water into my fresh tank all the time. Now I'm scared to let overflow too long just to help flush things. So far, so good though. Knock on fiberglass.

Has anyone taken a pic of the inside of their fresh water tank overflow, near the walk-in door? Here's mine. Looks like there's a metal screen falling apart. At least my tank won't blow up like a ballon and warp the trailer. That's something. 🫣 I'm wondering if this inside piece does unscrew from what appears to be the outer ring.

I did get under my rig with my creeper and a bright flashlight. I took some pics too, but they are not really worth loading up here. So far, everything looks good and things appear to be moving as they should. However, when I put my springs on, I was a bit "anal" and even added a finger size of grease on the shackles where the springs would be touching and rubbing. I knew the 65 ft lbs may be an issue, so I gave everything a fighting chance to move freely. LOL Seems to have worked. I do have grease pushed out to the far side of the wet bolt/shackle area, but then again I used a Ryobi battery powered grease gun, which seem quite powerful, and FAST.

I am just starting my research on a new fridge. I also have the old Dometic 3-way fridge in Hull #110. It still works, for the most part, but cannot get it to go to level 5, only runs up to level-4. Have not search on that yet. Works great until cabin gets warm. I would think the Nova kohl R5810 or similar fridge really should be powered by Lithium batteries. I'm not yet ready to upgrade to Lithium as my Lifeline AGMs are still quite new and great shape (2024). Not sure if I could just live with a portable Lithium box for the fridge, when needed on drive days. Thoughts? I'll be digging though all the forums with this model fridge to see what's what. Maybe I will see some of you at the October rally this year and we can discuss in person. Thanks!

@Hokieman Not sure what to explain in regards to the shackles and wet bolts being heavier duty than Dexter parts. They simply appears bigger/larger. Once you get over the fact that the wet bolts could possible spin over time due to no spines in the shackles, all is well, I guess. As to why Oliver is using Dexter parts with Alcan springs, I'm not sure. If they are, I can only think of a few reasons why: They have tons of Dexter spare parts and want to use them up & save $$$. Or they are making a less than desirable decision to save $$ and use Dexter parts with Alcan springs. 🤷‍♂️ The parts will be fine I'm sure. Most of those bolts & shackles had held up pretty well. Oh sure, a few reports of broken ones over the years, but only time will tell with pure Alcan parts. Again, a business does not stay in business since 1971 if they make crap parts, I would think. Us men can be so darn anal detailed oriented with our data-point comparisons that it surely creates super long threads. 🤣. It's like our chess games but with RV parts. 😉 I spend much of my time in recent years ensuring I know how to retire and if I did a good enough job with the portfolio (I think so). And now whether or not I want to go thru a full RV Tech school to have a better foundation, or simply goof-off in early retirement. Decisions, decisions.

I'm sure it's been mentioned here too, but the Alcan wet bolts and shackles are heavier duty than that of Dexters. If keeping the Dexters, you may want to have a spare pair of shackles and bolt(s) if doing really long trips across the country. Updated: I don't want to reused stressed out Chinese parts with lots of miles on them. I'll start with all new heavy-duty parts from Alcan. You're asking for trouble re-using old parts. Why? To save a few bucks now, only to spend way more on the side of the road? No thanks. I even carry some old ones in case I run into some who again breaks a Dexter shackle or wet bolt. We've seen both. In regards to 4 or 5 leafs, I don't think anyone here really could tell a difference between the counts, in the long wrong. I have 5-leaf, but considered 4. Oh well - Horse is dead, but both will work fantastic for our light weight rigs. Just get the upgrade and go enjoy life.

@DanielBoondock or anyone. I don't have time to trudge thru all this, and I may have mentioned it somewhere in here, but before attempting to remove your old U-bolt nuts, or any, CLEAN the heck out of the visible threads on the bolts. So clean with a small wire brush, then penetrating fluid for a while. I did have one of my first nuts seize up on us, and it was a 30 to 45 minute stressful event to get that sucker off. We did remove it with a LOT of impacting, but man! What a fight and a half. Good to have an Impact and a couple charged batteries. I did have a Ryobi impack drill, a must have (any good brand). I just added to my tow vehicle tool build-out, the Ryobi 3/8" ratchet drill (again, pick your fav. brand). There were a few spots the ratchet drill would have fit better than the bulky impact drill. The ratchet drill is NOT necessary, but a good first-world tool to make some things easier. When that nut got stuck trying to remove it, I wish I had a grinder. That's my next tool to add to the truck. I now carry everything in my truck to do just about any job. No, I'm no expect, but I know a good bit more now than I did before doing two Olivers' leaf springs. Oh, VERY Important. If you are not in good shape with a strong back. Please God, think twice before doing this. I was laid up for a few weeks, but that's my own damn fault for being a computer IT guy for 35 years. Now I'm working out and stretching to make my soon-to-retirement (Dec 31st) a better experience. 😉 Lastly, there may have been questions about the 65 ft-lbs of torque on the hanger wet bolts. I will be inspecting my buddy's Oliver this weekend to see how his hanger look after two years of traveling a good bit. More to come on that with pics hopefully. I don't have much mileage on my Oliver since I did my springs, but I will check that too.

Oh boy. This entire thread sounds so similar to my own brake issues with hull #110. Nearly two years of doing similar checking & replacing. I should have just listened to others on this forum from day one, and pulled BOTH brake wires from the axles. Did I do BOTH at one time? Of course I didn't, I'm a nuckle-dragger. I got stopped by rain after finally pulling out and replacing the wire on the rear axle (this year), then still having brake issues with the truck, I finally got to doing the front axle. OMG!!! The wire in my front axle was an ABSOLUTE frayed mess in several locations. Once I had both new wires on the outside of the axles, I've not had an issue since. Now towing with my new-to-me 2024 F-250. No issues. But, I will say, doing all that troubleshooting and replacing 7-pin connectors and inspection the 7-pin wire connector to the trailer and redoing connections a few times.... well, I'm much better and braver now for it. WHEN the next person inquires about intermittent brake issues. Please have them pull BOTH break wires from the axles and save them many hours of troubleshooting. I think it should be the first step after checking basic voltage at the break assemblies. Just my 2cents. I have a thread around here about that "saga". @Boudicca908 I hope you're all fixed up now. I may have lost track in all the good info in the thread.

@Galway Girl has the same stove top I have in my 2016 demo unit (#110). Nice.

I'm sitting here trying to remember when they announced the dealership concept at the 2023 or 2024 Oliver rally. I feel like many people were upset at the idea, and others verbalized that it would not work out well. That's just my old brain perspective of recollection. Personally, I'd prefer to keep Oliver one of those unique, and somewhat mystical brands, there's true value in that. On the other hand, this adds more load to OTT themselves. In such a small "country" town, I'm not sure how challenging it is to find quality employees and much their rotation they experience.

Oh thanks for asking? I was okay not thinking about the price of it. It’s over $760 for the 14K, but I think many move up to the 20K. I will not use the capacity of the 20K. I only own one trailer. I also ordered their locking pins for $63. They are the highest quality pins I’ve ever seen. I’m truly amazed. All three are keyed the same for convenience.

@John Dorrer did I miss this info in the thread? What type of hitch do you use on the truck? I just upgraded my hitch on my new truck to a Shocker hitch, but I only have two long test drives under its belt. I was just wondering if a shocker-like hitch could reduce any excessive bouncing when hitting bridges or other repetitive oscillations on the rig.

You should see what Will posted 1 hour ago. Less than 5min vid. He’s going to clean these companies up. Like Dave’s Auto Center will help improve diesel engines.

@Olive2Roam or click this direct link: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/events/oliver-owners-rally/

In another recent video he shows build quality of popular lower-end batteries. He even jokingly said something like, “I hope I don’t get sued”. LOL BB is dead due to their decisions in this matter. No other reason. They just don’t know they’re dead yet. “Dead man walking”. Time to move on to better things.

I think I have heard good things about Fogatti WHs from RV techs on YouTube. I do like my Suburban though, for all the reasons mentioned above. It’s simple to be sure. Most things from WW-II were. I'm tired of everything getting more and more technical. And I’m a soon to be retired IT guy. LOL. I need a bumper sticker which reads “Suburban water heaters or death.” That goes for my Fiamma manual awning as well. Hehe