MAX Burner

PLEASE! Do not do that, JD.... See you at the eclipse!

I got this idea from a social media posting, but here's a quick mod that makes the "secret compartment" below the Pantry easier to access: 1. Pulled off VELCRO from cabinet. 2. Installed a couple 8" drawer slides from Amazon: 3. Replaced the VELCRO onto the drawer slides: 4. One and done, can't even tell the difference; except for the convenience factor - time for a cold one. Cheers! A & D

@Patriot: Looks great, brother. I just spoke with a local XPEL installer - he said the same about the small rock dings - we've got several. The gelcoat repair on those dings isn't a show-stopper - but you're correct, installing 10mil XPEL isn't a cheap date. He quoted $2,100 after the dings are fixed - is that in the ballpark?

Just imagine how loud it would have been inside from the hail impacting the Ollie!

Hey, @Patriot; When able, could you post a close-up of the EXPEL, preferably in the area of its edge termination with the gelcoat? Just curious... TKX! MAX

Good to know that marble-size hail balls aren't a factor for a stationary OTT. But supposing y'all were headed down the interstate at 60-65mph? Inquiring minds would like to know, right?

Got 'em in there per your request, @SeaDawg. Thanks, good catch! Cheers!

Yes. At the very bottom of the Poll there's a button for "show results" - tap it and you'll go to a results page.

Woah! That's awesome news, for sure and for certain! You may not yet realize just "how blessed" you are... Congrats again, and all our best wishes for making your future memories in "Mouse" most exciting and unparalleled... Cheers! A & D

@John E Davies: Good catch, brother - probably the same issue with other questions. Will edit accordingly... TKX! (3 minutes later) ...should be good now! Maybe nobody has ever towed an Oliver through a hail storm because we're OCD enough to check WX reports before departure...(?)

@Tom and Doreen: Thanks T & D! We don't have the auto bed step option, FYI. The only issues with the sensors are when the OTT is disconnected, the hitch/Rocktammers are still attached, and the TV is backing up - we have to remember to disengage the Rear Obstacle Alert and the Rear Crossing Track Alert; both of which will scream at the TV occupants and apply brakes automatically if not disengaged because the truck is sensing an incoming obstacle. We also must disengage these alerts when the hitch/Rocktammers are replaced with the bikes/rack. No biggie, IMO. Cheers!

Edited the 1st question - the Poll should be good to go.

(Apologies if this post is redundant - second try at posting. We tried posting this earlier and couldn't find it thereafter, trying again now.) Please complete the attached poll regarding Oliver Hail Damage Assessment...

My wife concurs 100%. The TV power cord is always removed as part of our pre-slumber checklist to eliminate the illumination of a bothersome red LED. It's amazing how many LEDs are everywhere in our OTT when it officially "Lights-Out". Ugh.

We're lov'n our's too! If we decide to take a gravel road, it will usually be the exception and not the rule - and if so, it will be done very, very slowly.

AS may buy them to get into the molded fiberglass RV market...

It's pretty beefy, for sure. But it will be even nicer after we eliminate the "play" in the assembly... HA!

@John Welte: John, I followed @John E Davies's "how to" post describing the procedure to splice into the 4-pin harness which is located in the right/rear of the basement/garage. Access is both through the street-side hatch and aft-most compartment hatch under the street-side bed. You can also refer to my post on "LED Bar Light on Bumper", FYI. Either one will get you smart on connecting to the 4-pin so you can run lights on your bike rack. Have fun!

We've got many of our chairs that way! HA!

We're both previous AS and Casita owners. We installed Airstream-manufactured stainless steel rock guards on the quarter panels of both of our AS's - not a cheap date by any stretch. On the Casita we did what many owners did for protection and had "Rhino-Liner" material applied - not only to front gelcoat areas but also to the wheel wells. Also not a cheap date, and may take away some of the aesthetics of the rig. For older rigs like, Casablanca, we're considering Rhino-Lining the front to "hide" the small dings in the gelcoat. Probably a less expensive option than having the gelcoat repaired - but such a mod is WAY down the "to-do" list in this household. Cheers!

Welcome to the Ollie Community and Forums, Geo! Congrats on the purchase - you will not be disappointed... May you make many memorable OTT adventures in the future! See y'all down the road sometime. Kind regards, A & D

FOLLOW-UP: Background/problem: As described in an earlier post, we experienced, what looked like an abnormal fore/aft & up/down (not rocking or rotating left/right) movement of the bikes during our trip last weekend. The handlebars appeared as if they would move 1 1/2" - 2" when driving over a bumpy portion of road surface as observed with the rear-view camera. Testing rack on TV: Moved our bike rack from the OTT and mounted it on the Tundra and drove around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon. As suspected, there was no "flopping around" and no fore/aft/up/down going on back there; both bikes were rock-solid throughout various stretches of smooth, uneven, bumpy, and "gravelly" secondary roads. That's indicating to us there's something going on with the optional accessory receiver assembly and its attachment points. Contacted OTT: After a call to Mike at the Factory Service Department, we learned that there hasn't been any reports of problems with the OTT 2" or 1 1/4" accessory receiver, nor reports of "loose/floppy" bikes or cargo trays while towing; especially with the 47# Super Duty Double 1Up rack. This confirms @Steve Morris's results after his search for OTT receiver failures. Well, at least we know there's no known/reported failures. Possible Culprit: We went back to the "Hangar" and measured the height above the floor of the top of the accessory hitch receiver cross member at just under 23 7/8". Then after applying an upward force and "lifting" the cross member, we discovered it would rotate up slightly, about 3/16". The "inserts", as Steve Morris mentioned, are machined down to fit into their respective female square tubing members on either side. It may be that the factory cut too much material away on our assembly, it's suggested that those who have this option on their OTT check for how much "play" is present. FYI, the machining cut on the male square tubing can be seen in the pic below where the Sharpie arrow's pointing (BTW: we never noticed this until after reading @Steve Morris's post): Perhaps the OTT factory designed these tolerances to make it easier to slide the accessory receiver assembly into the square tubing (?). In any case, it's suspected that the play in this optional accessory may be different from hull to hull. Especially, if over time, the holes for the 4 locking pins become wallowed-out. Clearly, even after securing the assembly by inserting the 2 pins on either side does not stop the up/down movement. The 3/16" of up/down play translates/amplifies to the 1 1/2" - 2" of movement at the handlebars that we observed last weekend. In the interim, this 3/16" up/down "play" in the mounting design can be eliminated with tie-down straps as @John E Davies describes above. Another plan is to drill/tap threads on each of the left/right square receiver tubes and use a bolt & locknut to tighten down the slack (please refer to where the "X" is located in the above pic). This is the same approach the factory designed to remove play on carrying devices connected to the accessory receiver hitch: Granted, many forum members have indicated they've logged thousands of miles using various carrying systems without modifications and problems, but how many more thousands of miles will it take to cause unintended metal fatigue, failure, and possible damage/harm to others? Eliminating the play with tie-downs, locking bolts, or both is key for any type of carrying device that's connected to this accessory hitch to be more effective and safer in the long run, IMO. More to come... "Ravel-ON!", amigos!

Understood, @Steve Morris; With what we've been experiencing in terms of movement (observed from rear facing camera), @Geronimo John's suggestion is a good one. It seems the up/down forces translates into fore/aft forces causing much of the movement back there. Stabilizing/reducing the for/aft force vector by mounting hard points on the frame and applying tie-down straps through them to both top tubes (bikes') may help. Concur. The last thing we need is for those machined-to-fit square tubes to snap and fail! Has anyone out there heard of this failure happening?

This is a very prudent safety measure should a tire go flat while towing. We'd hate to damage a trailing vehicle or injure someone with a jettisoned set of bikes!

We've got the same rack as @Steve Morris - Steve's. Our bikes are about 27# and 35# respectively; add about another 45# for the Super Duty Double 1Up rack and we're right at 107". Assuming our 2017 Hull #226 2" receiver hitch has a max weight of 125#, that's 85% of the OTT designed weight limit. Judging by the stability of the bikes from the rear-view camera, any heavier wouldn't be a good idea, IMO, because there is some definite movement once leaving a smooth road surface. A 70# electric bike plus the bike rack would be 92% of the designed weight limit - assuming the OTT 2" receiver max weight of 125#. Pretty tight tolerance - but if your max wt. hitch is 150#, that'll give you a bit more breathing room. Either way, no washboarded roads for the Casablanca with bikes... Here's a couple shots with bikes aboard. The second pic shows the moment arm from the OTT 2" receiver to the aft-most rail. On our rig, the moment arm of the bike rack is 24 1/4" inches from the OTT receiver, FYI. Just our $0.02.