John and Debbie

You were the first to get the Alcan springs. Lew also said his wet bolts are specially made and have more space for the grease with no taper inside. Something like that. John

I just didn't want to risk them failing. It might be overkill, but after talking to Lew at Alcan Springs, he said the four leaf springs are designed to break. Three inches out from the eye is the sheer point he explained. In looking at what we have and what he makes, it reassured me that we made the right decision. If the roads we travel never had potholes and we were always on great roads, then I might have chosen to not replace them. John

If memory serves me, our Alcan springs were about $1700 for the five leaf springs, new shackles, wet bolts and labor. Lew at Alcan Springs can give you a quote very quickly as he has done about 100 Oliver's so far. When we talked to him he wanted about six weeks to build the sets and put us on the schedule. John

That's a big accomplishment. I always said that the people who say it's flat are vehicle drivers.

We saw one in 4000 miles of towing from Portland, Oregon to Denver, Colorado.

I use the 90° LockNLube attachment for those Zerk fittings that won't take a straight on attachment. Be very careful with attaching the 90° to the Zerk and also unattaching so you don't loosen too much and lose the three small pieces. I did that and had to buy a new 90°. I torqued my wheel lug nuts to 90ft pounds. I thought I read that somewhere. I use the rear stabilizer jack and a bottle jack with chocking the opposite tires. Attaching to the tow vehicle sounds good too. I have done that before and chocked the TV also along with the trailer wheels. John

I rode my bicycle twice from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast. Sea level to sea level, but the equivalent of about eight or nine Mt. Everest's between. I have heard that RAGBRAI is a tough one. Congratulations. John

I don't notice any difference in ground clearance. I think someone said there was a 1/2 inch difference, but that's just going on memory, so not sure. John

John, when I was in Grand Junction, Lew had a display board with our original 4 leaf springs and his. He went over what his are like. It's a far superior spring with much better bushings and wet bolts too. He said the 4 leaf design is built to break at that single 3 inch from the eye leaf. The trailer isn't as affected by passing semis as before the switch to Alcan Springs. I am glad we did it. We also had Bulldog shocks installed. John

Lew has a display now that shows our original leaf springs and his together on a display. Everything about his springs are far superior. I believe he said you were the first Oliver in his shop. Even his wet bolts are better designed. We got our trailer done there in May. He said he's seen about a hundred Olivers so far. John

We live in Beaverton, Oregon. Your timeframe for visiting the PNW will show you our best weather. The Olympic Peninsula in Washington has the rain forest with lots of moss hanging from the trees. They get about 140 inches of rain yearly, but the summers are dry. Enjoy your trip. John

I do the same thing. John

I like the sliders on our 2022 LE2. We have a little over 500 miles on the new Alcan springs and I had a couple times that the shade frame loosened up on the bottom and one time where the dinette frame popped off completely on Colorado roads. Another owner who got the Alcan springs said they settled in after 500 miles. That was my experience too. We had some doozies of bumps today from Utah to Oregon and no issues with the shade frames. Another thing that I noticed is that when a semi passed us, the trailer isn't as affected by it as before. We had some intense wind guests today and it tracked great. John

All looked good. I was able to snap the window shade back in after checking that the connection points were secure. Thanks for the help. John

Thanks Rich, it looks easy to fix. I see that I used the wrong term. I meant the window shade. Thanks again for finding that video. John