John Welte
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Posts posted by John Welte
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1 hour ago, topgun2 said:
I'm certainly NOT taking that bet.
I spend more time collecting the tools and prepping for the job than actually doing the job. While the zerk caps help a bunch, I still spend a fair amount of time cleaning off the old grease - bring plenty of paper towels/rags to the job.
Bill
Bill, I have a late 2022, hull #1290. We are going back to Hohenwald in October from Oregon for annual service. We have about 4000 miles max on the trailer since getting it new. It has the EZ flex axles so I assume I am ok. We will have about 7000 miles on it when we get to Tennessee. Any advice on whether we should put grease into the zirc fittings and if so, what kind? TIA, John
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18 hours ago, Steve Morris said:
Nope! And I've searched the forum and Facebook group for any Oliver supplied rack failure, and found zero results. That's why I was careful to say "If there's any weak link." I don't think there is, but if so, that's where it seems likely to occur.
@Geronimo John Even simpler would be to take a ratchet strap from the spare tire ring nut around the outermost point on the deployed rack. Then take up all the slack in the system. This would facilitate folding the rack up without having to remove the extra support. Neither of our bikes have top tubes, so your design would have to go around the seat post if I went with something similar. Cool idea!
My license plate relocation kit arrived early, and I just installed it. I could remove the flip-down license bracket from the spare tire cover for even easier access.
BTW, the relocation kit is pretty slick, working in the up or down position, and works even with the EZ Pull handle. Now to rig up a 4-pin harness on the trailer to use the included lights.
(One thing I overlooked is that I use the rack on the Cruiser, too. I'll have the wrong plate showing unless I swap them with each use. 🤷♂️ )
"Now to rig up a 4-pin harness on the trailer to use the included lights"
I bought the Yakima Stage 2 rack after putting a 2" Curt receiver on with stainless steel 316 grade for high tension use. There's a light kit that I can buy to attach to the rack so tail lights/turn indicators are visible in both the up and down position. It would be plugged into a four pin harness, but I don't know how that's done. The trailer goes to Hohenwald for service in October so may see if they can do that. If you figure out how it's done I would like to see how you did it.
John
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Hi all, I searched for screen door bar, but didn't find anything. I don't have much luck getting good results on the search function on the forum. Does anyone have the link to the Amazon product that some of you have for attaching a bar on the screen door for ease of opening or holding the screen door? TIA, John
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2 hours ago, rich.dev said:
Is that the LongHaul bike rack?
I checked and that rack is approved for the back of a travel trailer. Thule also makes one that's approved. The Thule looks more substantial in my opinion.
John
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On 2/20/2023 at 9:57 PM, taylor.coyote said:
I have respect for the elegant and creative solutions on these mods. I have given my voice on prior mods to the trailer bumper rack system. I spent 20 years as an executive and partner at Yakima Racks and can speak from experience. There is a good reason for the factory set weight limit. The length of the back half of the fulcrum (trailer axles to the trailer bumper) is many times greater than from the axles of any TV to its bumper. Not to mention the forward distance from trailer axles to the bulldog hitch. Consider these distances and the vertical distance the bulldog hitch instantly travels up and down when your rig encounters dips, rises, steep driveways and potholes. The results of these encounters are nothing less than absolute violence at the trailer bumper. The forces applied at the trailer bumper are magnitudes greater than almost all receiver hitch systems are designed to withstand. Of the many receiver hitch mounted bike systems Yakima produces, only one is approved to withstand the extreme forces of being mounted to an RV bumper. I cannot judge your mods and if they will withstand the test of time. The test of time being constant vibration, sudden jolts, and that once in the life compression or frost heave that rocks your rig like never before.
The scope of actual experience of trailer bumper systems within Oliver users is very small as there are 1,200 +/- trailers on the road compared to the well more than a million Yakima systems on the road.
I can only advise to operate with an abundance of caution when modifying your bumper system and or exceeding the factory load limit.
Thanks for your post. I thought the same thing about the forces. Abundance of caution seems like very good advice. I was thinking that the main force would come from behind the rear axle, but you also mentioned the movement at the tv hitch in the front of the trailer. I would think that those of us that use the Anderson hitch have some more moderation of movement than without the Anderson.
John
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17 minutes ago, Steve Morris said:
I installed a Reese Towpower 81378 bumper hitch yesterday. It isn't the prettiest thing. But many reviews of this style receiver had reports of bad welds, with a couple of instances of complete failures while on the road. (Nothing left of a bike rack with bikes except the bolted down plate.)
I chose this one because I don't trust welds on cheaply made products, and it was the only one that I could find that had the base plate wrap up around the receiver. So if the weld fails, there's still a ring of the bolted plate hanging on. Attached with 1/2" stainless fasteners designed for high pressure applications.
*If* the local bike shop gets their act together and has our new e-bikes ready before Sunday, we will be testing this setup soon.
It looks like you didn't get the OTT bike rack option. It looks like a secure installation to me. How do you plan to address the galvanic corrosion because of the two different metals. I wonder if the painted hitch might be enough.
John
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21 minutes ago, John E Davies said:
Install 1/2” ? stainless bolts with nylocks in three places, and a short locking hitch pin in the fourth. I am assumng they are 1/2”, you need to measure..
Post a close up picture so we know what it looks like please.
John Davies
Spokane WA
That makes sense. Thanks John
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Hi all, in preparation for removing the OTT 1.25" receiver and putting a 2" one on, I took out the four pins that secure the hitch framework. It was very fast. How do you all secure that assembly from theft, especially when you have a nice bike rack attached?
John
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3 minutes ago, Mountainman198 said:
This is the rack I have and it works well for my needs. When researching for a rack, the Let's go aero was the only rack I could find which has 1 1/4" AND was rated for use on the back of. travel trailer (not just the back of a RV, which is a different rating). You will notice that the Lets go Aero rack is also the rack used in Oliver literature when shown hauling bikes. Good luckj with whatever you decide
I have fenders and racks so it looks like that rack won't work. We live in Oregon. Fenders are necessary here. That was the name of the rack that OTT recommended. I think replacing the 1.25" receiver with a 2" may be my only option.
John
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On 10/29/2021 at 9:01 AM, ScottRicki said:
Thought I would share my solution to the bike rack receiver saga. We use the 1-Up for two bikes. I used a Curt bumper receiver with a sheet of rubber to isolate the iron from aluminum, with neoprene washers under stainless nuts on bottom. The hole patterns seemed far enough away from Oliver holes to not weaken the beam too much. I considered adding a 13 inch long aluminum plate on bottom as a giant strengthening washer but decided that might be over engineering (as I have accused of by my wife frequently). The wide receiver plate also adds strengthening across the Oliver holes. Initially I was going to cut off the upright tabs but the paint job on the receiver is too good to destroy.
This seems like a good solution. How is it working for you?
John
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On 10/25/2021 at 8:24 AM, GAP said:
The problem is that all bike racks (I've found) that are "RV approved" require a 2" receiver. If you use an adapter for a 1.25" receiver, it voids the RV delineation. I was told by service at Oliver that the chocking down of their receiver was a result of some dummy using the older 2" receiver to tow a car behind the trailer. I understand their concern but the stickers they currently attach to the receiver area clearly states the weight and usage limitations. By supplying a 1.25" receiver, Oliver is charging $800 for a unit that should not be used for what it is intended to do. Safe or not, they are minimizing their liability by maximizing ours
I bought the OTT bike hitch for our #1290, but am having a problem finding a rack for your reasons too. It seems that all RV rated bike racks for trailers require a 2 inch receiver. I have a Thule rack bought a few years ago, but it's not RV rated.
John
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The chrome attachment that secures the outside hose inside is leaking. It's a hard place to hand tighten that coupling. Has anyone come up with a good tool to tighten that fixture. I was using the outside shower and I noticed water coming from the scuppers by the outside shower. I looked inside while the water was turned on and saw it leaking.
John
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5 hours ago, Steve Morris said:
From the manual (and from memory, so I could be wrong), the difference between low an night is that at night the fan in the rooftop portion is also on low, making it quieter for those around you. Should use less of your battery, too.
At the rally we had ours on night mode all day, and could barely hear it sitting outside.
I could or should read the manual. That makes sense to be quieter outside on night mode. I can experiment to see if the sound is different. Usually I run it on low after running it high for a few minutes.
John
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14 hours ago, johnwen said:
No difference on our retrofit. Jason E from OTT said that most people can't tell a difference between those speeds.
John
Thanks John. I couldn't either, but I like how quiet it is. After I turn the A/C off lately I have run the vent to maybe dry the inner parts of the unit. Not sure if it's necessary, but that's what I do now.
John
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Hi all, we have the Truma A/C. It has four fan speeds. High, medium, low and night. I can't tell the difference between low and night. For those owners with a Truma A/C, do you notice a difference between low and nighttime fan speeds?
John
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17 minutes ago, Steph and Dud B said:
No leak with the shower off? Sounds like the shower hose is loose/leaking where it attaches to the faucet, or the shower hose is cracked. Look under the street side bed.
Thanks
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Hi all, I used our outside shower and noticed water leaking from two steel scuppers by the outside shower. Anyone else experience this? TIA. John
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4 hours ago, Geronimo John said:
Use of blocks: Picture a 2 X 6, preferably treated and washed. Now take a chop saw and cut them into 2" X 6" X ?". The "?" is the iD of your milk crate less a bit to allow easy removal from the box. Mine are 2 X 6 X 11". Now stack them to nearly the top of your milk crate. That is the limit of my pre-planning on blocks. IE I can raise up my jacks on blocks one milk crate high. 🙂
When at my destination with soft ground, I use two blocks side by side laid flat on the ground. Then I stack other blocks so that they are 90 degrees from the ones on the soft ground. This is done to spread the load and not have Ollie burrying my blocks into the soft ground. That is not necessary on hard ground or paved areas. There I just stack up the blocks.
Slip Plane: This concept ir rooted in the coefficient of friction between to surfaces. Here is a web site that goes into some detail: http://www.slipalert.com/friction/
But to keep it simple: When we jack up our Ollie, the jack plate (the part on the ground) and the ground create a pair of surfaces that are pushed together. They create resistance (IE friction between them) that will resist their sliding apart if you try to drive off. This resistance (force to slide) can be measured and a "Coefficient of Friction" can be calculated. The two of them form what is called a "Slip Plane". Two surfaces moving relative to each other is resisted by friction. So if they have a high CoF (Lke dragging a locked rubber tire on concrete) then they don't want to slip.
Now pretend that you raise your Ollie on soft ground. You can expect to see the jack plates being pushed into the ground. If you were to drive off, you surely would damage your jacks. Now if you always without fail raise your jacks EVERY EVERY TIME before moving your trailer, you are golden. But about 80% of us have proven to ourselves that we are not in that elite group of perfect people. As a result, a lot of jacks have been damaged. Sadly avoidably.
So, if you place several sort of smooth timber surfaces together above ground, and if you move your trailer, they will 99.5% of the time slip relative to each other. Their doing so is a result of their CoF being much less than that of a jack stuck in the mud. Hence always having two blocks of wood or similar material in use under each jack.
Ok you may think that I now only need six blocks. Why fill the milk crate with them? Or, why not have two milk crates of them?
First, I only have room for one milk crate in my basket. A second reason is that there is a limit to how high we should even consider jacking up on a sloped surface. One is the limit for my risk assessments. And this is rooted in the concept of levers.
If you stack up blocks to raise the trailer a fixed number of inches, you reduce the extension of your jacks by the number of inches of blocks you use. By raising up the height of the jack foot, it reduces the distance from the foot to the jack mounting bolts. Doing so reduces the lever arm, and makes it much more likely that the boards will slip before the jack hurts itself.
For day to day routine use on firm ground, If I have used three of my blocks under each jack. Why three? Because it creates two slip planes. and if the first block is really stuck (maybe the ground is a littls soft), then I have another one to slip if my trailer gets moved. By slipping, it will save my jacks and as the jack foot moves off the blocks, it will fall a few inches and whispers to the entire camp ground it is not happy. Without going into the discussion of sliding vs. static friction... I utter a word or two .... and go pick up my blocks and raise my jack. Often looking around to see if anybody heard my OOPs.
One word of caution is that you never want to jack up your trailer to the point that your blocks and jacks are no longer, or could become no longer, perfectly vertical. Doing so is a recipe for disaster. Another reason not to have more than one milk crate of blocks. 🙂
Hope this helps.
GJ
"Hope this helps"
John, that is now crystal clear. Thanks very much for the explanation. I will start using the same method. If I put a 2x6 or two on top of the Camco jack stand, it appears that I would create that same effect and also limit the travel of the stabilizer jack even more. The goal should be to limit the travel of those jacks to be more stable with more of the jack in the housing. Then if I do drive off, there should be minimal damage if any to the jack.
John
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16 hours ago, Geronimo John said:
I carry a milk crate full of 2 X 6 blocks. I use three under all my jacks to act as a shear-plane. Should for some reason the trailer moves, I'll hear a clunk and recall that I failed to use my check list.I carry a milk crate full of 2 X 6 blocks. I use three under all my jacks to act as a shear-plane. Should for some reason the trailer moves, I'll hear a clunk and recall that I failed to use my check list.
In your hill park picture, I see you are doing your best to keep Ollie in place. You even have a block to act as your shear-plane if it moves. Bravo!
The two suggestions would be to:
A. Use a line and tie off your brake emergency cable to a tree. If the trailer moves at least your Ollie brakes will activate.
B. Bring more 2 X 6 blocks and shorten up the lever arm of the jacks as much as possible. GJ says:
"Jack up Ollie as you need, but keep the jack extensions as short as your pre-planning will allow"
"I carry a milk crate full of 2 X 6 blocks. I use three under all my jacks to act as a shear-plane. Should for some reason the trailer moves, I'll hear a clunk and recall that I failed to use my check list."
John, we use Camco yellow jack stands. Do you have pictures of how you use the 2x6 blocks? I don't understand the shear-plane concept. I do understand not extending the stabilizer legs too far. In the OP, he asked if there's anything wrong and the long extension is probably the thing that pops out in my mind. I would need more blocks in his situation, maybe a milk carton full of 2x6, but how to use them along with the Camco jack stands?
John
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On 4/18/2023 at 7:44 AM, Katjo said:
You can buy low pressure quick connect hoses and adapters to use with your Oliver propane port. Here is an example.
DOZYANT 12 feet Low Pressure Propane Quick-Connect Hose, RV Quick Connect Propane Hose, Quick Disconnect Propane Hose Extension - 1/4” Safety Shutoff Valve & Male Full Flow Plug for RVs https://a.co/d/3EucL5u
I see a rubber or stainless steel option. Any preference for either and what length is commonly needed?
John
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1 hour ago, John Welte said:
Hi all. I was pulling on the gray water handle, but it was stuck and the entire wire came out. I have pushed it back in, but it is hanging up at the end of the housing. If I can get it to the aluminum pull rod near the blade, maybe I can attach it back in. It looks like an Allen set screw that tightens on to the wire. Any idea how to get the wire to travel all the way to the pull rod near the blade? Why is the blade stuck? Why are there any problems with a 6 month old trailer?
John
I fixed it. I loosened the Allen set screw and was able to get the wire past the housing end and back into the push/pull rod. How do I lubricate that gray water blade to prevent it from seizing up. I put some Dawn into the tank so maybe that helped.
John
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Hi all. I was pulling on the gray water handle, but it was stuck and the entire wire came out. I have pushed it back in, but it is hanging up at the end of the housing. If I can get it to the aluminum pull rod near the blade, maybe I can attach it back in. It looks like an Allen set screw that tightens on to the wire. Any idea how to get the wire to travel all the way to the pull rod near the blade? Why is the blade stuck? Why are there any problems with a 6 month old trailer?
John
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I searched the forum for my answer, but does anyone have a preference for type of tire covers? Ease of use and durability are qualities that I am looking for. We're in rainy Oregon, but eventually this seemingly infinite cloud will have an edge and we will see dry land and sun. We bought in November, so wasn't too concerned about covering the tires until now. Maybe I should have covered them even during the rainy season.
John
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5 hours ago, Bioman said:
I have watched all of the videos and read all of the brochures and the Oliver's seem a cut-above. I am very impressed. We live in Texas, we are now both retired and are now planning on spending time RV'ing around the country as in a few months at a time. We camped when we were dating 45 years ago in a WWII pup-tent, moved up to a real tent, to a pop-up trailer to a 30' TT. WE love camping.
If we purchase one, this will be our third time jumping into RV ownership after swearing it off 15 years ago due to TT failures. So please be patient with my questions as the last RV was a disaster due partly to construction issues and also my own ignorance on how to maintain an RV. The issues involved multiple plumbing leaks, undetected roof leaks rotting a section of floor, rodent and ant infestation, furniture and cabinets coming loose due to poor fastening to structure, generally poor quality materials, a premature tire blow-out that took out a chunk of the bathroom. And lastly getting aforementioned repair done at a dealership who said up front that "since we did not buy from them, even though they were a dealer for that particular manufacturer, they would get to us when nothing else needed getting to" (turned out to be 9 months later and they messed some of that as well). So here are my concerns/questions.
1. Has Oliver resolved Truma AC installation issues that caused roof leaks (something to do with screws and or seals)?
2. Warranty and Post warranty service.
Not much of a list, but the second issues gives me a lot of concern. If I can resolve these issues to my comfort level we plan on placing an order soon..
1. Has Oliver resolved Truma AC installation issues that caused roof leaks (something to do with screws and or seals)?
Our trailer was the first one with the Truma package. #1290. We didn't have a leak until we had 6 inches of snow and when it melted, we had about a pint of water. This was discovered on month three of ownership. It was in for a gas leak which the local RV dealership fixed with parts and guidance from Oliver. Longer screws are coming soon to get the AC leak fixed, again working with Oliver service.
2. Warranty and Post warranty service.
Oliver realizes that most of us live far from Tennessee and in my case, they're working with a RV dealer in our area that I used for our pop up. It was a concern too for me but they appear to be quite willing to work with a local shop.
Not much of a list, but the second issues gives me a lot of concern. If I can resolve these issues to my comfort level we plan on placing an order soon..
John
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Inexpensive aid for hitching up
in Ollie Modifications
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Hi Bill, what kind of prep and paint did you use? I already am seeing some rust on my 2022 that I picked up in November.
John