rideandfly

The towel rack/soap dish on our 2015 LE2 was originally installed with silicone sealant. Don't know what year Ollie you have, later model LE2s towel rack/soap dish is installed with screws, but we had to remove sealant to get to the loose heat outlet hose and water pump LED where the shower hose is also located under the sink. We installed a U seal around the towel rack/soap dish and four screws when the towelrack/soap dish was reinstalled without using silicone sealant.

Yep, it's my understanding Oliver ran out of 3500lb axles & springs when they installed 5200lb axles & springs on #75. I can only guess the wheel & tire supplier made the mistake when supplying wheels for #75, we had the same original LT225/75R/16 Load Range E tires as many early LE2 Oliver owners. My plan is to replace the ION wheels with 15" Sendel S20T trailer wheels with ST225/75R/15 tires mounted. The original 16" ION wheel's finish are in poor condition after 11 years. Going to check where I can get the best deal, Discount Tire will match wheel/tire prices. My goal is to have the same size & capacity wheels/tires as the spare tire (remember smaller spare tire housing on #75) using the same 15" ST tires Oliver currently installs on LE2 trailers. I will only lose about 1/2" of ground clearance. GJ, the wheels & tires just got bumped to the top of the AFE list! 🙂 Appears to be legal changing trailer wheel/tire size if the change meets or exceeds the original wheel/tire capacities, but the ST tire has a lower speed rating compared to the LT tire. No one should be towing an Oliver close to the ST tire top speed anyway. https://www.rvtravel.com/is-it-illegal-to-change-tire-type-or-size-on-an-rv-rvt-1086/ Sendel 15" S20T (S20-56655T-2+) wheel's capacity is 3200lbs @ 95psi. https://www.sendelwheel.com/wheels/s20t.html

It’s got the DOT tag, but I need to look at it, I don’t keep Ollie at home.

John, The original 5 wheels on my LE2 were ION wheels with 60PSI maximum air pressure in the casting, following photo. I finally decided to install four 15" Sendel S20T trailer wheels replacing the original ION wheels next year, instead of refinishing the original ION wheels. https://www.sendelwheel.com/wheels/s20t.html This is the 15" Sendel S20T with Goodyear Endurance ST225/75R/15 tire on the right that replaced the original 16" ION spare wheel with passenger tire on the left, both fit in the smaller fiberglass spare tire housing that will not accommodate a LT225/75R/16 tire/wheel assembly. Bill

Our LE2 originally came with Dexter 5200lb axles & 5 leaf springs. Right now our ready to camp weight with empty water tanks is 5100lbs. No one has reported the original 5 leaf Dexter springs failing, yet. With the 10,400lb total axle/spring capacity combined with a 5100lb LE2 weight, I always tried to reduce the overall accumulated fiberglass/frame/component stress from the impact of higher capacity springs by running lower air pressure in the LT load range E tires and by towing slower on rough pavement. We purchased our Ollie used in 2016 and ran 50PSI like the previous owner without issues until seeing the LT tire pressure/load charts in different threads here like the ones posted earlier when I reduced the pressure to 40PSI for the last one or two years without issues.

Yep, I have been running 40PSI for a year or two. Believe my original wheels rated for a maximum of 60PSI are rare.

Only thing I can find on the wheel is maximum pressure, not capacity. It’s probably in the operators manual. We have put many miles on these wheels, but for full disclosure, if we replace them and someone wants them, I have to post the maximum pressure. It’s going to be next year before I start on the wheel/tire project. Actually have two more Ollie projects before the wheel/tire project, I know it's easy to replace wheels/tires, but it's also according to $ available for AFE (authority for expenditure) projects, that's what we called them on the Railroad. 🙂

Good thought, I could the sell the old set. I only run 40PSI @ 5100lb ready to camp weight with the ION wheels that came on our Ollie. Another piece of interesting information is it looks like the maximum pressure for these particular wheels, 60PSI.

Agree, guessing the new 15" wheels may be about the same cost as refinishing and I like the idea of having a spare tire/wheel that matches the tire/wheels mounted on Ollie.

John, I keep our Ollie on pavement most of the time except when a campground has dirt roads. To be honest I was thinking about refinishing the original 16" ION trailer wheels or replacing them with new 15" Sendel trailer wheels. I already have one 15" Sendel trailer wheel with a Goodyear Endurance ST225/75R/15 for the spare tire since the full size 16" LT225/75R/16 tire/wheel will not fit in the original spare tire housing, believe the Oliver spare tire housing was made larger during 2016 or 2017. I would lose about 1/2" trailer ground clearance by moving to the 15" tire/wheel using the same 15" Goodyear ST tires Oliver currently uses. Just a thought for now. I have another Ollie project in front of wheels/tires for next year. Here's the original spare with 16" wheel and passenger tire (not LT) that would fit in the spare tire housing on the left. The new 15" Goodyear ST tire and Sendel wheel is on the right that fits the original spare tire housing.

I repack original bearings and replace seals every two years on our Ollie's original 5200lb axles, we don't tow Ollie as many miles as Mike & Carol. Bearing repack gives me the opportunity to inspect brakes, drums, bearings and races. I try not to let trailer hubs get hot while towing by using engine braking towing down mountain grades. Here's two videos by Trailer Smith, Dexter Nev-R Lube and Bearing Buddy VS. EZ Lube-What's The Difference:

Towed our LE2 with three different 1/2 ton tow vehicles. Installed either Timbren rear suspension system or Firestone Airbags to get rid of rear end sag on those trucks. We purchased a 2024 F-350, we don't need a WDH or rear suspension modification. The F-350 with 6.8 Minizilla handles Ollie great and this truck has over 4,000 pounds of payload capacity, too.

I subscribed to Mike Sokol's report/newsletter after you mentioned him. Looking forward to seeing Mike's results after his experiments with a BB battery.

Looking forward to reading this interview. Thanks!

Congrats on your new Ollie! Like how the new windows look, too!

Very nice upgrades. We’re planning the Alcan upgrade, too!

Welcome and Congrats your fine looking Oliver. Believe you can learn to back your "new to you" Ollie easily. There is a very knowledgeable group of helpful folks here if you have any questions! Bill

We had two newer BB 100AH batteries in Ollie, but recently installed two 105 AH Epoch batteries in parallel. I like the physically smaller/lighter Epoch batteries for our application compared to BB along with Epoch's customer support and Epoch's app to monitor Epoch Bluetooth Smart battery condition. Really like the built in Epoch carry handles on the 105AH batteries making it easy to install & remove these 22lb batteries. We don't have factory solar or an inverter like many folks here. We have a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp charger and also charge with up to two Renogy 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels and Renogy Solar controller when away from shore power. Looking forward to seeing how fast the Epoch batteries will charge with 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels during the 2026 camping season.

Mike, I have been thinking about moving from LT to ST tires next year, just a thought for now. Thanks, Bill

John, Our ready to camp weight is with empty water tanks. We normally camp where we fill the FWT at the campground when they don't have water at the site and dump the B&G tanks at the campground. We don't have factory solar charging system and now using two 105AH Epoch Lithium Batteries instead of two BB 100AH lithiums. Ollie weighs in around 5100lbs, honestly added a little weight to Ollie since we started towing with a F-350. When we towed with 1/2 ton pickups got creative to keep Ollie's weight under 5000lbs. We have the original 5200lb axles with 12" brakes & Dexter's 5 leaf springs (no 5 leaf failures yet), but I don't like Dexter's wet bronze bushings in the their springs, I like Alcan's spring bushings that are double the wall thickness compared to Dexter's spring bushings. If we have the wheels refinished, will start another thread about it. Thanks, Bill

Mike, are you moving from LT to ST tires? I'm just curious what other folks with older trailers are doing. We are currently running 16" Cooper LT class E tires at 40PSI without issues with a ready to camp weight of 5100lbs (don't remember the exact tire model without looking at them). We don't take Ollie off pavement, unless the campground is not paved. I'm thinking about replacing four wheels when we replace the tires next year since the original 11 year old wheels need to be refinished. Found a local shop that will probably refinish my old 16" wheels, too. Our original spare tire had a 16" wheel with a lower profile passenger tire installed because the larger diameter LT225/75R/16 tire would not fit in the spare tire housing. Believe Oliver fixed spare tire housing size around 2016 or 2017 so the LT225/75R/16 would fit. I replaced our spare wheel/tire with a 15" Sendel trailer wheel with the ST225/75R/15 Goodyear Endurance tire that fits in our spare tire housing. Believe Oliver is now equipping new trailers with the ST225/75R/15 Goodyear Endurance tires.

We smelled an acrid odor one time. When I found it, very similar wiring failure connected to the Surburban Hot Water Heater, too.

Here's additional photos of the spare tire removed on our LE2:

Will do!

We installed two Epoch 105 AH replacing two 100AH BB batteries on Ollie. We don't have factory solar charging and only have an onboard Progressive Dynamics 45A Lithium charger. The BB worked nicely with this setup. The Epoch 105AH batteries are a little smaller physically and lighter than the 100AH BB batteries. I like the carry handles on them, too. The new Epoch batteries with the carry handles are easy to install and remove on Ollie. I removed them in less than 10 minutes when I put Ollie in storage this winter. It will take a little longer to install them later this month. Really like the Epoch app, too. Edit: I looked at the Epoch 105AH link in your post and thought you were installing 105AH, what ever size is used, they are very nice batteries.