rideandfly

We have early style porch lights, not sure if this would apply to later style porch lights. Water was coming in from the porch light between shells dripping from the top of the dinette window. When we resealed the porch light over the window, fixed the problem. Saw another leak from the rear Oliver sign, leaking between shells traveling around the rear window and dripping from the bottom of the window on the curbside bed. Once we found the leaks, fixed them without further problems.

Vector, Very happy with 5200 pound axles. Larger bearings and brakes. It was my understanding Oliver temporarily ran out of 3500 pound axles when they installed Legacy Elite axles on our Ollie. Ours is not the only LE2 Ollie with 5200 pound axles. Will be happy to email a PDF spec/build sheet that Dexter emailed for my axles. Will send you a PM with email address in a few minutes. I don't know how to post a PDF file here.

Vector, Happy to hear no one was hurt! Talking about torque wrenches, have not thought about this since retirement (tried to forget about ISO) :) . We were certified to ISO standards in our rebuild/manufacturing facility. All of our torque wrenches and many measuring devices had to be checked and/or re-calibrated on set dates. If a torque wrench was dropped, it was not allowed to be used until it was checked and/or re-calibrated. Something RnA mentioned earlier. We had several grade 8 bolt failures in the field due to torquing nut/bolt assemblies to dry torque values with oil on the bolt threads. After finding this, we educated everyone in the facility on proper torque methods and followed up annually with this type of training.

Yukon, For us and previous owners have run #75 Ollie's tire pressures at 50PSI. Our Ollie is equipped with BFG LT225/75R16 tires with maximum pressure of 80PSI. Could not find a load/inflation table for these tires, but did find another Michelin LT225/75R/16E load/inflation table a couple years ago to refer to. Tow Ollie with empty tanks ready to camp weighing in around 4950 pounds (Cat Scales) with creative loading of Ollie & tow vehicle. The tires are looking great after 30,000 miles and will probably look fine when we replace them in a couple years, too. https://www.michelinrvtires.com/reference-materials/load-and-inflation-tables/#/

We purchased our Oliver used from a couple in MO when Ollie was out of warranty. We later took Ollie in for service work and Oliver covered the work under warranty, even though Ollie was out of warranty and we were not the original owners. One of the service folks told us that it did not matter that we purchased Ollie used, when we purchased an Oliver we became part of the Oliver Family! :)

John, Would like to see your photos, too. Been thinking about if I mounted the solar inlet on the battery compartment door, could also strengthen the interior of the door around the inlet with fiberglass, if needed. We had the pleasure of camping at Valley of Fire SP NV last October. Will be camping there next time passing through the area, too. Had occasional water in the shower pan during the last camping trip. Found a 1/2" crack in the bath vent exterior dome cap located where one of the two screws secures the cap, it did not leak during every storm. Have a new one on order from Etrailer. https://www.etrailer.com/RV_Vents_and_Fans/Ventline/BVA0502-03.html

Trainman, Used Red Line CV-2 synthetic grease. Red Line recommends removing existing grease before using their grease. Like Bill said, the Dexter video is a good guide for bearing maintenance including removing old grease. Dexter also gives recommended maintenance intervals in the video. Repacked bearings and replaced seals during bearing maintenance on Ollie so far. Did not find any issues that would require bearing/race/brake shoe replacement to date. https://www.redlineoil.com/cv-2-grease Dexter bearing maintenance: https://www.dexteraxle.com/resources/videos/bearing-maintenance Hope this helps.

Tried Meguiar’s Flagship Premium Marine Wax for the first time today, easy on & off. Ollie is looking great!!!!!!!!!!!

We camped at Shenandoah Crossing Gordonsville VA earlier this week while visiting family. It was a fine camping trip. While camping we visited Montpelier, James and Dolly Madison's home: Also visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home:

Mike, Nice shots! Thanks for posting about this COE campground. Hope to camp there later this year.

John, Didn't use sealant on the seals when I replaced them both times and they are easier to remove without sealant applied.

Replaced Ollie's hub seals a few times while repacking wheel bearings. Used a clawbar on a block of wood placed on the surface where the brake electromagnet contacts the hub. Pop the seal out with the claw placed under the seal lip without contacting bearing. Repacked bearings last month and just returned from a trip in VA. Ready for another season! :) Here's a Dexter video showing recommended bearing maintenance. https://www.dexteraxle.com/resources/videos/bearing-maintenance

John, Already have Firestone airbags on my Tacoma, may go that way on the Tundra, too. Will do a little more research. Thanks,

Trainman, I'm also in the process of finding the best way to reduce tow vehicle's rear end sag while towing Ollie. Almost ordered airbags when finding TorkLift StableLoad Rear Suspension Upgrade at E-trailer for many pickup applications. Would need to drill the Tundra's overload springs or let a local spring shop do the drilling for installation on the Tundra. https://www.etrailer.com/Vehicle-Suspension/Toyota/Tundra/2016/TLA7311.html?vehicleID=201625610 Our 4X4 5.7L Tundra is almost perfectly balanced front & rear axles as per CAT scales, ready to camp with Ollie connected, two people on board, full 38 gallon tank, while staying under GVW. Has anyone here used TorkLift StableLoad Rear Suspension Upgrade on any brand of pickup and what's your thoughts on it? Thanks,

Plan to install a Furrion exterior inlet like John's unit. Purchased the Renogy 100 solar panel with controller and suitcase. Will go for less than 10 amp fuse if I'm understanding what's been said in this thread so far. Thinking about installing inlet on the exterior next to LP bottle area. Thanks for the information.

Purchased Bow To Stern BTS to use on Ollie's exterior later this month. It may take up to 2 to 3 applications for best results. Some folks tried BTS on one of the Casita forums with good results while using this gel-coat sealer & UV protection. https://www.btsproducts.com/about/btsdifference/

Ken & Judy, We seriously looked at Airstream before purchasing Ollie, our third camper. Our first camper, an early Chalet folding camper, had a wood floor and it eventually developed floor rot. Guess most Airstreams in the US have wood floors except for some Argosy trailers. Also considered completely rebuilding an Airstream replacing the wood floor. We were camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway when we had the pleasure of touring the first Oliver we had ever seen. It was absolutely beautiful inside and out. We could not find a used one for sale and Oliver was not building trailers at that time. We waited and found a good deal on a used 2015 LE2 in this forum's classified section during 2016. I can easily say our Ollie is holding value, too. Agree, "Jump in the water is fine".

John, We converted the Bellevue Ohio roundhouse with turntable into a Maintenance of Way Equipment shop during the 80s. Steam engine folks always wanted to used one of our bays for maintenance during the winter. The 490,000 pound N&W 611 J class used our turntable to come into the shop for the winter. Steam Engine folks wanted to bring the N&W 1218 into the shop too, but at over 900,000 pounds we would not let them cross the turntable. Historical groups loved to visit the shop, discuss shop history, and see the turntable operate.

Here's Dexter's EZ Flex installation instructions for EZ Flex assembly installed on my Ollie. Look at page 3 lines 13 & 15 for torque values. https://www.dexteraxle.com/docs/default-source/dexteraxle/product-documentation/installation-instructions/059-867-00_ez_flex_complete.pdf?sfvrsn=16 Dexter EZ Flex components can be purchased from E-Trailer, too.

John, Yep, Randy’s wheels are maximum 80PSI. Edit: Raspy replaced his ION wheels maximum 60PSI. Here's a photo of one of my Ollie's ION wheels, maximum 60PSI:

John, Yep, Randy’s wheels are maximum 80PSI. Edit: Raspy replaced his ION wheels maximum 60PSI. Here's one of my Ollie's ION wheels, maximum 60PSI

John Davies started a thread couple years ago about wheels. Checked our LE2's ION wheels that have 60PSI maximum air pressure. Could not find load/inflation tables for the BFG LT tires, so started using the Michelin inflation table. Run Ollie's LT tyres :) at 50PSI. Installed Dexter EZ flex couple years ago. Not having vibration issues. Edit: Here's the thread, looks like a few older Ollie's including ours have ION wheels with lower maximum wheel air pressure, 60PSI Max. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/wheels-model-warranty-care/

A few activities while camping While at the 2018 Ollie Rally, we played golf several days: Some folks fly drones Kayaking Hiking

Camera is positioned over water pump area while taking photo of water heater bypass valve & white bypass hose. Camera pointing to rear of Ollie with water heater on left.

David, always enjoy seeing your fine photos! RB, I'm an amateur photographer using two economy Canon Powershot cameras, one smaller point and shoot and one with powerful zoom with manual controls and automatic modes. Have not used an SLR, but still have my Canon AE1 program 35MM film camera, it's retired. Don't use post processing unless cropping or adding text. While taking sunset shots at the last Alabama Ollie rally, used zoom on the Canon Powershot SX520 and rested the camera while taking shots in the automatic mode. Used manual exposure mode with Canon Powershot SX520 on this shot to lighten landscape with cloudy sky at Badlands: Made a solar filter with a UV filter to hold in place with the SX520 lens in auto mode using a 6' ladder as a tripod: Solar Filter installed: Took this shot with a Powershot in the manual exposure mode with manually set aperture on a tripod during a cloudy, low light day. Crabtree Falls Blue Ridge Parkway NC