rideandfly

Thanks! Learned about Snow Canyon State Park Utah from other Ollie owner's threads here. Appreciate all of the knowledgeable folks in the Oliver family. Merry Christmas!!!!!

Wishing Everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bill, Had a snow blower when we lived in Ohio. Have about 2 to 3" of snow/sleet so far, just north of Charlotte. Enjoy snow here, since it does not stay on the ground very long. Happy we found a place to store Ollie inside, too. We had on track Snow Blowers with military surplus jet engines to blow snow out of switches on the railroad. Parked a pickup truck too close to the track one night, jet blast with debris put five holes in the pickup radiator.

Kim and Travis, Welcome! Congratulations on your new Ollie and future camping plans! Looking forward to hearing about your camping adventures. We camped at Foss Lake State Park OK during October, beautiful area!!!! Best Regards, Bill and Debbie

Steve and Hobo, Installed Firestone airbags on our Tacoma without air compressor, been working fine for five years. Plan to install airbags on the Tundra. After reading your posts checked out Air Lift airbags, they have good reviews for competitive pricing. I'm going with Air Lift airbags, too. Thanks for the information!

John, Here's an example, stayed mostly at State Parks on our trip from NC to UT, returned back to NC only camping at SPs. All of the SP campsites used had at least electricity and not too far from I-40 & I-15 in following states: TN, AR, OK, NM, AZ, NV, UT

John, Find campgrounds with research using US State Park guide and ACE guide purchased from Amazon.

Trainman, Sounds like we camp at similar campgrounds. Started camping out west this year with Ollie. We like State Parks and Army Corp of Engineer Campgrounds. Purchased Ollie used and don't have factory solar system on our LE2, it's perfect for our needs. Ninety nine percent of the campgrounds we camp at have at least 120V available. We have a 100W portable solar panel and 2000W Honda Gen-Set for trips on the Blue Ridge Parkway when camping at Federal campgrounds without electrical connections. Ninety nine percent of the time we don't use on board LP gas system unless camping on the BRP without 120V. We use a 120V 1500W portable heater for cool nights and 120V portable induction cook top or microwave for cooking needs. Bill

Bobfirst, Thanks for the information about ASI 335 currently used by Oliver. Talked to ASI a few minutes ago about applying ASI 335 silicone, they said using alcohol for surface prep on a clean surface is OK with ASI 335. Next leak reseal, plan to use ASI 0240 adhesive remover/cleaner before installing ASI 335. http://www.thesealantandadhesivesource.com/asi-335-neutral-cure-silicone-sealant-adhesive/ ASI 0240 can be used to clean surface when silicone residue is being removed before installing new silicone. http://www.thesealantandadhesivesource.com/asi-0240-adhesive-remover-cleaner/

Ours did the same, it dripped down between the hulls, around the rear window dripping out of the window frame on the curbside bed. As far as time to do the job, it takes me 4 times longer than other folks, I would give myself a day so not to hurry and to do the job right. Once the sealant is removed, follow directions on the adhesive/sealant tube cleaning/prepping area before installing.

jhorton, We had the same problem. Probably better tools available than what I used. Used a wood paint stir stick sharpened to a dull point on one end to remove the sealant without damaging lens or gel-coat. Took my time being very careful. After digging out all of the sealant possible with the lens in place, used the same wood paint stir stick sharpened on one end to lightly pry the lens out placing plenty of cloth padding between the wood stick and gel-coat to prevent damage to the gel-coat/lens. Removed the lens twice because of leaks. Sealant used by Oliver leaked the first two times. Recommend contacting Oliver, they may be using different sealant on the Lens than sealant used during 2015. Last time used white Marine Silicone adhesive/sealant to stop the leak. Taped the lens and gel-coat with painters tape where I did not want the adhesive/sealant to contact. Placed the tape so it could be pulled off in one direction while applying the adhesive/sealant. Have not had any leaks since sealing lens last year accumulating over 12,000 miles on Ollie during that time. This is where the water dripped from the LED lens housing in the upper rear cabinet: Resealed lens:

Tom, Nice looking idea!

Agree, Mike started a good thread on cleaning Ollie window weep holes and tracks. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/clogged-window-weep-slots-helpfull-tip/#post-151966

DonBob, I felt the same way on our first camping trip after buying Ollie used, the dinette window leaked. Once I started looking for possible leak sources, they were not too hard to find. Oliver fixed the dinette window leak. The dampness in your closet could be from the black tank vent roof flange. I forgot to mention I removed the sealant on the black tank vent roof flange and resealed it. Some of the sealant used by the factory is easy to remove, but some is tough to remove, too. Please keep us in the loop on progress.

Bill, Hope you don't mind me posting some photos we took there last year. The Other Bill!

DonBob, Last year resealed the Maxx Air Fan exterior mounting flange & screws. The Maxx Air fan also has a neoprene seal between the mounting flange and fan assembly. Also tightened 2 of 4 bolts securing AC to the roof last year. We towed Ollie in heavy rain through Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Found dampness between the insulation & roof's rear outer shell afterwards. Checked AC mounting bolts again last week and found 2 of 4 bolts to be loose again, not sure if they were the same loose bolts originally found. The AC gasket sandwiched between the AC and outer camper hull looked OK, so snugged both loose bolts. Not sure if this was the source of the leak, but I always look above the area where a leak is found. Believe your unit model may be found online for exact instructions or in the original component brochures included with Ollie. "Evenly tighten the bolts to a torque of 40 to 50 inch pounds. This will compress the roof gasket to approximately 1/2". The bolts are self locking so further tightening is not necessary". https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/products/climate/air-conditioners/air-conditioners-for-rvs/dometic-penguin-ii-_-20669 Towed & camped in heavy rain again +5 inches in 24 hours, will probably check later this week for dampness between shells. Found a leak coming out of the rear Oliver sign & LED light assembly. This leak dripped from the LED housing between the camper shells around the rear window and out of the bottom of the window on to the curbside bed. Had to remove the LED lens and reseal to stop the leak. Another leak was a porch light, all four were removed and resealed (ours has the older style housings). The porch light over the dinette window allowed water to get in between the inner & outer shell over the dinette window, water dripped out of the top of the window frame on to the dinette table. Resealing the exterior light over the dinette window corrected the problem. Sometimes when heating on cool nights, condensation will form on the interior of the outer shell, too. I believe all campers will eventually have leaks, but the nice thing about the fiberglass Ollie, when the leak is fixed, you don't have to worry about wood rot. Hope this helps.

Saw an Elite 2 heading west on I40 Asheville NC at 2:15PM Wednesday 10/10 in the rain. We were towing Ollie heading east!

We plan to go back next fall, too. It was a fine trip, while camping in UT, a camper next to us told us about Valley of Fire SP, we camped there and enjoyed it. There was a very loud, high wind, rain & lightning storm (no hail) about 2:00 in the morning while camping there, Ollie handled it great. Thanks,

We plan to visit Kodachrome Basin SP again. It rained during this visit, but is a beautiful area:

We finally took Ollie on a camping trip out west and wanted to share a few photos. We visited Kodachrome Basin SP UT and it was raining, so will visit there again on our next trip. Have to say Ollie has great towing manners and very pleasant to camp in!!!!! Winslow AZ: Bryce NP: North Rim: Zion NP: Cedar Breaks NP area: Valley of Fire SP NV: Snow Canyon SP UT:

Did not have spare bearings/seal kit when you mentioned it, so dropped by Redneck Trailer Supply yesterday and picked one up. Took the 5200 pound Dexter Axle spec sheet in and they had a prepackaged kit on the shelf. Hopefully will never need to use it.

RB, In addition to what you take, keep a 12V motorcycle air pump, small tub of bearing grease, and a deep well socket with short extension, 1/2" breaker bar for Ollie lug nuts. Will start taking a 1/2" drive torque wrench, too. Used this air pump on our last trip to top off the TV rear tires, connected to the + power wire for the front jack (fused) and - to jack mounting bolt, worked fine: Also keep the grease gun in a plastic tool box to keep it from dripping on stuff: Speaking of hammers, carry a 1 pound dead blow hammer, too.

Mike, We enjoyed camping at Custer SP SD, Game Lodge campground. Visited Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and Sylvan Lake. Sylvan Lake Custer SP

Bill, Used a 1/4" drive 18" extension & socket with ratchet to turn the curb-side bottom bolt. Also taped nut to wrench while threading bolt into bottom curb-side nut, very tight space. Valterra recommends turning bolt into knurled nut. Just returned home from Colorado and happy :) to report new valve & seals worked great! Another Bill,