Steph and Dud B

I think most of us are very conservative about exposing our plumbing to cold temperatures. Personally, I'd be at DEFCON 2 if I saw 33 degrees near a water line. However, hitting 32 isn't necessarily going to mean damage. The compartment might be 32 but the water in the lines is still 35. The water may have room to expand by draining into a tank. PEX plumbing is more tolerant of freezing than PVC. I imagine there's some wiggle room. What I'd really like to know is, has anyone experienced plumbing damage in their Ollie from freezing, what was damaged, and under what conditions did it happen? In other words, what are the real world limits to what our Ollies can take? Not that I'd want to go there...

Nice balanced article! I'd still rather have my Ollie over the other choices, though.

Incidentally, kudos to OTT for providing us with a full-size ABC refillable fire extinguisher rather than the half-size disposable BC extinguishers that come with most towable RVs.

That's a tough one because fire extinguishers are supposed to be mounted by the exit. The idea is, you move to the exit to get the extinguisher and if the extinguisher doesn't work you now have the door behind you to escape.

Swing out windows.

Did not know this! I thought there was still plywood in the closet wall of my 2021 Hull #1150. Thanks for the info.

Interesting video on the manufacturing of German motorhomes. Quite a difference from the way American coaches are made, with a very favorable price point. Much more like a car assembly line than American RV factories. Some things were similar to Ollies, like the way the water pump and associated valves are preassembled before installation. Some unique features, too, like a freeze protection valve that automatically drains the water system if the internal temps drop to freezing, and a camera to help you position at the dump station. Pretty cool.

@GAP How did you clear snow off your solar panels?

I think they were testing temperatures while winterized so they could establish a baseline before risking winter camping with water in the lines.

We have this Xtend & Climb 770P telescoping-ladder,12.5 ft, Yellow/Gray https://a.co/d/gWOv7kr Seems very sturdy and stores in our closet. Not cheap, but I try not to skimp on safety items.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question: Did you open the lever valve on the shower head? Did you say the pump is running even with nothing flowing? The pump should shut off if there's no flow anywhere in the trailer.

Really hasn't been a problem for us yet. In our experience the black tank fills up about the same time the grey tank does when we're dry camping. The first thing to go for us has actually been the fresh tank. After a 7 night trip this summer our black and grey were both at 69% and the fresh was at 13%. We did use campground bathrooms during the day and only took showers in the trailer every other day, though.

The Goodyear Endurance tires are well regarded in the towable RV field. I'd be ok with them on my Oliver. ST tires have strengthened sidewalls to handle the sideways scrubbing trailer tires endure in tight turns. @bugeyedriver We've had Maxxis on our previous 3 trailers with absolutely no issues at all. Very nice tires, too.

No doubt it can. As an isolated incident. Not so sure if it's a daily occurrence. Again, not something the average person would have to worry about. But, if there's another camper in a similar situation it's something to consider.

Another (albeit unusual) consideration: my wife is undergoing treatments that cause, shall we say, frequent severe lower digestive issues. With the composting toilet's aversion to liquids in the composting medium, we probably couldn't use one. With the black tank we can still camp. Obviously not something we, or anyone, would have planned for but the regular toilet ended up allowing us to keep camping during treatment.

I received a reply from the mfg of the beads: "Thank you for reaching out! I would be glad to help. Lionshead, is an OE account for us, so many of the tire and wheels they produce do come with Counteract inside the tires already, so there is no need for a traditional spin balance. You can remove the wheel weights and continue on, the beads will balance out the wheel tire and entire assembly on the fly." Short-term, since the trailer is currently in its winter storage position, that's my plan. I'll remove the external weights and that'll return the trailer to the way OTT handed it to me. I'll run one trip with it that way and see if the temperature issues change at all. Then, next summer, when I have some time, I'll run it down to the tire shop again to remove the beads and rebalance all the tires.

Just dirt. The flash and the areas I touched really make it stand out. She needs a bath, but first things first.

Well, there are a lot of stick on weights located in one area of the rim just inside the spokes. Pretty much the same on all 4 tires.

I've asked OTT for a recommended course of action. They recommend I remove the beads. That'll cost me $150 to unmount, remove the beads, and rebalance 5 tires. And that's assuming I remove the wheels myself and bring them to the shop. OTOH, the tire shop owner recommends I simply remove the external weights they applied when they did the spin balance and let the beads do their thing. (There's a whole big explanation of why spin balancing doesn't work with beads in a tire.) Before I do anything I've asked OTT to verify that there definitely are beads in my tires. I've also contacted a bead manufacturer to ask their advice in this situation.

@Frank C Thanks for your recommendation. Based on your heads-up I bought 3 of those lithium batteries for my rig. Hope I can enjoy them for days. 😁

The steel stems are for my TPMS sensors.

That seems odd. It would cost the supplier extra to do this. Not a lot, just a little for the beads and extra step, but still... big companies go to great lengths to save a few pennies like that. Can't believe they'd do it without billing Oliver extra. Unless...... According to the letter, the company is Lionhead. The same company that manufactures the rims. Could there be a flaw in the rims they were trying to mask with the beads? Wildly out of balance or something?

Got a letter from OTT today stating that the balance beads in my tires may jam the valve cores, causing a loss of pressure. The envelope contained 5 new cores with screens and a $25 gift card for my troubles. First, I had no idea there were balance beads in my tires. I don't recall ever seeing that in any of the literature. The first thing I did with our trailer after bringing it home was bring it to a tire shop to have metal stems installed and have all the tires balanced. I certainly would have told the shop if I knew there were beads in the tires. Now I wonder if the presence of the beads threw off the spin balance I got from the shop. The FAQs on one of the balancing beads websites says that they should not be used with wheel weights ("they will work against each other") and that they can't be correctly balanced by a spin balance machine. Is this why 2 of my wheels have been running unexplainably hot? Are the bearings being stressed by badly unbalanced wheels? Seems like I have to go back to the tire shop and either have them remove the weights they installed or have them unmount the tires, remove the beads, and rebalance the wheels again. This is definitely something that should have been disclosed by OTT. Service ticket created. I don't think I should have to pay to have this addressed.

This would be a good first step for troubleshooting. Go direct from the campground connection to the TV and scan again. If that doesn't work the problem would be either your cable (possible), the campground cable connection (likely), or the TV itself (doubtful if it's scanning). If it works, the problem is the Ollie wiring.

Sounds like a 12v fuse but that doesn't explain the 120v outlets...