Steph and Dud B

Nice work!

Wow. Sorry this happened to you. It's a shame. Thank you for taking the time to offer such sound advice. I look forward to hearing about your new Ollie in a year or so.

The lithium batteries and solar are hands down the best part of our Oliver. Truly game changing for boondocking.

It turns the water pump on/off. That way, if you're in the bathroom and forgot to turn the pump on, you don't have to walk back to the control panel in the main cabin.

Airstream used slightly damaged aluminum panels in the Argosy line and the white paint helped hide the imperfections. They also had either fiberglass or molded plastic end caps. One big negative for some buyers: Argosy owners were not allowed in the Wally Byam Airstream club.

Good point. That would be appropriate.

Looks like sloppy work at the factory. Also, hard to tell from the photo, but is that copper stranded wire or aluminum? It looks silver in the photo.

One other thing: the fridge needs to be level to work properly. But, it does sound like you may have a problem with it. For this trip, you could just use it like an icebox. Put a bag of ice in it and go with that until you get it sorted out. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

The fan is located in the external fridge compartment accessed from the outside of the trailer. It's thermostat driven and usually only comes on when it's quite hot outside (80s-90s). How long have you waited? If the freezer is cold, that's a good sign. It takes a LONG time for the fridge to catch up, like overnight on a cool night. Even worse if you keep opening the door or put warm stuff inside. Many of us start the fridge the day before and wait until the next day to put pre-cooled items in it. Gas/electric RV fridges are notoriously temperamental.

Hi. Based on your hull number, I would say that you do not have sealed wheel bearings. They should be inspected and greased annually. As for the fridge, I'm assuming your gas is turned on at the tanks. How long have you waited for the fridge to cool? It takes a long time, usually overnight, before it will reach temperature. You'll feel it at the back of the freezer compartment first. If it's been longer than that with no cooling, can you hear the flame running behind the lower outside vent door? Usually, you would hear a clicking sound as it tries to light, followed by a very soft noise from the flame. This is not constant. Once the fridge reaches temp, the flame will cut in occasionally to maintain that temp.

Rearview Camera is on our pre-trip checklist: RV Quick Checklist: 66 items shared Monitors □ 1 Change GPS to Movement/Daily □ 2 Rearview camera on □ 3 Install repeater Bathroom □ 4 Bathroom drain closed (in) & flagged □ 5 Shower curtain secured □ 6 Bathroom cabinet shut □ 7 Bathroom window closed □ 8 Bathroom vent closed □ 9 bathroom items secured □ 10 bathroom door closed Interior □ 11 Check ladder secure points □ 12 Awning switches off □ 13 Awning remote stored □ 14 Microwave tray secure □ 15 fan in fridge □ 16 fridge doors locked □ 18 Sink cover stored □ 19 Stove off □ 20 cooktop cover closed □ 21 pots/pans/dishes □ 22 furnace/AC off □ 23 Marine fan stowed □ 24 roof vent closed/fan off □ 25 Remotes stored □ 26 antenna booster off □ 27 AC alarm off □ 28 TVs secured □ Solar on/off □ 29 Gas water heater off □ 30 water pump off □ 31 weather radio off □ 32 Xantrex setting #28 to 5 (storage) or 25 (camping) or 15 (generator) □ 34 tires checked □ 35 doors/drawers/windows closed □ 36 blinds closed □ 37 Cabin lights off Exterior □ 38 LP gas off □ 33 thermometer stored □ 39 Electric water heater off/on □ 40 sewer hose secured □ 41 tire covers off □ 42 leveling jacks up □ 43 water/elec./TV/sewer d/c Truck □ 44 Close tailgate □ 45 bikes secured □ 46 Wheel step removed □ 47 Ball hitch pinned and locked □ 48 parking brake set □ 49 Chains on □ 50 breakaway cable □ 51 Coupler pinned □ 52 Tongue jack up Hitched □ 53 vehicle lights checked □ 54 wheel chocks out □ 55 Linx levelers stored □ 17 fridge on 12v □ 56 door mat stored □ 57 doors/compartments locked □ 58 steps retracted □ 60 trailer transponder in Mechanical □ 59 trailer brakes checked □ 61 radiator clear □ 62 washer fluid checked □ 63 ATF checked □ 64 brake fluid checked □ 65 coolant checked

Congratulations.

Hello to the LE2 with green/yellow livery we saw westbound on I-90 near Utica, NY this afternoon!

Darth Vader's RV. Although interesting to look at, I would never own a black RV. They're just not practical on hot, sunny days.

I found WD40 works well to remove VHB adhesive residue.

I find this helpful when selecting wire: https://mgispeedware.com/wire-size-chart/ I also prefer using marine grade wire.

Can't see the photo. Typically the + and - terminals of the batteries are all connected together with short cables, + to +, - to -. One + and one - will also have a large cable leaving them and going off into the trailer body. These are the terminals you'd connect to. Make sure you don't mix them up. Usually red + and black -.

Sure, you can connect an inverter to the main + and - connections on the Oliver batteries (not just one Oliver battery). Just watch your battery consumption.

This mystery has been solved. A tech removed a loose nut from inside the offending wheel drum today. It was a brake backing plate nut, but all the nuts were in place as they should be, so it must have been an extra dropped into the wheel assembly at the Dexter factory. It was intermittent and wasn't found sooner because it would stick to the brake magnet and hide.

If the Xantrex inverter is turned on and the trailer is connected to shore power, the inverter will kick in if shore power goes out. There's even a setting in the Xantrex that controls the delay before power transfers to the inverter. I learned this while researching the various settings. It could be very useful for people with critical electrical equipment.

I was referring to maintenance costs. Pretty much every repair on a diesel is more expensive than on a gasser, largely because the parts tend to be heavier-duty. Oil changes are more expensive, too. More oil, bigger filters. And some have reported issues with the DEF system, but our last diesel was pre-DEF so I can't speak to that personally. We really did need a diesel with our fifth wheel. It was nice using the diesel truck pumps at service plazas and listening to the engine hum along at low RPMs on hills, but the gasser does just fine with our Oliver.

Incidentally, the gas/diesel pendulum for heavy trucks is swinging again. Most new ambulances are gassers now as are many fleet trucks. I just bought a large service truck with a 7.3 gas engine and will say I was impressed. With $10K saved up front, cheaper fuel, and lower maintenance expenses, gas is a contender again.

We're happy with our GMC 3500 crew cab gas dually. The gas engine is perfectly fine with a smaller trailer like an Oliver and doesn't have the DEF system to deal with. Tons of storage space. As for the duals in back... the game was money is no object, so why not! The major downside to us: it has the turning radius of the Queen Mary, so swinging into some sites can be tough.

Hi. My wife and I downsized from a triple slide fifth wheel and now have a twin bed LE2. We find we can fit enough clothes in the trailer for about 2 weeks of warm to moderate temperature travel. A little less if the weather is cold. As for food, the pantry and fridge are big enough for about 2 weeks of food. One thing to note: the new fridges have more fridge space but less freezer space then ours, so you may be more limited on the frozen side. We have the standard black tank. 3 days if you're using it exclusively, but we've gone several weeks by using bathhouses for everything but those early morning/late night calls from Mother Nature. Expect over 2 weeks on the gray tank if using max water saving measures. If using for daily showers, etc., then probably 3 days. You'll need an Andersen WD hitch with your truck and an LE2. We have a lot of stuff in the bed of our truck: Clam, chairs, mats, griddle, table, etc., etc. so watch your cargo weight. We have the Platinum lithium package and love it. It's the saving grace of this trailer. Haven't used our generator for 2 years (we don't use the AC much). We also love our additional street side awning. It's one of our favorite features. Keeps the cabin much cooler and gives you shade all day long. One final word. We may be an outlier but our 2022 Oliver has not been without issues. Some were not Oliver's fault, some are. Most minor, some major. It's a good design using good materials but, in our case, it has certainly not been trouble free. In fact, we have a cosmetic fiberglass issue right now. Maybe we got a bit of a COVID camper, maybe just bad luck, but I want to be honest about that. Thank goodness the Oliver service team is generally exceptional and none of the issues seriously interfered with our plans. We still like our Oliver and find it very comfortable and easy to find sites for.

Glad you're safe and powered again. We used our RV as a lifeboat for over a week after Hurricane Irene. Nice to have that option.