topgun2

Just got an email from Heather at Oliver with an update on this year's Owner's Rally. Included is a link which shows the agenda or simply click on the link below: http://olivertraveltrailers.com/email/2018-Oliver-Rally-Agenda.pdf Now, those of us that are attending can start to plan our afternoons of golf, tennis, fishing, zip lining, visiting, drinking, etc. Bill

And when you're not parking your Ollie with it, you could use it to chase squirrels.

June - unless you got your "new" Ollie used, you already have this accumulator (as far as I know, all the 2018's have one). Its easy enough to check - life the curbside mattress and look in the hatch that is nearest the kitchen. Here you should see your water pump and the accumulator should be mounted fairly close to it. If you don't know what a water pump looks like, simply do a search on this Forum and there are a number of pictures of both the water pump and the accumulator for you to see. Bill

Chris- For what its worth - When I put Twist to bed in the late Fall I disconnected the negative cable from the batteries and connected a small solar charger with the negative going to the same post from which I disconnected the main negative cable from the Ollie and the positive going to the post where the main positive cable from the Ollie is attached. I ran an extra long cable to the front of Twist from the batteries to the solar charger so that the charger would be in the sun most of the day. Upon checking the batteries after two months, they read right at 12.8 volts - full charge. Therefore, I assume that the small solar charger is doing its job in that I have the regular solar panels covered. Here is the charger that I'm using: https://www.harborfreight.com/15-watt-solar-battery-charger-68692.html Good Luck - Bill p.s. I have the four Trojan 105 lead acid batteries but I doubt that there would be any different result no matter which set of batteries you have given the relatively small charge that this 1.5 watt panel puts out. After all, all you are trying to do is to off set any natural loss of charge in the batteries given that there is noting else hooked up to them.

Canoe12 - I see no reason why one could not "hand pack" one of the 3 oz cartridges - simply take the spent cartridge out of the gun, re-pack it and then put it back in the gun. However, my main purpose for wanting these small cartridges in the first place was to save space and to make the maintenance of the EZ Flex as quick and painless as possible while on the road. Obviously this would limit the option of re-packing. Yes, I guess one could save the spent tubes, cart them home and re-pack there. I may be frugal, but, I have my limits, particularly with nasty, greasey little spent tubes of grease.

For anyone that is still sitting on the fence regarding whether to attend this year's Owner's Rally, perhaps the opportunity to see one of these yellow cardinals will tip you in the attending direction. Who would have thought that Alabama would have such a thing? Bill http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/02/one_in_a_million_yellow_cardinal.html

Hap - I believe that this is the kind of thing Jason Walmsley was talking about in regards to the "special tire ramp": https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Aid-Tandem-Changing-Change-Trailers/dp/B000I4JPZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519309743&sr=8-1&keywords=RV+tire+ramp It does not appear to me that these things would work very well in the event that both tires were deflated. But, with a bit of effort and some boards I would think that one could get the job done. Also, I think that Jason was only trying to point out that the "Service Request" form is intended to be used for multiple functions to include "technical questions". I used to think that I knew the answer to the questions regarding lifting the Elite II and/or jacking this camper. However, with all of the conflicting "opinions" that have been expressed on the Forum I'm no longer so sure. Bill

Johnny - You have been warned! Steve, Tali and the pups are very persuasive (and a bunch of fun). Welcome to the Forum. Bill

Ken & Julie - Welcome to the family! June will be here before you know it and look at the time that you have between now and then to plan those trips. It sure would be a nice intro for the two of you to attend this year's Owner's Rally - hope that you can make it. Bill

One of these was given away at last year's Oliver Owner's Rally as a door prize. If that lucky person is a member of this Forum - how about a review? Bill

Mike & Carol - I gave up on all of the old "gauges" some time ago. I simply do not even use the automatic change over valve on the propane tanks and keep my "spare" bottle shut off until the one I'm using runs out of propane. That way I certainly know when the first is empty and I get it refilled as soon as possible after switching to the "spare" tank. I should note here that I seldom use the furnace and only use the hot water heater (for shower water) when I have little other choice. One of my 20 pound propane bottles lasts me up to two months primarily cooling the fridge, heating water for tea, coffee, or hot chocolate and heating meals. You're right - this one looks promising. But, for $100 I think that I'll stick to my current method. Bill

Such a dangerous thing visiting with Anita is. But, other than that light feeling in the checkbook, you are going to love the Ollie. And, May is almost perfect weather for hitting the road and joining the rest of us at the Owner's Rally. Welcome! Bill

MountainOliver got me looking a bit more into alternatives for the Dexter recommended N.L.G.I grade 2 grease in 3 oz tubes. As it turns out the Dexter recommendation says that in addition to the grade 2 requirement, the grease should be Lithium. However, they do not state that the grease must be "red grease". I only assumed that this was the case because that is what Oliver used when they first installed the EZ-Flex on Twist. A quick search has found that the Lithium based, N.L.G.I. grade 2 grease is available (in addition to Harbor Freight as Mark pointed out above) at Walmart (I assume that it is only at Super centers or online because my local WalMart does not carry it): https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sta-Lube-Moly-Graph-SL3144-Extreme-Pressure-Multi-Purpose-General-Purpose-Grease-3-oz-Cartridge-G/19282162 So, for those interested in the smaller 3 oz. tubes of grease, there are a number of alternatives both in brands, and where you can get it and certainly both Harbor Freight and WalMart are cheaper than the Lucas Oil product. Perhaps we have members of this Forum that are much more informed than I am with regards to the exact differences between various brands and types of grease. But, at least for now, I'm going to stick with the "Red N Tacky" stuff from Lucas Oil even though it is more expensive. Bill p.s. Again, thanks to MountainOliver for opening the doors to a bit more knowledge!

Stan & Carol - I'll bet that there wasn't a brand new Oliver camped right across the road from you in either place! Bill

Hap - The EZ-Flex was not an option when I ordered mine back in September, 2015. Nor was it available when I took delivery in February, 2016. From what I have read (mainly here on the Forum by owners that have made the upgrade) the old stock suspension will wear out the bushings somewhere between 5,000 and 25,000 miles. While my Oliver was never quiet at slow speeds, the noise was only getting worse. This made me assume that with the 15,000 miles that I had on the Ollie the suspension was in need of attention. From the time the EZ-Flex was made available shortly after I took delivery, I figured that I'd have this work done after what I had was worn. I too had the work done by the guys at the Oliver Plant and ,out of curiosity, I should have asked about the condition of the old parts before I took off. But, I didn't. At least now I can sneak up on all those kids, dogs, and geezers without all of the howling, laughing and clattering of false teeth as I leave a campsite. Bill p.s. Raspy - since that rubber part is not being used so much on the Oliver, it will last a bunch longer?

Mark - Thanks for bringing these to my attention. It appears that the CRC and Harbor Freight products are the same (indeed, the Harbor Freight grease shows on the package that it was made by CRC). I took a look at the product specifications of the CRC and it is NLGI #2. Certainly if the assumption that the Harbor Freight grease is the same then it would be a bunch easier for me to come by as compared to the hoops I jumped through to get the Lucas Oil stuff AND it would be considerably cheaper too. Bill

As ScubaRx points out above, the service interval for the EZ-Flex is 3,000 miles. This means (at least for us anal types) that on trips longer than that we must pack a grease gun loaded with the recommended grease - N.L.G.I.:Grade 2 - sometimes called red grease. Most auto supply stores and even WalMart sell this stuff in 14 oz tubes. However, the grease gun that accepts these 14 oz tubes is rather large. I happened to have a smaller grease gun that accepts 3 oz tubes of grease that I bought years ago for motorcycle maintanence - I've seen them at WalMart and Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/grease-gun-with-3-oz-grease-95575.html and I remembered seeing the 3 oz tubes of red grease. Unfortunately, when I went to purchase a couple of these smaller 3 oz tubes the only manufacturer that I could find that made them with red grease was Lucas Oil. Simple enough I thought until I went to several auto parts stores (NAPA, Autozone, etc.) and all they had was a package of three 3 oz tubes - two of the tubes were standard normal duty grease and the third was what I was looking for - red grease. Adding to the problem was the fact that none of the stores I went to would order (or could order according to them) either a single tube or a set of three tubes with all being red grease. Indeed, a quick internet search showed that Lucas Oil did sell this grease in a set of three 3 oz tubes (product number 10318), but, Amazon didn't have it nor did phone calls to the stores I had previously visited produce any favorible results. I then emailed Lucas Oil corporate office. They got right back to me with the name and phone number of the regional distributor for my area. A phone call to this individual resulted in him telling me that product 10318 was not available. So, once again, I emailed the Corporate office and told them that either their regional distributor was incorrect or that the Lucas Oli website needed to be updated. Again, they replied promptly with the phone number of a distributor that I think is on the West coast. It took a bit of searching on the part of this individual, but, he found the product number and added it to his own website on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/LUCAS-OIL-RED-N-TACKY-GREASE-10318-1-PACK-OF-3-X-3OZ-CARTRIGE-MADE-IN-USA/253425934913?hash=item3b015ce241:g:JFAAAOSwlv9ag5eS Yes, when you can get a 14 oz tube of this stuff for under $3.00, a three pack of 3 oz tubes at a price of $14.00 is a bit out there. But, in the interest of not having to carry around a big grease gun.... Bill

We've been above 70 for the past two days here in Western North Carolina, but, tomorrow's high is forecast to be a below normal 47. Its still only the middle of February but it is nice to see the normal daily highs are going up and the Spring bulbs are up with a few blooming. Before long it will be time to complain about how hot it is! Bill

Bill - nice job on the repaint! Also nice to note that there doesn't appear to be any sign of anything happening to that anode in the picture. Bill

Darrell & Kathy - Sounds like all is well and the fun of planning adventures is well underway. I too have difficulty with looking at my Ollie and just wanting to get in and go. I think that this is a good thing. Welcome to the family and I hope that we can share a campfire someday. Bill

Hap - I know that you asked for Steve's opinion but that will not stop me from offering mine. I had the EZ Flex installed last year and I think that it is great. I've only towed with it for about 1,000 miles but the Ollie is now virtually silent while towing at low speeds around corners - it used to be a bit embarrasing going in and out of parking lots, campgrounds and the like because of the suspension noise. Since Twist has always just followed the truck while towing at speed and I've never had problems with anything inside being bounced around, I can only suppose that the ride quality is better. Certainly I like the idea of being able to grease the suspension as I think that in most certainly will make it last longer. Speaking of which - soon I will be posting some details on my recent adventure in obtaining small grease cartridges for use while on the road, stay tuned. Bill

MO - please tell me that the picture was taken inside your house and you have no plans for going outside any time soon! Bill

For those that have not - check out the FAQS (see black banner for button above). There are some answers there to some questions asked long ago. Bill

"Looks like she has very warm shoulders." Yes, but a bit furry for my taste.

WOW! Number 305. Just think of all the places it will go. Have fun but be safe. And, congradulations! Bill