John E Davies

I don’t have any for “Mouse” because I won’t tow in winter. I am not sure what size tire they are installing. Call your sales rep and ask. Then get a single set of Z-Chains (or a clone) in that size. They should have a zig zag pattern rather than straight across. That ensures that there is always a wire in contact with the ground for best braking traction, and it reduces the thump thump thump if you have to tow slowly on a hard surface. Some local auto parts stores offer free return of unused cables in the spring, that might be worth looking into. If you plan on camping in very marginal weather, then keep them, just in case they are ever needed. They are light and not bulky. If you plan to winter camp (skiing) then you need to have and use two sets on the trailer. https://www.peerlesschain.com/brands/traction-product-choices/z-chain/ John Davies Spokane WA

The world is awash in cheap Chinese counterfeit bearings and seals. Dexter Axle Company most likely attempts to buy from a valid distributor , but mistakes in the supply chain do happen. OTH Dexter bearings are not even close to being quality parts. If you buy a complete set of wheel bearings plus seal and hardware for $10, expect it to be garbage. I experienced an inner seal failure that ruined one brake and almost cancelled the trip at around 5000 miles. Buy a cheap blister pack as an emergency item, the next time you get your bearings serviced put in genuine Timkin or SKF parts. They will cost around $175 and will be much better in the long run. John Davies Spokane WA

It depends on where you plan to connect them to the frame. They should form an X when hooked to the receiver, to catch the coupler if it disconnects. The factory location does not allow for this. If you drill new holes about a foot back at the bottom of each frame rail, that should be fine. Decide where they will attach, measure across diagonally to the receiver hole, and add another foot of length for each one, to allow them to droop under the Andersen plate, if you have one. Trim the chain length as needed to get rid of any excess after you have tow tested the mod. You can support the chains with a short bungee cord, as I do with the Andersen chains when not in use. I have cables, and while I originally thought they were a downgrade, I have come to like them a lot. They seem to be secure enough, are neat and tidy, and they coil themselves back and out of the way when disconnected. Plus they are WAY lighter. I plan to keep mine. John Davies Spokane WA

I agree with BackofBeyond and Bill. Worrying and fretting makes you generate stomach acid, but it primarily wrecks the pleasure of a road trip. Most system failures that an RV shop would have to fix can be deferred until you get home - just do without. The furnace, not so much in December. Bring a small 120 volt AC box heater. The number of things that can fail and strand you is actually very small, mostly a blown tire, a blown bearing or a binding brake due to a grease seal failure. (If a brake gets contaminated with grease, it locks up; the only remedy is complete replacement of both brakes on that axle.) All these problems can be fixed quickly at any small town full service auto or tire store. You can find replacement fuses anywhere, but having spares is a good idea. Buy a trailer TPMS kit, if you haven’t already, and set it up the first night after delivery. That way you won’t keep fretting about the trailer tires and bearings. Be prepared, if needed, to camp in parking lots like Walmart, Cracker Barrel and Cabelas. Make sure your insurance has towing coverage of at least 100 miles. Bring lightweight snow cables for one axle of the trailer. The odds of needing them are slim but OTH you could get caught by an unexpected storm before you can settle down for a couple of nights. Most likely just having them in the truck will be enough to prevent having to use them 😀 You most definitely need heavy duty ones for your truck. Are you a Harvest Host member? Their “hosts” are great just in case alternatives to commercial or park campgrounds. Being farms, wineries, museums, etc, they would welcome an off-season camper and would probably have space for you... Just be sure to buy some stuff or go into the museum, or whatever. There is no camping fee, but you are expected to help them a little financially. That can get expensive, but less than a KOA if you are careful, otherwise you may end up thinking “where the heck do I put all this mead?” (HH breweries are a financial disaster for us.....) There are a bunch of Hosts along your route..... You may encounter places where your cell coverage is poor or non-existent. It is best to have two phones with different carriers, or, better yet, a gps rescue device so you can notify a relative of your exact location and what service you need, or even notify 911 directly in a disaster such as a heart attack. I really like my inReach. It works anywhere, even from inside the hull, and I can send unlimited free “I’m OK” messages and other prerecorded texts to my kids. It provides great peace of mind at both ends of the communication chain, which is what you are after, correct? John Davies Spokane WA

By splitting up the path the “returning” electrons take, you just confuse the Victron Connect and, I suspect, the solar box. I agree that all the old ground connections at the battery negative posts should be moved to your new ground bus. Just make sure the “new” ground cable going to the batteries from the shunt is a large enough gauge for the combined current. The inverter cable is so very oversized that it can carry the max load without overheating. (I cut 18” off my inverter ground cable and installed a new terminal. The remaining scrap was used for the inverter jumper to the shunt.) On a trailer without an inverter you would need to run a bigger cable to the negative post. It is perfectly OK to have all of the positive connections stay at the batteries. Aesthetically and functionally it would be better if they had their own positive bus inside the hull, making sure that all the various positive wires are protected by their own fuses or self resetting relays. You can’t combine those into fewer ones. FYI: On my Hull 218 two positive wires at the battery (the solar port and the main feed to the DC system) were unfused/ unprotected! (A large broken positive cable without a fuse becomes a high current welding cable and it can burn up stuff and melt through the frame.) It would be nice if Oliver would do this all correctly during manufacture, by running all those extra cables to their own inside buses; that way you could simply interrupt one single ground cable to add a Smart Shunt. The OEM wiring is pure “RV quality” in terms of design. Meaning sloppy and very visually unappealing.. Re-doing all the main supply and all the ground cables is really a huge undertaking. It involves a good understanding of wiring design and the ability to fabricate heavy cables that will not fail from vibration. IMHO it rates a 6 or 7 out of 10 in difficulty and it most definitely places your trailer warranty at risk. Due to these factors I decided to not post a How To thread. Mine works fine. It was definitely a PITA to do it. I don’t want to risk somebody who has blindly followed my installation guidelines have it fail catastrophically because of changes in their wiring layout from mine, or from a poor crimp.... I really think that two inside buses should be standard and a Victron shunt should be a factory option (or a simple retrofit). Prospective buyers should ask their sales rep. Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

If you could draw a wiring schematic of your current (pun intended) setup, that would help a lot. Words do not completely convey how things are connected. I made a photocopy of the Oliver battery connection wiring diagram from my Owners Manual. It’s black and white but that doesn’t matter because the colors are indicated. On that copy.I covered the OEM wires with white tape, and then copied it again - I made three extras as spares. I then drew in my new bus bars and connections on the “edited” version. Crude but effective. John Davies Spokane WA

Catostrof ... You are comparing apples to oranges. These trailers are only vaguely related. The Kimberley Kruiser is a hardcore off-roader designed for thousands of miles of Australia Outback travel. Here is some reading for you. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/1674-spring-over-axle-lift/ https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/4265-timbren-independent-rubber-suspension/?tab=comments#comment-42548 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/4105-turn-your-oliver-into-an-aussie-beater-anyone/? Member Raspy sold his LE2 because he wanted better desert road performance. He bought a Black Series (independent tandem axle, big tires and massive clearance) and is very happy with it. Raspy’s profile and posts If that isn’t enough, start a new thread with your concerns. A correctly modified 200 isn’t the problem, the Ollie suspension is the big problem, followed by the coupler. It all depends on how far and how quickly you wish to travel when the potholes appear. For an unmodified Ollie a mile or even five miles at a fast walking pace to access a campground is jarring for trailer and occupants of the TV, but tolerable . 75 miles of ranch roads (Mountain Home ID direct to Jarbidge NV in this case) .... nope, not at all. Take the long, mostly paved detour. Edit... watch the weight. For a 200 with an off-road coupler I would personally be looking for a max trailer weight of 5000 pounds (Elite single axle). It would be a much better choice than the LE2. For a ball coupler you would be OK without the Andersen hitch. Not so much with the LE2... an Andersen is required and it limits motion at the ball. John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, I seem to have located another weather geek. Remember when forecasts showed frontal boundaries, highs and lows? Those disappeared for the most part because humans had to interpret the raw data, isobars, etc and hand draw the fronts. With computer forecasting that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Though one of my local stations has started to at least show the H and L markers again...., I like this Weather Predictive Center for its old school charts. Here is Sunday: John Davies Spokane WA

Jason, the winds are finally shifting to westerly this weekend, you should head north if you can. You will be getting Oregon and NorCal smoke there near Stanley, but it will finally be clear for a while up in the Panhandle. Here is the Sunday morning smoke outlook. John Davies Spokane WA

No, that is not part of the bumper. We discussed frame rollers a while back, in a bike rack thread.....I think a rubber bumper would last approximately 0.1 second before getting peeled off. 😀 A steel skidplate would work. John Davies Spokane WA

Air skirts. Hmmmmm. Feel free to investigate and buy, but this is a $1500 purchase that is totally not needed with an Oliver. For a conventional junk stick and staple trailer or an Airstream, it probably makes a bunch of sense. It is a band aid fix for horrible build quality and design and exposed plumbing. Your Ollie is engineered and constructed to keep out cold and there certainly is no problem with larger animals getting in, ants maybe through the little scupper drains. I hope I am not sounding too harsh, but if you ask for opinions about this product here, I think you will find nearly complete consensus. Unless you are thinking about living in your Ollie full time, outdoors through an arctic winter? Does this new product have any consumer reviews or energy tests? I would be interested to read those. Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

Do you mean hull clearance or frame/ suspension clearance? The hull itself is fairly level - it is dead flat across the bottom, but the frame varies. It is quite a bit lower in the back because of the sewer compartment support (cross) braces. It is the rearmost one of those that will drag. See pic. The suspension is marginal in a few places, like the low hanging shackles and axle ubolts. Why do you ask? John Davies Spokane WA

It is easy to check, have you measured your receiver height with the truck loaded for travel (with a simulated cargo plus tongue weight)? I used a 2.5” drop ball mount on my 2006 Ram 3500. It worked perfectly. I used an extended shank (extra long threads) ball with hard Grade 8 washers to fine tune the coupler height. If I remember correctly, I only needed to add a couple under the ball flange to level the trailer perfectly. But that truck had oversized 33” tires, all trucks are different, so you need to measure. Go to the landscape supply place and bring back a couple of yards of dry bark or something, so you can measure with the truck squatting a little. John Davies Spokane WA

Usually this is true, but there are a few other products that might work for Susan, like this Curt ball mount, with 7500/ 750 pound limits. https://www.etrailer.com/p-D210.html If the Ollie’s tongue is kept light (no cargo tray!) it should work. Unfortunately, finding a unit like that with the correct drop for a Super Duty will be problematic, it is most likely that that one is the wrong height. John Davies Spokane WA

Run the generator dry by switching off the fuel supply, let it idle until it dies , THEN turn off the ignition switch, and, finally, manually drain what is left in the carb bowl with a screwdriver; there shouldn’t be any noticeable smell. What you normally smell is gas evaporating from the carb. With that gas gone and the tank vent closed (if it has one, my Yamaha 2400 does not) there should be no odor. John Davies Spokane WA

Jason, are you currently in Wyoming? How is the air now? I think I told you already, but I think Pinedale is an absolutely lovely small town. Cough cough.... John Davies Spokane WA

LOL, two beat me to it..... Gray filled to the top, or you forgot to open (pull forward) the “travel” valve, to connect the bathroom drain plumbing to the gray tank. I took a Sharpie and wrote “Push In For Travel” right over the tee handle. No worries, everybody does it. You will remember next time. John Davies Spokane WA

Interesting article (fairly technical) .... https://marker.medium.com/why-teslas-battery-day-will-actually-live-up-to-the-hype-f10b4c74dc9b John Davies Spokane WA

The Smart Cap was originally made in South Africa, so it is engineered and built right. I have a few concerns, notably all the dinky 6mm fasteners holding the parts together, but from reviews it is rock solid once secured to the truck. It is not easily disassembled for flat storage, but you can swap out a damaged panel. I like the looks, but not the IKEA Furniture construction. Maybe I could get over that. I bet it sweats moisture inside and wonder what a big hailstone would do..... Weight is 175 to around 200 pounds for the basic shell, with no accessories. I have been trying to determine the sheet metal gauge, it appears to be pretty thin in the installation video. If you have ever owned a stainless steel table, you will understand the importance of gauge. The cheap tables on Amazon are 18 gauge (0.050”) or even 20 gauge, which is way too thin. Commercial ones are much thicker, as heavy as 14 gauge (0.078”). Thin ones arrive all bent and dented in their shipping boxes. Drop a heavy object on one and it will leave a deep gash. Heavy ones are pretty much bulletproof. The designer of the Smart Cap needed to find a good balance between weight, strength and dent resistance. I wonder what they use? Has anyone seen a specification? Do you wonder why they don’t publish it? Maybe because it is really thin? I am a little uncomfortable with this comment: “SmartCap will earn its scars the same way your truck does — one rugged adventure after another.“ It is really hard to paint stainless and have it stay on. I hope they use a really good product. It will be interesting to see what these look like after getting scratched and then pressure washed.... Great review here: https://www.f150forum.com/f7/rsi-smartcap-evo-2018-f150-review-473893/ I owned a steel Gem Top many decades ago, it looked great but had a lot of issues. I had a Leer on my ‘06 Ram. It looked great and had some fitment issues (gaps mostly, that I had to seal myself). One thing I did learn is that if you are like me and do not like dirty windows, buy the flip up front window so you can get in the “gap” to clean both the back of the truck window and the front of the canopy window. It is almost impossible otherwise, even with a small slider there. John Davies Spokane WA

I had not heard of the Smart Cap. The fact that it can be shipped to your house implies it can be disassembled for storage....? Interesting. How does it attach and seal? I need to do some reading. If I had a pickup I would buy a Go Fast Camper. Fully welded steel cage, massive roof carry load, and a place to sleep too. https://gofastcampers.com/ Assuming I could get one. The waiting list is veeeeeery long. It used to be 18 months, with Covid, who knows? Made in Montana. John Davies Spokane WA

I would never choose the Ram Boxes for one big reason. You can’t use a canopy. That is a killer for me, no way would I make do with a tonneau cover. If they hinged in the opposite direction so one would work, no worries. They are like the Ollie’s inside cabinet and outside access panels, why do they go in the “wrong“ direction? John Davies Spokane WA

FYI, Katanapilot and I agreed to use this IOS app to do the measurements. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/decibel-meter-sound-detector/id1254994873 There are others, some are more feature rich and expensive, but the basic version of this one works fine and is free. If there are any other iPhone owners who want to participate, please install that app and post your results. Don’t use a different one because that will mess up the results. I will try to get to “Mouse” to test the Air Command sound levels, but I am currently trapped in my bedroom with two HEPA filters running full bore, the Wildfire smoke AQI is slowly dropping from its high of nearly 550 Sunday. It is “only” 418 now. Maybe in a couple of days..... I will also get measurements as the compressor kicks in. That snarl is significantly louder than its running sound level, and lots more irritating. Stay safe everybody. Here is wishing everyone clear skies, cool temperatures and no fires. John Davies Spokane WA

The original one was gorgeous and sort of functional with a dry weight of 2000 lbs ... the AS version has a base weight of 3400 and a cargo capacity of 600🙄. Fill the fresh water tank and it gives around 400 pounds for your options and personal stuff. Why in the world did they not beef up the frame and add a heavier axle? Or just leave it more spartan inside? Because AS is all about style over function. John Davies Spokane WA

For purchasing a brand new vehicle off the lot, for sure you have to study stickers and then plan for future permanent weight additions. I am not sure why this is so hard for folks who already own a vehicle...... just take your SUV or pickup to a truck scale and weigh it with full gas and a driver, look at the GVWR number (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating), and the difference is what is left is for passengers and payload. This accounts for any aftermarket parts you added like bigger tires or a roof rack, or that heavy bag of tools that you always carry with you. Most of the “stuff” you carry weighs much more than you think it does..... if you guess at the weight most likely you will be guessing low. It would be fairly uncommon for somebody in an SUV to exceed an individual axle weight rating unless he carried bricks. In pickups, overloading the back happens ALL the time. John Davies Spokane WA

Welcome, many happy Ollie owners are current or former boaters. I do not know of any submariners. Thanks for your service. I have been reading all the (mostly) excellent Douglas Reeman books; subs and uboats play major roles in all of them. I hope I have a very faint idea of what you went through then. Smoke is going to be a long term problem, especially out west. You can take steps to deal with it, but it will not be going away in our lifetimes. John Davies Spokane WA