John E Davies

My wife and daughter got through customs in NZ on Wednesday, with an uncomfortable delay, but no problems. NZ has announced that starting Sunday everybody entering, including NZ citizens, will have to “self isolate” for two weeks. I don’t think they will have any worries traveling, it should be pleasant due to no crowds, but if they get stuck there ,it could become problematic from a financial standpoint, I guess they could both emigrate and just stay there LOL..... John Davies Spokane WA

Hi and welcome. I am unclear what you mean. What “add” are you referring to? Did you get an Oliver email or did you see a popup on a webpage? John Davies Spokane WA

The older you are, the more care you need to take. I am 67 and trying to limit my public exposures, but it won't stop me from camping. No way will you find me intentionally hanging out in big crowds.... My wife and grown daughter are on their way to New Zealand for a three weeks vacation. They are worried mostly about International closures, though I think if they were to get stranded, they would much prefer NZ to some other locations. Tourism is down in NZ, and the Kiwis are anxious for tourism dollars, before their season ends. It's a great time to be visiting, unless bad things happen... John Davies Spokane WA

Use the hitch, at least for first few trips. Then you can disconnect the chains and see how it feels without them. I bet you and your passengers will like it a whole lot better with the Andersen hooked up, especially on deteriorating, choppy freeways. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/towing/equipment/hitches/towing-weight-distribution-systems.htm FYI: Your 2016 GC has a 115 " wheelbase. The shortest 2016 F150 Supercab or Crew model is 145", and they go up to over 160". My heavy body-on-frame Land Cruiser is even shorter than your Jeep at 112" Even with a super light tongue weight, there is no way I would feel safe towing without the Andersen. Short wheelbase vehicles are inherently way less stable and controllable when used for towing substantially more than their own weight Enjoy your Ollie, do you have some pics you can share? John Davies Spokane WA

Definitely, try some automotive rubbing compound to see if the "cracks" go away. Been under any low overhangs lately? And also be aware of the condition of the sealant when you are up there inspecting stuff. This is a water leak - if not now, it will be: You can get an entire new cap assembly shipped from Amazon Prime for about $5.... just swap it out and seal it with a high quality marine sealant, and you should be good for a long time. John Davies Spokane WA

The traps may burp because the grey tank is inadequately vented. It vents through the bathroom, if you have the travel valve closed, it cannot vent except through the kitchen trap. If you tow up a steep mountain it will belch stinky gasses into the cabin. You can add deodorant to the tanks, that makes it smell vaguely like lemons instead of rotting food particles. The grey tank needs a second vent to fix this. Maybe while you are stringing pipes you can do that too.;) John Davies Spokane WA

No, you are putting words in my mouth. I said to tee into the line that exits the bottom of the fresh tank. That line will allow the full black tank to gravity feed through the lower port into the empty fresh tank when your new ball valve is opened. The pump has nothing to do with transferring water by this method. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2261-how-to-fresh-water-tank-suction-tube-mod-no-spin-welding-required/ NOTE: Older Ollies that have not been modified (like mine and some others) use this lower blue line as a suction supply for the pump. (The upper fitting with line removed is the tank FILL port.) Newer or modded Ollies use a new third syphon line exiting the top of the tank. This change allows use of (almost) the full 30 gallons instead of sucking air with 10 gallons remaining. DO NOT PLUG THE FRESH TANK OVERFLOW!!! Nonono! You could explode your tank. You must add a BIG overflow to the black tank, just like the fresh tank one, so you will not rupture it while filling especially when the ball valve at the gravity feed line is closed. None of these tanks can accept 60 psi and survive. Not even 10 psi, I suspect. I suppose you could possibly fill both tanks from the black rinse port, but that would be way WAY slower than filling the fresh tank through its own port. Gravity feeding through a 1/2” pipe will probably take as much as half an hour. There is only about 3 inches of height difference to provide head pressure. Are you quite sure you want to do this? No offense intended, but I am getting some bad vibes.... John Davies Spokane Wa

The two waste tanks are ABS (black plastic, like most sewer pipes) and only the fresh water tank is poly. John Davies Spokane WA

There are a number of fresh water lines near the water pump, the line at the very bottom of main fresh tank would be my choice to tee into. You might have to disconnect and move some other lines to get in there. You will need a manual ball valve where you can reach it easily, say under the front dinette, so you can leave that closed until the big fresh tank is nearly empty. Otherwise the black tank will just drain and empty into it, and the excess will flow right out the fresh vent hose... I haven't opened up the bathroom vanity, but others have. There are pictures floating around. It is pretty straight forward, you should have no trouble at all reaching the black tank vent. You will need to cut it and cap it, and also cap the main waste vent that you removed it from. While you are under there, disconnect and cap the fresh water hose that goes to the unused flush toilet, so you no longer have to winterize that part. Leave it to where somebody could easily hook it back up in the future... Have fun, please start a new thread with pics. John Davies Spokane WA

It is so cool to see a 12 year old thread revived. I would caution about going overboard by insulating everything that you can touch; consider what it will mean for future servicing, such as identifying and fixing a water leak, or removing an item for repair. I do really like the idea of adding stuff under the cabin access hatches, but since there is a great big return air opening for the furnace on the LEII model, I am doubtful it would actually quiet down anything under that area.,.. John Davies Spokane WA

Many years ago when I was an A&P I attended a Cessna business jet training class in Wichita, the instructor was fresh back from China, and he told us that the entire concept of "life limited parts" (which are components that the manufacturer mandates in the type certificate - the "official" description of the aircraft) was entirely alien to the Chinese bosses and techs.... He told us that he could not get them to understand that a part like a wing attach bolt that was removed to be scrapped due to its number of hours in service, or cycles, could not just be repainted, retagged and slapped onto another airplane. The practice of mutilating a part to a condition where it could never be reused was met with horror. He said that it was just the way the Chinese culture has evolved. I can't say how they deal with used aircraft parts these days, but as FrankC mentions, the flood of fake bearings, electronics, shoes, Rolexes, etc, etc is a symptom of their cultural and complete disregard for intellectual property. They just do not seem to care, it is just part of doing business... One bearing supplier advertised that he could supply bulk loads of bearings with any brand name and type of packaging, just say the word. John Davies Spokane WA

It is so very frustrating. I tried the bearing check app and it crashed n my IOS devices. This Amazon ad looks good - the seller is "Timken". So you run it by Fake Spot and get this: You click on the seller "Timken" and all you get is a bunch more bearings, nothing at all about the seller. Who is fake anyway, since the genuine bearings and races are not sold separately. I am 99% sure mine are the real deal, they look correct, with high tech label, and the inner wrapper over oiled parts (but mine do NOT have the QR code - so maybe they are Old Stock?) : I paid $145 for the eight bearing sets, locally at a professional supply house (part of the BDI network). The seals cannot be identified by inspection - they say "National" on the outside, but they are definitely high quality and have the orange sealer material where they go into the race cavity. See interesting video: "Follow the Chinese authorities in a raid against a counterfeit bearing workshop. In this video you can see how low cost bearings are branded to look like high quality premium bearings. Even small scale operations use using sophisticated equipment to mark the products to look like original products. The poor working conditions of the under-age workers are also displayed." Raid on Chinese Counterfeit Bearing Manufacturer I found a dozen or more links about the problem, this is typical: https://rogtecmagazine.com/timken-counterfeit-products-are-a-trap-for-end-users/ So I guess what we should be asking, is "Should I worry about cheap bearings in my Ollie?" My answer is, don't lose sleep over it, but carry a spare set like this and a pound of bearing grease. You may not have the skill or tools to install them out in the boonies, but most likely somebody around you can help. Monitor the hub temperature with a temp gun or a careful finger; a distressed bearing will run hot. This is in my kit, and I wouldn't hesitate to install it to complete a long trip, but I would not INTENTIONALLY replace all my bearings with this kind. If you go far out into the boonies, or way up into Alaska, or are super anal like me, I think you will sleep better knowing you have genuine high quality parts in your hubs. Nobody wants to deal with a blown or melted bearing beside the road... John Davies Spokane WA

I personally cannot guarantee ANY Timken bearing is authentic. I don’t have the knowledge. Some of them look good and the packaging does too. There are quite a few online articles about this problem, I’ll see if I can find some links to post. The ONLY way to be sure is to buy from a Timken authorized dealer, locally if possible. They order direct from Timken and have a solid paper trail, plus they sell to industry so they would not stay in business long if they provided bogus parts to critical equipment like power generating plants.... I will post my receipt from my last purchase. If you order “real” Timkens from an Amazon vendor and in three months that vendor is gone, that is a HUGE red flag..... that is why I asked for a link from Bill. Are Ollie Dexter axle bearings made in China? Without a doubt.. Dexter probably has a supplier they trust to make “adequate” parts, but for sure they are still very poor quality. And the seals are complete trash and failure prone, taking out your brake when one leaks. Then you have to replace both on that axle.... John Davies Spokane WA

I would be really interested in a set of genuine Timkens for $5.00 .... i am pretty sure that those are counterfeit. Amazon and everywhere else is awash with fake bearings. Can you please post a link to that Amazon page? Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

Mainiac, your hull is 211 I believe? I hope they have improved things since 218 was put together..... mine were a joke. The guy that installed them had to have been just pulled off the street. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2159-how-to-fix-your-overhead-cabinet-latches-wrong-hardware/ John Davies Spokane WA

It is frustrating when you locate what appears on the map to be a great spot, right next to swimming and a boat launch area.... the reality is often less appealing. This is Porcupine Bay CG, on Lake Roosevelt WA, operated by the Corps of Engineers. Most of their other campgrounds on this huge lake are OK to excellent. They know this one is bad, because there is a display showing “Proposed Development”. But the info is about twenty years old, faded and peeling, and they obviously never got the funding.... Looks great from 2000 feet up, but the Campground is not where indicated, that is the day use area. The sites are off to the left.... Somebody had the bright idea to turn those neat pull-through “Ollie friendly” sites into DOUBLE sites, by placing dividers and adding extra sign posts. Site 6 on the left is just 14 feet long.... Sure, I want to camp my mini Motorhome with my back window touching my neighbors back window, or pay for two spots per night to park my Ollie there. The sites are so narrow you can’t unhitch and park the TV next to the trailer. The off season rates make up for it, if you could fit. $9.00, or $4.50 with the Geezer Pass. These pics were taken in March, midweek at noon, and there was not a single soul around, though the boat ramp lot had a couple of dozen parked trailers. I was without “Mouse” but plan to never return.... John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks for the info. And a huge THANKS for mentioning the wood core! Sealing the exposed wood is really important for a bathroom divider wall to prevent ROT! Especially a vent like this that could suck moisture laden air through it whenever the shower is used without the bath fan running.... I discovered the wood when I mounted a clothesline support there. I was dismayed since Oliver says there is NO wood in the hull construction, though I suppose one could argue that technically the wall is not part of the hull - it is a separate piece that is glued in place. BTW the rear overhead “wall” which forms the big storage compartment has a bonded honeycomb structure, no wood, like the rest of the molded hull and interior..... I would love to ask an Ollie engineer why they cheaped out with the front bulkhead. There must be a reason for the wood. But I would smack him along side his head anyway, it is a stupid design. Has anyone had the bathroom door frame off, and can you tell us if the wood is exposed or sealed? John Davies Spokane WA

Can you post a product link? What kind of stainless is it made from? Neat mod, I like it. I have been thinking of putting a big hole there, but intended it for off season natural airflow. I had not considered its use with the bath fan sucking air out the roof. John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks, do you have any pics to share or words of wisdom about the gearbox? Did you just add more grease or what? Does the teflon stay on the tubes “adequately”? John Davies Spokane WA

Does that stay in place OK at highway speeds when it is gusty? There are some other choices that are more fitted. thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

I am hoping that I can get the inner tube and threaded jackscrew out so I can get off the gunk and factory-applied grease that collects dirt between the two sliding tubes. It just turns into grinding compound..... not at all good when towing on dusty roads. Has anyone tried a spray graphite lubricant for the tube-to-tube interface? It would be very easy to apply and later to “touch up” - extend the jack, wipe off the exposed area, spray the lube up into the outer tube to flush it out. You could use a spray brake cleaner to flush out the crud first, then let it dry before lubing.... There are teflon sprays out there but they don’t dry to a film, all they do is leave a slick dry white powder that wipes off. Any thoughts on this? It’s $13.50 on Amazon Prime. The jack owners manual does not even address lubing these parts..... what this jack needs is a flexible motorcycle fork dust boot/ gaitor.... I guess I need to measure some parts. Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

22 reported dead so far, a real tragedy. However I don’t think they were close to Hohenwald. They were in north Nashville and into East central TN (the Cookeville area especially). I used to live in SW Nashville when growing up. I remember lots of scary thunderstorms but not tornados so much. I hope all our fellow Ollie owners around these parts are OK. John Davies Spokane WA

Patriot, thanks for the comments, I have just discovered this cool trailer, and found out you don't have to import one from Canada. They are right now establishing a US dealer network. They are built tough but fold up to just three feet deep. Cost for a 5'x9' (bed size) in Canada is around US$3000. They are all aircraft aluminum except for the galvanized steel 3500 pound axle and wheels. LED lights, hidden wire runs, built in bifold ramp. No brakes. How much was your pretty Aluma? Cool video: ... Apogee Fold Up ... Interesting eh? John Davies Spokane WA

Any news of the rumored move to bigger and better headquarters? I would love to see some pics. While we are waiting breathlessly, here are a couple of promo videos from Aluma Trailers in Iowa. What their employees say about Alumas applies just as well to Ollies. Aluma Trailer Promo Aluma Factory Expansion video Does anyone here own an Aluma brand utility or other type of trailer? Do you like it? I have been looking for a small used one. John Davies Spokane WA