John E Davies

That is an awful lot of stuff..... have you considered a different RV choice? How about a long bed 1 ton Quad Cab truck with a high quality four season camper like a Northern Lite, plus a secure enclosed cargo trailer long enough for all for your toys, gear and off season clothes. Remove and sell the rear seats in the truck, that saves you 100 pounds. Build a low carpeted plywood platform there for the dogs, with hidden lockable compartments underneath for valuables. From your description you need tons more storage than you could ever get with an Ollie and a truck bed. If you went with a truck camper and cargo trailer you should reconsider a dually for the stablity and very high payload. If you are strongly against a dually you should limit your choice to a mid sized camper like ..... https://northern-lite.com/Truck-Camper-SE-9-6SE-WB.php Have you considered this approach? It would be better in winter since you could park the trailer if conditions are bad, and you could still get around easily with your truck and portable home. Truck campers excel in harsh winters. The Elite II is four season “weather” rated but you will trash it if you tow it through a really harsh winter. Would you rather mess up a $6000 cargo trailer or a $60,000 Oliver? John Davies Spokane WA

Take a deep breath. Don’t panic, unless you definitely plan to travel really heavily loaded. That bombproof engine plus the 4.30 axle ratios will perform wonderfully well towing an Elite II. I would certainly try it out for a thousand miles before thinking about trading on something heavier duty. You certainly can’t damage it as long as you don’t drive like a lunatic.... it is built darned tough. I hear you about Toyotas. It is a shame they don’t offer at least a heavy half ton Tundra, if not an actual HD version. This model has been realtively unchanged for eleven years. It is really due for a refresh. John Davies Spokane WA

Cptdondo, you are smart to do the math. Your stated load rating seems qute low. What year is your truck? Older pickups can’t carry squat compared to newer ones. My ‘06 Ram 3500 5.9 Cummins SRW 4wd had only a 2800 lb rating. The Gen 4 trucks carry lots more weight. If you load down both passenger compartment AND the bed, your truck has little or no room for the tongue load. My suspicions about folks towing the Elite II with a light duty pickup are: They are solo or travel very lightly loaded. They are over gross and don’t care. They are over gross and don’t yet know it. If you get a trailer with all the bells and whistles and you want to travel with full tanks, lots of personal items, cast iron pots, ammo, generator, tools, bikes, etc etc, you won’t like the way your truck drives. So, you can try to keep the trailer as light as possible, use an Anderson hitch always, and worry about it constantly, or get a bigger truck, use a dead weight hitch and load her down heavy, no worries. It is a dilemma many prospective RV buyers face. I tow with a Land Cruiser 200 (8500 lbs max/ 850 lbs tongue) and know I am close to maxing out the truck, but OTH the vehicle is so grossly overbuilt that I know it will take the load without any issues. I personally would never try to tow with a half ton pickup truck with similar load ratings. I would worry about busting the rear drivetrain. I expect to hear some dissenting opinions. Welcome to the forum. John Davies Spokane WA

CO2 systems are teriffic for high volume uses but there are concerns about corrosion of the valve stem and excessive pressure drop through the sidewalls. http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2016/3/25/3izopxom72k7p3vxpvjtfuhk7ouscc That said, if I had a serious rock crawler and wanted to run air tools I would use nothing else. I am not sure I would be happy with CO2 in the tires of a daily driver or trailer. Can you tell us how you managed to run over your expensive pump? I bet you said some bad words.... John Davies Spokane WA

If you want to blow dust off the trailer after towing on dirt roads, forget a compressor. I carry my Stihl gas powered leaf blower without the extension tube. It is very compact, and a 300 mph air blast absolutely decimates the dust. It looks amazing too, just stay upwind. I don’t bother carrying any extra premix since it only has to run a couple of minutes. I also blow out the fridge area to get the dirt off the coils. That area is really bad about collecting dust, at least it is for “Mouse” because the Stone Stomper funnels dust from the TV along the bottom of the hull and it gets blasted into that lower opening. John Davies Spokane WA

I have had a number of junky “emergency” compressors that never worked well, they either burned out, or they just were not strong enough to deliver the needed volume of air. I have been carrying this unit for several years and I like it a lot. It definitely isn’t as well built as the more expensive brands but it works great. For the price I think it is hard to beat. https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-2781-5-65-Universal-Compressor/dp/B004K25GMG I did swap out the fittings for regular quick disconnect ones, put a swivelling clipon air chuck on the end, and added a compact 25 ft x 1/4” hose for extra reach. I use it mostly for airing up the 33 inch truck tires after offroading. It takes about 60 seconds per tire to go from 25 to 35 psi. It slows down as the pressure rises, another minute gets them to 42. I give each tire a minute, then go to the next, then finish off. That way if the motor decides to take a dump there will hopefully be at least some air in all the tires so I can drive to a town. Or I can use my backup hand pump, the dinky mountain bike one I use for the airbags. Or maybe not ..... LOL. The pump uses heavy clips for attaching to your battery and you should run the engine while using the compressor. It draws a lot of amps and you need to keep the voltage up to make it run well. If airing up a trailer tire, which I have never had to do, I would pop open the battery drawer and connect the pump leads there. Did that help? Is there a reason you aren’t happy with the viair clone? Any of the battery powered pumps you mentioned won’t be any use on the road, they are meant for a trim carpenter driving small brads. Pshtttt pshtttt! You would just flatten the battery trying to get a lot of air out of them, and the cfm rating is WAY too low. John Davies Spokane WA

Unusual permanent colors and coatings should be avoided for several reasons, the main one being that if your trailer hull gets damaged it will be extremely difficult to match a wierd color or coating that has faded over time. Plus it would make the ‘glass repair much more labor intensive. The rougher bedliner coatings cannot be buffed out or protected easily by conventional waxes or magic potions like Rejex. Once you spray a bedliner on you are stuck with its appearance, good or bad. You can regularly apply a UV protectant like 303, but that is about it. I think anyone who has a sprayed in bedliner in their truck will agree with me that it is impossible to keep looking new. I agree that a vinyl wrap makes great sense if you want to add color to an appliance white Ollie....but I like my refrigerator just the way it is, with no side swoosh graphics, just the Oliver logo. John Davies Spokane WA

Take some extra time and do it the way it should have been done at the factory.... http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/how-to-junction-box-for-trailer-harness-repair-or-extend-the-harness/ Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

I'm not a full timer by a long shot, but I strap down a 63 quart ARB Fridge behind the driver seat for long trips, to keep extra frozen items. I made a 10 AWG adaptor cable that I run out the rear hatch and plug into the solar port on the side of the trailer when stopped for the night. It works pretty well. Though it is wise to not drive away from the trailer with the cable connected. The fridge draws 3 amps DC with about a 50% duty cycle in the summer depending on the temp inside the truck. If I insulated the unit it would run less. I really want to ditch the Ollie's propane systems, especially the fridge, but I don't know if that will ever happen. John Davies Spokane WA

All it takes is for a stick or tire carcass to fly up and jerk the breakaway lanyard free from the switch. You aren't going to move very far with four locked brakes on the trailer. It's a great practice to keep the lanyard (and also the main wire harness) bungeed up and away from any possible road debris, as much as possible. John Davies Spokane WA

I call those puddle lights, like the ones in some cars that illuminate the ground as you exit the door. They are exactly the same lights as those inside the cabin down low, and they are LED with two dinky wires coming out the back. If you have a dead one it most likely has failed internally and you just need to replace the assembly. OTH maybe a spliced connection has failed, you could remove the light and test the power wire with a voltmeter, and check the ground wire with an ohmmeter. Use a flat screwdriver to CAREFULLY pry the steel cover off the light, don’t damage the gelcoat. (Put some duct tape or a few layers of masking tape on the gelcoat if you want some protection.) Take out the two screws and the light and wires will slide out of the hole. Good luck.. John Davies Spokane WA

Texting car driver gets her Altima stuck under the front of the trailer. http://www.thedrive.com/news/26106/nissan-becomes-wedged-under-travel-trailer-in-bizarre-crash It looks as if the trailer was lifted for extra ground clearance and her car missed the rear bumper? I am really surprised that the hitch stayed together. That is impressive. My guess is that the trailer is totalled and the truck is moderately damaged underneath. Though maybe it is OK. The car driver is lucky the propane line didn’t rupture. Or the holding tanks.... John Davies Spokane WA

It is an LED light and I bet it is not serviceable. I would check the wires to it and if they look ok and there is power, swap it for one of your other reading lights. John Davies Spokane WA

Agreed 100%, it is easier to swap the pump assembly, and repair the bad one later and use that as your spare. If the pump quits you will not be in the mood to fuss around with diagnosing things. But always check for 12 volt DC power at the pump connector before changing parts, it may just be a blown fuse., which only takes a couple of minutes to change. If you carry spare fuses.... John Davies Spokane WA

Dump it in a campground toilet for sure and flush a couple of times. Don’t ever pour it down a sink there or in your Ollie! That would make for very noxious grey water. I do have to comment, if you are in the habit of staying with full hookups for long periods, it might be better to remove the Natures Head, sterilize it, sell it on eBay for $400 and install a regular flush toilet, so you can just stay hooked up to the sewer connection all the time. I love the NH but I try very hard to never stay where there are hookups,... and it works very well for that scenario. I still have to dump the pee bottle in a toilet or outhouse, but it is less embarrassing to be carrying it around a more primitive camping area. LOL. John Davies Spokane WA

Hobo, I take everything off and cap the port. I don't like the idea of towing with extra stuff sticking out, though with my mudflaps it is not such a hazardous situation.... I do let the filter drain before putting it away. Some filter users leave them inside the cabin to completely dry out between uses, but I have never bothered and I haven’t got sick yet. I do replace it seasonally. John Davies Spokane WA

Keep in mind the water hose and filter are not protected from over pressure, but I honestly don’t care much about that. This does get the entire unit out of the way and well off the ground, with the bumper either lowered or raised. The short spring reinforced hose section came with the Camco filter. It is not needed but provides a little flexibility and also takes some strain off the port in the side of the trailer. You could put the filter after the regualtor, to protect it, but I prefer to filter out any sediment before it reaches the regulator, which only has a coarse screen. There are definitely better filters out there! But they do the job, the refill 2-Packs for these are about $30 and you can get them from Amazon or any Walmart store. ... https://www.amazon.com/Camco-TastePURE-Flexible-Protector-40043/dp/B0006IX87S John Davies Spokane WA

The trailer plumbing is always safe with the regulator I showed above; the gage remains at your set point regardless of whether or not water is moving through the hose. From that you can see that the trailer side is always protected, or the gage would spike to the higher reading when you turned off the flow. If you ever see that happen, it means your unit is bad. Which can happen. John Davies Spokane WA

Overland, thanks for the EC comments, have you personally seen the new model at an Expo? Any comments? One big drawback to any of the truck mounted units is the cabin entry height. Not so easy as an Ollie for most older folks.... John Davies Spokane WA

I think you have your Earths mixed up. The EarthCruiser is made in Bend OR and their low end model with diesel appliances is about $110k plus the price of the truck. .... http://www.truckcamperadventure.com/2018/12/in-the-spotlight-earthcruiser-exd-expedition-camper/ A much better specced EXP built on a Fuso 4wd starts at $225k. .... https://earthcruiser.com/our-vehicles/earthcruiser-exp/ XP Campers start at $60k plus the truck. ... http://xpcamper.com/versions/v2-compact/..... But that is a pretty spartan unit, though it has diesel appliances and solar, their V1 starts at double that. Earth Roamers ..... if you have to ask, you can’t afford one. An Ollie plus a nice new truck is say $110k. If you already have a truck, $65k. But I know of no other pull trailer that is anywhere as nicely put together. OTH you don’t have to pay that much more for good appliances. And you would lose the scary propane system.... John Davies Spokane WA

StoicJim mentioned this in passing in another thread. It is so important I thought it should have its own thread. “SUN CITY, Ariz. — At the request of many readers, RV Daily Report has compiled all eight editorials from the RV Industry Death Spiral series into one document that is available to download today. The series of editorials which looked at critical problems with every segment within the RV industry including, manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, campgrounds, associations, RV owners and the RV media, has been read by nearly 80,000 people from around the world.” https://rvdailyreport.com/industry/download-rv-industry-death-spiral-complete-series/ I heavily researched RVs and Oliver in particular before buying two years ago. I knew a lot of this info, but much of it was brand new to me. I have no regrets at all about buying “Mouse” but I also have no illustions about the very sad state of the industry in general, including camping areas. If I had to buy another RV tomorrow, it would either be a new Ollie, or one by two other manufacturers, Earth Cruiser or XP Camper. I would not touch a different brand with a thousand foot pole. If Oliver Travel Trailers wants to truly distinguish itself as a premier brand, it should completely abandon the crap RV appliances that it uses and, like those other manufacturers, use high quality marine units that don’t constantly break. When they do need service you can get it done at any boat repair shop. John Davies Spokane WA

Use pliers to hand tighten them after adding silver antiseize compound to the threads. No worries. That “loosen a quarter turn” advise was really intended for stationary applications like a chain hoist .... but if you try that with a boat anchor, or trailer hitch, you may lose parts. Securing with heavy stainless steel safety wire is very good. I have never tried nylon ties but would worry about them since the white ones deteriorate in sunlight. Black would be better, and be sure to change them yearly. Leaving the hitch shackles loose makes it really easy way for somebody to walk away with your front section... do you want that? John Davies Spokane WA

I tow with a 2013 Land Cruiser and don’t need extra mirrors. However I think a trailer backup camera that is NOT wired into your backup lights is mandatory. I turn it on when in heavy traffic to watch for tailgaters or idiots. It is extremely helpful! When I towed with a Ram 3500 with wide mirrors it was certainly nice, but I don’t have a problem with the 200’s stock ones. I suspect your Tundra is a few inches wider, so no worries. Since you are getting an Elite II, I hope you have the 5.7 engine. If so you definitely have the needed power and those wonderful 4.30 axles. My 200 has 3.90 axles and with my Plus 2 tires it struggles a little at high altitude. I may regear them, eventually, maybe go all the way to 4.88.... so I can tow in fifth instead of forth. If you have stock tires or up to 33” ones you should have no difficulties. John Davies Spokane WA

This works really REALLY great, after you seal the ends to prevent leaks. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/how-to-install-a-big-bubble-level-no-drilling/ John Davies Spokane WA

I never felt the need to raise the front routinely. There have never been drainage issues, even when I overnighted off-level without running down the stabilizers or unhitching. I do not recommend raising the tongue, unless you have issues. If that happens it might make sense to cure the plumbing problem rather than to minimize the symptoms. OTH early trailers without the fresh water pickup tube mod will greatly benefit from a nose-high posture so you can use some of the trapped 12 gallons of unusable water. John Davies Spokane WA