John E Davies

Very nice, what a professional work of art! Would you care to share the material used, so some folks won’t just grab some dead soft aluminum? I could guess what you used, but this is your rodeo.... Thank you. John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, Thanks for the furnace switch pic, I will look for it and post a much better one. It is a little harder getting in there with an Ollie, because the panel is sealed around the perimeter, though I am not so sure that sealer is needed when it goes back together. John Davies Spokane WA

If your tires are already balanced, I would not bother. I did not do it for my sensors. OTH if your tires are NOT already balanced, install the sensors and have them spin balanced with those sensors in place. so the balance will be perfect instead of just pretty close. It makes sense to have a good baseline - you know the balance is good - before just randomly adding more weight. If they are imbalanced already, you might accidentally make them worse. John Davies Spokane WA

This is an interesting shot from the NOAA “predictive” weather site. I really like the old school graphics showing the fronts. I don’t recall ever seeing this much chaos spread all over the USA at one time, keeping in mind that the one solitary “H” represents the middle of the Polar Vortex. I think Sunday would be a good time to just hunker down and binge watch cable TV, if you still have power. NOAA Weather Prediction Center And here is a screen cap from my Windy app, showing temperature. https://www.johnnyjet.com/windy-best-free-weather-app/ So far in NE Washington we have missed all but some single digit night time temperatures, no snow, ice, or wind storms. No snapped trees or multi-car crashes. Stay warm and safe. John Davies Spokane WA

Wow. This is completely mind boggling. I have the outside furnace cover off right now, I am about to dig deep inside its guts to see what is what, clean the fans, look inside the burner and take pics for a How To thread. Do you know if the power switch is on the circuit board itself? What a lovely place to put it ;( I am thinking about the Dinosaur control board, it has diagnostic LED lights on it. How cool would it be to remote mount the board on top of the furnace housing, inside the trailer...? Maybe make an extension cable for the harness? Blinking lights are no good if the board is buried deep inside. Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

Maybe we should resurrect the old airplane term "flying boat"? Or a kind of hover plane? Cool video: What Happened to Giant Ekranoplans? John Davies Spokane WA

OK, this is news to me. Can you please explain? A picture would be best. John Davies Spokane WA

Touche'. Thanks. I forgot about all those 1/2 inch holes in the belly. Together they should be around 10 square inches. That is actually quite a lot of built-in infiltration. John Davies Spokane WA

I agree, stay hunkered down! That Texas pileup was just awful to watch, because the speeds were so high. My son totaled my beloved 1996 Series 80 in similar conditions a few years ago on black ice. Here is the big 2008 Portland Oregon snowstorm, which dumped a good bit of it on top of glare ice. Even if you had snow tires (very few residents do) it might not have made any difference. Chains or studded tires would have been fine.... Ice carnage John Davies Spokane WA

We have ways....! I am unafraid of drilling as many big holes as necessary. But not at the risk of screwing up the fridge. I have never had mine out, despite all the hysterical “service every year!” warnings in the operating manual. I never knew that the inside panel, where the door is, is completely sealed all around its perimeter. In theory, I guess. Mine sure isn’t sealed tight. Thanks for the all comments. Maybe I will wait until I can install a compressor fridge, then I can move the furnace intake at the same time. John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks very much, but I still don’t get it, all the bad stuff is outside next to the two big vents. I thought that section was completely blocked off, out there, with miles of silver tape and sealers. What has this to do with the inner wall near the entryway? I sure would like to see some actual Ollie photos. BTW I know there is air leakage in my trailer, because dust trickles out from under the fridge (inside) on forest roads. So it is nowhere close to airtight there. I would love a DC fridge, I am just not there financially, this has been a very expensive winter for me, RV wise.... Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

That is so cool! Thanks for posting. It worked fine with my iPhone camera. A window opened with the link, touch the link and it opened your page in Safari. I do suggest that you blur out all your personal contact info in the picture above. It isn’t wise to post it publicly, even in an image. My wife got me a box of business cards with a color picture of “Mouse” and my contact info, to hand out when encountering curious folks. I no longer have a website or blog, so I don't need your very cool bar code. I stopped officially showing the trailer, for personal liability reasons, I but still let curious people inside for a look and then walk them around the outside for a while, followed with a referral card. John Davies Spokane WA

There are at least two schools of thought. Use the factory supplied 30 amp cord, and add a 30 amp to 15 amp male adapter at the power source. This means no worries about a too small cord, but you are still limited to just 15 amps. The very expensive cord is much more likely to be stolen, it will get a lot more dirty and worn since you use it all the time, and it puts a whole lot of stress on the socket it is hanging off.If the outlet is worn, it may be hard to get a good connection. I prefer to use a cheaper 15 amp cord which is smaller, lighter, less likely to vanish, and it is simple to plug in at the 15 amp source. At the trailer, use an adapter like this. Marinco 30A female to 15 amp male pigtail If you do need a 30 amp connection (running AC and other stuff in Summer), pull out the factory cord and use it without any adapters. You can buy a cheaper no name adapter, but it will likely be poor quality and not very durable. The Marinco one is perfect, a “yacht” part, and is of the highest quality. I had a no-name one which burned up, this one is about 30% heavier and much better built. John Davies Spokane WA.

You cannot run a whole bunch of loads off a 15 amp circuit. You should probably read up on this, it gets discussed at least every couple of months here. Download and understand an “RV electrical load chart”. With a heavy gauge cord you can run more stuff at once without too much voltage drop and overheating of the cord and plugs. The light duty 14 AWG cords have no place in an RV. I use a 10AWG cord to run my air conditioner, it certainly can handle that kind of load which would fry a smaller one. A decent cord, and not too far to the outlet, lets you run at once all the normal inside stuff like lights, fridge, converter (charger), furnace. Maybe a box heater on Low (750 watts or less). Too many amps at one time will trip the house circuit breaker. So you learn to ration your usage, turn off certain circuit breakers like the hot water heater and microwave. Run the HWH off propane instead. Or run it on electricity when you are away and not using a lot of other stuff. A 30 amp cord and 30 amp power source allows pretty much everything to run at once. Your onboard surge suppressor will show the amp load, I do not know where it is currently mounted. You can flip on things one at a time and see how the number changes. If it gets over about 13 amps on a 15 amp circuit, you need to back off on the usage. I have both of these and they work fine. The bigger the cord wire diameter (a smaller number) and the longer it is, the more $$$. USW 12/3 cord Polar / Solar 10/3 Cord John Davies Spokane WA

I do not know any function for this other than feeding cabin air to the furnace. Though it is also an access point. Since there is a round port directly in front, I would probably just make a white plastic cover from a cutting board and screw it down here, with some rubber gasket material to seal it 100%. Somebody sleeping here is literally just two feet away from this noisy thing. I know a grill could work under the dinette. I do NOT know anything about this wall, is there an adequate space (at least 1” of depth) behind it, and could air travel from there to the under-floor spaces? Is it packed with insulation? Somebody who has removed their fridge can answer this, I hope. It would be extra nice if a huge hole could be cut there without removing the fridge entirely. I am considering installing a nicer looking grill and having a disposable furnace filter behind it, to minimize dust entry. .... https://www.amazon.com/HVAC-Return-Air-Grille-Dimensions/dp/B0753HS34R?th=1 Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

Has anybody tried this? I think that having that huge opening right under the sleeping area is a problem. Could the grill be relocated to the other side of the cabin, under the front dinette seat? Or in the front entry wall at the fridge? Then the big hole in back could be covered or replaced with a hinged access door. It seems as if the fan noise would be greatly reduced if it was located far away. You would have to install a baffle to keep stored items from blocking it under the dinette, which would reduce the volume a little. I’m unclear about the fridge area, if that could be suitable. Before I start messing with it, has anybody tried this? Did you do any sound measurements, before and after? There would be an added benefit - conditioned cabin air would be pulled around the water tanks, helping to keep them and the plumbing a little warmer. Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

They claim 6 hours on Low, 3 hours on High. I also found this in the operating manual, you may want to rethink your venting setup. “This heater requires a minimum vent area of 9 square inches, (example 3” x 3” opening) at the ceiling and at floor level for adequate ventilation during operation. Do not use other fuel burning appliances inside.” Mr Buddy Manual I don’t see how you could easily have air coming in at the floor in an Ollie, but a window (located far from the bath vent) cracked open a 1/4 inch would be enough. As tightly constructed as it is, the trailer will not “leak” in enough air otherwise. John Davies Spokane WA

MandD, I would not worry a second about the wheel bearing grease, just take care of it next Fall. Even when grease separates (the oil seeps out of the wax-like carrier) it does not simply vanish, it pools at the low spots and will get mixed up again as the wheel rotates and the bearings warm up. No big deal. If it actually leaks out past a bad seal, contaminating your brakes, that becomes a very big deal. I do strongly suggest that you use a premium synthetic grease that hardly separates, like Redline CV2 Grease. The cost differential is minimal and it really is a much better product. Use it in the suspension too, it doesn’t make such a visual oily mess there. John Davies Spokane WA

Paul, is the insulation sheet perhaps for a residential furnace or duct? I am trying to get an idea of R value, type of material and where to get it. John Davies Spokane WA

FYI, burning 1 pound of propane produces 1.6 pounds (24 fluid ounces) of water. An adult respires from his body about 8 ounces per day. So running a pound of propane would be the same as adding four extra adults. Does anyone know the fuel consumption rate for a Mr.Buddy? I always thought that it is counter productive to have cross ventilation when using an unvented gas heater. On a windy day that could get drafty and uncomfortable.... you can buy an “outside partially vented” radiant propane heater that sips gas and used only 0.5 amp of power, but it is pretty bulky and I never found a suitable location for it to go in a small Ollie and it still produces a little condensation: https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f56/yes-a-great-vented-catalytic-heater-31008.html John Davies Spokane WA

Floor mat or large rug for outside the door. Small electric box heater for backup or extra heat in the bathroom. Extra 50 or 100 foot heavy gauge 15 amp extension cord, 12 AWG or bigger. You can plug in and run all your normal stuff off a small cord, just keep an eye on the total load. If they happen to have a 30 amp outlet within reach, use your factory cord and you can run everything at once off shore power. Make popcorn😬 Maybe ask them to send you a picture of the site and ask if there is any solar exposure. In winter a sunny spot will be much more pleasant than a fully shaded north side of the house. Ask if there is a place for you to dump your grey tank, because unless you use their shower, your tank will be full in a few days. You should buy a 4” sewer to garden hose adapter, and bring along a 5/8” or bigger junky hose you can screw on there to reach a drain or other location. Make sure you mark the hose Waste Only with a Sharpie. This is a good one: Camco sewer to garden, avoid any brand that only has two “ears”, because one will surely break off. This one is very durable. The absolute worst case for the grey water, drain it into a bucket and carry it inside to dump, 4 gallons at a time, into a toilet. You won’t want to do that again. A two foot piece of 3/4” hose with a female garden hose fitting is useful for this. Again mark the hose Waste Only. They may be OK with your letting the tank just trickle slowly onto the ground, since it is mostly soapy water, but always ask! Finally, have fun, de-stress, and be prepared to show off your new toy. John Davies Spokane WA

Neat! do you have a link for the flexible insulation material you used in the outside access doors? You might want to think about sealing off the big screened vent holes in your battery door. Wouldn’t it be NICE if Oliver would build these trailers with molded in place fiberglass air ducts going through all those locations? Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

Before a tire gets low enough to be obvious to the driver, especially with a tandem trailer, and especially on poor road surfaces where the entire rig is dancing around, the tire is probably going to be completely destroyed due to heat. Once you use a trailer TPMS, you will wonder, “what was I thinking before...? Be safe. John Davies Spokane WA

Pretty. I can't tell, where is the 'fuse"? If you whack the side into a big fixed boulder while backing into a campsite, where will the bar break or bend? Will the small screws shear? What size did you choose? Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

The trailer won't charge a huge amount of amps through the small stock wiring, it just cannot happen. If you had huge cables installed, it could be an issue. What is more important is what voltage will your alternator allow? This is something you can research on the Jeep forums, and I bet the Ram owners here can help too. FYI, my Land Cruiser only puts out 13.9 volts max, and no way would that fully charge lithiums. The truck trailer charge circuit has a 40 amp fuse in it. I added a Redarc battery to battery converter. It works fine - I am seeing 14.5 volts at the batteries - but I have not towed with it yet. John Davies Spokane WA