Steve Morris

Like @csevel I've been tracing down a faint sewer/sour odor. One place I wanted to check was in the vanity to see if I have any leaks or loose pipes under there. So today I pulled off the bin on the front. Fortunately, everything is tight and dry. All the joints are glued and I checked all couplings to make sure they are tight. But while I was in there, I wanted to do a test fit on the alternate shower components that I bought back in May after looking at Mike's @mossemi system. Much to my surprise, there is a block glued to the inside of the cabinet with what appears to be a check valve and two PVC pipes going to it. Is this the gray tank vent? Or is there one on the fresh water tank? I thought the vent was under the kitchen sink. Mike's trailer is a fair bit older, and didn't have anything mounted there. If it is a vent, any suggestions on how to check to see if it is functioning properly, and not letting smells from the tank get through? Claudia, did you figure out where your smell was originating?

Let her know that there are several previous Airstream owners on this forum that moved to Oliver to get away from expensive repairs, hail damage, rotten floors, failing cabinets, popped rivets, and more. All you need to do is join an Airstream forum to learn there is a better option. 😉

Hopefully, these will be available in the US one of these days, or the shipping from the UK is reasonable. These would come in really handy for cleaning up some of the sloppy wiring we've all found. https://quickfixjb.co.uk/

Lots of ways to do it out there, but most common recommended is jacking up the front of the trailer (also lifting the truck) to provide slack. I did this for a while, but disliked the extra work the jack needed to do to lift the ass-end of the truck. Instead, I introduce slack by overlapping the hitch and ball. I haven't adjusted the nut since Chris Scarff did at the rally in May 2023. When you are hitching up, back the truck under the ball like normal. Then, back up another inch to inch and a half until the nose of the hitch almost touches the ball mount. Now you can easily slip the whale tail on without making any adjustments. It even works at odd angles (within reason) where other methods require dead straight. Unhooking is the opposite: with the hitch still on the ball, open the bail, raise the tongue until the trailer until the ball falls out, back up an inch or so, and drop off the whale tail. Done! Other than the time I needed to hook up almost 90° to the trailer, this method has worked every time. And no extra strain on the jack! I hope that helps

This doesn't solve the problem. But this past weekend, I got to see the modification that @Ollie-Haus made on his 2023. It is a 5"+ length of 1x1x1 aluminum Z-bar, painted white, and adhered to the trailer with double-sided tape. https://www.mcmaster.com/7062T15/ I'm going to do the same, but before mounting the shield, I will cover the lens with amber Lamin-X film (that I bought before getting the trailer but have yet to apply...) It makes a huge difference, and even while still a cool white, it is less objectionable than just covered with Lamin-X like the trailer beside us had. It was great to compare the two, which is what convinced me to do both!

Three of the six Olivers in attendance at the 2024 Ohio Fall Annual Egg Rally, held at Cowan Lake State Park, in southwest Ohio. @Ollie-Haus @csevel Matt & Sue Jones, Deb and me, the folks with the micro-truck at the Oliver Rally, who I've *again* forgotten their name, and an unknown E1 that pulled in but was not found while riding around. Plus a couple who spent about an hour looking at our trailer and talking to Claudia, who have found a 2019 EII and are considering buying it. A fun time, and beautiful weather.

It fits. Sort of two orientations it’ll drop into at different angles. For reference, the top is about 2” from the ceiling I have the optional wall mount because I have all the components to do the separate shower valve and new faucet. But I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. The adapter is a temporary step to use the shower head until I start that project.

A follow-up to the above. I just called to return my adapter, and was told a new one is in the works for newer trailers, and should be ready by the end of the month. I’ll be getting one as soon as they ship.

Be aware that this adapter only works with older trailers. If you unscrew the faucet from the hose and the hose has a female fitting, it will work. The adapter has a female thread on the faucet end and a male thread on the hose end. Newer trailer need female threads on both ends. I’m going to have to send mine back.

Claudia, let's get together and take a sniff in each other's trailers this weekend. We've been chasing a similar very faint odor, but I haven't gone to the extent that you have yet. I too regularly flush the black and gray tanks with the Calgon/Pine~Sol mix. I use a macerator pump at home, so take extra time and several fill/flush cycles of both. Still, there's that slight, lingering odor. I bought but haven't yet used a roll of the edge seal for the bathroom vanity. I'll bring it with me and we can see if there's enough length for both of us.

Our 2023 Elite II with Truma air conditioning has a drain line on both sides, coming out the rear corners of the trailer, just forward of the bumper. I've used a 9-foot long sunroof drain cleaning tool to clear any obstruction on the street/driver's side of the trailer, but it is not long enough for the curb/passenger side. If I'm leaning right, the condensate will drain down the side instead of the drain tube. I need to try a longer string trimmer to clear that side.

Another cool project to add to the list! Thanks for documenting this.

It's for those of us who live in rainy climates, and don't want a waterfall running down the side of the trailer, and soaking everything within a couple of feet. It has rained every single trip except one since we bought our trailer! ⛈️😠⛈️

As always, John E Davies has documented this project:

That sounds like my kind of logic! Having happily sold our last sailboat several years ago, I recently came across a cool double-ender at a state park lake in Ohio. In trying to identify it, I ended up on a pocket yacht and trailer sailor Facebook group, and looking through Great Lakes brokerages... 😜

I linked to a Canada map and Canada/USA that I found on Google Images in the above post. Here are both files:

Rather than use the web-based mapping tool, I simply found a large US map, and fill in my own states. I use a graphic application on my computer to "fill" each state (in my case one color for "camped in" and another for visited with the Oliver, but didn't camp.) I save a copy of the map with the states filled, then made a 200 pixel wide copy, and paste that into the signature file. To add a state, I simply fill in the new state on the original large file, and save a new 200 pixel wide copy. (I've found that the resolution on the small file is too low to use the "fill" tool there, which is why I do the changes on the large map.) Here's a start for you. To add Canada, find a similar map, or, start with a blank North America map for both the US and Canada.

Absolutely! We got by the first 36 hours on just the trailer's batteries alone. We'd also used the AC a couple of times, just to cool off and dry out. Not particularly hot at 80°, but 90% humidity was killer! The first night, I ordered a generator grounding plug and generator to RV 30A adaptor so that I could use the Honda generator. I'd never considered connecting it to the trailer before, so had no need for these. I'm glad I knew from prior posts on this forum that I needed a grounding plug, else I'd have been frustrated as to why it wouldn't charge. Amazon overnight shipping had them here at 7AM. Of course I only had the propane that was in the trailer (with one tank at 15%), and a little bit in a third tank that I've used all spring and summer for my fire pit. So after using up the latter, I swapped to the full Oliver tank, while I went to fill four more. (We had an empty from our son-in-law, who switched his grill to natural gas, and Deb had picked up two new ones at Costco earlier this summer to replace the out of date and nearly out of date tanks I already had.) About two hours after I returned from filling the tanks, the power came back on. At the height of the outage from four confirmed tornados, 627,000 Ohio customers were without power, with hundreds of poles needing replaced. First Energy was working double shifts with outside help from surrounding areas. But the estimate for complete restoration of power was August 14, so I wanted to make sure I was prepared. I just looked at their web site, and there are still 192,000 customers with no power 70 hours after the storm. If this had been January, we'd be in Florida, and our house would have broken pipes. While there is a lot of damage in the area, it could have been much, much worse!

Our power came on about two hours after posting this. Spectrum is still working on telephone/TV/Internet, but we have our cellular router in the Oliver, so good on two out of three. And we only get junk on our landline, anyway.

48 hours after severe weather passed through northern Ohio, we, like 2-300,000 other residents, are without power. @firstenergyhome is busting their behind, but last posted number was 3200 downed lines to repair. So we’re making do with a hodgepodge of alternatives. We trashed what didn’t fit in the Oliver fridge or the truck fridge. We moved all frozen food to the chest freezer in the garage, which is being powered by the Oliver’s lithium batteries. The truck fridge is powered by swapping two Bluetti solar generators charged with the 200W panel or the Oliver. And the Honda generators charging the Oliver, so it can power everything else! 🤪 I just returned from filling four propane bottles to ensure days of power. At least we have air conditioning a stove, and a hot shower in the Oliver. It could be worse, at 90 degrees or sub-freezing and facing broken pipes.

I got this six-pack earlier this summer from Amazon. Not cheap, but worth it! https://a.co/d/i8OSeF1 Testing by Project Farm: https://youtu.be/ZEiSdZGInm8

That's cool, Steve! A few times I've tried watercolors and pencil drawing, but I just can't make progress. I spent my entire adult life making drawings for technical documentation, patents, engineering drawings, advertising, etc. But take a compass, straightedge, or CAD away from me and my work looks like a kindergartener! My hands apparently do not connect to the left side of my brain...

Damn, I just tried to help @Ralph Mawyer with his question, and get piled on left and right! Im 5’7” and Deb is 5’1” She weighs less than me. We’re not average. I spent 45 years doing mechanical engineering, so I know numbers, too. Im out…

Y’all are welcome to come and measure my tire gap, weigh my truck, weigh my wife, etc. But you’re wrong. I measured tire gap before adding Firestone bags without the trailer, after adding bags without the trailer, and after adding bag with the trailer. The fronts are within 1/4” of stock, and the rears are taller than stock with the trailer in trip configuration. No kitchen sink here, and a good thing my wife doesn’t see your saying she weighs more than average! Combined we are 318 pounds. Mostly you’re making assumptions about things you know nothing about…

Tough to tell head on. Looks level to me. Air bags are at 15 PSI. More raises the rear too much and makes for a harsher ride.