Tom and Doreen

Welcome! You'll love the community here! Oliver offers a factory tour which I highly recommend!

I feel your pain! We headed down a dirt road to visit Toadstool Geological Park NE a day after a rain ( without the trailer luckily ). The mud was sticky and slick all at the same time, completely filled the wheel wells and turned the tires into slicks. We paddled in 4WD for miles. Later the slurry dried nearly to concrete consistency! Weeks later I was still washing bits and pieces of the stuff out from under the truck!

I've had this problem (twice) and I believe that it comes down to a mechanical tolerance and materials problem with the deadbolt mechanism. In their design they purposely overdrive the deadbolt motor ( since they don't have a sensor to determine the position of the deadbolt). When the deadbolt reaches the end of it's travel, motor torque increases and overcomes the friction material in the clutch mechanism allowing the clutch to rotate despite the fact that the deadbolt has reached the end of it's travel. This allows the motor to continue to spin, preventing it from drawing excessive current and shortening its life. I've forgotten their name for the clutch but it's a little barrel that contains a friction material that allows the motor to drive the deadbolt until excessive force (when the deadbolt reaches the end of it's travel) overcomes the friction material causing the clutch to spin freely thereby decoupling the motor from the deadbolt. The problem occurs when the materials in the deadbolt mechanism bind or stick, overcoming the friction material in the clutch, resulting in the deadbolt not completing it's travel within the time that the motor is commanded to operate as determined by the electronics. The symptom is that the motor sounds normal, a confirmation beep is heard signaling end of travel of the deadbolt, but the door either doesn't lock or in my case did not unlock. In short, by design the motor is commanded to run longer than the time that it normally takes for the deadbolt to complete a full travel and relies on the clutch to decouple it's mechanical connection to the deadbolt when the deadbolt reaches the end of it's travel. By doing so they eliminate deadbolt position sensors and save cost. It's clever providing it works reliably. Anything within the transport that adds friction or causes binding can cause a problem. Another issue can be a weak clutch. The company is very good about supplying parts but leaves the repairs up to the customer which usually involves sending videos, sometimes removing the lock and operating the lock by itself while making another video, then waiting for parts which in some cases does not fix the problem and the cycle repeats. I like the lock, it's very convenient, but I aways have my key in my pocket which somewhat defeats the purpose.

Welcome to the community!! You'll find a wealth of knowledge here on the forum. There is an Oliver National Rally this fall, details of which can be found here. The demographics do tend to show a greater number of older folks most likely due to the fact that these trailers are fairly pricy and that they are favored as a "couples trailer", not so much for families. Lately I think that's changing a bit though with younger folks buying in.

....And springs!!

Hmmm.....I wonder if his trailer was bought from a dealer or he possibly bought it from a private owner.

Is there power to the unit? Does your water pump switch / indicator work? I would check everywhere a service person may have worked to see if there are any pinched, broken, or unplugged wires. Are any other devices not working, check fuses, etc..

John, what an absolutely amazing job! It 'looks like' an Oliver but it's so much more now than that you've made improvements to all aspect of the trailer. I don't know if you follow the YouTube channel Dave's Auto Center but you could be the "Dave" of the Oliver world!

Could get a little exciting with an Airstream! On the plus side an Airstream probably would make a pretty good Faraday cage!

On the 2023 Elite there's also a breaker (60A) for the +12V systems, it's probably a Optifuse like in the Elite 2s. I don't know where it would be located on an Elite but probably under a seat or bunk. The load side of this breaker connects to the fuse panel. The input side is connected to the +12V bus bar.

Looks great John!

It could just be that one of the brakes is out of adjustment. The drum brakes are 'self adjusting' but it's not always a perfect system. There could also be built up debris, brake dust, etc. that is interfering with the brake shoe or components. I think it's a good sign that the brakes don't squeak in the forward direction. Because the shoes wear-in mostly when applied when moving forward they are less likely to squeak when rotated in that direction. Because your trailer is used, do you have any data as to when your brakes were last inspected and what may have been found at that time in terms of the amount of wear? Your trailer is newer than mine so I suspect that your brake shoes still have a good service life left on them.

It's good that you got that taken care of. New or used the factory springs on these trailers are a significant worry. We have a 2023 trailer and one of our springs snapped on our last trip.

John, the 2-5/16 sounds like a safe bet. I doubt you'll have to worry after that.

It's a lesson to all of us to always have a spare set of shorts handy for occasions like this. 😜

John, I'm so glad that you're ok!! I'd be very interested in knowing what caused the Bulldog to release! That's pretty scary! It's good to know that the safety systems do in fact work! Time to relax under a tree with your favorite adult beverage!!

The Oliver factory sales is the best way to go. The factory is honest and very helpful, always a great experience. Nice people there.

I chose the 4000K color temp. It seems fairly close to the stock light. I changed all of the under cabinet light out so the light is consistent. I did not change the ceiling or the inside cabinet lights. In terms of the blue night light feature I doubt that I'll use that very much.

Yes, the cover has worked out very well. One of the nicest features is that there is a zipped door panel that allows access to the trailer when the cover is on which works great when checking on or working on the trailer during the winter.

Ok, when using this method of sanitizing you should place the valves in the "normal" configuration. Concerning the water heater, was the water heater power switch (access from outside of the trailer on the water heater itself) in the 'on' position ( either up or down ). Of course don't try this when you're sanitizing ( water heater water inlet valve should be closed during sanitizing ).

Just for clarity, did you begin the sanitation process by configuring the valves for boon docking mode and pumping the bleach solution into the fresh tank (using the water pump), and did that work? ....Then filling the fresh tank from the fresh tank fill inlet, and configuring the valves for normal mode? ...And now the pump does not work? I'm also curious about why your water heater and furnace aren't working, when did you discover that? Did all of these issues happen around the same time?

At the time that we purchased ( Jan '23 ) Oliver sold a portable panel as an add-on. It's basically the same panel(s) that are on the roof but with a stand and controller / converter. We found them of little use other than as a battery maintainer during the winter. It also works great for charging tractor and trolling motor batteries when needed.

We have the "portable" solar panel that Oliver sells, which is essentially the same one that's on the roof but includes a controller. We found it too bulky and heavy to bring along camping so we use it during the winter to maintain the batteries when the camper is covered and not being used. It's good to have a light weight panel to supplement the roof-top panels when camping in shaded areas.

I believe that it's used for a certain model of refrigerator that used 110VAC. My '23 model has one as well. Oliver wanted to have an AC option available if they decided to change refrigerator types / brands. The end of the cord in my trailer feeds up to the back of the refrigerator but it isn't connected to anything (since I have a 12V refrigerator). It's basically an extension cord.

Oliver is dedicated to continuous improvement, I like a lot of the changes. I think stepping away from Truma appliances is a good thing. I'd feel more confident traveling knowing that parts and service are more likely to be available for the new appliances. An integrated DC to DC converter is a great addition as well.