DanielBoondock

Oh back in the day I never buffed/waxed anything, except windshields occasionally with wax (and now ceramic). Too much work for something that doesn’t last - ceramic changed all that and this is my first use of it. The Ollie is special though, my prized possession. I’m trying to keep it as pristine as possible.

Nice design actually for maintenance, should be easy to remove and clean out compared to rigid pipe

Finished off the SiO2C6 coating! Took one 250 ml bottle exactly for two coats over the whole trailer, including two Seafoam storage boxes (tops), two awnings and various metal bits like the doorstep. Except for the solar panel, mainly I want to get that bug catcher front edge but will do the top too. But I bought the 30' new trailer kit which has two bottles. What to do with the unopened second bottle? Once a bottle is opened it needs to be used within a month or so Option One: Inside I'm considering doing the inside too, at least strategic parts of it. The bathroom is a prime candidate to make shower cleanup easy. The countertops too, they're a thick gelcoat I believe which picks up fine scratches. I'll do a small test and see how well that works out. The floor rounded edges along the aisle is a prime candidate, those take a lot of wear. I've been waxing them but that doesn't really do a lot honestly. Checking with an AI opinion, Gemini is saying 'yes you can but generally not recommended'. Main reason being the solvent fumes (I have 3M cartridge chemical respirators and we have the ceiling fan), and basically its overkill, which is reasonable. Presently I'm using DuraGloss two step - base marine wax with a quick clean touch up, which works OK but not like a silicon coat. Option Two: Refresh coat Other option is to save the bottle (storage temp is important) until the next year or year and a half, and apply a refresh top coat. I think I'll do this Procedure (notes to my future self) Use that unused bottle of Glidecoat nano wash (deep chemical wash) Check the surface, rough spots (previous coating glitches) and scratches Use leftover SONAX EX-04-06 with foam pad, 4500 RPM, three passes crosshatch Two towel wipe off 3'x3' sections Alcohol/GC Surface wipe two towel Apply coating in a cross hatch pattern, let flash 30-60 seconds Two towel leveling (wipe off cross hatch, second towel in a circular method) Also do the missed parts Underbody (why not I've got plenty to use up?) Solar Truma plastic covers Front door, door step aluminum and other exposed aluminum Rear bumper metal

Love the name! Watch out for any bird like woman with a good vocal range

By MY2026 its now accessible from a hinged hatch under the outside table that replaced the older propane fridge vent and there's no port under the drawer. You've got access to the back of the fridge, the overflow tube and further back you'll even find a 120V for the induction that theoretically could be used for something. Problem with the monitors is they get inaccurate unless you're perfectly level, and generally aren't super accurate anyhow. There's a new system in the 27's apparently, don't know if its actually much better.

Four season is a squishy topic as its not defined precisely. You can use a canvas tent four season (our boys did it in Korea in hard winters.) It just depends on how comfortable you want to be, and how much energy you have. I'll break it down Cabin heating. Most people focus on this; it just depends on how efficient you want it to be. The Oliver design (double hull with radiant barrier) is more optimized for the heat (desert) than the snow (mountains). But it handles both excellently. My last trip went from the hot desert to the snowy mountains in March, it just took some propane. If you want a more efficient trailer in snow the Bigfoot is probably the only one better, but you're just saving some propane and personally I found it a cramped trailer. Now which do you want to optimize? Actually for heat is better because you need power to cool it down, which is scarcer than propane (unless you have an electric truck bwahahaha 🙂). So I think the Ollie is an awesome choice as it optimizes on the most energy scarce side of cooling. But any small trailer with decent insulation I think is fine in very cold or hot conditions (not Airstreams! There's a reason why they have two AC's and you'd better have full hookups) Humidity This is the more important issue; humidity management is the critical issue. On the Bigfoot (for example), I think its merely OK. Just anecdotal but I followed a couple who had one on the East Coast and dealing with humidity was a big deal. The Oliver however deals with this extremely well. no wood, nothing that can get damaged for one thing. I took it to Lassen the first week it opened. We lived in a deep fog bank for a week. Thick - you couldn't see the rest of the campground at times and it was a cold humidity which is bad. But the condensation was absolutely not a problem. The windows watered up, but as they're the new flush mount its outside the gasket, I just opened in the morning and squeegeed off outside. In the cabinets all the clothes needed to be pulled off the walls - yes. But the condensation just dripped down into what must have been designed in on purpose which is a condensation trip 'tray'. Impressed the hell out of me, Oliver raises the cabinet bottoms with a (honeycomb probably) panel, with a channel along the sides. This means it just drips down and collects there, I would just go and soak it up once a day. Only other thing was keeping stuff off the closet walls. Anyhow when I got it back down it took a day to dry out 😅But there wasn't a single trace of humidity damage or anything inside. Conclusion IMO it truly is four season. No trailer is perfect for all conditions or use cases. The Ollie optimizes somewhat more for hot than cold, but the advantage of is it's cheaper/easier to heat a trailer than cool a trailer. In roasting hot conditions the walls are cool to the touch due to an air gap, no heat channeling and radiant barriers. For condensation (hot or cold) its probably best in the business.

Assuming its the same as the 2026 its super easy, just remember there's basically two modes you use the majority of the time. Pump or city: For the back ports you either fill the tank directly (streetside) and use the onboard pump, or you get pressurized city water (curbside) with the pump off. Boondock fill: If you want to fill unpressurized from a container, use curbside, with all the valves reversed. Including the one that's far at the back of the trailer in the T. Reverse all the valves again to use the pump normally. That's it. The third configuration is for maintenance; winterize, sanitize or descale I (and others) only use the onboard pump and fill the tank with softened water. I have a small RV softener installed under the twin bedside table used during filling. I also have a few small inline bullet hose softeners I might use sometime for pressurized water, who knows.

Yeah after I wrote that I thought “nah, it’ll be an upgraded I”. But $2M?? I knew those molds are expensive but that is nuts. Well $500k per mold I guess makes more sense. You make a fiberglass one-off model (the ‘plug’ I think?), then build the fiberglass mold off that. Still seems high but what do I know … Edit: easier bet; first reveal will be at the Rally

From their Twitter/X feed. Single axel, I’ll guess larger than the I but smaller than the II

First re-torque of the D-bolts, surprised at how much they stretched, And looked what I noticed, check the marks on bottom of the frame this isn’t Alcan which has only done 30 and barely moved by the trail cam, it’s Dexter. In only 4k miles that flabby old suspension banged (HARD) against the frame, bottoming out. Might as well hit your trailer with a huge sledge hammer. I suspected it was bottoming out, that seems like they’re practically inverting. No wonder those springs break 🙄

Compared to my last one DeWalt puts in a much stiffer spring so it's a bear getting the pusher in. I've gone all-in on your approach, or will soon. Trying to find where I put those 45 zerks to finish it off. Also have the LockNLube. How well does this work with the Alcan, do you find you need to lift the camper to relieve pressure and get grease in? Unfortunately I'm not super confident that all the grease holes are horizontal, they might have shifted in installation.

By the way some automotive history if you’re not familiar and are interested; none of this is new. EV’s were actually the second type of drivetrain after steam, invented in the 1830’s. They were very popular in New York City in the early 20th century where fashionable (and rich) ladies would take them shopping. Internal combustion came later and the problem was that crank. It was difficult and possibly dangerous to crank the engine. When the electric starter was invented they took off and dominated. And getting gasoline back then was difficult, you had to buy it by the pint at the drug store - the ones that had it 😅 Hybrids too have been around a long time, Leno has a 1916 Owens Magnetic which was quite innovative with an EM drivetrain. He’s got all the historical stuff including steam cars

I took a hint from @jd1923 and got the DeWalt battery powered grease gun and separately had to buy the case. Driving me nuts how dirty and greasy this ones gets, and awkward to bring with you, this should be easier. Only thing is that filling it with a fresh tube was a trick, I’m thinking it would be easier to do it from a bulk container and let the motor do the work. Anybody try this, John?

Good to hear thanks! I’ll forget about it. Yeah if it settles down it’ll be perfect. 😅🤣😂💯💯💯

Alcan suspension first drive! Clear pattern stands out - ‘higher spring constant’. Didn’t know what to expect but the pattern is clear that it’s simply a stiffer spring system. AI summary below nails all the observation of a higher k - shorter displacement, faster oscillations. Suspension/Trail Cam Definitely not going to show a video because theres literally nothing to see. Whereas the stock was very noticeably fat bouncy with large displacements, I could barely see the Alcan doing anything. Simply because it was so fast with a shorter stroke, combined with the camera distance, frame rate and resolution it’s not exciting. This is the same route as before and I can’t easily detect the work its doing. Interestingly this also affects the EZ-Flex, it’s not having to work as hard either. Rear Mirror Eyeball Instead of big, fat hippo roly-poly now its jumpy. There’s still waddle, but instead of a couple (1-2) big wallows it’s something like twice as much (2-4) quickly damped, small waddles. Bounces are smaller and quicker. Seems like its more axial (forward/back) chatter but could just be getting used to it. Overall At first I didn’t like it, it turned from a big fat old dog to a young pup. Is ‘talking to me more’ (motion wise). But I got used to it and can see a steadier ride in the macro, and more bumpy in the micro. But less overall. However, on very bumpy roads, its quite chattery, not sure about that I’ll have to get more experience.

I wouldn’t touch it. Ignore the headlines, RAM doesn’t have the battery production capacity or (as far as I can see) the engineering commitment to this truck. They originally planned on three plants, scaled back to one which is on life support last I checked. “Follow the battery production …” that shows how serious they are. At any rate the REV will probably just get delayed again, if we ever see it. Philosophically @jd1923 nails it. IMO hybrids (of whatever variety) are ‘worst of both best of none’. In addition I’d add that they’re solving a problem that has been solved. You want EV? Buy a Sierra or Silverado EV, I can guarantee you’ll have a wonderful towing experience with no trouble with charging or whatever. You still want ICE? Plenty of choice. There is literally ZERO reason to buy a hybrid at this point. Pick your poison and run with it.

Right but I mention it hoping somebody would notice the difference; TV’s provide traction, TT’s are just rollers. Which gets to the core of what I think here - it doesn’t really matter tire wise. Tire performance is more critical in a traction vehicle, but here you can probably do what you want and the tire won’t care. Yeah that’s more internet FUD. I’ve replaced two Bolt tires in 8 years. In both cases it depends on how you drive - ICE guys who do donuts and track racing wear them out too. While EV’s provide instant torque the pedal algorithms have hysteresis and if you watch EV drivers (plenty of Teslas around) nobody is ripping the line, it’s lost its appeal with this much power/torque. Plus they design EV tires differently to account for this and efficiency. … Anyhow should have suspected you’d air down your TV! 😅 Well at any rate my argument isn’t that airing down the TT tires is bad but that its probably counterproductive. The Ez-Flex, Alcan are doing the heavy lifting on the low end of the frequency band and you want higher pressures on the top band. Haven’t heard any good refutation of this argument so that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 😅 Good discussion ,..

Got it done. Turned out to be a nothing burger, at these torques the bolt just kind of flows into place. They warn us about the need to re-torque due to bolt stretch after all. Anyhow I’m not going to touch it after this. On torque I was thinking about a conversation I had, how the spring torque wrenches quickly become uncalibrated, 2%-15% in a year apparently just from sitting in your truck getting bumped around. You can get fancy non spring based ones for a rich $500 or something. Or do a simple re-calibration using a weight and a bench vice.

I had to tread carefully on this one 😅 It was all fine probably because I didn’t replace the axels and kept it all aligned. It’s just unexpectedly 1.5 of the outer side U-bolts, with the bit oval hole on the tie plate, that are troublemakers. I’ve got enough to cut the high spots on a few others, but these need another 1/16 taken out or something. Anyhow with all that torque the underside bolt straightened out, this steel stretches, so it just adapted to the environment and certainly the slightly canted U portion won’t move. Anyhow I’m beat! I got an Oliver because I didn’t want to DIY, boy was I wrong 😅 Someone here warned me about that … anyhow we’re going to get a big El Nino this winter and will be traveling a lot right after so I’m in a race to pull it all together, but am at the end of my rope. I practically kissed the phone when he said “Yeah it’s fine …” 😅 I’ve got a couple minor more projects to do, small SiO2 ones and bypass the black washout for direct transfer, but that’ll do it

Final stretch, wrapping up the torquing which is taking a lot of arm strength Now, NSFW, I know my good buddy @jd1923 is not going to be happy with this but you’ve been warned 😅 … I’ve got a couple U-bolts that aren’t straight up aligned. They’re canted out a bit. I need my right angle drill which I don’t have to hog those holes out. Was thinking of various options and called Alcan. They said it’ll be fine if it’s not too much. Later if I want I can remove the plates and make it look pretty, but they didn’t think it critical. I will get this ‘done right’ but for now need to wrap it up so I can drive home (30 miles) Otherwise even with the aligned ones there’s gap to the springs, because the top cradle is slightly wider than the springs. There’s small gaps everywhere, it isn’t precision manufacturing. Anyhow John you’re absolutely right, it is bending the hanger in. Surprised we don’t use washers on these hanger wet bolts.

Yeah the Loveland site is still a major hub for Keysight, servers/IT/support/R&D, We went through some layoffs but wasn’t bad, didn’t touch R&D much. I’d love a Golden Parachute about now but ain’t likely as they’re doing pretty well 😅

Side quest; various cleaners I’ve found useful, probably already well known around here. I like to keep the trailer spotless and good as new, while being lazy so here’s some helpers Microwave and Cooktop Weiman Glass Cooktop and Microwave Wipe One wipe for induction cooktops and microwaves, works really well getting off microwave and stove splatter (hint get a collapsable microwave plate cover too) Tovolo Collapsible Microwave Splatter Cover General inside and out sponge Boat Erasers Just a sponge but made out of melamine, which acts like a super fine polish/sandpaper. Works really well to get stubborn stuff. We’ve got these nice woven placemats that were impossible to clean before using these. Also fantastic for the shower grout. In theory if used too vigorously can dull the gel coat, but Glidecoat sells them too so that might be over blown. Anyhow keep them for the tough stains Low water Dish disinfecting Steramine Sanitizer Tablets Restaurant grade food safe dish/silverware/surface disinfectant. Best part? Tablet form. Just bring along a bottle and you’ll have enough for years to come, pop a tablet into a gallon of water and you’re set, use with a spray bottle, I like these small ones (regular ones are way too big for a trailer) MR.SIGA 16 oz Empty Plastic Spray Bottles for Cleaning Dishes are now a breeze. I use an OXO Good Grips Soap Dispensing Dish Sponge which is super easy with the built in soap dispenser. But these things can harbor germs, so we just scrub off, rinse, spray with disinfectant and let sit a minute than quick rinse or wipe off. Dishes have never been faster or easer. Floors and corners DEWALT 20V Handheld Vacuum Cordless I’ve found the floors need cleaning at least once a day if not more often, plus I’ve got carpets (runners). Tried a bunch of small vacuums, this is the bomb! Hangs from the closet shelf with the included hook, with attachments so that you can even do a great job on carpets. But it was a big step adding cordless to the trailer, but once you’ve got the batteries you need a … DEWALT 20V MAX Blower, 100 CFM Airflow, Variable Speed Switch Really resisted this it being sacrilege (not to mention Glamping in the worst way!) to bring a leaf blower. But this thing is incredible! Tiny, variable speed so you can keep it quiet and soooo useful. Leaves on the roof quickly clog up the gutter drains, this is one step blow them off. Campsite cleanup, I also use it to blow the dust out of the truck.

Not if you’re an EV driver! 😅 It doesn’t matter anymore but it’s part of the culture, 0-60 kind of thing. I’m proud of the 1.3 mi/kWh the Ollie gets (only a 35% range loss EV or ICE). And I’d disagree its irrelevant - with diesel at $6/gallon ($8 here in California) whether your aware of it or not its hitting your bottom line Ah you’re trying to play a trick on us! “Over inflation”, how about “Under inflation”? 😅 Just joshing, yes optimal inflation is what we want which is the discussion. Let me try a different angle; do you run your RAM tires under by 20 PSI or whatever? Why or why not? That’s good. I heard about those sites, I think there might be one here in California but I wasn’t RVing then. The Beer Busts were awesome, they continued into the company splits (Agilent/Keysight). Anyhow that old time culture is very slowly dying out unfortunately. We were proud to have the Bill and Dave culture for many decades but now it’ all about reporting up every day, micromanaging and over working. I was going to stay for a few more years but it’s not fun anymore, time to leave.

Yeah I started just after they retired I think, 90-91. Then we split off, I was part of the ‘original’ HP (Test and Measurement) so missed the fun thereafter. Carley was what killed it

I know 😅 Doesn’t bother me and I like a good technical food fight 💪 Actually first heard of it when at the factory after picking it up. Really nice couple, Rod and Sandy dropped theirs off for repair, he mentioned reading this on the forum and was thinking about going even lower to the 20’s or something. Filed it away and read up on it here .. Yes have seen this chart, also aware of the early 80 setting by Oliver. Last first, just because Oliver had a high - perhaps too high - setting originally does not mean that their present setting is a poor choice. And the tire OEM charts are a starting point. Been doing this for decades, parts suppliers have their data sheets but final spec is always set by the final OEM. Customers of course are free to do what they wish. Point being none of this is convincing evidence. Let’s take it from a different angle, what are we trying to optimize? Milage (maximize) Tire stress (minimize) Suspension performance (optimize) A range of pressures is possible so the question is what is optimal? We don’t know Oliver’s reasoning on 65, so let’s examine what we have here. Putting the hearsay aside, as I mentioned AFAIK the forums argument is the chart above or variations. These are not tires that were designed for Oliver’s - they are generic trailer tires. The Big Three routinely gets Goodyear/etc to make a custom tire - mine has them. I’ve got 36” Goodyear Territories like you’d find on any offroader, but these have a twist to make them more efficient for EV’s. GM pressure spec is 61 PSI, clearly that overrides anything Goodyear might have to say. The 61 is set for handling, offroad performance and EV efficiency. But here its just an off the shelf tire. So this isn’t convincing, we have a generic tire OEM chart and a specific recommendation from Oliver, it’s not enough to conclude that we need to go much lower. Now I have a technical argument on first principles. It’s based on rough assumptions as to frequency band filtering (except on the Ez-Flex), but the basis is sound. Here’s the thing, one thing I’ve learned in 40 years is we’re all more often wrong than right and you rarely know. So what you do is a heuristic, counting up the +/- from various arguments. All I see from the former is a starting point - a generic chart, and a magic leap to a conclusion. With the argument I laid out here there’s many plusses. Better milage, better wear and handling performance, aligns with the OEM’s recommendation, and a technical discussion as to why this may be the best setting 🤷‍♂️ … its the Emperor has no Clothes here IMO, there are more negatives than positives to the ‘tire chart’ proposal. PSA Absolutely not trying to score points, prove anybody wrong, or otherwise make a stink, just a good old fashioned ‘let’s try and find the best answer’. Thanks for indulging me 😅