jd1923

Funny that GJ revived this thread today. Coincidence given this morning I had an auto-body/detailing professional come to our home and quote finishing our Oliver. Old hull #113 will again have a shine on her! 🤣 Scheduled for the week after next, I’ve been busy removing items like all the covers, furnace, HWH, fridge vents, outlets, awning lower mounts, etc. Everything possible to make for a better detail job. Doghouse and spare tire covers completely stripped down. I’ll post a new thread with pictures in a couple weeks! Almost forgot, I’ve also removed about 2 LBS of silicone caulk!!! (see driveway in first pic)! First time I restored a vehicle, every nut-n-bolt removed, was an Alfa Romeo Spyder, Spring of ‘78. This is the way I work! Tear everything, clean and condition each and every part. 😎 For 2 1/2 years we’ve just gotten our Oliver sun-baked and dirty, now time for some love! Thanks for posting John! 🤗

Thank you, Jim & Chris. Good advise! When I sprayed some the first day, I followed up with soap and water per the instructions. Day two, I sprayed the marine solvent at a sponge in a container and sponged it on the surface only. I've always believed this and never have seen it written so clearly. Thank you again. I've spent too much of my life removing what others think "improve cosmetics" which in essence just collect DIRT! If you're going to caulk (not me), trim back the old caulk first! Caulk on old caulk is not cool. There is no reason for this silicone caulk, period! The sealant is under the mounting frame. They even caulked the refrigerator vents on our hull, OMG! These vents allow highway speed rains to run right through them! Go figure? These pictures show an ugly mess, that btw is no longer there! 😎

A picture is NOT a signature! Are you mocking us? Asking Forum Mods to review this account.

So, 1 1/2 years since this post, and near 2 1/2 years of Oliver ownership and I'm finally getting to making our Oliver look better! I believe it's better to do maintenance and repair, mechanical and electrical work, before the cosmetic work! I've got a guy coming over today to quote the buffing and ceramic coating work. He runs his own business and has good references. Hope he's reasonable! But I'm not having this kind of work done without all the proper prep work. Doing what I can do myself. Spent half a day, used a half dozen razor blades, and made good headway. Check out all the caulk on the driveway, mostly silicone and some butyl from around the furnace cover. I found a new Atwood furnace cover for only $25 on eBay. Thank goodness I do not have to clean the caulk off those parts, certainly worth the money to replace it. Next step, using light 3M pads and solvent to remove the silicone from the window frames and body around the furnace. The frames are painted or powder coated as I can see aluminum in a couple very small spots. This is the waste from this area only (including the window above)! Four windows, the entrance door, and this utility area, lots of useless gunk. I had three piles of caulk to vacuum up end of day!

Agreed, it sure does look good. And excellent installation work too! I'll keep my side decals for now (pic). They're in decent shape and they are of the vintage style. I would like to replace the front Oliver logo, not as good in condition. I have time. I'll use Christian's artwork unless Bill @topgun2 is successful in hunting down OTT original artwork. Thanks to both of you!

Hull #? Signature? Please update asap...

But.., We would like you to take care of your laundry before I/we help again. @ScubaRx, Oliver Elder and Senior Forum Mod asked you to update your profile. That done and add a proper signature with hull #, etc. and then “Welcome to the community.” You have a couple threads started and we do help known Forum Members.

I believe the answer to your question is in your second sentence. You have your warranty claim entered and acknowledged. The schedule is now up to you! The crack ain’t going anywhere! It will either stay the same or grow a little longer. A proper repair can happen sooner or later, it makes no difference. Be cool. 😎

And BOTH bolts holes are too large. When they are the correct size you will not see the square opening at all as it should be completely hidden by the head of the carriage bolt.

I believe it's OK when the OP broadens the scope of the thread. @Steph and Dud B can reword the title to, "Found a Crack - Defect #21!"

I attached a picture of the tack-weld failed mount when I submitted a service ticket and was told OTT did not have brackets they could send me! My next service ticket was re artwork for the front hull. When I was told again NO, I asked why I should ever again enter a service ticket? Five (5) times and not once have I received useful help. But then, if you want something done right… Obviously they do have these brackets. At least the one I fab’d is better than OEM. My square holes for the carriage bolts are of correct size. No need for precision when you drill holes that wide! It’s not easy making square holes in 1/4” steel in a home shop, but should be EXACT when manufactured! if yours is still lose, replace them with hex-head bolts, use a washer and position a wrench on the topside, against the bracket, while you tighten from down below. Sheesh! If half of your 21 issues are like this quality made bracket, I’d feel the same way! Ours is only in good shape after I’ve put 1000+ hours into ours in sweat equity! Which is btw crazy.

Good to see you're back John, safely returned home from your annual mainland trip and contributing here as always! 😂 This is a point of confusion that it seems even Mike Sharpe did not understand the full installation process when I talked to him on the phone, hence his thinking this was a Barker issue (not). The bolt holes that OTT drills into the lower hole and frame are not drilled to precision so that a one-piece bracket can be used (e.g. precision in distance between holes at +/- 0.010"). The ALUMINUM brackets are made by Oliver (same aluminum used in the frame). All Barker components are made from STEEL! Barker welds the STEEL bracket to their jack for Oliver and they have a special Oliver-only part number (learned from talking to Barker rep). After the jack is put in place, the two aluminum brackets are tack-welded. Then they must be removed and fully welded on a workbench, then final installation bolted/torqued into place. If they were manufactured to length (welded by Barker), there would be no reason for a tack-weld followed by a complete weld. In fact they would use a one-piece bracket. Why are these aluminum parts when steel is used for frame pieces? Because OTT only welds aluminum! More info in my post linked below. I can see exactly how it was originally installed by removing and reinstalling these jacks. I believe I have done more jack work than any other Oliver owner, now that I have rebuilt all 3 jacks, ready for the next 10 years! 😎

We've had quite the opposite experience in our 2 1/2 years with hull #113, manufactured 10 years ago. Though I have read everything on our Forum since and I do see many more issues in late-model hulls vs. the oldies but goodies! I've worked a LOT of upgrades, but only a few repairs. And every issue I've found is when we were home. 130 days on the road everything has worked, no issues while traveling, knock on wood! I found a breaker wired in the wrong direction. I have issues with how OTT wired things, but no electrical failures to-date. I've upgraded and rewired everything anyway. I recently found OTT forgot to fully weld (tack-weld only) the mount to one stabilizer jack. OTT blamed Barker, but actually OTT makes these welds as part of the standard installation procedure. I made a new bracket with $10 of steel. We also had two small welds fail on the frame, two cross-members were hanging on one side. Local guy welded them for $75. We had a drawer latch fail, the orange colored connector to the slide, just $10 and 10 minutes to repair. Now I have extra parts if another fails. Prior owner complained of a noisy Suburban furnace, so OTT install an Atwood furnace back in 2018. Likely prior owners had worked through other issues of which I would be unaware. The interior panel of the entrance door is lightly cracked, but this is from wind banging the door. This will not happen anymore now that Lippert friction hinges are installed. We love our Oliver as it is now with my upgrades (inverter A/C coming soon)! We purchased a used Oliver at a good price and I do not expect anything out of OTT since it's long out of warranty. Yes, I would feel differently if we paid new price and had 21 issues listed to date. I don't see better quality out there. Even Winnebago, that some consider to be the best, is not better. We plan to keep our Oliver and leave it to our son when we are done with it. Don't want another brand, don't need something better. If I found this crack on our hull, I would leave it alone and just keep an eye on it. Often bodywork on something small is worse in the long-run! They will likely just do something cosmetic, some fill on the surface. Which is fine, but certainly not worth a trip to Hohenwald for me, in my opinion.

We have two 10Ah batteries. One will power the Starlink Mini all day! One's on the charger while the other is being used. The 50' power cable is supplied. We've just never had a need to use it, so recently I stopped bringing it along! I guess if your going to sit two weeks at a campground with hookups... But that's not us. I can setup the dish on a lunchbreak while traveling, in a minute with no cords. No thin 50' power cord getting wet and dirty, tangled up in the weeds, needing to be wound-up and stowed each time. Everything in our Oliver is battery-powered! 🤣

Must only be moved to get a clear view of the Northern sky. My claim is 2/3rds of the time mounted to my truck works great with clear view (and only $10 in 1 1/2" PVC parts). The other times, I'll use this umbrella stand (another $30) with the SAME pole-mount which makes setup sooooo easy! 🤣 Tripods are generally made for cameras with a 1/4" screw attachment. They are fully adjustable which takes fuss to get lined up on both angles required. My setup uses the supplied pole-mount plate from Starlink at the correct angle to the horizon, so all you need is a 2" pole perpendicular to the horizon. It spins easily with one hand (no screws, no clamps), to get the correct angle in seconds. Just my opinion. Others want the long-pole setups and some are OK with laying the dish on the ground or picnic table. I was laying it in my truck bed prior to creating these mounts. Tripods, tall masts and suction cups are fine, but this is much easier for me! 😎

Thank you, Jerry. I will try a credit card tomorrow, I should have saved some hotel keycards from when I traveled for business! Maybe I have one or two somewhere. I pulled on a few edges today and thought, I better look into this. And thank you @KenB for the good info in your posts! 😂

BTW, Starlink includes the the pole mount attachment which fits the 1 1/2" ID PVC pipe, about 2" OD. You will need a Starlink power cord and a connector to your battery of choice. Any battery from 12VDC to 30VDC will work. We already had MANY DeWalt 20V batteries for my power tools, so it made sense to use these. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSV45LHQ?ref=fed_asin_title https://www.amazon.com/Pigtails-Connector-Adapter-Security-Surveillance/dp/B0C5DXTD43/ https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-Conversion-Projects-Connector-Terminal/dp/B0FM2XYRKW/

Given this is our main mount, nicely sitting in our truck bed, I was thinking of a moveable stand for the occasions where the truck cannot be parked clear of trees! Meanwhile, my son broke the base to a fan he uses often in his apartment. After removing the broken base, I thought, "a patio umbrella stand would work nicely." So why not use an umbrella stand for the Starlink Mini dish? The kind you fill with water would be convenient, since when empty it weighs less than a pound (we always carry 35 gallons extra water on the TV). It works great and can be placed anywhere! I purchased this model from Lowes, since it is rectangular (most are round) and it has a nice handle. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Patio-Premier-Patio-Premier-Square-Blow-Mold-Umbrella-Base-Black/1002629278 You can configure all the fancy poles and mounts you want and I'm done with $50 total in parts ($10 for PVC parts) which will work anywhere without cables. 😎

My goal for a Starlink installation is something neat and simple! What I don't want and will not have! 1) A cord-powered ONLY solution, not in the day of LI batteries! 2) Suction cups on the side of our hull or windows (Chris keeps our windows clean regularly and suction cups leave stains on glass and fiberglass)! 3) Any kind of tripod or camera stand! 4) Something long like a flagpole (anything needing a ladder)! Starlink satillites are 100 +/- miles away and a 10-20' pole doesn't get you any closer! 5) OMG, please NOT sitting on a campground picnic table (they put these in the shade on purpose)! 🤣 On another thread, I showed my truck mounted solution, and in less than 24 hours, one or more Forum Members poo-pooed my installation claiming the dish must always be moved. I truly like this mount (pics 1-2). Last time out it worked every night on the road on a short trip. I truly believe it will work 2 of 3 nights on the road regularly (1 of 3 nights where the TV is in the trees regardless of where parked in the campsite). I have power and Ethernet wired to this location, so that the Starlink can be a WAN input on our Pepwave router. However, the battery solution works anywhere.

Agreed, an example to the contrary is Blue Compass RV. They are a chain buying independents around the country. We had a local company “Affinity RV” with 4 locations in our county (not that they were great, service always booked months out). I bought an occasional part from them. Two years ago they sold to Blue Compass (hardly family-oriented)!

OTT should have never considered working with dealers. It was unique that Olivers were sold and serviced at what some here call the "Mothership!" A sales manager at our local Blue Compass dealer said, "Nice Trailer, want to trade it in?" as I was draining tanks at their free dump station, right down the street. I then asked him about the dealership idea. He replied, "There's no money in selling Olivers! I can sell 10 Winnebagos, and 20 Thors, ... in a month where we might sell one Oliver." Yep, Hohenwald TN is far-far-away and in our 2 1/2 years we've done fine getting things done locally, no travel necessary. Even our Oliver was listed on Prescott Craigslist! Upon sale, prior owner delivered it, backed it right into our home RV parking spot! 😎

The City Water plumbing in our Oliver consistently has lower pressure/volume than using the water pump and Fresh Tank (though we do have an upgraded variable-speed water pump). In a way it's neat that when we do not need much water, City Water gives us just that (water savings) and when we want better pressure we turn the water pump on at the same time. This works to supply extra water pressure and volume! I have it on my long list to remove the water restrictors in both lines and remove and clean and/or replace the backflow preventers (check-valves). Not sure how your 2019 is plumbed, but you can start by looking here to see what you have and decide what to do. Look closely to see we have BOTH check-valves AND water restrictors on BOTH City and Fresh water lines.

Agreed, E2 means no ground connection. Given you are certain shore power has proper ground (be sure) then it would be within the PI EMS. Make sure ALL 6 connections (3 in, 3 out) are clean and tight. The 4 you see quickly in the picture are the hot and neutral connections. Then look closely at the green wires which are bolted to the case of the EMS (inside top of the case in picture). I can see that one of these could get loose easily.

Yeah thank @Steph and Dud B, I missed that he had the "wash station cold faucet" turned on. I guess that means the outdoor shower? I would try it again with the kitchen sink faucet on, handle centered both hot and cold, just to be sure. If all fails, I suggest blowing compressed air though it! 😎

@Dexter Adams Do you have a faucet open? I use air vs. antifreeze, but know that at least one faucet needs to be open, otherwise the plumbing is pressurized! Don’t need faucet open for the Fresh Water line since tank overflow is always open.