jd1923

As they say, "you win some and lose some." I believe it was all the changes we went through on our trip getting here, but simply stated, we played like cr@p! We started the day losing but, in the end, we won big and had a great time at the tournament! We're thinking next year we'll just come to watch. They had a very short format for us amateur players. No time to get truly warmed up and play well. Long story short, we watched 4 great matches courtside. The best was a with an ATP tennis pro we have followed since he first turned pro as a teenager in 2011. Jack Sock was a recent great US tennis player. His highest ATP world ranking was #2 in doubles, #8 in singles, and he medaled in the 2016 Olympics for the US. He retired from tennis last year and he says his second career in pickleball will be all about having fun! What a great player, humble/polite guy (always takes his hat off when shaking hands at the end of a match) and crowd favorite as he kids with the crowd regularly. The pics will tell the story, but after catching an out ball, and a free Selkirk hat, Chris snapped the picture of me and Jack!

@Ron and Phyllis the odds were against you, but with your TPMS alarm and your cool head in finding a good place to park, you really made the best of a bad situation. Good lesson you shared and we're glad to know you two are fine. 😂 Thinking back to the half dozen trailers I've owned, never going with a single axle. Needed a trailer for our dirt bikes years ago and looked hard and found a used 12 FT flatbed dual axle. Dual axles generally come on 14 FT trailers and longer, most are 16 FT. I've had blowouts on dual-axle trailers where you lose a fender but all else is good. Thanks @topgun2 for the Dewalt compressor link. I need to get one of these when we resume spending on the Oliver (need a long break). We are a Dewalt tool family, having 8-9 20V batteries between my son and us. I bring a Dewalt handheld leaf blower to blow dirt road dust off the Oliver and clean the camping mat. My son got me this for Christmas: Amazon.com: DEWALT 20V MAX* XR Leaf Blower, Cordless, Handheld, 125-MPH, 450-CFM, Tool Only (DCBL722B) : Patio, Lawn & Garden And you gotta have 1-2 of these for the campsite, or to change that tire at night if need be. I got everybody in the family one, so they would not take mine anymore: DEWALT 20V MAX LED Work Light, 100 Degree Pivoting Head, Up to 1000 Lumens of Brightness, Cordless (DCL050) - Amazon.com

Did you ask why @Mountainman198 was told (in writing I assume) and sold springs rated at 2K LBS?

Valley of Fire was not in the stars for us this trip. We drove into the east entrance today, which should be less busy than the other side from I-15. There was a line of cars and trucks backed up a ways from the entrance gate. After 10 minutes they had only let one car through. Chris and I voted, and we decided to pass until our next time, perhaps on the way back or next year. At least we live relatively close. This is as close as we got! (see pic) Pulled a big shoulder to shoulder U-turn and headed directly to St. George. Love how you can turn with the Oliver sharply without issue. Nice cool breeze this evening. We hit the ball a little to warm up and watched some of our favorite pros practice. High tomorrow forecast is 77 for our tournament play-day (very nice if not too windy). High of only 62, chance of rain forecasted for Friday! Thankful for the cool. Snow Valley should be great next week.

Thank you. It sure started that way until we ran into some unexpected weather. Last year, the tournament was early vs. late April. We drove into St George on April 5, 2023, and the temps were in the 40s with snow flurries. We had a friend playing Womens Doubles that day. We grabbed coats and hats and watched for a while. Our matches were the next day and it got up to the high 60s and the rest of the week was perfect! This year is a much different story, OMG! Getting ready the week before we noticed the forecast would be in the 80s for the tournament. But it got worse, and Chris is not a summer person at all. Driving out on Sunday, as we dropped 3500 FT leaving the elevation of the Prescott NF, it got hot and was in the high 90s the remainder of the drive. Yes, the pictures look nice, but what you can't see is Chris and Charley were hiding in the shade of the Oliver as the sun had just set. It was 91 degrees in the Oliver, when we parked, and it stayed hot until 9 PM. We were in the Sonoran Desert at 2000 FT, so lows got down to the 60s and we slept well. Right now, I can remember @Patriot writing, "I like options" when he was referring to carrying a generator, that I was not wanting to do. Living SW, we don't summer camp and weren't thinking of high 90s in April. The real issue was the next two nights, where we had booked 2 nights "no utilities" at Valley of Fire. How fitting is that name, when the forecast is 99 degrees? We wasted our reservation there and looked for a place with hookups to run the A/C! Ended up a bit short of our planned stay, two nights at Callville Bay RV Village Park, which we would not recommend. It's a park of rundown singlewides for weekend boating types, with 5-6 RV pads (picture taken Monday night). Today we head to St George. Looks like a great route, driving by Pinto Valley and Jimbilnan Wilderness Areas on the way to Valley of Fire. We will at least drive into the valley to take a look. Then Moapa Valley, Mesquite NV and on to St. George tonight.

I would ride a west-east commute from Lakeway TX to the VA data center in SE Austin (TX-71/US-290). In a car or truck it would take you a full hour+ any morning, more in the evening, but on this beast an easy 35 min! 🤣 Loved that job, the year was 2014. I would ride the bike 2-3 days a week to work, other days in our Passat TDI. Both vehicles got 38+ MPG city.

Chris and I met playing tennis in 1991, and 3 years ago we transitioned to Pickleball for the community and it's also a little easier on our older bodies! Chris has competed in a bunch of tournaments with her Ladies partner, and we have played a few mixed doubles together. Loved our visit to St George for this tournament last year and we are playing it again this week: Selkirk Red Rock Open in St. George, Utah | PPA Tour So, it had the makings of a great Oliver trip. Thought we would boondock a first night just 2 hours from home, then 2 nights at Valley of Fire Nevada on the way. Starting tomorrow, we will spend 3 nights at a St George RV park right in town to be close to the tournament. This was our first night, off Signal Rd in Wikieup AZ (pics below).

They make hitch pins in several sizes for tractor equipment, etc. Yet the standard 2" tow receiver always takes a 5/8" hitch pin or lock. You have the right one now. Just 0.8mm smaller, which is very close to 1/32", I've never seen that size. There may be a 9/16", but the next standard size smaller is a 1/2" pin and that is 1/8" smaller, over 3mm. A smaller pin would certainly bang around a lot and is NOT safe at all. The 5/8" hitch pin or lock is all you really need.

Is this really true? Is the aluminum wrap everywhere? When I did our cellular router installation in the TV, working with MobileMustHave.com, they asked about the trailer being fiberglass vs. aluminum like the AS trailers. In an AS you have to install an access point inside of the trailer, since the roof-mounted Wi-Fi antennas cannot penetrate the AS shell. I got a free access point with my deal but did not need it to install it. I'm typing this now inside our Oliver, parked on the north shore of Lake Meade. I'm getting 80 Mbps down, 20 up connected to the TV router which is parked outside of course. We have one window blind open, the other two in the sun ar closed. Run our computers, stream TV, not seeing much effect of the insulating wrap.

We spent a few years together. An '08 R1200R at a home we had in Lakeway Texas.

Mike knows how to get 'er done the right way! 😂 Wish I had an "Ollie Hanger" like @Patriot! You really need to "wax" undercover or in the shade. I don't believe I could get a permit for one on my property without spending a fortune. Local government is getting a bit Californian around here. And it's so hard to hide from the sun in the SW. It's another sunny day in Arizona, and our windy season just started. A couple months of wind until everything gets toasty dry out here! Each year we wait it out 'til the summer monsoons come.

Thank you, and you and yours are welcome here!

@Geronimo John your post shows you quoted me, but it was @Mountainman198 who installed the Alcan springs and wrote this.

Five leaves vs. four and the lighter rating would certainly be "less jarring." Also, the Alcan design has the second leaf at full length so that it would not fail at the contact point where the end of leaf #2 hits the primary leaf.

Trade ya!? 🤣 We are new to being Oliver owners, so I will wait this out a bit... Had a Class-A with electric awning, we used it once, but only had it for two seasons. Class C over 4 seasons, didn't use it once (manual). I'm actually thinking of pulling it off the Oliver for wind resistance and aesthetics. I will never again wrench my neck under a manual awning, what a PITA (and we live in 300 days of strong sunshine out here in the GREAT SW)!

I understand touch lights were added at some point. Our older hull does not have them and I'm happy for that. Is every light a touch-light? Do you have lighting switch panels to turn on/off Main Lights, Kitchen Lights, Courtesy Lights, etc.? If so, I would remove all the switch lights for standard hardwired lights. Switch lights gives you a point-of-failure at every light location.

@Geronimo John you made a brief mention of China, so I'm guessing their heavier springs are also made there. Too bad, and I see other issues too. Several members here, going back 12 pages of comments, were worried about going too stiff on replacement leaf springs. I had written earlier that 14% stiffer is a nice bump - perfect! You're suggesting 2400 LB rated springs which are 37% stiffer. That's a big difference, that personally I would not at all advise this option. The Dexter "Tech" was selling the only option they had. Rethink this? Anyway, when it's time for me to upgrade I'm going with MADE in COLORADO, U.S.A. For $310 more NP and getting the right weight rating. Besides I also trust @MAX Burner and he showed us a quality installation using Alcan parts. I have for years paid a considerable premium so NOT to purchase from that large land mass in eastern Asia. This country stole IP from Motorola, where I worked during the 90s. and so many US companies. Come visit my garage to witness a 50-year collection of Made in USA tools. I'd say 96% Made in USA, and 4% from quality Asia manufacturers (also US Allies), specifically Japanese and Taiwanese made tools. Amazon has read my comment 100 times when I return junk. I click "Not as advertised" and just write "China" for the stated reason. They take them back with a smile!

Looks to be the perfect name. Now I have a place to picture you. I can almost taste them from here in your wonderful pictures! I could do a large scoop on a bowl of cereal this morning and some toast and jam another time! Nice! 🙂

Pretty area! Have never camped on such a HD asphalt pad. The pad looks level in the pic, but your trailer is way up in the front. Best wishes.

Hope you all have an amazing time. Would love to participate one year... BTW @Patriot, where in the world is Blueberry Hill?

@rich.dev am I seeing things, or are you? Hard to see the orientation fully, but it looks vertical to me. Notice the curve of the Oliver shell and the Furrion which is laid flat in the cabinet. Yes, the vertical direction allows air flow to aide in cooling.

I get it, but I don't have time for waxing, nor the patience for therapeutics! 🤣 Some of you may feel different if you were still working, had 3 trucks, 2 cars, 2 motorcycles, 3 dirt vehicles, a 4000+ SF home on 3/4 acre and 8 gas-powered yard tools to maintain. Spring has sprung and in a couple weeks we will be knee-high in grasses and weeds to whack. I've also been rebuilding our Sundance spa lately, new wet heads on the 3 pumps, new control panel and FLO switch, new skirting is next. There is always something else needed here, so I cannot see hours buffing is utilizing my core competencies. Before it gets too hot this year, I need to pressure-wash and stain two levels of redwood decking, should have done that last year! I may have to also contract this work, if we can afford to. I'll be getting back to all this work soon, after we leave Sunday, to get away for 3 weeks in the Oliver! What's nice about the Oliver is after some prep work it is ready for camping. Last time out, I was working fulltime 'til the day we left. I had plugged in the day before, so Chris could fill the fridge and I merely packed some clothes the night before. Next morning, I filled water in trailer and TV since the lows were in the 20s, got the TV loaded up with gear stored in our adjacent shed, and hitched up the Oliver. In under 2 hours, we were on our way! I think we can get this down to an hour, nice! Pickleball is our therapeutic, and so much more fun than power buffing, waxing a vehicle in 2x2' sections, 3 times over. I truly prefer yard work over detail work which can be therapeutic as well. Our Oliver was new-to-us June of last year and it has been prioritized in our first year of ownership. Going forward it must be just one of the toys, with home and trucks being more important. I don't wax cars anymore, but we do 98% of all maintenance & repair work on our property, every family member included. I don't trust contractors or mechanics to work on our home or vehicles, but I know for sure there are many experience detailers that can do a better "wax job" than me and it's not a safety item. I will spend hours perfecting a brake job, so I know it's done right. And I've been known to drive old cars for years needing paint. It comes to priorities. Shine on the Oliver would be more important to us, if we had had made the big investment in purchasing a new one. Ours was a bit dull to begin with. In the fall, I hope to find the right shop to put a good shine on her.

Dicor is generally used as an RV roof sealant, where the roof is penetrated, vent openings and screws holes. Using VHB only, there are no holes, no need for a roof sealant. Add Dicor if it makes you feel better, but it's unnecessary. 3m writes this re VHB 4950: "Resistance to solvents, temperature extremes, and U. V. Light make VHB products suitable for many interior and exterior applications." 4950.WD6 (3m.com)

I used 3M VHB 4950 on the panels on our (ex-) Bigfoot. The project was 4-5 years ago. I double the standard solar mounts, 8 vs. 4 to be extra safe. Each panel had eight times 3x1" VHB tape ONLY, no screws. VHB is CERTAINLY all you need! Still holding strong and you don't have to put Dicor mess over top of it as VHB resists sun and weather nicely.

I already had this feeling, but you have all thoroughly convinced me that there is no way in the world I will ever polish our Oliver! I'd rather install new leaf springs, a new fridge, new A/C, add lithium and upgraded charger/inverter, and rework the furnace ducting than buff the Oliver in 2x2' increments, three times over! This detailing sounds like prison life working a rock pile. Save money on that buffer. For now, our Oliver stays oxidized. The upper front is/was pasty flat when we purchased it used last summer. When we get home from our next trip (leaving Sunday for 3 weeks) I will pressure-wash it quickly upon return and cover it for the summer. After Labor Day, I'll look for a local detailer. If we were any reasonable distance from CGI, I would make an appointment there for sure. I already contacted a Phoenix based ceramic coating chain. They advised me that they would not work on our Oliver due to its age and oxidation. They prefer to quickly coat new paint on new vehicles only. I need to find a company like CGI in the SW.