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Everything posted by jd1923
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I found the OEM springs to be under-sprung, too soft for the near 7K top-heavy load of the Oliver. Mine used to waddle left and right and porpoise up and down at the hitch. I needed the WDH to keep the Oliver in control when towing. With our suspension upgrade, both D52 axles and HD Alcan leaf springs, the Oliver is towing straight and even, no more waddling, no porpoising. The tow vehicle suspension no longer has to compensate for the weaker trailer suspension. So cool. π
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We don't use e-bikes (hoping somebody else would comment). If you have the fat-tire kind you'd be good to get around town. Lot's of dirt, sand and gravel and a paved service road from Dome Rock to town. I would think it would be easier to get around vs. parking a truck at the big tent.
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Chris, most of us went with the 5-leaf version. I'm VERY happy with them! The HD springs create a much better towing experience where the WDH is not longer needed for me.
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Yep, or each time we get home. To wash the Oliver, I use a car soap foam-sprayer and first I get the entire Oliver soaked in soap suds. Then I mount the pressure washer gun and clean the entire body. I hit the windows with the pressurized water and you can see the dirt coming out of the weep holes. When you see clean water coming through you're done. I've asked Chris to go inside to see if anything gets wet inside, but it never does. She'll clean the interior window tracks as needed with a damp dust rag. I use a battery-powered leaf blower to get most of the water off the Oliver, preferring not to rub/towel dry. Hit the windows with air too. Now that we're ceramic-coated she cleans up nicely and quickly!
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Toilet leaks water from the little holes around the rim
jd1923 replied to Steve Gorman's topic in Introduce Yourself
I'm reading this like it's slowly filling on its own, without the foot pedal valve being actuated, when pressurized by City Water. Extreme calcification is likely the cause and what Bill @topgun2 mentioned, some kind of vinegar decalcification process is necessary throughout your plumbing system, and also clean the filter at the water pump, soak all faucet aerators in CLR, etc. But at this point, you have your toilet fill valve crusted up enough so it will not fully seal. Looking at the picture it's hard to know if it is a serviceable unit. If not you will need to replace it with something like this: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Dometic/DOM93FR.html Your first step is to get off City Water. Fill your fresh tank and use your water pump. This way when the pump is OFF it will not fill the toilet bowl! This would get you home or give you time for the repair. Then when you can, remove the foot pedal and the valve. See if it can be disassembled for cleaning or read the part number for correct replacement. -
Installing Pioneer Inverter AC
jd1923 replied to Treasure Coast Vault's topic in Ollie Modifications
Maybe a parent company? Not sure. The Pioneer and Turbro Greenland are same (or similar) Inverter A/C models. The Gree Eco-Cool, the Tosot and what was the Atmos are all the same (or similar) models, with standard on/off compressors not variable-speed inverter compressors. These are very quiet dual-fan models. -
Pebble Flow trailer and Rivian in the wild
jd1923 replied to taylor.coyote's topic in General Discussion
Sold our Bigfoot Class-C for an Oliver! Their trailers are very popular, especially in Canada. I was on their forum for 3 years, added inverter/solar and other mods to our BF. The one and ONLY reason to own a Ram is to tow behind a Cummins! Hemi 1500 not. π Our range is 500+ miles, 400 fully loaded, towing on mountain roads, based on using 30 of a 35 gal tank. Take 50A charge from campsite for free? Not cool. We camp 2 of 3 nights without hookups. Agree with @taylor.coyote re range anxiety. Finally with 900 Ah LiFePO4 house batteries we have no SOC anxiety! Fill up the TV tank, have two 30+ gal water tanks full, waste tanks empty, no worries for 7-10 days in the wild! π -
Final touches on the battery door to seal the vent openings and insulate the door... I put a bead of clear silicone around each hole. Then pushed in the 1" rubber disc into place (pic1). The silicone oozed through the perforated openings as I wiped off the excess with many small pieces of paper towels. Final step was to clean the silicone from the outside with paper towels soak in rubbing alcohol. Then I used some bubble insulation that came in a recent shipment. The lines you see are carpet tape to hold it in place (pic2). The insulation is only 1/4" thick and now the door is nicely tight when locked.
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If I had a hole in my tire as big as the LARGE size, I'd buy a new tire! They are also not long enough for the heavy tread of LT tires (the large size is only 1/2" deep). I'm not going to try them. I like the simple rubber ones that have been around since the good ol' days. With them, you push them in so there's material inside of the tire which creates the seal with air pressure. These may creep out, nothing but adhesive keeping them in. Just an anal engineer's take. π
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Here's a picture of our hull showing the gray tank waste valve, joining the main waste drain, coming from the right from the black tank. For reference, look top-center of picture to see the carriage bolts of the streetside stabilizer jack. The gray tank will only fully drain when the curbside is positive in height wrt to the streetside. After 2 1/2 years, I have a few thousand Oliver pics showing every before and after picture in doing my restoration work. This one was taken after replacing three (3) Oliver waste valves. π
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Furrion Chill Cube β Product Review and Installation
jd1923 replied to jd1923's topic in Ollie Modifications
Geoff, if anybody could do it... It would be you or me or perhaps another one of our highly capable OTT Forum compatriots! π I've never looked seriously at 12VDC A/C products, thinking they are designed for the Van-Life sorts, but who knows... I truly like this special Furrion model and I could spend money refunded to... π Happy New Year to you and your family. I would relish the day where we could camp, our families together! JD -
Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
Thanks Steve, see this -- -
From the YouTube channel Mortons on the Move, by Tom & Caitlin Morton who previously tested the Greenland Turbro have more recently tested the Furrion Chill Cube. They now have the Turbro unit cooling the living area of their RV and the Furrion Chill Cube cooling their bedroom! Honestly, I wish I had seen this video prior to my purchase of what turned out to be a defective Turbro product. I believe I would have changed my purchase decision. Turbro refunded my money, so this model could be in our future, TBD Spring of 2026. This is my take after watching this review. I LOVE Tom's knowledge and ability as a electrical engineer coupled with their family RV experience! The PROs β so many benefits! - Variable speed compressor and efficient dual brushless DC fan motors, though not truly an inverter compressor it achieves similar energy efficiencies - The HUGE low-speed evaporator fan in the non-ducted unit is the game-changer, adding to cooling efficiency and allows for extremely quiet operation (see 14- and 24-minute marks on the video) - It becomes even more efficient, producing higher EER, When cooling demand is lower - Interior air handler is mounted flush to ceiling allowing for more headroom and clean interior appearance - Small 29x29β rooftop footprint at 60% the weight of standard A/C units - Unique oscillating vent for greater air movement which can also be set to one stationary position - The follow-me remote puts the thermostat reading wherever you want it - A simple remote key will turn off all control sounds and interior lights - Low-energy, eco and gear modes to efficiently run the AC at 50% or 75% power levels for longer runtimes when running on inverter/batteries - The evaporator condensate is channeled to the rear where a water wheel on the condenser fan brings water up to soak the condenser coils for more efficient cooling, which also minimizes condensate drip down the body of the trailer (in dry climates condensates should fully evaporate) - Can run easily on 2KW generators or inverters, no soft-start required The CONs β the disadvantages seem much smaller in comparison (to me) - With its unconventional looks at 14.5β tall it is 3.25β taller than the Dometic P2 and close to 5β taller than low profile A/C models - Only a simple A/C unit without heat pump capability - IR remote works line-of-sight only in close proximity of unit - No app for monitoring and control - No thermostat interface on the non-ducted version Weβre OK without heat-pump, since in 3 RVs we either did not have one or use it. Prior owner had replace the reportedly βnoisyβ Suburban furnace in our Oliver with an Atwood model that now that I have deleted the bedside duct and added an intake filter, runs well and is quiet enough to my noise-sensitive ears. Here is the Mortons on the Move blog post and YouTube review: https://www.mortonsonthemove.com/furrion-chill-cube-variable-speed-18k-review/
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Pebble Flow trailer and Rivian in the wild
jd1923 replied to taylor.coyote's topic in General Discussion
EV trucks don't go where we camp, 100+ miles from a charging station, and that is one ugly trailer. Keep your diesel truck and Oliver and we'll keep ours too! π -
Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
Yes Steve, you got me! It's the Furrion Chill Cube! 12VDC units are not practical given wiring requirements. Too tall for some, but extremely quiet and very efficient, with the interior air handler almost flush to the ceiling for more head room! Perhaps it's too tall and ugly for some of us, but I relish in ugly given superior functionality! For example, I mounted a rather large Parsec Husky cell antenna on my truck, love it's utility! Those with pretty trucks, big wheels and tires would not go there, but we have 5G on highways most of the time! π Hey, what's that on top of you truck? A question I hear every other time I'm filling the tank! -
When I see these pics, it makes me sick thinking how easy it would be during assembly to use some decent rigid or semi-rigid quality air ducting! I've replaced ours as far as I can reach, the originals were full of holes everywhere along the bottoms. π
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Took me a few outings to learn this. At a campsite, I level using the LevelMatePRO and keep the nose up 1/2" or more. This allows you to utilize a greater % of the fresh tank before the water pump takes air. When dumping tanks I raise the front +2". Why is it that at 2 out of 3 dump stations the nose is down? And then I drive in the other direction and it's the same thing! The other thing I've learned is the gray tank being on the right/curbside, drain pipe exiting to the streetside, it often will not fully empty if that side is down. I will raise the curbside jack so that it's +1" at least to fully empty the gray water.
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Certainly! We always travel with our fresh tank full whenever we leave home or leave campgrounds with good fresh water, thus allowing us to boondock the next few days. And we tow down steep mountain descents and on washboard dirt roads! We often tow back home with gray and black tanks near full, and fresh half full, since the RV dealer near home has a free dump station. We keep our Oliver bathroom and kitchen functional 100% of the time! Chris will NOT use a public bathroom during our Oliver travels. We like to have what we need to be off hookups for 7-10 days. We certainly have enough electric. We carry an extra 35 gal fresh water in the truck bed. We find the limiting factor is the gray tank fills first (as soon as we shower). Good thing out west it's legal to dump gray in BLM and FS lands (drain gradually when >500 ft from other campers and water sources). 90% of Arizona is 500 ft from a water source! Yes, fill up and tow your Oliver tanks full, NP! π
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Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
That's one of those Chinese things I was referring too! They will ignore what they don't want to answer. π Excellent electronics work @CRM! If I save my unit I'll ask more of the details. If my repair becomes not worth doing, I now have another brand in mind. It wouldn't be for everyone but it's very interesting. π I'll write a post on it soon... -
Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
Weβd like to know more about your mod to reduce air noise in the cabin, thanks! -
Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
In 3 weeks we're heading to the Q and then points SE of Tucson. Thinking of SE Colorado again, when I have time off mid March through mid April, weather depending. Won't be needing A/C for these trips! It could be an easy repair but it's never easy working on top of the Oliver. I won't be walking around up there like some might. Just getting the cover off is not just 4 screws like the Dometic P2 cover. There are 9 screws in all directions. Not easy reaching over on the awning side either. I'd hate to pull the whole unit down for repair, but that may be the way to go. I could diagnose, repair and bench test in my garage/workshop. I had made a custom wiring job for the 120VAC connection. OTT had cut the 12/2 Romex quite short wired to a single-gang junction box. The junction box would not fit above the Turbro Fixing Plate. I had to die-cut a new opening on the close side of the Turbro control box to wire this connection directly. It will also be a pain taking that down, and given success rewiring it again. Short wires make for difficult wiring. Then there is the risk that besides the broken evaporator fan something else could be wrong. A new A/C unit for $100 +/- in parts and a few hours labor... ? -
@David and Gail Yesterday I had written the first paragraph of my previous reply incorrectly. It is now correctly stated. JD
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Yes David, this is your axle label. It shows D52 for 5200 LB axles which are the better HD axles (12" vs. 10" brakes). It lists Capacity at 3500 LBS which means mounted to the axles are two 1750 LB rated leaf springs. As @John Dorrer has stated from data he has collected which is a good sample since he regularly monitors our OTT Forum AND the Oliver Facebook page. Yours on your very new hull should and could be fine. Inspect them before and after long trips. When the leaf springs continue to appear nicely arced, they are good. If you observe a flattening of the main spring at either end, then replace ASAP with Alcan Springs. Ours lasted 10 years and were still good. I only replaced mine wanting the best for our next 10 years! π
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Greenland Turbro 13.5k Inverter AC / Heatpump install.
jd1923 replied to CRM's topic in Ollie Modifications
Iβm surprised, thank you! Maybe I get luckyβ¦ Bought from Turbro direct. These manufacturers seem to rarely want their defective products back. Thatβs why they wanted me to do their testing! How will they ever determine cause to improve their design and build processes?
