jd1923

I read a review today, after reading several I forgot where. The reviewer stated one con was that the internal fan speed was constant, not variable speed. This comment upset me if true. I woulda thunk variable speed compressor and external fan should have a variable speed interior fan, allowing the interior fan to match the cooling needs as the inverter compressor does. This may be why it is not as quiet as could be and he denoted it as an area of improvement. Anybody here know more?

Cut the cord! 🤣 (I also purchased the Mini Router per @Snackchaser post proving its use, but have not had the time to pull it out of its packaging.)

@John Dorrer had answered, YES for 2022 to 2025 Olivers. But to be sure... You should just check yours. Remove one wheel so you can see the drum. If you see the bearing cover plate like in the first picture you have the Nev-R Lube bearings. The cover plate is larger and has Nev-R Lube stamped into the cover. Second picture is the only picture I had with the drum on, just before I did a first bearing service on our older hull. It shows the old style axle with inner and outer bearings that must be packed with grease. The bearing cover is smaller without stamping. I believe if you have the EZ-Lube model, the cover plate has a Zerk fitting to add grease. EZ-Lube is not Nev-R Lube.

Wondering 6 weeks later, could you provide additional feedback on your new Pioneer? Have you used it camping? Still getting the same numbers? Is it truly quiet or how would you describe it? For every hour of use on a summer day, how many Ah are used in battery SOC? Answers to any of these Qs would be helpful. Also, did you keep the fiberglass platform that OTT had mounted behind the 14x14" A/C opening? I don't believe our hull has that add-on. I'm trying to finalize if this is the right purchase and is now the right time to buy the Turbro Greenland which is now at $1,275 plus tax. Except in warranty and perhaps temp range, the Pioneer and Greenland appear to be the same.

Yes, in an OTT installed system, yet we keep our Victron system on always, 24x7x365! It’s ON now, as we sit on our deck with A/C set to 85F to keep things nice! Solar on/off has nothing to do with 110VAC outlets working, PERIOD! We could only guess, not knowing battery, inverter or any other particulars.

Wow, I read this two years ago when I first joined the forum! Rivernerd, were you ever able to get OTT to assure the correct wire gauge in your hull? I'm getting new D52 axles next week. Wonder what gauge is used in the axles? And what gauge OTT installed from the junction box under the bathroom vanity and to the wheels. If I find this wire undersized I will replaced that section of wiring. Going to 12" brakes on new axles and want them working correctly. You can test each drum brake by lifting each wheel off the ground, rolling the wheels and actuating the brakes, listening and feeling for proper drag. Make sure the self-adjusters are where they should be, tighten them as needed. Just did this in May prior to our long trip and discovered our brake controller needed replacing. John E Davies was an artist when it came to Oliver mods! But many of them left me with the question, as to why? I believe wiring the brake wires external to the axle is not recommended. Not only for the reason of road debris and zip-tie maintenance, and what a mess! Where we live Pack Rats would devour the wiring and cable ties. The other thing is the suggestion to go to manual-adjust brakes. Also not a good idea. If you do, get under your trailer every few hundred miles and adjust them manually. This means every couple weeks for those of you who tow 1000-mile trips! The only issue with self-adjusters is that they may not adjust adequately and so should be checked, tightened when needed and more so the rears in a tandem setup. Brake wires in trailer axles and self-adjusters on drum brakes have been industry standards for longer than our lifetimes. This Arizona Pack Rat looks too cute just sitting there. They are troublesome little SOBs and they take too much time out of our lives in trapping them and removing their nests from our property. Everybody in our town leaves the hood up on their pickup trucks so that their engine bay does not become one big nest made of hood insultation, wire insulation, shock boots, plastic parts, etc.

Correct! Who knows why Dexter makes a marketing slogan out of “Nev-R Adjust!” Drum brakes have had self-adjusters almost since the automobile industry invented drum brakes! 🤣

Yes John, a good reminder! You can tell a lot lifting the tires off the ground, have a helper press the TV brake pedal gently then abruptly. Tighten the self-adjusters to the point where you just hear and feel the shoes rub, because we know they don’t always self-adjust as they should and the rears will be usually be looser than the fronts. Get them as so and you can be relatively confident all inside the drum is working as designed. I worked this service recently and found out brake controller was not working right. Replaced the controller and brake response was night and day. To do a full interior inspection with the Nev-R Lube bearings you’ll need a new set of 4 spindle nuts but on the positive side you won’t have to remove and repack the outer bearings (or both) as we have for decades with the old-style wheel bearings.

No inverter in your Oliver? In our hull the B+ and B- battery cables go directly to the inverter, not to a ground stud as you've show. The negative DC bus under the rear dinette seat may be easier for your ground. Notice the 4 AWG cables shown in the picture which is how I grounded ours (second picture in the post linked below). Bottom-line is you want the most direct connection (least resistance) from the Orion charger to battery +/-. There are many ways to do this. Do purchase the Orion XS 50A model.

Great pics Geoff & Tanya, and great idea for a new thread! Spring 2023 we just sold our Bigfoot Class-C. We decided that given our boondocking style in the western mountains, that a smaller travel trailer would be the better way to go. Our first sighting was what became our Oliver, hull # 113! It was listed on Craigslist right here in Prescott by the 3rd owner. My first thought when seeing the ad was, "No-way we'd pay that much for a small travel trailer!" But first thing out of my mouth was, "Chris, we need to go see this!" 🤣 I put 20% down the day after we went to see it. And just a few days later we paid the balance at our bank, then Paul the prior owner delivered it to our home! Timing was perfect, as we became new owners on Chris' very Happy Birthday! 😂 Pictures of our first day and first campsite just outside Kendrick Mountain Wilderness.

This may be your best option. I deleted the vent under the curbside bed (didn't like hot air in our faces when sleeping) and replaced the ducting up to the T with rigid yet flexible dryer vent ducting (illustrated in this thread above). I cannot imagine why OTT uses the soft flex ducting we have in our hulls. Our original ducting had holes everywhere along the bottom and a lot of dust inside. During manufacturing, it would be so easy to put solid aluminum or PVC ducting that could be cleaned inside like household ducting. Not easy, or near impossible as a retrofit! We do not have openings under our kitchen drawers as in your hull. Cutting into that area to open it up like yours would be easy enough, but getting under the fridge, under the cabin entrance, by the closet and all the way to the bathroom is another story! There may be a way to get under the floor and run ducting to the bathroom via the streetside basement, but you'd have to deal with it being in the way every time you need to be in there and would likely produce weak airflow in all its length. Yes, you could delete the bathroom run (leave the bathroom door open on cold nights). You could add another duct as far forward as you could reach and have all new ducting to that point. I would do that if/when we have to delete the bathroom since I had deleted the one under the bed. You need two 4" openings at least. The 10x6" filter added to the return duct certainly helps re dust. In this case you would have all new clean ducting and greater airflow in deleting the bathroom run which likely has leaks in it along the way. Glad to hear it's getting cold again up north! We had to use too much A/C when we were up in WY during June!

My new axles should ship next week. I want to remove a hub to see what's what inside, bearing make and model#, etc. Issue is the spindle nut is one-use only, must be replaced if removed. Alcan wrote they can get spindle nuts from Dexter at $42 each! 🤣 We're hoping to figure out the spec for the axle nut to source at a reasonable cost from some industrial supplier vs. this flagrant pricing from Dexter. If you read the Dexter spec sheet for Nev-R Lube linked above, it states the bearings are Made-in-USA. The 42mm bearing on RockAuto shows Timken, Made-in-USA. Good eye to see this NTN brand made in Japan. I too would be good with either, Japan or USA, just no-way on Chinese knock-offs! Hoping the USA made Timken $36 at RockAuto is correct and then all we need is correct spindle nuts. The other parts should be re-usable for at least the replacement of a second bearing. We'll know more soon...

I did ours a few months ago. The cone of the ball is pressed in there good from miles of trailer tongue weight! I didn't watch the video but what I did was turn the hitch upside mounted to the rear of my truck. Then I hit it firmly with a 5-LB hammer and it dropped down to the ground on the second strike. I was replacing the ball too, going from a 2" to a 2 5/16" ball so I did not care if I dinged the ball. If I was to reuse it, I would have padded the shaft before hitting it and placed something below to catch it nicely. Pictures show work in process...

When I read @Gliddenwoods post and read the term Nev-R Adjust I mistook it for the previous generation bearing type called EZ-Lube. John Dorrer knows the spec for 2022-25 Olivers and even though you were told you do not have Nev-R Lube bearings, perhaps you actually do (ask again). Please strike my comment made last night re upgrading to Timken. https://www.dextergroup.com/nev-r-adjust-brakes https://www.dextergroup.com/user_area/content_media/raw/nev-r-lube-lit-215-00.pdf A few of us are considering carrying replacement Nev-R Lube bearings to have as spares in our toolbox. The 5-year 100,000 mile warranty is a good claim but will not help if a bearing fails on the road in some remote location. Alcan quoted me the same price as eTrailer has it listed. It would be good to have one or more of these with you. Read page 29 of this thread for more information re these bearing kits. https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Bearings-Races-Seals-Caps/Dexter/31-73-3.html And as John wrote above, grease your leaf spring welt bolts but Nev-R Lube bearings do not require service as suggested in the name!

You have a relatively new Oliver. If you do the Timken bearing replacement I suggested, nothing you have done or not done in 3 years matters.

No, not at all, re this simple question. Some may say your axles, though they require an annual pump of grease and every 3-5 years (IMHO) should have a full bearing maintenance, could be better than the newer Nev-R Lube axles. The Jury is out on longevity of the newer Nev-R Lube bearings, that cannot be serviced, but must be replaced if they fail on-the road! We with Nev-R bearings are looking at replacement bearings and a bearing press to replace the bearing in the road if needed. Not necessary with your axles. I would keep your axles, if it was me. If you’re going to Alcan for service, or wherever, ask them to replace your bearings with Made in USA Timken bearings to remove the cheap China-made bearings that came with your axles. New Alcan leaf springs, new Timken bearings, a squirt of grease yearly and please feel confident you’ll have a new suspension rated at 1.5 times the weight rating of the Oliver with all new parts! Hope this helps in your decision! JD

Just from memory I believe the first wheel in line is the front streetside wheel. No, the <1" DIA cable is the 10/3 shore power cable coming from the front generator connection. The "Progressive Dynamics: Automatic Transfer Relay 5100 Series" switches between the 2 shore connections, front or streetside, to the one that is live. Your 7-wire trailer cable likely enters the front of your Oliver hull right next to the 10/3 shore power cable. If you get your head under where the LP tanks are mounted you could see the entry points.

Yes, this means brake wiring at all 4 wheels are good. And given you have tested for brake voltage at the rear of the truck or same day the truck pulled the airstream brakes working, you have an open circuit between the 7-blade plug on the Oliver and the first wheel.

Take a close-up pic of the 7-blade plug on your Oliver. Have you used dielectric grease? We have that iron-oxide dirt out here in the desert. I wonder when this issue happened for you. Why was it working last year but not now. What has changed? I believe power to the brakes at the wheels comes to the first wheel (front-streetside?) and then they are daisy-chained, front to back and down each axle to get to the curbside. I may be wrong as this is from memory from two years ago when I replaced wheel bearing and all the electrical crimp parts. If this is true, to have NO brakes, there must be an open before the first wheel. If the wire down the axle is bad (open) it would affect only one wheel. I'm also opposed to the camp that has replaced the interior axle wire to one zip-tied behind the axle. Now you have annual zip-tie maintenance and the chance of the wire being damaged by highway or offroad debris. I would use the old axle wire to pull a new one that is a step heavier AWG and one with heavy water-proof insulation like wire rated for burial purposes.

The Pioneer is also advertised "On sale!" $1,628 - $1,275 = $353 for years 2-3 warranty? Yeah, that would not be me. Once when I was young, I paid for extended warranty. Only once and we have saved tens of thousands $$,$$$ through the years! 🤣 Extremely low likelihood of failure in years 2-3 when a machine does not fail in the first year. https://www.qualitygurus.com/the-bathtub-curve-in-reliability/ I just have to decide now vs. later and would pick best price regardless of warranty. Will they get more or less expensive? Will a better model come out in the new year? I would have purchased the Atmos 2 years ago, if we still lived in FL or TX! The Turbro Greenland and Pioneer seem to be the same. However, the Pioneer outdoor unit is 4 LBS heavier. Turbro claims heat pump works down to 19F and Pioneer 28F. This one is likely just a website content error, but which is correct advertising?

Wish this had been true for WY and CO during June this year! 🤣

There are others here that know way more than me re electrical code and insurance regulations… My thinking, just based in logic, is the brake system is not fused for safety reasons! 🤣

Yes, as our friend @John Dorrer stated you already have the D52 axles. When the label states D52, you have the 5200 LB axles. Reason it states 3500 LBS is the factory build plan called for 3500 LB leaf springs. Just send Alcan your axle label picture and they will know your axles are A+ and with the Alcan leaf spring upgrade you’re good to go. Lucky you! 🤣

I have an itchy finger on biting the Turbo Greenland deal, but we do not need A/C for most of our travels. My wife Chris and I plan to watch YouTubes on this product tonight, hoping there are new ones but if you have not watched one yet, here is a goody. Best wishes, JD

SALE PRICE UPDATE!!! This inverter model is now down to $1275 plus tax with a $1499 sales price and 15% promo code. Free shipping and with AZ sales tax less than $1400 OTD! (And China tariffs are still in question.) The comparable Pioneer model is priced much higher. Will the Greenland be quiet enough? Is the power consumption low enough to run on LiFePO4 batteries? Time to pull the trigger? https://www.turbro.com/products/greenland-13500-btu-inverter-rv-air-conditioner-with-heat-pump