jd1923

LOVED the Black Hills! I must learn what makes the stone black. Need to make another trip here to get deeper into the hills. Rapid City though is certainly a tourist-trap but Mt. Rushmore makes it all worth it. What a wonderful celebration of America! Chris and I have wanted to come here all of our lives. We had a great FS site booked just 10 minutes away, but it got into the 90s and needed electric to run the A/C. While eating donuts in our truck at Wall, I made a same-day reservation at Holy Smoke Resort just north of Keystone. It all worked out. We waited 'til after 5PM due to the heat and then hiked the Presidential Trail. We really wanted to see the night ceremonies but during June they start late at 9PM. So we went to dinner at the Powder House Lodge and returned just before nine. It was great, Bison Filet for Chris and Bison Stew for me, yum! Both the daylight and nighttime visits to Mt. Rushmore were something we will always remember. They ended with a salute to our Veterans, who were called on stage and the rest of us were clapping loudly, for a long, long time. Yes, thank you to our Vets! 😂

A week has gone by and we're stayed at so many great places in SD and WY! Badlands NP: liked the ease of entering from the east, exiting west after seeing the sights right at Wall SD. It's so stark, its topography is certainly out-of-place! Honestly, I was a little disappointed, not our favorite place in SW SD. Those who love this place, please do not get upset with me, but I believe if the same range of barren hills was somewhere in the middle of Arizona, it would not make the Top-10 list. It's just were it is located that is freakish! I posted pics in Where's Ollie? and I saw an Ollie threads so will skip those here. We boondocked the wall at Buffalo Gap National Grassland. It was pretty cool. Good that they have changed the rules that you must disperse camp at designated sites. Must have been a zoo prior to that. Still not everybody abides by rules! Somebody towing a 5th-wheel, tandem-towing another trailer with a SxS, came in after 11PM and camped right below us on our designated site. Who are these ________ who arrive at campsites after dark? Then he had the gall to run a friggin' generator all night long! I used to have a temper and too bad I'd get in trouble if firing a warning shot! We left late by noon, since it was going to be in the 90s that day and and it was somewhat cool in the wind on the ridge. Headed to Wall Drug, got in and out quickly. Here are the important pics. Their cake donuts are truly great! They only got us for a half dozen, no t-shirts or other nonsense, and two free water!

The more travel pics of Oliver owners, the better, something we can all agree on. But what just happened to us recently makes this thread special and I’m certain similar connections have been made over the last 9 years! Ken and I have been friends, communicated since their previous trip west when he and MK came to our home last September. We had a quick great day together, night at a local steakhouse! We also met up for a day during the Texas Rally. I knew he had an appointment with Alcan but did not add up their timing and travel route until he posted his Montrose camp picture here yesterday. I just made a reservation at the same park and we’ll soon have a couple days together! Thanks again Mike! I know you and Carol are great friends with them. Please keep this thread going and It’s up to all of you reading to do so!

Wow, I skipped the word ‘June’ when reading, focusing on the picture! Our trip was June too, fog where I could only see at most 30 yards ahead!

June 1996 we stayed in a cabin at 10K ft on the Salida side. Chris and I had headaches the whole week not being used to altitude at the time. Drove to Gunnison one morning, fog on the pass, was quite scary. Would not want to be there during winter like Mike! We didn’t make it as far as the Black Canyon, but should make up for that Thursday of this week! 😂 Joe & Mindy, not sure which direction you’re traveling, but there will be two Olivers at Riverbend RV Montrose Wed-Thu this week. One will be there much longer, the retired guy with his better half!

After the day at Devils Tower we road into our campsite and there she was, another Ollie! Only the second time for us, not counting the Q or Texas Rally and there was a 3rd time, but they left early morning without us meeting. Both times the Oliver owner was named Gary. The First time it was Gary from CO at Lost Dutchman and yesterday it was Gary from Harrisburg PA in Hull # 833! Gary wanted to check out my Epoch installation. He has 4-year-old AGMs not holding charge like they used to. I believe we've heard that story before! 🤣

How long you going to be there Ken? We should be there later in the week, Just got to Casper WY’

Thank you very much. I see the marking 50.50 which is the length in inches. Your picture reminded me that I took a picture of our label 2 years ago when servicing the hubs and installing Timken Bearings. So, I don't have to get under and measure again. Our hull has the 50" axles, see the 50.00 in my picture. I still would love to see a label picture showing D52 and 50.00, somebody please?! Thanks again!

Very well stated, to which I wholeheartedly agree! 9K BTU should be enough for the Cu Ft of an Oliver. Of course, I have less concerns re humidity than the two of you from Houston and Tampa! We are 4 weeks into our longest Oliver trip and there's been a heat wave, thank Goodness it just ended. Had to run the awful Dometic P2 over 4 nights and likely a couple more as we approach AZ. Noise was my greatest concern, but now it’s 2nd to Ah consumption. I ran it while towing for 90 min (see my post) and used 216 Ah. I could only afford to do so since we were driving to a campsite with electric. Given the Inverter A/C numbers hold true, we could do the same likely using <100 Ah and would be able to continue A/C use for a few hours at a dry campsite. The Atmos/Tosot may be quieter, but either choice has got to be half the dBs of the P2! So @CRM, I’m counting on you being next! I’m now strongly in this camp and will upgrade prior to getting stuck on the next trip in a heat wave. You guys are always in a humid heatwave!

Yep, good decision. Like buying a truck that’s on the dealer’s lot. You’ll get a much better price than ordering a factory build. Why I buy low mileage excellent condition used. I can remember buying only 4 new vehicles in 40+ purchased over the last 50 years. We would never have known about Oliver if there was not one locally available used. I believe we paid half to 60% of the cost ordering new from OTT and they haven’t changed much through the years. This allowed us budget for all the many mods we’ve made. I would not trade ours even for a new one! And there were no dealers 2 years ago, still none in AZ, with the Phoenix Valley being one of, or the largest RV market in the country. @David and Gail, we hope you are as happy with your new Oliver as we are with ours! Best wishes in your travels, JD

Delete the Optifuse asap (China cr@p) and replace it with a 300A ANL fuse. On a recent post by @John Dorrer I listed Amazon links for the parts required. I have an ANL fuse in line with our Victron inverter and can run the A/C and microwave simultaneously! Not that you’d want to, but it does so without blowing the fuse! You don’t want a breaker for this connection and OTT knows this (finally), now that they’re not using the Optifuse anymore. That’s what Jason should have told you.

Thanks @Dave and Kimberly, this is a fun thread! 🤣 Another thing that has helped up immensely is having a key and coat rack that can be reached standing outside the door of the Oliver. When I put my keys here they are not lost!

So this can get complicated so I've attached a pic! 🤣 If I carried all our required, notice the hook, I can be the janitor too! The keys on the left are my set, Chris' on the right and we each have every possible key for the Oliver and TV. The keys in the middle are used for hitch locks, our shed where we keep our camping stuff when home and some padlock keys. This set just stays in the truck toolbox side pocket and are always there unless hitching. I always carry the top left ring which has everything for the TV, 2 toolboxes, fuel cap and tailgate key, etc. and they fit nicely in my jeans pocket watch pocket. Bottom left are my Oliver and house keys for when we return and I always keep these in the TV console unless when rarely needed. Chris has a duplicate set. She is in charge of the Oliver door and when we take a hike, walk the dog, or the like, she carries the two keys top left on a wrist band and I leave my TV keys on a hook just inside the Oliver. At home, I have a whole special box full of keys; 2-3 sets for each vehicle, bikes (not bicycles) and dirt vehicles, shed and outbuilding and more and the box stays in a locked closet, key hidden in the nearby cabinet. I also have a hidden key box in the frame of the truck because I'm only going to lock my keys in the truck once without a backup! I loose my keys ALL the TIME! But they're always somewhere in the truck bed or on the Oliver bumper or somewhere like that and we never leave camp without my keys. Chris NEVER looses her keys, period end of story! She reminds me of that when she helps me find my keys. 🤣

We had GEICO for several years after Farmers got far too expensive! Then GEICO became a pain. They stopped allowing us to make changes online. Then they wouldn’t allow me to change what family member was driving what vehicle and charged us for commuting and I hadn’t driven to my job in years! I remember trying progressive online years ago after all the Flo commercials and it was very expensive. Recently we went with a local independent agent. He shopped many companies and he got us into a preferred account with Progressive. Costs were 20% or more less than GEICO. We switched all of our vehicles and we have several. Twice a year I switch winter vehicles to summer. Switch two vehicles from full coverage to comp only and vice versa. We insure our TV and Oliver with them. When we get done traveling end of July, I will put them both on Comp only for a couple of months until we travel again in October. This saves us quite a bit. Yes, in my head too, everything is too expensive these days! Like you wrote the 80s or at least the 90s.

Wow, some good ol’ Ollies there!

I believe OTT welded the axles saddles (not sure of correct term?) +/- 1/4 to the steel subframe (welded to inside or outside edge of the frame). It's just as crazy that OTT did this as the fact that Dexter would have both 50" and 50.5" axles in their catalog!

In the recent thread, "2 broken leaf springs / shocks" the discussion of Alcan springs came up again. Then I realized we would travel right through Grand Junction CO on our way home, so it got me thinking. Is now the right time to upgrade? So, I called Alcan yesterday and thought I would be connected to Lew, the name I read on our forum many times, but instead talked to Tim who was fully versed in Oliver needs. We talked about the leaf springs and upgrading to 5200 lb axles. I cannot see doing one without the other. I sure wish they had run out of 3500 axles, like some others, when they built our hull! The 5200 axles and Alcan springs would allow carrying more weight. I don't see much in other limiting factors, the wheels, tires, frame and steel sub-frame should all handle more weight. Not that we would ever carry much more weight being at about 6500 lbs today, but nothing wrong with over-engineering overall strength. My only worry about new axles are the mixed reviews on the Nev-R-Lube bearings. I want 5200 lb axles to have 12" vs" 10" drum brakes. This is a big deal/difference for mountain towing. I was contemplating having them do the work, biting the bullet on this large $$$$ ticket item, but in the end I got off the hook! Alcan stocks the Dexter 50.5" 5200 lb axles but not the older 50" model that only a couple of us have. Tim put a set of 5-leaf Alcan springs on hold for me including their HD shackles and new wet-bolts. I will hold off on new u-bolts until I purchase new axles. The Alcan leafs will like sit on the shelf in my shed for a while. Our original leafs are still in like new condition, not a spot of corrosion and nicely arced. I also have a new pair of leaf springs and new u-bolts under the tool box of our TV, with the necessary tools, for any roadside emergency. I'll spend close to $1,000 next week and then another $2,000+ at the time we purchase new axles...

According to the list above, it appears that only Chris' hull #110 and our hull #113 have 3500 lb axles measuring 50". As soon we get on pavement, off the dirt and gravel in our travels, I'm going to measure again to be certain. Though I'll likely just confirm what I measured when this thread started months ago. I talked to Alcan yesterday and they only stock the 50.5" 5200 lb axles for their Oliver customers. The rep was not aware of the 50" since they had not run across it in all the many Oliver customers they have served and most customers have purchased/installed leaf springs only. GJ, hulls under 100 where built 10+ years ago. Did you confirm Dexter still makes/stocks these? Do you have a part number? Another Q: Would it be that much of an issue mounting the 50.5" axle to replace the 50"? Tires would be 1/4" further out on each side. Is there anything else? It looks like an extra 1/4" width would fit well enough under the fiberglass wheel well. From the beginning of this thread, I was surprised the manufacture would actually build two axel models only a 1/2 difference. Who made that business decision? Not good planning.

I really thought I was done with this thread, but the engineer in me thought of a new need today, given the current heatwave across the country, currently bothering our trip! Mike @rideadeuce gave me the idea and I was skeptical at first, like driving 8 hours cooling the Oliver while keeping your dogs in the trailer or something. I believed highway speeds would pull any cooling achieved right out of the trailer and down the road, like a boat leaving the wake behind it. On this account, I was wrong. 🤣 For the last of couple weeks on our road trip I have used our Victron inverter to not only run the fridge while driving (LP tanks off of course), but also to power the HWH. For the last few weeks we have arrived at our campsite at 100% SOC, fridge cooled and water hot upon arrival, by running our DC-to-DC and solar chargers running. So today it was to be in the mid 90s for the 3rd day, OMG in northern SD and WY! I turned off the breaker to the HWH and set the thermostat low on our (POS) Dometic P2! Got back in the truck and towed our Oliver 90 minutes to our destination. I still cannot believe the results! In 90 minutes our cabin temp dropped 10F. This usually takes 2-3 hours with the P2 at the campsite after connected to shore power. The only explanation I could think of is that while driving at highway speeds the A/C condenser gets cooled much more efficiently. We used 216Ah in this short 90 min out of our 600Ah total (36%). It was totally worth it! We arrived at camp at 4PM with a COOL cabin. Those of you who run an inverter and study your inverter and battery apps, check out and spend a bit of time with these screen-prints. You can see that outside it was 93F when we started at 2:30PM and 94F by 4 PM (Ruuvi sensors), while the interior temp dropped from 85F to 75F. Get me one of those inverter A/C units and we can likely do this using 100Ah! No, you cannot run it all day with dogs onboard. 🤣

6mm by +/- 1” is certainly enough. 10mm is crazy big! (and no way your bending a 10mm bar! Yep, just clamp it in a vise and hammer it! You better have a real HD vise though. If you want to add heat OK., but it may not help unless done right. It’s just copper, so it heats and bends nicely. Take a 5 lb hammer! 🤣 Allow me to add a thought re this subject. If you really need to account for a height difference in where you bolt the lugs, I made this cable to account for adding a shunt to my batteries in a previous install. Just an idea, but you cannot purchase cables like this. You cannot even buy cables less that 1 foot off-the-shelf except maybe from Powerwerx, love this company: https://powerwerx.com/

Could you let us know what model inverter, Ah LiFePO4 and if possible could you show your app pic showing the -A draw with the compressor running? Also btw, quieter than the Dometic P2 is a lot like stating, “lighter than an elephant!” I know it’s near impossible to measure sound volume, forget the bad apps that attempt to do so. 🤣 Like @CRM I’m leaning towards the inverter A/C vs. some of the others. Running longer on batteries to me is more important than whisper quiet now, if it’s amply quiet enough. Thank you so much for posting this!

Ray, you and Nancy are awesome! Hey if I was not 1000 miles from home, I would have loaded the truck with tools and my replacement parts, 90 min out and @Cort would have been on the road in hours. Your positive attitude, and those of others here, are what makes us Oliver owners a strong community. I used to belong to car clubs where we had a national directory, including phone numbers like you mentioned. I’ve had to make that call broken down on the road and others had called me. Had the correct OEM starter motor sitting on the shelf when one member called in need. That’s just great! 😂

First off, my suggestion re part # SW4B was to buy what's available in 1-2 days to repair and get home. Not to buy a set of 4 by all means! Though I agree with GJ and Ken that side-to-side motion and leaning up or downhill adds to stress, still it’s not like 70 MPH hitting a pothole, uneven RR tracks, etc. AND there should be enough engineering tolerance for ALL of these common environmental issues that are common in trailers! I talked to Alcan today and will post that on the LONG thread where we’ve been discussing these frequent SW4B failures. @John Dorrer please don't think this will not happen to the newer hulls. I believe it’s older hulls like ours where the steel was better 10 years ago. Lance’s failed on a 2021 and Rich’s 2023 “are already showing signs of flattening!” Mine still look perfectly arced, but either way a year ago I purchased a set of OEM SW4B springs for a roadside repair if necessary! And I carry a bottle jack, jack stand, 1/2” drive sockets, breaker bar with 30” extension, new u-bolts, etc! 🤣

On the recommendation of Lance, Steve, Art, those who upgraded early and from what I’ve read, Lew at Alcan the 5-leaf is what he in the business suggests. Also, on this our first long highway trip, I’ve noticed how our hull waddles like a duck across RR tracks and other road contours. Less worried about vibration and other cited concerns.

Patriot, you’re doing it to me again! Earlier I’m thinking about a fridge-freezer box for the TV and now this! Hope to meet you on your next trip west! 😂 Lance @Mountainman198 we met at the Q in Feb and thank you my friend for being the pioneer in this upgrade! 😂 So we’re sitting at Mt Rushmore, did the Presidential Trail yesterday, Bison filet at the Powder House Lodge and went back for the night presentation, lighting of the monument followed by a salute to our veterans, what a majestic place! We slept well and got up to coffee, the forum and checking the map for the next leg of our trip. So Grand Junction is on our planned route, halfway between here and home! Not sure I want to afford their full service treatment but I would not upgrades leafs without the 5200 lb axles and all the extras you mentioned. Just had breakfast and after another cup of coffee, I’ll be calling Lew. I have no idea if they could fit us in a week out and not sure if they have the 50” axles required for our older hull. I will at least stop by, purchase the leafs, HD shackles, wet bolts, etc. for a later installation at home, purchasing axles later… Or perhaps, bite the bullet, beak down emotionally and let somebody else work on my Oliver! 🤣