jd1923

Welcome Pat to our wonderful Oliver TT Forum and Community!

First @Mountainman198, Lance get the cat OFF the dinner table! 🤣 We have dogs now, but Mom was a cat lover, we were brought up with cats. They prefer their own space! Bill & Nancy, love your idea to mod the front dinette area! Give it some real thought while taking some time developing your best plan. Being an Oliver Mod guy… you have a very good idea.

Wow, never seen a post after the phrase, “9 years later!” That’s almost as old as our old hull. 🤣 You can put all the hardware you want on your Oliver and if I wanted to, I’d just wrap a chain to the front of your trailer, winch it up on the back of any truck and drag it down the street, gone! Some believe planting the stabilizer jacks down and switching off the jack power helps. No, no way, do that and as I’m dragging your Oliver down the street, you’ve just caused damage to your 3 jacks and likely body damage to your hull. Yep, good news is there’s not a black market for Oliver parts, given we are a small tight-knit community. I promise you thieves would target Winnebago and the other big names. I’ve never seen “Parting an Oliver” on Craig’s! 🤣 Get insurance, do the security basics, and enjoy life in your Oliver! This is coming from a man, brought up in Chicago, the crime capital of the most of the US, where back in the day, I would bar the windows in my garages on the West Side! We try to leave these negative feelings in the past. Try to enjoy more than you worry. Now at home on purpose, I leave our cars unlocked overnight! It’s therapy. There is enough to worry about trailering an Oliver through the mountains and to remote corners of America. Have FUN! 😂

Good to know and we're looking forward to your build thread! 😎

It sure is! And as usual Geoff... You can wire anything that comes to mind (we are not worthy) 🤣! This is a GREAT upgrade for anybody who already has the PRO vs. the preferred PRO+. When we were shopping for ours two years ago, I came close, but soon realized the PRO+ included a wiring harness. Anybody reading not have one, OMG get one and pay $120 for the PRO+ vs. $100 for the PRO. I paid $102 Nov 2023 for the PRO+! I stay in the driver's seat of the truck to level. I open the app and move back and forth to get as close as possible. Then Chris gets out after I tell here where to place the Andersen levelers. When she gets them in place, I pull up or back depending and we can be at near perfect level, set the parking brake and we're done! Running this device on battery - OMG NEVER! I would be truly upset if the app could not find the device (for a dead battery). I wired ours under the rear dinette seat, where our B+ and B- buses are located in reach of the PRO+ included wiring harness (no splices or butt connectors required). The side of the PD ATS provided a good horizontal surface, installed in a just few minutes (see pic). We would not leave home without these accessories: https://www.amazon.com/LogicBlue-Technology-LevelMatePRO-Wireless-Leveling/dp/B083ZMZPR8/?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/ANDERSEN-HITCHES-Accessories-Leveler-Leveling/dp/B01MQNGOWD/?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/ANDERSEN-Accessories-Stabilizers-Jackstands-Quickjack/dp/B0888SDR63/?th=1 If you have the PRO, certainly work Geoff's mod ASAP! If not, buy the PRO+ and if you do not have either... Get out of the dark ages! 🤣 (life is short)

Finally done! Worked on this every-other-day this week. Looks great, doesn't she?! Alternate days are for Pickleball. My body can only take one kind of daily trauma! 🤣 Days on the court cannot be combined with hours climbing under truck or trailer! How many times did I get down on the driveway, sitting on a milk crate, craning my neck to fit under the Oliver fenders. or lying down on the ground, and then climbing back up? Way too many times, no matter how well I plan having parts and tools required! UPS came early yesterday allowing me to finish with new E-Z Flex equalizers from eTrailer (2-day ship only $6.50 extra, adding another $316 to the grand total)! You should check your equalizers. Some may have upgraded leaf springs without the equalizers being removed and cleaned up for inspection (it's the right time to do it). Details on this and other concerns soon. Look for a new thread on this subject. All that's left now is to torque and grease the wet bolts (our son Adam will power the torque wrench under the trailer and the DeWalt power grease gun makes this easy). Mount wheels & tires and test drive. I'll tow some miles on local highways and hilly/winding roads, then retorque the U-bolts upon return. Park the Oliver to free up my driveway again. Another trip to Southwestern Colorado is just 3 weeks away!

I would check out @rideadeuce Mike's post. He was able to fit a deeper sink, square bottomed, and improved faucet. Our OEM faucet leaks on and off at the junction of the extension hose, until I get under there again to seal it and someday replace it. Mike discusses the issues with the OEM faucet and sink design. It looks great, modern design, likely better quality stainless, a very good-looking upgrade! The down side is loosing the backside of your kitchen "junk drawer." It would be great if somebody found a better sink, slightly deeper and square bottomed, not requiring such under-counter surgery! 😎

What the heck is that wood-looking thing? A valence, and for what? I installed shelves up there! Please don't take everything I write to heart. 😎 We love OTT and 2x that sentiment in owning Hull #113! But do take me seriously when working M&R on a trailer, our tow vehicles, or anything I tear apart! This mod was pretty cool, however I later mounted the cupholder (on my side only) to be rear of trailer. It was in my line-of sight when propped in bed looking out the window. Chris loves hers as-is. I just love waking up in the Oliver, crack the window shade open a few inches. Looking to see, what kind of day will it be? 😂 Give me a replacement window? My user-story is one about it functioning fully while lying in bed as it does today. Otherwise who cares? Sure is pretty! 🤣

For sure, we're all different! 🤣 At home 6 years ago, I removed our electric induction cooktop (it was an older cooktop, perhaps not the latest technology), ran natural gas pipe to a new cooktop. Then I used the 8 AWG wire that was for the cooktop and added a sub-panel so that our fridge and Emeril Oven would have their own 20A circuits! It's been a great kitchen mod and we would never go back. So, quite the opposite from Rob's comment. We like the simplicity of gas, what you see is the heat applied. And when camping, we must have LP for outdoor cooking, and our fire ring for sure. The LP Atwood furnace is another must have, don't want heat pump running above our heads! We're going to keep those two 30# LP tanks in addition to more/better batteries! We prefer the stainless sinks too, but can see how this would make installation easier and costs lower for OTT. This thread seems like fantasy-land to me. Out of all of us reading and writing, who is in the market for a new Oliver anyway? Not us! There is only room in life for one Oliver, for sure. I'm truly glad we prefer what we already have with mods already made. It's like when OTT went to touch lights, nothing but problems. Our old switched lights, working now 10 years, and would not change a thing. Don't want those new windows either! 🤣

I thought about the mod many of you have gone with and decided to go with the standard configuration. The end bolts are easier forward facing and the shackle bolts are easy enough with an elbow fitting and power grease gun. Takes a bit of extra reach or climbing under when the Zerks are facing inwards. Half the time when lubing, I’ll likely have the wheels off anyway to check brakes, adjust the “self-adjusters”, check the tires thoroughly, pressure wash the backsides, and remove all the annoying gravel (when doing so, I’ve found countless nails and other metal objects in tire treads. BTW, pulling and replacing wet bolts is NOT easy, as the bolt alignment is not always there. 🤣

I generally prefer working on my own vehicles (and home) vs. contracting trades. However, the reasonable amount Alcan charges for labor is well worth it! This is not as easy as it looks! 🤣 Both axles are in today. Torque the wet bolts and brake wiring yet to do. Friday I have new E-Z Flex equalizers coming.

Thanks for the idea! I should do a magnet mount version, since I have power and Ethernet wired to the top of our tow vehicle. Our router is inside the TV too. @SeaDawg raised one issue and the back of the Oliver is not level, so you have the get the mount angle to the north of course, and at the same time the angle off the horizon must be the same as the Mini kick-stand. Your mount has great flexibility but likely would take climbing up there a few times to get the proper angle. Thanks again and best wishes.

Ready to put in place tomorrow...

Thanks. I came up with this idea a couple days ago and purchased these. It allowed me to disassemble all without a helper and should work the same for the installation of the new axles and leaf springs after building the assemblies on our garage floor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWTW7TQY/

Geoff, I thought some regulars here may notice! I did use jack stands at the fronts of the steel frame members, took them away for the picture! 🤣 I have the jack stands back under the Oliver overnight in the same front positions so the weight of the Oliver is spread over 5 points, sitting nice! With the Alcan leaf springs, I purchased everything new from them, HD shackles and new wet bolts. You may have to remove your wet bolts, the ones not accepting grease, and clean the dirt out of them. After removing ours today, they do get dirty inside! After 25K miles? It certainly could be time for new wet bolts and bushings. After 2 hours cleaning up our Dexter E-Z Flex equalizers, I found the main center bushings cock-eyed and heavily worn, the end bushings for the shackles also a bit worn. After cleaning, the center bolt sleeves just wobbled inside of the bronze bushings. I would not have known this without removing them and fully cleaning, disassembling and inspecting them. I need to replace them, but cannot wait for parts now with work in process. I have no idea total miles on our hull. Good to get a fresh start after 10 years. I've got a whole lot more to write about soon!

Your wish is my command! 🤣

I'm installing ours this weekend (more info soon)... Out with the old and soon in with the new D52 axles and Alcan leaf springs! 😂

I just ran across this older post... You'll be happy to know they are NTN brand made in Japan! More info here: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/11020-dexter-nev-r-lubetm-bearings-–-will-bearing-replacement-be-necessary-on-the-road/#comment-119901

Thank you Geoff. This is so nicely and concisely stated, now easy to understand! So if I truly do understand, when ON one of the 3-way switches is supplying power to the pump, by connecting 'hot' to the 'traveler' and the pump is grounded independent of the 3-way switches.

It's odd but true that the simple OEM ShurFlo water pump has two RED wires (see pic1, look very closely) which means it would run in either polarity. When I upgraded our water pump it certainly had explicit RED/BLACK wiring designating DC polarity (see pic2). The water pump switches are 3-way. You need to get the RED positive connected to the correct lead and the two other brown wires are grounds and perhaps the order of these two wires do not matter, but of course they must stay connected. Perhaps on our hull we were lucky to have a past owner to correct these many issues, but in two years, we have not had a wire disconnect while traveling, never a window shade fall off, a kitchen drawer open, or anything else. Thank goodness our black and grey tanks drain without incidents... The Oliver is a robust campin' machine! 🤣

This is what I used: https://a.co/d/cytULgu

Likely not, when first hitched. However after towing, the engine, trans, everything connected and under the hood gets very hot! The hot starter armature and battery cables will create resistance requiring more current to turn and start than when cold. Also as the starter armature gets fried, carbon buildup will also create mechanical resistance requiring more current to turn. Given the new starter resolves this issue, it shows the starter was on its way out and soon or later would not start the engine even when cold.

There was another thread re bug screens, so I added them after my fan install. I went with the idea Ron mentioned. It was very easy to make my own screens. I had a roll of 6" aluminum screening we had purchased for bug-proofing air vents in our home. I did the same for upper and lower screens, cutting and bending the screening to fit. You can't see it but I riveted the screens to the plastic vents, two rivets on each left and right sides. They made the vents fit nice and snugly, where before they rattled around a bit, even after adding new push-turn mounts. New fans, new screens, mod done! 😂

Dexter does not set the self-adjusters, as they come new very loose. I’ve heard this now from you and others with new axles. When I pulled a drum off a new axle it came off wobbling like the OD of the shoes was much smaller than ID of the drum. They must believe they will adjust soon enough. Not good when you drive off just installed and hit mountain roads! I’ll tighten mine up some, to the point I can just hear a light scraping sound, shoes on drum, before I mount the wheels. 😂 I just installed new rear shoes on our truck rear drum brakes. I overdid the adjustment! The brakes were so good, that the parking brake engaged with a 1” push on the pedal, and I found the rears were braking while coasting! 🤣 Understanding the issue, next day I lifted the rear of the truck and loosened the self-adjusters about 1 1/2 turns and my new brakes are now working perfectly, better than ever! 😂

Alcan negotiated with Dexter and they agreed to refund my shipping cost. Thanks to Lew at Alcan for working this out for such a positive outcome, to David for this good idea, and to Ron, Ken and @2008RN for your related comments. They promised a 2-week rush build, and today, exactly two weeks after I entered my complaint, I have new axles delivered! They sure are pretty this time, so the extra time was well worth it.😂 I'm working this week, followed by 10 days off. So likely this Friday or latest Monday, I'll hitch up the Oliver and park it on our driveway. Then all I have to do is figure out, how in the heck to install new Dexter D52 axles and Alcan Springs!!! Love the challenge of a new project, learning something new and the achievement! I'll take pics and start a new installation thread when I get into it. Can't wait to see a picture of our Oliver sitting up in the air without axles, leaf springs, wheels or tires! Or perhaps to be safe, I should remove and replace one axle at a time! 🤣