jd1923

I use something similar to the one centered in the your picture for almost everything automotive, must be high-temp NLG #2 for bearings. This red grease is the toughest. Given you researched this, I’m thinking you are good on your choices!

This may be the answer!

So many bad roads in these United States as well as Canada. For some reason today an Infrastructure Bill is passed and then monies are spent on perceived social issues. First line item re infrastructure is building roads. Hopefully .gov will spend necessary monies to replace all the roads and bridges damaged or destroyed by Helene. President Eisenhower RIP would be ashamed of his interstate system, except for in Texas and a few other states. I moved from Chicagoland (always potholes for decades) to Tidewater VA in the late 70s. Driving on I-64 back then was like floating on glass! We drive highways, back roads and dirt roads throughout the SW, roads not so good. Keep tire pressures on the low per the chart, drive slowly. It be a shame fear would keep you from this dream trip, IMHO. You have to ask what’s more important, the trip or the trailer. Yep, have a pair of replacement leaf springs.

Yes, and fresh in the dairy section! Chris and I were born and raised in Chicago where Bays started and didn't know of the other name brand until we traveled east. About Bays | Bays English Muffins

42K on trailer tires seems like decent life expectancy. But "severe cupping on one wheel" is odd. Could be an issue local to that wheel, or merely a defective tire. Watch that tire position for cupping on your new set of tires. But those shocks look just awful! I believe @Geronimo John is correct re the shocks. It's like mounting shocks engineered for a 1500 truck on a 2500. These Monroes, or even the same spec Bulldog shocks, would hardly dampen the 4x 2750# Alcan leaf springs and will likely fail more often and more quickly. Whoever talks to Alcan next, please ask the shock make and model number of the shock they suggest and post this info on our Oliver Forum. Thank you.

Would that be Thomas or Bays English muffins?

Maybe. We’d have to be chemists to be sure. I don’t use the pink stuff, but if it’s ethanol based, I would think it could react with brass or other plumbing components to produce the simple but deadly compound CO.

Is that on one set of tires?

John, just read this again… I would check your wheel bearings regarding cupped tires. In a TV it means alignment but there is no alignment on trailers. To do so, lift each wheel off ground, hands on tire at 3 and 9 o’clock positions to check if there is any shake. Turn the wheel some and shake hard a few times. If you find ANY wobble at all then the axle nut needs to be tightened. If you have packed the bearings in the last 1-2 years, just tighten the nut. If not, it’s time to clean and pack the wheel bearings. I’m not sure but thinking bad shocks or even no shocks should not affect tire wear. Shocks merely stop the pendulum effect of spring bounce. I guess excessive bounce could affect tires, though less likely than bearings.

I see the roll pin in the picture and it doesn’t look bent. What is keeping it from be driven wit a punch back into the opening. It will take 3 hands!

At the price point you could buy two extras so you could do the warranty exchange and always have two good shocks on hand. You know, I’ve owned many cargo and stock trailers 7K and 10.2K and none of them have had shocks. Are they necessary? Many Oliver Owners have 1-4 blown shocks and do not know so.

How dirty can a 1-year-old Oliver be? We got to the Texas Rally, where I thought our older hull would be the ugly duckling. Wow, there are some glossy Olivers here, some with recent CGI service. I was happy to see a couple Olivers with the dull & dirty look like ours. Don't they say, "It's what's inside that counts!"

Just checked Renewable Outdoors website where I purchased our Epoch batteries, and they did not charge tax or shipping. Then checked Epoch's website. Both have the 300A Epoch Essential back to the $999 price. Makes me glad I purchased at the right time, but not happy for others wanting to buy now. I would still wait to see Black Friday pricing and discounts since we are just weeks away.

I will certainly check out @Ronbrink's Atmos today! Sure Derek, stop by site 71 to talk. We're staying at the park today, so will be here or visiting others. I purchased Epoch during a 4th of July sale. They had just lowered the price from $999 to $899 and had 10% OFF. Last year they had 15% OFF for Black Friday. I went with Epoch to get 2x 300AH. The LiTime will likely continue to be the best price for 2x 230AH. 460AH vs. 600AH is the question, or you can do 1x 460AH Epoch Essentials (2 of the "Essential" model will not fit) as somebody here mentioned, or 2x 460AH and go all out as @rideadeuce did!

Just Campendium. Here is the listing for Yoakum County park.

Got to the Texas Rally at Inks Lake SP a couple days early. More pictures will be on the Rally thread. Spent the day today a Horseshoe Bay Resort. Adam used to play tennis tournaments here and, in the 10+ years since we had visited, they built 14 Pickle Ball courts. Marble Falls now has a brand-new HUGE H-E-B! We went to play PB today and found all the courts busy with a local tournament. If we had known, we could have entered the tournament but just spectators today!

There are a few installs documented. @Galway Girl and @rideadeuce to name a couple. Just search for keyword “Starlink.” These are not the Mini, but installation cannot be much different. I hope to buy one Dec-Jan and will document my installation. @Patriot has a recent thread on the Mini, and he is adamant on its being portable, stating the need to use it when the Oliver is camped where view of the northern sky is blocked. This is an important valid point. Mine will be installed on the tow vehicle, plugged into our Pepwave router, also installed in the TV. The Pepwave would look first to cellular signal, switching to Starlink when needed to minimize Starlink data used saving $$$. I figure that if the Oliver is blocked from the northern sky, which is rare in the SW where we do not have the tall trees of the east, I can park the TV in a better position which could be 100+ FT away and still have Wi-Fi access, broadcasted by the powerful Parsec antenna. I'm trying not to add more portable gear, the setup and tear down. Kinda sorry I invested in suitcase solar vs. another rooftop panel or just a DC-DC charger. It’s great that Starlink now has affordable options. Oh, and we have a monstrosity of a Winegard Dish Sat device, front of ours, yes bug collector, that I will remove soon. What a mess with all the screw holes OTT drilled in the roof (use 3M 4950 VHB tape).

Our TV is also a brighter white, but our TV is 24 years old and the whites are now pretty close. The front fenders and hood of the TV could use some paint too. Sunlight UV rays do take their toll. I’ve got a painter, a retired pro who has a paint booth on his property and does reasonable side jobs at half todays shop rates.

I used to truly dislike paint, like as a teenager when my mom wanted me to paint over the natural pine paneling in the stairwell and lower hallway going to my bedroom. You can never get the wood back, but of course Mom was mom, Yes Ma’am! This thread makes me feel confident in letting our fiberglass sit in the AZ sun another 1-2 years without worry or care, love it! Then when I get some $$$$ saved, I will paint it the Dodge color codes of my truck. Not selling the truck, not selling the Oliver. This would look cool and the upper shell would still be white, but a little brighter white. The picture was taken after sunset, so it’s very dark. The upper portion is bright white. Notice the center rib which looks a lot like the joint on the Oliver between upper and lower shells. This would look awesome, IMHO.

Isn’t it great that many Oliver Owners can forgo hookups for several days! 🤣

luv ya Scotty! 🤣 At times, I have to curb Chris on this issue even with our 2500 Cummins! Gotta see this movie in full, the trailer doesn’t do it justice! Also, what an AMAZING trailer, built over 70 years ago. Also crazy, pulling this beast with what I believe is a 53 Olds (1/2 ton at best). I’ll take one for $1,800, even $18K, likely today worth $18M, but it would not truly make a mountain climb in Arizona, with or without her hidden ROCKS! We’ve got to rent this again!

It’s great to be back in Texas, what a well-run state! Business is key, great schools and sports, very well kept roads and great city/county/state parks. Not all the public lands of the west, but so much more open space than back east. We moved to Georgetown Texas in 2006 and moved out of Texas end of November 2014, so it’s been 10 years. I’ve flown in for business a half dozen times, driven from FL to AZ in 2018, but this is our first real visit to Texas in 10 years and we can’t wait to see old friends and new! Not considered a Boondocking state, though it appears every city or county in West Texas has a park with free camping. Some have free hookups! 🤣 Did groceries today at H-E-B, Big Spring TX. Given all the inflation of the last 3 years, prices considerably less than anywhere in Arizona, or likely most states. Last night we stayed at Yoakum County Park and tonight we are at Foster Creek Park, west of San Angelo. It’s not Yellowstone or Zion, but we have more fun at small quiet places I’m sure you know what I mean. Thanks for reading. Tomorrow we’ll be one of the early birds arriving at Inks Lake SP for the Rally! Come by campsite #71 to say hello if you are attending!

Thanks for this Steve! Our Hull 113 built 9 years ago, having lived a lot of outdoors in the SW sun, is pretty dull. Some shine on the curbside, which is nice since it is the side where live when we camp. Ours will be the flat one at the Texas Rally! For CGI’s service, their website states price “Starting at $3,000” and thinking they’d want more given the condition of our hull. Also, they suggest re-servicing on a regular basis. They’re also too far away for us. Though I’d be worried about paint chipping on the front and paint can turn into a nightmare if removal is needed. BTW, the colors above are not the best of choices, can I say awful? IMHO. I do like the Casita two-tone, if it was an exact match to the two-tone white-gray of our truck. Thanks @MAX Burner!

And the origin of Smokey the Bear started on Capitan Mountain, Lincoln County, just north of Riudoso. Also the stomping grounds of Billy the Kid. https://smokeybear.com/en/smokeys-history/story-of-smokey

We spent 3 days and nights in Wonderful Ruidoso NM! They had bad fires and floods early summer and the village is still working cleanup efforts. Still an amazing beautiful place, wildlife walking around feeding on grass in town. Ruidoso is one of the true gems of New Mexico! We wrote earlier re the “White Mountains.” The area surrounding Ruidoso also uses this name: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lincoln/recarea/?recid=78583 Last March we met a fun couple at a public Pickleball court while camping at Casa Grande AZ. They invited us and we took them up on this visit. Great hosts showed us around town, made us dinner, bought us dinner out (we tried to pay)! New BFFs and we played PBall all 3 days with a great group of locals and Texans that frequent this resort town. We stayed Midtown Mountain RV Park right in the village. We are often Boondocking and there’s good campsites everywhere but for 3 days wanted to be close to everything! https://midtownmountaincampground.com/ They had some sort of LED lighting system that made all the light speckles in the photo. Nice quiet place for being in town, good bathrooms, friendly owner. Elk and wild/feral horses in town, bear a mountain lions in the surrounding hills! We will come back often! IMG_3822.mov