jd1923

Leaving next week for the Texas Rally. Ordered this interior fan today and should have time to install it in the next few days. Ron, how did you connect this interior fan to available 12VDC?

We often do a one-night stay, where we stay hitched, still need to level. BTW, camp these days anywhere near the border, stay hitched in case you need to leave in a hurry Not a good time to Boondock south of Tucson or anywhere from McAllen to Del Rio, TX! I stopped using the 1” blocks everywhere but the front jack where we may need a few inches or over a foot. I’ve gotten to where I only want to use the levelers up or down 6” at the most, usually less. Love these for the back levelers. Magnet on and down a few inches. When we leave, I only go up enough to free the block and leave the leveler at that height, it’s high enough! 🤣 OMG, everything is so expensive these days! Thank you .gov. I bought ours at $60 on eBay last year: https://a.co/d/aWFURPk

Looking forward to understanding this. SDG recommended to replace the Dometic thermostat with a simple furnace thermostat. That's what I was told when I called SDG. I've been wondering why I could not just keep the Dometic thermostat where only furnace operation would be controlled, the other functions would be null, wires taped open. This assumes you control the Atmos via the Atmos remote. I have this model thermostat:

You should post what fridge make/model. Yours will be a newer model than ours. It may not help, but first cut all power to it for 10 min or more. Trip the 120VAC breaker or no shore power, LP doesn’t matter. Pull the DC fuse or all DC battery power. Ours has a 40A DC circuit breaker for all DC circuits (have a flashlight ready). This will force a reboot. If it goes back the same way, likely the switch panel or a control board could be bad.

Revived an older thread here with an easy mod. Our $1800 Epoch mod is the largest single-dollar addition we've made to our Oliver. Tried to change the Southco latch with a model that has the cut key. though all keyed alike is not cool. Don't like the round key model, as it looks like it could be opened with a screwdriver. One reseller said 88 days for shipping on the Southco cut key model M1-20-81-78 (88 must be the default code for lots-a-luck). This only took me only a few minutes today. The tray steel is very hard, does not drill easy which is a good thing. Started small and finally drilled a 3/8” hole. The tray will only slide out an inch when locked. I tacked a 4x6" piece of 1" Styrofoam in the corner of the battery door so the padlock will not bounce around when towing. Had the old lock in a parts drawer for a zero-cost mod!

Thanks, Mountainman for all your input on this thread. Mine does not have a label like this (see pic). I had a conversation with @mountainoliver who has a 2017 and Ken sent me some specs of what he had ordered. They all seem the same. This is what you suggested: Amazon.com: TexTrail 9150014 Double Eye Trailer Leaf Spring for 3,500 Lb Axle - 4 Leaf - 25-1/4" Length - 2 Pack : Automotive What does everybody think of the items below? The leaf springs are almost double in cost, but both of these items are Made in USA. Do we really need the heavier leaf, or just something dependable? These would be half the Alcan cost, but of course 4-leaf 1750# springs. They do not have the 5-leaf design where the second leaf is longer, so these could have the same failure point. TruRyde® 4 Leaf 25 1/4" Double Eye Trailer Leaf Spring with Bronze Bushings 1750 lbs. - SW4B-BR | Southwest Wheel® SOUTHWEST WHEEL® Southwest Wheel® U-Bolt Kit for 5,200-7,000 lbs. 3" Trailer Axle - APUBR3BX | Southwest Wheel® I remember reading where some Oliver owners were concerned with mounting heavier springs that were basically for 5200 LB axles.

Our hull, older than yours and @Ronbrink's has only 5 levels. We run on #4 unless it's really hot outside. Have not tried out the new Beech Lane dual fan yet with fridge on and full of food. Leaving a week from tomorrow for the Texas Rally (a slow 10 days getting there)! The fridge always ran pretty well, freezer great. Hopefully with the fan will allow for better cooling in the fridge section, getting water bottles in the door shelving cold more quickly.

This could cause more issue than you would want, as the valve is harder than the pipe it's connect to and the pipe can get damaged or unthread on the opposite end (especially on one manufactured way back in 2015). There is no way to get a wrench on the pipe itself, only the valve.

What I learned from a post a year ago, this is mainly the calcium from hard water that is released in the heater, due to the heating, the anode or whatever. @John E Davies had mentioned this and suggested a water softener, but I was brought up in N IL with extremely hard well water and water softeners. Never again, as I cannot stand the never-rinsed feel of softened water. I rinse the Oliver Suburban HWH 2-3 times a year. In a way it's good the calcium ends up here vs. in the plumbing. Get one of these wands to rinse thoroughly. The soft plastic wand can't hurt anything. Push it all the way in and out, turning it 360 degrees to get everywhere you can.

I know somewhere in the 23 pages of this thread, somebody posted the OEM part number for our leaf springs that can be purchased on eTrailer. Was under our hull today and all 4 OEM leafs look excellent, but at $60 I’m thinking of buying one for the toolbox. Also making sure I have the long sockets to replace one on the side of the road. Thx

Thanks Mike. Yeah, I could not see any other way. Just got blasted again with the water and all the hard water white flakes. Second time now, even though I was trying to stand to the side. 🤣 Like to replace this with the tankless model one day. Just dreaming…

Is there any way to drain the HWH besides pulling the anode bolt? Don’t think so but thought I’d try! Thx

They do have mostly tent sites. They advertise some RV sites up to 25 FT (depending on your dates). I believe you will find the Oliver Elite II is actually 23.5 FT not 26 FT. I always enter 23 FT when reserving a campsite.

I have...

Can't see how the "fridge burner is burning" and it's not cooling. Your fridge may be fried, sorry to say. We're hoping ours lasts forever as I have not yet seen a single compressor fridge that can freeze two steaks and two trays of ice at the same time!

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I wrote previously our "fresh tank appears empty" which was not a good choice of words. Our FWT and some others were installed incorrectly by OTT, yes just some older hulls. We ONLY get 18 gallons of water (measured MANY times now when refilling) when the water pump starts drawing air. I never use the tank gauges which are inaccurate even when the Oliver is perfectly level. We know after 3 days the 18 gallons will need refilling. We know when we have emptied the fresh a second time the gray will need emptying the black needs it every other time we empty the gray. Just our water usage. I gave up on tank sensors years ago, hoping these external sensors would be better, but not. I recently opened a service ticket on this. Mike Sharpe replied, "I am looking into if we have the parts and even the tools to be able to do this as we have not done this modification in the last three years." He never replied whether he did "have the parts" or would still do a repair not done in over3 years. When I asked could you confirm availability of the parts ship me the parts, this was his answer The ticket was later closed, and I received no real answer other than this: "If you are able to find someone local to you to do it the spin weld tool they have may be a different size than what we use and then they would have to use the parts that they keep in stock for the job." have no idea if I towed our trailer all the way to OTT that they would fix this issue anymore. Our Olivier went back to OTT in 2018 and 2020 for service and you'd think they would have fixed this already! I'm going to have to live with it. At least we have a 35-gal FWT in the TV. How in the world would a FWT be installed with the suction line only halfway down such a flat tank? It should be designed to touch the bottom.

So first, are you sure you have enough water in the freshwater tank? Our fresh tank appears empty when half full due to an OTT installation defect on some older hulls. When it starts to pull air from the freshwater it will gurgle first and then run continuously. We refill frmo the boondocking port and we're good for another 18 gallons. This certainly could be the cause, but a water leak from ANYWHERE will show up dripping in one or more weep holes. Our kitchen faucet had a leak coming from the extension hose built-in to the faucet. It was not even hand tight. See picture for what a leak looks like. The center water spot is fridge condensate. The two on the ends were coming through the weep holes via the kitchen faucet connection.

Yes, every click is the drive gear (pictured) slipping pass the large round gear that moves the post. The long spiral thread design makes it the weaker gear taking the damage. You can see the wear marks on the outer portion of the gear. Once it slips when just in use, then it's damaged to the point of replacing the motor since it is the motor drive shaft. I never get ours near the ends. We travel with the rear jack bases at the height of the wheel centers and the front is always down a good 4". It makes for less time and work going up and down!

Finished the last task of this project, the fiberglass repair. This product worked well. It's slightly whiter than our yellowing hull. I also patched inside the hull where I had removed the original rear curbside TV mount. The color difference inside is hard to notice if any. I'm not the finish polisher guy, 320 grit sandpaper is the lightest I have. This is fine due to the location (see picture above prior to fill). I'll get it detailed further whenever I get to refinishing the hull.

Try it with and without and you will soon know what you prefer. I skip the Anderson around town, campsite to nearby campsite, but always use it on the highway. There are so many threads here where owners' of 250/2500 trucks voice opinions, many do not use it. My manual says yes for 5000 LBS or 500 LB hitch weight. It's night and day to me when towing over bouncy roads.

The OTT video shows some basic steps, but it misses the mark in properly servicing the jack. It merely demonstrates a visual inspection and if that's all you're going to do, I'd say just leave them alone. Given your hull is only 2 years old, if they sound good when running it should be fine to wait. They are nicely greased and sealed by the manufacturer to last awhile. The rear jacks are housed within the hull, and these will last even longer between service. Look at page 2 of the How-to Service thread linked above, where I worked a full jack service. It is better to do the job right every 3-5 years than to just visually inspect annually. Adding some grease on top of the gear does absolutely nothing. The body and moving parts of the jack must be cleaned of ALL old grease. You want a bath of new grease, with no air bubbles, under the main drive gear. I did that job on our front jack of our 8-year-old hull. The original OTT brown grease was still present, so you could tell this service had not been done in all these years. I don't plan to open it up again before 2028. I have not worked the rear jacks yet since these get little use, no real lifting strain, as compared to the front jack. They sound good as-is, on my list for next year. The only way to damage these quality VP3000 jacks is to allow the motor to run past the end stops. When the lift hits the stop and the motor continues to run, the spiral motor gear must slip on the large wheel gear causing damage to the spiral gear attached to the motor. When I had our apart and clean, I could see some evidence of this but not bad enough to change out the motor. There was no evidence of gear wear from lack of service. It did not sound well before the service and to my ear it sounds good now when lifting and lowering.

You're going to fit in just fine here. Prior owner of our hull said he was selling it because he wanted more of a project, nothing to work on with the Oliver. 🤣 Since then (June 2023) all we've been doing are minor repairs and major mods! Though it camped fine when first purchased, it should camp much more comfortably this upcoming season. Only major upgrades still on my list is to replace the A/C with something efficient and quiet, likely the Atmos 4.4, and to upgrade the axles with 12" brakes and Alcan leaf springs as soon as our shows signs of needing repair. We purchased an older hull, first because it was listed on Craigslist in our hometown. Told my wife, "Let's go see it, but there's no way we're spending that kind of money on a travel trailer!" Had no idea what an Oliver was. Found out new ones cost twice as much, and we brought her home by the end of the week! I always buy used and enjoy restoration work. Same story re our tow vehicle. Hope you find a good used Oliver to enjoy as we have!

🤣 Systems, we don’t need no schtinken Systems! (that we cannot mod ourselves)