jd1923

You should notice from the pics (previous post), that I took my rebuild another step and punched out the cross-pin that holds the main drive gear into the housing. The picture shows the punch, the pin, gear and housing. Note the hole, that you would drive a punch through to remove the pin The pin can be punched either direction, as both ends are tapered. I was worried at first, trying to eyeball the thinner side, not! John previously mentioned the black metal powder/shavings in the grease. Top of the gear was old and hard; bottom of the gear was soft, well used and rich of burnt metal.

Well at least another member opened this old thread, this year of 2023, before I did, and I thank you. After reading everything here, I jacked the front up high of our Oliver, and placed it on a jack stand. I started pulling the cover off the VIP3000 Power Jack and then remembered from JD's post, that I should first remove the power head. You want to pull the head, using the 5/32" Allen key, and work the maintenance on your shop workbench. First thing I noticed is that the main driveshaft had a 1/4" play up and down, that cannot be good! Then I stripped down the parts, looking carefully at the gears and bushings. Let me show you a few pics first. I do not have the pic when I first opened the top casing, but of the insides. But, like John wrote, the old brown grease is "cr@p." Not his words exactly, but to quote one of our lovely forum members. Thanks 😉

I could not agree more! LOL, thanks John. Now that I did my front jack, and the amount of short local travel we do, ask me again in 2028 and I'll service this again! Doing such maintenance annually is indemnification from the manufacture's legal department, not required.

I listened to the audio clip, and mine is certainly loud too. I want to first thank JD, for publishing this years ago! I read this first and it saved me time. I'm going to add my rebuild that I worked today. Thanks for reading!

Must be for specific options. Steve, or somebody with such panel, please let us know how the fuses are marked. Thanks

Thanks Steve, for your addition. Wish I had your SiriusXM package! I never thought I would want Sat radio, before traveling in the west. Our local FM stations fade quickly, and we have to seek 2-3 different stations, just driving from home to the Phoenix valley. Yes, you need a TV to include a TV tuner for broadcast TV and a decent antenna, roof-mount will have greater range. We can hardly get broadcast stations up at elevation. At home they bounce the Phoenix digital broadcasts off Mingus Mountain and we get about 30 stations, all but NBC. Camping we can get a few stations or none. I wasn't interested in 12V DC A/V components, since the Blu-ray, Dish Wally and most require 120V AC. I never fear running the inverter all day & night with this solar/battery setup. My last RV had less capacity (315 AH AGM and 1800W inverter), a system I installed, and it was always adequate to play music for hours, watch TV at night, and make coffee, run microwave in the morning, before the sun is strong. Out here in the SW you can count on sun 9/10 days! It amazes me, the pictures I've seen, how newer OTT models have a 12V DC sub-panel in the attic. Love to know what all the 12V fuses connect to. Ours does not have this sub-panel. And what a funky install, with each wire running through its own separate hole in the panel! My side panel removes easily, and I mounted the TV monitor power supply behind the panel.

It appears you have 4 6v batteries, therefore you must run 2, 1 battery is not feasible, as two 6v batteries must be wired in series to produce nominal 12v. You have wiring diagrams above, but simply stated, you must connect the + post of one battery to the - post of the other. Then connect positive feed to the trailer to the remaining + battery post. Lastly connect the ground by connecting the final negative battery post to the trailer ground. Positive automotive battery cables are usually red, and negative/ground cables are usually black. Installing in the order described here is safe and will not allow a short across your tools, when adding ground to the batteries is the last step.

I have what appears to be a marine-style master switch under the street side bed. I'm also new to Oliver. I have not yet tested this to see if it disconnects all power (batteries and solar charger). Of course, shore power can be simply disconnected. The solar charger should feed the battery bank only. There should be a main battery cut-off switch and if the switch under the bed does not perform that function, I will add a master cut-off switch soon. I also find it hard to believe you'd have to wait overnight or 1-3 days with power disconnected from the inverter for a hard boot. Charge capacitance of the inverter should dissipate in minutes. If not, you can create a draw at the inverter output (connect a light bulb or any resistance) to force the drain of residual power.

I have no idea of drawings yet, and would like to locate some too! I just got under the trailer again and noted where the line was going up, right where on the exterior you can see the furnace and HWH, which both us LP gas.

John, you and others reading might be interested in this. Your question got me looking at the old maintenance records. Our Hull 113 made its way back to OTT twice, April 2018 and May 2021. In 2018 it received the EZ FLEX upgrade, new Atwood furnace and another page shows "Replaced gas line to furnace and performed yellow jacket gas and function test." The LP line is wrapped in an automotive plastic wire loom. Our Oliver received major upgrades for 2018 (pic below). I imagine the welds broke in the year after OTT serviced the trailer May 2021, because certainly they would have seen it. The breaks looked 1-2 years old and it must have come from the rigid tires at 80 PSI. The 2018 receipt also shows new Monroe shocks, the ones on the trailer are yellow, looking like Bilstein from a glance, but perhaps Monroe also used yellow paint. I will know when I service them and will remove the shocks to bench test, replace if worn. I imagine prices would be 2x today! (Tried 3 times to get this photo right-side up.)

BTW, after looking again under the trailer, the vertical LP line runs to the HWH and furnace, not the kitchen. We did inspect this and the grommet had shifted up after the repair. BTW, in our older OTT, all, yes ALL of our grommets need replacing. We put a little dum-dum on the LP line to the furnace. All three grommets in our battery bay are bad, subject of a later thread. Thanks

Thanks again, John, SeaDawg and Geromino John and you're welcome Boudicca908. It's the reason I posted this. We did a 3-day trip, just to check things out, but I'll be working a whole lot of maintenance next few months. We travel mainly Jan-Apr and it will be in excellent shape by then! In fact, we just had a monsoon, temps dropped 20 degrees and I pulled my TV in the garage for new headlights and a suspension/brakes check. Next job will be on the Oliver, pull the wheels, pressure-wash all the old grease away and whatever I can hit on the underbelly. Then remove all the Dexter parts I can for cleaning, pack bearings with new hi-temp grease, open the brakes, full M&R on everything! And I will certainly review the appropriate JD posts, yes. The other thing I did today was to yank all the interior blinds off, OMG how dirty behind, and OTT installed new ones just 2 years ago. I brought them indoors and Chris will detail them and clean the inside of the Oliver windows, with the AC running of course, as I'm working other maintenance. Yes John, I do have the Dexter EZ Flex, so I guess by your account it must have been upgraded. We are fortunate that two prior owners, brought this Hull in to OTT a total of 3 times. One spent $4K just 2 years ago, including the new blinds. I already have them down to 60, and I'm thinking 48 PSI. I like that number. I agree that the load tables state 45 PSI is enough. I wonder, how many miles are on this trailer? All at 80 PSI, ugh.

Yep, they were 80 and I believe all former owners ran this trailer at 80 PSI. Do you think that alone could cause alum welds to fail? This does make good sense! And let's say the habit was to leave home or campsite, black and gray empty, fresh and HWH full, making the right-rear heavier and that's where the welds failed!

Most RVs come with 2 lead acid batteries, less AH per battery and no solar. You should be fine, as long as you do not plan on consecutive days of boondocking.

The first thing welder said was, "That wouldn't be an LP line, would it?" I said, "Yeah, the tanks are off and I released the gas in the line." and he proceeded without worry. There is a little kink in the line, as you can see front of the T, but it holds pressure, so I left it as-is. Yes John, good observation. The vertical line is right there, going up to the kitchen (edit: Furnace and HWH) which could have been damaged. We camped 3 days, just after fixing this and if there was an interior leak, I certainly would have smelled it. I would think it would be difficult to eyeball/follow that line along its entire length. No sag, no fiberglass damage visible. CRM and rideandfly, thanks for your comments. I'll bet there will be a couple hundred OTT owners getting under their frames this week!

I just thought I would make others aware of an issue I found, go figure just the week after we bought our older Oliver EII. I can't remember a time, when purchasing a used car or truck that I had not laid on the ground inspecting the bottom side, left, right and front to back! For some reason, when we first viewed our OTT listed locally for sale, I did not look underneath. I think I was enamored by the beauty of and cleanliness of it, along with I felt we were just looking, and I wasn't thinking I would spend this kind of money on a TT. Later we closed the deal over the phone. Paid for it 2 days later and the prior owner brought it to our home. I was down low installing 6" hose extensions on all the hose inlets, and I thought it was a good time to inspect underneath and could NOT believe what I found! Pictures to follow. I found 2 broken welds, curbside the first two right behind the wheels. OMG, my heart sunk! I called the prior owner. He thought I did it by overdoing the stabilizer jacks (not). He said he recently greased the Dexter components and he could swear the damaged was not there before (again, not). You could tell by the aluminum corrosion that these had broken some time ago. I'm not asking for help here, as I found a guy in town who runs a welding shop and does contract welding for many metal artists in town. He repaired this, charging an hour $75. Most of the hour was setting up for aluminum welding and creating a heat shield. I believe he used MIG. I gave him a Ben Franklin and it was done prior to our maiden voyage a few weeks back. I had no idea the aluminum welds would break at the contact point. The OTT welds must have been defective when the frame was built (edit: OTT likely welded this fine, later replies show this to be 80 PSI tire pressure). I called OTT service to ask about this and other questions, and the rep really had little to comment. My reason for writing this thread, is to let others know and to suggest that if you haven't looked under recently, it is a good idea to inspect your frame soon and regularly. Thanks for reading.

We have SiriusXM in two vehicles (not our new tow vehicle) and we occasionally play music via their app on our phones. It was a challenge to get SiriusXM to charge us for 1 vs. 2 receivers monthly. We argued that we generally drive only one vehicle at a time. How much would they want for a 3rd receiver in our TV or OTT?! Chris synced her phone via Bluetooth to the wall mounted Furrion audio system, so we can play SiriusXM. However, unless we install a SiriusXM antenna/receiver in our Oliver, we could seldomly use SiriusXM when camping. Many of our campsites out here have little to no cell service. No way a SiriusXM antenna/receiver can be integrated to the archaic Furrion systems. Dish Network has many music stations too, and we can get that anywhere. We often play a jazz or country station while playing our favorite Rummikub! Any of you ordering a new OTT? Let them know you want a white wall-mounted receiver (if you can find one, or at least silver) with higher quality speakers in the corners with white covers. Look back at the first picture I posted. What are the only other black objects in the photo? I may upgrade the audio system a few years down the road. The speakers could be upgraded, for sure, though something like this might add a simple cosmetic touch (not sure of correct size): Amazon.com: uxcell 2pcs 6.5" Mounting Hole Diagonal Distance Speaker Grill Mesh Decorative Circle Woofer Guard Protector Cover Accessories White : Electronics I understand there is a way to turn off speakers in the current system. I'll have to figure that out, because the one by the dinette, just over your head, needs to be off when sitting there. Mike and SeaDawg, delete those old dusty TVs, clean up your space visually and save about 20 lbs. in the rear of your Ollies! And btw, thanks for taking interest in my installation thread, even though TV A/V is not your thing!

So, I have the TV up, connected to Wi-Fi to stream Amazon, YouTube, Newsmax or any other streaming service, paid services or free apps. Bluetooth is linked to the soundbar, and all is good. Next step is a couple of inputs we desire, our old Blu-ray player and a new Dish Wally receiver: Amazon.com: Dish Wally HD Receiver : Electronics We liked that our older used OTT already had the Winegard Satellite dish built in. If you were to add one, you may be interested in a full system: Amazon.com: Winegard Factory Refurbished Dish Playmaker with Receiver : Electronics The double clamshell design of the OTT makes it seriously difficult to run coax cables from a dish mount up front to the attic in the rear, professional installer or not (coax could be run through the upper cabinets). These Sat dishes only need a coax cable connection, as they feed power directly from the coax to operate the dish rotation and angle (that's cool). The Winegard default targets DirecTV satellites. Nobody RVing wants this service, but they have market share, and require a 2-year minimum contract (we had DirecTV with TiVo in our homes from 1999 through 2014, never again with this greedy company, saying “we don’t carry your plan anymore”, charging more year after year). Dish Network is expensive enough, $120/mo for 200+ channels (with nothing to watch), but you can pay for one month when traveling and if you do not pay again, the service stops automatically. We did enjoy watching Wimbledon after we recently activated our new Dish receiver. You need to get up on the roof of your OTT, remove the cover of the Sat dish, and change the dip switches in the control panel, from the DirecTV to Dish Network configuration. My son Adam climbed up a ladder, with Phillips and dip switch drawing in hand, had it reconfigured in 10 minutes. I cleaned the cover in and out and he dusted the dish internals with a wet rag. There already were two coax cables in the attic. You need to figure out which is which, one from the Winegard and the second feed is from the coax port, street-side rear bumper for RV park cable connection (never going to use this one). I have a coax cable tester, but trial and error works fine since there are only two cables. Chris called Dish. We already had an account from our last RV. She gave them the new receiver ID and in a few minutes were watching TV. I needed a small rack to hold the two components. Most are designed to be wall mounted. I mounted a 1x1” piece of wood under the front so it would sit flat on its own. A little carpet tape underneath keeps in from sliding forward. The plastic bin on the right holds our backup cables, DVD and Blu-ray discs. I used just a little 3M VHB tape to mount the components to the rack, so they will not move. This TV monitor only has one micro-HDMI input, and they supply the micro to HDMI cable. All kinds of fancy HDMI splitters are available. Some require a power supply, but the simple ones draw power from the HDMI. Many have a remote control which is the last thing we need, another remote! I figure the default setting would be for Dish TV and if I was to play a DVD or Blu-ray, I would open the attic anyway to insert the disc and would toggle the switch to change input sources. I need to add a small square of 3M VHB tape, and the HDMI switch will site nicely on the wall above the AC outlet. I purchased this rack for $32 and $12 for the splitter: Amazon.com: HNVNER Floating AV Shelves,TV Wall Mount for Entertainment Center,DVD DVR Component Shelf for Cable Boxes, Games Consoles, TV Accessories (Double Layer) : Home & Kitchen Amazon.com: HDMI Switch 4k@60hz HDMI Splitter, GANA Aluminum Bidirectional HDMI Switcher 2 in 1 Out, Manual HDMI Hub Supports HD for Xbox PS5/4/3 Blu-Ray Player Fire Stick Roku (Support 1 Display at a Time) : Electronics

Thanks SeaDawg, we had the same rule in our family. No TV on Sundays, when we drove to visit our cousins and Yiayia (that's Greek for Grandma), or they came to our home. For the first 20+ years of my life, it was every Sunday. Yep, no football, no-way, nor anything else on the TV! We lived in Europe during the 60's and had no TV, no radio really, and we played music on the phonograph and families talked (no cell phones, video games and social media, oh I long for the days). Moved back to the states in the 70s and there was TV! The great TV westerns, Gunsmoke (our favorite), Bonanza, and the great sitcoms of that era. The larger family get-togethers are not with us anymore. I love to wind down, after working a long hard day, get my mind off my responsibilities, watching TV choosing the most brain-dead show I can find, to stop processing and fall asleep. Or watch a great movie, when we can find something new! You really need to delete your TV. Simple rule for organizing a space, if you haven't use it in the last 2 years, throw it out, drop it off at Goodwill. If we meet you at an Oliver owners meet, give me 5 minutes and I'll delete it for you! Lol, best wishes, JD

CRM, thanks for sharing your track system! You get that when the TV folds down, it's too far forward. There is only 76", top of bed to the back wall. My TV is 4" off the wall, so you have a full 6' viewing length to the hi-def screen, vs 4 ft distance to the low-rez 24" screen. I'm with you on using what you got, but the only TV I have lying around is a 47" TCL/Roku. It's large, thick, black and heavy! I wanted clean and white, like everything else in the Oliver. Could not pass up this screen at $328 Amazon used, at only 14 lbs. and 12mm thick. Thanks again.

I installed a Furrion 13,500 BTU A/C unit in our Bigfoot Class-C three years back. It was a ducted system in a 30 ft Class-C and cooled it nicely. We don't camp in hot summer weather, but I run our RV A/C units during the summer when parked at home. I would guesstimate the large Class-C has twice the cubic ft of our little LEIIs. The original Dometic failed, condenser fan dislodged and stuck in the casing. Buy another Dometic? I hope y'all find a better alternative. My feeling is you need to be down at perhaps 11,000 BTU as was suggested above. The 13,500 BTU (or greater) A/C system will likely not cycle enough in most climates, which means less air movement and less humidity management. It is important to engineer an A/C system at the right BTU rating, not too much or too little. We're keeping our old clunker original Dometic, for now. It's parked outside with A/C running now, only part of the day, and we've been high 90s to 100. I have it set at 84 degrees, so the interior stays nice. Yes, it's noisy (LOL, I can hear it from the front door of my house, and my 100' hose doesn't quite reach the Oliver)! Keep in mind, we live in the dry Arizona high country. The A/C does not run at night at all, and it would have to perform better, perhaps require more BTUs, if for say you live in the SE United States, or camp in the Midwest during the summer months.

Hey JD, thank you for these ideas. I will say, I have read so many of your upgrade posts, some amazing work! Thank you for sharing and I will study your work in the months and years to come, as we get to know our Oliver better. As far as warning labels, they're not of interest to me. The insurance industry and Federal Government have dummied down America, to make everything idiot-proof, with WARNINGS! I have already taken my heat gun to several labels (use a little Goo-B-Gone after), the one by the smoke detector, those by the cooktop, other labels outside are soon to go. The visual noise removed, all clean white fiberglass. Thanks for the sound quality app. I will show it to my son who is a sound engineer. Perhaps he can run the test. More to come soon on this post, as I have time not working. I will add a post re adding the Dish receiver, configuring the Weingard Satellite, and adding a rack in the attic for multiple A/V input sources. My final post will be to show how I made this TV monitor fold up to the attic ceiling, being out of the way of the rear view and emergency exit window. It's not a simple push mechanism, what OTT uses on their smaller 24" TV, but given the thin profile of this TV, you will hardly see it when folded, all parts white! Thanks for reading!

I see sale pending on JD's classified. Congratulations, John! You're going to miss your little Mouse!

A few pics of the TV install to follow. When I first installed it and connected to the Internet, the movie Fletch was streaming on the Samsung network! 1985 OMG! Then pic with TV off and soundbar installed. Next pic shows the slim profile and a final pic shows the Samsung network, and notice the HDMI input, currently no HDMI input powered up. The TV can swivel left and right and front and back. Pushing the TV back gives the best viewing angle when lying in bed.

So, you do not need a 1 1/2" ID opening as in the grommet OTT put in the corner. I drilled a 3/4" opening for the 2 TV cables (power and HDMI). I seal this all openings simply with a round of white Styrofoam. For the large original opening I took a piece of Styrofoam, that you get in any electronics packaging, use a hole saw without the mandrel bit, and by hand, just cut a round piece of Styrofoam just a little larger than the opening to get a tight fit. Next step was the soundbar. I chose another Samsung product (Amazon link above), for compatibility, like wanting the TV remote to adjust the volume (it does way more than that!). Another requirement was the soundbar needed to connect by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, since this TV Monitor does not have an audio output. Wow, this product synced both interfaces automatically, take your pick. My TV and soundbar are now connected to our Oliver Wi-Fi VPN defined by the Wi-fi Ranger. Like the TV, the soundbar does need AC power, and thankfully there is already AC power at the foot of the street-side bed. See my install pic of the AC outlet. I drilled another 3/4" hole there, since the soundbar has an inline power supply, the "brick" which I wanted inside the center nightstand (tied up behind the drawer) and not outside, tucked under the mattress! I mounted the soundbar about 4" off the back wall, since it has rear speakers too. The soundbar is mounted to the nightstand tabletop merely with Velcro tape. No way I'm using the wall mounted Furrion player, anymore to play CDs, since I can play CDs in the Blu-ray player with high quality audio output to the Samsung soundbar.