jd1923

We're in the process of following this procedure to clean our windows (and more including the blinds) inside and out. We have an older OTT, and the outer rubber moldings are in bad shape (see pic). I soaked them in vinegar/water solution for two days and wife Chris has scrubbed one, without much luck, and it's now soaking in bleach-water. There is considerable mold from past neglect and I'm wondering... Yes, this question was just asked! Can we just replace these? Does anybody know of a supplier and model number for this exterior seal? I would like to buy 20 feet or more of this stock. Hoping it's not $10 a foot! Thank you for your help.

Lastly, what about the remotes? There are always too many, right? I mounted a couple of parts bins, I had on-hand. One bin for the Oliver installed remotes, and one bin for the newly installed components (TV, Blu-ray, Dish Wally, and soundbar remotes). The TV remote will change volume on the soundbar, pause a DVD and more. OMG, even our Rummikub game has the perfect place, snug fit top of the nightstand drawer! Best wishes y'all. We love this OTT Forum. You guys are great!

The final need is to fold up the TV, to the attic ceiling, for unobstructed view out of the rear window. Some of you may think my final install is not "professional" but it's easy, clean, and keeps the TV snug, just 2" from the ceiling. BTW, on our maiden voyage we drove 220 miles, 50 miles on dirt, much of it washboard, with the TV in the down position, and all was fine! This TV install can travel in the up or down position, either way no problem. I installed two hardware store 3/8" eyelets about 3" left and right of the TV, at the front of the attic (should have gone 4", so that the metal of the bungee would not touch the TV, to fix I will add sleeve). Marking the correct spot, left and right is not trivial, with all the Oliver curves. Then drill the 3/8" holes and mount with 2" fender washers, above and below the ceiling. Then I needed to find the right strap, bungee, cable or something. Shopping for this was not easy. I did so many Amazon searches. It had to be HD (strong and taught) and I was wanting white. I settled on Blue, which is what my wife calls her accent color for our Oliver! I ended up with this: Amazon.com: Extreme Max 3006.2786 BoatTector High-Strength Line Snubber & Storage Bungee, Value 2-Pack - 24" with Compact Hooks, Blue : Tools & Home Improvement The blue bungee is a nice match in color to the bolsters we bought for our evening TV watching: https://www.amazon.com/Retrospec-Sequoia-Yoga-Bolster-Pillow/dp/B092DYYR5W/ref=sr_1 Without measuring, I would think the OTT factory installed TV sits a good 3-4 inches lower. The pics would look better if we were not also cleaning our windows and blinds, and the lovely bedspreads from the prior owner!

Anyone of you wanna trade a powered model, for my Fiamma, done in a heartbeat! Perhaps easy on the baby Ollie, but what a pain to unwind. It's coming down, better duck. Can't have your entrance door open, like the newer model. Then mount the side supports, crank them out left and right, role it out some more, lengthen the supports again. No such thing as opening it up just a few feet, the feature I like most about modern power awnings. To each their own, yeah. This has been fun, and I appreciate everybody's + reactions and posts. Time for me to add my last installation post...

Doesn't she look pretty! It did not look like this when I pulled the head! It's hard to do this work without getting the wheel bearing grease here and there. So, take advantage of that. I pushed and rubbed the grease in every nook-n-cranny, every piece of plastic and metal and the grease removes the dirt and corrosion. Kept rubbing with clean paper towels and this is the end result. When I started this, there was a full 1/4" up-n-down play in the main shaft. By packing grease under the drive gear, there is now no play at all - hope this lasts! I need to mount the head and clean the main jack post. I'll get back in a day or two to show that. When the head is mounted, I'll spray a little Super Clean on the head, brush it some, and hose it off to remove any remaining grease.

I use a less known brand of high-temp wheel bearing grease. You can see the specs in the picture. I bought a 10-pack online for what 3 tubes costs at the big-name auto parts stores. Then I remounted the head plate. The gasket was firmly in place on the top aluminum plate and came easily off the pot-metal casing below. I didn't want the torn gasket, as you had seen earlier. I love this gasket sealer, Permatex High Tack. I've used it on almost any gasket that requires a dressing, for the last 30 years. Just brush it on and you can wait as long as time takes for assembly. It remains tacky, will not harden but seals extremely well. Works on gas, oil and water seals, so no water is getting into this and next time it will remove nicely. I hand-torque the mounting bolts and lastly positioned the cross pin and tapped it into place. It went in much easier than it came out. When removing this pin, do not be afraid to hit it hard, punch centered, with a short heavy hammer. You can see the access hole in this photo too (photo take prior to applying grease).

Time to reassemble the jack. You want to get ample grease under the main drive gear. There is a spacing between the washers on the underside and I made sure this groove was packed. Then I thought the housing area under this gear should be filled with grease. Don't forget the washer which you can see in a picture above. The first time I pushed it in, it did not sound right. So, I added a heaping tablespoon more grease and the second time I could hear the correct swoosh sound, with excess grease coming out around the edges. I made sure every tooth on all 3 gears were greased and applied some on top.

The Samsung TV Monitor installed here has USB-C port to connect a laptop, for charging and likely for many other uses.

Frank, thank you for sharing your pictures. You would think the opposite would be true, where early in production they would have variations and later they would standardize on best practices. Love the pic John shared. I mentioned in another thread that this model is the "lost in Space" version! I had a feeling that those of you with power awnings would have this subpanel, which makes sense requiring the two 20A DC circuits. We old hulls have the manual Fiamma awning, manual as in will hardly ever use it. Dual power awnings - priceless!

Now that I understand this panel is an owner's addition, it's really less funky, and instead it's actually very good work! In a manufacturing environment, it would be odd to work it that way. They would want a full assembly to mount quickly, and I agree yours is a cleaner install. Good use of the 12V outlet feed, since you have multiple 12V DC appliances. I have these cigarette lighter style outlets in the OTT and my TV and do not use any of them. I prefer the ones that have the USB built in. My A/V installation is all 120V AC, but I do plan to disconnect the same 12V DC source to connect a bedroom fan at some point. Thanks Steve.

The bushings were not worn, but have an odd loose fit, that you would not see in auto applications, like in a water or oil pump. The only worn part I observed was the motor drive gear. See the pic. The relay gear contacts this drive gear at the top portion. It appears the bottom of this gear has cut into the drive gear some, might be some of the noise and the only way to replace this would be to purchase a new motor. It's good enough for now.

Next step is to thoroughly clean everything. Often, it's suggested to use a brake cleaner spray, like CRC Brakleen, but I try to use these seldomly, for several reasons. One good reason is they're $6 a can, and if you want the environmentally friendly version, it's $10 OTD (and works less effectively). First, I pick out all the grease with an appropriate-sized screwdriver, large to small. Then I use a plastic detail brush (see pic), removing grease and wiping on a paper towel. I remove ALL the parts I can, and soak metal parts in old gasoline. I like to use what I have in my shop, and we always have old gas (after dirt riding we always drain the carbs on our bikes). Note the dark gray color of the gasoline. I brushed and wiped these gears thoroughly and the dark gray is the metal suspended in the gasoline. It's good to have compressed air to blow parts clean.

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!