jd1923

@ScubaRx Steve is right on this one (as usual), and NO, not everything is negotiable. I've been low-balled on so many items I've listed used 4-sale and I walk away, NOT negotiating with them. I don't respond to the questions, what's the lowest you'll go? I'll go, but not with that guy. Knowing when to walk is half the "Art of the Deal." I would have loved the stripped-down Oliver, because I'm an engineer, auto mechanic and restorer at heart. I was going to modify everything to my liking anyway and it would have been cleaner without having to remove the old, patch fiberglass, etc. OTT offering a naked Oliver? Dumb business model. Their product, their intellectual property is the Oliver as a "special package." If they sold a bare-bones model they would lose most of their margin. They would have legal and warranty issues, the list goes on. Ford sells the E450 chassis and 100 RV manufactures build on it. That's not OTT!

@Boudicca908 would you mind sharing your impressions of the Chill Cube A/C in our Oliver? What was the sound level like outside when we were working next to it. What was the sound like on low when we went inside, and then when I lowered the thermostat and turned it up on high? So far, Forum Members have only read my opinion. There must be a lot of Oliver owners running the Dometic P2 this summer wishing they didn't have to! Thanks.

Our first year after a short 3-day trip, our Oliver was parked at home for 6 months. I needed that time to rebuild the suspension, replace all belts and hoses, brakes, etc. on our tow vehicle. Hard to travel with the TV up on jack stands! We're opposite than most. We travel the fall, all winter long and spring and stay home most of the summers. Summers by us are not too hot at 5440 ft elevation but as soon as we go anywhere it gets hot in the lower elevations of the southwest. Summers of 2024 and 2025 the Oliver was home for 3 months at a time receiving all our many upgrade mods. No big mods this summer since I'm done with all that. Now that we can run A/C for several days on inverter we'll do more summer travel. We've been parked since early May but leaving tomorrow for Walnut Canyon, just east of Flagstaff. Just going for 4 nights, off this week, working next. So, two months now since our last trip. We enjoy lots of short trips around Arizona. We go camping, boondock often just an hour to a few hours from home, more so now with fuel prices high it's nice to get remote after a short drive. In 3 years, we have never put our Oliver into a storage state. No RV antifreeze, blow out the water lines when needed. Last winter was so mild it wasn't necessary. After our trip this week, I have two weeks off Aug-Sept and are planning 2 weeks in SW Colorado. Then another 6 weeks if all goes well we'll head east for The Rally. Longest time between camping trips? Going forward, I'd say it will be +/- 6 weeks for us! 😎

I run our fridge exhaust fan when it's hot regardless of how it's powered; AC, DC or LP. LP runs a little hotter but the real heat is generated from the cooling. We choose between DC/LP based solely on battery SOC. Of course, when we're plugged in we switch to AC. I can notice the heat coming out of the top vent when entering the cabin which reminds me to turn the fan on. Living in the SW, if the sun is on the entrance wall, turn on the fan. We also have Ruuvi temp sensors in fridge and freezer compartments to monitor cooling.

Yeah, I had the pleasure of driving a full-size 4WD GMC diesel TV last week. Beautiful truck! A climb up to the driver's seat like a snug cockpit up there. Leather luxury with the dashboard all lit up, I felt somewhat disconnected from the road. The view out seemed narrow, even with the huge, self-folding mirrors. My old truck, I can get my old butt up into the seat np without using the step, old-school dash, very connected at ground level. We all get used to what we have. Driving 4WD trucks where you don't need 4WD has gotten old for me. I've owned work trucks and farm trucks, all but one 2WD. 4WD trucks have steering and suspension maintenance and longevity issues that 2WD trucks do not have. On the upside, they make high-performance parts for 4WD trucks, but not for 2WD trucks. They are literally a pain to work on (it's only me doing the work). When we replaced the starter motor on my son's '97 T100, I had to remove a skid plate and the driveshaft to the front diff! If it was 2WD there would be nothing but room down there. We had a thread a couple years ago and there was NOT ONE forum member that said they would tow without their 4WD. I tow the Oliver up CRAZY ROCKY STEEP dirt roads out here in 2WD, np. The weight of the trailer on the rear wheels keeps them from spinning. We generally don't have mud in Arizona but be careful of sand when crossing a wash bottom. If I would have to tow with anything less than a 2500 diesel, it would be a midsize diesel, like yours, or the Nissan with the Cummins! I would not be able to sleep at night if I knew I had to tow with much less. We now tow much more smoothly with Alcan Springs, now that the top-heavy Oliver doesn't sway left to right as the hull porpoises front and back, not anymore. Anybody towing with a half-ton truck or less, please upgrade your leaf springs and use the WDH. Fortunately, the OP is buying an Apex with Alcan Springs! 😎

And you mentioned an exhaust brake which makes a huge difference! I added a Pacbrake exhaust brake on our TV and love it, use it almost always since it's safer to slow as soon as you lift your foot off the pedal, in mountains of course but also on busy highways. We get 13 MPG regularly towing in the Mountains! Never have gone long enough on flat Interstates to know the number. If we do make it to The Rally, I'll have 1700 miles mostly on I-40 to measure this. I'm thinking 15 MPG will be the number. Yes, torque is the criteria for towing, HP not so much. But the REAL issue with smaller trucks is the footprint, width and wheelbase. Our truck is a solid TV since it's full width and an extra cab with long bed. And with 2WD the center of gravity is much lower (which nobody wants but me, but towing weight is on the rear wheels). All of this adds to stability. After a quick test drive, I could not imagine towing with our GX470 and it's not for the 470, but for the short wheelbase. The length of the 23' trailer and a SWB truck is the tail waggin' the dog! 🤣

GJ added comments are great! Too he added his DC-D charger just before Victron came out with the smaller and more efficient Orion 50A charger. Either way, OTT would only install the Oliver half of the installation and last time they offered a sale, it included the older 30A version. We use front LP port everyday camping. We have a 12 ft extension LP hose with quick connects and a Y-coupler on the other end. Connect our fire ring and grill at the same time. You need to remove the regulators from your appliances since the LP on board is already regulator to low pressure. Too bad OTT installs the rear connection inside of the sewer compartment, where you must drop the bumper to use it. I would use it on rare occasion if it was accessible like the front but never have. Tried to remove it but the underbelly LP lines are not easy to access. Many carry an extra tank for their grill, and you should have an extra tank if you go with two 20# tanks. Also, if you must use a generator the front shore power outlet can be helpful. Better to order or modify a new trailer with enough electric to avoid this (we run A/C for days on battery with a variable-speed A/C). If you go without the second outlet you won't need the PD5100 Automatic Transfer Relay. These are known to fail. I replaced one in a class-A RV and later a class-C years ago. I bypassed the one in our Oliver since we weren't using it and I preferred a direct run. My picture shows the PD5100 still installed if needed someday and right now it's only holding up our LevelMatePRO, another very useful upgrade we wouldn't live without.

This information is all here in various threads. I'll summarize while trying to be concise enough! 🤠 All new 2026-27 Oliver models will have D52 Nev-R Lube axles rated a 2x 5200 LBS. But unfortunately, on the EII, OTT will install same underrated springs they installed on all our hulls, the 1750 LB Dexter part # PR4B. These have a long history of failure where the main leaf breaks where the second shorter leaf makes contact. The OTT YouTube video on the Apex stated OTT is using the lighter rated 4-leaf version of Alcan Springs. In the Alcan design, the second leaf is the same length as the main leaf, so it cannot fail in the same way. There are also no gaps between leaves which is often observed on the Dexter PR4B. There must be DOT cost/legal reasons why OTT keeps their products rated at 7000 GVWR. If OTT installed the 5-leaf Alcan it could be rated at 10K. About 200 Oliver owners have installed the Alcan Spring upgrade, most with 5-leaf and a few with the 4-leaf version (without the bottom leaf). Not certain and it really doesn't matter as much, but it makes sense OTT will install the same Dexter EZ-Flex kits on all models which include Dexter shackles and wet bolts. The video also stated the Apex will have Bulldog shocks. OTT will likely keep installing Monroe 555001 shocks on the EII.

Get one of these instead. 😎 Price dropped $12 since I bought one in May! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHNG4DL8/

OMG! When we visited Minnesota last year in June, we must have been lucky one month earlier in the season. Though there were wildfires north of the border, so the sky was brown-cloudy, and it kept raining on and off. We're not used to consecutive cloudy days anymore, so we had to get out of there. I had planned to visit Itasca State Park and boondock further up, but... When we got up the next morning, I said to Chris, "We're driving west into North Dakota, and we'll stop only after we see sunshine again! I'd make the same next-day beeline after seeing those deer flies! Next time to Minnesota for us would be during the shoulder seasons.

Thanks again for your positive feedback! 🤗 I since wrote another thread on a complete 10-step maintenance process. However, I also received feedback stating OTT had claimed in 200+ installations there had been no reported Nev-R Lube bearing failures. I'd say the conservative/prepared approach is preferred to believing this won't happen to you. 😎 Recently, @Boudicca908 spent a few days with us in troubleshooting a trailer brake error code. First step was to jack up the hitched Ollie using the rear jacks and removing all 4 wheels. It was a good time to do regular maintenance was well, like grease the Zerks! I spun each drum to feel/hear if the shoes had been adjusting properly, there should be a slight shoe drag on each drum. Three of four where fine. When I spun the front-left wheel, considerable material fell out on the ground below. The material was coarse (see pic), not like the usual fine brake dust from normal brake use. BTW, this is the same wheel that locked up a couple days before causing a 30 ft burnt-rubber skid on the road! So, we decided to remove the drum/hub assembly to inspect the brakes inside. The shoes were a little more worn than expected but the brake shoe-spring assembly was working as it should. What was truly abnormal was the contact plane for the brake magnet on the drum. It has deep wear either side of a tall circular ridge which is quite apparent in the picture. I suspect the coarse material to be from the magnet and the contact plane on the drum! But that wasn't all. The Nev-R Lube bearing was surrounded by excessive grease, which had oozed out, grease that should stay inside the "Nev-R Lube bearing." One part of the 2-part inner bearing race could be pulled out and pushed back in a good 1/8" easily with one finger. I checked a new hub, where the play was >1mm not near 3mm! I would define this as a FAILED bearing, but if not yet, it will be squealing at some point. This is a 2022 hull with just under 25K towing miles (the TV has a reading for miles towed). These bearings have a 5-year, 100K miles warranty. IMHO, I believe the bearing wear/play created a wobble in the drum, causing the magnet to vibrate on the contact plane resulting in all this damage and burning rubber incident which could repeat. The Nev-Lube bearing is still under warranty. I wiped off the excess grease, blew all the brake dust and other particles out with compressed air, reinstalled the drum, torqued the spindle nut to 155 ft-lbs and we finished our other work. Last year, I had received damaged D52 axles from Dexter. They replaced my custom order and allowed me to keep the damaged axles, for my inconvenience, with a lot of good parts in the bargain! I loaned @Boudicca908 a complete left-side braking plate assembly and hub/drum/bearing assembly in case of need on a long road trip! Hopefully Dexter will replace these parts under warranty. On another subject, the OEM Dexter 1750 LB leaf springs didn't look so great either! One of 4 was flat on one end. All four had spacing between the leaves which we know is an indicator of near-future leaf failure. It just so happens; I had a spare set of PR4B springs which I also sent along with @Boudicca908. I had purchased a set of these prior to our Alcan upgrade so don't need them anymore! 😎 With Alcan Springs I do not believe a backup set is necessary. Safe travels to our friend @Boudicca908!

For us it's not a seasonal event. We use the boondocking valve configuration every week or two since we most often boondock in remote areas and pump extra fresh water from the 35-gal water tank in our truck bed. We also have 12" heavy foam mattresses and thankfully have not had to move a bed once while camping since we installed our motorized valves day-one! 😎 Got this idea from Steve @ScubaRx when I was a Forum Newbie and it has been an upgrade worth its weight for sure! At the same time, we did not want to live with the basic OEM water pump and installed a Made-in-USA Remco variable-speed pump which does not require an accumulator. They claim it's quieter, but I'd say it has a different sound as it increases speed to provide better flow. This pump can run dry for hours to and is generally self-priming given water is nearby in the plumbing.

So cool! Oh boy, I forgot one important thing in my dream Oliver order... No, switches, fuses, breakers or manual water valves installed under the beds! 🤣

On our last day together, I checked the 7-pin female receiver on the truck side. It was a strange assembly! The female socket was merely pressed into the bumper opening (not bolted), with only plastic tabs keeping it in place! Then the 7 wires were terminated in a plastic terminal that snapped into the backside of the receiver. These two parts were very loose, not strongly connected. It gets me the GMC design does not have this connection hardwired. I gave it a good shake, moving it back and forth and rotating it the terminal. Maybe I cleaned up the connections (temporarily) since @Boudicca908 did not see the error message in the next 2 days towing. If it was my TT and TV, I would replace the 7-blade connections on both sides! replace this female receiver with a part that has a short wiring harness fused to the socket. Then replace the Oliver male plug and cable all the way back to the junction box in the bathroom vanity. Purchase both male/female sides from the same quality manufacturer for the best pairing. Anybody know of a good supplier for quality parts? It's hard to read through all the Amazon offerings and eTrailer wasn't much better. Who makes the best 7-blade connectors? It's not what OTT used on this 2022 hull. The other thing I learned is there are two types of 7-blade connectors (see pic). One has a single blade which I've used for decades, and another must be a newer style where there are two (IMO flimsy) blades. All of my trailers, including our hull #113 has the older single blade style.

I'm glad this old thread got bumped. When it was started I was a new member of the Forum. Palo Duro Canyon SP might just be a great day-2 stop for us on the way to the OTT Rally, only 30 minutes from I-40. Though it would be a shame to be there for only an overnight stay! Hopefully this Texas SP can be the location for a future Texas Rally!

Perhaps an understatement! OTT Sales would not want to see me coming. 🤣 if I was to purchase a new Oliver, my build would have NO factory options! No batteries or tray, no inverter, solar wiring to roof but no panels. No A/C or fan, just the two 14x14” cutouts. No rooftop cameras or old-tech Wi-Fi booster. No microwave, just the opening, and no tank gauges. No TV, no radio, no interior wall mounted displays (all we need are Bluetooth apps) not a thermostat, nothing at all. 🤠 No soft furnace ducting, must be fixed hard ducting. No silicone caulk on anything anywhere! Of course we would not be able to negotiate such a bare Oliver, but it would be a great canvas to paint my own design and build. Got to go back to 16” wheels, D52 axles and the full 5-leaf Alcan Spring package and LT vs ST tires. I wonder the price tag on such an Oliver? It’s actually what I’ve done the hard way in a used Oliver, using fiberglass fill patching 100 holes, literally. 🙃

Yes, soft water lines must be installed in and out of the water pump. OTT used some kind of 'white' suction line from the fresh water tank. I'm not sure of the difference between this and PEX except the tubing is translucent and you can see the water within. You can see examples of both tubing in the picture I took after installing motorized ball valves.

Given a Windows PC, turn it right-side up using the rotate button. Then click on Edit and crop your picture. I usually crop, flatten most to the 16:9 size, then Save or Save as Copy if you want to keep the original. It should stay right-side-up after working these steps. Agreed, they are kinda goofy, could be smaller with more simple functionality. I usually just push the one button setting fans at 50% and don't use/trust the temp set function. Great fans though! If you can fit the larger size, they pull a lot of air hence my using the 50% setting. I have one installed in the upper fridge vent and another installed in the basement to cool the Victron MP2, exhausting to the rear storage area. I only set them when needed, when I feel the upper fridge vent is hot or anytime the sun is on that side. The Victron has a temp reading on the app and rarely (when hot outside, battery SOC low, charging on full at 120A) I'll also turn it on at 50% where at this setting these fans are whisper quiet. 😎 I'm with John on this one, for utility besides safety reasons. I installed two Beech Lane fans both exhausting hot air, like we use our cabin MaxxFan in exhaust mode only. Neither style fan will function effectively (nor efficiently in CFM) when installed to push vs. exhaust air. The Beech Lane fan mounted nicely in the upper fridge vent in our hull with the older Dometic 3-way absorption fridge, no custom bracket required.

Ours too, but we're hoping to go camping for a few days next week! 😎 We just had a guest Ollie here, for a few great days! 😂 But now she's gone. You might know who. Woke up yesterday, looked out our living room window and I got scared! Thought for a moment we still had a Dometic P2, oh NO! 🤣

Where did you move from? We lived in IL, VA, AZ, TX, FL and back to Arizona. We know Texas, lived in Georgetown/Austin area for 9 years. We spent a weekend in almost every corner of the state, our son playing USTA tennis tournaments. But back then we stayed in hotels. Arizona is 51% public lands between FS and BLM, 31% Indian territory and only 18% private land! To get more public lands you must visit Alaska. It's a boondocking paradise out here, camp almost anywhere you want. 😎 So, you have the desire and the need, but is the solar awning worthwhile at that price point? $5K is a lot of money. For about the same money in parts cost, I installed a complete Victron MP2 3KW inverter-charger, 50A DC-DC charger, MPPT SC and 400W suitcase solar and 900 Ah Epoch LiFePO4, OMG! The Renogy 400W suitcase, with Victron 30A MPPT SC, wired it to an external port, internal wiring and external cabling and connectors for about $600 total parts costs (no labor). We hardly use it! I find solar panels are a pain to setup, they charge slowly and you have to be at one campsite long enough to need it and take advantage of it. Ease of use in a solar awning would be great! Just push the button, But what if the sun is on the other side? Are you going to spend $10K to equip both sides? Don't think you can always park in the direction facing the sun. When parking I'm worried about being level, being out of the afternoon sun and wind direction too! If your at Port Aransas nicely park with the curbside of your Oliver facing the sun as it rises from the east over the gulf and you want to be there for a couple weeks, the solar awning might the right choice. We have a simple manual awning, no solar and we used it 4 times in 180 overnights. Everybody has different needs in an Oliver. For us, we don't camp anywhere for longer than a week, most of our stays are 2-5 nights. our 900 Ah will last that long running the A/C for half the week along with all other electrical needs. Solar charging is more beneficial for those that stay put for a few weeks, because if you move more often DC-DC charging is much more efficient. We added a Victron Orion 50A DC-DC charger, total parts cost today with say 80 ft of expensive 4 AWG wire should be about $800 plus labor and any TV alternator upgrade when necessary. Please do not ask OTT to install this as they want $2K just to install the charger and wire the Oliver side, and the truck side wiring is left up to you. We love this mod and connect it every time we hitch up. Our Orion XS 50A DC-DC charger on average produces 40 Ah for every hour towing! Drive an easy day, engine running for 5 hours and you will have 200 Ah added to battery SOC. You've been at a campsite 3-5 days and your battery SOC% is low, it's time to move on to your next location, charging as you tow to your next campsite. This is our favorite and most effective electrical upgrade by far (besides the Victron Mulptiplus II). I'm the tech/installation guy, though my wife Chris loves this mod! She's checking the Victron Connect app, while I'm towing, checking as our SOC% keeps growing! Not that I have one, but my vote would be NO on the $5K awning, but of course you need to weigh your options for the camping life you desire. I knew very little of our needs 3 years ago when we purchased our Oliver. If I had better understood the value of the DC-DC charger, for our on-the-move travel style, and I did that upgrade ahead of the suitcase solar addition, I may not have added the suitcase. We do appreciate our rooftop solar, no fuss no muss, keeps the batteries charged when parked, runs the fridge while towing, etc. You can always hold off for now and upgrade later. (Some of the mods I mentioned are in the links below.) Best wishes to you and your new Oliver! JD

Not near enough yet. I towed ours one hour with a Lexus GX470, around town on flat highways, got home and would never do that again. The GX is closer to a half ton truck than a Tacoma. After that, I would only tow with a 3/4 ton truck. Trade in your Tacoma for Tundra 5.7 at least! 🤣 Not enough information here to help you. Haven't boondocked before but is it something you really want to do. Not much boondocking it Texas at 98% private lands. Boondocking opportunities west, but then there's mountains! There are Oliver owners that say they boondock, but they also book 1-2 months at campground/RV Parks, so they really don't camp much without plugging in. How much money is the solar awning upgrade option? Cost is always a criteria for consideration. We have 320W rooftop solar and a 400W suitcase which we rarely use. The awning PV would be of very little use to us since we have only used our awning 4 times. With solar up there, maybe I would use it more, or would have to for solar. And when camping a campground site might be the wrong direction for the awning. I park when boondocking to find level ground and for wind considerations which might not afford sun on the awning side. We have a 50A DC-DC charger that we use much more since we don't stay at one campsite more than a few days. In 180 Oliver overnights, a week is the longest we've stayed in one spot. Solar is better for sitting in the BLM for the 14 day limit. DC-D charging is better for those who break camp every few days. The Victron Orion XS 50A is our favorite electrical upgrade. Explain more about your future use plans so we could better advise.

I replaced a broken screen clip yesterday. $8.50 plus shipping for a one inch piece of plastic that must cost $0.02 to manufacture. Since I had it open, I took a picture of my wiring. Love the new switch. We can just leave the fan door open, rain or shine, for ventilation and push the button once for fan ON and push it later for fan OFF. 😎

I see an upgrade mod in your future! 😃

Excellent point Ron. A person can almost be comfortable when 90F in the shade in Phoenix, where 80F in Houston might feel hotter! As you know, that's a test I cannot do out here. Note the Ruuvi screen print above. On the roof of our Oliver, at 104F the RH was only 17%. Trunk temp was 91F at 27% RH and inside the cabin 76F was very comfortable at 38% RH. Rich added comment on his experience with the Chill Cube in Florida. We lived in WPB Florida for three years. When we ran our home A/C 24x7x365 and RH would be in the high 40s. Of course outside it was 60-80% RH. Taylor Guitars states 47% RH is perfect for fine acoustic guitars (good for humans too). In Florida with A/C running, I could leave the guitars hanging on wall hooks. In Prescott, I converted a hutch into a cabinet to store 4 guitars. I keep sponges in trays of water wicking moisture to keep RH in the high 40s! In the dry season (spring-early summer) we run 3-4 large capacity humidifiers in our home. We all know the Oliver can get humid/wet inside. That works out perfectly in the dry SW. It's often 20% RH outside but 40% RH inside. Highest ever I've seen winter camping is 58% RH in the Oliver Cabin. Then open up windows on a sunny afternoon and the extra moisture will evaporate. We don't worry if an RV A/C adds to cabin humidity like most do. 😎

Thanks Rich! Does your Brinkley 5th-wheel have 1 or 2 Chill Cubes. I guess a small one could have one. Big 5th wheels have two A/Cs, one bedroom and one for the living area. At Quartzsite, Art @MAX Burner fired up the Chill Cube (on battery) in his smaller Brinkley TT and it cooled nicely. Hope to see you this winter! 😎