jd1923

Here's a couple more of the campsite and I have supplied GPS coordinates. We are a couple miles past the staging area. There are campsites at the staging area, one large flat one with picnic table and fire ring. Many RVs were also camping south of the entrance down Eagle Eye Rd. To get here, you'd have to tow down and up 4 narrow washes. Some may not want to pull their Olivers through these washes! I descend slowly, then when my truck is at the bottom I let off the brakes, the weight of the Oliver then pushes the truck through and then quickly hit the pedal to pull up, some were very steep! 😎 There were two other nice campsites on the way to ours and only one past this location. Yesterday we drove up some, to the turn-off to the Monterey Mine. The maps on On-X Offroad are good. With 2WD and not wanting to air down, this was enough. It gets very steep and sketchy the rest of the way to the top. Some of you, airing down with a capable 4x4 would have no problem getting to the top. I understand from the top you can see ALL of SW AZ, from Phoenix, all the way to California, south to Mexico and north to the heights of the Prescott NF! Harquahala Mountain at 5600 FT is the tallest peak in all of SW Arizona. I wish we could travel with the Oliver and somehow bring our 2018 Textron Havoc SxS with us! She would fly to the top with ease!!! 🤣

It's interesting how OTT installed your black tank waste valve, laying on an angle in the center of the area under the front dinette seat! Mine was installed straight up vertically in the corner. There are pluses and minuses of both. Further up and on an angle, the pull on the 144” cable would be smoother but it takes away from the storage space. I had to replace our cable since it got kinked from the hard angle (see pic below), and even with a brand new cable it's still not easy to pull. We have a lot of storage though, where a large basket fits nicely down there! Every Oliver is truly unique.

Chris, I truly commend you for your recent upgrades and attention to detail… Promise me one thing, when you retire, don’t get lazy! 🤣

Getting there! When you're home, I would turn OFF the onboard converter (there should be a breaker for it in the AC panel) and try another charger. Perhaps some of the comments re your converter could be true. I use this model at home and always travel with it. It has a repair mode too for what happened in your case getting too low on voltage. It can be switched between LA/AGM/LiFePO4 batteries. I purchased the 10A model is fine for battery maintenance/overnight charging. They also have higher amperage models (larger and more expensive). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W3QT226/?th=1

We'll have 4 peaceful overnights in this beautiful and mostly quiet BLM lands. Quiet except for occasional UTVs passing by to run the shelf road to the top of Harquahala Mountain! (3 groups so far on this Sunday.) We got 100 yards off the main road and all I hear are the insects of the Sonoran Desert (perhaps too dry here for many birds). Not one sound overnight! Up close and personal with the Cholla and Saguaro cactus! 75F this afternoon and should reach 85 in a couple days! Drinking coffee this morning, in shorts, shirt off, basking in the Arizona sun. From I-10, halfway between Phoenix and Quartzsite, take Salome Rd to Eagle Eye Rd north. Or take Eagle Eye Rd south off US Hwy 60 at Aguila AZ. The roads are all paved until you get to the staging area and the road to the top is of course dirt, where decades ago there was a Smithsonian observatory. Our tow vehicle is only 2WD and I'm not much for hairy shelf roads anyway! I'd like to drive up close enough to hike the rest of the climb. We'll check it out soon! We each have a good book to read and getting some sun and warmth (got cold and snowing in Prescott) and much needed rest, is all we need to finish up this trip! 😎

Lead acid batteries should charge up to 12.6V. Yours being down to 9V and on charger overnight only getting to 12.2V, means it’s time to replace them. I see your hull #99, wow! This must be the second or maybe 3rd set of LA batteries. No time like the present to upgrade to LiFePO4 batteries! 😎

I'm sure when Dave logs in, he will have some good advice here! I'm thinking the caulk on our older hulls is silicone. I've removed a lot of it except over the wheel wells. Whenever we tow on dirt roads you can see dirt collect where there is and was silicone. I also do not think silicone caulk will accept paint.

David, I believe Bill's note was addressed to my comment (not yours) which made me think. So I removed a sentence I had written that was in poor taste. Your post will help me in my repair and others who may have this issue. You demonstrated excellent work which others can follow. Wow, 110 days in your first year, 90% Boondocking! Those are good numbers! We have 150 overnights in two years 60% Boondocking. Our percentage will go up now that we can run our A/C off the inverter! The only reason to plug in was to run the A/C when we ran into hot weather more often than we liked!

The center of gravity of the standard models (75-84) is VERY LOW and nothing else rides as they do. The have a faux tank and the actual fuel tank is between and under your knees. The boxer-style engine also keeps weight low. This "skillful rider" as you wrote had a great machine at his hands. Summer of 1986, when I purchased mine, my cousin and I drove to NYC for the anniversary celebration for the Statue of Liberty and to visit family. Taxi cabs were on strike, so the streets in Manhattan were empty, an odd site. I rode a 5-borough cruise myself one day. Driving through Brooklyn on a 4-lane 45 MPH road, a women in a Camaro pulled out from a stop sign instantly and she then stopped directly in my path. I stomped on the rear brakes followed by the front HARD and the bike started into a skid! I stopped sideways right at her drivers door, on bike still standing, yelled profanities into her open window, then goosed the throttle and pulled around her in an instant, my heart beating fast! 😎 The years before I rode a Yamaha XS-850 Special. It was a taller bike with it's 3-cylinder engine straight up, fuel tank up above. I realized that if I had not traded up and was still riding the Special, I would have crashed directly into the driver's door of her Camaro. They did handle extremely well. But years later as they added fairings and bags and 100s of LBS they weren't the same. Same thing happened re Harley full dressers.

Thank you, Bill! 1984 was a landmark year for the Goldwing mark! It was the first year of the 1200, and the last year of what was called in that year alone “the Standard!” All since have been full-dressers, OEM fairings, saddlebags, etc. Goldwings from the GL1000 first year in 1975 to the GL1100 in 1983 were naked bikes and if you wanted to dress out your ride you would add Vetter accessories. I had purchased one new back in the day, and after 20 years, it needed work, sold it when we left VA to move west to AZ! Found this pristine bike with only 6K miles on eBay in 2008! There is not another example like it! 😎l

David, excellent work and thank you for proving my hypothesis re the bottle jack and that some lift will be required to set the battery box straight. I’ll be working mine soon even though the battery door on ours has been straight for 10 years. I believe the angle re the two beams is due to the curve of the hull, all pics show the same. I’ll bet, you did not expect this on your brand new Oliver! Yours should still be under warranty for anything that may come up.

These are very good reasons. We're all different and we all have choices. I am the DIY guy in anything automotive, electrical and mechanical systems. For example, I only pay for an alignment after I've replaced every suspension part myself. I learned solar/inverter system installations on a Bigfoot Class that had none to start. Installed rooftop panels using only VHB tape, drilling only two 1/4" holes for the wires, a dab of Dicor on each. Installed a PD 1800 KW inverter/charger and customized the AC power panel to be a split bus panel (sawed the bus in two, one for A/C and one for inverted circuits)! The graphic below from PD gave me the insight I needed to do so. "Should we ever sell? No way, never! 🤣 I still have my 1984 Goldwing Standard restored to factory condition. Two Lexus, a 1992 SC400 and '08 GX470 both restored. Call our son Adam lucky, as none of these, especially our Oliver, will ever be sold. They will one day be his, always kept in the family. When you put 100s or in this case 1000s of hours in our now amazing hull #113, she's here to stay, and should in its present condition outlive me! That hull named XPLOR has had only the best of love and care! Likely the best looking, best outfitted hull out there! My bet is... David will never sell! 😎

First time here, we met this guy! 😎

4th visit to Lost Dutchman. I’ll make it up Flat Iron one day (got halfway up last time as it was getting dark)! Came this weekend since the PPA Pickleball pro tournament is in Mesa this week, only a half hour away! What a view! Hangar steaks, baked and sweet potato with asparagus, cooked over the fire ring! 😎

If it was me, I'd look in the aftermarket! Took me a quick search to find this product. I assumed a 1" diameter but did not measure ours. This or something like it would likely work fine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3PKNY47/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0D3PKNY47&th=1 CAUTION: You should determine cause for your separation. Check your support beam below the box. View it from both sides, streetside bed (see my picture above) AND look from under the rear dinette seat. OTT forgot a weld on one of my jack brackets. They also forgot to finish this support beam install! Hard to believe, but true. I've compared ours with some of Oliver friends. The others have two bolts which is mandatory! I have to get in there again, drill and add a second bolt! With batteries out, most of the weight off the battery tray, from underneath see if there is movement of the support beam. I plan to remove my batteries AGAIN. Then get a bottle jack under there to see if the support can be raised just a little. The fact that this single bolt is at the bottom of the groove shows it's at the lowest setting. Likely the beam/tray should be raised some for proper support. Then I'll tighten the single bolt installed, drill a second hole through the top of the slot to add a 2nd bolt, then torque down both. Thank goodness we have no door separation, but those who have should investigate the support beams below. Some have reported missing nuts, or nuts falling off the bolts. (How does a Nylok nut fall off a bolt? It doesn't. It was likely laid there never threaded on. Go figure.)

This thread show an excellent inverter/battery upgrade installed by a local service company. If you are going to DIY, I've documented installation posts that show these installations step-by-step. You asked, "I assume the Xantax 2kw was the inverter or?" Yes, in my case you can see that on page 1. No more Xantrex 2KW inverter (only) with the small PD charger in the power panel (kept it there for back-up). No more lead acid... Now the Victron MP2 and 900 Ah (3x 300) Epoch LiFePO4. You will find mine is a simpler installation. Did not spend on Lynx products and I did not want a cabin screen (we seek battery info 98% of the time outdoors, while towing or from the living room of our home). IMO, Bluetooth apps are all you need, but many like having screens. When doing so, I also removed all fuses and breakers from under the streetside bed so they can be conveniently accessed under the rear dinette seal. The best addition that several Oliver owners have added is the DC-to-DC Charger! Every time we tow we add at least 40 Ah for every hour towing. This is about 4x what we get from 320W in rooftop solar. See this for the complete installation. => Hope this helps! 😎

Hello @Mroth, this is not truly my area of expertise, but given how many holes are drilled in OTT installation processes, and that I have removed many of the old-tech products on our Oliver, I've filled way too many holes! I've used this epoxy based product and the color match is good. It's just a touch whiter than our older hull and I've read somewhere that the newer hulls are a tone brighter. I would say this product may work well for your purpose in the shower. It's simple and inexpensive. https://www.amazon.com/Marine-Tex-RM305K-White-oz/dp/B0014419V0/ I have also plugged the holes made for the TV mount, the drain pull handle in the bathroom, the door hook outside, both cameras and everything in these pics (see before and after).

So the Max version has some new technology, and costs more. The older version tech works fine. IMHO, I would not want any battery model in view Hardwired it can be hidden under the dinette or anywhere else out of view. And why change batteries when we all have 100s of AHs on board. Took me 10 min to install under the dinette given you have the DC fuse panel and ground bus right there! 😎 I’ve been writing LevelMatePRO and Geoff @Snackchaser wrote a good correction above. The wired version is the LevelMatePRO+ (plus version). He has a cool way to wire the PRO. Maybe it could work for the MAX version too!

John stated this nicely. Our first time out, everything in the Attic was upside down! We had the hangers in the closet bounce off, clothes on the floor! A new suspension needs to seat and settle, period. Since our first outing, never another issue. But perhaps Chris, you left the lid on the salsa jar a bit loose last time... 🤣 Removing the 5th leaf... IMHO, good thing you left things as Alcan engineering had designed. They do not suggest the 4-leaf configuration and they know more than we do. I will say however, as an experienced auto mechanic and engineer, I have not followed all of their torque specs. Yes, you certainly need 90 ft-lbs for the U-bolts but I personally believe their specs on the wet bolts are too tight. They spec 80 on the end bolts and 65 on the centers. I went with 65 and 55 so that the suspension flows better up-n-down. The nuts are NyLok, so they're not coming off. Just my take and this does help. 😎 Cabinets opening? They are loose to begin with! OMG, such blasphemy? Did I again criticize OTT? Shame on me! Please forgive me for suggesting DIY improvements! 🤣 I rode inside our trailer once, Chris towing gently down a local paved road, before our Alcan upgrade, and EVERY overhead cabinet was rattling, even banging loudly. I added a 2" strip of foam tape on both resting pads of every cabinet and they snug nicely now and do not rattle anymore. Something like this works great and I promise you will NEVER have an upper cabinet open again! Welcome to the 200+ Alcan Oliver club and I commend you in doing this install yourself as only a very few of have done so! 😎 https://a.co/d/0b1cbrph

Hmmm… First off, don't fool yourself that OTT has good reasons for all the things they do! If they did, our Mods section would not be 100s of pages long! I've spent 2 years making too many corrections and improvements! 🤣 "Why not the the side jacks?" You can lift the front jack as high as you want and at least the rear wheels will stay on the ground. Not true side-to-side where at about 4" of lift both wheels on that side will be off the ground. No levelers, curb to streetside, might work on flatlands and campgrounds with asphalt pads, but will not work for those of us who camp on FS and BLM lands out West. The example below was our first trip in the Oliver (on Kendrick Peak AZ). Back then I only had the Legos for leveling which are a pain to stack under wheels, but good under jacks. And going without some kind of leveling blocks is just not safe. The Andersen levelers give us 4" lift and just takes 2 minutes to use. 😎 The other thing that is painful and inaccurate is fussing over a bubble-level when LevelMate technology is available. We get level as Chris places the Andersens and I'm still sitting in the driver's seat, reading the app while backing onto the levelers! It's that easy. Using a bubble level is analogous to still using a landline or a 90s-style flip-phone, when cellular technology is what it is today! Paper maps come to mind... It gets me when Oliver Owners worry about spending $100 on a viable accessory after spending near $100,000 on an Oliver, and maybe that much money again on a tow vehicle. $100 in Andersen levelers, and another $100 on a LevelMate adds up to 0.2% of total costs!

Good work, Chris. I know you will be happy towing your next time out! 😂 I'm guessing you did this at Steve's since both Olivers are there. GREAT carport with concrete pad, I'm jealous! We have a 3/4 acre parcel, but I can't figure out a spot 25 ft off property lines for the city, that's easy to back into, and is level. I'll have to keep hiding our Oliver behind the Tuff Shed where it partially blocks the southern exposure. Yeah, now 200 Alcan-upgraded Olivers! Welcome to the club! 😎

Sorry, still not a believer. 😎 I do believe the quote Mark just received which seems realistic.

Thanks, Mark. This sounds more like it. I sure wasn't seeing $3 each from OTT! Even a blank set on Amazon costs $24. https://www.amazon.com/GTOWNWORKS-Center-Trailer-Replacement-2-22in/dp/B0DTTP5228/?th=1

Bob, see page two of my upgrade post, when I went from 600 to 900 Ah. You'd have to remove the tray but I figured out a way to tie everything down nicely and lock into place! It didn't budge in the 920 miles we just put on to Sierra Vista/Bisbee and 8 days boondocking on several dirt roads. I've never priced Lithionics, but guessing 900 in Epoch is < money, though I'm NOT trying to change your brand preference. Epoch will offer 10-15% OFF again soon (4-5 times a year), so don't let them fool you with the 5% off they had going recently. If interested, get on their emailing list. Best wishes in your upgrade. Yeah, go for it!

We went from lead acid to 600 Ah 1 1/2 years ago. Different brand name which doesn’t matter. Large Ah capacity is great! Based on your numbers, we use much more electric than you do. In simple numbers, your proposed upgrade will give you 64% greater capacity (640/390)! What was 10%/day would be 6% per day with this upgrade! (390/10/640=6%) Having more is never an issue. Not having enough would can be! We just upgraded to 900 Ah, wanting to run our new extremely efficient Furrion Chill Cube A/C on inverter! I want to Boondock in AZ, not dead of summer, but running A/C for say 3 hours late afternoon each day. I figure we can do that for a week on 900 Ah! We did one 8-day trip. Left home at 80% SOC, came home just over 50% (we also have DC2DC charger). Chris worries when SOC is down in the 50s. I’ve learned not to. During our trip I told her, 50% of 900 is the same as 75% of 600 Ah! Just think we have 75%! 😎