jd1923

Lots of false stories re the economy, the data shows the economy is not good. Four years ago, gas at $2 +/-, then it was $5-7 depending on location, so are we are supposed to be happy at $4? Not! Our bills are 30-50% higher, in every category, than 4 years ago! Reason why I now have a long wish list for 2025, and if stuff gets worse, then I will repair what's absolutely necessary, meaning Oliver mods willl have to wait! 🙃

I can't upload photos today. Anybody else?

@MAX Burner what was your installation procedure? Was the tension released as soon as you lifted the frame? Does it matter which bolt you pull first? Thanks

I tried the same thing, and it didn't work for me. I ended up with a variable speed water pump and the manufacturer specified NOT to use an accumulator. I have 2 on hand if anybody needs one!

I believe there was a mention of another 1" +/- in an earlier post (pages back). Likely you need to have as extra 1-2" height clearance in your garage door. Our Oliver will likely never see the comfort of a garage!

I want to remove ALL the old messy silicone caulk OTT had applied at the factory and prior owners adding to it. I just spent 15 minutes searching for their 0240 product. I found a company to buy a case. Anybody know where to buy 1-2 cans?

@MAX Burner you're the man Art! I want a new set of springs now! 😂

I didn't realize the window alone was aftermarket. I mentioned wind, but now it appears it could simply be over-tightening of the window mounting screws.

Another suggestion... What caused this? I would say it's the door banging in the wind! If you take time and money to replace or rebuild this door, spend another few bucks to eliminate the cause: Amazon.com: Lippert RV Entry Door Friction Hinge Kit for 5th Wheel, Travel Trailer and Motorhome Pack of 2 : Automotive

Looks like a pretty cool door! Our a 2016, a little older, only has a bathroom-style frosted glass window. Would this be a custom door, DIY replaced? The picture shows an accordion style roll-up shade, clear glass behind. This is a special RV door! It would be difficult to replace one with like options. I would think about repairing the interior skin. You could remove the window bezel and then remove the interior skin and replace that with sheets of 1/8" textured white plexiglass. You have cracks everywhere! Many around the window appear to the exactly horizontal and then the obvious one, down the bottom-left corner. Does anybody else here have this style of door? If so, then yes service ticket, but it looks like a mod to me. If it was mine, I'd love to replace the interior door skin, and make it better than new!

Me too. All of us are interested! An engineering experiment... What if you had a large chunk of clay and put it between the axle and the frame. Drove down a test road and measured the height of compression before and after the test drive. Then do the same test, same path of road, with new leaf springs. The clay would likely be taller to start, but a ratio of compression, before and after would be measured. Yep, clay is old-school, so I love it! There are modern ways to measure this... My challenge to you, my special new friend, Art! 🤣

Great thread here! This post is key, from senior IRV2 member TeJay: "The cheap RV regulators don't regulate the pressure they just restrict the flow. That will in effect reduce the chance of over pressurizing your system if a CG has high water pressure. You do have a reduction of pressure but also a reduction of flow. With a true regulator you don't lose the flow or volume." Thank you, Bill & Martha! Yes, remove the cheap restrictors and purchase a quality pressure regulator. @Lisa Rae just came to this conclusion as she wrote above. I will also delete the installed restrictors. Lisa, you may consider removing the (winterizing/boondocking) brass water valves that restrict the flow to 1/4". I replaced them with motorized valves, or you could use manual valves that are 1/2" or at least 3/8" ID which is the true ID of 1/2" PEX connectors. Now I see why they only promise the 40-50 PSI range, since they restrict flow and not pressure. This is also the reason why my upgraded water pump provides better flow and pressure pulling from the Fresh Tank, vs when we connect the City Water inlet at the campsite. We still have the bathroom faucet issue, i.e. less flow than the kitchen faucet. There must be something inherent to the plumbing of our 2016 hulls, since many newer model owners do not have this complaint. I don't believe it's mineral buildup, since that would be everywhere, and I measured without the faucet heads installed. You can't "kink" PEX, but more length and multiple restricting connectors could do it. Also in ours, the plumbing in the vanity makes way more noise than our quiet new water pump. After we finish our travel this season, I will open the bathroom vanity and follow the water lines (and the furnace ducting) from the pump at the curbside bed to the wet bath!

I've seen the schematic showing check valve only before. Yours is that way and easier to reach in your 2018 model. Mine is exactly like @Lisa Rae's and we both have 2016 hulls. Two devices on each line, backflow check-valve AND pressure regulator at the REAR of the basement instead. I found out the 40-50 PSI regulator is a RV standard of old. See this item that Amazon calls "Overall Pick" with 21K reviews: Amazon.com: Camco Camper/RV Water Pressure Regulator | Protects RV Kitchen Small Appliances, Plumbing & Hoses | Reduces RV Water Pressure to Safe and Consistent 40-50 PSI | Drinking Water Safe (40055) : Automotive One of my many summer projects will be to remove the internal 40-50 PSI regulators, clean and replace the backflow/check-valves and get an external adjustable pressure regulator like you showed. Wow, this one is very expensive at $280, but again I don't want the $11 40-50 PSI unit, or one of the dozens of China-made adjustable units on Amazon for $30 +/-. Is yours made in the U.S.A.?

Me too, isn't that why we login each day? Thank you GJ, this made my day! @Mike and Carol reinforced my thought that my 450AH of LA might be good enough for many camping styles. And we have a near new battery bank the prior owner purchased in 2021. @MAX Burner also reinforced the idea, stating 300 AH works for them (although Art has a KILLER DC-to-DC installation). I'm going to keep reading, learning and likely will put off an LI upgrade for a couple of years. Just ask @SeaDawg, as she has been babying her AGMs for years. At the same time, would love to have 600AH of Epoch LI batteries ready for your next trip. All in time...

Thank you @Lisa Rae and @Townesw! So, when I get a chance to crawl into the rear basement... I will clean the water backflow preventers (aka check valves, a required component to achieve plumbing system pressure, allowing the water pump to cut-off/stop) on both lines and REMOVE the pressure regulators on BOTH lines, and instead use an external pressure regulator. Or perhaps, I could find an alternative to integrate an adjustable pressure regulator internal to the Oliver which of course would be preferred. Love the fact that in the pic, we see pressure regulated to just under 60 PSI, not 40 PSI, anywhere near the OEM regulator. 60 PSI is a good number, 40 PSI is NOT! We run 60 PSI in our 45-year-old home with copper plumbing, sweat solder joints. A modern PEX plumbing system can function up to 100 PSI. Thank about this.

I'm an old map guy too, but you cannot ever buy the thousands of USGS maps, in quadrangle detail available. I have hiking maps, trail maps marked with dispersed camping detail, and more. Not talking about driving down an Interstate or US highway. Check out this map we downloaded for your first ever Oliver camp last July. Do note, the roads with the '. . .' alongside the roads. These stand for roads that allow dispersed camping. There is NOT a printed map in the world that shows this detail except for some NFS maps. The blue dot was our camp and the next pic explains itself!

Slow speed on the cordless drill, holding straight, even constant pressure. Never had fancy drill bits in all my years, since every repair is a one-off (unless you run a woodshop). Go for it! ☺️

I'm hoping those of you with hull #s >1000 have better water pumps installed by OTT. There are 100s of RV water pump options today! Eight (8) years ago we got this OEM installed pump (pic 1) and with my recent upgrade I installed this instead (pic 2). Retail it's $80 vs $200 and at OEM cost it's likely $40 more which anybody paying $100K larger for a high-end TT should get. Penny-wise and pound-foolish, as they say.

GJ, Mike and many others, have better batteries than we! 450 AH of lead acid here. I read here that two 300AH Epoch batteries fit, which is totally amazing! By the time we upgrade, 2025, 2026, I'm hoping some manufacturer can stuff 800AH into the bay size holding four 6V golf cart batteries!

We were out on a short camp last week. My wife commented the diverter switch was difficult to push (I only took outdoor showers). When measuring flow rates, as I suggested above, you could remove the shower head and kitchen faucet head to measure, eliminating the restriction of the head itself. You can do the gal/sec measurement with and without the faucet head and that can be very telling. I always remove the restrictors in EVERY home or RV faucet. Thank you very much bs.gov for adding restrictors into every imaginable plumbing device. Restriction, after flow restriction adds up cumulatively, making a 3 GPM pump in our Olivers produce 1.5 GPM at their very best! I used to travel a bit for business, usually checking in on Sundays for 4 nights to teach a corporate training class. Standard toolset in my suitcase were pliers, a pick, etc. to get a good shower for 4 nights. As a decent citizen, I put the hotels' plumbing system back as was, prior to check-out. But what a pain!

All the details are here:

You can have the front of your TT 2-3 FT above the rear and if the drain valve is not seated on the floor, your Fresh Tank can stay half full! (See my post above.) I made a comment about leaving the drain open in another thread and was warned of the authorities not liking that. We do it on roads less traveled, or just drain in our driveway while unloading. Our driveway is steep enough. With everything right, why does draining the Fresh Tank take so long? Because the drain valve has a 1/4" ID opening. See my pic, when I had replaced all OEM valves with motorized ball valves. Those are 1/4" and 3/8" drill bits to illustrate ID size. Every PEX connector reduces the 1/2" pipe to 3/8" and all the valves installed in our 2016 hull had 1/4" ID. Our motorized drain valve now has a 12mm opening which allows the tank to drain in half the time! Love the motorized valves since they are less restrictive. Also love the convenience of pulling extra water from your TV when the onboard fresh empties after for us 3-4 overnights boondocking. We fill the Fresh tank again and still have another 10-15 gallons for a third fill if needed. We leave home with over 65 gallons fresh water. And when we get home, I drain what's left in two fresh tanks!

I want to lose the supplied Andersen WDH but have yet to do so. I find without it the backend of our TV is bouncy, don't notice sway either way. Our TV is an older Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins and the user manual states to use a WDH for trailers > 5000 LBS. Our TV is known as a 2nd Gen Ram Cummins, and it is LB and 2WD. We owned 3rd Gen for years, HD w 4WD and it was much more tow capable. The newer Rams with the 6.7 Cummins have even greater capacity I believe. This Ram has OEM "Helper Springs" that are two leaves that sit above the main leaf springs, designed to come into contact when greater rear load is applied. Problem is with the Oliver, weighing in at only 6000 LBS, it does not have enough weight to engage the helper springs. When hitching the Oliver the hitch height will drop 2". I wonder if a suspension shop could adjust the helper springs, to come into contact sooner. I tried the "Timbren Rear Suspension Enhancement System." They are like adding airbags to the rear, without the air being rubber cushions. I believe I wasted $300 on this kit. One spacer is to lose, and one is too tight. Too lose is like not having them. I have it on my list to call their tech support. Liked this idea and many on the Cummins Forum suggest them. I never want to get into true airbags again, what a pain.

Yes, the D52 axles will have the same 6x5.5 hubs, but you should see 12" brakes and E-Z Lube bearings. See in your pic (ours is the same) where it shows 10" on the drums.

Have the same map, in our bin of travel maps. We bought ours when we first moved to Prescott, AZ in the year of 2005. I love paging through the printed maps of old! When traveling, RVing (or TTing) these days we use Avenza maps: Avenza Maps | The #1 Digital Map Store You can download all of the USGS maps for free and many others. The beauty of the online maps is you can see your location, at the little blue dot! Have it on my phone, whether we are traveling or even dirt-riding in the Arizona BLM and NF. I believe I made some odd comment, the first time I read one of your posts... You have an intriguing writing style! We look forward to your next addition. 😂