jd1923

Lookout on Rim Road on our way out! Hwy 260 down below, what a climb!

First stop was Boondocking on the Mogollion Rim. About 40 minutes east of Payson on Hwy 260, turn left on Rim Rd. The Mogollon Rim Visitors Center is on the corner. Paved road down just a couple miles, then we turned left on FR9350 where the have 42 marked Dispersed Camping sites. The cliff side sites were all take. And we were happy that #14 was open! They say after site #19 the road gets steep and hairy! Amazing views on the Rim!

Our plan is a 23 day road trip to Central Texas and back. End point will be the Texas Rally at Inks Lake. Staying off US Interstates as much as possible. The average day driving will be only 2 1/2 hours per day! We may vary off, but here’s the plan: - Two nights on the Mogollon Rim. - Greer AZ another 2 nights. - Stopover at a city park in San Antonio NM, yes NM not TX! - 3 nights in Wonderful Ruidoso NM, right in town at Midtown Mountain RV Park. - To get through West Texas we’re staying at two city parks, free camping. So little public land in Texas as compared to the west but was happy to find almost every little farm town in West Texas has a city park offering free camping! - 5 nights at Inks Lake - Texas Rally - Yay! Looking forward to meeting Oliver owners! - On our return, we’lll head SW through Texas. First stop is lunch in Kerrville, a town that brings fond memories (our son Adam won GOLD in an USTA Tennis Tournament there back in 2010). Spend the night at Johnson Creek in Ingram TX. - Want to stay off I-10, so the only other way SW is to head towards Del Rio. Would love to stay there but not until a new Adminstration gets the border under control. We’ll stay a night at Canyons RV park in Sanderson. - Will visit Marathon and Marfa on the the way, then 3 nights at Davis Mountains State Park. - Rockhound State Park, Deming NM - Bighorn Campground, Silver City NM - Roper Lake SP, Safford AZ Then we’re back home! If you’re interested in these routes, stick around for feedback and pictures!

Shocks alone do not change height. Adjustable struts will up front or air shocks rear but never shocks alone.

Thanks Rich, not to worry.

Run it down both sides, and then you likely don’t need them over the individual windows. It certainly is a nice installation @routlaw, though not to my credit on this one, was a past owner. Our Oliver has been sitting outside for the last 5 months in the weather. Sun & wind and so many monsoon rains. So the backside, without a drip guard, has many dark dirty rain drip lines, but not on the entrance side. They’re very hard to clean off, so I did a half-a$$’d attempt as not look like the total ghetto Oliver at the upcoming Texas Rally! (Ours is pretty inside and in maintenance and mods)! 🤣 Soon, I’ll buy more for the other side, so thanks y’all for the links.

Look under streetside bed. Ours was in the wheel well next to a positive bus.

Battery cables good and tight? Main battery fuse blown? Our older hull has a 40A circuit breaker for all 12VDC. If the main battery fuse is blown or circuit breaker popped, you will need to determine cause. As @Rivernerd suggested test battery voltage and test each of your 3 batteries separately (cables disconnected). A bad battery cell could trip the breaker or blow the fuse. If battery cables go to inverter first and then to the breaker and 12VDC fuse panel, the inverter could have failed. Your generator will supply the 12VDC system through the converter with the batteries disconnected.

I would remove the bolt and use that hole to run the new cable. The bolt likely has a wire attached going into the interior. You might be able to use the existing cable to pull the new cable through to the interior. Then clean up the rooftop mess until you get it completely clean with rubbing alcohol. Use 3M 4950 VHB tape to connect the Shark Fin to the roof. Add a little dab of caulk to seal the cable opening.

Got a chance to lube the Oliver today. Using the Dewalt power grease gun and the LockNLube with 90-degree adapter, took me 40 minutes total. Had one stuck Zerk that a flat punch freed up quickly. One Zerk at the top of the EZ-Flex is hard to get to, but it just made it. The power tool and 90-fitting made the job so much easier (after 40+ years doing it the old way)!

I'm assuming mine was removed by previous owner, replaced with a nice drip edge. Can somebody confirm who knows the OEM "rain seal?"

Wow, those temps are almost too good. You should probably run it a lower setting. Ours is set on 4 out of 5. Update on our fridge, now half full of food. I moved the Ruuvi sensor from the far corner of the door to under the drip tray. Read the labels in the picture. I had these in my garage and guitar cabinet, hence the pics. It's been a semi-cloudy day and rooftop solar is keeping up with the fridge on DC mode. Warmer in the cabin than the trunk, cause the windows are closed and no A/C on. Very happy with these temps now.

Got ours installed yesterday and with Ron's advice, I now have the same two Beech Lane exterior and interior fans. I had some trouble fishing the wire down. I fed a length of coaxial cable as a fish tape, and it kept getting coiled up and caught halfway. Eventually, I used a mirror and hook to pull it down, and still only about 30 minutes total. I'm not sure of our make/model. It's a 3-way fridge with 5 vs. 10 cold settings and the fin length appears twice as wide vs. the picture Ron shared. Notice the fan on the coils, drip tray below and grommet below that. I used a leather punch tool, to punch a second hole in the grommet just fitting the second wire. Turned it on at 7 PM last night, put a tray of ice cubes to freeze and 6 bottles of water inside. Started it in DC mode and it consistently pulled 15A, close to 17A total with the Victron MP2 running and other peristatic draw. 17A over 15 hours = 255AH. SOC was 99% so I figured I should see 56% SOC now with 600AH batteries and that was very close to the SOC reading at 10 AM today on the Victron SmartShunt. I taped two Ruuvi Sensors in place. One to the interior freezer door and another in the top furthest corner of the fridge door. This morning the freezer was at 10F and the fridge 46F. Turned to interior fan on and off and have not yet noted a difference. It's hard to tell as these temp numbers change slowly. The exterior fan set at 90F has been running regularly at low speed. The fridge sensor was installed on the outer door in the warmest corner of the fridge. I'm going to move it today, tape it under the upper fridge shelf to get a better average internal reading. A proper fridge should get down to 38F or lower, though we do not store dairy products or anything perishable for more than 2-3 days. The temp should improve with the new sensor location and 3/4 filled with food. Chris is filling the fridge with foods today. We're leaving tomorrow morning, starting our road trip to Texas. We'll see some of you there!

Even worse April-May. Remember camping near Moab where we could not grill outside, nor want to sit outside. Find campsites with lots of junipers to block the wind. Wind is created from the mix of hot and cold air which is a given out here, where just a few miles away the elevation is 3-4000 higher or lower. We had a calm day today, likely because the stratus clouds kept the heat down. Enjoy the calm days! Was a great day and now ready to leave on our trip!

Thank you for the sentiment, but it’s like some politics today, promise anything, deliver nothing. i purchased these to see and needed a backup for upcoming travel. The big EMCO tag was all I needed to see. Soon I’ll submit for return authorization. I will cite one call to Southwest Wheel CS (he said yep, the page says USA!) and 3 calls to TruRyde with no answer. I’ll ask them to prove their claim or return. They’ll take these back as their wheel business is more than Dexter cr@p. I’ll order the Alcan set soon and carry two until I can replace them all next year. Done with mods this year. I inspected below and have Jack, Jack stand, deep sockets, breaker bars, etc. If I could change a freeze plug on a ‘59 300E, on the side of a Detroit Interstate, I guess I can change a POS made in Chin@ leaf spring while Boondocking, Hope not to, do I can send these back soon. Will keep you posted! 🤣

Anybody goin to the Texas Rally want to buy the OEM Oliver bike rack, the 2” receiver model they used to make? (vs. the light duty 1 1/2” receiver of today). PM me in the next 24-30 hours and I’ll bring it along. The dual receivers bolted to the bumper not included. Thx

That’s an expensive shop tool. This is enough for occasional home use: https://a.co/d/7wrhUwT Earlier when I wrote 1 1/2 hours $200, I was thinking front shocks like we have in the Dodge 2500 trucks, coil springs separate and are not removed to do shocks. Even the Ford E450 Class C chassis has simple shocks (been there, done that. if you purchased full preloaded strut assemblies, you could do the job. I cannot believe that if you went to the Ford dealership that flat rate would be more than 3 hours. At $1000 that’s a $330 shop hour, keep looking!

I want me a '59 Buick Invicta!

If we were neighbors, we could do this together one afternoon! Just remembered when I did the struts on our GX470. The spring compressors from Oreilly's would not work as they are designed for full size coil springs, like on old cars, not coils on struts. I bought a set for not too much money. Not easy and yes dangerous. As I was torquing them down, I had a HD shield protecting my face and upper body, strut held on vise, empty workbench and bare wall behind it. These are the GX struts. I actually had to do the same job 3 times, OMG! The ride height wasn't right with the Eibach product, so eventually they sent me free springs to compensate (the silver ones). Also used the tool when I upgraded the rear strut on my Honda dirt bike. All went well each time, though you must be patient and extremely careful!

Received these yesterday. Southwest Wheel appears to be a good supplier, but not sure re the TruRyde product! I ordered these after COB Friday and they shipped FedEx 2-day Saturday and they got from Dallas to Prescott by Monday! I generally prefer ordering from Texas suppliers given parts availability. Asking @Galway Girl, @mountainoliver and anybody else who has bought basic replacement springs to post a picture of your label here for comparison purposes. I was warned that TruRyde was bought by EMCO and that EMCO manufactures in China. I see no evidence these leaf springs nor U-bolts were Made in USA! I do see an EMCO label with the PR-4B part number. They do have bronze bushings. The picture above shows nylon bushings. We're leaving this week for the Texas Rally, and I will have these as backup. I certainly hope to not need them. If these are made in China, I overpaid by $70 for the set. On this basis, I should request a return authorization so that I can get this money back towards a set of Alcan springs Made is USA!

Sorry Mike, late last night I did not read carefully and focused on the later sentence re the microwave itself. I'm sure you noticed Bill's second picture to see how the frame is attached to the microwave. When the top mounting screws are removed you can pull the MW out enough to remove these. I forgot about these mounting tabs because when replaced our MW with the Emeril Air Fryer I cut off these tabs as they would have had issue with the heat of the oven. Given the top mounting screws are in place, remove them to slide the MW out a few inches to access the side screws. It appears you will have to remove the frame and epoxy it, do whatever so that the 4 corner screws will hold again. I don't imagine OTT still has this part but maybe. Ever had the thought to upgrade to a convention oven or something else, this would be a good time! Convection Oven Upgrade? No let's just replace the MW with an Air Fryer! - Ollie Modifications - Oliver Owner Forums (olivertraveltrailers.com) Bill wrote his was not top mounted OMG, though I do see two holes in his picture vs. the 3 screw holes in ours. Also, unless he removed it no wood piece along the bottom front. If yours has no wood along the bottom, maybe add one as the front of the MW sliding is what likely damaged your frame. Let us know how yours is alike or different! If you need any parts off my MW let me know and I'll bring them to the Texas Rally. Best wishes for a quick repair and see you in a couple weeks!

Mike, given our hull numbers and the fact that I removed our microwave this summer and still have it, I'm your guy. Also, we had the exact same model. If your goal is only to secure the microwave vs. removing it, likely you can leave the bezel as-is. If it needs major surgery, the bezel is held by four (4) screws. See the first picture, all 4 corners are the same. The two screws in the bottom corners are not easy to remove. Pull the countertop first to give more room and not to damage it and you will likely need a right-angle Phillips to access these. I have one that drives off a 1/4" impact that worked well. Honestly, I could not believe this installation. More of a backyard mechanic rig vs. a factory installation. Empty the cabinet above, pull the rubber lining and you should find 3 screws (see three holes in the metal plate, second picture). It's likely these have loosened. If so, remove the loosest screw, keeping the others in place and work to replace one at a time. However, they may all be gone. If you're lucky you could install screws of same length, one size up or finer threads to hold. If they are all disconnected, you will need a long thin punch or a nail to something to realign the holes. My guess is the top mount is the issue and remember to check this before messing with the bezel. I supplied two more pics so you can see the other sides. I don't remember any other screws holding it in place. The sheet metal in the rear just rests against the curved cabinet. Note the wood strip along the bottom-front which is designed to keep the microwave from sliding front to back. This should get you started, and you'll likely get it secured quickly. Best wishes, JD

If you have front struts yes, just shocks then no. BTW, you can visit an Oreilly's, AutoZone or other national auto parts stores and borrow a spring compressor for the day (they charge your credit card for the tool and refund upon return). Hope you find another alternative. Shops here usually get you in the next week (service shops not RV shops). I should head north and open an auto service shop if there is that much demand! just kiddin'!

Rob, special tools make it easier but not always necessary. Fronts are in general more difficult. Any Mobile Mechanics in your area? They would not have issue with customer parts. Shops speel crap re warranty which is BS. In reality they want profit on parts in addition to their exorbitant shop rates! Another point, shocks have absolutely no bearing on wheel alignment. If your truck drives straight down the highway and tire wear has been even, do not align it. Only get alignments done at alignment shops, not general repair shops as they can certainly make the alignment worse. Good alignment techs work alignments daily an it takes more knowledge than reading numbers on the machine. Any alignment shops in your area? They usually install shocks. Muffler shops too. Also local tire shops but not the National chains i advise, find an alternative so you can cancel that appointment! $200 labor with your parts is reasonable, or 1 1/2 hours at the hourly shop rate. Hopefully, I gave you some ideas to research. Best wishes, JD