jd1923

Update on our return trip… Given the goal of staying off Interstates, we wanted to see South Texas w/o I-10 travel. Left Inks Lake for lunch in Kerrville and spent a night in Bandera at Antler Oaks lodge. They are $59 plus tax! But with a soft sales call, I talked them into $40 cash and we would not hook up, no costs for them. The RV park was nice enough, but one tenant scared us. They were up all night, lights on at 2AM, where 4 pickup trucks parked around their large travel trailer. One thing my Dad told me, “Nothing good happens after midnight.” I’m sure they were involved in trafficing or drug running. We stayed quiet pin the trailer and they kept me awake most of the night. Thought to head straight south to Uvalde. The largest town out that way and they were in the news for a major school shooting a couple years ago. Uvalde also has the cheapest fuel around. Another part of planning is where to buy fuel. We use Gas Buddy and with the map view you can look ahead at prices along your route. Highest gas price we paid was $2.99 for diesel and the lowest was $2.79 at H-E-B Uvalde, $2.43 for regular, nice! Wanted to see Del Rio, stopped for lunch there and had many great views of the Amistad National Recreation Area. On our route west. just woke up in Sanderson TX. Not much of a town or RV park. Got another $10 discount for my “no hook-ups speel” some light road noise and we slept well. i was too tired yesterday to push another 2 hours to Davis Mountains SP, so will leave for there as soon as I stop typing this! Looking forward for a few days there!

Certainly is! Wow, great repair and upgrade all for $49! We need to travel to Hohenwald one day!

Saw one at Inks Lake in green-camo which made it look a bit better. Was leaving too quickly to get a picture.

Thank you Jerry & Kathy for both answers! I turned the tabs, why didn’t I think of that, and I have the screen out now. Thanks again. I’m hoping for a procedure to turn off the fan without closing the vent cover. Chris wants the fan on when going to sleep where it’s just cool enough to go w/o A/C. When I wake up, middle of the night, it’s much cooler and I want to turn it OFF but keep the hood/vent open. The motorized lever mechanism is soooo noisy late at night! I muffle the sound with a pillow on the fan, then OMG have to do that again to open the vent, no fan. I’ve got to find the procedure, or I promise I’ll pull it apart and wire a dedicated toggle switch for this simple purpose.

Good to hear from you Mike. Another great upgrade in your list of many. Good work and I especially like your thin insulation fabric. Thanks

There is a certain brand appeal for Redline, but I contend ANY reputable oil co that makes the red-type high-temp NLG #2 automotive wheel bearing grease will do equally well. Can be Valvoline, or Lucas, or many other brands, take your pick. I chose base on price vs. reputation. If you do not remove all the grease, clean parts with solvent (I used spent gasoline drained from my dirt bikes and yard tools), get all new grease UNDER, yes under the main gear, you are truly wasting your time. Just leave it alone or do it right, as you would be doing more harm than help. The OTT maintenance video is a joke. All he does is a visual inspection. Adding like grease on top is also doing absolutely nothing. Drives me crazy watching this! The NLG-2 grease is better than OEM. Do it as I had illustrated on page #2 of @John E Davies’s original post. I even received accolades from him which in probabilities is near wining the lottery! I pray @John is doing well! If you do it like I have demonstrated below, I promise it will last for many years, like 3+ years for full-timers and 6+ years for the rest of us. Our hull is now 9 years old. When I did this service last year, I could tell from experience, it had never been maintained in 8 years and was working fine. The ONLY thing that will damage this quality leveler jack is raising or lowering it beyond the upper (happens more often) or lower stops, which damages the drive gear attached to the motor. IMHO, those of you with Hull #s >1000, leave them alone until you have minimum 40K miles or 5+ years use, and then do it right. Show your mechanic my post and ask for like service. Or you could just look at it annually as “suggested by the manufacturer” and buy a new VIP3000 eventually. It is a great jack, will likely last 10 years if you want to forget-about-it! 🤣

Q1: Is there a way to turn the fan off while running and keep the vent from closing? We have this fan and remote (pics). Q2: How do you get the screen off for cleaning. Ours has one broken tab and I don’t want to break another. Thx

I use something similar to the one centered in the your picture for almost everything automotive, must be high-temp NLG #2 for bearings. This red grease is the toughest. Given you researched this, I’m thinking you are good on your choices!

This may be the answer!

So many bad roads in these United States as well as Canada. For some reason today an Infrastructure Bill is passed and then monies are spent on perceived social issues. First line item re infrastructure is building roads. Hopefully .gov will spend necessary monies to replace all the roads and bridges damaged or destroyed by Helene. President Eisenhower RIP would be ashamed of his interstate system, except for in Texas and a few other states. I moved from Chicagoland (always potholes for decades) to Tidewater VA in the late 70s. Driving on I-64 back then was like floating on glass! We drive highways, back roads and dirt roads throughout the SW, roads not so good. Keep tire pressures on the low per the chart, drive slowly. It be a shame fear would keep you from this dream trip, IMHO. You have to ask what’s more important, the trip or the trailer. Yep, have a pair of replacement leaf springs.

Yes, and fresh in the dairy section! Chris and I were born and raised in Chicago where Bays started and didn't know of the other name brand until we traveled east. About Bays | Bays English Muffins

42K on trailer tires seems like decent life expectancy. But "severe cupping on one wheel" is odd. Could be an issue local to that wheel, or merely a defective tire. Watch that tire position for cupping on your new set of tires. But those shocks look just awful! I believe @Geronimo John is correct re the shocks. It's like mounting shocks engineered for a 1500 truck on a 2500. These Monroes, or even the same spec Bulldog shocks, would hardly dampen the 4x 2750# Alcan leaf springs and will likely fail more often and more quickly. Whoever talks to Alcan next, please ask the shock make and model number of the shock they suggest and post this info on our Oliver Forum. Thank you.

Would that be Thomas or Bays English muffins?

Maybe. We’d have to be chemists to be sure. I don’t use the pink stuff, but if it’s ethanol based, I would think it could react with brass or other plumbing components to produce the simple but deadly compound CO.

Is that on one set of tires?

John, just read this again… I would check your wheel bearings regarding cupped tires. In a TV it means alignment but there is no alignment on trailers. To do so, lift each wheel off ground, hands on tire at 3 and 9 o’clock positions to check if there is any shake. Turn the wheel some and shake hard a few times. If you find ANY wobble at all then the axle nut needs to be tightened. If you have packed the bearings in the last 1-2 years, just tighten the nut. If not, it’s time to clean and pack the wheel bearings. I’m not sure but thinking bad shocks or even no shocks should not affect tire wear. Shocks merely stop the pendulum effect of spring bounce. I guess excessive bounce could affect tires, though less likely than bearings.

I see the roll pin in the picture and it doesn’t look bent. What is keeping it from be driven wit a punch back into the opening. It will take 3 hands!

At the price point you could buy two extras so you could do the warranty exchange and always have two good shocks on hand. You know, I’ve owned many cargo and stock trailers 7K and 10.2K and none of them have had shocks. Are they necessary? Many Oliver Owners have 1-4 blown shocks and do not know so.

How dirty can a 1-year-old Oliver be? We got to the Texas Rally, where I thought our older hull would be the ugly duckling. Wow, there are some glossy Olivers here, some with recent CGI service. I was happy to see a couple Olivers with the dull & dirty look like ours. Don't they say, "It's what's inside that counts!"

Just checked Renewable Outdoors website where I purchased our Epoch batteries, and they did not charge tax or shipping. Then checked Epoch's website. Both have the 300A Epoch Essential back to the $999 price. Makes me glad I purchased at the right time, but not happy for others wanting to buy now. I would still wait to see Black Friday pricing and discounts since we are just weeks away.

I will certainly check out @Ronbrink's Atmos today! Sure Derek, stop by site 71 to talk. We're staying at the park today, so will be here or visiting others. I purchased Epoch during a 4th of July sale. They had just lowered the price from $999 to $899 and had 10% OFF. Last year they had 15% OFF for Black Friday. I went with Epoch to get 2x 300AH. The LiTime will likely continue to be the best price for 2x 230AH. 460AH vs. 600AH is the question, or you can do 1x 460AH Epoch Essentials (2 of the "Essential" model will not fit) as somebody here mentioned, or 2x 460AH and go all out as @rideadeuce did!

Just Campendium. Here is the listing for Yoakum County park.

Got to the Texas Rally at Inks Lake SP a couple days early. More pictures will be on the Rally thread. Spent the day today a Horseshoe Bay Resort. Adam used to play tennis tournaments here and, in the 10+ years since we had visited, they built 14 Pickle Ball courts. Marble Falls now has a brand-new HUGE H-E-B! We went to play PB today and found all the courts busy with a local tournament. If we had known, we could have entered the tournament but just spectators today!

There are a few installs documented. @Galway Girl and @rideadeuce to name a couple. Just search for keyword “Starlink.” These are not the Mini, but installation cannot be much different. I hope to buy one Dec-Jan and will document my installation. @Patriot has a recent thread on the Mini, and he is adamant on its being portable, stating the need to use it when the Oliver is camped where view of the northern sky is blocked. This is an important valid point. Mine will be installed on the tow vehicle, plugged into our Pepwave router, also installed in the TV. The Pepwave would look first to cellular signal, switching to Starlink when needed to minimize Starlink data used saving $$$. I figure that if the Oliver is blocked from the northern sky, which is rare in the SW where we do not have the tall trees of the east, I can park the TV in a better position which could be 100+ FT away and still have Wi-Fi access, broadcasted by the powerful Parsec antenna. I'm trying not to add more portable gear, the setup and tear down. Kinda sorry I invested in suitcase solar vs. another rooftop panel or just a DC-DC charger. It’s great that Starlink now has affordable options. Oh, and we have a monstrosity of a Winegard Dish Sat device, front of ours, yes bug collector, that I will remove soon. What a mess with all the screw holes OTT drilled in the roof (use 3M 4950 VHB tape).