jd1923

Yours is a pretty classic and LOVE @Scuba Steve’s pics! Sitting here camped at Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area (say that ten times fast), my chair pointed in the right direction and I count 4 crossmembers up front, 7 rear with one a double (bad idea) and who knows under the wheels. Had two drinks and not getting on my knees!!!

When @mossemi mentioned bolts, I first thought bolting to the frame. But then looking at my first picture above, you could just bolt to the same kind of plate below. You do not really need the U- part that goes in the tray. It could be just 2 bolts with washers. If you already purchased the U-bolt kit, I would just use them. I would think the bolts should be 5/16", 1/4" is too light and 3/8" overkill. The length should be the height of the frame plus an inch or so. Mine look long, like I should cut off the extra thread!

Looks like long rubber in the back, perpendicular to the trailer (see pic). The short piece parallel in front (mine looks like duct tape there).

Here ya go Bill. First pic shows the front U-bolt installed. The second shows the rear top and the front top looks about the same, hole centers likely 3/4" from edge (eyeballed, more than 1/2" for sure). Place washers on the U-bolts first. They look the same front and rear.

Yes, the shine on hull 135 looks amazing! For the dull look, just scroll up a few screens to see hull 113 at Snow Canyon (the front is really flat).

BTW, it's not advised to tow your Oliver up SR-143. It's a 4K FT climb in 12 miles, and REALLY STEEP the last 2 miles prior to the town of Brian Head. Road signs showed 13% grade and there was a sign going up and another coming down stating "Trailer Towing Not recommended." We did see a new-model HD Ram-Cummins pulling a ~7K trailer up as we were heading back down. Our older 4-speed automatic was working hard on this route, even without trailer attached. I had OD off the entire climb and trans temp was 221F when we parked at the top, where 172F is highway normal. The hottest I've seen pulling the Oliver, when hot outside on an Interstate climb was 201F. If you ever get in a situation where your trans slips, or if you have a temp reading, it gets too hot, stop and put your trans in neutral (NOT Park) which allows the trans fluid to cycle through the cooler. When in Park, the fluid is sitting still, staying hot much longer. I did this for 5 minutes and the temp dropped over 30 degrees. A transmission performance upgrade is very likely in our future.

We certainly are Patriot and @rideandfly and thanks for writing well wishes. Today was GREAT! Finally made it to Cedar Breaks NM and what a view. Literally breathless at 10,440 FT! The park is still closed for winter, but you can park at the North View Overlook. Since I've been reporting weather, it was 63 degrees in Parowan and only 43 another 4000 FT higher at the lookout. Chris too 100 pictures and I took some too. She got this one of me sitting on the overlook wall. Have proof we was there! Simply amazing! Didn't want to leave, but had to eventually, only had a couple layers and a spring jacket.

Chris has been playing around with a drone. Hope this movie loads... Oliver Drone Movie.mp4

Oliver moved north to Parowan Gap. Picture taken returning from our day outing when we could first see the campsite from Gap Rd. If you can see Ollie in the first pic, you have good eyes! Zoomed in on the second picture.

Our trip has been one of weather extremes, from the high 90s 10 days ago in S NV to a high of 63 in Cedar City Utah yesterday. We spent the night at a BLM site (free dispersed camping), the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs: Utah Petroglyphs | Parowan Gap | Visit Utah. The low overnight was 28 and now that it's 10:30 AM it's 50 and feels very warm in the sun (altitude 5600 FT). What a difference a day makes, not only in temperatures, but the contrast between a busy state park and the open BLM. Here our closest neighbors, 4 of them are a minimum of 300 yards away. We met two great couples at Snow Canyon, and then we heard complaining from some not-happy campers. A Class-A with Florida plates, parked in a narrow site like ours a couple spaces down. Slides open on both sides, one was nearly touching the shade structure and the other was hanging over the shared hookups. Common S FL dress, where the couple came out in wool hats and winter coats, since it was only 70 out! The Oregon couple next to them in the Sprinter Class-B had much to say about the space they were taking and running their basement HVAC all day and night, so they cranked up their stereo! Chris and I looked at each other thinking yep, it's time to leave! We’re wearing shorts of course. Gave Charley a bath on our way out that morning, by backing the truck bed right to the Oliver outdoor shower. Better washing the dog at a good height. We hitched up, filled fresh, dumped the tanks, and I used the campground shower myself after everything else was done. And we headed north, SR-18 north, to SR-56 east to SR-130 north, a very nice route avoiding I-15. This location will be great for the next few days since it's warming up again. We're also 45 minutes to Cedar Breaks National Monument which is the one great SW-Utah park that we have not yet visited. The mountain we can see from our campsite is Brian Head Peak (11,307 FT).

Y'all are very convincing. Yes, always keep it rolled up. 🤣 We nearly lost an awning, years ago, on a 26' race car trailer in a New Mexico sandstorm. Pulled over, strapped it up and pushed on to Arizona. I don't use them for the pain involved, and I like to sit in the sun!

Just measured mine for you. I'll be looking at an LI upgrade at some point. OTT is correct that the inside tray measurements are 21" deep and 14" wide. There was a recent upgrade by @rideadeuce removing the tray to install two monster Epoch 460AH LI batteries: Victron MP2 with (2) Epoch 460ah batteries. DAY #1 Removal, rewiring, mounts, routing wires - Ollie Modifications - Oliver Owner Forums (olivertraveltrailers.com) If you were to remove the tray, the full inner measurements of the fiberglass battery bay on ours, 2016 hull #113, is 24 1/4" deep, 18" wide and 15 1/8" tall. Hope this helps! 🙂

This piqued my interest, and I would like to see a picture of yours too. I got under our Oliver today after reading this. I see 4 crossbeams front of the suspension. 3 of 4 of ours have NO sag. The have an intentional arc but are fully supporting the hull left to right. The front one has a 3/8" gap at the center. The true front of the hull is held up by the heavy frame ahead of these 4 beams, so the first one looks to have no weight on it and merely holds left to right. I don't see much wrong with this, but yours may be worse if all four beams have sagged. It's certainly not the weight of cargo or a person on the inner shell.

Like the price! I always prefer a grease or wax over any spary product that drips after application and gets messy! Last WD-40 can I bought was in the 70s, maybe the 80s, really. WD the door hinges? NO, just pull the hinge pins and rub them with grease. Thank you for this.

Finishing up our visit at Snow Canyon. It doesn't snow much here, so this Utah state park gets its name from two Latter-Day Saint pioneers, Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, who assisted in settling the area during the 1860s. This is a mountain bikers paradise it appears, so many trails. They have a race starting here in a few days and the enthusiasts are showing up each day! They also have an amazing asphalt paved two-lane bike trail from here all the way down to St George. Is this the race route? We followed it for miles, going into town today for supplies. Our final picture here is of the "Petrified Sand Dunes."

Ours needs a lube job for sure! It's the last thing we struggle with, when breaking camp. Hmmm? It's been 18 years since I've skied and have since run out of ski wax. We traded our skis in for dirt bikes when we moved to Arizona! Art lives really close to the slopes of Taos NM though...

And do we hear 15 pages?! 🤣 Going once, goin' twice, sold to a future post!

It would be great to hear from @Going Coastal on their reason. Must have been enough reason for the time and money invested. I also used to think the extra 6 gallons was a plus. But do you really get extra water? When the Fresh Tank empties the pump loses pressure and the 6-gal, 50 LBS of hot water just sits in the thank (yes you could open the pressure release and syphon it off, if empty and in a pinch). I would think when needing a replacement, that an on-demand HWH would be the way to go. As long as our Suburban is working fine, we will keep it as-is, just purchased a new anode. The trip we're on now is the first time we tried the electric heating element, and it all works fine.

New campground for 3 nights at Snow Canyon Utah State Park. Got here yesterday, several tight spots in a row with water and electric. Pretty place and everybody we meet is so nice, guests and staff. You can just barely pull through to our site #8 and at first the streetside was 6" low. Using our LevelMatePRO+ we got that number down to 3.5" and the Andersen Levelers took care of the rest. Enjoyed our first night here!

The upgrade from 10" to 12" trailer brakes is huge! Your braking efficiency will improve significantly. Are disc brakes better performance? Yes, better precision. Less maintenance? Yes. Extremely expensive, considering it's for a trailer! Yes!!! You will have new dual 5200 LB axles, new 12" brakes with new bearings, new HD Alcan springs, shocks, wet bolts, U-bolts, etc. basically a new suspension. Very nice! 😂

7000 LB GTWR is enough, as this limit is truly difficult to exceed. Any suspension upgrade is for performance and safety, not additional trailer capacity. I imagine full-timers would go a little over this number. We would have to take everything out of the bed of my TV (spare the full 35-gallon water tank) and load it into the center aisle of the OTT to get over the GTWR. I measured ours during a first trip at 6000 LBS "travel-ready" and a Fresh Tank full. Now after 4 trips it's likely close to 6400 LBS. There aren't enough cubic feet of actual storage space onboard to exceed the limit unless you fill all those little overhead cabinets with GOLD!

Our Oliver is parked at Snow Canyon UT SP tonight and for three nights!

As they say, "you win some and lose some." I believe it was all the changes we went through on our trip getting here, but simply stated, we played like cr@p! We started the day losing but, in the end, we won big and had a great time at the tournament! We're thinking next year we'll just come to watch. They had a very short format for us amateur players. No time to get truly warmed up and play well. Long story short, we watched 4 great matches courtside. The best was a with an ATP tennis pro we have followed since he first turned pro as a teenager in 2011. Jack Sock was a recent great US tennis player. His highest ATP world ranking was #2 in doubles, #8 in singles, and he medaled in the 2016 Olympics for the US. He retired from tennis last year and he says his second career in pickleball will be all about having fun! What a great player, humble/polite guy (always takes his hat off when shaking hands at the end of a match) and crowd favorite as he kids with the crowd regularly. The pics will tell the story, but after catching an out ball, and a free Selkirk hat, Chris snapped the picture of me and Jack!

@Ron and Phyllis the odds were against you, but with your TPMS alarm and your cool head in finding a good place to park, you really made the best of a bad situation. Good lesson you shared and we're glad to know you two are fine. 😂 Thinking back to the half dozen trailers I've owned, never going with a single axle. Needed a trailer for our dirt bikes years ago and looked hard and found a used 12 FT flatbed dual axle. Dual axles generally come on 14 FT trailers and longer, most are 16 FT. I've had blowouts on dual-axle trailers where you lose a fender but all else is good. Thanks @topgun2 for the Dewalt compressor link. I need to get one of these when we resume spending on the Oliver (need a long break). We are a Dewalt tool family, having 8-9 20V batteries between my son and us. I bring a Dewalt handheld leaf blower to blow dirt road dust off the Oliver and clean the camping mat. My son got me this for Christmas: Amazon.com: DEWALT 20V MAX* XR Leaf Blower, Cordless, Handheld, 125-MPH, 450-CFM, Tool Only (DCBL722B) : Patio, Lawn & Garden And you gotta have 1-2 of these for the campsite, or to change that tire at night if need be. I got everybody in the family one, so they would not take mine anymore: DEWALT 20V MAX LED Work Light, 100 Degree Pivoting Head, Up to 1000 Lumens of Brightness, Cordless (DCL050) - Amazon.com

Did you ask why @Mountainman198 was told (in writing I assume) and sold springs rated at 2K LBS?