jd1923

OK, enough about tires on other vehicles (sorry about the tangent)... Had my new tires mounted on our tow vehicle today!!! Everything worked out better than expected, as I was truly worried (whenever I'm not personally doing the work myself, I worry)! I asked the shop to mount BSW out (I really wanted to mount OWL out this time, since our truck is white, but the white lettering was scuffed on most tires, not like back in the day, when you would read BFG, Goodyear or Cooper clearly). Also, please use tape-on vs. clip-on weights mounted to the rims, and finally please let me know, call me if any wheel needs much more than 8 OZ of weight to balance. Everything worked out great! Today was a very good day. Drove the truck home and right away I could feel that these tires track better. I will need to go out again, when I have more time, to get up to highway speeds, though all is looking A+ positive. I was able to mount the newer model 17" Dodge Ram wheels and mount the original center caps from my 2nd Gen Ram. So, we have 2023 high-end Continental TerrainContact AT tires, on 2010 Dodge Ram wheels, on an older yet amazing 2001 2nd Gen Dodge 2500 Cummins. Ya gotta love it, but what's important is we love it! Two wheels took 8 oz weights to balance. One took only 4 oz and the best tire took only 2 oz - amazing! When you're considering truck wheels, these weighing 56 LB each, 8 oz is .009 of the total tire weight. When you consider the weight of the wheel, the brake rotor and all moving parts, the number would be more like .004! These are good numbers, very good! Before the weekend, I will have the 17 front brakes shown above installed and we are on our way to an amazing tow vehicle. Our 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 was under 20K at purchase and will be under $30K when done, with more improvements to come! I'm very, very happy today after our rebuilt and tested suspension, a well-balanced drivetrain, including these amazing Dodge Ram wheels & new tires! 😆

Thank you so much @Ollie-Haus! I also placed ribbed rubber toolbox liner under the batteries for cushion, came up with a better solution to fill the 3/8" extra depth in the box. Looking again at my pics, on next maintenance, I may drill a recess in the copper bars where they mount to the battery posts, so that I can mount the nuts deeper so that all threads are holding strong. First, we may just take an outing to see how this install holds up. Thanks again

Was REALLY, really hoping to get some help on this thread! Asked about the grommets, no comments. Asked about the additional wires, the 8GA wires, two + red ones and two grounds, a yellow and a black, yet no comment again. OK, I'll figure it out for myself, like most things in life. So many times, people ask for help, when with a little testing or research we are able to and can figure out so many things for ourselves. (I tell my PM students that almost every day!) Going to finish and close this post. Grommets epoxied into place, not my idea of the best solution, but it is the OTT design. Got rid of what was referred previously as an elegant solution, perhaps, but battery posts mounted too high is NOT a good idea, not near an adequate solution. As another great Greek once said 🤣, "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." (Archimedes). You do not want the lever to pull you battery posts out of the casing. I am not interested in elegant solutions, as KISS, Keep It Simple Silly, is a long-lived and currently viable design philosophy. Most of you will not like my solution, fear may engage your mind. I found 100 varied electrical bus solutions for this need, ranging from $40 to $200 on Amazon and professional sites. Why? I just bought a piece of copper. Copper is about the best affordable conductor. For $20 taxed and delivered, I received a 1" wide, 1/4" thick, 8" bar of 99.9% pure copper. I guarantee any manufactured bus you would buy would have more resistance than this copper. Decided to mount the + connections on the left side, so they would not be stressed into the corner like the previous install (as @John E Davies had warned of earlier). Like it or not, here it is. So, we're done here. Thanks for reading and I would certainly appreciate your comments! 🙂

John, I should have bought yours! The 1998 has the higher HP engine, variable timing, etc. Mine is the first year 1992, 90K miles for $12,500 in Phoenix. I love driving 2DR HT rear-wheel drive cars and trucks, won't buy a FWD car. We also have a 2000 Lincoln LS, a 4DR but also v8 with RWD (found it up in Gillette WY 3 years ago with only 11,600 miles). Need AWD, then we drive the GX470! Had more in the past, but currently are a 2-car, 3-truck family (got an old T100 on the lot too). Pretty copperish color with good maintenance history, was dealer exec owned. No issues yet, but will keep you in mind, thanks. In one year, only changed the oil, flushed brake fluid, new wiper blades, hood struts and a beautiful set of wheels and tires!

So GMC made two diesel engines in the same model year. That's great though highly uncommon. The article states the LBZ boosts torque from 605 to 650 (605 is more than enough)! Seeing $45K, even $35K makes me very happy with finding my low mileage Cummins diesel under $20K. Not near as much torque as these newer GMC trucks, but more than any gasser, and enough to nicely pull an Oliver EII and a truck bed full of outdoor camping gear.

These GMC are amazing trucks! My personal problem is having owned 5 Dodge trucks, and for near 20 years restoring a '59 Chrysler 300E. With my history, gotta go Mopar. Hoping it's OK to go on a slight tangent, given the OP has answer and a recent AAA truck purchase! Always looking at everything automotive, I pick this one for those of you new to OTT, perhaps having a new Oliver coming soon... This is a great truck for 40% the price of a new model: Used 2007 GMC Sierra 2500 SLE w/ Convenience Package for sale in American Fork, UT 84003: Truck Details - 695093986 - Autotrader Need a TV? Buy this one! Don't settle for any 1/2-ton or worst yet the SUV. This GMC with only 72K miles, Turbo Diesel w/ 6-sp Allison, 4WD SB Club-Cab, and in white to match your brand new white Ollie! Can't get much better than this!

Purchased my new tires this week. I went with SIMPLETIRE, after dealing with a young 'know-it-all' at Discount Tire, having upset me with his spiel, obviously on commission, wanting to sell me a house brand nobody has EVER heard of, but of course it's "in stock today!" Should I forego my endless hours of online research, and go with the opinion of a 20-sompfin? No. I have purchased 5-6 sets of tires from this chain, but not this time. I had NO idea that I would buy the Continental brand for my truck. Last year was the first time I purchased this German brand for my '92 Lexus SC400 sport coupe. Need a tire for something sporty, I promise you, go with these: ExtremeContact™ DWS06 Plus | Continental Tire However, we NEED high-end LT tires for our trucks. I went with these: TerrainContact™ A/T | Continental Tire. Sorry you Michelin guys, but I believe their corporate mission is mileage over performance, and I will forego 10K miles on a set of tires for performance ANY day. I was thinking Cooper AT3 to start, and we have these on our GX470 and very happy with them, but I wanted something new, and something stronger higher performing! I have purchased many sets of tires from Tire Rack also. I ordered these from SIMPLETIRE since they have local installers and one of them is a shop we use for service, when I'm not wanting to do the work. Ordered Wednesday, they shipped Thursday from Phoenix, and they arrived on Friday. Too bad their first available appointment is Monday, not too bad. More info coming soon. This guy was the straw. He's just an old-school tire guy and his message hit home with me! The feature that really stuck me with this AT tire is that it has outer treads that are connected inline like a HT tire with extremely large rainwater channels. This is the best of AT and HT designs for your LT tire!

Good work Ray! 🙂 You'd be surprised what only a little foil tape will do to close off wrong paths, keeping the cold air going where it's supposed to go. I've been into a couple of these, and after being a professional installer back in the day, it depresses me to observe the average installation these days. I spend hours correcting shoddy work on everything I own (now that installs are now more a hobby). Work ethic is needed, but not found less often today. Can't wait (kidding) to tear apart the A/C on our Oliver someday (1-2 years out). Thinking, did OTT seal the 14x14" standard opening, or does air flow into the area between the fiberglass shells. 🤣 I hope not, but we'll see soon. I used this tape for prior RV A/C installations and several other projects since (like for the exhaust duct on a Jenn-Aire down-draft gas cooktop). Love this tape, when you need an air-tight seal: amazon.com/3M-Metallized-Flexible-Silver-109-6/dp/B00A7I5Q0E/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1OW71NIMMYN48&keywords=3m+foil+tape+3350&qid=1697936285&sprefix=3m+foil+tape+3350%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-3 And PLEASE do yourself a favor and do NOT save a few pennies on ANY tape, or most glues for that matter, that is not 3M (Yay! Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing)!

Yep, no DEF here either. Still no pics! Don't get me truck shopping again. Yours is a special truck: 2006-2007 GM 6.6L LBZ Duramax Buyer's Guide (xtremediesel.com) Though I doubt Mark with the 2024 would trade!

Nice truck and I'm so jealous of the Allison, (not so much the Duramax) but that is a great truck! Pics? Also, not as jealous of the 2024, as we would prefer to make that kind of investment in our home and property (new flooring, countertops...), vs. just a TV! Very hard to afford a new 2500 diesel truck today, though nice older ones can be found as is witnessed here. Some here may likely know, I'm certainly not the minimalist! Why don't we all backpack-camp next time out? Ha Ha 🤣 We'll keep our Oliver at 6K LBs or close to it and that leaves those us with 2500 diesels room enough for another 3/4-ton of gear in the bed. Yeah!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! now that's a TV! You truly are starting things off on the right foot! 🙂 I guess you got your answer in your post. A HD Diesel truck is the best option, by far. Pics?

Don't be! I promise it doesn't feel your pain. Before I drill, I think "will I ever want to remove this?"

Correct 14GA is the most common automotive wire gauge and would be fine for most OTT circuits. Sometimes they use lighter 16-18A for electronics. 12GA perhaps as a relay output, where you need higher amperage. All automotive/trailer wiring should be a stranded wire type. Only household wire is solid copper.

This OTT Service video is just about useless! If that's all you're going to do, don't bother, they would be better off sealed and left alone. @John E Davies wrote a how-to video. Then check page 2 where I added my update. I'm believe I'm the only one who worked the complete service, since where you really need new grease is under the gears and there is another step in removing them (see pic). What it looks like by merely removing the cover is insufficient, as you would not even see the worn grease underneath. Check out this link and when you're done, watch the service video again for grins. 🤣

Thanks @SeaDawg I'm not sure re a "barbed grommet" ... I just not a grommet guy. In most of my installs, I go without so I can drill a smaller dia drill hole and instead wrap the wire sufficiently. I removed the batteries today, how heavy are these? My old body can still just lift each, likely 65 LB each. I also cleaned the bay and it came out nice. I will put some toolbox ribbed rubber under these. I'm thinking on the two main cables, coming off the left side, I may check my old supply of automotive heater hose and cut about a 4" length to wrap each cable snug fit the two holes. On the other side, I will epoxy the original grommet. Question for you OTT experts... Check my picture above on the RHS. Please let me know what the 2 smaller + red wires are and the black and yellow ground wires. I know one red is for the stabilizer jacks, but not sure yet on the others. Thanks!

Got it back together Friday. Laying on the ground to get the adjusters close, what a pain! You have to turn the power up on your brake controller when first towing. Pulled the Oliver some on Sat and Sun. Used the controller actuator to get them to kick in often and adjust. Got the brakes nice now. I can't understand wanting manual adjust shoes, not me. And the wheels had quite a bit of up-n-down play before. Not anymore and it's done finally.

Study, look long and hard at the Progressive Dynamics (PD) interface diagram above. I have for hours and have learned so much from it. I installed their model PD1618 in an RV. What amazing products PD makes for RVs and their user manuals are easy to understand, as compared to others. Don't be afraid to run your inverter long, if your battery bank is sufficient. We have 450 AH now, last time had only 315 AH and would run ours on-n-off, day and night, and always make coffee in the morning, solar recharging by 10 AM. Check out the 120V AC split-bus concept, with main panel (shore/generator) and sub panel (Inverter). This is drawn out, see bottom right corner of the PD diagram, also on page 6 of the PD1600 Operation Guide. PD1600-Operation-Guide-701580.pdf

NP Scuba Steve, you're the best and the Guru of all things OTT! Elegant in a way yes, though it will soon be improved to be more shock resistant. Ordered my bus parts and will share soon. I'm going for solid copper busses at both +/- terminals. Thanks

Here's our #113, parked level in our driveway. The front jack must be lowered, and lowered again, until it's less than 4" off the ground! Exterior Courtesy Lights running 24x7 to fend of the Arizona Pack Rats! We love living in the mountains. Was brought up as flatlanders, you can keep suburbia, worth the effort to escape, for us never again living flat and humid! BTW, don't jack up the rear, behind the rear stabilizer jack, for maintenance of the wheel bearings, brakes or ANYTHING else, without first having your OTT level! Working maintenance, I will always be careful as wrtned. However, it totally s@cks that we have to level like this to merely fill a FRESH WATER TANK!!! (or run the fridge, OMG!) Hello OTT, you can install a flat FWT designed with interior baffles, so that it can be filled to 90% capacity at ANY level! Yes, can be done! Ty

Thanks Bill, again I can count on the owner of that young girl named Twist #117! This thread goes from a drastic alarmed state, must replace it, to just be aware and keep an eye on it. I have a nose that can smell LP, other fuels, ammonia, any household cleaner in milliseconds. I also hear machine sounds that nobody hears! The only thing I should change is not to park her on our unlevel driveway 2 days prior to leaving. Keep it parked level. Get the longer hose to fill the tank there and pack and get ready on the flat.

Our RV parking spot at home is somewhat graded. Five years ago, I installed a TuffShed. We picked the most level spot on our property, still Adam and I moved a lot of dirt downhill to level the 10x20 FT pad. Ordered a full truckload of driveway gravel for under the shed and a 10x30 parking area below it. Later I ran 125' 8GA burial type cable to a new panel in the shed, for lights, outlets and 30A service for RV use. I also built a ramp/platform out of used 2x10s, 3 layers so it's 4.5" tall for the downhill trailer wheels. We park the OTT level. Problem is the parking spot is also 125 FT away from the hose bib on the house. If I buy another 50' length of hose for potable water, it can reach, so I will buy a third hose soon! The fridge is off when parked, with door cracked open. We do start it up 2 days before leaving. Often, I pull it up towards the house for it to be easy for Chris to pack clothes and food, and I fill the water, check tire pressure, etc. It's not level in our driveway. We run the fridge on LP from 2 days before any travel until the day after our return and there is no way to be level. What about the fridge on while driving in the mountains? Not often level in route! That's when you always need LP. Never heard of this issue with other makes, though the Class A and C in my experience had full size fridges. Also, our Bigfoot had a 63-gal tank that we were certain had 60-gal when full. Every RV manufacturer makes bad design decisions. BF put their large freshwater tank behind the rear bed, adding 500 # as far back as possible! I'll have to keep my eye on it. There is a thermostat-controlled ventilation fan added to our unit.

Said I needed a day off and then took 4-5! Worked a couple hours each of the last few on this job. One day, jacked up the curb side and tore everything down. Next day cleaned the brake parts and today I ran the pressure washer on the suspension, the brake backing plates and everything I could reach underneath. Been working a bit more than usual, getting in the way of my OTT work! It's nice to line everything up to be ready. I need to install the races; the old ones are out. It's best to mount the shoes first with the spring-pins. Then the adjuster, the magnet and pulley line, and last the upper springs (got a nice tool to pull them). Notice this side has two (2) like designs of the Nev-R-Adjust brakes. The ones with two small upper springs connected in an 'A' shape. My other side had the rear with the long horizontal spring, like @Ronbrink's above. What did a PO do? Smash the rear wheel and have to replace it? Or did Dexter build an axle like this, with different assemblies on each side? The one-off assembly had a thin weak spring in the adjuster. The other 3 did not and in all my life doing brakes on old cars, none of them ever had a spring in the brake shoe adjuster. Both assemblies are equally clean. There is just more shop lighting on the left one. BTW, a little Sil-Glyde grease on the lever and spring behind the magnet helps too.

No way to be level at all where we live and travel. Only had our Oliver for 4 months and only went on one weekend trip so far. We left with a "full tank" as it did overflow. The meter was all over the place, before and after, never counted on any tank reading in any RV! Our gray and black tank readings are also not accurate. We ran out of water after two days out. From our past RV experiences, thought we could not have used more than 20 gallons, 25 max. Good thing we have a 35-gal fresh tank in the truck bed. Pumped it into the OTT fresh tank to finish our trip. Will have the electric motorized water ball valves soon, so not to move the bed. Figure we will always have 55-60 gal with both tanks filled (full s/b 70 gal). We fill up at home when going on local boondocking trips. There is no way on our property to park flat, unless I spent time with leveling blocks and I'm not going got do that at home, when packing for a trip.

@John E Davies you're going to like this one! Before and after on the battery tray in my old Bigfoot. Other BF owners on their forum purchased a new Kwikee tray $$$, but it was my challenge to rebuild this one with new 20" slides and toolbox rubber lining.

Thanks Steve, for the bit of OTT history! So, I should be happy with Hull #113, vs. #200+. I withdraw anything I wrote bad re Blue Sky. There was nothing wrong with the system, only the knee-height installation! I should move that screen ASAP, waiting for the Bluetooth version that @SeaDawg suggested. Our previous RV had only two old marine batteries on a rusted battery tray! I knew nothing about solar and inverters, but learned as I installed a complete system. Below is the system design I built and a readout of the Bogart Engineering battery monitoring system, Wi-Fi connect to my phone. I cut the power bus in the PD55, to create the dual bus system you see in the bottom right corner of the diagram below. One side for most appliances, shore power or inverter with instant change-over, and the other side for the A/C not powered by the inverter. You could read ALL charging stats, sitting in your warm living room as the RV was out in the winter cold. The lefthand readout picture below shows morning status after running the inverter with TV A/V system on all night, and the righthand picture showing status fully charged after a sunny day. Hopefully the Blue Sky Bluetooth version will display something like this. I can certainly move the smaller cables inside, but that is not the problem. Look at my first picture above in the top right corner. You need to mount two (2) heavy gauge battery cables, in this one position. These short battery terminal posts do not have the depth to do that.