KarenLukens
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Posts posted by KarenLukens
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Yes, I do regret it. During our initial camp night we had problems with our water pump. They came & swamped it out. We’re now on our second trip & the refrigerator is not working. We have to call on it. And the AC doesn’t seem to be running correctly. It blowing cool air but not cold air. It also isn’t keeping the entire trailer cool just the part over the bed. I had heard so much about the high quality of these trailers. I feel we ended up with a lemon.
Which refrigerator do you have and what's the temp outside? If your in over 90° weather, then you need to run it on propane if it's not keeping up. Also, you can crack open the outside upper refrigerator vent cover and that really allows the air to circulate. I have a quick wire that attaches on ours and keeps the door tilted open at the top around an inch and that helps a lot. There is a topic on this here in the forum. We were in 110°+ temps a few weeks ago and the freezer was working fine, but the fridge wasn't able to keep up. On our Dometic, there is a lever on the far right in the back that can be set to allow more cold air into the refer area. If you push the lever up, it makes the fridge colder, but at the 110°+ temps, we still needed to add frozen bottles of water to the fridge to keep it happy. The freezer maintained just fine.
Your air conditioner has adjustment vents all around it. If just your bed is staying cool, then be sure that the cold air return vent is full open and not blocked. Pull the filter and check it if needed. Then close the rear vent cover and make sure that the front vent cover is full open. We prefer it to be coldest over the bed, so we have the rear cover full open and the 2 sides at 45°. There is a learning curve to everything in this trailer and all in all, you will overcome ?
Another big plus is to join the Oliver Owners Facebook page for quick results and answers from other owners. It's monitored at all times.
Reed
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The really negative comments were from one owner. Most everyone else, even with some initial problems, were happy campers.
My point exactly. In my comments I did not intend to imply there were no issues, simply that not all – is as it seems. My 10,000 + hours of toil tell me this.
Ok, you got me? You have 10,000+ hours of toil on your Oliver? I hope that you've made videos of your fixes.. ? haha. Heck, we only have 13,000+ hours living in our Olli full time and only maybe 20 hours of fix and repair. Can you put your hull# in your signature so that we can see where your trailer comes in? We've had thoughts about getting a new 2019 Olli ourselves with so many great fixes and upgrades in the last 2 years. The Dometic awnings and convection microwave are nice additions. Convection microwaves are faster and better then the old regular ones and we run our current microwave with the inverter most every day off the grid.
To any who know - Has Oliver changed out the leaky after a year exterior light seals? That would be another huge plus! The only regret that I have now after living in this trailer since February of 2017, is having not bought the street side awning. Those seals under the awnings really keep the water away from the lights and windows during those downpours that want to flood the interior. We put the awning out in the rain and the curb side stays nice and dry with that seal traveling the length of the awning.
Reed
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If you look at the classifieds, you see that a lot of 2017 trailers were sold to others at a loss... 2017 was a bad year in that Oliver ramped up production and made a lot of cost saving changes that took the overall quality of the trailer, down just a touch. Plus with the increased number of trailers, being that less then 200 trailers had been made in the last 10 years before that, more people found existing faults. This entire thread from the first post from over a year ago attest to this, along with many other topics that list and fix the problems from last year, or 2017, these posts really attest to what happened. The trailers being sold today have at least a few of the problems fixed and you don't see the 2018's being plastered for sale in the classifieds. The quality really went up with the water tank and bladder fix, so the answer is Yes! The quality has gone way up from all previous years, it's a much better built trailer this year.
Reed
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I think I’m tired doing research for others.
Yup, it gets old, let people do their own research, then just add a bit if needed... So I was ready to buy the Dodge Laramie, he was getting the papers ready, but it was the Eco diesel. We went out and looked one more time, Karen sat in the front passenger seat and they had put the transfer case right under it and it raises part of the floor up on the passenger side, leaving no room for both feet flat on the floor. So we bought the Chevy High Country 1500. I don't know if it's the same model that your looking at, but the uneven, uncomfortable, passenger side floor cost them the sale.
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We’ll be driving through Florence next weekend on our way to Yachats, then to Astoria for 3 nights. Hotels this trip, next year we’ll take the Oliver! We like Fort Steven’s State Park, have you stayed there in your Ollie?
Yup, twice at Ft Stevens and Cape Disapointment is great also and you can pan for gold on the beach there these days with great results.
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Hi guys! We're Oregonians also, in Florence right now at the inlaws.
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I keep coming back to this thread because being a full timer, I just don't see the need for bigger. Sure I could have bought that Airstream 27fb or the 27' Bigfoot, but then the ease and mobility that we have now, is gone. Our friend that we travel with sometimes has the 27' Bigfoot, and it is nice, but he just can't go where we can with ours because that extra width and length really cut down on the places that he can boondock. Plus he has to have that larger 3/4 ton truck to pull his with, that we just don't need. The only thing that we would change is adding a 7cubic ft fridge option and that's it. For us, having the ice chest in the front to hold our drinks works just fine and with a different box in the front, one of the AC/DC ice chests is something that we have thought about. So, longer & wider? No thanks! Then we would need 2 trailers, one for the rare occasion that would sit in storage mostly and then the Olli that we live in daily :)
Reed
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Whereas all the business of these trailers happens between hulls, while nowhere near as pretty, I actually prefer the old style build of the kitchen drawers where the back is almost completely open. With those new cabinets, if getting to the rear area is needed those Kreg screws will never come out, once the cabinet is installed. I would prefer that they had the cabinets made with the assembly hardware accessible from the inside. As an example, the propane line runs up the back wall behind the right side drawers, completely enclosed back panel, the water lines run along the floor behind the whole cabinet and the fridge outlet tends to sit on the floor on the left side.
For structural integrity, I would much rather see 3- 2″ strips, one at the bottom, top and middle and one across the top rear too. The only time anyone will ever see that back area is when they NEED to, and by the time they’re done with it, pretty won’t count anymore
I agree, but these cabinets look to be better built then ours were last year with more space used. But I still see a lot of wasted space inside there that could really be used. Taking off the back and adding 2" to the length of the drawers looks feasible. The oversized magnets that I had to put in ours, holds our drawers securely in place on the road. These are custom built cabinetts, so seeing the new and improved style here in the pics do look a lot better then the 2017 style that many of us had to rebuild ourselves.
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I wonder if this (putting mineral oil down the drains) would also help keep odors from coming up when the p traps dry out when a trailer is stored. What do y’all think? Ours sat for a few weeks in summer after hauling, the p traps dried out, and wow what an odor came up into the cabin from the empty grey tank.
It cleared out, and generally we are using happy camper to good result, keeping the grey water smelling fine. But there’s got to be residue in the tank itself when it’s “empty”.
Put RV Antifreeze down the P traps when storing it and you will be fine.
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Hey Reed,
Thought you fell off the planet. We were going to come looking for you after Bandon, but the smoke was so bad we
decided to head home and then on to Redwood City where the air was clear. Glad your doing well. If you’re back near home we could meet up in Tahoe.
Yep, the smoke was bad there John, we are house sitting Karen's mom's house for a month or so Florence, OR. We do love it here on the Oregon coast. The Blue Bucket was fun and I pulled some nice gold there when I had time at the end. I made some new friends, was given free reign on running material thru my friend Rick's trommel and pulled twice the gold out of a spot that I found over everyone else all summer. My last clean up, in the pic, had people shaking their heads because I had put others into that same spot before, and they were really happy, but I have a style that a lot of people in Eastern Oregon don't understand... So I pulled a lot more gold out of each clean up. Everyone was happy that we were there and it was fun, but being retired and volunteering is what I prefer these days :)
Reed
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Thanks, Mike and Carol, for the clear description and photos of installing the ZARCOR with tinted glass, white shades and a white handle. That is exactly the set-up that we are considering. I notice a small opening at the top of the shades. Do the shades not completely cover the window, and one needs to settle with having a little light coming through the top, bottom, or both top and bottom of the window?
Hey Jeff, there is a little gap at the top. I think I could have mounted it a bit higher, it’s as far down as it can go. Once the sticky part of the Velcro hits the window there’s no repositioning. I started at the bottom and should have played with it a little bit before going for broke. There is no gap at the bottom. The small gap at the top shouldn’t be an issue. Mike
Mike, Was it the $129 total or was shipping extra?
Thanks
Reed
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A side note: be sure the lines and tanks are well flushed and drained…
Thanks!
Agree, did not want a big mess. ?
Flushed black water tank before starting the job and had trailer hitch high to be sure black water tank was drained. ?
So after replacing the whole valve and seal assembly, do you feel that just replacing the seals would have fixed the problem also?
Reed
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Bill:
My 2018 Ollie black water valve leaks until the discharge line is full of sewage. It complicated boon-docking GREATLY as I can not drain gray water when the discharge is contaminated with black water.
Any suggestions?
Geronimo John
Sorry, I've been gone for a bit. Both of the valves inside the storage compartments separate the tanks completely. Your black tank valve is not seating properly. This can be caused by a bad seal, but most likely the valve itself is not closing completely because of toilet paper or something has gotten stuck in the seals groove. So you have 2 choices... First, empty the black tank completely, then close the valve inside the storage compartment. Then open the front dinette storage door under the seat and see if the metal valve stem will push down any farther with your thumb. If it does, then you have found the problem and this can either be fixed with some research, or you can simply push the metal pin back into place each time to complete the valve seal and close it completely. After a year, ours won't close all of the way and I haven't looked for the problem yet under the bed, so we dump normally by pulling the handle in the storage compartment to open and close it. Then we push the pin down after and it seals just fine. There is an Allen screw, I think 3/32" on the pin, you can see if it can be adjusted like I did, but that didn't fix ours. I believe our cable has a problem under the bed, but closing it by hand isn't an issue for us right now and it doesn't leak at all. If your sewer hose is full, is supposed to be the indicator of a problem because that line is supposed to be empty after the valves at all times unless dumping waste.
Reed
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No more camp hosting for me :)
That job ended for us on the 15th. It was fun but being confined to one spot doesn't fit our traveling lifestyle :)
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Ok, it's been months since we posted or looked at the forum because we actually took a job... Lol. Now that things are almost back to normal, we are back. My tablet isn't dependable, it won't take pictures anymore so, we have a new welcome addition to our trailer, and it's a water softener! A new tablet is next.
Soft water... Wow! We don't use it all of the time, just when we are in a really hard water area but it sure is nice!
Reed
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KVPNVJ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Yup, no regrets, living full time in ours since February of last year, 2017. We did all of the research, 2 years worth, then bought new after having never seen one in person. If you want the best then you have found it.
Reed
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Personally, the towel bar is crap... It falls off easily. It works OK for towels but one slight pull and down it goes. I've thought about changing it out but we don't use it anyway being that it puts a wet towel against your shoulder. The strong curtain rod over the door option that we bought works great and is securely bolted in place. I use it as a grab bar also and then we have drying clothes on hangers on it. So we don't use it for a curtain rod, but as a towel rod/ closet pole/ grab bar it is really a great addition.
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Anderson hitch?, no thanks, Anderson Levelers?, no thanks. The Blaylock's are better. Oliver should just dump Anderson and if they show up to the rally, make sure Ryan brings a dunk tank with a lot of baseballs.
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We carry this under the bed and just use the onboard pump.
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I just remove the propane cover, it's not a big deal. We had a bad ground on the front jack...
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Heck, if you guys run up thru Eastern Oregon, we're running an RV park just north of Huntington, OR... Karen wanted a job... Lol. Anyway, we're right off I84 at the Blue Bucket Mining Camp/ RV park South East of Baker, OR.
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You need to add an AC circuit tester to your tool kit, I suggest that you keep it in a galley drawer with your electrical stuff, extension cords, and odds and ends …. John Davies Spokane WA
Why would you need an a/c tester when it tells you all of that on the built in surge protector? You either have a/c or you don't... and when you don't in these trailers it's usually the gfi under the dinette. Either that or the surge protector is already telling you why your power is shut off when you plug in. For me, a multimeter that allows me to check either a/c, d/c or ohms is the Only needed electronics tester because it does it all and most of the problems will be on the d/c side anyway. When the a/c power outlets go off, reset the gfi and unplug the blow drier :)
Reed
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I have a good map system and a lot of the new maps eliminate roads that are still there and being used for whatever the usfw reasoning is... Just hit your search area on landmatters and then hit the "i" or info tab and click on the map to get a list of all of the maps available for .PDF download. I popped this one for you. Landmatters has a ton of books and info in the library also.
Just click the "download topo maps" button like here.
http://www.mylandmatters.org/Maps/Topo/GetMap
Then zoom in, click the i, then the list opens. I have terabytes of maps also! Haha
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HOW TO: Waste pipe plastic dust grommet not secured, pipe moves around
in Mechanical & Technical Tips
Posted
Now that's funny John ?
I fixed ours at Fall Hollow after pick up. I'm glad that I'm not alone on this one ?