KarenLukens

That's how I feel also, I don't hit Home Depot unless True Value is out. I go to one that I worked at with my dad as a child and then as a teenager myself. The next question is, it's spring type axle grease... To me - that's whatever grease I have laying around gets used up first, so why buy Dexter? Is there something wrong with plain old industrial bearing grease?

Our condolences Buzzy :( but the good thing is that Oscar will always be remembered in your movies, where he's at your side :)

Depending on where you are in Texas makes a difference, there are some toll roads that you have to log into a website to pay... Just understanding the sideways signals is worth reading the manual for. We did - http://www.dps.texas.gov/internetforms/Forms/DL-7.pdf

That's a good web site but not totally accurate. I just know my state and here in California, it's not just the right lane, it's the right 2 lanes or more when marked. I've seen up to 4 lanes marked for towing here. We always check out the state laws for each state we are in also and I agree that Texas is really interesting. Especially learning the stop light system :)

Haha :) Yes because you bought an Olli, you are special Buzzy :) Re-positioning doors, hinges and latches is one of those things that we all need to get used to as time goes on. After watching your movies many times over while anticipating our Olli being finished in a few weeks, I'm sure that you will not have a problem readjusting whatever it takes to keep the doors in place. Unfortunately, with trailers, it does become a common practice as the doors may shift a bit because of that one special bump in the road... I can't count how many times I've changed and manipulated doors and latches to get them secure. And with time and patience you will find that they can all be made to fit tight and not come open. You will add some shims to some and take some glass off of another, but in the end, your doors will all be secured :) Reed

As long as it's never used for poo, a new unused black tank can be used for extra fresh water storage but it would take some more plumbing at least. Why don't you want a 3 way fridge?

Heat Conducting :) Now there's a salesman for ya :) Next, he'll start using that "Affordable" word.

They finally got back to Jason today and he found out for sure that the Privacy Room is what they sell for our trailers, but he's still waiting for a price :)

Jason was looking in to putting the Comfort+ in ours today :) No waiting for hot water between rinses sounds great, I hope they can do it.

No I mean stretch it out, fold it in half or all the way down and put it up on the roof. This one below, it's a little giant style, they sell the Little Giant brand all over my area, but this is the right size and I'm sure there's a container you could buy to put it in, if needed. There's a lot of room up top and if there's a will, there's a way, you know :) . It would fit folded up on the tongue in the generator box, or you should be able to strap it on the rear bumper or even put a rack on the frame underneath. If you fold it in half, it's 6'approximately, you could even put a slide in rack in front of the tires behind the door and it would still be about even with the steps for clearance. :) hehe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VMXV10C/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=DVETVI1ZF5E8&coliid=I31X7LS4KLFWZG

We don't use towels, we use the outdoor throw rugs over them when we put them inside the front door. You should look at how often are you going to be using it on the road and why? Basically to me, having an emergency ladder in the closet like Randy's is a good idea and if I never have to use it, then that's fine because it's an emergency ladder and stowed away there out of sight for the day that I might need it. Our stool fits in front of the door and if I really need to get up on top while on the road, it works fine. I put the chairs and the stool into the trailer last in front of the door in the isle with the rugs over them and they are the first things to come out when we get to our next camping spot. Karen uses it a lot to put stickers and decals on to decorate for different holidays. Then at home I have this 10' 1AA step ladder that I use for everything. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005JRK9/ref=twister_B002JIMBYO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 I can set it up next to the gutter on most single story houses and because it's a folding step ladder, it never needs to touch the house or trailer. Being that it's 10' tall, it's long enough to be able to still hold onto - when stepping off onto a normal 8' roof. So I'm not taking a ladder with me that I plan on using all of the time. If I know that I'm going to be working somewhere else on the roof, I just strap it on and go. If you want a good quality ladder with your trailer, why not just buy a good Little Giant 12' ladder and then put a ladder rack on top of the Ollie for it? It would fit fine behind the awning or just inside the front door. Reed

There's a bunch in the Amazon Oliver wish list we have in the files on the facebook site along with lots of other things. This is just an Amazon wish list link. Some of these ladders go up to 350lbs weight, so If you're carrying something... Check it out, It's a full time list for everyone that anyone can add too and a lot of people have contributed to it over the years. We have a lot more to put on it like the collapsible rake, broom, etc... but it will get finished eventually - Thanks go to Randy - for the new ladder addition :) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/DVETVI1ZF5E8/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2

I've hit Like on all of your posts at least 3 times, closed the page twice and still... lol I know it will come around :) Here's my answers to what you wrote above - 1. If one pump feeds the system and one path is 1 foot and the other path is 10 feet where they rejoin, the “by whatever margin” the longer path would have lost more of its pressure just by the friction of passing through more pipe. ____ The cold water is denser but the hot water actually has more pressure behind it because the molecules are racing to create the heat. But what's happening also is that even though the the dribble valve is open, it's not running the hot water fast enough to keep the uninsulated line from cooling down between the valve and the water heater. Insulating all of the hot water line to the shower really makes a difference. Plus because the pressure will equalize between the valve and the dribbler, more cold will be coming into that line then before. A pressure regulator would slow it down but still, because the hot water is constantly cooling in the pex tubing, what we did in the Casita was to have a double handle shower or separate controls for each. I would then still dribble the hot but turn the cold off. I'm thinking about calling Little House Customs and adding the Shower Mod to our list of thing we are going to have them do on our way home. I really like having hot and cold water valves separate. 2. Cold water has a higher density than hot water - Yup but the warmer the water the more the pressure. So as the hot water cools down in the line it will constantly be trying to equalize as the molecules slow and the sitting warm water will condense while drawing more cold water in to mix with. So the check valve will work to a point and that's a good thing - because the cold water won't get past the check valve as the warm water condenses, so it will be forced to draw the extra needed hot water as it cools from the hot water tank instead. By putting in the check valve, it's allowing the hot water to cool more slowly without the influx of cold water at all. And they aren't fighting each other while drastically trying to equalize; now not only pressure wise but temperature wise, because the hot water will draw the cold water into itself as it condenses to try and stabilize the temperature. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=418 Now just to add to your work load, try insulating the hot water line with the best and tightest fitting insulation that you can find. The insulation will only help keep the hot water warmer as it sits in the pipe for a short time, so it works for taking a shower because it will only be turned off for a few minutes but if you are washing dishes, then shut it off and come back half an hour later, the water will have already cooled back down inside the pipe. So there's no need to run insulation everywhere, just straight to the hot water valve :) I read through the PDF and like you said, the only difference is the Tee. So I'm going to call Jason and see if they offer the Comfort+ with the return Line.

Nope, that's the Comfort+ schematic, same and only one that I could find. Is the same recirculation pump and fittings even in the comfort?... is my question... Because if it is, then a quick Tee and some line would turn it into the +, that's why I'm thinking the inside is different ant it may not need a recirculation pump for a short circle because the heat transfer would push it through like in the old wood fired Kitchen stoves with the water line plumbed in the back for the household hot water.

Being that both the hot and cold water are ran by the 1 pump, overpower wouldn't be an issue... At least I don't think :) I don't understand how hot water can be pushed anywhere other then out of the flex hose after the valves as is because the entire system is pressurized by the one pump, so it's going to be equal regardless of the pipes sizes. I don't see a way for the hot water being pushed backwards to happen, because it's running at the same pressure from the same pump. It would be nice if we could just set the hot water temp ourselves in a perfect world like I have done here at the house. I turn on the hot, take a shower and never need to add any cold unless it's the middle of summer and I want a cool shower. I sure wish the temps were adjustable in the rv water heaters... That would end this problem. Every place that I look to find a schematic for the Truma Basic or Comfort, it's always the same schematic that shows all 3 with the added fittings inside for the comfort+. It sure would be nice to be able to get the right interior schematic for our comfort model... Either way there is an upgrade that you can buy to turn either into the Comfort+, which is something that Oliver should offer along with the Comfort+ model also. All I really need to see is a pic of the left inside where the recirculation pump is, to see what's there inside the Comfort model but I can't find one anywhere online... I'm not trying to say that you did anything wrong, I'm just saying that I don't understand your way of fixing it . And respectfully, I think a different way then most people :) My wife has a different name for it :) Another way to limit the cold pressure would be to put a pressure regulator in the cold water line just before the valve in the shower. https://www.amazon.com/SharkBite-23807-0045-EB45-DSB-Regulator/dp/B00FMOGLAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483152229&sr=8-1&keywords=SharkBite+1%2F2%22+Pressure+Reducing+Valve https://www.supply.com/sharkbite-1-2-in-pressure-reducing-valve-23807-0045/p583037 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/920850/Truma-Aquago-Basic.html?page=26#manual

I know canoe12 put it on our thread here but I don't think he's talking about the Oliver Owner Only Facebook page. He gave no specifics towards pages and if he's talking about the header pics we use, the way I look at it is, I really like to post peoples pics who are active on our page. It's a closed, locked group, not open to the public, so only members or Ollie Owners that have been approved, can even access the videos and files that everyone is in the process of putting together on there. What I'm trying to do myself is provide links to fix all problems in one spot. We also have set up an Amazon wish list for the owners that everyone can add to for the needed accessories. So we have this forum, that is open to the public for all to see and then we started the locked down facebook forum and eventually it will have schematics of everything including the entire trailer hopefully. We pay good money for our trailers and it's nice to have all of the files for it in one easy to access place and that's my goal. Because it's a locked members only forum, there is no snooping or reading of any posts available to the public, so it's a place where we can all get as technical as possible without having to wonder if our information is being read by other manufacturers or whoever. Another way that I look at it is Oliver is only open during the day, so if there's a problem after hours that someone needs to get fixed right now, you can post it on the facebook page for quick help if needed. If any Ollie Owner would like to see what we have accomplished so far, joining is simple - https://www.facebook.com/groups/OllieOwners/

I'll bump this a bit. I bought the Oliver because we wanted the best trailer that we could buy for the money and now $63,000.00+ not including tax and license, we will be picking it up soon. I bought the Truma because I wanted the best water heater without the hassle's of the Suburban that we ran into in our Casita. I don't think Oliver would be selling it if it wasn't a really good option. You guys have never ran out of hot water when taking a shower? Now that's incredible because I can not count how many times that I have ran out. Personally I think with the Suburban, I used more water waiting for it to get up from ice cold between soap ups then it took to shower. The waste of water waiting for it to get warm again after already being in the shower is ridiculous. I tried letting the hot water trickle but that used even more water between rinses... It sure seemed like I was only using 3 gallons but when the wife started saying brrrr... at least I could laugh until she came out... With the Truma the hot water is recirculated in the lines, supposedly, right? Have any of you owners checked how Oliver ran the return lines? Anyway, I trust Oliver and being an owner of a couple of German cars, I bought the Oliver to feel good in knowing that I am buying a quality product. If I wanted to go cheap, I would have bought a tin can trailer with the Suburban 6 gallon subwoofer hot water heater. The Truma is quiet, that's one of the selling points. Another is that when it is plumbed correctly and the cold waterline, the return-line and the hot waterline are all plumbed together and fastened together with zip ties to keep them all in one place so that in freezing weather, you don't have to worry because the 3 lines together will not allow the cold line that it's coupled with to freeze, is a huge plus; and on those days when it's hitting below 20°, all we need to do is switch it on to comfort mode and that by itself should add enough heat to the plumbing area to not need to worry if the heater is doing it's job. Our thinking is that we shouldn't need to run the heater while we're gone and it's in the high 20°s. We are 4 season campers, so this water heater is a big deal and we bought it to go with a true 4 season trailer. You really can't compare the Truma to a Suburban 6 gallon in any way because your basically comparing a Mercedes to a Geo Metro and I've owned both. Both are great cars but there's no comparing quality at all, one dents with the push of a finger, where the other bends fingers. To me the Suburban water heater is marginal and it fills an old school void. If I was single then the Suburban would be fine but having to wait for either my wife or I to finish showering, the second always walks away with a cold shower. Score 1 for Truma. Plus we're used to refilling a 15 gallon Casita water tank every couple of days and with the Oliver we will have over twice as much. I'm really looking forward to not having to wait for hot water to come down the line because with the flick of a switch a few minutes before we shower, we will have hot water from the time we open the valve. Score another for Truma. And this is a big deal because we will be boondocking a lot of the time. When we're done showering, back to eco mode it will go so it won't be running at all unless it gets below 41°. Definitely the way to go for boondocking. As far as problems with the Suburban, running out of hot water has always been an issue with 2 people in our trailers, and when we take the 4 grand kids, the fight for who goes first is on. The biggest Suburban problem that we ever dealt with was with the Casita. When the wind was blowing at the water heater, it would blow the fumes back inside and the next thing you know, we were light headed before the CO² alarm went off. I can't count how many times this happened but I did fix that problem easily by attaching a small carabiner through the outside access door knobs 3/8" hole. Then when we got to our campsite I would simply turn the knob 90° to crack open the access door that little bit until the door itself was past the plastic suburban handle and now touching the small carabiner. A key ring works well also but if you need to open the door, a keyring is slow. Plus it will be hot if you're doing it with the hot water heater running. Anyway, this allows the co to vent out the top of the door instead of getting blown back inside the trailer. It's a simple fix but it helps keep those pounding CO² headaches away. I was a boiler engineer back in the day, so I'm not worried about having to pull apart and clean the Truma and if needed I can afford to fix it. Basically we bought an Oliver for the quality and size, then sold the Casita. I'm sure that Oliver sells the cleaning compound and if not, I have no doubt that they will order it for me :) One more month before we pick up our Olli and not having to worry about enough hot water for the family is a big relief right now. The grand kids are going to be really happy :) https://www.amazon.com/LEERYA-Aluminum-Carabiner-Keychain-Climbing/dp/B01MFG7DMI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483005560&sr=8-2&keywords=small+1%22+carabiner

I didn't have the Progressive dynamics surge protector installed on our Olli just because it looked over complicated. There are much cheaper surge protectors on the market and I really like being able to plug my surge protector into the host electric box before I plug the trailer into it. We bought ours from LHC - https://littlehousecustoms.com/store.html#elec but they sell others that do the same job in many stores - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015G2YYN0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=DVETVI1ZF5E8&coliid=I93WIN41CDMPD&psc=1 I've had my old Honda 2000i generator for 14 years and have never had a problem that couldn't be fixed by just cleaning out the orifice. So for me... I would not only save money on that $20.00 part... because if the Progressive dynamics surge protector doesn't like my perfectly good Honda Power, then it doesn't need to be included as part of my system :)

The refrigerator fan these days is probably an option that will not be needed very often. On older models, the problem was that they would get too hot because of a lack of ventilation to the outside through the old style vent louvers in the side of the trailer. Then the fridge would heat up and you couldn't get the temp low enough inside to keep things cold. Dometic fixed this first by adding the optional fan and then later they found that a lot of it was caused by the old louvered vents, not allowing the heat to vent out. So they improved the fridge vents by getting rid of the old louvers. Out with the old - And in with the new - and the fan hasn't been needed on many rv's since then. Still though on the hottest of days, you have the fan if needed but when boondocking we really want to get the most out of our propane along with running efficient and Larry from LHC found that by using some rebar wire, he could form a latch that would pop the top of the vent out just enough to let all of the heat go straight out the top. He does it for free for you there but it's simple enough to do yourself. Basically you want to form a hook on each side of the top door that will allow you to crack the top open so that there is no place for the heat to get stopped from exiting at all. I did this easily on our Casita and the fridge ran cool from then on even in the 110° weather we sometimes get ourselves into. So once our Oliver is finished we will easily find out if we need to make this quick little mod to it for a hot day, so we won't ever need to run the fan. Reed

I use a large tarp from Harbor Freight, visqueen lasts a year or 2 but totally falls apart into tiny pieces when left in the sun. But if your leaving it place while using it then draping the visqueen completely across and cut to fit, washes off easily. Otherwise - http://www.calmarkcovers.com/casita-and-scamp-covers/

I've seen some other people asking about the refrigerator and I just went through that section in the owners manual and pulled out a bunch of sections and pasted them into 1 sheet that everyone should know. This is my 3rd Dometic and they are great refrigerators but they do have some places that we need to watch. First is the upper door latch, they can break and Little House Customs has plenty of extra and spare parts. I've copied part of their page here- "From LHC" FRIDGE HINGE REPAIR/DAMAGE PREVENTION KIT All too often we hear of the top hinge breaking on the 17" Dometic fridges. This is bad news when it happens because that top hinge is part of that quite expensive door! This stainless steel bracket is easy to install and will repair that broken hinge permanently or prevent it from happening on one that's not yet broken! The very thin profile is nearly invisible when installed. This is a must have for all 17' refrigerators. FRIDGE SPILL CONTAINMENT TRAY Okay, so if you’ve ever spilled milk in the bottom of your fridge, you know you want this and don’t need to read any further. If you haven’t, you still need it but are welcome to read on. This tray is sized to fit the very bottom of all 17” fridges. At 260.15625 cubic inches, it will handily contain an entire gallon of spilled milk while stealing almost zero space in the fridge. You did remember that there are 231 cubic inches in a gallon, right? OK, maybe not but I did... trust me. FRIDGE BUTTON GUARD Who hasn’t bumped the fridge control, switched to DC and run their battery down? This new version is made for us by Charlie Young. It's clear, fits the fridge well and doesn't require removal to operate the buttons. It attaches with clear VHB tape to the control panel. [end of LHC web page additions] Back to the story - The first thing we did with our last trailer was to call and make an appointment at LHC to have them put the additions on that we wanted. We had Larry put the "Damage Prevention Kit" on along with the "Fridge Button guard" and it really gave us a good piece of mind because we do take off through the woods with trailer in tow and park in some amazing places. Bumping the buttons will become a regular thing without the guard installed and I highly recommend it. The new metal door hinge replaces the plastic one that comes with the fridge and will save the door from needing to be replaced if the stock hinge does break. I added the containment tray to this article because I don't remember Karen having on in our fridge :) The only problem that we had with the fridge was caused by me not knowing the voltage limits of the control panel. Even though you're running on gas and thinking that as long as the battery is putting out, it will be ok, this fridge does have it's minimum voltage of 9.6VDC. It will work a few times if your lucky and your batteries drop below that, but if you continue thinking that it will keep it up... Unfortunately that won't happen. With our Casita, we only had one Battery and it worked pretty good most of the time with the one battery. Usually over night it would drop from a full charge of 13.8VDC down to usually 11VDC overnight and this is acceptable. But then I started getting cocky and kept taking it lower and eventually found out that her CPAP machine would run fine down to 9.5VDC before it's low battery cut off would kick in... You can see where I'm going here - because the fridge was on gas, I really wasn't worried about it. So one night when we were parked boondocking I noticed that the trailer hadn't charged back up while we were driving and found that I had not plugged it in all the way because a small piece of gravel had been knocked into the 7-pin connector. So we were now going to be starting off the night at only 11.5VDC even after running the generator. The CPAP kicked off and woke up Karen,and the voltage had dropped to 8.7VDC and that's when our refrigerator problem started. I could hear the pilot igniter probe clicking on and off, trying to relight the fridge but it wasn't working at all on propane but it worked fine on AC or DC... ANd that's what we used to get home along with our cool box that we keep in the back of the car. An old friend of mine up here is a Mobile RV mechanic, so I gave him a call and he came right over. Then after pulling it apart and looking things over, he found that the main relay on the board wouldn't pull in, so the propane wasn't getting the signal to start. So I ordered the new board and that was that. The Moral of the story here is - Know the fridges limitations... In the attachment, I've pulled out the basics and then some from the Dometic Owners Manual. It would be best for everyone to read the entire manual and then use this page if needed as a reference, but either way, if you read this, you will have a real good understanding of your Dometic Refrigerator. Reed Lukens Copy it, Paste it and Save it to your Oliver Maintenance Files :)

I found the schematic picture of the grey water tank in Buzzy's owners manual.pdf pg55. ( Thanks Buzzy :) ) You can see the block under it for elevation drainage - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zhs9yglj5uvkkx9/AAAdfjcB_nd4KTke3NNcCXcDa?dl=0

A short piece of 1" Clearflo pvc poly tubing works great on those faucets also. I have a few pieces of different lengths for filling my 8 gallon portable water tank. You usually need a piece 16" - 18" long for National Parks and then one 24" long for different state parks that have different height requirements on their faucets. The 1" ID clearfo is certified "food grade" and what I use for these push valve faucets myself. Maybe the Bandit isn't truly considered food grade because of the rings inside of it that could hold onto bacteria? I looked online and found that it is used in a lot of places and recommended for RV use but I couldn't find anywhere that it was certified "food grade" like the Bibb Faucet is. https://www.hawsco.com/slf-clsg-bib-fct-brs-lf/

What we have found is that 12vdc works fine for short periods at normal temperatures outside but when traveling in really hot climates where the inside of the trailer will be 90°+ then the 12vdc won't keep up. It's a 3 way fridge but propane works the best and keeps it the coldest. Then 120vac will maintain the temp but is much slower on cooling it down, so we will start the fridge the night before we are heading out on ac and it will usually be cool enough in the morning but still if you want it cold then propane is best. During normal temp driving, we run it on 12vdc all day including stops for a couple hours or more and it will not drain any of the batteries to a point where you would notice but at the same time is the worst of the 3 choices for keeping it cool. At first, when we bought our trailer we would switch to propane when stopped but we found that it wasn't needed unless we were traveling in really hot weather where the fridge would get back up into the 40°s when inside the trailer was hitting in the 90°s. But... as long as it was packed well and the freezer was packed and frozen before we headed out, that even if the temperature came up some, everything was still fine. If it needs to be cooled down fast then the propane is by far the best choice where 12vdc will usually only be able to maintain an already cold fridge.

Yup :) If I lived there I would be doing the same as you for sure. Here in Northern Cal it gets below freezing but not often so I haven't had to put antifreeze in because of the mild climate. I'm thinking with the Olli and having the Truma AquaGo water heater plumbed with its heated recirculating line, that the nights when it is going to get below freezing that the recirculation line if it's ran properly and coupled together with the other 2 water lines (hot & cold), should be able to put out enough warmth to keep the crawl space heated enough on its own even set on low at 41°. Setting it up to comfort sets the temp at 113° throughout the lines but being that it will be keeping both the recirculation and hot water lines either at the 41° or the 113° when switched to comfort, it might put out to much heat and make us open a window because it's running from the water heater to the shower and back... :) Hopefully they plumb them together so I can wrap maybe the 1¼"ID foam insulation around the 3 lines to hold the heat in. Mostly we will be traveling the southern states in the winter, so I won't be draining the water unless there's no other choice... The outside shower looks safe enough with the door being insulated so well. I have high hopes for our first Olli :)