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KarenLukens

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Posts posted by KarenLukens

  1. We moved on down to Congress, AZ and the weather has been 68° to 70° during the day and then drops into the high 50°s at night. So we had Christmas with the saguaro cactus's for the first time. Finally it's warm enough to fix the leaks in our outside lights and I will make a video on that when I start on it next week. Karen decorated the tree's around us and life is good :)

     

    Reed

     

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    • Thanks 3
  2. It wouldn't be a fair trade, but... :) We are outside of Wickenburg, Az. and heading down towards Tucson, Az later this week sometime. I'm using the 100watt Renogy Solar Suitcase to give me enough Solar to keep me running. If you do go to Blue Sky, then you should ask them about adding another 160watt panel on the roof if you feel that you need more up in Oregon this time of year. We will be at Quartzite also with many friends and as always, the more the Merry Christmas :)

     

    Reed

  3. I’m glad your magnets work now. John Davies Spokane WA

     

    Honestly, because Oliver's cabinet maker didn't install the hold down bar behind the drawers correctly, all of the 2017 models need to be checked. They put a #8 screw through the 1/8" piece of fiberboard with nothing else to back it up, leaving the 1x2 loose on the bottom and its 1-1/2" air gap from the base was simply put, poor workmanship, so the screw pulled itself out way back when the drawers all fell out because that little screw in the low density fiberboard had no chance of ever holding even empty drawers closed with nothing to hold on too... Then being coupled with the small magnets being misaligned and not ever matched up to hit the strike plates, they were a complete failure from the day they were built. With the magnet bar now locked in place, coupled with the right magnets, the drawers once again work as originally designed. They are self closing and they lock in place without the need for the straps. Plus, the strength can be easily adjusted for each drawer by simply moving the magnets either up or down or in and out a touch with the screw for fine tuning. This is the right fix, simple, easy and out of sight.

     

    It works perfectly.

     

    Reed

     

     

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  4. Probably – I haven’t cracked open the case it since I don’t want to void the warranty, but like you I’d bet that it’s something simple inside that can quickly be repaired. In fact, when I opened the front panel to inspect it after it sprung the leak, two screws fell out. One went to the regulator in the front but the other came from the back somewhere. It’s probably a fair bet that it held together whatever is leaking.

     

    Did they get you fixed up and on the road?

  5. Today, we used the new 45 gallon bladder tank to fill the trailers for the first time. I took the boxes in my truck and made a little storage area to hold it in place, then went down to the water company and filled it up with nice, clean, great tasting water. It drove just fine and with all of the containers and the bladder full we were hauling 80 gallons. It's designed to be used over the cab for the best pressure for gravity feeding but we re-filled the canisters from the back of the truck to top off Marks Bigfoot also. It was a simple hook up, prime, change the valves, turn on the pump and then watch the SeeLevel go up from 6% to 100%. All in all it took around 25 minutes to fill up Goldilocks. I just used my 25' Valtera hose with a "Y" on it. Hooked it all up, bled out the air in the line with the "Y" and then made sure everything was open and went inside. Then I changed the valves, turned on the pump and just waited...

     

    It worked great :)

     

    Reed

     

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    The tank was still around 2/3rds full in the picture and with the built in baffles, it didn't move at all.

  6. OK. Reed I need a little more advice. I am going back mid January for my second factory tour and to finalize my options. You mentioned that so much had changed and they were having growing pains…..What questions should I ask? What should I be aware of and/or shy away from? I am not locked into this purchase decision until mid Feb as that is production start. Any suggestions or advice? And like you, this is not my first travel trailer rodeo. I have owned many over the years. Thanks in advance for your help.

     

    You said that you wanted to save money, so for an Elite, I would skip the Solar personally being that it's only 200watts. The best part about the growing pains they are having is that they keep making the right changes. The water tank is fixed, the sewer storage is fixed, etc... along with that the bathroom has 2 mirrors now, they added the extra storage behind the propane tanks, etc...

     

    The rest is up to you and if you have the ability to put options in yourself, then go for it. I would have them run the wires for the solar between the hulls for you and then put in your own system as you can afford it, or go with the Renogy Solar Suitcase that will save you a couple thousand. We got most of the options for resale value ourselves and were not aware of most of the issues even after monitoring the forum for a year before. What happened is Oliver ramped up production this year and made some serious changes, and in my opinion have been paying for it ever since with all of the customers having to return for the water tank fix, broken drawers, etc... :)

     

    We looked for a long time for a used one but couldn't find anything close to the options that we wanted, so we ended up buying new. Since then, many have come up for sale that we would have jumped on since we bought ours but over all if I could have found as used one with the Blue Sky System, I would have bought used myself because we didn't know that they were changing solar system companies on us until the day that we picked our trailer up...

     

    Reed

  7. Reed. So knowing what you know now, would you have still gone with Oliver?

    Yup, but I would have done things a bit different. Overall you just can't beat the quality of the shell. Because it wasn't finished and because Jason had been shoved into the Service Managers position the week before, we all did our best to get things moving. I've had lot's of trailers but this was my first new purchase. You always hear that there's a lot of problems with all brands of new trailers and though I have had my share in the 2017 Oliver, I had no leaks on pick up, I had hot water even though with no controls working inside, and I had heat, so the basics were all there. They changed a lot of things this year and that has created more problems for them then usual, so the growing pains are there. But the quality of the shell itself is what sells it. You can buy cheaper trailers but...

     

    Reed

    • Thanks 1
  8. Same here in the Chevy, the tow haul mode is for 10K+ trailers and really adds nothing to the control of the Oliver. I do like the Chevy's on the column shift and it's easy to just drop it into manual and drop gears when going down steep inclines. I didn't like the shift on the dash that I saw... and the Jeep Grand Wagoneer's shifter looked like an accident waiting to happen. The Land Rover just didn't.... You know... The trailer back up system just made me laugh because Dad started me out driving the horse trailer when I could reach the pedals... and the Oliver with the back up camera is a dream come true as is :) Trying to back it up with an old 62 International these days isn't in my best interest but driving it as a child added a lot of muscle because it took everything I had just to get it around the corner... Lol. Not moving meant the steering wheel would not budge for any normal man... lol  :)

     

    I love the squared wheel wells and the overall look of my Chevy, that's why I waited and bought this year's as it has the right looks for me. I still have my old 78 Step Side and it's a beast lifted with lockers, but these days a little more tame is easier on the back.... Then... we're in Arizona for the winter again and all of the pains that come around with the damp air up north are once again gone! I keep thinking that I'm going to hurt, but instead that smile comes in just like the sunrise :)

     

    Reed

     

    PS I was behind another Ford Taurus yesterday with the left brake light burned out... What is it about those Ford's with no brake lights??? Lol.

    • Thanks 1
  9. I got four cables coming from the roof and…that was it. No controller, nothing going back to the batteries, no disconnect, breaker, place to mount anything…nada. The plan had been for them to install their Zamp system so that I could just swap out the controller when I had time. So instead we delayed our vacation while I installed everything. Went ahead and installed the rest of the electrical system while I was at it. I’ll do a thread on it…someday.

     

    The stock Zamp controller is only 500watts anyway, so they were probably lost being that you had more pannels then the Zamp has ports... So... they wired the 3 together, and then put a second control box up there for the two 80's? Or did they put in a different box?

  10. Originally I didn’t know when I would be able to swap out the charger and charge controller so I opted for the Battleborns since their built in BMS means they will work with what Oliver installs. I think they’re a good swap for current owners but had I known that Oliver was going to give me a trailer without a working solar setup I would have gotten a cheaper and smaller set of batteries and a separate BMS. The main drawback of the Battleborns is that they’re big. You can barely squeeze four 100Ah Battleborns into the elite II battery box where a standard LFP would allow 6 with room to spare.

    What didn't they do to get your solar working before delivery? Did you get your new Victron controller installed later or did they do it at the factory? Show us some pics of your new controller, shunt, etc and expand on the install, pleeease :)

     

    Reed

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