How To: Galley Drawer Travel Straps

[Tralien]

Thank you Dave,

 

The plant suggested the same balance between strike and hinge adjustments as well as confirmation of a spacer behind the latch. Although improved we still have the occasional failure. If a quarter turn latch was available, or latches akin to what is used on the closet or pantry, I'd switch them out.

 

Bob

 

 

[GrayGhost]

Regarding the upper cabinet latches- a little blue loctite on the screws once you have the correct adjustment works well. Have not had any problems since one came loose last year. This should be done at factory during install. Without it, the road vibration inevitably causes them to loosen and the door to slip out of alignment and open. Otherwise it becomes a regular maintenance item.

 

I have a late model 2015, which has the older drawer slides.  With the older slides, combined with not overloading the drawers,  I have never had one come open.

[KarenLukens]

There's a big difference between the old slides and the new ones, overloading isn't and never has been the issue... The quality of the slides is... Our drawers always open because Oliver had a careless employee who did Not install them correctly, and plain and simple, this is the issue with the new drawers. I've seen the older 2015 models, drawers and there is a big difference in the overall quality of the slide. There is no comparing the 2 in any way. The new slides are designed for houses, not RV's. On ours, the magnets that were put behind the drawers to catch them and hold them closed, weren't even lined up with their strike plates, so they couldn't do their job. The self closing drawers from the past went out the window with the increase of the production line and now they have locking mechanisms that have been sent out for us to install. If I would have known that we were going to be guinea pigs for the new high production Oliver and all of it's "New" lower quality features, like the cheap drawer slides, no sliding tongue, and the Zamp Solar, I would have never bought a new Oliver... I would have waited for another pre-2016 model with the options that we wanted to come up for sale... They cheapened the Olli this year, yet raised the price of a fully loaded one to $70,000.00.

 

Nobody told us new buyers in advance that we would be paying $2800.00 for a cheap, run of the mill, $1100.00 Zamp Solar System or more money for cabinets and drawers with inferior slides... I realise that we got ripped off but all of us early 2017 owners have lived with the bait and switch and fortunately some of us have brought other issues into the light like only being able to use 62% of the water, and then fixed it ourselves, leading the way for Oliver to become a better thought of company once again.

 

Reed

[John E Davies]

Any equally clever suggestions for the mirrored cabinet doors? Bob

 

 

http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/how-to-fix-your-overhead-cabinet-latches-wrong-hardware/

 

It makes me mad every time I think about this..., ;(

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Monlezun]

Travel Straps done! The equipment arrived yesterday afternoon and I was prepared to start upon their arrival.

 

Took me about 1.5 hrs. to complete. Of course, this is Friday afternoon and was setup with my Sirius radio set on the 60's and a beverage to sip doing the process. Only one tho! Had to stop to dance with my wife to one old Beatle song too.

 

I decided to apply same application to the night stand on our twin bed model. The drawer has been found open and some contents on the floor in the past. Not any more!

 

The final product looks and functions great. Cost much less than burger, fries and each a beer at local pub. Peace of mind - priceless!

 

Thanks John!

 

 

 

 

[John E Davies]

Travel Straps done! The equipment arrived yesterday afternoon and I was prepared to start upon their arrival. Took me about 1.5 hrs. to complete. Of course, this is Friday afternoon and was setup with my Sirius radio set on the 60’s and a beverage to sip doing the process. Only one tho! Had to stop to dance with my wife to one old Beatle song too. I decided to apply same application to the night stand on our twin bed model. The drawer has been found open and some contents on the floor in the past. Not any more! The final product looks and functions great. Cost much less than burger, fries and each a beer at local pub. Peace of mind – priceless! Thanks John!

Cool, please post pics of the rear drawer strap!

 

I was going to install a locking stainless latch in mine, like outside for the battery compartment, but had not got around to it yet. Then I found my drawer completely busted, lying on the floor near the bath; the too short screws ripped out and wrecked it. So now I am waiting on a replacement and I will secure it before towing with the new one.... that will be a new thread.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[KarenLukens]

Monlezun wrote:

Travel Straps done! The equipment arrived yesterday afternoon and I was prepared to start upon their arrival. Took me about 1.5 hrs. to complete. Of course, this is Friday afternoon and was setup with my Sirius radio set on the 60’s and a beverage to sip doing the process. Only one tho! Had to stop to dance with my wife to one old Beatle song too. I decided to apply same application to the night stand on our twin bed model. The drawer has been found open and some contents on the floor in the past. Not any more! The final product looks and functions great. Cost much less than burger, fries and each a beer at local pub. Peace of mind – priceless! Thanks John!

Cool, please post pics of the rear drawer strap! I was going to install a locking stainless latch in mine, like outside for the battery compartment, but had not got around to it yet. Then I found my drawer completely busted, lying on the floor near the bath; the too short screws ripped out and wrecked it. So now I am waiting on a replacement and I will secure it before towing with the new one…. that will be a new thread. John Davies Spokane WA

Yuk... Still, I pulled Oliver's replacement screws even in the new drawers they sent us and put in 1" grabbers angled throughout, they are rock solid now.

[ScubaRx]

I don't have the beautiful dovetail drawers in the OO but I do have a question about them.  Are the bottoms captured in a groove near the bottom of the drawer sides?

[Monlezun]

Hope these pictures are of help.

 

My setup for the nightstand is simple using light duty paracord and 2 stainless Pad Eye's with stainless sheet metal screws.

[John E Davies]

I don’t have the beautiful dovetail drawers in the OO but I do have a question about them. Are the bottoms captured in a groove near the bottom of the drawer sides?

Yep. Here's the front showing my busted slide fitting:

 

 

Here's the back... The notch is for the slide.

 

 

Except for the slide screw issues (too short from the factory) they seem to be well made.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

 

 

[ScubaRx]

Thank you John, that's exactly what I expected to see.  Although it would not remedy your hardware connection issues, for those of you that have this type of drawer  you could make it structurally twice as strong. Remove each drawer  and place it upside down as shown in John's photo. Use any good type of wood glue and run a bead around the perimeter where the bottom goes into the side pieces. Leave the drawers sitting upside down overnight to allow the glue to set.  This will dramatically strengthen the drawer. If you would like to, you can do the same thing on the inside of the drawer.

[SupersizeLIFE]

This may be slightly off topic but can someone tell me the inside measurements of the drawers? I have several nice dividers from my sticks-and-bricks that I wanted to use in Oliver but just today it occurred to me they might be took big. They are adjustable, but at the smallest the dividers 13" x 17.75". Will they fit in any of the drawers?

[Mike and Carol]

Mark, the two owners you mention have, at times, been very critical of their purchase causing some potential buyers to look elsewhere. You may join that group. If you’ve read through some of those threads you should have noticed a response from the Oliver company and also a number of owners that expressed satisfaction with their trailer and the company.  As far as regrets, I believe the Lukens are the only owners expressing regrets on their purchase.  There is also no shortage of owners who are very happy and will go on record saying so.

 

I recommend you contact Reed and John directly to get their views.  They have both been extremely helpful on this forum and also personally helpful with other owners. They will give honest views and assessments.

 

This will probably need to be moved to a new thread so this one can stay on topic. I expect there may be a number of replies to this. Mike

[Kayrae51]

Mark - I spent several years on the Oliver forum before we bought our 2017 Elite ll.  I visited other forums (including high-end motorhome forums) and it didn’t take me long to see that Oliver issues were minor in comparison to many other brands. Yes, I read all the good & the bad, just as you are doing,  There were times that I became alarmed but my goal was to hear how those issues were dealt with. From what I read & what we have experienced with our Elite ll, the Oliver team goes out of their way to address problems and make sure their customers are happy.

 

I am a perfectionist at heart so I had to stop and think back to my husband’s past employment as a production manager in Florida. Fact is, as long as the Oliver is manufactured by humans  there are going to be problems at times. Just 1 employee having a bad day (while running a machine or with a tool in hand) can mess up several trailers. Some issues may end up getting hidden during the building process & never seen by quality control. That’s most likely one of the reasons Oliver has their customers do a “shake down” stay near the factory.

 

Now that we have our “Clever Beast” I know that we made the right choice for our needs. Would we buy one now, knowing what it is? Yes! Have we had any problems with our Elite ll?  Yes,  a few minor issues but they have all been dealt with quickly and we have been pleased with Oliver’s response to those problems. Would we make any order changes if we were to do it over again? Yes, we ordered a few things that we did not need but ,all in all, we are very happy.

 

I agree with Mike’s recommendation  that you contact Reed & John directly.  I would also recommend taking the Oliver plant tour so you can see the manufacturing process and get any questions answered.

[STEVEnBETTY]

Mark, the two owners you mention have, at times, been very critical of their purchase causing some potential buyers to look elsewhere. You may join that group. If you’ve read through some of those threads you should have noticed a response from the Oliver company and also a number of owners that expressed satisfaction with their trailer and the company. As far as regrets, I believe the Lukens are the only owners expressing regrets on their purchase. There is also no shortage of owners who are very happy and will go on record saying so. I recommend you contact Reed and John directly to get their views. They have both been extremely helpful on this forum and also personally helpful with other owners. They will give honest views and assessments. This will probably need to be moved to a new thread so this one can stay on topic. I expect there may be a number of replies to this. Mike

What he said!!! I have hull #219, the one right after John's and have not experienced anything near what him or Reed have talked about,  they're trailers must have been built on a "Friday". My attempt at humor, but seriously these are well built trailers that are assembled by humans, are they " perfect", no but Oliver will definitely try to make it so!

[SeaDawg]

I can't add much, but ten years, almost 100,000 miles, including many nights without moving, because we own an awesome campsite in North Carolina where we love to spend time.

That said, I understand the frustration of anyone who didn't get a proper check at the pick up (and before).

You'll always get an honest picture here. Even if it's a rant snapshot. Mods don't delete honest views.

 

Truth is, I would not look elsewhere for another trailer, even ten years later. Customer support has been excellent, even if it takes time to figure out an unusual problem.

We go to the Tampa supershow every year. We could certainly afford to change if we saw something better. We have not.

And, I'm sure we'd never get the same support we got from the great people at Oliver.

Sherry, still roaming the continent in our 2008.

[KarenLukens]

Yup, I said that and the Zamp is still overpriced garbage... But Oliver has come a long way this year in making improvements on the rest of the trailers they have been putting out.

 

The early 2017 models and before all had the water tank issue - Now that's been fixed with the new dip tube and made even better by the factory with the addition of the bladder.

 

The sewer compartment fix that I did and wrote about was put into the line up right after I posted it and has now been done by Oliver on every trailer since. So they are still in the learning curve, but every complete fix that one of us performs becomes standard operating procedure on newer trailers and that is a good thing.

 

Do I still wish that I could have found a used 2016 or earlier made Elite II? Yes, basically because the 2016's and before had way better Solar, way better drawer slides, and a much better bathroom shower faucet. We have had lots of problems but they are all fixable and Oliver has sent us what we needed for repairs without question, in fact, we received another box from them this week. We have talked about the Zamp... but we have enough other issues to take care of that it's still on the list because the stripped out window latch replacement is #1 right now.

 

So my answer is yes, I would have liked to have found a 2016 year model for sale still - but now, I would also have liked a later in the year 2017 model prewired for Blue Sky Solar with all of the factory fixes that have gone on this year because Oliver is filled with fast learners :)

 

I fix everything myself and Hull #200 is mine. It was filled with problems when it came out, ours was Jason's first walk thru as service manager, and there was no office when we picked ours up, everything and everyone was being moved and in turmoil. So I've found and fixed every problem myself and this includes the drawer slides, the pick up tube in the water tank with John, running new control wiring to the inside switch for the Truma AquaGo, bad programming from the factory on the Dometic Thermostat at time of pick up, diagnosing the Truma wiring problem in the first place, changing out a bad shower faucet, installing the Micro-Air Easy Start, grinding and leveling the sewer hose compartment, diagnosing and fixing bad wiring on the Dometic fridge fan, fixing the bad ground at the 7 pin connector (still waiting for Oliver confirmation on that fix), properly caulking the bathroom, still waiting to see if my ground wire has fixed the front jack, which has had no problems since. And last but not least, replacing the broken mirrored bathroom door. Every suggestion that I have made has been followed thru and put into circulation. My trailer is great, because I fix and improve it myself. Oliver has their new office and the staff is all settled in for the most part, it's a different company now and they have their ducks in a row.

 

Would I buy Hull #200? Now? after everything has been fixed? Yes. Just not with the ridiculously overpriced Zamp Solar because there is so many better options out there that cost a lot less, like the Blue Sky MPPT Solar System with the IPN Remote that Oliver used to sell. And I am looking at a different toilet because the Dometic 310 has no rim and let's stuff slosh and spray out of the toilet. There are much better toilet options like the Dometic 320 rimmed toilet among others and with all of that room under the Dinette, a lot larger black tank could be built and installed. Owning a trailer is the same as owning a home because there's always a new project you can find to do, and I do Love my trailer now that the above list has been taken care of, the solar is on the list and will be looked at in Quartzite.

 

Reed

 

 

[Mainiac]

We have hull #211, and are very happy with the unit. Yes, we have fixed a drawer. Yes, we have modified and added things. Yes, it was fun and continues to be. The Zamp controller is something that hangs on the wall. We turn on a switch and lights, tv, and fans come on. We are not plugged in. Must be the system is working. More of the KISS Principle.

 

Ever seen an ad for a used Airstream? Most say new floors. Not fun and something we never see a need to do in the Oliver. Sometimes the negatives you hear on the forum are self inflicted, read all comments with an open mind. Good luck with your new Oliver...

[taylor.coyote]

Did you use screws only to attached the stainless hardware? The drawer between our twin beds has been launched with a lot of force a few times.. I was wondering if bolts with nuts on the inside of the cabinet might be needed to manage this much force..  Please share your thoughts

thank you

chris

[John E Davies]

3 hours ago, taylor.coyote said:

Did you use screws only to attached the stainless hardware? The drawer between our twin beds has been launched with a lot of force a few times.. I was wondering if bolts with nuts on the inside of the cabinet might be needed to manage this much force..  Please share your thoughts

The only reason a drawer will launch is if it is full of heavy stuff and it has momentum. If it gets moving and then hits the end of its travel, it can and will break stuff. With a non- elastic strap it can’t move more than an inch at most. So no force to speak of. With properly sized pilot holes, you don’t need any nuts. But OTH if it would make you feel better, install machine screws and self locking nuts.

A bungee works but IMHO it should be fairly strong so the drawer won’t overwhelm it in a panic stop. Plus there is always a risk of injury or damage if the strap gets away from you.

I installed a new drawer front with chrome latch like the pantry, it was sent to me free when I made a claim to Service, so I don’t need a strap for that location. 

Please add your hull number to a signature, it helps with finding the right answer for you.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

[taylor.coyote]

I like the idea of using a pantry style latch. do you happen to know a source for this latch? Hull 124. I will see if i can figure how to add my hull # to my signature.

 

 

[mossemi]

1 hour ago, taylor.coyote said:

I like the idea of using a pantry style latch. do you happen to know a source for this latch? Hull 124. I will see if i can figure how to add my hull # to my signature.

 

 

I’m not familiar with the term "pantry style latch".  What latch are you referring to?

Mossey

[Overland]

2 hours ago, taylor.coyote said:

I like the idea of using a pantry style latch. do you happen to know a source for this latch? Hull 124. I will see if i can figure how to add my hull # to my signature.

Oliver used this Sierra Pacific latch on mine, but a quick google search didn't turn up a source.  If you can't find it, you could try Oliver.  Southco makes an almost identical model and Oliver uses the lockable version of theirs for the basement door.  

[Overland]

1 hour ago, mossemi said:

I’m not familiar with the term "pantry style latch".  What latch are you referring to?

Mossey

The round compression locks that are on the pantry and closet.  These days, Oliver uses it on the nightstand and upper cabinets as well.  

[mossemi]

5 hours ago, Overland said:

The round compression locks that are on the pantry and closet.  These days, Oliver uses it on the nightstand and upper cabinets as well.  

I went back and reread JD's post about his drawer restraints and replacing the drawer front with the pantry style latch and I now see the relevance between the 2 posts.  I will admit to not reading JD's post in it’s entirety as I had previously read his, yours and Reed's version of drawer restraints.  So I thought I was up to speed, which reminds me of father's axiom "don’t think, you’ll weaken the ball club".

And that reminds me of another of his many axioms, "never resist the opportunity to keep your mouth shut"-

nuff said,

Mossey