Dexter ez flex

[Jitters]

We went to a dealer today to look at the HQ17 (No 19 available on the lot).  Lots of cool and innovative features but to be honest, I thought the quality was lacking.  All the  cabinet facing seemed to be a stick-on material for that shiny look.  I looked at the corners and cold see where it was not applied all the way.  Maybe a veneer but looked like something else.  Some of the ceiling material was bubbled and  peeling in the rear corners.  Not crazy about the all aluminum (thin) walls and front.  Tapping on it made parts sound very hollow and you can see the skin give some.  Any road damage (remember, off-road) seems possibly expensive to fix having to replace the entire panel.  The handles to lock down the windows were very flimsy and I can see them breaking easily.  Not sure about the smoked plastic windows...they don't seem to provide much insulation or very durable.  Nice Cooper tires and suspension but what about service availability when on the road.  Only 8 dealers in the US and this doesn't seem like something many RV places will work on.  It does come with spare bearings.  I read in another post somewhere that the suggested service interval on the axel bearings is 300 km.  Seems crazy.  I asked the salesman and he did not know.  And for a trailer designed for boondocking it seemed weird to have only two 5gal propane tanks.

 

 

 

I thought the separate water tanks for drinking and GP water was interesting.  There's also a separate water tank for the toilet flushing.  The larger fridge (thank Ollie) is nice.  So is the control panel with circuit breakers rather than fuses.  No accumulation tank with the water pump and the pump seemed small though I did not check the gpm rating.  Excellent outside kitchen!

 

Have a great evening!

 

Greg

 

 

[Raspy]

[postquote quote=176298][/postquote]

John,

 

I just got a photo of the spare bearing kit that comes with the HQ19.   It uses standard SKF explorer bearings from Germany.  These are the bearings used on the Dexter 5200 and 6000 lb axles.  A standard bearing set available easily. So, refering to the Dexter manual, they recommend the standard 12 month/12,000 miles service.   As has been said, that seems excessive.  But it is the recommendation.

 

I'm very pleased that they use the heavy duty size, and a very common, off-the-shelf, part number.  A good quality set form Germany.

 

Our Ollies, as you know, use the 3500 lb bearings, and the Elites use the 5200 lb bearings on its single axle.

 

I've also been looking at the hand brake system on the HQ19.   This is a very simple setup available on standard brake backing plates.  It simply has a cable that runs into the brake, that cams the shoes out against the drums.  It has a simple cable that runs through guides, up to the tongue where a ratcheting hand bake lever pulls it on and holds it. Then releases it with a button on the handle.  Standard hand brake design.

 

This might be a very nice modification to an Oliver.  Just drive into your spot and level the trailer.  Set the hand brake and disconnect.  Any chocks would be for redundant safety.  And if it ever started to roll while disconnecting, just pull the brake.  The Black trailers have jocky wheels on the forward jack, unlike our Olivers.  This is nice for maneuvering on concrete, but also aids in recovery, as the trailer can be towed out of sand or mud, with a winch, or turned around on a tight dead end road,  while disconnected from the tow vehicle, and attaching a rope to the tongue.  I can see myself turning this thing around, in a tight spot, while keeping it under control with the hand brake.  Unlikely, but easily done if needed.

[Cort]

Checking to see if anyone has successfully done this retrofit. Love to be able to get this done. 🙂

[topgun2]

28 minutes ago, Cort said:

Checking to see if anyone has successfully done this retrofit.

Yes - there have been a number of owners who have tackled this upgrade on their own (or Oliver Service can do it for you).  I'm sure that there are at least one or two of those upgrades (with pictures) here on the Forum - try the "search" function.

Bill

[MAX Burner]

On 6/25/2019 at 6:19 AM, Raspy said:

This is nice for maneuvering on concrete, but also aids in recovery, as the trailer can be towed out of sand or mud, with a winch, or turned around on a tight dead end road,  while disconnected from the tow vehicle, and attaching a rope to the tongue.  I can see myself turning this thing around, in a tight spot, while keeping it under control with the hand brake.

This is an easy to do mod for the OTT and could come in handy in a tight pinch as described.  Made a "coaster wheel" for the tongue jack on our AS years ago to be able to maneuver it around inside our shop - the wheel would be too small to operate on anything except hard surfaces (tarmac, concrete, asphalt).  But a larger diameter non-pneumatic wheel could be useful for such emergencies, IMO.

Any pix available of the HQ19 tongue jack wheel set-up?