General Water Leak Discussion

[ahattar]

ScubaRX for president!

Edited June 2, 2020 by ahattar
Split off from a separate discussion

[mossemi]

8 minutes ago, ahattar said:

Shocking that an Oliver leaks!  

Thanks for the suggestion.  I’m sure it will be a big help to Nan.

OTT Fanboy Mossey

[katanapilot]

8 minutes ago, ahattar said:

You're right, but it will be a big help to the next guy that decides NOT to buy an Oliver because they all seem to leak!  

OTT Real Talk Ahattar

I hope this is not the case.  We are paying a big premium for what is supposed to be a premium built trailer.  Picking ours up in a couple weeks.

[Mike and Carol]

41 minutes ago, ahattar said:

You're right, but it will be a big help to the next guy that decides NOT to buy an Oliver because they all seem to leak!  

OTT Real Talk Ahattar

This is such an unfair comment. “They all seem to leak”?  Come on Ahattar, maybe few do but the vast majority don’t. Nan bought used and inherited some problems, we don’t know how well the previous owners did preventative maintenance. Your generalizations are not helpful to anyone.  Mike

Edit:  ours is over 4 years old, 60K miles, never leaked. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Mike and Carol
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[Overland]

56 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

Nan bought used and inherited some problems, we don’t know how well the previous owners did preventative maintenance. 

I think by now we can be pretty sure he did zip.  

Edited May 27, 2020 by Overland

[Overland]

14 minutes ago, ahattar said:

Ok, they "ALL" don't leak, you're right but ALL cheaper trailers don't leak either.  Mine sure does and if you spend some time on this site you'll see that quite a few do.  You make my point for me though, this trailer needs just as much roof maintenance as a cheap trailer and it appears a lot more window maintenance.  Should nobody feel confident buying used?  What maintenance should have been done?  Should Nan remove all windows and reinstall new seals and re-caulk everything?  Should Nan remove awnings, A/C units and any other penetrations and reseal?  Should people not feel confident buying new because people like me have had leaks almost immediately?  Point is, maintenance or not, they leak and people should know.     

Oliver makes it clear that regular maintenance includes cleaning out the window tracks and recaulking.  

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Overland

[Overland]

May I suggest that you start a new thread about this rather than hijacking Nan's?  She's asking for help, and using her thread to voice your personal complaints isn't helping.

[BackofBeyond]

Nan, You have a leak, and this thread has sprung a leak, but back to you and your issue.  If a trip to Oliver is out of the question, find someone with a little leak detection experience, and sense, and begin a systematic search for the entry points. There are not that many possibilities, and a window leak didn't get the TV monitor. (More likely the rear Oliver sign, or perhaps the AC opening)

Sealing the unit is - to my surprise- a yearly maintenance item, and thus accordingly, you need to do a good once over, once you actually find the leak entry points. 

As for the window's, at their best - they can be made to leak - but short of a complete new design, you have to work with what you got. And for me its tolerable. As for the premium paid - well that's a discussion in another thread. 

If you were close to my home location, I offer my services. It would be enjoyable to help out. But it b after July.....and heck, Oliver is just down the road in that respect

2 hours ago, ahattar said:

As long as nobody responds to me that's fine.  

HAH, You need some more leak experience, misery love's company - I'm pulling your leg....I know you were unhappy with yours.  

The number of hours I've spent looking for leaks in OEM auto's/trucks - is more than I care to discuss. 

Have fun all.

[BackofBeyond]

I will end with this - sell don't sell, not my issue,  but if its a leak, it can be remedied, and the bulb issue you reference - has several options - if one applies some ingenuity.  I doubt you will ever be  happy - perhaps an Airstream would be better suited - for a short time I expect, but in the end RV's at their best, will have issues as time goes by, and if perfection is the goal, good luck. 

Read the competition forums, I'd wager this one is vastly more informative on this subject, and much less overall - my RV sucks. 

Hope it all works out for you. 

 

RB

[ahattar]

16 hours ago, BackofBeyond said:

I will end with this - sell don't sell, not my issue,  but if its a leak, it can be remedied, and the bulb issue you reference - has several options - if one applies some ingenuity.  I doubt you will ever be  happy - perhaps an Airstream would be better suited - for a short time I expect, but in the end RV's at their best, will have issues as time goes by, and if perfection is the goal, good luck. 

Read the competition forums, I'd wager this one is vastly more informative on this subject, and much less overall - my RV sucks. 

Hope it all works out for you. 

 

RB

Perfection is not the goal as I've stated numerous times but if I'm going to pay 3x's the price of a standard trailer, it should at least be pretty darn good.  I don't consider Airstream the competition just because its the most overpriced trailer out there and I would never consider owning one.  Point is, the bulb seal causes leaks, the penetrations in the Olivers hull are not sealed with any sort of "ingenuity" and Oliver continues to repeat the same installations knowing its causing leaks.  I guess I'm the only one here that believes if I purchase a "premium" product, I shouldn't need to tinker with it non-stop just to stay dry inside and under my awning outside for that matter.  I didn't buy an Oliver to sit at home in the shop and polish it all day.  Its a tool just like my last several RV's.  I was hoping it would be close to a Festool but turns out its a better than average Ridgid or something!  Don't worry, even my Festool products aren't perfect:)

[Overland]

The thing is, from your earlier posts it doesn't sound to me like the repair shop you went to for the original leak is all that professional or skilled.  And if they didn't fix it right, then I doubt it's only my opinion that they should redo it and that no one should have to pay for it, neither you nor Oliver.  If after that it still leaks, or if they're jerks and don't want to claim responsibility, then talk to Oliver about paying another shop to redo the repair.  Did they recommend this shop or was it your choice?  It shouldn't be a hard repair, it's a bracket with sealant around the edges - you take it off, clean off the old sealant, apply new and reattach.  There's nothing inherently wrong with the way Oliver seals their awning mounts.  I'm fairly certain that you're the first person ever to post about having that problem. 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Overland

[ahattar]

I went to the only repair shop that would agree to work on an oliver trailer.  They didn't do a bad job.  They took pics and updated me daily.  Most of the frustration with them came after the guy fell off the ladder and scratched the trailer, but it had to be sent to another store for the fix so even that wasn't their fault.  Having the dealer, the fiberglass repair and Oliver was just a case of too many cooks.  Anyway, regardless of whether or not somebody has posted about this issue, it is a very well known issue within the company.  The design is very poor in that in order to properly maintain the penetration that gets hammered by sun and pooling water, you have to remove the awning, the brackets, clean and re-seal.....just as you said.  Thats when people fall off ladders and open worm cans.  You can choose to remove the bulb seal to solve the pooling water, but now you have rain pouring down the side defeating the purpose of the awning all together.  Regardless, you're missing the point in the fact that this problem exists at all on a brand new rig.  Oliver chooses not to have a dealer network representing their product, as far as I'm concerned, the dealer they choose to work on the trailer may as well have an Oliver sign out front.  Oliver saves a boat load of money by going direct to consumer, this is a cost of doing business and they should take complete responsibility for any come-backs.  Instead, they try to wash their hands of any issues and make the dealership own it.  Not a great way to build your network in my opinion.  I have no doubt my dealer would go back in and work on the leak because they seem like good folks, but I can guarantee they would not work on the next problem.  Then we're back to having zero dealers in Montana.  If you have an established dealer willing to tough it out, maybe things are different for you.     

Edited May 29, 2020 by ahattar