Ollie # 985 departed and meandering…..

[Skigator]

Hello’s All 🤗 

985 Skigator Egg is on the traveling path !  Picked up 11 Jan 22 . Two nights at the factory, being newbies , needed some re-education on a couple of the systems before venturing out .  The minor issue of a warped closet door was solved with a new replacement door .  Service dept. was / is great 👍 

Second week had some challenging moments.  Bad tire valve stem cores led to 3 visits to tire repair facilities near a friends stop .  About an hour on the road from tire fixes , pulled into a rest stop near Tifton Ga & water pump on truck blew up .  
Guardian angels or positive Karma was watching over us .  Able to get a tow (truck & trailer) to 4th (called) repair that could get us in .  A young , energetic lad ( Forrest) let me assist him in replacing the new pump !  8 hours later , back on the road !! 
Combat time in the Air Force has given me the mantra “  Ten fingers , ten toes …. not a bad day !!  “

Continuing to the Keys later this week, before eventually back up to home in Cambridge NY 

safe travels….

Cheers 🤟🎣🐟

Ed & Nancy 

 

[johnwen]

2 minutes ago, Skigator said:

Bad tire valve stem cores

Hi Ed and Nancy,

We had 1 bad stem as well and got a pack of 4 at local auto store.  Sorry to hear about your truck.  Did you make it back before the storm hit?  Believe it or not, it is 18 degrees here in sunny, SC by the lake ....grrrr!  Was great meeting up with you at the mother ship 🙂  Btw I finally realized we had our back up camera set up to view a reverse picture, so images were displayed backwards.. probably the reason for having difficulty backing into our spot at the mother ship.  At least that's the story I'm going with 🙂 

John

[johnwen]

Oops, forgot you were headed to the keys.  Have fun!

John

[Mike and Carol]

Ed and Nancy, congratulations!  Hope you are past your initial challenges and enjoy some warm weather in Florida. Mike

[topgun2]

Right camper, right attitude - I like it!

Good that you headed south out of the Mothership.  Yes, Fl is probably a bit cooler than normal but it is still better than things to the north of you.  Even though the weather is supposed to take a turn back towards something a bit more normal in the northeast, I'd take my sweet time in getting back.  That much snow just doesn't disappear even with the forecast of rain later this coming week.

Have you gotten back to the point where you remember that the delivery people told you about this switch, lever, procedure, but, you can't remember exactly what it was?  Or, have you received the wet feet in the shower yet because you forgot to open the grey tank valve?

Anyway, CONGRATS!  Its great to have you with us on the road.

Bill

[Steph and Dud B]

Looking good! I like the red graphics! Going to add a few valve cores and the tool to my toolkit now. Thanks for the heads up on that. Safe travels and enjoy.

[John and Debbie]

1 hour ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Looking good! I like the red graphics! Going to add a few valve cores and the tool to my toolkit now. Thanks for the heads up on that. Safe travels and enjoy.

We're due to pick up on November 7.  I am taking notes too.   I think you're picking up in the summer if I recall.   I am going to get a tire pressure monitoring system for the trailer.   Someone advised that.   Do you have a portable air compressor?   Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that I must learn. 

[Steph and Dud B]

Yes, we have a TST TPMS on our current trailer. Definitely an important item. Warned us when a wheel started running hot because of a broken brake mechanism. We're going to replace the Ollie valve stems with metal ones when we get home and transfer the TPMS sensors over. We also have a compressor. 

[topgun2]

18 minutes ago, John Welte said:

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that I must learn. 

Sit down, relax.  Remember - this is fun!  You've already done the hardest part in committing to the camper and now you have time to continue to learn.  From my experience the people that tend to get into difficulties either don't do the homework to start with and/or get too rushed to think problems through.  Of course there is also those of us that think we know it all - only to find out that we forgot to open that grey tank valve 😁 for the 6th time.

Yes, in my opinion, you need a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System).  There are a number of those on the market that certainly do the job and there are a number of threads here on the Forum about them.  Pick out two or three that seem of interest to you (all should have pressure and temperature readings) and then go to YouTube for videos on each one.  Pick the one you like best and they are easy to install.

Portable air compressors are a really nice item to have.  This is particularly so if you plan on traveling roads in which you "air-down" for better traction and then want to "air-up" when getting back to normal paved roads.  However, they are also very useful for your daily driver and for blowing dust/dirt out of places it certainly doesn't belong - like fridge igniters, water heater igniters, furnace igniters and sail switches, etc.  If you plan on using one a bunch then something like the Viair is really good.  But, a compressor that expensive is really not necessary for most applications.

Bill

[topgun2]

30 minutes ago, Steph and Dud B said:

We're going to replace the Ollie valve stems with metal ones when we get home and transfer the TPMS sensors over.

As with most things - there are pros and cons of metal valve stems.

When using TPMS sensors that are applied to the stems it would seem that metal stems take the vibration caused by these sensors better than the regular rubber stems do.  However, both the metal and the rubber stems "mate" to the wheel with rubber which can cause "issues" on the installation or over time.  And, if a metal stem is hit by a rock, tree limb, mud rut, or other item it might break where a rubber stem just might bounce back.

I believe that if your intent is to do a bunch of real off roading, rubber stems actually might be better - and they are generally easier to replace.  However, since I do not (generally) take my Oliver into real "bad" places I have metal stems.  But, I also carry two replacement stems - just in case.

Bill

[Steph and Dud B]

I don't like the stress the TST sensors put on rubber stems. Have had metal stems on the past 2 trailers with no issues, but we don't do much off-road.

[Mike and Carol]

I’ve had metal stems with my TST sensors for 6 years.  No issues.  Mike

[SeaDawg]

+1 on what Mike said. Over 10 years now.

[mossemi]

My TST'S are mounted on rubber and I love ‘em.  Keep looking, there’s something or somebody for everyone.

[Landrover]

Glad to see all is well. Enjoy the Florida weather if it warms up.  52dgs today in Ocala that’s sub zero weather for us locals. Enjoy the keys. 
safe travels

[John and Debbie]

6 hours ago, topgun2 said:

Sit down, relax.  Remember - this is fun!  You've already done the hardest part in committing to the camper and now you have time to continue to learn.  From my experience the people that tend to get into difficulties either don't do the homework to start with and/or get too rushed to think problems through.  Of course there is also those of us that think we know it all - only to find out that we forgot to open that grey tank valve 😁 for the 6th time.

Yes, in my opinion, you need a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System).  There are a number of those on the market that certainly do the job and there are a number of threads here on the Forum about them.  Pick out two or three that seem of interest to you (all should have pressure and temperature readings) and then go to YouTube for videos on each one.  Pick the one you like best and they are easy to install.

Portable air compressors are a really nice item to have.  This is particularly so if you plan on traveling roads in which you "air-down" for better traction and then want to "air-up" when getting back to normal paved roads.  However, they are also very useful for your daily driver and for blowing dust/dirt out of places it certainly doesn't belong - like fridge igniters, water heater igniters, furnace igniters and sail switches, etc.  If you plan on using one a bunch then something like the Viair is really good.  But, a compressor that expensive is really not necessary for most applications.

Bill

"If you plan on using one a bunch then something like the Viair is really good.  But, a compressor that expensive is really not necessary for most applications."

I saw lots of models of Viair compressors.   It does seem like a good idea to have one.   What model do you use?   Can that also be used for any winterizing?   When I take my tent trailer in for winterizing they blow out the lines to get rid of trapped water.   Thanks

[topgun2]

John - 

Years prior to owning an Oliver I started carrying small compact air compressors in all my vehicles.  For the most part, these have been cheap, relatively small compressors that are really only good enough to top off the air pressure in my tires.  None of them have ever been of a size or quality such that they could be used for winterizing the Oliver.  Besides, I have two shop air compressors at the house that I could use if I wanted to winterize in that manner - which I don't as I use the anti-freeze method which I believe to be just about as easy and more reliable.

On a related note - using an air compressor for purposes of blowing dirt/dust out of areas near and around propane igniters can present problems if you blow that air into things like the propane burner jets.  It is safer and easier to simply carry a small can of compressed air (you can get them at the Dollar Store for $1.25 😁).

If you are still interested in a Viair, you might want to contact the people at technorv.com and/or take a look at as many YouTube videos about Viair as you can.

Bill

[Coach and JoJo]

Congrats Ed and Nancy!! Hope to see ya on the ROAD!

[Liana]

On 1/30/2022 at 6:12 AM, Skigator said:

Combat time in the Air Force has given me the mantra “  Ten fingers , ten toes …. not a bad day !!  “

As an OTR driver, I learned the mantra, "Didn't hit anything, nobody died.  Good day!"

Enjoy your travels

[Frank-n-Val]

Ed and Nancy, thanks for sharing! Happy camping and warm weather. 
 

Frank

[BBL]

On 1/30/2022 at 7:12 AM, Skigator said:

Combat time in the Air Force has given me the mantra “  Ten fingers , ten toes …. not a bad day !!

I am retired USAF and know the expression well, "click-click" (radio thing for Airmen) - we are taking delivery of our LE II in March of '23 (seems like forever) but will be back camping before we know it.  I am actually planning to leave the full-time workforce at the end of April and then head to the Rally in May.

Hope to see you there!

Brian

[topgun2]

41 minutes ago, Brian and Brandelyne said:

Hope to see you there!

Absolutely!  Please look me up and/or stop me.  I don't remember my site number off hand but I'm down by the lake and my "Oliver" sign on the rear says "Twist"

Bill