Hull plaque

[ScubaRx]

3 hours ago, Landrover said:

Unless things have changed in the last 20 years. Any thing that had a assigned VIN number a hidden number is somewhere usually on the frame…

Our trailer was the first LEII sold after the company restarted the trailer line in 2013. There is a tiny sticker inside the door frame, only visible when the door is open that has our VIN on it. 

[Frank C]

10 hours ago, Landrover said:

Unless things have changed in the last 20 years. Any thing that had a assigned VIN number a hidden number is somewhere usually on the frame.  The only organization who had this information was NICB National insurance crime bureau. Law enforcement where the only ones that could access this information. This was also true for heavy equipment and tractors with trailers. For Oliver being a small Company not producing a lot of trailers hidden vins my not apply, or they may will never know.

I Remember this one 1962 Corvette you removed the drivers door sill plate drill a 2in hole through the fiberglass at a certain location and a partial vin number was stamped in the frame, this Corvette was stolen in 1965 and recovered in 1995. 

If Oliver is stamping the VIN hidden somewhere on the aluminum frame, they’ve kept it a secret from all of us.  

[Steph and Dud B]

9 hours ago, CRM said:

I want to add a metal tag with VIN and Weight limits near the hitch solely for any traffic stops I may encounter while traveling.

There's no harm in doing this but in 23 years of RVing as an adult and another dozen with my family as a child I've never seen an officer check the stickered trailer weights. As for the VIN, if they look for it they'll expect it to be on a sticker on the front left of the trailer. That's where all of them are.

[CRM]

12 minutes ago, Steph and Dud B said:

There's no harm in doing this but in 23 years of RVing as an adult and another dozen with my family as a child I've never seen an officer check the stickered trailer weights. As for the VIN, if they look for it they'll expect it to be on a sticker on the front left of the trailer. That's where all of them are.

Hasn't happened to me while pulling a travel trailer, but it has happened to me twice while pulling a boat.

[Dave Mazone]

11 hours ago, Landrover said:

If anyone is concerned about your trailer theft. You can purchase a cheep set of metal number and letter stamps from harbor freight. Find a location that only you know and stamp in your vin number somewhere on the frame.  The problem is that if your trailer was ever stolen the bad guys will reproduce a new vin sticker and you trailer would be brought and sold many times over the years. And no one would know. Most of the time the only way that something like this is recovered. If the bad guy gets arrested and rats out everyone else.

The best recovery device is a hidden GPS device. I had a utility trailer stolen last year and wished I had installed one. Fortunately, it was recovered several months later, with a lot of damage. Now repaired, it also sports a hidden GPS device. Of course, 1st defense are good locks, but they'll still get it if they want it. A new GPS is definitely going on my Ollie.

[Mike and Carol]

8 minutes ago, Dave Mazone said:

The best recovery device is a hidden GPS device. I had a utility trailer stolen last year and wished I had installed one. Fortunately, it was recovered several months later, with a lot of damage. Now repaired, it also sports a hidden GPS device. Of course, 1st defense are good locks, but they'll still get it if they want it. A new GPS is definitely going on my Ollie.

Would you recommend the GPS device you are using?  There’s been discussion on various brands, it’s always nice to know when one gets a user recommendation.  Mike

[Steph and Dud B]

Criminals are apparently having good luck tracking vehicles with Apple AirTags. Can't see why us good guys couldn't do the same. Of course, if the guy who steals your trailer has a stolen iPhone, too, he could look for it.

[Landrover]

3 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Criminals are apparently having good luck tracking vehicles with Apple AirTags. Can't see why us good guys couldn't do the same. Of course, if the guy who steals your trailer has a stolen iPhone, too, he could look for it.

Good point.  Hidden stamped vin numbers. And a small hidden  gps tracker. Would be the best way to try to recover your Trailer quicker. I should of mentioned this in the last post  if your interested in stamping your vin in the frame you only need to stamp the last 6 digits of the vin, this is the identifier of your trailer.

[Dave Mazone]

On 3/10/2022 at 6:27 AM, Mike and Carol said:

Would you recommend the GPS device you are using?  There’s been discussion on various brands, it’s always nice to know when one gets a user recommendation.  Mike

Hi Mike and Carol,

I purchased my device from Lone Star Tracking. The particular model hasn't been available for months (because I wanted to get the same one), but I'm sure their other models are good too. Originally I had a little difficulty setting it up (I'm not very IT savvy), but immediately reached a helpful person when I called and he walked me right thru it. The device has been working well, as I get my text messages almost immediately upon moving the trailer. I cannot remember what I paid for it, but I want to say somewhere in the $100 to $200 range. My model was a subscription service which added (I think) $130 a year. The benefit to this one is that it updates the location every couple of minutes (vs. per hour or longer) and it is world-wide tracking - I don't think it'd go that far, but I love my Ollie, so I'm prepared for anything!

[BBL]

On 3/9/2022 at 5:41 AM, John E Davies said:

Do any other manufacturers like Airstream do this? I was quite pleased when mine arrived a while ago.

Thanks for the history lesson. I would like to see a company FAQ page with the full story of the early days, with comments like the one above.

John Davies 

Spokane WA

John,

New to the forum and waiting on our LE II - we just sold our 30' Airstream Flying Cloud. In addition to the BRN (Big Red Numbers) you get when you join the club (by the way, if you don't renew in the club each year, they put your numbers back in the pool!) they give each owner one chance to "name" your trailer. You submit a form and a few weeks later you get an Airstream medallion with your trailers name on it you can affix to the trailer at a place of your choosing.

I have really enjoyed many of your posts and hope to see many more. I spent some time at Fairchild AFB for survival training and returned several times for "extensive" survival training opportunities. We also have family in the area, my wife is from ID. 

Hope that answers your question about at least one other manufacturer.

Cheers,

Brian

[Katjo]

On 3/9/2022 at 3:07 AM, ScubaRx said:

The plaques were started sometime in 2019 because there was a problem that arose using the last 4 digits of the VIN as your hull number. Oliver had been assigning hull numbers in that manner since the first trailers were built in 2007. Each year's production just started with the VIN that was one number higher than the last years final VIN. Then in 2019 the state of TN told them they could no longer do it that way and each year's VIN's had to start back over at 0001. Rodney Lomax asked me just how important the "Hull Number" was to the owners.  I replied  that in 2008 Larry Harmon (Hull #003) and I had discovered the way the trailers were numbered and we started keeping up with who had which number way back then. We owned a 2008 Elite (Hull # 026). I told Rodney that most current owners would feel they were important enough to keep the system going. Thus the numbered plaques. At the annual Oliver Owner's rally in 2019 at Guntersville, AL, the appropriate plaques were given out to each of the owners of older trailers that were in attendance to be mounted in their trailer.  Since then, the plaques are installed at the factory upon completion of each unit.

That’s so interesting! Thank you for the history on the numbers. 

[CRM]

On 3/9/2022 at 9:54 AM, topgun2 said:

Oliver will send it to you "free".  Just let them know.

Bill

Well, that's not the case anymore... Inquired about a month or so ago and they said they wouldn't send one out for free anymore. 

They are more than happy to sell me one for $237.00 dollars though! 😲

[topgun2]

24 minutes ago, CRM said:

Well, that's not the case anymore... Inquired about a month or so ago and they said they wouldn't send one out for free anymore. 

They are more than happy to sell me one for $237.00 dollars though! 😲

Can you PM me the name of who you talked to about this?

Bill

[jd1923]

8 hours ago, CRM said:

They are more than happy to sell me one for $237.00 dollars though! 😲

What’s happening over there?

This is as bad as them telling @John Dorrer $1000 to replace the main battery breaker (that went bad) with an ANL fuse and holder ($73 parts retail and an hour of labor).

Ours has the #113 plaque which must have been added during a 2020 service. I would pass if I had to buy one.

And come on, #45 is a true classic!

Hopefully Bill can talk some sense in them…

Edited May 25 by jd1923

[topgun2]

11 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Hopefully Bill can talk some sense in them…

This is not a matter of talking sense into anyone, but only a matter of knowing a bit of the history of these older plaques.

Anyone that has an older Ollie without a hull # plaque should contact me.

Bill

[topgun2]

So far I've only heard from two owners (hull's 45 and 251) regarding these hull plaques for older Ollies.

Time is running a bit short, but, if anyone else with an older Ollie that does not presently have one of these (nicely done) hull plaques and would like one - please let me know ASAP.

Bill

[topgun2]

Just to bring everyone who might be interested in this subject up to date, here is what has been (and is) going on:

All Oliver Travel Trailers up to a certain date never had these "Hull #" plaques but when it was decided that all future Oliver would include them, the Company had plaques made for every one of the trailers that had ever been built.  These plaques for the "older trailers were then given to the then current owners either via Service appointments or at Rallies over the next few years so that these owners could install them in their Ollies.

Given that the "box" of older plaques has been in the possession of one Oliver employee (Matt Duncan) since they were made, it is unlikely (but not impossible) that any were "lost".  However, it is likely that even though a specific plaque was given to an owner, that owner never actually installed the plaque inside the Oliver.   It would appear that this is the situation for the two owners of older Ollies that we have checked for "missing" plaques.

Again, if there are any current owners of older Oliver Trailers that do not have a plaque - please contact me to see if you plaque is still in that box.

For anyone (to include the two that we have not found) that would still like one of these plaques, we are investigating what the possibility is of simply adding those numbers to the next "normal" order Oliver Manufacturing does.  I understand that these are ordered in lots of 1,000!  Therefore, depending on when the last order was placed it just might be some time before the next order is placed - we will (hopefully) find out soon one way or the other.  And, depending on the answer to that question we should find out what the cost would be per plaque.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[topgun2]

P.S.  

I do not "DO" Facebook.

Just to make sure that ALL older Oliver owners know about the plaques and what could be done to obtain one - could anyone that is on Facebook let these people know to contact me so that I have their hull # to add to the list.

Thanks!

Bill

[John Dorrer]

1 hour ago, topgun2 said:

P.S.  

I do not "DO" Facebook.

Just to make sure that ALL older Oliver owners know about the plaques and what could be done to obtain one - could anyone that is on Facebook let these people know to contact me so that I have their hull # to add to the list.

Thanks!

Bill

Done an hour ago😊

[John Dorrer]

Bill, A couple just purchased a 2015 trailer and they bumped into another owner out West. I posted your last post.

 

I have now posted a copy of your post for all to see on our Facebook page

 

 

John

Edited June 7 by John Dorrer
Typo

[John Dorrer]

Here is Val's Facebook post from yesterday.

[Teaney Hull 292]

21 hours ago, topgun2 said:

Just to bring everyone who might be interested in this subject up to date, here is what has been (and is) going on:

All Oliver Travel Trailers up to a certain date never had these "Hull #" plaques but when it was decided that all future Oliver would include them, the Company had plaques made for every one of the trailers that had ever been built.  These plaques for the "older trailers were then given to the then current owners either via Service appointments or at Rallies over the next few years so that these owners could install them in their Ollies.

Given that the "box" of older plaques has been in the possession of one Oliver employee (Matt Duncan) since they were made, it is unlikely (but not impossible) that any were "lost".  However, it is likely that even though a specific plaque was given to an owner, that owner never actually installed the plaque inside the Oliver.   It would appear that this is the situation for the two owners of older Ollies that we have checked for "missing" plaques.

Again, if there are any current owners of older Oliver Trailers that do not have a plaque - please contact me to see if you plaque is still in that box.

For anyone (to include the two that we have not found) that would still like one of these plaques, we are investigating what the possibility is of simply adding those numbers to the next "normal" order Oliver Manufacturing does.  I understand that these are ordered in lots of 1,000!  Therefore, depending on when the last order was placed it just might be some time before the next order is placed - we will (hopefully) find out soon one way or the other.  And, depending on the answer to that question we should find out what the cost would be per plaque.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Bill, Gary Teaney here with Hull 292. Would love to get on the Plaque list. We bought the 2017 trailer from Duke and Chris Chadwell. They bought it new in 2018. 

Thanks for taking this on. 

Gary

[topgun2]

2 hours ago, Teaney Hull 292 said:

Gary Teaney here with Hull 292. Would love to get on the Plaque list.

Consider it done.  

I'll keep you advised as to how its going.

Bill

[SeaDawg]

Take heart, folks. 

My hull #12 didn't get its plate till a few years ago. 

About 14 years after pickup , in fact. Just in time to take the plaque to Antarctica.  Couldn't take the trailer, obviously. 

Edited June 11 by SeaDawg

[topgun2]

Just a quick update on this project:

Only four owners have requested assistance in getting one of these numbered plaques.  We know that two of these were not in the original box that Oliver received from the supplier.  One of these was removed by the previous owner to keep as a memento of the years that they had the Oliver.  And, the last one is still being investigated.

We are also in the process of investigating at least two different avenues of having these plaques produced at prices that are somewhat below what has already been quoted.

Further details as we progress.

Bill