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.