Oliver caulking

[John and Jodi]

As an Oliver owner for two months now, I have to confess disappointment in my perceived quality of Oliver's caulking. One element is effectiveness as my recent post describes troubleshooting a possible leak.

Another element is completeness, such as the photo below. If you're going to caulk a seam, why leave the area behind the pipe uncaulked?

And my last gripe is the finish. Caulk, done well, can cover over and hide construction issues and convey a smooth, clean finish. My back window's caulk is yellow. I have black outlines around my windows from the caulk catching dirt, and I have caulk smears in other places.

Is this on purpose? Poor workmanship? A common occurrence? For the prices we pay, I expect a better finish. What are your thoughts?

[Ron and Phyllis]

This really bothers me, since my delivery is this coming Thursday 11 August.  I sure hope you say something to the factory! 

[Mike and Carol]

You should contact Jason in service.  What I see is unacceptable.  They should fix these issues or reimburse you taking it to a local RV repair to have it done.  Mike

[SeaDawg]

I'd take yellow caulk over no caulk.

But, I'd  open a service ticket. Caulk shouldn't yellow in two months. 

[SeaDawg]

@John and Jodi, you had another weird issue with an unknown stain, after some treatment.  I've only seen one other yellow caulk post, just after another hull treatment. 

Not saying they're related, but very curious.  

Please , keep us posted on your findings. 

[mossemi]

I feel your pain!  That looks like some of my caulking jobs.  I do have a couple of new questions.  Has the wet spot under the weep hole dried up or is it still a chemical spill?  Did the yellowing caulk precede the ceramic coating process?  Do you still believe the moisture in the closet was a result of the ceramic coating?

Mossey

[Patriot]

8 hours ago, mossemi said:

I feel your pain!  That looks like some of my caulking jobs.  I do have a couple of new questions.  Has the wet spot under the weep hole dried up or is it still a chemical spill?  Did the yellowing caulk precede the ceramic coating process?  Do you still believe the moisture in the closet was a result of the ceramic coating?

Mossey

Mossey, great questions.  
I too wonder if the ceramic coating chemical may have discolored or caused a discoloration inadvertently applied to the caulk. I don’t recall seeing caulking turn this color on a new Oliver. Anyone else who has had their Ollie recently ceramic coated might be able to a answer this. Yes, the caulk job is sloppy. A work ticket for sure with service, Oliver will surely take care of these issues. 👍🏻
 

Patriot 

[Roger P]

I’m not surprised! We took delivery in may 2022. Here the issues that we discovered back home in Canada;

- one wheel nut completely unscrew;

- duck heated not connected to the heating system;

- black tank valve leaked. I had to replaced it ( cracked )

- water fitting connected to the Trauma water heater cracked and leaking. Had to replaced it;

-had to replaced one wet bolt from the suspension ( defective no hole in it to let the grease go through );

- i re-caulked the Maxx-Air and air vent on top of the rig;

- no caulking between the rear jack and the haul.

after owning a few rigs, we tough that Oliver had a better quality control on production lines but its not. Very disappointed from what we noticed!

Sorry if i had typo. i’m french Canadians so my writen english needs improvement……!!
 

 

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[johnwen]

I saw a caulker in action on our first factory visit, late in 2021.  He was toward the end of the assembly line trying to caulk underneath the bell band.  He was holding the caulk gun horizontal to the ground trying to caulk upwards to fill the belly band seam.  Of course almost all was going down the side of the hull and nothing going upwards into the void.  I'm sure he was new to the job and never caulked anything before and had a supervisor/trainer following behind wiping the caulk up into the void.  He was very young, not that that means anything.  I asked him if I could get a picture of the caulk in case I wanted to purchase any later.  He held the gun up and I took a picture of the caulk tube and said "thank you".  He never said a word and was very frustrated upon returning to work.  I really don't think he was a happy camper, probably just a bad day.  But I can remember thinking I hope he had a day off when my Oliver reached its caulking time.  So on delivery day I inspected all the caulk I could find and didn't see many problems.  The only problem was the roof was very dusty with fiberglass dust so I couldn't really see the shell surface, but I did notice a lot of sealant smearing, like someone didn't wipe up the excess caulk as they were going along.  We had to leave because of an approaching storm.  A couple of days later I washed the trailer and I was amazed everything on the roof that required caulk was a mess.  There were no leaks anywhere but I couldn't believe someone would leave such a mess, coming from a company like Oliver.  I suspect the untrained caulker was moved up to the roof where it's hard to see his work.  That was my second factory visit.  The first visit, prior to Covid, was quite different in that the work force was a bit older and worked with great detail.  That was encouraging to see.  The second tour, after Covid and factory shutdown for a while, was quite different in that the workforce was younger and I saw 4 different working stations manned by people on cell phones.  There were very few people working that paid attention to details as did the previous workforce.  My guess is Oliver lost some key people because of the Covid shutdown and had a difficult time getting that experience back.  I'm surprised something as simple as caulking is a continuing problem.  If Mike and Jason don't get any feedback from us, they won't have anything to take to production to back them up when they go to make suggestions.  I hear of more and more quality control issues.  Honestly, these issues would have taken a toll on my initial purchase decisions.  Especially at the new prices for the 2023's.  All in all, we love our Oliver and still think it's the best trailer out there.  And the service team is top notch.  I wish service was the quality control for the company.  I hope this doesn't step on anyone's toes but I see comments on the forum making suggestions to start a service ticket so these issues can be resolved.  They are right, IMO.  If it's not documented, no-one  will know there's a problem.  The service team is getting busier and busier fixing problems from production and I sure hope we don't lose any service personnel.  Sorry for the rant, just wanted to share my experiences.

John

[Mike and Carol]

We need to use the trouble ticket system to let them know about these issues.  COVID personnel challenges aside, if a young caulker can’t do the job properly they need to slow production a bit to let someone who can take over.  It reflects poorly on quality.

[John E Davies]

It does take a lot of skill to “freehand” sealers. I can’t do it. Period. My method involves taping both sides of the joint, injecting sealant, wiping it smooth and deep with a finger, then removing the tape. This works beautifully but is so time intensive that they can’t do it during production. The clay window caulk on Hull 218 looked OK, but it oozes out over time and collects dirt (turns black). I scraped off all the ooze using a plastic scraper and cleaned the dirt away, but the dirt returns. The only solution for a clay type window/ door/ hatch sealant is don’t use it at all.😬

At some point I will reseal the outside of all my windows. These are RVs, assembled by people. I don’t expect perfection, but Quality Control appears to be slipping badly. It was like this in 2017, there were a bunch of mistakes and sloppy work on “Mouse” and the hulls produced then, but I thought they had figured out how to do these basic assembly tasks. I think owners need to do more that submit tickets. Call, leave a message and ask for someone from Management to call you back. In 2018 I spent nearly an hour on the phone with one, talking about QC. They need to get rid of the cell phones, a worker cannot focus if he is listening to music or chatting with her husband. That cr@p is for break time.

John Davies

Spokane

[johnwen]

19 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

They need to get rid of the cell phones, a worker cannot focus if he is listening to music or chatting with her husband. That cr@p is for break time.

Agreed!

[Chukarhunter]

I experienced the same yellowing of my window caulking after my first extended trip shortly after picking up my Oliver.  It looked the same as it does in your picture.  Turns out that it was just discolored from driving a number of miles on a gravel road with clouds of very fine dust.  When the trailer comes out of the factory there is a very slight residual stickiness to the surface of the caulk that attracts fine dust like a magnet and holds on to it.  A light wash and hard rinse didn't remove the dust/discoloration and it was still yellow looking.  However, a fair amount of extra pressure with a soapy wash mitt on the caulk when washing the trailer a second time (and some use of a soft toothbrush for tight spots) made the caulk white again and eliminated the slight stickiness.  It worked for me and I haven't experienced discolored caulk again. 

[Katjo]

I would definitely open a service ticket and let Oliver know what has happened. Please keep us posted on how it’s resolved. 

[Mountainman198]

I had a similar issue this past Winter where the caulking on my trailer turned yellow/brown/gray.  It was after driving a dusty dirt road.  It wouldn't come off with usual soap and sponge.  It did however come off and return to shiny and white after cleaning it with roll-off and a microfiber cloth.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Roll-Off-Multi-Purpose-Cleaner-oz/dp/B000FSDZTU/ref=sr_1_6?crid=AYDWSZBKMC8I&keywords=roll+off+boat+cleaner&qid=1659979915&sprefix=roll+off%2Caps%2C324&sr=8-6

 

I also found a lot of smears and residual caulk left over from manufacturing when all turned gray, but was successful in removing with a plastic razor.  I did not see the smudges at pickup and likely neither did they since everything was shiny white.  All is well and looks new again now.

[Rivernerd]

17 hours ago, Ron and Phyllis said:

This really bothers me, since my delivery is this coming Thursday 11 August.  I sure hope you say something to the factory! 

I share your concern.  We are scheduled to take delivery of an Elite II in November.

After you pick up your trailer, please post the results of your initial inspection here.  That may indicate whether the Oliver production folks have improved their quality control since John and Jodi's Elite II was made.

 

[Sak]

I had the "yellow caulking" too and can confirm that, for my case, it's a fine dust sticking to the caulk. Normal wash doesn't wash it off. Had to use soft brush to lightly scrub it off.

[Ron and Phyllis]

5 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

I share your concern.  We are scheduled to take delivery of an Elite II in November.

After you pick up your trailer, please post the results of your initial inspection here.  That may indicate whether the Oliver production folks have improved their quality control since John and Jodi's Elite II was made.

 

I sure will. We will be in Hohenwald on Thursday night.  Since it's the end of the week we will spend the weekend at Chickasaw State Park near Henderson TN because it's our old home place and relatives live there, ninety miles west of Hohenwald.  It will give us time to do an assessment and get familiar with everything.  We leave Monday on our way back to East TN via a stop for two days at Cumberland Mountain SP, thanks to rideandfly.  If I find issues of concern, this weekend,  I plan to go through Hohenwald Monday to have them addressed before proceeding.  I'll post when I return the end of next week. 

[John and Jodi]

I wanted to update this post. Within a couple of days of initiating this post I made contact with the factory. The service team was very helpful in setting me up with a local repair shop. To make a long story short, everything was fixed by Labor Day at no cost to me. No leaks, looks good!