Newbies taking the plunge - Are we missing anything

[Dennis and Melissa]

On 2/12/2024 at 1:03 PM, topgun2 said:

WE need - demand - pictures.

If you can't prove it - did it ever actually happen?🤔

Does this count???

[MAX Burner]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:51 AM, Mike and Carol said:

We always use a pressure regulator.  I carry the simple brass non-adjustable as a back up, but use an adjustable regulator.  Why a backup?  

The easy answer:   Because 1 is none, and 2 is ONE!

[dewdev]

I agree with Rivernerd. I bought a 30A female to 15 amp male adaptor. Have not used it in 3 years but good to have it and not need it.

I also bought a 30 foot RV 30 amp cord so I can extend the Oliver provided cord for long distance to the power pedestal. You will need a adaptor in that case to plug both cords together. I use the extra cord at home because the distance from my OTT to the 30 amp plug at the house is a little longer than the Oliver provide cord will reach. Have not needed it yet at a campground but I take it camping just in case I need it. 

[MobileJoy]

I have a 30A male to 15A female connector along with a home outlet circuit tester. These testers are much cheaper than the 30A tester, and I already had one. This allows me to check proper wiring at the 30A outlet in the pedestal before plugging in the trailer. In theory the inboard EMS does these tests, but why plug in if you already know the pole is incorrectly wired?

I do not use an external EMS/protector.

[Dennis and Melissa]

Newbies now owners 

 

 

[topgun2]

Nice day, nice truck and gorgeous Oliver!

Congrats and a big welcome to a real part of the family!

Bill

[MAX Burner]

Great looking rig, @Dennis and Melissa:  You're looking like us!

...but where's your puppy?  HA!

[Geronimo John]

Blocks or boards are an important and necessary to reduce wear, damage or destruction of your jacks. 

The wear part has two components.  First, is you don't use them as much every time you change camp sites.  Less use = less wear.  Secondly having the jacks on some sort of blocking reduces the lever arm of the jack to resist lateral movement and the trailer as a result will feel more steady. But MOST importantly is what happens during an OOPs (Driving off with a jack down).  

On multiple occasions I have seen owners of all experience levels execute the death of a jack by OOPs.  If on concrete, it will kill the jack.  On softer ground, the jack plate likely will dig in and kill the jack.  Either way the odds are you will have a deceased jack.  This can be a real PITA.

But, with something between the jack and the ground, preferable at least 5" or more high, another engineering concept comes to the rescue.  And that concept is called slip.  In engineering, slip is a sliding displacement along a plane of one part of a system relative to the rest of the system under the action of shearing forces—that is, forces acting parallel to that plane.

To greatly reduce OOPs damage to our jacks we need to add something between them and the ground to take advantage of the slip plane concept.  I call thick ones blocks.  Thin ones made of sections of lumber I call boards.

Blocks can be purchased in lots of different sizes and materials.  If I were going to go with a single block for each jack, I personally like TopGuns!  Cheap, strong, and not hard to replace.  Not as pretty as the Anderson's, but they are way less expensive.  Blocks are also most optimal if all of your camp sites are RV Park level.

But, alas we are generally boondockers and our camp sites come in all forms of not level.  This is one reason why we carry a milk crate full of 2" X 6" X 11" sections of treated boards for our OE2.  Here are some of the operational advantages of boards:

• Comparatively they are real inexpensive.  Lose one and you carry on. 
• Should long term storage bring termite damage to the bottom board of the stack, I toss a single board.  The others are still useable.
• I can toss them around with zero worries. 
• I can use more of less of my board sections as needed to offset unlevel camp sites.
• For real soft ground, I can stack two flat on the ground (side to side) and another on top 90 degrees perpendicular to them to create a double size footprint.
• They make great axle spacers should you have two flats or break a spring!  

For reasonably level camp sites, I stack three of them on top of each other to maximize height and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) to create more slip planes of safety for our jacks from an OOPs.  Yes, I am also a member of the OTT Jack Drop Club.  Good news is when OOPsing, you hear it thud and stop,  With three jack drops in six years I have had no jack damage. 

So whether you use blocks or board sections either way:  Slip Planes Saves Jacks!

GJ

 

Edited March 18 by Geronimo John
typo

[topgun2]

3 minutes ago, Geronimo John said:

So whether you use blocks or lumber sections either way:  Slip Planes Saves Jacks!

Or - do as I do - I use both if possible.😉

Bill

[Geronimo John]

23 hours ago, topgun2 said:

Or - do as I do - I use both if possible.😉

So long as you use at least one (Preferably more) boards on top of wood blocks sort of works. Sort of due to the rough surface of the jack skid plate on the softer board.  For other blocks with anti-ski surfaces it is not a reliable slip plane.  

Here's how I believe the slip interfaces react:  (Top To Bottom)

• The rough jack steel base on top of a board on your block is not reliablek as stated above. 
• Your one really good slip plane is the board bottom surface to the block top surface if it is smooth.  If not, it is a gamble.   
• The block to dirt slip plane is also not reliable.  In softer grounds it gets pushed into the dirt a bit.  On paving, the hard bumps of the paving resist the block from moving.  So, as above, this one also is not a reliable slip plane..  

So with a block on a single board setup, you have one slip plane of variable reliability.

However with three or more boards you have at least 2 reliable slip planes:

• The jack steel base to the top of board.  As above this one does not count.
• Next you have at least two really good slip planes between the three smooth boards.    
• As above, the board to dirt slip plane is not reliable and does not count.

Having at least two good slip planes is very effective.  However, if I had already purchased the blocks, I would at least carry three boards to get one effective slip plane.   More if I wanted two slip planes per jack...belts and suspenders. 

GJ

 

Edited March 18 by Geronimo John
Typo & clarity

[Boudicca908]

Belts and suspenders. I like that.

[Dennis and Melissa]

5 nights in the camper so far.  
1 @ mothership 

2 @ Falls river  - major storm   No leaks!  But the campground threatened to flood. So back to the mothership. 
 

3 @ mothership 

4-5…babbler State Park outside of St. Louis. Just electric. Subfreezing nighttime temps.  All systems working as designed comfy, cozy. 😀

 

only two issues  to speak of. 
1 we seriously overpacked clothes.  Whatever 😂

2 hooking up the Anderson to a ram 1500 with airbags suspension that keeps changing levels. Rereading the owners manual on how to do this. not fun. might lead to a different truck.

 

This is day five of what we hope to be 60-ish for our first trip. Thanks to everyone who help us prepare so thoroughly. Your advice was very valuable. Hope to see you all at the rally.

Edited March 18 by Dennis and Melissa

[Dennis and Melissa]

And now I have a question. I dispute between my wife and me. Do we get to color in states just because we towed the trailer through them or do we have to actually spend the night there?  😜

[Boudicca908]

3 minutes ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

Do we get to color in states just because we towed the trailer through them or do we have to actually spend the night there?

My rule is only if my Oliver spent the night!

[topgun2]

40 minutes ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

2 hooking up the Anderson to a ram 1500 with airbags suspension that keeps changing levels. Rereading the honors manual on how to do this not fun might lead to a different truck.

 

Make sure that you contact Andersen before taking drastic measures.  I'd bet that they have heard of the issue you are experiencing and have a solution for you.

Bill

[Dennis and Melissa]

20 minutes ago, Boudicca908 said:

My rule is only if my Oliver spent the night!

SO BE IT!!

I am declaring victory. 

Kentucky and Illinois will have to wait. 

[Mike and Carol]

We only color in states after we’ve spent the night in our Oliver there.  Have fun!  Mike

[Dennis and Melissa]

37 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Make sure that you contact Andersen before taking drastic measures.  I'd bet that they have heard of the issue you are experiencing and have a solution for you.

Bill

The boys at the mothership struggled when hooking up the Anderson to my Ram. It kept bouncing up and down on them. Next day, When I tried to do it myself I failed. We were still at their campground, so three or four of them came out and 30 minutes later we had it hooked up again. I was so afraid the next morning when it was my turn to do it by myself, but it worked perfectly first try. my confidence was through the roof.   The next day we were leaving Hohenwald for St. Louis. It was a Saturday morning so no one else was around from the staff. Took me an hour, including loosening the chains and retightening by hand.

I am very concerned where this leads.

On the plus side, the truck and trailer handled wonderfully for the 350 mile trip. 
 

I hope to figure out the procedure that makes this trivial. But if not, I may detach the chains and see how the truck handles without them. 
 

I like the idea about contacting Anderson. I’ll reach out  to them in the next couple of days. Thanks.

Edited March 18 by Dennis and Melissa

[Patriot]

We only color in the states we camped overnight in.😊

 

[Rivernerd]

15 minutes ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

I hope to figure out the procedure that makes this trivial.

You might consider replacing some of the extra chain links required to connect the Andersen WD hitch to your Oliver with turnbuckles.  If the truck changes height on you, you may be able to simply adjust the turnbuckles to compensate.  Although I tow with a Tundra that does not have an airbag suspension, I find it easier to attach the Andersen with the turnbuckles loose, then tighten the turnbuckles to make the chain assembly taut.

See this thread:

 

[hgreen]

On our Grand Cherokee with the auto leveling system, the manual wants it turned off until you are hooked up and then turned back on.  We don’t tow the Oliver EII with it but have towed other trailers with it.  Maybe look in your manual to see if it talks about hooking up the trailer with auto leveling.  Just a thought.   Congrats on your new trailer.  

[MAX Burner]

5 hours ago, Boudicca908 said:

My rule is only if my Oliver spent the night!

Same here!

[John Dorrer]

7 hours ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

And now I have a question. I dispute between my wife and me. Do we get to color in states just because we towed the trailer through them or do we have to actually spend the night there?  😜

Spending the night😊

[Rivernerd]

6 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

I find it easier to attach the Andersen with the turnbuckles loose, then tighten the turnbuckles to make the chain assembly taut.

I carry a pair of Robogrips in the bed of my Tundra for this purpose.

[Dennis and Melissa]

we are settling in to the point of decorating 🙂

We love these little suction cups. And it holds up this cute little sign outside the door.

 

Question: I know I have to remove the sign before traveling. Do I have to remove the suction cup?

I think not. But I thought it better to ask than end up an idiot.