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Yeah, the 30A Orion has the large heat sink (cooling fins), similar to my Victron 30A MPPT SC (on left in pic). The 50A Orion (on right) is half the size without the need for cooling fins. I’ll have to check temp on the SC next time I use suitcase solar. 🤠 Keep in mind these two devices would never be used at the same time, so when towing only the Orion 50A can create heat in the entire front basement area and some air is moving through when towing. I still cannot see heat build-up unless something is broken. It worked fine for a long time.,

Very likely as you have the 50 amp version. Those of us with the 30 amp.... another story. These units have a relatively low efficiency and as such could warm the entire trailer in some conditions. Mine shuts down after an hour or so if I don't open up the lid to let the heat out. GJ

🤣 Wow, I would never would think of doing so! Stop for lunch, gotta fix the cushions, done eating put them back, no, no not happenin'. We keep our Oliver ready to camp whether parked or towing like we're camping. Nothing left open, no straps holding things in place or anything requiring additional setup and tear-down. I won't have that, no half measures, just fix the issue. Personally, I don't believe it's a heat issue, but I will mount a Ruuvi temp sensor next time to eliminate this variable from consideration. I'll also check heat on the 4 AWG. We did not have a DC-DC charging issue for 90 days and 18 months. Not during June of 2025 while traveling 4700 miles to the Midwest in humid 90F weather. We had this issue only recently while traveling to SW CO this September with highs in the 70s. The basement at the inverter recorded a high of 84F. My bet, not heat related.

Hey Steve, first off this is nothing to do with your new grease gun! Love a power grease gun! 😎 Zerk grease fittings when screwed in are held in place by just 2 threads. They can easily strip after greasing a few times. I had one strip just before I replaced our axles/springs last year. Your current fittings sb 6mm (.236"). I know they are on Dexter wet bolts, so likely the same on the EZ Flex. Replace your Zerks, not with a metric size but with the SAE 1/4"x28 size. Two methods... 1) Also get a 1/4"x28 tap to get the new threads right. 2) Just push/thread in a new 1/4" Zerk into place to form new threads, then throw out that piece and lightly thread in a new 1/4"x28 Zerk. Choice #1 would be the correct method. Choice #2 has worked for me several times in a pinch

I see our hulls were assembled in the same year. Hmmmm.

This happened to me a couple of years ago. There was no way to retap the hole without removing the axle as it was a top zirk and I was not prepared to do so. Eventually, i got a new zirk to somewhat thread into the existing hole. It was a real struggle, do to the limited access, and i recall i did remove both wheels. I cant recall but i might have used a metric threaded zirk of a slightly different size. I doubt its threaded in properly but it has held in place now for a couple of years. I am very careful when i apply grease through that one and i do not use a power grease gun on the oliver. Not a pretty or satisfying fix but so far it has worked.

Cotter Pins and Washers would be a lot less expensive. GJ

Sound recommendation for sure that also applies to hot water heaters that have an anode. Plugging the hole also is done to allow winter condensation to drain and to keep critters out of the tank. GJ

Unplug from shore power and fire off your Inverger to feed a 1500 watt electrical resistance heater. Recommend pluging it in to the patio plug. That give the system some exercise and not work your A/C. 🙂 GJ

JD: Do you always remove the cushions and hatch to allow the heat out so as to keep the Orion fully in play? GJ

Greasing the zerk fittings today with a Milwaukee M18 grease gun with Lock n Lube 90° adaptor. As it finished, the zerk fitting came out of the EZ Flex casting. When we tried screwing it back in, it just slid into the hole, like the hole was oversized. I'm guessing the pressure of the battery grease gun pushed it out, but there were no chips from threads peeling out. This was my first experience with a battery grease gun. Has anyone seen this happen? What's the fix? That's going to be a PITA if I have to pull the EZ Flex out to tap oversize or replace. I'm half considering trying a press-in of the next larger metric size zerk as a Mickey Mouse repair. Thoughts?

Thanks for the update. I'm still waiting on an order that I placed back in July and was planning on given them another call. Your update saved me making a call.

Reading through the Lithionics document again, it seems like those of us with internal BMS are supposed to run the battery down to 0% SOC to trigger the calibration. However, those with the V9 external BMS can run down to 10% to achieve the same thing. Does everyone else read it that way? That does make me uncomfortable and I would definitely like to have the new firmware available for my internal BMS batteries.

It is what was recommended by Lithionics: What is SOC Drift and how to avoid it? : Lithionics https://share.google/oh46MD3Ckxst17rsU I was aware that Lithionics had updated firmware that added that function to their *external* BMS batteries but haven't heard about it for the internal BMS batteries yet. "Older versions of Lithionics Batteries do not currently have the automated Usable Ah calibration feature but will receive similar firmware update in the future to enable it." I have firmware version 2.1.11

I've recently ordered enough weather stripping to replace all my OEM white seals with the black material. I ordered from Pelland Enterprises as others have suggested and after about a five week wait, I called the company to enquire about my order and they informed me that they are in the process of making new dies for this style of weather seal. The CS rep told me they had discontinued this style about a year ago and had recently exhausted their inventory of stock. They are having to make the dies to resume production of this style as they are seeing a continued demand. My point in posting this is to let folks know who may be considering upgrading to the black weather seals that this may be a great time to place an order with Pelland. She told me the dies are still a couple weeks from completion and they would have to test for proper fit once they run a batch. If the company see's an uptick in orders, they will likely expedite the process and run a substantial inventory order for future sales. https://www.pellandent.com/Half-Inch-Glass-Vinyl-Seal

You remind me of someone.....

As a friendly reminder I’m bumping this topic up for those winterizing their Oliver for the cold season. This thread is a good reminder for folks winterizing their Truma Aquago water heater, that once you have switched the supply valve to bypass and drained the water heater, you must not reinstall the filter plug for the duration of the winter season in storage. It seems reasonable that once drained of water it would be safe to reinstall the plug, but you must follow the manufacturer instructions and store the plug somewhere other than the drain port, otherwise residual water that could be in the internal coils could cause damage. I know new owners can be a little intimidated by the process, and us “seasoned” owners can forget some of the simple steps because the process is so easy. Hope this helps all of us avoid a simple but potentially costly mistake. 👍

I hear that! Here in the West Coast redwood rain forest, we found a KNKA Energy Star 80 pint unit thats small enough to sit on the kitchen counter and drain into the sink. We don’t take it with us on road trips though, a couple of paper towels is enough to remove the moisture from the Oliver's factory window condenser units! 😂 Cheers!

As @jd1923 said, the Lithionics should reset itself if the batteries are kept fully charged while not in use. The new firmware also helps with this by making corrections at various charge states. It’s worth updating them. The Xantrex Code 1 is a voltage issue, it means the inverter isn’t getting enough voltage from the batteries while the microwave runs. This isn’t necessarily because of low SOC, it’s more likely a poor connection somewhere in the heavy battery cables. Think of it like a like old car with corroded battery posts, everything works fine until you try to turn the engine over and the connections can’t handle the heavier starting current. There are some easy checks you can try. Make sure the inverter’s low-battery cutoff is not set higher than 12.1 volts per Oliver’s recommendation for Lithionics batteries, and that the battery type is set to lithium. Some owners have found that software updates changed these settings. The Victron is a different design, but not necessarily better. In this case, when the Xantrex trips, it’s warning us there could be a problem. A Victron with default settings would keep running while a bad connection heats up, until the battery’s BMS protection shuts everything down, including the lights! Although Victron uses load compensated cutoff, owners should also check their low-battery settings. The factory defaults are very low, and they should be set per their battery maker’s recommendations. I've done some fair research into the Victron, and unless you also opt for an expensive Cerbo based system, I believe it's not a better upgrade over the Xantrex. Another easy test is to watch the voltages from the SeeLevel panel and Xantrex display, then start the microwave. Note each display’s voltage before starting and just before the inverter trips. If the SeaLevel (battery voltage) stays about 13 V, but the Xantrex drops to about 12 V, then there is a voltage drop (poor connection) in the wiring between the batteries and the inverter. If they both drop together, then the batteries may be weak or not sharing the load evenly. The 300 amp breakers internal resistance is a an easy first test. Put a DC voltmeter across the terminals with a full load (while running the micro). Anything over 0.1V across the two posts is too much internal resistance. You can also use an infrared thermometer to look for warm (poor) connections after the inverter trips, or run a smaller load, such as a heater on low. It might not be enough load to trip the inverter, but enough to warm a poor connection. Don’t forget to look at the grounds! Of course it might be something else altogether, and there are other voltage tests that can isolate the problem. This is a good start to help narrow it down. Let us know what you find. Cheers, Geoff

You're welcome. Lot's of experience here and an endless array of camping/traveling styles in our community! "Reservations I would have" is how long can you run the 48V Houghton A/C? How many 48V Amps it pulls will determine how many hours you can run the A/C unplugged. But there's only a few of us with the goal of running A/C unplugged and so far (others are close!) I'm the only one on the Forum who has run A/C a full 5 days 24x7 unplugged! The daytime highs were low 90s using only 40A on average (60A max) and we have cool nights when the Chill Cube barely sips amps (amps based on 12VDC). But overall, it takes quite a robust system to run A/C on batteries! We have 900 Ah Epoch batteries. The Apex has one 48V 100 Ah battery which translates to 400 Ah in 12VDC. I would need two of these batteries. Can you fit another in the rear basement area? 🤣 Who will be the first Apex owner to do that?

Is this safe, Dudley? I’ve never let ours run much below 20% SOC or in the teens. I always thought bringing SOC to 100% and adding Float charge for another 24 hours should calibrate SOC% at 100%.

There must be 10+ threads in the last two years on the 3KW Xantrex shutting down and I’m not saying search vs. posting. Please everybody always feel free to ask any question! 😎 It’s usually something re low voltage cutout. Likely you need to run through setup configuration to lower this number. Experienced Xantrex owners may chime in otherwise, search for ‘Xantrex’ from the forum home page and you should find instructions for changing this parameter. Also 50% SOC is not LOW with LiFePO4 batteries! We have a Victron inverter with 900 Ah. The Victron allows for this, since we can run our A/C AND the microwave (oven) with SOC <20%! Both the inverter and batteries have low voltage cutoff protection. I’ve never read here re Lithionics cutting out. The Victron inverter never cuts out. There are only Xantrex cutoff issues. Also it’s not your microwave given it runs long when plugged into shore power. Check your Xantrex manual and their Tech Support if necessary.

You're welcome. John brought up a good point. Oliver simplified the plumbing by adding a valve, which allowed them to reduce the number of inlets.

Thanks for the help! This is exactly what i needed.

Wide open spaces