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When I first read your post, my first comment was 🤣!!! Just search for keyword 'Victron' to find MANY upgrade threads! Here is my DIY thread, new Epoch batteries with Victron MP2 and components. We now have 7 Victron components, from the Smartshunt to Solar Chargers, to DC-2-DC chargers, etc! Adding the Victron Orion 50A DC-2-DC charger => Only a couple of Oliver Owners had upgraded to the Victron Multiplus II inverter/charger and Epoch batteries before I did ours, summer of 2024. And many have done so since. In this post Patriot shows an excellent professional installation! You have dozens of upgrade threads here you can study to make yours what you want!
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David, @Patriot should chime in. He prefers mounting the wet bolts, Zerk fittings to the inside. You get full clearance but the down side is you have to crawl under the trailer to lube the suspension. I prefer mounting the wet bolts in the standard direction, facing out, but then I replace the straight fitting with a 45-degree Zerk fitting to get the required clearance. I usually have some reason to remove the wheels every year or two and always lube the suspension at that time anyway. Your old suspension likely has 6mm x 1 threads on the Zerks. I'm pretty sure the Alcan wet bolts use 1/4" x 28 fittings. You can verify this with Alcan. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQBPTK3Y/?th=1 Get one of these too, and many of us use a battery-powered grease gun. I have the Dewalt model with the LockNLube coupler attached and just the other day, I was able to lube the suspension on my truck in minutes! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H7LPKKU/?th=1
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The existing wiring is adequate just as long as you don’t try to use all 600 amp/hrs at once! 🌋
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Thank you Mountainoliver. There is the cost differential from the 3X 105 to two X 300 AH batteries versus, but two 300 AH would allow for future upgrades and it’s good to know that the existing wiring on my system would be adequate. Thanks again. David
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Yes, the monsoon season, late July through September has chance of flash floods, but it would also be > 110F! Will soon be in the dry season, Q2 starting with April winds! It’s so BRIGHT up here, my eyes hurt after 3 days! Even with back to the sun, the Oliver looks like a high-powered light bulb! Maybe should have parked with curbside to the north. Chance of rain this week is 0-0-0-0-0-0-0!!!
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Thank you for the advice, I will certainly look at them. Ron
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Over the years I have found that more amp/hrs would be of benefit. I initially felt that the 300 amp/hrs of the BB batteries were enough but with the compressor fridge on 24/7 during winter traveling and a few cloudy days here and there, my batteries would draw down to less than I am comfortable with. Anyway, two of the 300 amp/hr batteries seem to be the wave of the future. Having two still gives me the redundancy that I like. As built, Oliver used 4/0 welding cable for the main battery connections to the inverter. These are large enough for the 2,000 watt inverter and are protected by a 250 amp fuse. These wire for all other dc circuits is #6 welding cable and is adequate for the existing dc circuits in the trailer. I did not install a larger Progressive Dynamics charger or a larger inverter so I didn’t feel it necessary to upsize any wiring. I do have the air conditioner wired so that I can run it through the inverter but it only draws about 90 dc amps. The microwave by comparison draws about 120-130 dc amps. Really the only thing I did when I initially installed the lithium batteries six years ago was to clean up some of the wiring by moving all of the #6 wiring out of the battery box and I added a circuit breaker. Not too involved.
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I apologize for the thread drift - but - those battery slide tray stops are interesting. Cheap, easy to remove/replace and appear to be effective. Bill
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Alcan Springs Quote for Jan-2026
thompsonkd replied to Wayfinder's topic in Mechanical & Technical Tips
We are planning on having Alcan replace our axles and springs this summer. Several people have mentioned having Alcan position the zerks so as to make greasing easier. Can someone who has done this please post a picture of their zerks? This chore has always been difficult, and making it easier sounds appealing. Thanks. David -
Mountainoliver, thanks for the clear writeup of your battery issue. I was wondering if you could elaborate on your choice of two 300 AH batteries versus 3 or 4 of the 105 AH, of course besides the increased AH! Your trailer is similar to ours in age-have you changed any of the wiring as to gauge to accommodate the increased AH? What is a general rundown on your electrical system? Again, appreciate your writeup. David
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Especially in the rainy season. The views sound amazing, but I probably wouldn't try to tow my Oliver through that.
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I was thinking the same thing as you JD. However, I am not confident, no matter what I do, even multiple bolts, that my home-brew fix will hold up to the weight of four AGMs above, with road bumps. I'm no metal guy but I'm thinking of an adjustable solution. Something like this device, (only an example and quick search). https://www.rockler.com/heavy-duty-lifting-leveler?country=US&promo=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_content=pla&utm_campaign=PL&sid=V91190&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17424410624&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtfXMBhDzARIsAJ0jp3C2O8eZqs9M8M7CpmGG4oAKjWuDowPNrbrKNJUMh9-A2esKafqTJ6IaAlxpEALw_wcB I will notify Oliver Service so they know of the issue and see what they suggest as well. It's best they have proper metrics for future improvements. Cheers,
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Removing shelf under bathroom sink for plumbing access.
Steve Morris replied to Mroth's topic in Ollie Modifications
Our 2023 is the same, and we were surprised to see it in the middle of the compartment, especially after seeing older models with the vacuum formed tray in there. But I suspect it is to ease the cable angle as much as to prevent using the bay for storage. Our TP and paper towels get stored in there. -
I don't mean to overwhelm you. While you are under the Oliver looking at the shocks, Pay close attention the leaf springs. Look to make sure the leafs are not sitting flat on one end or the other and/or over-sprung. If they are it could cause the shocks to wear out prematurely. If they are there is a huge topic on leaf springs ( more like a book). Remember to just take one thing at a time, you have an older trailer, but is built to last. There is a ton of information on this website, and people that care about there Olivers. Happy Travels.
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Yes, I saw all of the glowing reviews six years ago when I did my upgrade to lithium batteries. Back then Oliver had just introduced their lithium trailer and there weren’t many choices for lithium batteries. Battle Born was the gold standard then. This goes to show that lab testing has little resemblance to real world life testing day in and day out over the years. Even now and with most things we buy, we do our homework and research the best we can and select the best option. I’m not too upset with the way this has turned out. These batteries have traveled many miles in six years and have been well used all without any maintenance. We on average spend four months out of the year in our trailer every year, in 2025 it was six months. We are ready for the next chapter!
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I had 3 BB 100’s in use for 5 years, worked great, no problems. I was getting increasingly paranoid about my family safety, so I sold them on Facebook Marketplace for $150 each. I tested each one and made sure the buyer was fully informed of the issues. He was aware, but was looking for a bargain and willing to take his chances. I could perhaps have gotten a higher price, but my conscience kept me from being greedy. The way I figure it, I had $2450 total invested, so the cost of 300AH of trouble-free use cost me $400/year. I saved way more than that by boondocking. There are several dozens of them for sale on FB Marketplace in my local rural area, so my guess is many others feel the same way. It might interest some that @Overland had 2 out of 4 go bad in 2021. This was before the present design problems were known, apparently BB told him the BMS went bad. I recall he did a lot of off-road, so maybe his terminals shook loose internally and got hot. @Overland was able to get BB to pay for shipping and replace. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/4956-lithium-battery-upgrade/page/2/ Those were the days when BB was widely regarded as the #1 brand, and there were no reliable Chinese competitors. See Will Prowse glowing endorsement on YouTube from 2020 if interested. Yep, same guy that blew this up on the web, may have been indirectly responsible for becoming one of BB best salespersons.
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Removing shelf under bathroom sink for plumbing access.
jd1923 replied to Mroth's topic in Ollie Modifications
ABS (black) pipe is for waste lines, much less expensive pipe. PVC is used for fresh water and sometimes exposed sink drains, etc. You can use PVC in place of ABS like in your Oliver plumbing, but ABS is only used for gray and black waste plumbing, not rated for fresh water. -
I suggest Nylok nuts and washers, no loctite needed. First do the lift as @David and Gail has showed above. Drill a second hole, top of slot, hand tight both bolts. Also, the angle of your two support beams seems greater than in other pics. The base looks off angle (notice angle of base not square with floor in your first picture). Check below where it should be welded to the frame.
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Similar outcome shown by the “Grand Adventurer” RV guy, the YouTube video I posted above. You have 1 of 3 bad and he had 2 of 6 bad. Both of you noticed your SOC was not what it used to be! Good test Ken! I still have a drawer full of incandescent GE Reveal bulbs at home, for the health of our eyes and heart!
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Battery tenders on 4 LA batteries down to 9V will take several days to charge as you are witnessing. interesting how most Olivers are different. Your hull #99 and our #113 both have Blue Sky SCs, but my breaker and shunt were wired on the right side. Never seen a 120VAC panel where breaker #1 isn’t the 30A main and ours has only 6 breakers. They wired the microwave with the 110V outlets on the same breaker. Yours is written “Charger” they wrote “Converter” on ours! Since I replaced the converter with a Victron inverter/charger, I now use the 6th breaker for what was the microwave circuit, now an air-fryer/oven. I still have the original converter installed as a backup just in case, with the hot/black wire disconnected. Every Oliver is unique, yet many similarities. I use many 2017 electrical and plumbing schematics that were not available for 2016 and they’re often close enough to figure things out! I’d say new batteries are in your future and there are many posts on bettering the electrical wiring and other systems.
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Looks like I have been very lucky with this battery box support issue. One, I only have a single bolt with no nut in sight. No real evidence it ever hat a nut, but I'm sure it did. The bolt has been bottomed out on the hand-cut slock for what appears to be forever. From all appearance, from outside and in, the box is still fairly in the spot it was from day one. I see no signs of separation. That is likely due to the fact that the bolt bottomed out on the slot and really could not come out of the hole. I will put double nuts, with Loctite, on the support beam this weekend. If anyone sees any issues I do not, let me know. I downsized the pics, but should be large enough to zoom in as needed. Also, I'm not sure why my pics have been uploading with such crappy quality. It's not what they look like on my computer. Might try another program to edit. PS. Replacing all pictures. \
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The second test of the “bad” battery just finished. That battery started out fully charged this morning and only lasted for 6 1/2 hours. It again shut down with so little voltage that the charger will not recognize a voltage and start charging. The other two batteries took the load for over 12 hours, the inverter shut down at 10 volts as it should. The charger was able to begin charging immediately. This second test confirms that this one battery is defective in some way and can only handle a load for a short period of time. No telling how quickly it discharges under a much heavier load. My Battle Born testing is done! Two good batteries and one bad battery. Now I’ve got to find something to do with these two batteries.
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These are the ones shipped from the factory with the trailer: Bulldog Shocks are the ones folks tend to 'upgrade' to if replacing the OEM shocks. Bulldog Shock Parts to Replace Monroe 555001 (OEM) Bulldog part number: HD1213-0656 Price about $150.00 for 4 depending upon supplier. Monroe (Yellow on Top in Pix) Bulldog on Bottom. Link to 4 states truck parts: https://www.4statetrucks.com/bulldog-hd-shock-absorber-replaces-555001-19-050000007 Craig
