All Activity

The all wood is stunning, one day I’d like to do that.

I’ve held many work-related video calls on the Gen 3 without issues… with an open sky. One could likely play an online game too, such as World of Warcraft, but maybe not a first person shooter (FPS). The latency requirements are high and one would be getting killed a lot in the FPS game.

Good, because I never took Statics! 😅 My story kind of similar to yours from a different direction - Physics PhD then also went to HP back in the good old days (when Bill and Dave were still around) doing CS/EE. Jack of all trades master of none basically. Anyhow the only fundamental basis I could see for airing down was based on an old chart that Goodyear doesn’t appear publish anymore, probably because of this reason that it’s the OEM’s business to set a spec. But I think a sound approach is to approach it as tuned frequency bands. Engineering hand waving - but that’s what we do half the time anyways, but my intuition tells me you’re losing more than you gain by airing down. But I’m convinced that the Wisdom of the Crowd prevailed with Alcan.

Sorry, I didn't remember this in Statics 101. But Then I am not an Engineer. I moved to CS after my first year. I figured working at Hewlett Packard I was better off with a CS. Which worked with my time at HP and IBM. I still love looking at bridges and building structures.. You are correct that this is YOUR thread and as such I respect that. Also the other thread is extremely long. I will remember this in any further post.

I have to work on the road and the dinette is taken over by a piano keyboard. Most of my work on the iPad but I need to use a laptop which is on the bed, but cable and peripheral management is a pain, but I found a small mod, hide the electronics under the bed with a Froli system street side bed Turns out typical power supplies and smaller electronics like SSD’s and a Thunderbolt hub you see here fit perfectly under the Froli springs. Add in the anti-dew matting and there’s plenty of airflow, plus it keeps your bed warm 😅 The Froli’s lift the bed up a good amount, it was so low before as to be somewhat claustrophobic. With the matting it doesn’t add much except oddly makes it a bit firmer, which is good with these overly squishy mattresses IMO. Anyhow in the lower right is a small power strip, so all that emerges is a plug to the nearby socket. Two cables (power and thunderbolt) tuck next to the mattress, add in a lap table and it can instantly be setup to work. I was hiding this stuff in the battery cubby but its was messy with cables snaking out.

I need to work on the road, the dinette is too small and is taken over by a piano anyhow Sorry for the late reply missed this … The OEM recommendations (Oliver in this case) always override the tire manufacturer, Oliver’s spec is 65. We can argue if that’s a good spec on first principles but I don’t think we can or should use a generic recommendation from Goodyear Yes absolutely, but it’s different systems working together. The suspension will do its job and ideally filter a different band than what the tire filters - that’s my point. If they overlap then you’ve got suckouts in your coverage, whats the point of that? Excellent! I was wondering if somebody would catch this. Well since we don’t have data its all handwaving, but my expectation is that a properly sprung Alcan would have a higher frequency extension, which would make the case for higher PSI. Basically Statics 101 tells you that undersprung == lower natural frequency Yeah its pretty clogged up. This is kind of my blog and I treat it as such so 🤷‍♂️

I don't *think* the 2022 models had the Victron charge controller yet. Our early 2023 was supposedly the first year they became standard equipment, but some 2022 models had 2023 components early. When I was first investigating upgrades, I considered moving the external solar port wires over to the inbuilt charge controller. Then run the two solar arrays in parallel. The first obstacle, was of course the amperage/voltage limitations of the charge controller. I'd need to swap to a larger model to get what I wanted. But more importantly, and something I was not aware of, is that the 2023 rooftop panels are 400W at a rated 24V DC, not 12V. And when I checked Victron's site for information, I learned that mixing panel voltages causes the charge controller to default to the lower voltage. So the 24V 400W panels would be operating at 12V 400W instead. As have many others here, I elected to temporarily build a portable box with an appropriately sized Victron charge controller, fuse, etc., and plug that into the external solar port. My intention is to eventually replace the SAE type port with an Anderson plug, and run a second internal charge controller, allowing me to use the full output of my 400W 24V DC rooftop panels, and my three 200W 12V DC portable panels.

Our original Furrion solar port was rated for 10 amps. It was OK with one 100W panel, but did not have enough rated capacity to handle two 100W solar suitcases. Decided to modify the original Furrion 10A solar port to handle 20 amps by installing a Zamp 20 amp port in the existing Furrion port. Should have used the Zamp port to start with. Modified Furrion solar port 20 amps:

I saw that mentioned in another post. Seems I will need to schedule time to drive down to see this new Oliver. Lower price - seems counter to today's world. If I were to design a small Ollie, based upon my owner experience, I doubt it would be cheaper.

This is correct in that you will need an additional solar charger. It is not recommended to have one controller for panels of different makes and wattage and adding 400W is just too much for your OEM controller. We run the Renogy 400W suitcase and added a Victron 30A MPPT SC. The new SC should be very close to your batteries, connected with heavy gauge wire. We used 8 AWG 1-2 foot length to the +/- buses. Wire from your suitcase to the SC can be light. 12 AWG is required for 400W. I used 10 AWG since Lowes had a crazy sale on some at the time. Wire costs a lot today, but labor hours are worse when hiring a solar installer. It's not a difficult installation. I made my own cables for cost savings, but you can buy any kind of cable with custom premade terminals here: https://powerwerx.com/wire-cable

You TEASE YOU!.... seriously.. you need to stop that.

Just came off a 10-day trip to Colorado. Thank goodness our issue started on the last night. The green LED showing 12V+ to the water pump went off by itself and the water pump stopped working. Checked the fuse in the panel and it was good. The issue was intermittent. Throwing the switch under the pantry an hour later, the green light appeared again so Chris quickly washed the dinner dishes! 🤣 Later that night we got nothing again, but just in time for morning bathroom use it worked, yay! (We had planned to wash and flush manually refilling gallon water jugs. We always have extra water in the fresh water tank in the truck bed.) So we're home a couple days so it's time to fix this. I remembered Geoff's explanation above, found it and studied it again. Actually the schematic he drew in his 4-way switch post really got me to fully understand the 3-way switch (study his picture without the the 4-way switch added, travelers connecting left to right). I had remembered his key phrase "No ground wires are involved in these switches." So my first thought is I need a ground for testing. Can't check voltage with a multimeter without a ground. So I cut a 12 ft length of wire, stripped one end and connected it to the ground bus under the dinette seat. I crimped a butt connector on the other end for the negative pin on the multimeter. With this test wire I have a ground source anywhere I need inside the cabin. While I was at it, I quickly tested all the fuses in the panel. I decided to leave this test wire connected for future testing when needed (pic1 notice the yellow/red-striped wire now coiled up under the rear dinette). Later I tucked it underneath in the empty corner below. I found 13.2V at both 3-way switches. Then I used my trusty spade jumper to first check for continuity between the travelers which tested positive (pic2). Then I used the same jumper to connect the Common wire to a Traveler wire (not pictured, think the common/purple wire jumped to either traveler). This pulls that 3-way switch out of the equation. The jumper creates a closed circuit, an ON condition for this side of the 3-way switch. As soon as I did so the water pump was back to working. This shows the issue is in the 3-way switch in the bathroom, or its connections, as suggested by this thread. Notice, I'm connected to the 3 spade terminals on the left (pic3). The bathroom switch has 6 spade connections but you only need 3 in line. I moved the wires to connect on the other 3 on the left. The RH spade terminals had gotten a little crusty in 10 years of use and notice the top-right spade is bent, in fact the female connector on that traveler was very lose. The switch works fine now. The connections were lose but now the left side connections are snug. I added some electrical tape to hold all 3 wires as a unit and then duct tape to hold the wires down. This simple addition will take the weight of the wires and vibration while towing off the switch (pic4). This should keep the connections tight longer. Going forward, look at the bathroom switch first. Not fun when something happens while camping. Thank you @David and Gail, you learned this a year ago and I had somewhere to look for help! 😎

Attached article on building a solar add on for the Olivef with specific instructions on the zamp connection polarity. https://4-ever-hitched.com/blog-articles/f/here-comes-the-sun?blogcategory=Electrical+Upgrades

We stayed a few days at Wallowa Lake SP, OR on our way back from our PNW trip last year. Quite peaceful and scenic!! Mike

Thanks for the input guys! I will likely reach out to a solar installer to see about upgrading the wiring on the zamp port and potentially installing a charge controller inside the camper for that system. As mentioned here the ability to track the sun at a better angle allows those 400 watt panels to pull 50-100 more watts than the roof mounted solar on the camper. 2 days ago I used it with my anker f2600 solar generator and was able to pull up to 325 watts for quite a while in morning sun.

From a different forum where I posted an estimation of towing costs, for the Oliver of EV versus Diesel, using today’s prices. The Unit Cost is the averaged national average for both, and of course while fuel costs are highly variable, charging base cost doesn’t change, except there are various discounts. For example GM keeps giving me $50 free charging credits, they run sales (Ionna ran a Labor Day sale of something like 20 cents/kWh), but AFAIK fuel never goes on sale. Also this is just for towing trips, when at home of course you’ll charge off whatever your rate it, basically free for me with lots of solar. Metric Diesel Truck Electric Truck Baseline Efficiency (Unladen) ~18.0 MPG ~2.0 miles / kWh Efficiency with 40% Loss 10.8 MPG 1.2 miles / kWh Total Energy Required 370.4 gallons 3,333.3 kWh Assigned Unit Cost $6.00 / gallon $0.40 / kWh Total 4,000-Mile Cost $2,222.22 $1,333.33

On our way to the rally. 4 stops so far Plymouth Wa COE Wallowa Lake SP OR Farewell Bend Rec Area OR Three Island Crossing SP -Glenns Ferry ID Roses Great Grandpa was a wagon master for 6 crossings here on the Oregon Trail before stopping in Idaho as a settler.

The shoulder I was talking about was on the inner side, between the spring and hanger, caused by the inner bronze bearing. Anyhow I checked with Gemini which is pretty good for these kinds of things since it primarily trolls the internet I think we may be onto something - this feels correct and may have already been discussed (apologies if it has). So Dexter is trying to prevent over torquing and binding. Alcan solves it by being a stickler for torque and Nylock. I’ll take Alcan and argue with Dexters approach. Stepping down doesn’t prevent anything, a monkey can still over torque and bind it up. Can’t prevent installation error with that one IMO.

I've been told by VERY reliable sources that a "new" model Ollie (with a lower MSRP) will be introduced at the upcoming Owner's Rally. That's about all of the information I have. Bill

In 2023 (I assume it was the same in 2022) I purchased the optional 230-watt Zamp portable panel from Oliver with the trailer to add to my two 200W panels on the roof. I think 2023 was the last year they offered this panel and I believe Zamp moved toward smaller panels. The 230W suitcase is a bit of a beast to lug around, so I don't use it all the time. Of course, this plugs into the side port that you mention. Interestingly, because you can direct the portable panel toward the sun, it will often supply as many watts as the two roof top panels combined.

I've always hated the step down wet bolts. After installing a couple of dozen sets of springs using these, I will attest that easier installation is NOT the reason. They are a PIA to get that second shoulder to slip into the far side of the hangers. @Boudicca908 is delivering a complete set of new Alcan hardware to me at the Rally. Anyone who wants to see how this is done is welcome to come and watch (or help) as I plan to install them during the Rally.

You can safely put a maximum of 200 watts into the auxiliary Zamp solar port. It is polarity wired for a Zamp solar controller which is opposite of some controllers, so verify polarity of your panel and controller before plugging it in. Polarity reversing adapters are available for the Zamp port if needed. Your 400 watt panel would need a 30/40 amp controller, larger wiring, and a 30-40 amp fuse. Check panel rating plate and ask google to be sure.

I have a Zamp port on the street side of my 2021 model near the battery box. It’s rated for 20A max, but is equipped with a 10A blade fuse inside the trailer, which is a good match for my 140W portable Zamp panels. I have 340W panels on the roof. I’m not sure what the 2022 models have for side ports.

Does anyone know how many watts i can add to the system via the auxiliary solar port on the street side of the trailer? I have a 400 watt panel set up for my anker solar generator. I am curious if I could just use a charge controller in line and hook into the system? Or are the wires not rated for that much current? 2022 elite 2 with 400 watt roof solar and 360ah lithium batteries. Thanks in advance for any info.