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Not to rehash any particular issues with the Truma on demand water heater that I have experienced, but I am considering replacing the Truma with the Suburban. My primary reasons would be reliability and serviceability. I don't ever want to be 800 miles from home with no hot water if I can help it. I know that there are no perfect solutions, but I want to reduce the likelihood of an outage. Based on some other threads here I see that some have chosen the suburban route, and been quite happy. The on demand is great when it works, but my experience has been less than satisfactory in the nearly 2 years of using it. Any thoughts on the wisdom of making that switch? Thanks!

I have no DC power. Can not find the problem/solution. Need advice. Battery charging with my Bluetti power bank was success. I used my "PowerWatchDog" at the Bluetti. I also used a "grounding plug" at the Bluetti. Works great and my batteries are charging very nicely. However (there always seems to be a "however") I have no DC power in the Oliver. All DC items are down! Is there a "Master DC Fuse/Breaker" somewhere? Or other advice as to a solution? (FYI. I started a conversation yesterday on how to charge with the Bluetti. Received good advice and it worked fine, however... I started this new thread as this is a related, but new topic.) Thanks much.

Yep, That sounds right, it's not likely the elastic locks nuts loosened clamping the plate to the fiberglass hull, but still check when the spare is removed. Good advice!

Hi Craig, That is the vent plug for use with the antifreeze kit. Here's a video that explains its use...

Ok now I’m thinking that the second nut is a jam nut to hold the first nut on and both have backed off somehow. I would remove both nuts and see if the aluminum cylinder is threaded on that rod and check for something that might have loosened. Bill

Yes I put those on there. I got a roll of stick-on UHMW from Rockler. People put it on tablesaw fences. Bill

I like the pads (assume) you installed on the fiberglass. Ours has two nuts on the stud, but I like the single nut with disc on yours, too.

@Dirt Duff No that is not typical. On our Ollie the fit is snug when the wing nut is tightened. Is this mounting plate tight against the fiberglass hull?

I have hull 313. This is what my spare tire mount looks like. It looks like you have an extra nut. Those two pieces of UHMW plastic keep the spare from rubbing and staining the gelcoat. I use a disk cut from a bucket lid to make the large ring that secures the spare easier to tighten. Bill

OK the battery charging with my Bluetti is a success. I used my "PowerWatchDog" at the Bluetti. I also used a "grounding plug" at the Bluetti. Works great and my batteries are charging very nicely. However (there always seems to be a "however") I have no DC power in the Oliver. All DC items are down! Is there a "Master DC Fuse/Breaker" somewhere? Or other advice? Thanks much.

Please view the two movies attached below. The spare tire in my LE2 is lose and wobbles. I assume that the large "wing nut", when tightened, should be snug against the surface of the spare wheel. However, rather than being snug against the wheel's surface, the wing nut is snug against the two nuts on the threaded post. This results in a 1/4 gap between the spare wheel and the wing nut. Is my lose spare tire typical of other Olivers? Is there a remedy? Thanks IMG_4584.MOV IMG_4588.MOV

Hello, Wondering if someone could explain to me purpose of the yellow device that's on the inside cover of my Truma AquaGo water heater door? I've looked through the manual and don't see any mention of it. Picture attached. The yellow device (tool?) is removable. Thank you, Craig / 2020 Elite II Hull #612 IMG_8917.HEIC

Could you post a photo of the breaker and its location for future refrence for us Elite 1 owners?

That's the one you want. Lay it out in the sun on a summer day and it will uncoil just fine. Clean the area just above the window with iso alcohol and let it dry before install. When you put it on be precise because that's where it will stay. When I installed I found that there was a window that I had to use two pieces on because of the length of the roll. (25' I think) You might want to measure and buy more to avoid that. Cannot recommend thus enough. Good Luck.

There are two types of generator transfer switches, ones that break the hot wire only, and ones that break both hot and neutral. If a hot wire only switch is used, then the generator must have a floating neutral or there will be dual bond condition as @CRM mentioned. Conversely, a double pole switch needs a bonded generator or the bond is lost. This is why some generators come with a bonded or not option. It’s difficult to explain why neutral-to-ground bonding works, but I try in the simplest terms with plausible scenarios. If a hot or neutral wire becomes shorted to a conducting element of the trailer, such as the skin or frame, then a person touching the frame could create a current path to earth and get shocked. However, the ground wire is bonded to the trailer frame — so with a normal properly bonded power supply, a fault to the frame would result in a direct short that would trip the breaker. If using a power pack such as the Bluetti, then there is no path to earth and such a fault would energize the frame. There is no current path to trip the breaker. You could touch the frame and create a shocking path to earth. This is where a bonding plug comes into play. With it installed, a hot-to-frame fault becomes a direct short back to the source's neutral — this collapses the frame's voltage to near zero and may trip the breaker outright. Either way, the frame is no longer dangerous to touch. I hope this helps explain a very complex, but interesting, subject! Cheers! Geoff

Thanks Scotty! I found their website and I ordered a FREE Sample Kit. Then found it on Amazon (links below). I'm wonder, what products have others used? I remember our friend @rich.dev ordered one product that would not straighten from a circular role, so wavy it was unusable. Prior owner of our hull installed a drip rail on the entire curbside up near the awning. We get no streaks on this side but a lot of streaks from frost melting or morning dew, condensate dripping on the other side. Request a Sample Kit | Trim-Lok Amazon.com: Trim-Lok Drip Rail, White – 1/2” Height, 25’ Length – PVC Plastic Rain Gutter for Cars, Vans, and RVs, Easy to Install Flexible Drip Rail Molding to Control Water Runoff, Durable 3M Tape Included : Automotive

To make sure that if the generator is connected to a residential service that will always be code complainant. You can't have more than one neutral/ground bond in a system, and since a residential main panel is already bonded you would be violating code and creating a possible hazardous condition. Edit- I shouldn't have said "always be code compliant" since there are ways to connect a generator to a residential system that will violate code even if you use a floating neutral generator.

Ok, I think I got that, thanks. So why are so many generators built with floating grounds?

Yes, using a bonding plug makes it safer by providing a low resistance path back to the generator to trip the breaker in the generator if a short to the metal case of an appliance inside the RV or the generator itself occurs. When it comes to the ground rod system in a residential system, it is there for voltage stabilization and surge dissipation, not to trip breakers. In fact, if the neutral and grounding electrode system are not bonded in the service panel you could connect a hot conductor straight to the ground rod and it will not trip the breaker. You need the bonding in the panel to provide a path back to the transformer for that to happen. You get that path when the ground and neutral are bonded in the service panel, completing the circuit back to the utility transformer's neutral point.

For the electrical engineers out there: does using a bonding plug on a generator with a floating ground actually do anything to improve safety? There's still no actual connection to earth ground. I always thought of a household ground as a way for stray current to be shunted safely to earth ground rather than finding a path through a person. Why are earth ground and neutral tied together at a household panel? What good is bonding them together without an earth ground?

I got a little zap off our aluminum skinned trailer when it had an open ground once. Didn't hurt me, but definitely got my attention.

One of the first "mods" I did to hull #145 was to install 3M trim lock drip rails. We've owned the trailer for 10 years now and although we have been fortunate to be able to store inside for the last 8 years, I have never had a window leak problem. Once a few years ago I decided to remove the rubber and clean the weep holes and window channels. I only found dust. I credit this to the drip rails. They just channel all that rain run off around the window and keep the channels clean. Just my $0.02. It's an easy install and I believe prevents a LOT of problems. I even put it above the Oliver sign at the back. Happy Camping, Scotty

Could get a little exciting with an Airstream! On the plus side an Airstream probably would make a pretty good Faraday cage!

That’s a great comment. In reality, the manufactures are producing these things faster than the regulatory bodies can keep up. Merely disclosing a floating neutral is enough to keep them off the hook for now at least. This was first mandated for the generator industry, and It’s ultimately the installers responsibility for how they are connected and used. These power packs have a least off-set the risks with built-in GFCI’s for personal shock protection, but that does not satisfy the long standing rules for bonding that the trailer industry must follow. This is directly related to the trailer “hot-skin” issue that was bandied around for years. They recently codified long overdue requirements for trailer Ground Monitor Interrupters (GMI) that will be phased in over the next few years. Similar to the EMS (except it can’t be by-passed), the GMI’s will prevent the use of non-bonded power supplies, and it will be non-optional for new trailers. We watch with interest how this story fully evolves! Cheers! Geoff