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John, Welcome to the SL Mini world. We have had ours over a year now and won’t leave home without it. Its portability, ease of storage and 5 min ease of set up has been a win for us. I hope you enjoy your mini as much as we do! Always remember set up facing north and no obstructions. 😊 We have really come to appreciate this well crafted aluminum protective case which adds a little weight to the Mini. - https://www.strikerfab.com/ David

Your old 110/12v probably actually operated on 12v, just stepped down converted power. You'll likely never notice the difference.

Excellent Dave, good to hear! CLEAN installation! From just a couple of pics I can see you found a quality service company, as you mentioned. For a guy who at first did not want an inverter!!!!! You've come a long way. Your rig, your little E1 has come a long way in off-grid excellence! 🤣 We have found that we can run the fridge AND electric to the hot water heater (HWH) on DC while towing and the Orion XS 50A still adds good charge to the batteries while doing so. Or run the A/C in the last hour or two driving to a campsite with hookups and the DC2DC charger carries a good portion of the load and you arrive cool and calm...

The mini is up and running with what came in the box (thanks JD). Will run this way for a while and find the best way to operate on DC only with minimal cabling. Wendy is very happy . And thanks, Geoff (and all) for the encouragement. I think I'm going to like going with the mini! John

Camera is through bolted with nylock nuts as to not to chip the fiberglass, like happens with sheet metal screws. The very tip of a step drill works well for making holes in the fiberglass because it doesn't grab and chip like a twist drill. Cheers! Geoff

My eyelids must be thin, according to my husband. I'm another one who blocks out little lights at night. Fortunately, very few in a 2008.

When my eyes are closed, I see no lights and sleep well. 🤣 So no issues here.

OK, better pic.....

We’re very happy with the electronics in our 2020 Ram 2500. The CarPlay works everytime, the camera views are great and the other electronic gizmo’s are nice. The big center screen for media and maps makes the driving experience enjoyable. I bet the new Rams are even better. Mike

I just completed a Victron update to all the solar components in our trailer, including the Victron 50amp DC-DC charger. It has been great. I was originally thinking of doing the work myself but soon realized I was too far out of my comfort zone regarding the complexities of the install. This job I delegated! Expensive, yes. But The job as it was done went way beyond my expectations. I was very lucky to find an outfit locally that really knew what they were doing and take great pride in their work. The cost of the DC-DC charger was part of a much larger project so hard to break it out. There will be two sides to your install, the TV and your trailer. I found a way to fish 4awg cables from the streetside rear dining seat (where the battery box is) forward, under the bathroom sink, and then out the front of the trailer next to the 7-pin plug cable. The charger is mounted on top of the battery box. My truck luckily has a battery distribution fuse block with multiple fuses up for grabs including a 60 amp fuse to which the truck-side wiring was attached. The truck wiring terminated with an Anderson plug that was bolted to the underside of my bumper with a custom bracket directly under the 7 pin plug (which is next to my license plate). This location I highly recommend as it makes attaching your fairly large 7 pin and DC-DC charging cables nicely aligned and easier to manage. I'm getting similar charging profiles as JD iirc. For me, I don't like traveling with propane on, so I switch to DC mode on my fridge when under way. Always have full batteries on arrival! These new lithium batteries charge up fast if they can get the power and this little charger really delivers! Of course, it only works when your running your TV. So, as JD mentioned, this will be of no benefit if boondocking and stationary. That's where your remote solar panels come in to play if you have them. I suppose worst case, you could use your TV as a giant generator to charge your batteries but many campgrounds, especially in the National Park system, or in CG's that don't allow portable generators, this would not be allowed. Super glad I got the charger, no regrets! 👍👍 Dave

Thanks JD. Yes, if you disconnect the grounds the LEDs won’t work, but switches will still work. Also, if you want the blue lights, then you can replace your switches with LED types available at AZ. i like the blue lights, just not so bright! Geoff

Did you mount the camera on you Ollie? How? Where? 🙂

Hello Bob, our DC-to-DC charger installation has been very beneficial. For every hour we tow the Oliver on average we add 35 Ah to the LiFePO4 batteries in SOC. If you travel every few days, the DC-DC charger is very helpful. Say we tow 4 1/2 hours in a day, SOC will increase 26% on our 600 Ah battery bank. However, if you prefer to stay at one boondocking site for 1-2 weeks at a time then additional solar is the way to go. We have both upgrades and with the DC-DC charger I have not pulled out the suitcase solar in months! We have not had the time to stay at one campsite for more than a few consecutive days. On the road again, charging again! Definitely purchase the 50A Victron Orion XS vs. the older technology 30A version or other brands for that matter. We run Victron everything. There are so many install threads. I have listed some below. the last one is my installation with a lot of use case test results. The thread you linked above was about the sale OTT had including older 30A model wiring only the trailer side of the install at a very high price. Read through these to see if it's something you could do yourself, as Art, Geoff and I did in these posts: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9733-dc-dc-charger-install/ https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9972-more-dc-to-dc-charger-installation-tidbits/ https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/10757-the-victron-orion-xs-1212-50a-dc-dc-charger-complete-installation-and-testing/

Maybe to be more specific .... I have painters tape on the control panels of the Microwave, SeaLevel2 control panel, and the Norcold fridge; I close up the usb ports, and then I put a jacket on the floor near front dinette seat (to cover the bright light at the CO2 monitor) and I have thought about taping paper over the Solar Charge Controller! I haven't had the flashing blue lights occur. :)

Nice work Geoff! Not sure I would like all those night lights! No blue LEDs on switches in this old hull! @Snackchaser, as an answer to this, could the yellow wires be disconnected at the ground to kill the blue LEDs? This could be the simple answer for @Boudicca908.

I like our 2022 RAM 2500 gasser a lot! Some of the many notable features that we like include Apple Car Play. It always synchronizes seamlessly, without the frustration we've had with other cars including our old 2016 Ram. We frequently use it to display full screen Google maps from the phone, and we can toggle back and forth to the RAM GPS which offers nice features too, like a side bar that shows upcoming rest stops, gas stations, etc.. My absolute favorite feature is the digital rear view mirror camera option. It's a high resolution and wide angle view that is way better than the standard mirror. Best of all, it has an auxiliary camera for mounting on a trailer, and the resolution is just as good. I think it's a fantastic towing safety feature, where you have an excellent wide angle view of directly behind and side lanes where there is normally blind spots. There is an outlet in the rear bumper for the trailer camera, and a cord garage for the trailer during storage. My camera is mounted on the spare tire cover. It also has a 5-camera outlet for a trailer surround and interior views, but we don't use those. Other features I like, are the side mirror sensors that warn of vehicles in side lanes. This can be adjusted for your trailer length. The self adjusting steering aggressiveness for highway and town is just right, and the lane departure steering correction is very suttle, even better than our Tesla that can startle you with aggressive corrections. I'm sure that other trucks have similar features, but I also have a personal preference for the RAM dashboard layout and controls. That my two cents worth! Cheers, Geoff

I did find some great info here. Maybe that is what I need.

Please see Announcement:

We want to take a moment to address a recent change regarding our dealer network in Texas, and what it means for both new and existing Oliver owners in the area. No Current Dealers in Texas At this time, Oliver Travel Trailers no longer has any active dealer sales representation in the state of Texas. We understand this may come as a surprise—especially to those who purchased through our former Texas dealers. This was a business decision, and we sincerely apologize that a formal update was not sent to affected customers when this change occurred just a few weeks ago. Continued Service Support in Texas The good news is that warranty and service support remains strong in Texas. While there are no current Oliver dealers operating under our network in the state, both of our former dealer partners—Princess Craft and United RV—have confirmed they are continuing to service Oliver Travel Trailers, including warranty repairs, for owners in their respective areas. Additionally: Our factory-based Technical Support remains your go-to resource for any questions, approvals, or coordination related to warranty service. We also work with other reputable service centers where needed to ensure coverage in areas not directly served by Princess Craft or United RV. For those who prefer factory service, our Hohenwald-based Service Department is readily available to assist with scheduling and support.

I have a 2019 RAM 1500, so I am not sure if that qualifies as a late model anymore, and it has worked great for me. The only issue I have had was it would not recognize my iPhone at first. Service replaced the USB port on the truck and ever since then no issues. As far as infotainment issues, I had to reset it after replacing the battery once. After the reset all apps came back like normal.

You are not alone in enjoying the way light bounces across the Oliver interior.

Hi RAM drivers, I’m thinking of switching from my GMC trucks to RAM in 6 to 18 months, and was curious what you thought of the technology of late-model RAM trucks. I love my GMC diesels - but I find the technology to be more than a bit flaky: nav systems that stop working, features that are fine one day, and missing in the next, the rare - and impossible to replicate - infotainment system glitches. Frankly, they seem to promise more than they can deliver. I find my “Google Mobile” infotainment system to have considerably less utility than one that doesn’t interface so tightly to Google. I’m looking at the 2026/2027 Ramcharger 1500 hybrid. Most likely I’ll let the 2026 one pass me by as I don’t care to be a beta tester. Depending how well that model goes I’ll likely be ready to pull the trigger on the 2027 model. thoughts?

Hey folks, I have found several folks that do this and have gotten a couple of quotes on installing a Victron DC-DC charging system on our tow vehicle for the Ollie. I was curious to hear if any of you have had that done by a Victron dealer (or other) and what your ball park costs may have been. Also, has anyone tackled that as a DYI project? If so, how did that go? Since we have a composting toilet we are assuming it would be a game changer with regard to being able to harvest host and otherwise boondock for multiple days in a row. Have you found it to be a significant benefit? Thanks in advance! Bob

See now I must just be different? I like all the little lights inside at night... the way they reflect in multiple places, bouncing from curve to curve around the interior. I think of them as my Ollies star-lights! 🙂 That said... I really appreciate the nice neat daisy chained ground wires! Good job!

Not feeling very confident to do any rewiring, I live with blue painters tape on a lot of the little lights inside my Oliver. Maybe one day I will find someone to help me do this project for reducing the glow.