Leaderboard

There are many great postings for installing a main battery switch. Folks like them for safety reasons, to kill parasite loads during storage, or for when working on the system. But I’m not a big fan because the safety benefits are more mythical than real, and 96% of parasite loads can be killed by shutting off the 60 amp DC panel breaker. I just don’t like introducing unnecessary resistance in the high current battery circuit. In rare cases when the main battery circuit needs to worked on, the battery can be disconnected, or the 300 amp breaker can be opened. Even with liability exposure, Oliver’s decision not to have a main battery switch was a deliberate and sound engineering choice in my opinion There may be some merit-worthy arguments for one, or perhaps a lingering perception that one is needed because it’s a requirement in the marine industry for different risks. In reality, the need to cut power in 12-volt RV systems during emergencies is rare and not normal practice. Besides, most firefighters are trained to cut battery cables before looking for a switch, or trusting it. There is no shock hazard from the battery, and breakers and fuses are more reliable protection against fire hazards, than relying on the right person being in the right place at the right time to find a switch. I've seen a number of battery switch installations that completely disconnect the battery. This can actually create more credible safety hazards than it prevents. A towed trailer with its battery switched off has no emergency breakaway brakes and no gas or CO detection, both of which should never be switched off. The solar and AC chargers are also disabled in that configuration. However, switching off parasite loads is definitely a good idea for storage, but it doesn’t require switching off the entire battery. In the example shown below, the DC panel carries 96% of the parasite load. The remaining 4% of parasitic load comes from the inverter/charger, solar charger, and LP/CO alarm which are all connected directly to the battery. I don't believe it's necessary or advisable to disconnect these circuits for normal off-season storage because those parasite loads are non-consequential. For unusually long storage periods, some additional battery maintenance would be needed regardless. The parasite load percentages below are based on precise measurements of my Oliver trailer with a 390 amp battery, your setup and amperage may vary. They include electronic standby currents from various LEDs, memories, displays, power supplies, and such. There is no singular large load, but they collectively add up: Circuit Draw DC Panel load 0.48 A 96% Inverter, Solar Charger, Gas/CO detector 0.02 A 4% Total measured from battery 0.50 A 100% DC panel breakdown: Fuse Circuit Draw 2 Various electronics 0.117 A 4 Furnace 0.012 A 5 Main lighting 0.003 A 6 Fans 0.016 A 7 Truma water heater 0.113 A 8 *Furrion Radio 0.204 A 9 USB outlets 0.007 A 10 USB outlets 0.009 A Total 0.481 A *My new IRV stereo is only 0.083 A Under ideal conditions, a 0.481-amp load from the DC panel would deplete a 390 amp-hour battery in roughly 34 days. Real-world depletion will be faster due to BMS overhead and temperature effects. The remaining 0.02-amp load from the non-DC Panel circuits would take approximately 2.2 years to deplete the battery. A lead acid battery system without inverter would have less parasite draw with the DC panel shut off. It would still last a 7 month storage season before depleting the batteries to a safe 50% discharge. I used to turn off the DC panel with its 60 amp breaker under the street-side bed. Although effective, it’s inconvenient to reach. This modification provides a more convenient way to turn it off with a latching solenoid relay controlled by a small switch. Latching means it holds position without any power draw, it only consumes current for the instant it switches, adding nothing to the parasite load. These relays are designed for exactly this purpose and are commonly used in boats and RVs. I used an Intellitech style RV latching relay rated for 100 amps. The relay mounts next to the 60-amp breaker. The existing DC panel feed wire is moved from the breaker output — to the relay output. A new #4 AWG jumper goes from the vacated breaker output — to the latching relay input. Premade made jumpers with ring terminals are readily available in 6” & 12” lengths. Note: The 60 amp breaker may also have other loads such as the electric jacks. The jacks do not have parasite loads, but turning them off is a form of anti-theft protection to prevent the trailer from being towed away with jacks deployed. If you choose to move these loads to the relay, then the ring terminals need to be enlarged from 1/4” to 5/16” stud size to fit the relay. Use a sheet metal step drill to enlarge the terminal ring lugs while holding them with pliers, otherwise a twist drill will grab and destroy it. Step drills are great for drilling chip free holes in fiberglass tool. The relay is controlled with a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) momentary switch with a spring return to center. This is the same type of polarity-swapping switch used for the electric jacks. The switch can be located in any accessible and convenient location. I put mine in the battery compartment and wired it with a jacketed 4-conductor 18-gauge cable. The cable fits snugly through a 5/16” hole drilled next to where the DC panel wire penetrates the battery compartment. I linked one option for a switch mounting bracket. However, I made my own 3-D printed bracket with a red label to identify it as the DC panel shutoff. The print STL file is available, or I have a few extras if anyone needs one. I mounted the switch bracket with high strength double-stick foam tape and stick-on zip-tie mounts for the wire. The DC panel can now be turned on/off with the switch, without disturbing the inverter/charger, solar charger, or safety circuits. Newer Olivers have a solar disconnect switch and it’s possible to use the latching relay to disconnect the solar too. However, there is limited space on the relay’s stud for circuits so a terminal block would be needed for that purpose. I couldn’t find decent wiring instructions for the relay, so I provided a sketch. The relay comes with two fuses, use the one connected to the V+ input to power the switch. The other fuse is for an optional switch indicator LED. The switch’s V+ wire connects directly to the fuse spade with a female spade terminal. BTW: As seen in the picture, my installation is way more congested than normal due to other modifications. I have a large piece of plywood for mounting all my gadgets, you may need to glue a small wood mounting block for the relay. Just trim the insulation and use a good construction glue or epoxy. Here are some Amazon links for parts: Latching 100 amp Relay https://a.co/d/09MjQYjx DPDT momentary return to center switch https://a.co/d/0hNXSZkO Switch bracket https://a.co/d/08qc1lvY 4-18 AWG cable https://a.co/d/05Zn0CF6 6” x #4 AWG Jumper https://a.co/d/049xhKq6 Zip tie mounts https://a.co/d/0iRWzLD2 3-piece step drill kit https://a.co/d/01TaDQmg Hope you find this useful. Cheers! Geoff

Lynnville Falls NC 2fer

Here’s a trick to dump your tanks when the sewer hookup is uphill from your bumper. Here I used (2) 1”x2”x8 ft from an Ace Hardware store on the Keweenaw Peninsula Houghton MI Door County WI This time I picked up (2) pieces of 1/2”x10 ft EMT conduit from HD in Ellsworth ME. I like the conduit better than the 1x2 wood. The sewer hose supports slide better on the conduit and when I get home I’ll cut each conduit in half and turn a steel rod to just fit inside the conduit to make a splice for the halves. I thought I could stick the whole 10ft length into the Oliver aluminum rectangle frame rail but bolts through the rail prevent my doing this. Bill

This simple mod makes our camping life easier to organize. It's just a piece of removable whiteboard decal on the closet door for shopping and to-do lists. We also put our campground address and site number there in case we have to call 911. The final touch was a whiteboard marker Velcroed above it. Amazon: https://a.co/d/08ma1cjD

I had removed the Dometic Penguin A/C prior to this work. I temporarily filled the 14x14” opening with a piece of plywood to keep dust out while allowing Cameron the room above to make the entire rear roof shine! It’s always a mess under an old A/C. Good thing we did because the new Chill Cube is a foot shorter to the rear. With my son’s help, we installed the new Furrion Chill Cube A/C. One last task was to restore the rear bumper area. I removed the mounts for the bicycle rack we don’t use, drilled out more rivets and removed the deck plate and folding bumper. I cleaned the inside waste hose area, and steel brushed, sanded and ceramic coated all parts. I've been wanting to write this up for a few months now. Chris is out of town on her annual "Sisters Trip." Adam's been working overtime and it's boring being home alone. That’s it – she’s all done! 😎 When it's time for some love again, I'll drop her off with Cameron for a renewal! No more Ugly Duckling, but quite the Beautiful Swan she is now!

After 8 years of the Carefree awning, I decided to go with what I a wanted originally. A Fiamma 45s 450 (14 ft 8 in.). The Carefree was well made and incredibly durable but had some shortcomings. Mostly regarding closing completely. The Fiamma has a much lighter weight aluminum pole for extending and retracting. Also, like the pole connector on the right side close to the door. I ended up using the old brackets (used a square to mark with both awnings on the ground lined up) just to make the install simpler. The awning extension pole bracket holes on the camper weren’t the same so you have to drill another hole, not big deal. Love the new blue awning and seeing it when closed shut perfectly on both ends of case!

Been camping this week at Mt. Pisgah Campground NC @ 5,000' on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some mornings were in the 50s and highs 60s to 70s. Their campsites do not have water or electricity, with the Federal Senior card $15 per night. They have hot showers. When it's hot and humid in the lower elevations, we head to Mt. Pisgah campground to cool off without using AC system. There are plenty of places to hike and a drive on the BRP is always nice, too.

The recent posts about adding lights to the rear and tongue reminded me to share this. There had also been a few previous posts about the bright exterior lights, and some mentioned adding dimmers. We've added these dimmers to ours. From what I've read, Oliver has changed the way the exterior lights are switched over the years so this modification may not work for everyone. On our 2022 LE2, the four Porch lights on both sides of the trailer are on a single switch, as are the lower Courtesy lights. The Porch lights are quite bright, which can be very annoying, especially to neighbors on the streetside. Though we can just use the awning light if we need to keep the streetside dark, sometimes we like less intense lighting. These dimmers replace the rockers in the original control panel. It's an easy modification, but requires enlarging the rocker hole slightly. We also added a dimmer to the Main Cabin lights. (Note: the blue light ring in the picture doesn't indicate whether the light is on/off, it's always on or off depending on a separate setting.) Steve

Or, three or four! I do know of a person (me) that was leaving VERY early one morning from a campsite in Yellowstone and just had this "funny" feeling that all was not right. I (oops - this person that I know) stopped at the camp entrance just to take a look around and saw that while the bulldog was clamped shut and locked, it was "resting" on the top of the ball - NOT down and clamped around the ball as it should have been. This person has never told me just how he got the bulldog closed and locked without being down on the ball. I've accused him of not being as careful as he should have been and he claims that in the early morning darkness plus being in a hurry may have had something to do with the issue.🥴 Bill

Chilling at Lottis Creek Campground in the Gunnison National Forest listed my canvas wall tent on the FB marketplace in Gunnison, Crested Butte and Buena Vista its my emotional support tent 😢

If Geoff ever sells their Oliver, the buyer will have to be another EE! 😎

Here's just a little insight into what likely happened in David's situation and how to reduce the chances of others experiencing the same situation in the future. After examining this filter plug more closely, I have determined that the part that broke out of David's filter is designed as an over pressure protection for the water heater. By code all water heaters are required to have a high pressure relief. For the Truma, instead of a standard pressure relief valve, they have chosen to use a sacrificial relief that's designed to let an over-pressure situation release and drain to the outside. With David's description of the event, I'm convinced that when the water supply valve at the water heater was opened to run through the water heater, a high pressure surge hit the water heater causing the "safety device" to rupture. This was very likely a high water pressure situation, possibly caused by and air pocket in the water line just before the valve that caused a water hammer effect in the heater when the valve was opened. Now I can't prove this is what actually happened, but in liquid and steam systems I have worked with over the years, coils such as that in the Truma water heater are usually protected by what is called a rupture disc, designed to fail before damage can occur to the more valuable parts of the system. Whenever opening a valve to pressurize a system, it's imperative to open the valve very slowly so as not to cause a hydraulic hammering of the system when doing so. Also it's very important to run a system clear of any air pockets before opening a valve to other components in the system. For air and gas systems this is not an issue. But with hydraulic systems it's critical. A very good precautionary step to reduce the chances of water hammer when opening a valve is to very slowly open the valve to prevent a surge. One additional precautionary step to take before repressurizing the water heater is to open one of the faucets to hot water to allow flow through that side of the system when the valve to the is being opened to the water heater. Again this allows flow through the water heater, allowing air pockets to escape without cause a water hammer condition. These steps should prevent this from occurring to anyone in the future. Hope this helps anyone with concerns about their Truma water heater. PS - Obviously a high water pressure from the utility source connected to the trailer could also cause this situation to happen. This is the obvious reason why we must always use a pressure regulator and never setting it above 40 psi. PPS - If you purchased the Truma anti-freeze plug when you bought your Oliver, it can be used in place of the regular filter plug should you need a short term backup. It works exactly the same as the standard filter plug, just has a heat coil built into it. You don't need to plug the coil in for this use purpose.

Please read my detailed report that I sent in on this topic attached....I've had truma's replace 3 times. First potential cause - Truma didn't properly tighten the brass fittings internally that feed the burner assembly. Second potential cause - Truma didn't crimp the burner tube assembly correctly, and with travel they rattle out (the burner tubes are like in a bar-b-q and can fall off which causes raw gas to be injected into the burner area for explosive ignition instead of gentle start.) This blog post has 3 goals and was SENT to NHTSA for evidence of why Truma needs to do something to fix their defective mfg process. 1) List symptoms we experienced with our Truma and use photos to illustrate the 3 firebox events. 2) Describe 2 different Truma reported manufacturing defects and show photos illustrating those issues. 3) Describe the in field solutions for each of the 2 manufacturing issues. 4) Show a pictures of the current Truma Burner Unit with all Manufacturing updates in place. The attached PDF is in full detail with picture of what is likely the issue or issues causing explosive ignition. Truma Issues.pdf Hope that helps...remember...you need to report this to both Oliver and Truma in order to get any warranty coverage. Craig Short

6 or 7 consecutive for Wyoming. This will be number 21 for consecutive years in either Wyoming, Montana, Idaho or Colorado. Ya just don't know where the "stupid" fish are located! 😉 Bill

USFS Campground Columbine Creek , near Questa New Mexico and Red River. Bighorn sheep hangout along the highway nearby, cool visitor center in Questa New Mexico. Hiking trails in the campground to the Honda Wilderness Restored Catholic Church in Questa where is everyone else 🧐

We're using this.... but it has a hard time turning around when it hits the end of the aisle. The dog stays off the floor when it's running..... Scotty

Thanks for trying to help everyone. I wish Oliver would let us owners have and electrical diagram so we can tell where all the relays and circut breakers are hidden. After countless hours of testing and looking around I finally found a breaker hidden at the bottom of the trailer below the negitive ground terminal on the outside of the battery box. There are two switches on the breaker. One is on the front side and easy to see but, the other is underneath the breaker and is a swing arm thats hard to see. That was the one that popped. Everythings is honky dory now. Thanks again for trying to help....I really appreciated it.

Last year I visited Horse Creek Campground in Wyoming. If you are really adventurous you can continue north all the way to Double Cabin Campground. It's beautiful there, but I didn't tow my Oliver that far; it's a long rough road.

Oh, boy... I'm going to attempt to explain how "the engineers" in drawing this conclusion are naive! A trained and experienced engineer should know there is much more to this than a simple comparison of data sheet specs. 🙃 Please allow me to explain. You could have used your True Induction cooktop every day on your trip, if only they had wired it correctly to the inverter. Your system is just fine for occasional induction cooking. I was hoping you would have rewired it on the road, it's what I would have done, but I do understand the warranty ramifications. I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning using a 10" Smithey skillet on our 1800W DUXTOP induction cooktop. It cannot be much different than your 1750W built-in unit, meaning the numbers I will present will be relative to your True Induction cooktop, 2KW inverter and 260 Ah batteries setup (your solar may vary). This induction burner starts at the medium #5 setting and within seconds the bacon started sizzling, so I turned it down to 3.0. After the bacon was done, I increased the setting to 4.0 and cooked a batch of scrambled eggs. I did not measure cooking time but maybe about 12 minutes total, I'll use 15 minutes to be conservative. You'll be amazed how many actual Ahs it takes to cook a simple bacon-n-egg breakfast or boil a pot of water (wait for the punchline). 😎 Reading such nonsense from "the engineers," the engineer in me had to prove them wrong! So tonight, I went out and plugged in another DUXTOP that we keep in the Oliver to run an amperage use test. When it turns on at the 5.0 setting it quickly ramped up to 68A (DC amps) which comes to 816W (W = 12V x A). Your Xantrex 2KW inverter can handle this with just a low hum. I tested the induction cooktop at all settings (1 - 10). Here are the results! (I'm an IE and used to do this kind of reporting professionally for 30 years.) The first row shows the induction cooktop settings (1 - 10). The second row shows Amps produced by our Victron MP2 inverter, read from the Victron Connect app. The third row shows Watts calculated (amps x 12V). The fourth row titled %Spec is the actual Watts used divided by the 1800W maximum. Note on FULL this induction burner pulls watts at ~80% of spec. We call that a 1.25x engineering margin, therefore... Your inverter will NEVER use 1750W! The actual maximum will be closer to 1400W on FULL which can boil a 5-qt pot of water in just minutes. I could not read actual amps out of the inverter for any setting less than 5.0. For example, at the 3.0 setting the amp reading ramped up to about 60A for a second and then wound down, then repeated this pattern. I believe the heating element is not capable of a lower amp setting, so it would turn ON and quickly OFF to some timed algorithm. More OFF time than ON as the settings go lower. This is likely why the unit starts up at the 5.0 setting. In the table above, the amp readings in BOLD are actual readings, the lower numbers calculated. There is an obvious linear relationship, so I used a graphical extrapolation method to calculate amps for settings 1.0 through 4.0 which looks like this: Let me tell you how many Ahs I used to cook breakfast this morning! Estimating 15 minutes cook time, half of that at setting 3.0 (40A) and half at 4.0 (52A), so on average I used 46A for 15 minutes. Isn't it amazing, the technology where it is today, that I used only 12 Ahs to cook breakfast! (46A x .25hr = 11.5 Ah) On the #10 setting, you cook boil a large pot of water for pasta in say 10 minutes. This would use 20 Ah of your 260 Ah batteries. You could simmer a red sauce, chili or any fresh made soup for 2 hours on the 1.0 setting using 28 Ah. Sorry, you're under powered to get into the food truck business, but quick meals 2-3 times a day, np. Our 10-year-old less efficient 320W rooftop solar nets +12A when mostly sunning. This means an hour after breakfast in our hull SOC / Total Ahs would be back to where it was just before we cooked breakfast. Your 2K inverter and 260 Ah is just fine for your "Baby Ollie." We couldn't live on it, but I demand induction cooking while Chris toasts bread in the Emeril Oven and we stay cool running the Chill Cube A/C, on our 3KW inverter and 900 Ah. Please don't retrofit to an LP burner. Induction cooking is FAST, well measured, it's just GREAT! In our home kitchen, Chris now uses a single-burner induction cooktop regularly while our GE 4-burner natural gas cooktop sits idly by! 🤣 She can't be without it, now that she knows it. Just ask @Ollie-Haus, who convinced me to buy ours! Just get OTT to rewire your circuit breakers so that induction cooking and everything else is on the inverter circuit except for air conditioning (or have any electrician do it). Thanks for allowing me to learn with you tonight. It was fun "engineering" again! Going into this study, I had no idea the numbers would be this good! 😎 When we need advice, our forum is the place, great collective knowledge here! We thank OTT for providing us this platform. We should expect the company to continue manufacturing the best fiberglass hulls in the travel trailer marketplace, no doubt! 🤗

Would be pure speculation. When we sold our previous LE I, the new owner got spreadsheets and the handwritten logbook that's like an airplane's log. We didn't receive anything like that, just some vague contradictory statements about how little the trailer had traveled and the distant places that they had visited. Based on several other items (shocks, refrigerator, plumbing) I have my opinions and speculations. I have tried to go through (with the help of the smart people on this forum) each system and bring it up to better than specs. Bulldog shocks, new refregerator, etc. I also try to give back with designs for installing the GasStop units on an LE I and will eventually get around to posting my refrigerator fan design that has a temp sensor to run the exhaust fans when needed. The reason we purchased an Oliver is the community, the bunch of experienced travelers and engineers that will see a panic message on a Saturday afternoon and start throwing out helpful and thougtful troubleshooting tips. Besides the incredible engineering and reliability of our trailers, it's the community that sets our Oliver apart from the Grand Design sitting across from us and the Apex next door. Wow - this response got off topic. Road brain, or possibly the wide open spaces of Wyoming out the window.

Reset 2.0 (Hull 1364) just spent its first night (with us) in Utah. The Flaming Gorge area is absolutely beautiful. This trips pass list so far includes: Raton Pass (NM) 7,834 ft Monarch Pass (CO) 11,312 ft Douglas Pass (CO) 8,205 ft

This is in the beautiful US Choctaw Lake NF campground, located in central Mississippi. It is full of songbirds, lush and lovely.

Sold my emotional support tent to an outfitter 🙁🙁🙁 It was painful but the funds can go toward the Alcan upgrade where is everyone? we hiked some Crested Butte and Gothic Colorado trails today and the mountain flowers are just starting to bloom, July is the big blooming season they say Crested Butte is the Saint Moritiz of Colorado

It's a lesson to all of us to always have a spare set of shorts handy for occasions like this. 😜

Perhaps I am beating a dead horse on this subject and thread but wanted to add a few things that might be of interest to those with Lippert 8800 series of windows. This past week I ordered 3 sample packs from Steele Rubber in NC which includes many if not all of their rubber weather stripping and glass sliding seals they manufacture. They arrived today. The samples seem to be well made, albeit very expensive for what they are. On my unit the outer most rubber w/s does not nor has it ever touched the sliding glass window and in fact misses the glass by a full 1/8th of an inch. Needless to say our windows were more like a sieve than a sealed window. Weeps holes do little to nothing to mitigate the incoming water during heavy rains. For those of you who need to replace their exterior rubber w/s for what ever reason the part # I have ordered is 70-4500-257 and this sample does indeed provide a relatively tight seal against the sliding window. This part also has a tighter fit in the channel, a good thing. No doubt the wrong w/s was installed on our windows given its rather loose fitting in addition to it not being wide enough to seal against the sliding window. Effectively the original does nothing at all to seal water. Steele Rubber company has a huge amount and variety of gaskets and seals making it nearly impossible to determine the correct fit without the sample packs. They also produce a much different type of glider seal/track that appears to be better and less likely to allow further leakage into the window channels. The ones that came with these windows do nothing to prevent water from entering into the channels and dripping into the cabin. The part # for that item has conflicting information between the website and the sample pack ID's they sent. It is either 70-3577-58 or 70-3577-256 come in 8ft lengths and priced at nearly $49 for each length. The exterior w/s piece is sold by the foot at $7 per foot. In addition to the effort of sealing the windows I have also finally added gutters over the windows. I put this off for a long time mainly because I didn't have faith in these small channels being effective during a downpour. I also installed them a bit different than most by gently curving the ends diagonally away from the window. The sharp bend pointing toward the ground never made sense to me and also caulked above and under the J channel to provide a longer lasting seal, hopefully. Thanks, hope this helps some others

I just finished updating my blog pages to include some parts that have become hard to find for our older 2019 Elite II. I've been maintaining this guide for 3 years and many parts and equipment specific to Oliver EI and EII trailers are included. For example...the grommets for the stove that were used in many trailers from 2019-2024 or so.. I listed them in the Oliver Outfitters guide in both the "Oliver Outfitters" main page and in the Kitchen Gear sub category as shown below: Here's the link to the overall page: Oliver Outfitters Guide on Amazon Full Disclosure for Moderators and Viewers: I do make a small amount if people by off this page, it's averaged $3/month...so not big beans. Mostly I'm trying to chronicle parts, pieces, gear that is used or needed by many Oliver Owners. Craig

Update: Water pump switch has been fixed. I was in Hohenwald for a furnace and water heater issue so I had them troubleshoot and fix as we are still under warranty. The issue ended up being a loose connector on the Seelevel switch. Mike and the Oliver service department were great in addressing all of our issues.

UPDATE: As you can see from my first post, we experienced the issue captured in the video late on Saturday the 30th. After reading the information provided above, and doing a little more research, I called and opened a ticket using the forum link to the ticketing system, called Oliver customer support and left a voicemail, and lastly I sent the video in an email to support@olivertraveltrailers.com with a copy to one of the leadership team. Sunday AM: I received an email from Oliver asking for the model and serial number of the Truma, which I promptly sent. Monday AM (8:30ish) : I called customer support at Oliver and I barely got out my name when the tech said, "oh yes, you were the first topic at our team meeting this morning. You should expect a call from someone on the leadership team to help resolve this." An hour or so later, sure enough, I received a call, and the ball was rolling. A full explanation of the plan to get us back up and running with hot water was laid out. (Note: My Aquago was not in the range of serial numbers that were part of the recall, but the plan we were executing assumed that it was. More on that later.) I was in Pennsylvania the day the issue occurred. I was in Buffalo NY headed to Rochester, when I received the first call on Monday. Oliver gave me several options for where I could have the burner swapped out, and we chose an RV facility in Rochester since we planned to be there for 3 days. Oliver next day aired the part, worked with the RV store to schedule the repair, and the work was completed Wednesday, and we were on our way - WITH hot water. 🙂 For the record, my AquaGo is under warranty. Whether or not the issue is the same one addressed with the recall, I don't know. I will let Oliver and Truma work that out, but it appears to be a different issue. Bottom line, Oliver went above and beyond on this one. There was one individual who was in the driver's seat at Oliver, and she will have a thank-you card and a small gift on the way as soon as we get to a stop where we can make that happen. We are grateful for the response and count ourselves lucky to be part of the Oliver family. Bob P.S. It probably helped to provide a video of a fireball on the side of the trailer. 🙂 Nevertheless, good job, Oliver.

This morning while doing a full systems ‘go’ inspection on Hull #634 XPLOR, I discovered when I configured the Truma water heater valve to the ON position, an impressive stream of water shot directly out of the Truma filter exterior housing. After a little troubleshooting, I removed the filter and discovered that inside the filter housing, a small black round piece of plastic had blown out of the filter housing. This rendered the filter useless. We have had 5.5 years of trouble-free service from our tankless Truma and this was a first. We like our Aqua Go. I am posting this in the event anyone should have the same issue with their Truma filter. I have the optional antifreeze filter which works in a pinch as a back up. If you do not have the optional antifreeze filter as a back up, you will be stuck like Chuck with no hot water. In order for the Aqua Go to work, it has to have the filter element. I contacted Oliver Service and ordered a OEM replacement and an extra back filter up of the exact one you see in the below pics. “Two is one and one is none.” 🫡🇺🇸 Replacement filters are $95.00 plus shipping. Thank you Mike Sharpe for getting my new filters shipped out. The tiny piece of plastic that broke loose. Here is the filter that failed. You should not be able to look through your filter. The arrow points to where this tiny piece blew out. There is no way to repair it. I pass this on, so that if you have this issue you can just replace the filter with a new one.

Oliver's response has been outstanding. We are working together to address the issue. More to follow when I have a chance to provide a detailed update. Bob

Got this working yesterday, using the screws supplied with the light on top and hardware I had in the shop to attach the bottoms. It looked hodgepodge today. I really should fab a proper bracket, but for now I just wanted to fix its appearance. Went to the local HW store and got four short 4mm countersink screws and two Nylok nuts and washers. I had to countersink the brackets further to get the screws flush. The assembly is much better, but now that the light is taller, I noticed two things. The base bracket looks cheap now that you can fully see it. And the height is right at the belly line where the hulls meet, so visually it's not good. It looked better shorter, but now the light is where you need it. If I was to do this again, first I would use the great idea @Steph and Dud B made above; to grab power and use the light switch on the jack. Second I would fab a proper bracket a bit shorter than this one and push it forward a couple inches to get the required angle. Then it's not up against the hull belly line and will look better. It's too late for me re the first idea, but I'll do the latter when I source the right stainless steel stock. Looks like one of those Star Wars robots! It's all the light we'll need to hitch-up and load or unload the truck in the dark when necessary. We now have proper exterior lighting on all four sides! 😎

I took a trip to Oliver on Tuesday with a prospective buyer. While we were looking at the 2027 model the salesman started the Dometic Freshjet, It was almost as quiet as the Truma AC in my Elite ll. We could easily converse with it running.

Some things need to be said. I am no tire expert but I can see at most a $500 savings per trailer using these tires. Offset that with the negative publicity, and now having to manage customers who order a new trailer and specify what brand of tire will be on it.... I don't see the benefit. The money does not move the profit margin needle all that much. Plus... how can you boast of a "Best in Class" trailer and put these tires on it. Unless I am mistaken, Oliver sells every trailer it can make in a given production year. Maintaining a healthy profit margin is important but at what cost? To my knowledge there was no official communication on the spring failure issue. Huge miss. There are other things too. Oliver has built not only a wonderful trailer but has "over the top" brand loyalty from it's products owners. I feel that sometimes we are reluctant to discuss the companies shortfalls. Maybe that is a mistake. Maybe Oliver is not getting the feedback it needs to hear because we are loyal owners. Even now I am thinking... should I hit "submit reply" or not. How does a company with such awesome brand loyalty loose it? Gradually.... and then all at once. I hope not.

Sorry for being so negative. We truly love our Oliver. China tires on an Oliver really got me.

I've never heard of a Blueitti. However there are a similar issues with a Jackery. They have what's called a floating neutral. Also common in some generators. So yes, a floating neutral requires a neutral to ground bonding plug. Otherwise the Electrical Management System (EMS) will see it as an open ground. But there is a problem. Many (if not all) of these power packs have no reference to ground what-so-ever. So the "u-ground" pin hole of the receptacle is not connected to anything, it's just an open hole. So a neutral to ground bonding plug wouldn't connect to anything in the ground pin hole, and it won't work. Now that I've confused everyone, including myself, there is a bypass trick. Use a 1-outlet to 3-outlet adapter, or an extension cord with a "Wye" that provides 3 extra outlets to plug into. Plug the neutral to ground bonding plug into one the extra outlets to effectively bond the neutral and ground... despite there being no ground on the power pack. Cool huh. This is one of many reasons to have a $10 plug-in circuit tester, the ones with three lights that show various conditions such as open grounds. I recommend you test all circuits when rigging such power supplies. Cheers! Geoff

JD1923...What a great explanation based on your experiment and knowledge. This makes sense to me. We do not cook full meals or use a stove top for very long in our camper. Big stuff like meats, grilled veggies and such are outside on our griddle and that is only a handful of times when we camp. Hot water for coffee, eggs, pancakes, is more like what we make on the stove top; and it is just the two of us. This is so helpful. We are experienced campers and are good at conserving energy and water. We certainly don't live in the camper or even spend much of the day in the camper. Time to share information with Oliver. THANKS. These forums are GOLD.

The plot thickens. Louis Rossmann weighs in. https://youtu.be/lrORu-N6erY?is=OYjAWpKF-BPF1lrE

Our Oliver turned 10 last month. We will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this coming Friday. Time flies. Mike

AND - IF all of this is true (I suspect it is true), we just might get our "classified section" back here on the Forum. Bill

The Oliver factory sales is the best way to go. The factory is honest and very helpful, always a great experience. Nice people there.

We don’t setup a waste line at campsites. We're never in one place for more than 5 nights and I don't deal with those fancy waste ladders which I associate with Class A RVers, who stay long with full hookups! 🤣 Instead we dump on arrival (often coming from boondocking) and on departure. When dumping, you must have the Oliver up in the front AND on the curbside. I use the LevelMate at the dump station to bring the front up a good +2" over level. Some may not know, the gray tank is on the curbside, with its outlet drain facing the streetside. If your Oliver is any lower on the curbside, your gray tank can be quite full after you thought you dumped tanks! I use an 8" Anderson block to lift the curbside jack so that it is at least +1" above level. Tanks are then fully emptied. This picture was taken at a dump station in Cedar City UT. I had to back in, so there was no other approach. You can see all what I had to do to lift the front! What's not pictured is the curbside jack is also lifted. Isn't RV life wonderful?! 😎

My black tank dump valve was hard to close from day 1, March 14, 2018. During the Summer of 2018 I found the installation instructions for the cable and valve and realized that it was at best a marginal install. I pulled the cable out and lubed it with a dry type lubricant and straightened the kink in the very end of the cable where the factory had screwed the set screw in and barely caught the end of the cable and bent it into the hole opposite the threaded set screw hole. This caused the cable to be slightly bowed which didn’t help the situation (See A and B below) and didn’t make valve closure any better. I also noticed that the clamp on the frame above the valve was broken and didn’t properly secure the cable sheath. I could get some clamping force but not enough to suit me. Given this and the fact that the cable/sheath/clamp length and position relationship weren’t going to permit full closure of the blade (if you have worked on bicycle brakes, throttle cables, choke cables you know what I mean) I decided to modify the clamp portion of the frame above the valve. I disassembled the frame and drilled the hole where the sheath is clamped through the bottom of the frame (See C and D below). I used a drill size that would create a tight fit of the sheath in the clamp hole. I reassembled everything, pushing the sheath lower in the frame (which also allowed me to push the end of the cable down past the set screw in the plunger) and this permitted the blade to completely close. Now with the valve closing completely I wasn’t having water in the sewer hose when I went to hook it up at a campsite but it was still difficult to open and close the valve due to the routing of the cable. Winter of 2020, I finally accepted that manual operation of the dump valve wasn’t going to be as smooth as I expected it to be so I ordered (2) stainless steel knobs from McMaster Carr, drilled and tapped them to fit on the opposite end of the cables, and installed them in place of the Valterra handles that came on the trailer. This made it easier to pull and push the cables without concern about breaking the handles. I think it was Spring 2021 when I talked to the service department about my findings and what I had done and that I still wasn’t pleased with the force required to operate the valve and that I thought it was due to the cable routing. They offered to relocate the black tank dump valve and since the sheath clamp part of the frame was broken I took them up on their offer. The service department relocated my black tank dump valve as shown below. This resulted in the valve assembly being tilted about 75 degrees from the vertical to the street side and the cable was rerouted from under the dinette seats to the street side of the dinette seat. This resulted in an improvement in valve operation, not perfect, but it is an improvement. Valve location before After, showing only the 1.5 inch sink/shower drain valve New location of the valve showing also the new routing of the cable I hope that this information is helpful to those trying to improve the operation of the black tank dump valve. I also hope my high school English teachers don’t read this. They would be appalled. Bill Very early 2018 Hull 313

Lesson learned. So after a little deeper dive into cause and effect of how my water filter failed, I learned the following. Last fall when we winterized, I turned off the water supply to the Truma. I went out and pulled the yellow lever down, pulled the filter out and drained all of the water out of the Truma tank. With the system and the tank drained, I reinserted (error on my part) the Truma filter and it must have had a tiny amount of residual water near the internal plastic sacrificial disk inside the filter which resulted in it freezing and then cracking. If I had completely removed the filter and stored it inside the Oliver as I have done for the past 5 yrs, I likely would not be needing a replacement filter. Important to note, the Truma tank system was completely void of water with exception of what residual was in the filter housing which was apparently just enough to cause the sacrificial disk to do what it is suppose to do…fail. To complete my inspection of the Truma hot water tank, I temporarily used my winterization filter and the system worked as designed. We had the system set at 120d within about 8-10 seconds we had unlimited hot water in the galley and shower. Here is what I learned -open source- If your Truma AquaGo filter (or Easy Drain Lever) blew out, gushing water from the housing, the internal plastic disc or O-rings likely failed. This is almost always caused by residual water freezing and expanding inside the housing, or the O-rings being misaligned. [1, 2, 3, 4] The Fix You cannot repair a broken filter assembly with glue or tape due to the system's high water pressure. You will need to replace the entire filter/drain assembly. [1, 2, 3] Depressurize the system: Turn off your RV water pump or city water supply, and open a hot water faucet to relieve the pressure. Remove the old filter: Lift the thumb latch on the easy drain lever to drop the assembly down. Inspect the housing: Look inside the chamber for any leftover pieces of broken black plastic. Install the replacement: Pop the new filter cartridge into place and snap the lever back up to lock it. [1, 3] How to Prevent It Truma designed the filter to fail (break) first to prevent the internal mixing vessel from freezing and causing a $2,000+ tank replacement. During winterization, always make sure you pull the yellow lever, remove the filter cartridge, and drain the water entirely. Do not reinstall the filter until you are ready to use the RV in the spring.

San Isabel National Forest , Cascade Campground near Buena Vista Colorado Gonna hit the nearby hiking trails, Ghost Town of Saint Elmo, Hot Springs Got the hang of the Ford 10 speed on mountain passes tow haul mode only , select M , 2nd gear off the top

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry I haven’t updated sooner. We have been boondocking for several days. I have been in communication with support at Oliver. At first they didn’t understand why it wasn’t working. As they investigated they reported that it appears that the stovetop does pull 1800 w and overloads the 2000 w inverter. The only other major draw is the refrigerator. Even when I turn that off, the stovetop does not come on. I stopped at a Bass Pro the first day to pick up a small 2 burner propane stove so we could at least have coffee in the morning. Not what I was planning when camping. If I had known I would have asked for the propane stove instead of the induction stove. We have the Platinum pkg and I did ask sales at the dealer if people liked the induction stove and if I could use it boondocking. Answer was that it works. I noticed that the induction cooktop comes standard on the Legacy 2026. This isn’t working for us as designed. I have asked for this to be resolved…proper inverter set up or a propane stove retro fit. If you do much camping at Harvest Hosts, BLM, National Forrest, National Parks, etc. w/o hookups, it is a problem unless you run a generator. When we return from our travels we will see where Oliver lands on this. They are considering possible “upgrades” to our camper. I wouldn't see a resolution as upgrades, but will find out. When hooked up to shore power, the cooktop works great. But so far for us, most of our trip, was making coffee or cooking outside on a portable propane stove.

I apologize for not posting a resolution sooner. I changed the inverter circuit breaker for new. Hard to find. Home Depot website only. Charging issue resolved. My theory is a washboard road in and out of 11 Mile Reservoir State Park CO. Who knows?! Thank you for all your knowledge. Mark

Getting ready to leave at near the end of the month (June) for the rest of the summer. Got to get all of those "honey do's" done first!🥰

TECHNICAL SUPPORT TEAM answered my question -- I will leave it here, for others who might be asking the same. When you plan to decalcify the Truma AquaGo Water Heater AND Sanitize the plumbing system, there is a specific order that this should be done. It's logical, but I wasn't sure about any potential chemical reactions between the one (Truma Decalcification Tablets) and the other (a diluted water & bleach solution). FIRST -- complete the Decalcification process. Then flush the system with clean water. SECOND -- Sanitize the system. REMEMBER to put the system into BYPASS CONFIGURATION for the Water Heater during the Sanitization process. After Sanitization, flush the system TWICE with clean water. THIRD -- Fill the tank with fresh water Shout-out to Chris with Oliver's Technical Department for helping me out with this question this morning.

Where's the snow in CO and where's the gator in MS?