Leaderboard

I too would like to thank Buzzy for spearheading this discussion. I know that his knowledge was hard won out of necessity but it is totally unselfish of him to share it so graciously. And, while I'm at it, another big thanks goes out to Steve (Scubarx) for all his help and knowledge on similar items. Bill

George, First off, thank you for offering to share your experiences with the Blue Sky gear. I want to take a moment to confirm the problem as described in your initial posting to this thread. As I understand, your Battery Capacity screen would record a less than full percentage, such as 75 percent, and your monitor would not show your system returning to 100 percent unless you were plugged into shore power. Is that a correct statement of the problem? It will be important to continue our work on the solar system without the use of shore power. I will add, it is important to the life of the AGM batteries that you not draw down the Battery Capacity reading to 50 percent or less. Also, you should be cautious about dropping the volt reading on the Battery Volt/Amp screen to 12.1 or less. (This knowledge was obtained from the Technical Support Engineer at Trojan Battery Corporation.) As an aside, when you are connected to shore power or when running a generator, the inverter would be regulating the voltage to the batteries at a level of 13.5 volts. That process would mask any efforts to identify the solar system issues. Your observations indicate you have obtained a reading of 21.3 volts coming from the PV array to the controller. I assume you obtained that reading from using your multi-meter on the controller terminals after removing the controller cover panel. Is that correct? You also indicate a reading of 13.2 volts. I assume you used your multi-meter to obtain the voltage going through the controller to the batteries. Is that correct? I assume this work was performed without shore power. Correct? You also indicate the Charge Status light (I assume you are referring to the light on the monitor panel.) remains lite for an extended period. This would indicate you are in Bulk status regarding your charge cycle. At this point could you describe the values on two screens? Battery Capacity and Battery Amp-Hrs From Full. I believe your goal will be to restore the Battery Capacity to 100% and Battery Amp-Hrs From Full to 0 without the use of shore power. (Sorry if this approach is too basic, I am just attempting to help the gentle readers who might be following along on this thread.) As the PV array sends power through the controller to the batteries, we hope to see three variations as indicated on the monitor. (It is important to focus on the Blue Sky IPN ProRemote monitor, since that is the device you need to have operational at the end of your work.) The monitor should show: 1. Fluctuation in the volt reading on the Battery Volt/Amp screen. 2. Changes in the Charge Status light indicating progression from Float to Acceptance to Bulk within the charge cycle. (Please notice markings on the monitor panel for each phase in the cycle.) 3. Increase in the percent for Battery Capacity with the offset reduction in the Battery Amp-Hrs From Full. It would be valuable to minimize too many interventions until we can record the before, during and after readings. As recordings are being collected, you might take a moment to reading the information within the technical manual for the monitor (Blue Sky IPN-ProRemote). We may need you to record the values within the parameters controlling the transition from Float to Acceptance to Bulk. More on that later. George, it would be wise to contact Boz at some point in the future since he may be very helpful to you. I also hope Steve (ScubaRX) will jump on this thread as time permits. The work you are performing will be valuable in any communication with Boz or Steve. If possible, you might consider posting pics to confirm your observations. So far so good? Buzzy

Good news :) We received a bunch of boxes today and one of them was the new Bathroom Door. It took maybe 10 to 15 minutes to replace, it was real easy. This door is a lot stiffer then the old door that broke. From day 1 the old door was wobbly and this one is real solid. So we are thinking that it must have been cracked or weakened before it was ever sent to Oliver in the first place because you couldn't see any difference between them. I did also notice that the screws in the door plate were loose today, so I tightened them as well. Then the other boxes were our used Cobb Grill that we won on eBay over the weekend. It looks like it was used once and then someone took it into the Salvation Army and then they put it on eBay with a starting bid of $50... Karen was the only bidder, everything was still new and in the original boxes :) So today was a great day :)

Back in the Day when there were only a dozen or so owners, we used to be able to camp inside the factory if we were having some work done on our happy little 17 footers (which are now called 18.5 footers due to the tounges we extended). It was surreal being able to wander amongst the crates of supplies and the handful of Ollies that might be in gestation. It was during one of those wanderings that the Technomadias came upon a box of silver support poles which were clearly marked "Stripper Poles", letting us know someone indeed was reading our cavalier banter on the forums. Well, things have moved along and tightened up a bit (which they probably should have) so alas, those serendipitous finds are not in the cards anymore. Sigh. It would be prudent to stay in the local area two nights so the rapid response team could help ensure your Ollie is the best it can be before you roll home.

By all means, if you can at least two days. I'm six months into mine and I still don't know how to set the clock. We we're three days before we realized the water hook up in the galley was reversed. Like someone said too bad you can't camp at the factory.

I planned for an extra day at Fall Hollow. We ended up needing it. While we were testing the Andersen Hitch at the factory we discovered an electrical short preventing trailer back up lights from coming on which required replacing the furnace. If you have the flexibility I would build in an extra day. Mike

We spent 3 more days at Fall Hollow only because we drove solid for 5 days to get there and we were worn out from the long days on the road and then Karen got the flu the next day, so full hook ups made a difference plus it was like monsoon season there in February, so we just kicked back in the heavy rain until it quit a few days later and her fever broke. So just play it by ear, especially if it's your first trailer. We were at OTT all day on delivery day fixing, finishing, and adding things on the trailer and then we got to Fall Hollow and set up right at dark. Then Karen spent the next day nursing a fever (Valentines Day) while decorating and setting it up the inside her way. I did what I could outside in the rain and went to town for supplies and took a drive just give her some space to get the feel of her new kitchen, etc... That was over 2 months ago and we are still on our maiden voyage. We've enjoyed it so much that we never made it home and opened the house back up. The one nice thing about full hook ups with the Truma AquaGo Water heater is that you just need to pull the handle on the gray tank and then go shower as long as you want with no limits and no need to worry about running out of water or filling the tanks. It really is our favorite mod with endless hot water :)

It works out of the box. Mine is an older version that doesn't connect to the phone - instead, there's a PC/Mac app that you can use to change the settings if you want, but that's entirely optional. I would think that the new version also works with that app, though the phone app looks like it allows you to do much more than the PC app. If you aren't going to use a smartphone, I think you can still buy the older versions on Amazon, and they're a good bit less expensive. They aren't as bright as the new version, but like I say, mine is more than bright enough for around camp.

I think that the answer to your question depends on how much time you have and how you prefer to do things. After a rather full delivery day, it would be nice to simply relax in your new Ollie. Settle in, get your belongings, bedding, food, etc. in some sort of order, pop a bottle of wine and simply enjoy. Then, the next day, you can set about testing systems and re-learning all the "stuff" that you thought you would remember when it was mentioned during the delivery. As long as you stay in the area much like John plans to do, there will be plenty of time to test all the systems and get back to the factory in the event something needs adjustment. So, you can "do a John", spend two nights at the first camp, or wing it. For what its worth, we spent only one night and then headed to Florida for a week worth of testing. The things that we found that needed adjustment were not found until three or four days after delivery. However, I would still have preferred to stay another night at Fall Hallow (even in the rain and mud) in order to simply be a bit more relaxed. Bill

While I haven't been there yet, my plan is to spend just the first night there with all systems plugged in and running, to make sure it all works. Then move on to a hookup-free site to test the solar and water systems in a "primitive" setting. As other threads here indicate, if you don't test _everything_ how can you be certain it will work when you need it in a week or a month? Meriweather Lewis is FREE and a short distance away but is heavily shaded, so I hear, so it wouldn't be a good place to test solar, but you can do that anywhere the sun shines..... Another option is to explore the surrounding area for a few nights, staying at different places and putting some miles on the Ollie, to make sure it tows as it should. That's my plan. BTW I dislike paying $30+ for a site, especially for one with lots of amenities that I neither need nor want. There are a very few non-commercial places to stay, but they are hard to find in TN and sorely lacking in numbers compared to ours West. All the state parks are heavily commercialized. I guess the government quit spending on them? John Davies Spokane WA

Issue: Galley drawers sliding out during transit Potential Models Impacted: 2016-2017 Information: The current blum slides being used were implemented during the 2016 model year. We have since seen three issues where a kitchen galley drawer has come loose during transit. The blum stays attached to the drawer slide and pulls loose from the drawer itself. Resolution: Process change in the way the drawer is built as well as longer screws being used to ensure this issue does not continue. What Should you do: At this time we have only seen or been made aware of three instances where this has happened. We have the same slides and design in about 127 units. If the issue occurs, please contact our service department at 866-205-2621 so we can assist with the resolution.

Here's a direct link to the Hohenwald Maps - https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=262:18:0::NO:RP:P18_STATE%2CP18_SCALE%2CP18_MAP_NAME%2CP18_MAP_TYPE:TN,100000,67673 Just click the Download GeoPDF file of your choice, or all of them... And DON'T forget to Google it - https://wyeastblog.org/tag/mirror-lake-trail/