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Here it is folks, the first photo from "CAMP FOOD STAMP" 2017 . We are boondocking on lake Ouachita ! We are located about 1/3 of the way down lake Ouachita, with a gentle breeze coming off of the water. Slept with the windows open last night and the fantastic fan on low and it was ever so nice to hear all of the great night sounds coming across the lake !

Betty and I are boondocking at the primitive campground, big fir campground, out on Housley point in Lake Ouachita, Arkansas. Located about 48 miles west of Hot Springs Arkansas, lake Ouachita is about 34 miles long with over 700 miles of shoreline and over one hundred islands. We will be here boondocking and jug fishing using all natural bait, ect.. Our plan is to spend the month enjoying the sounds of Loons across the lake as we sit by the campfire, and as many fish fry's as we can stand. So if it sounds like something you might be interested in, come on by we would enjoy the visit ! Here is a map that shows where we are. Point A is Mount Ida, Arkansas located west of Hot Springs Arkansas on US Hwy. 270. Point B is where we are. Also our phone number should you need more or just want to chat about it. 479.243.5450 harm & bett

Is Oliver still using the Blue Sky IPN charge controller? If so you may check the AMP hours produced by re-setting the total hours to zero then check it after a few hours have passed. More than likely you are producing less PV than you think. The angle of the sun has a lot to do with PV as does any obstruction. Just the shadow of an antenna, AC unit, or Even a cable running across a panel cal disrupt production. As far as consumption goes make sure your inverter is switched off. That could be your largest draw. One thing you might check are the cable sizes.

https://cityofchelan.us/departments/parks-recreation/rv-park/ The pic is looking west toward the lake, which is a couple of hundred yards away. This is very nice but it's $50 per day for full hookup sites, that is rather steep by local standards. It's run by the City of Chelan and is right downtown, close to pretty much any tourist stuff you could imagine: boat rentals, beach, go carts, shops, ranger station, parks etc. It is _insanely_ busy on weekends, not so much mid-week. The pads are short and you can't spill over onto the grass or they will mow it to pieces .... Dogs are forbidden after July 1 though the summer. Our two Labradoodles are OK for this visit. Area info: ... http://www.lakechelan.com ... it's a heck of a nice lake but the accessible southern portions are horribly over developed and getting worse. Escaping uplake in a boat or up into the high and remote mountains in a 4x4 is one way to escape the summer crowds. [attachment file=IMG_2261.JPG] This sort of camping is not my cup of tea - we are staying three nights while my wife attends a business conference in town... the venue is only 0.4 miles away so she walks it easily. John Davies Spokane WA

Hi Doug and Yvonne, Your display looks good to me even though it doesn't match the chart in the manual. I'm willing to bet the chart is wrong. First the digital display: It looks as if you're set up for AGM batteries, your voltage is 13.7 volts and it's showing 100% charge. The left hand 3 LED's from left to right show's On - Off - On. That translates to a fully charged battery on float charge. I'm guessing the right hand 3 LED's are causing the confusion. The left hand LED show On - Off - Off which indicates over 12.5 volts. The chart in the manual for float shows all three LEDs off. I'm guessing that isn't accurate. Hopefully Jason can confirm that with ZAMP. I think the display is correct and the chart in the manual is wrong. Worse case, I'm sure Jason has another controller available so I'd plan on continuing on the trip. I'm appreciate feedback after your visit. (Beverly and I will be at the plant on the 6th to pick up our new trailer.) Brad

I've been using the portable unit for years and it has paid for itself several times. Two years ago while on a caravan to Mexico and Belize I watched two of our crowd plug into pedestal power only to hear some crackling noises as the 240 volts pretty much fried their electrical systems, so checking the pedestal power is a must. These units are somewhat expensive (in the $250 range) but they do that and more and are cheaper than the catastrophic alternative. They also protect from overvoltage/undervoltage by interrupting power as the voltage oscillates during the day like when more RVs plug in and unplug. That's something that is monitored and protected continuously instead of just using a circuit tester before plugging in to the pedestal. The interruptions happened several times a day in some places in Mexico and I've seen it once in the USA. I've since gone to the hardwired version and wired it to protect power from the pedestal as well as from the generator, mostly so I can see how many amps I'm drawing when on generator power. Similar to ScubaRx, I hid the display in one of the overhead cabinets so it's out of the way but easy to get to. Now I don't worry about the unit "walking away" and it turns out to be less expensive than the pedestal-mount version.

Oh the humor, I've read your post and every response and only now did it dawn on me, you mean my trailer. Here is the link to his video, it's long so fast forward till he's inside at least.

If the Renology kit has it's own charge controller, then it shouldn't interfere with the Zamp system. The problem comes if you try to run unregulated panels through the Zamp charge controller, since you may exceed the amperage limit of the controller. Eventually, we're going to add a Victron BMV-700 battery monitor along with our other kit. It's only $145 and should work as a stand alone monitor with the Zamp system, so you might check it out.

Bill, that's a very good suggestion. And he does quality work. Brandi, the only early Oliver I've seen with a sofa was the Whaley Oliver. They accomplished it by having an extra set of cushions made for the small front dinette. I'll see if I can find a photo for you. Sherry

The extra Solar port was not mentioned as an option to us... Honestly after 4 months on the Zamp, I've got to say that I really miss the Trimetrics monitor... I also have the Renogy 100watt Solar Suitcase and I am finding that we need it daily if we park under the trees where we get partial sun most of the day and full sun just off of the street side. Still, I only need to run the generator for an hour every other day, but if I had that option, I would be using it. I keep meaning to call Zamp to see if I can just connect our Suitcase directly to the batteries, without damaging their system but overall, I really miss being able to see the battery percentage and everything else that the Trimetrics offers... http://www.loveyourrv.com/bogart-sc2030-cc-and-trimetric-tm2030-rv-installation/

Reviving an old thread..... I got the Progressive Dynamics surge suppressor with my new Oliver and it came with a "generator plug" and no instructions. It is labeled "For Generator Use Only". When I tried running the trailer off my new (used) Yamaha EF2400ishc (thanks again Mike!) the surge suppressor would not let it connect. I googled the generator plug and came up with this: .... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BYSFQSW/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I321CE0IR3BKDD&colid=1X5H11EH41351 As well as this discussion of why it is needed: .... http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f34/g-n-bonding-plug-28086.html I plugged it into the unused socket on the generator and all is well. That last pic is with the electric water heater (12 amps constant) and the converter (variable amps, lowering with time as the batteries get topped up) running together. It is nice to be able to see the amp load and adjust it as needed at the circuit breaker panel to keep the load reasonable. My Air Command 13.5k (the smaller unit) starts and runs fine at 9 to 10 amps with no other loads and I think I could get away with that and the converter also, as long as I made sure the converter was drawing less than 10 amps and the air conditioner thermostat was turned cold enough that it was not cycling on and off..... I am using a great big 10AWG super duty 15 amp, 25 ft cord and it shrugs off these loads with no sign of overheating. The generator receptacles are 20 amp, not 15. I could just switch the PD box off (bypass mode) and not use the generator plug, but I really like to see the amp draw on the display. I for one would rather it be in the open, with a light shield for night time. Finally, I labeled my breakers with a silver Sharpie so I could see at a glance what they are for, instead of trying to read the tiny printed lables on the door, facing the WRONG DIRECTION. Why doesn't this panel have the hinge on the right (correct) side? John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks, guys, but yes, I do know it is powered and DID have the power (green light) on. We were about 30 miles from Springfield IL, with stations, and nothing. Neighbors with those masts were able to pick up several overair stations. Not terribly important to me except the wife likes to watch Jeopordy and Wheel of Fortune and a happy wife makes a happy Oddesy.

I've seen some other people asking about the refrigerator and I just went through that section in the owners manual and pulled out a bunch of sections and pasted them into 1 sheet that everyone should know. This is my 3rd Dometic and they are great refrigerators but they do have some places that we need to watch. First is the upper door latch, they can break and Little House Customs has plenty of extra and spare parts. I've copied part of their page here- "From LHC" FRIDGE HINGE REPAIR/DAMAGE PREVENTION KIT All too often we hear of the top hinge breaking on the 17" Dometic fridges. This is bad news when it happens because that top hinge is part of that quite expensive door! This stainless steel bracket is easy to install and will repair that broken hinge permanently or prevent it from happening on one that's not yet broken! The very thin profile is nearly invisible when installed. This is a must have for all 17' refrigerators. FRIDGE SPILL CONTAINMENT TRAY Okay, so if you’ve ever spilled milk in the bottom of your fridge, you know you want this and don’t need to read any further. If you haven’t, you still need it but are welcome to read on. This tray is sized to fit the very bottom of all 17” fridges. At 260.15625 cubic inches, it will handily contain an entire gallon of spilled milk while stealing almost zero space in the fridge. You did remember that there are 231 cubic inches in a gallon, right? OK, maybe not but I did... trust me. FRIDGE BUTTON GUARD Who hasn’t bumped the fridge control, switched to DC and run their battery down? This new version is made for us by Charlie Young. It's clear, fits the fridge well and doesn't require removal to operate the buttons. It attaches with clear VHB tape to the control panel. [end of LHC web page additions] Back to the story - The first thing we did with our last trailer was to call and make an appointment at LHC to have them put the additions on that we wanted. We had Larry put the "Damage Prevention Kit" on along with the "Fridge Button guard" and it really gave us a good piece of mind because we do take off through the woods with trailer in tow and park in some amazing places. Bumping the buttons will become a regular thing without the guard installed and I highly recommend it. The new metal door hinge replaces the plastic one that comes with the fridge and will save the door from needing to be replaced if the stock hinge does break. I added the containment tray to this article because I don't remember Karen having on in our fridge :) The only problem that we had with the fridge was caused by me not knowing the voltage limits of the control panel. Even though you're running on gas and thinking that as long as the battery is putting out, it will be ok, this fridge does have it's minimum voltage of 9.6VDC. It will work a few times if your lucky and your batteries drop below that, but if you continue thinking that it will keep it up... Unfortunately that won't happen. With our Casita, we only had one Battery and it worked pretty good most of the time with the one battery. Usually over night it would drop from a full charge of 13.8VDC down to usually 11VDC overnight and this is acceptable. But then I started getting cocky and kept taking it lower and eventually found out that her CPAP machine would run fine down to 9.5VDC before it's low battery cut off would kick in... You can see where I'm going here - because the fridge was on gas, I really wasn't worried about it. So one night when we were parked boondocking I noticed that the trailer hadn't charged back up while we were driving and found that I had not plugged it in all the way because a small piece of gravel had been knocked into the 7-pin connector. So we were now going to be starting off the night at only 11.5VDC even after running the generator. The CPAP kicked off and woke up Karen,and the voltage had dropped to 8.7VDC and that's when our refrigerator problem started. I could hear the pilot igniter probe clicking on and off, trying to relight the fridge but it wasn't working at all on propane but it worked fine on AC or DC... ANd that's what we used to get home along with our cool box that we keep in the back of the car. An old friend of mine up here is a Mobile RV mechanic, so I gave him a call and he came right over. Then after pulling it apart and looking things over, he found that the main relay on the board wouldn't pull in, so the propane wasn't getting the signal to start. So I ordered the new board and that was that. The Moral of the story here is - Know the fridges limitations... In the attachment, I've pulled out the basics and then some from the Dometic Owners Manual. It would be best for everyone to read the entire manual and then use this page if needed as a reference, but either way, if you read this, you will have a real good understanding of your Dometic Refrigerator. Reed Lukens Copy it, Paste it and Save it to your Oliver Maintenance Files :)