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First, Kudos to John Davies for discovering this problem. Second, Kudos to Oliver for a detailed description of the problem and solutions, and their willingness to pay for an RV tech to check out and correct the problem. When John first posted about the problem I went and looked at my ollie. This end of the inverter is not visible from the compartment opening. So I used this telescoping mirror doodad I had in my home toolbox. I could see the cable connected to the terminal, and I felt okay that the unit was grounded. When Matt Duncan posted details about the problem I realized that I did not know whether my grounding cable had a flat washer installed between the ring terminal and the inverter. I could not see well enough back there. So I went back to the trailer and put my cell phone down there and took enough photos that a few were in focus. Hmm. Not clear. I see this metal ring, indicated with the red arrow. Is that a flat washer, or part of the terminal on the inverter chassis? I am going to have to unscrew the nut to answer this question. Oliver offered to pay for an RV tech to look at this, which is really good. But I figured I could handle this, saving Oliver $150 and avoiding the hassle of scheduling the RV tech. Matt Duncan’s instructions had a bunch of good safety guidelines. Pop the circuit breaker, unplug 30 amp power cord, disconnect battery cables from the inverter. I did not do any of those. My Ollie is under cover when in storage, so no solar when in storage, so I have a battery disconnect switch. With the battery disconnected, I figured there are no electrons coming into the inverter, and so I did not follow any of Matt’s procedures for electrical isolation. (If I am wrong about this safety consideration, I know a wiser forum user will speak up!) I used a 10 mm socket wrench to loosen the nut, and then hand loosened the nut further, being careful not to take it all the way off and have nuts and washers spill to the bottom of the compartment. I could not convincingly determine whether my unit contained the problematic washer, either by touch or with my mirror. However, a cell phone photo shows that the metal ring is part of the terminal on the inverter chassis. No washer. Tighten up the nut, and all is good.

I've updated the Technical Service Bulletin. They have been emailed and will be mailed by USPS first-class mail today. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/inverter-ground/

I changed out my Xantrex 2000 watt inverter due to a warranty claim. I found that the required Chassis Ground cable was never installed. It’s the small center terminal between the two large Positive and Negative battery cables, between the two cooling fans. You can just reach in with your hand and feel for a heavy gage wire there, or use a small inspection mirror. The installation manual specifically requires a BIG cable here, minimum size 8AWG which is pretty hefty. They suggest that one the same size as the other two cables be used. There is a potential danger of shock (“Death or severe injury”) if the unit should fail without a chassis ground. Max load is 250 amps for this unit. That is a heck of a lot of current, so huge wires are required. I used a pair of 4 AWG battery cables and installed crimped and soldered terminals. You can make a cable yourself, if you have the skills and knowledge. If you don’t feel OK about this, a professionally crimped cable should be installed. I ran the cables forward to the battery box support column, using a 5/16” bolt and self locking nut. I used an existing hole that was missing it’s hardware. ;( That support is welded at the bottom to the left main frame rail, so it is an excellent ground point. I alerted Oliver Service and requested that they issue a service bulletin and send out cables as needed to all affected owners. Here is my fix: Please inspect your inverter ASAP and respond here, and submit a Service Request if needed. [attachment file=Xantrex Chassis Ground 01.png] [attachment file=Xantrex Chassis Ground 02.png] Install Manual: http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Power-Inverters/PROwatt-SW/975-0529-01-01_Rev-B(PROWatt%20SW%20Inverter%20NA).pdf John Davies Spokane WA

Try Mike’s LP and RV in Maplewood, MN. It’s a family run small business. Don’t expect anything corporate about them. Father and son do the repairs. Mother keeps the books. Grand kids running around. It’s nice to see them make it work. I teach high school in the area and two of their boys spent a considerable amount of time in my shop. Great people. Mike’s replaced the refrigerator on my EII when Oliver sold it to me with a unit that was dead on initial delivery. Oliver wanted (and got) a full day for issue diagnosis from me, plus they wanted me to stay at least another two days to get the replacement unit installed. I called Mikes LP from the parking lot in Hohenwald, made an appointment, and hit the road back to Minnesota without a working refrigerator on my brand new travel trailer. I had places to be and was so ticked off at Oliver for delivering a unit with a totally dead refrigerator, killing two days at a hotel in Hohenwald was unacceptable. How could the both factory QC checks and delivery prep miss that the refrigerator was DOA? Mikes is an authorized service center for just about everything in the RV industry. Mine was the second Oliver they’d worked on. And the refrigerator replacement only took one day at Mike’s. HTH, Ken

The isolation valve under the front dinette does a great job of preventing grey water from sloshing up through the shower drain when towing ...... BUT it also blocks off the vent system. So the only way for the grey tank to vent is through the kitchen sink. I have had “burping” occur on fast high mountain climbs, where the tank sends stinky smells up through the water trap as the air inside expands quickly. Plus the main sink is really slow to drain unless you pull the handle. And dumping the tank is much slower without it open. Leaving the kitchen sink plugged may help with burping, but then the draining issue is much worse. A second 1 inch or larger vent line that bypasses the valve, loops high (to prevent fluid passage) and tees into the vent lines under the front vanity would help things work correctly. I know that a long low tank design has inherent problems, but the system could work much better. Comments? John Davies Spokane WA,

Thanks for sharing your experience. There is no reason for me to reinvent the wheel at every turn. We’ve been driving around Europe for the past 17 months in a camper van that has a 159” wheelbase and is 250”, or 20’10” long. The cars, roads, and parking lots/spaces are much smaller here than in the US so it’s been an issue and my skills at driving in close proximity to objects and using my side mirrors have improved greatly. We’ll be returning to the US in December to start the shopping for a tow vehicle and caravan, aka travel trailer. The Oliver is our current favorite but you can only learn so much online and need to see it. Same with the truck, and I’ll need to drive and park it a few times. We’ll be traveling full time in the US and Canada, including driving the ALCAN, for a few years since 3 years ago, before we started our World Tour, we sold our house, car, etc., and retired, so we are literally “homeless and unemployed”! But not destitute. :-) It’s very liberating.

While killing some time I went to the Tractor Supply down the road from the showroom in Hohenwald the day after picking up our trailer and also bought the same pin with handle shown above. Twice between TN and MN I took a sharp turn and crushed the handle. The first time I straightened it out, the second time I just cut the handle portion off. I continue to use the modified TS pin because even without the handle because most of the time it’s easier to remove. Last week I had to take the TS pin to a wire brush and clean up some corrosion. It no longer easily slid through the holes in the whale tail. The black coating on the pin had bubbled up Beware, there is a reason the stock pin has a small end on it and not a handle. With the handle there could be interference issues at extreme ends of motion. And the plating on the stock pin is better than the coating on the TS pin. I could have bought a new one at TS since, but decided it wasn’t the upgrade I thought it was.

Here is another photo of the area mentioned south of Wall including our LEII, our Land Cruiser, my wife, a cell tower, our closest neighbors, and wild mountain goats on the hillside under our trailer. Great place to park for the night. Ken

Nice post. Very timely for a fellow 2013 Land Cruiser owner. I picked up our new trailer on this past Monday from the factory with our Land Cruiser. By Wednesday my travel partner and I figured out that the trailer plug was being ripped out of the SUV trailer socket in tight left turns. The first time we thought it was an accident, the second time it happened we stopped to think more about it. The third time was on purpose and was witnessed while executing a tight left turn to get out of a parking lot. The factory supplied cord is too short for a Land Cruiser. Luckily I’d packed the extension I’d made for my former trailer when I had the same problem (even worse) with my old Toyota 4Runner. We got home without damaging anything. Nice junction box find. I’m going to order one up. Thanks John.