Leaderboard

I very seldom make posts other than to individuals on the forum but I thought this was worth passing along today. We picked up hull 836 in June of 2021 and we have logged 10,400 miles on her to date. Yesterday I had the wheel bearings re-packed for the first time which I believe is well within the recommended timing for doing so. If I remember correctly the interval for doing this work is one year or 12,000 miles? I was very surprised to find that the bearings were nearly dry of grease. The service location and I could find no visible damage to the bearings or axle shafts but if I had not done this preventive maintenance now I doubt I would have survived a longer trip without finding myself stranded on the side of the road somewhere. I have an obsession while traveling at every stop walking around the trailer and putting my hands on the wheel drums to check if any are warm. Doing this I had consistently found one of the drums to be hotter than all the rest. I had thought that perhaps one of the brake pads had been hanging up a bit so I specifically asked my service folks to check that while they had the wheels off to re-pack the bearings. There was no issue found with the brakes but that particular bearing was the driest of the four and that is likely what was producing the heat. I will probably drop a note to Jason on this at Oliver in case there may be some systemic problem with the Dexter axle supply. Not sure if Oliver packs the bearings or they just come in from Dexter pre-packed. At any rate I would encourage all to get your bearings checked and repacked sooner than later if you were in last summers crop of new trailers. Mike

When I repacked my 2021 E2 bearings (hull #709), I found a heaping amount of grease still intact in the bearings/races and also a fair amount in the space between then, fwiw. Doesn't mean there wasn't a systemic issue that may have effected other units, but FTR I didn't see it on our trailer. As an aside this strikes me as a job that I'd be more than happy to pay a reasonsable fee to have someone else do for me in the future (not my idea of a fun day, and I don't think I'll ever get super efficient given how infrequently I'd ever be doing it), but I wanted to learn how this stuff all fits together and how to do this myself in case I find myself needing to replace bearings on the road (I didn't replace the cones/cups this time but I thin I'm pretty clear on how to deal with that part of the job and have the relevant tools along with spares for the travel kit).

FWIW, typically when plugged in we get a reading higher than 12.6 volts.

So, I have a solution for the mounting of my RV890 in my Ram 2500. I went back to the ProClip web site and did a search for RV890 and, lo and behold, they have a specific mount for the 890 that attaches to the magnetic charging Garmin mount. Since the diesel 2500s have a column shift, the normal Ram mount won’t work, but they make one that attaches to the other side of the dash on the passenger side. This is a great solution for us since Carol is the navigator. We both can see it fine and with it on her side she can easily remove it to do searches or whatever. I have a 12V on the dash so charging is easy. Just the mount without the RV890. With the RV890 mounted.

If you have left your batteries plugged in constantly via the charger converter most likely you have boiled those batteries dry, assuming they are lead acid. If so they surely are DOA.

If you’re reading only 4.6 volts at the battery as no load voltage when not connected to shore power, then at least one of the the batteries is probably shot. You didn’t mention if you have 12volt lead acid or the 6volt AGM, but either way a voltage reading of only 4.6 volts is essentially a dead battery, way less than 10% charge level. And frequently letting the batteries drop to less than 50% charge level will shorten their useful life.

Replace the batteries. One bad one will drag down the other. Since you’re reading 12.6 V when plugged into shore power, the converter is outputting and likely okay. Also, it doesn’t click when turning on or off. Maybe you’re thinking about the transfer switch?

A moderator is not necessary (for just about anything according to my wife 😁). I simply get a copy of the picture and save it to my computer. I then go to my computer "picture" files, open that recently saved picture and click on "edit". Once my edit program opens with the picture, one of the options is to "rotate" the picture. I rotate it to the position I want and then left clock on save. Then it is back to the Forum and I click on the three dots (hamburger) in the upper right hand corner of the post - the same place you used to delete your original picture. Then all I do is click "choose files" to add the corrected picture to the original post and click on "save". Other than trying to remember to go back into my picture files every so often in order to clean out pictures that are not mine - it really isn't a big deal. Bill

This is most excellent, if you want to understand why lithium batteries are so cool. "You have just sold your first-born into slavery, remortgaged the house, and bought yourself a lithium-ion battery! Now you want to know how to take care of your precious new purchase: How to best charge lithium-iron batteries, how to discharge them, and how to get the maximum life out of your lithium-ion batteries. This article will explain the do’s and don’ts." How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries John Davies Spokane WA EDIT: That is a pdf that doesn't print well. I made a Pages doc out of it, that can be printed and added to your Ollie records, if you like. JD How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries - Solacity .pages EDIT 05/16/23. Thanks to Jim and Francis for converting the article to a PDF: How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries

HERE is that Forum thread that I mentioned above. The RAM mount that comes off the Built-right is solid as a rock. Certainly this same type of system for mounting could also be used for the small GPS. Bill

To make absolutely certain - I'd ask Jason Essary (Oliver Service Dept). Bill

I personally think that this is a good rule to follow even if you have the "standard", "old style", "regular" bearings. Bill

There are pros and cons to the Nev-R-Lube bearings. John Davies posted this concern on another thread: "FYI a replacement Nev-R-Lube bearing assembly itself is extraordinarily expensive and it may require a hydraulic press to install it. So in the event of a failure you will need a tow and a professional automotive or machine shop to fix it - unlike a regular bearing design that can be replaced by a skilled owner with hand tools. A tow will be covered by your roadside assistance insurance, but down time and mental anguish will be high and the shop will charge maybe $100 for labor. You can buy a mechanical puller and do it if you feel capable. Most owners would not be…. http://www.dexterpartsonline.com/files/2036913/uploaded/Nev-R-Lube Bearings.pdf If the failure is catastrophic, it will trash your brake and perhaps your axle. If you camp in the West in remote areas, the NevR Lube bearings are a huge liability. Some RV shops won’t work on them. They DO fail. If you get this kind of axle, buy and carry a spare bearing, because the parts are not commonly found everywhere. The only way I would want this setup is with disk brakes that have slip on rotors. That way you can carry a complete spare hub assembly and change it yourself in half an hour, and then get the failed bearing replaced at your leisure. Google “Nev-R-Lube bearing failure”. PS, don’t overload your axles. Do use a TPMS so you will get a heat warning in time. John Davies Spokane WA" Our 2022 Elite II will have Nev-R-Lube axles. I plan to follow John's advice and carry a couple of spare bearings, so even if I must have the trailer towed to a nearby shop for repairs if I have a failure on the road, I will have the necessary bearings in hand to expedite the repair process.

I found this in Dexter faq: So, the only upgrade is a change-up of axle and quite possibly a lot of other expensive components. @ScubaRx pegged it

It’s my understanding that, unfortunately, it is not available as a retrofit.

Received this email this morning. We got our Starlink in mid-February and the service for us has been great. We have no other internet available where we live and had been surviving on our data from cell phones the last few years. Ours is mounted on a pole above our 2nd story so probably won't be transporting it unless we were to take a long trip. Hopefully others will be able to take advantage of this. $25 per month doesn't seem like a bad price.

Did you check the breaker on the charger under the dinette seat? I agree that it should be working if you got 12.6V when plugged in. I’d replace the batteries, too. MIke

Nice! We've also been out to Horseshoe Canyon a few years ago too. Well worth the effort, great hike and amazing pictographs for sure. That Moonscape Overlook area is awesome. I'll have to investigate that one the next trip down there. Thanks for sharing.

Or Amazon delivery drone...

NO, No, No! Think of it as a "dumb waiter" so that the pizza and beer delivery person can simply drop it off and you can access dinner and beverage directly from the interior. No more opening the door, no more running out into the rain for the essentials of life.😁

Our grandson attends Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero, Fl [the Naples/Fort Myers area] & we would like to visit him. Of course, we want to go in the Jan/Feb time frame because: 1) March is spring break at his school; 2) April - Sept, Oct? way too hot. I have done a quick search and nothing has come back. O, & again of course, we do not want to spend an arm & a leg. Maybe we should go in the Fall? I have not checked dates for this time period. Any thoughts, suggestions?? Thank you!! Florida sounds especially nice right now as we are currently at the Lewis and Clark State Park in Onawa, IA. It is overcast & 50ish & no sign of Spring. brrr~~~ Bonus fun fact from Wikipedia re Onawa: "The city is known for having the widest main street in the continental United States"

Probably the best idea to quickly get back on the road is buy a spare hub with a new bearing installed. With some simple tools and a torque wrench you could easily be back on the road in short order.

Our TPMS lives in the center of the dash in the cubby there. The Garmin took up too much windshield real estate when mounted on the dash. This is a nice, clean solution that puts it below the windshield and within easy reach of our navigator. Mike

October is one of our favorite months in Florida. Hurricane risk is lower, usually cooler and drier. And, you can more easily find campsites in shoulder season...before the Canadians and northerners come down. Sites really start filling up after Thanksgiving through April.

We leave our tpms monitor in the tray forward of the console. It kept falling off the velcro.

Looks good - Mike. Given that I often travel solo your solution would be a bit of a reach for me. However, this mount solves the "problem" with your truck. Bill p.s. for those that have Garmin GPS devices, InReach Mini and perhaps other - but - specifically the 890: there is a current map and software upgrade available

Correct. 2022 models of LEII trailers are equipped with Never Lube axles. I specifically avoided purchasing a 2021 model to avoid the frequent maintenance required of the earlier bearing type. I am relying on Oliver product documentation that my trailer (Hull 990) is so equipped.

Good info, but at least you avoided a potential major catastrophe. What I don't understand is why, well into the 21st Century we are dealing with this sort of bearing to begin with. How difficult is it to supply sealed bearings like all the autos and trucks manufactured over the last 20 or 30 years or more. This is such and outdated technology. Can you imagine if you had to service your tow vehicles bearings this often. Not looking forward to it, but with all the discussion lately on bearings I am close to doing this operation myself.

Trainman, I think you're wise to also troubleshoot the pd charger/converter. If you have the manual, there's a troubleshooting guide in it. If not, you can download it on the progressive dynamics site. PD will answer any questions you have if you call their technical support line. We had a problem with ours not charging last year. Turned out to be low power from the 110 connection. The charger won't charge below a certain level (I 104 or 105 volts, though pd tech told us it might probably still charge down to 102 or so.) You might just start by checking what voltage you're actually getting from your 30 amp plug, so you can rule that out. Another time, I think Paul found a loose connection somewhere, but that's so long ago, I don't remember. We are on our second pd charger/converter. First died after about 10 years.

I'm having a hard time believing a few mili ohms of resistance is enough to get excited about let alone make a difference in terms of real heat build up. And even it did make a minute amount of difference the price spread is way beyond the ROI IMHO. Of course I'm willing to be proven wrong but the video above did nothing to convince me of spending that much more on a battery. Attaching a couple of videos below comparing the Battle Born vs the SOK at about half the price. And here is another review from Will Prowse

Yeah, he went into it knowing that they had no low temp charge sensor, but he already had battery heat pad and battery temp sensor wired to his charge controller so that wasn't an issue to him. I'll be watching closely how they work out. Have good AGM's right now, but looking to upgrade to LiFePO4 and adding solar in the next year or so.

Correct. We ordered without the storage box. I don't believe it would work with the storage box installed.

I've been to Goblin Valley - definitely cool (see a few pics below, along with a shot of Little Wildhorse Canyon and a few from the very cool pre-Peuebloan Horseshoe Canyon pictographs across the highway and about 30 miles down a heavily washboarded road with a few intriguing sand drifts coming across for chuckles) - after a little memory refresh, the spot I was thinking of is often called "Moonscape Overlook" - see https://www.revesdailleurs.com/moonscape_factory_butte_en.html which looks like a cool spot to spend an evening. So many places to see, so little time!

For various reasons my camping season is off to a late start this year. Here is “Mouse” half treated with Rejex. The oily muck that got EVERYWHERE from a 80 km stretch of fresh chip sealed highway (in the rain) on the Cassiar Hwy in central British Columbia last fall took a great deal of hand scrubbing and swearing to remove. I used 409 degreaser and bar towels, followed up with 3M Adhesive cleaner to get the tar and crusty Wood Bison poop off. (They graze the grassy shoulders of the highways and leave their droppings in the road.) I had thoroughly washed the trailer with Dawn before putting it away, but the bottom part was still gross. Here are the towels presoaking so I can get them into the washer, I rinsed them four times before they got clean enough to put in the machine. The Stone Stomper worked great to keep the tailgate and hatch of the Land Cruiser clean, but it is not a miracle worker… I truly hate chip sealing. John Davies Spokane WA

My thoughts are yes, definitely. I suspect that in a few years RVs will be designed with lithium batteries located in inside compartments or under the floor like electric cars, vented to the inside. There will be no need to access them routinely…. It will be time to get rid of that sliding tray too. IMHO. John Davies Spokane WA

Thank you John, that answered several questions I had on my list to track down and a whole bunch more on top of that. Now the thread about venting the battery box is making sense as to why it should be considered important. From that article, it sounds like the battery box would be better off sealed to the outside, vented to the interior to be allowed to be maintained at the TT's interior temp (assuming it stays between 32-86F) Your Thoughts?

John, thanks for sharing. This is concise and very informative.

I'm not sure that's a fair comparison, but it's obviously a great price, for those who want an entry level solution. I think Will Prowse tore those down, and found a few flaws, like no low temp charging sensor in the bms. I'd Google it. Ok if you always camp in warm climates, maybe. With caveats. Renogy had a series of lifepo4 on sale this week, and I didn't post it, because it was only a 2000 cycle battety. I think older tech. $500 for 100 ah. Solid company. But you have to acknowledge what you're buying. Fwiw, I do think battery prices will likely continue to drop. As has solar. It's all a gamble, but if we ever swap to lifepo4, we'll go with a company with a warranty, like battleborn, or build our own. Just my opinion. We've certainly been known to take a risk for a price savings, and my opinions are subject to change with research.

I looked for an F250 but they were very scarce and pricing was not very flexible. I lucked onto my Ram 2500, had all the stuff I wanted and they were willing to deal. Used prices were already up (Dec 2020) and they gave me almost what I paid for my one year old 2020 Rebel. I’ve thought about mounting it in the tray in the middle of the dash. Would require 3 holes, but they wouldn’t be very obvious when the Garmin wasn’t mounted. Thanks! Mike

FYI: For those making late reservations and the choices are slim or none, there an area called "Town Creek Campground" that is primitive camping only. It is down the road a ways from the main campground, but it is an opportunity to boondock and still attend the rally. Mossey

Picture taken a few years back at the COE Eastbank campground on Lake Seminole near Chattahoochee, FL. Notice the Jim Woodruff Dam in the background which forms Lake Seminole and serves as the origin for the Apalachicola River which runs 100 stream miles to the Gulf of Mexico.

Oh yes……..the original bearings are marked “Made of China”. I was really quite surprised to see Oliver using them……….but then again the axles come from Dexter so that in itself does not surprise me. I am not overly impressed with Dexter quality. I did upgrade my suspension to the Dexter EZ Flex and found the Dexter support not very helpful. The wet bolts that came with the kit had very poorly threaded bolts and two of the wet bolts needed to be replaced. Dexter also clearly stated in in their kit that the grease zerks are all 1/4 x 28 thread for the zerk. NOT TRUE. The large bolt that holds the center hanger in place is 1/4 X 28 thread, but the other wet bolts had a M6 thread. I found it necessary to drill out and re-tap those zerk threads so that all of them are 1/4 x 28. I then installed angled grease zerks on all outboard fittings. Hopefully that will make lubrication of the suspension much easier. Steve r.

Another update is now available - this time it is software for the "traffic". Over this past winter I planned a trip - this year it is Wyoming. Having completed similar trips in the past I know even small details like which gas stations I prefer and the coordinates of various boondocking spots and fishing spots. Needless to say - the entry of all these points/stops is reasonably time consuming. In final preparation for the start of the trip I had my 890 in my tow vehicle and decided to start the trip planner just to make sure that all was well. Unfortunately I got a message from the 890 which said that since the "transportation mode" was not the same the Garmin could not start the trip. OK - what the heck is the "transportation Mode"? A quick internet search turned up zilch. However, I remember that I have two vehicles programed into the 890 - my wife's car and my truck. Yep - I had constructed the trip plan while the 890 was in the setting for my wife's car - not my truck. Apparently there is no "easy" way to change the trip planner from one transportation mode (my wife's car) to another (my truck). Interestingly, the 890 says that there is a 4 mile greater distance in the route calculated for the truck versus the car. Since I happen to know all of the places I'm going on this trip - I know that there should be no problem getting my Ollie and truck there and back. Therefore, I'm not going to re-enter all of the data for the trip. But, I will not make this same mistake in the future!🙄 Bill

Their big map updates come out about every three months, I usually hook up my Garmin to the iMac before any major trip to check, if I haven't updated it recently. FYI when updating, select the “Computer and Device” option so that you can also use the newest maps with the Garmin Basecamp program for trip planning . This new file is ADDED to the same folder as any existing map files on your computer, it does not over-write them, so try to locate and delete any older "City_Navigator_North_America_NT_20xx_xx.gmap" files because they are huge (almost 4 gigabytes) and the old files will definitely clog up your storage otherwise. The one that goes on your gps is twice that size but gets over written. John Davies Spokane WA

I just took a look and now see that (not unexpectedly) the North America map update is also for other models of Garmin GPS's. So, if you own any Garmin GPS that has lifetime map updates, it is more than likely an update is waiting for you too. Bill

Thanks . . . . I'll wait until later tonight to update, when our Internet isn't bogged down with video streamers.

Apparently it is that time again - Garmin has just released two updates. A small on for iOverlander takes only about two minutes to download and install. However, the second update is for the full set of North America maps and it takes considerably longer. Bill

I’m downloading the latest update now. What is everyone’s preferred method for mounting their 890. The only reasonable way in my truck is the windshield suction cup. I have the Ram 12” display so there is no room in the middle of the dash. It just takes up a lot of real estate in the middle of the windshield, essentially blocking from the dash up to the rear view mirror. Mike

Yep, I learned the hard way about that too. While traveling, I've played with ours in both modes & noticed that many times when traveling through a city that has a loop/alternate road option, if Garmin thinks you're a car it will route you on the loop/alternate road. If Garmin thinks you're an RV it will route you right through the middle of the dang city.