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Welcome to the Oliver community! It appears that your intent is to boondocks quite a bit since you are opting for the Lithium batteries. Have you considered the composting toilet? There are many threads on this, but it is one of those things where you either love it or hate it. In our case, it's the former. It expands the time we can spend without sewage hookup allowing us to either boondock or enjoy partial hookup campgrounds. It is more work than a flush toilet, but I feel it's worth it. Airstream was our first choice. We were considering a medium size (25'-27') when I noticed a very small ad in a sidebar of one of the news sites I read for Oliver. That sent us to their website, and almost immediately changed our direction. Our camping goal was to bring home with us as we traveled the country. We have tenting experience but no previous experience with RVs, although I am a homeowner / engineer with some experience in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing so the thought of maintaining a second home didn't bother me. We made the trip to the mother ship for a factory tour. That trip sold my wife on Oliver. She loved the bright interior and decided that living in an OEII would work for her. We had at that point been inside many travel trailers. Thus far, we have done about 16K miles traveling. We have used the service ticket many times. This has been fantastic. The OEII has been pretty reliable. The downsides of it for us are the few things that require frequent maintenance such as the need to lube the chassis every 3,000 miles and to constantly inspect the window tracks to ensure proper drainage. Other things that require maintenance and inspection are done less frequently. Many of these are discussed on this forum (such as checking the torque on bolts that hold the stabilizer jacks in place, servicing wheel bearings, etc.). I can do most of these things myself, but I still do an annual visit to the mother ship for maintenance. Regarding the small size, we are comfortable with this. We can get by each other with no difficulty. Using the wet bath is no problem for us since we are well under 6' tall. We have so far stayed in it up to 9 weeks consecutively and never felt constrained even on rainy days. We did endure a heavy 10 minute hailstorm which dented our truck hood but did no damage at all to the OEII or its solar panels. I'll bet there would have been dents in our Airstream! Otherwise, I can only echo the advice given above. I believe you will love it! The level of service they offer, this Forum, their Facebook page, and the Oliver University are awesome.

This seemed appropriate here.

Ah well. If you didn't have all this to do when you got to your destination, you might be bored anyway. Or roped into doing some other camp chore. I really look at these mods as fun because it is just cool to fiddle with our adventure rigs.

1. Taped off the whole area with painter's tape. 2. Drew circles with a compass. be very careful where you place the holes so you don't damage any thing behind it. 3. Drilled 4 2" holes at all of the cardinal points along the edge of the diameter. 4. Used a jig saw with a metal cutting blade to cut the diameter of the deck plate holes doing 1/4 circle at a time. Note, I cut the 2 deck plate holes and the Access door to the storage bay. I fried one whole blade, and dulled another. I wore an N95 mask and googles, and used shop vac to help suck up the fiber glass while cutting.

This would be great to own if you lived in Transylvania. I enjoy some bright lights at times, on my truck going down a muddy trail, security lights on a house, and seldomly when being attacked by a bear or something while camping. Most of the time, the stars provide all the ambience I need to enjoy life.

I got hold of Josh. My Hull number is 1460.

If I could do anything, I would turn the whole thing into an Intrepid class Captains Yacht. Or better yet, a Klingon Bird of Prey. Alas, my wife already thinks I'm a dork, so i will probably just opt for the rubber band slinging Phaser under the pillow.

I don't think this is correct. Setting #28 limits the maximum draw of the converter section to X amps, with preference going to any internal 120v loads before the balance goes to the converter for battery charging. For instance, if it's set to 15A, and you have 5A of internal loads (TV, cell chargers, etc.), 10A will be used to charge the batteries. They'll still charge, but slower. I've done this many times when connected to a small generator or to a 15A circuit. Look at it this way: your solar panels still charge the batteries and they don't come anywhere near 150A of charging current. Limiting setting #28 to 15A will slow charging but not stop it unless you have 15A of other draws running in the trailer.

Keeping to that theme, and being a Star Trek fan for almost a century or two.... I agree and believe that our Clan has a few Klingons and Romulans for sure. Even a Ferengi gestor. A bunch of Vulcan intellectuals (who tend to be detailed, long winded, but highly insightful). And one that I know very well that can claim DNA from all of these races. Luckily, most of the clan is just human enjoying our Space Egg traveling all over our Universe. But there a couple that continue to take their Space Eggs "where no Eggette has gone before". GJ

Hello All. Diane and I have finally moved up to an Elite II. We had a Burro WB for many years, and bought a Snoozy in April but found it lacking in dry/cold weather camping. Bought a nice used Ollie in Toronto and are bringing it back to life in Union ME. Looking forward to maiden voyage in April 2024. Dusty

@Rivernerd, @Chukarhunter, @Steph and Dud B, @MobileJoy, @aaronorange, @John Dorrer, My issue has been resolved. The Xantrex Inverter/Charger is now charging my Lithionics batteries. As promised, following are the details leading to resolution of the problem. After logging a service ticket (including thorough details) with Oliver on Sunday, 11/12/23, I continued to read the Xantrex owner's manual and search the internet for clues to resolve the "AC bypass" preventing charging of the batteries. This effort was largely unsuccessful. On Monday morning, 11/13/23, I phoned Oracle Service to inquire if they could provide guidance to resolve the problem. In short, they could not. I was told since this was an AC problem, Oliver could not help resolve the problem. They recommended taking the trailer to a service center. In the course of the discussion, I was also provided erroneous information, such as the as the state of the ON/OFF switches on the Lithionic batteries. I was told the batteries are fully charged if the switch button is lighted a steady blue color. This is incorrect. The owner's manual from Lithionics clearly states a steady blue light indicates only that the battery is ON. I knew from using the Lithionics app on my phone exactly what the charge state was- between 10% and 12%. Oliver Service did forward my service request to Xantrex and I received an email from Xantrex which included a case number in their service request tracking system. In the automated email were instructions for submitting additional information. Using the Xantrex FXC Control app on my phone I made three screenshots of the current settings on the Xantrex inverter/charger, plus serial number, purchase date, etc. Below is one of the screenshots. Oliver Service also provided a phone number to Xantrex customer/technical support, ‭(800) 670-0707‬. I placed a call to Xantrex, only to receive a recorded message stating they were closed for a Canadian holiday. Today, I finally reached Shawn, a Xantrex tech support agent, after about a 25 minute wait in a phone queue. I provided the case number and Shawn spotted the screenshots and quickly reviewed the settings. Shawn told me he was almost certain my issue was caused by the setting of Charger Ignition Control being Auto-ON. While still on the phone with Shawn, I went to the trailer, opened the Xantrex FXC Control app and changed the setting of Charger Ignition Control to OFF. The Xantrex Inverter/Charger immediately came on and began to charge the batteries. Neither Shawn nor I can explain how this setting got changed from the default Oliver setting of OFF. In the two hours since changing this setting the batteries SOC has increased from about 10% to >40%, while connected to a 20 amp circuit. In another hour, the batteries are all near 80% SOC. Lessons learned- I had not checked all of the inverter/charger settings using the Xantrex FXC Control app against the Oliver default settings listed at https://support.olivertraveltrailers.com/portal/en/kb/articles/xantrex-inverter-settings. Had I done this, I may have resolved the problem sooner. In my opinion, Oliver Service should have recommended verifying the current settings against the Oliver default setting for the Xantrex Inverter/Charger and our model year trailer. I had ordered #10 AWG wire and components to add a 30 amp RV outlet to a utility building near our driveway. I am now reconsidering spending about $200 and several hours of labor to do so. The 20 amp circuit already in place seems adequate for our needs when we have the trailer in the driveway. This incident confirmed my prior observation- the lithium batteries can be recharged from a very low SOC to full charge in approximately 4-5 hours using a 20 amp circuit. I have also used this same circuit to run the Dometic air conditioner in the trailer for as long as needed. While I had Shawn on the phone, I asked him why the Xantrex Inverter/Charger would occasionally come ON for brief periods (2-3 minutes) while attached to shore power. I have noticed this occurring at night, such as when the furnace cycled on. Shawn said this was not unusual, if a large DC load is activated, such as a bilge pump, or a furnace blower. I hope this information is useful to other Oliver owners whose trailers are equipped with Xantrex Inverter/Chargers. My thanks to all who offered suggestions to resolve the problem. Regards, Don

Dusty - Just get the "dust" off that #89 and she'll serve you well. (I'm sorry - I just could not resist). Welcome! As you get 89 back in working order be mindful that Oliver has continually upgraded components and systems over the years. Therefore, be sure to check exactly what model and year any particular Forum post is talking about because any advice given just may or may not apply to your trailer. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to help. Bill

Dusty, welcome and congrats on the Oliver. Looks like you got a vintage model! We were in Maine a year ago, you live in a beautiful state. Mike

I do happen to live in the only county in the USA that is named - Transylvania! Halloween here is a blast for a town of only about 8,000 residents. Bill

I see two OTTs, but only one dog, so ruling out double vision. Nice setup!

Someone with an artistic ability should design an "Oliver Window Shade Re-Stringer Club" patch for our flight jackets.... You get to wear one after successfully re-stringing your first window shade 🤪

A RotoZip spiral saw, or like product, will make circle and straight cuts much easier, faster and precise. Used mine when installing a forward receptacle in the propane doghouse; the result, very smooth cut edges in the fiberglass. In close quarters, the spiral bit can be set to a depth slightly beyond the fiberglass thickness. As 2008RN suggest, proper PPE and a shop vac should be used.

Don't know about any commuter lots or other free parking but we've stayed at Cherry Hill Park campground in Maryland. They had a city bus stop in the campground that took you to the Metro for the trip into the city. Maybe they have an overflow lot or something similar you could use.

I will be adding these to mine. Thank for the link.

I'd probably just attract cops anyway.

You may or may not want to add an inverter, if you mostly boondock, and have 4 t105 batteries. In 2010 or so, we added a small inverter (1000 watts), because we only had 2 x 105 ah agm group 31 batteries, primarily to charge our laptop. (Could power some small devices, not much else.) Replaced the laptop with a tablet (12v charger) , rarely needed anything that wasn't 12v, and wanted the space the inverter used. So, it was gone. Much depends on your camping style, and your battery power. If we really need 110, a generator handles the need. We can also use the small genset to charge our agm batteries. We don't have a microwave, and we tend to enjoy living without a lot of extra 110 power "stuff." Everyone has a different camping style. It's nice to be able to design your system based on your style.

Sorry — I thought they were looking for the control to turn it on?

Yeah, it does that. Try turning a wifi hotspot on on your cell phone, then connect the TV to your hotspot. Once it's connected, you'll be able to switch back to antenna. Next time, make sure you're on antenna before turning it off. It always tries to go back to Wi-Fi if that's where you left it last time you used it.

KN4NBV, Fortunately, my truck's tonneau cover is a stout aluminum structure, by Diamondback, in PA. Mounting the antennas directly to it already gave me a nice ground plane. I ran cables between all three sections, so it was effective. By placing brass straps between the tonneau and the truck bed, the truck bed to the frame and cab, the cab to the engine, the hood to the cab, hood to frame, and numerous straps along the muffler system connecting to the frame . . . One in front of the Cat converter and one behind it, one in front of the muffler and one behind it, one near the tailpipe. So effectively, everything acts together as a unified, reflecting ground plane, much like radials in the ground do for a vertical antenna. Full disclosure, I did not personally attach all of these straps, but my trusted mechanic, Fernando, who has the tools and a lift did it after I showed him where to place them. Fred, AB1OC, has a nice article on how and why he grounded his truck: https://stationproject.blog/2013/08/19/mobile-hf-installation-part-24-bonding-and-choking/ You may need a screwdriver style antenna mounted between the fiberglass cap and the metal of the truck bed or at the left rear bumper. There are various pics for those setups to be found on the web. Are you a member of your local ham radio club? You could get lots of help from the membership. It's fun to cruise down a long highway in the middle of nowhere, tune the radio dial, and strike up a conversation with someone in Europe or South America. With your General ticket, you have plenty of bandwidth in the HF spectrum to play around. Go for it! Even with your HT, you can connect it to a Zumspot which is connected via USB to your computer and talk around the world on WiresX. 73 de K2PLM P.S. The antenna I was using in New Mexico is the TW2010-P, from DX Engineering. It is only 8.5 ft tall and the dipoles only extend 2.5 ft either side of the vertical pole. If you have any sort of back yard in your HOA it would not be noticed. Put a cotton hat on top and a pair of gloves at the end of the top dipole and tell anyone who asks that it's a scarecrow to protect your flower garden. Also, it does not require ground radials at all, which makes it my go to portable HF antenna.

I would be concerned if the GFCI on a house outlet tripped when connecting the Ollie, period. The inverter/charger by itself will not cause a GFCI outlet to trip at the house. A properly functioning GFCI will only trip if it detects a current leakage to ground, a situation that is not wise to ignore. Your problem may be with the GFCI receptacle you are otherwise using. You mentioned that your GFCI is only rated to pass 15 amps of current. Your GFCI is not rated to pass a 20 amp current to the Ollie. I would suggest you install a 20 amp WR (outdoor rated) GFCI and see if that solves the problem. It worked for me. This is the 20 amp WR GFCI that I installed to connect house power to my Ollie. https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-GFWT2-W-SmartlockPro-Weather-Resistant-Tamper-Resistant/dp/B013OVCTBO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21PT35NK7I73G&keywords=outdoor%2Brated%2B20%2Bamp%2Bgfci%2Boutlet&qid=1699985721&sprefix=outdoor%2Brated%2B20%2Bamp%2Bgfci%2Boutlet%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1&th=1

Same here! 30A all WX outlet installed outside the Man Cave for travel prep, maintenance, and the occasional visitor (eh, @Geronimo John?)

Your photo depicts the inverter wall-mounted remote in your 2022, not the actual inverter. The actual inverter is mounted under the the street side bed, aft of the pantry. Our 2022 Elite II has the same configuration.

@Cort: Something to consider here, Cort - If you could provide pix of your interior/compartments as @Boudicca908 suggests, if it can be determined that there's enough mounting space you should be able to install an inverter. Further, suggest checking with Jason Essary at OTT Factory and ask where inverters were installed for your interior layout and Hull#/MFG year. We're happy to discuss, via PM, the possibility of making our ProWatt 2000 available to you because we're considering upgrading to a Victron 3000. We boondock most of the time as well and the ProWatt comes in quite handy - it's a single function inverter in that it doesn't charge the battery bank - it only inverts stored DC electricity into AC for the outlets and AC-powered accessories. Just a thought, PM when able, if you're interested. Cheers,

Cort, Can you post a photo of the items on the forward side of your pantry? The manual includes everything possible — not always specific to your individual Oliver. Once I realized that, I went through my manual and put Xs on things that don’t apply, and stars on things that do apply to my unit.

Good plan! It didn’t take me long to do the same after realizing the need when bringing the OTT to the house from storage for travel prep or maintenance. Also installed a 50A outlet for my son to use with his motorhome when visiting. 2020 OLEll, 579

We use our inverter regularly when boondocking. We have yet to use a generator, although we usually carry a pair. But, we also have 390 Ah of LiFePO4 batteries, which provide sufficient power to run 120V appliances (like the microwave or AC) for an hour or two. Cort, what battery package do you have? That may impact the feasibility of an inverter upgrade.

The only reason I can see to get one is to use the outlets without using a generator. I'm almost almost always boondocking.

Basically, an Oliver Owner has three choices on where to put his/her portable generator. 1 - Put it in the basket on the tongue of the trailer. 2 - Put it in the rear of your truck and deal with having to futz around with it when you want to use it. 3 - Put it in the garage at home and leave it there.

Did I mention that this rear mounting thing is a bad idea?

We used 2 Lippert friction hinges on our door - wonderful!

Believe me when I mention that there are actually several threads about this very topic. Just don't make us all LOL by changing the entrance light to a red one that you switch on and off. Since I would not have ever personal knowledge of such matters, I'll just postulate it must be Ferengi humor. GJ

It's like looking directly into the sun.

Totally agree. One of our favorite things about off grid camping is night sky, and few neighbors. If we do have neighbors, we sure don't want to ruin their experience, either.

I'm not quite a Trekkie but I certainly love me some science fiction. Probably going to have to mount some lights under the egg now.

We are that kind of camper. We went from tents to a Class A with three slides. Then from there to various campers. This one is smallest, but we enjoyed tent camping so it will be perfect for us. Especially when my wife takes it solo.

Nothing like people that go camping and bring the city with them.

Roger on the root cause of the plastic shards. But "Never" is one of those really big words that "always" get me in trouble. In this case, I would say "much less often" or maybe "rarely". 🙂 GJ

Great! Now - mine is on my shop floor, can you come over and finish it for me?😃 Bill

Either pipe dope or Teflon tape will work fine for plastic plumbing threads. For Teflon tape, 3 winds around the threads. FYI, the plastic shards you found probably originated from the factory when your Oliver was built. After one or two filter cleanings, you should never see any more.

In order to replace a broken cord you’ll need to remove the shade and put it on some kind of work surface. I used our kitchen bar area. Look at the back and you’ll see that the whole thing is held together by some screws. Once removed you can pull the frame pieces apart. Check the diagram by @rideandfly on the first page of this thread. It’s what I used for both shades that I did. Once you see how the cord is routed it will make more sense. It’s important to get the tension right when you tie the new cord to the spring on the bottom of the frame, too tight and it’s hard to move the shade. Too lose and the shade won’t stay up. I had to re-tie both of the ones I did, one was too tight and the other too lose! Good luck - Mike

I just started using the Pine-Sol/Calgon solution that @HDRider suggested. I learned this from the Kleen tank guy: Kleen Tank, the nationally-recognized, independent RV tank cleaning service Not enough experience with it yet, but the idea is the Pine-Sol keeps tank surfaces clean and the Calgon Beads will keep tank bottoms and drainpipes slippery and lubricate the valves. Not just used for occasional cleaning. These are flush tanks and NOT septic tanks. Given this works, the idea is to have this in your tanks only and stay away from other cleaners and septic tank additives (which I never use, even in 3 homes where we've had with septic systems). Since having this in the Black and Gray tanks, I have not once smelled the strong smell of Pine-Sol in the Oliver. This means all inside is sealed well, venting off the roof as designed.

The tip for using dishwasher pod(s) in the black/gray tanks has been around for some time. When I want a really clean black or gray tank, I'll add a pod to the grey tank, and two pods to the black tank. Using "Calgon" brand is not required. I buy the cheapest I can find for this use. As you suggested, a few miles down the road for it to slosh around and break down the solids greatly reduces the time flushing the tanks. This is especially useful at the end of the season. As somewhat of a minimalist on what I carry, strive to minimize using extra hoses, valves, flow meters. As such, your approach has merit IMHO. Especially for those without a black tank flush water flow valve, you approach makes a lot of good sense. That said, I would suggest a few cautions for learning the sound change: A. The sound of a flooded black tank nozzle may vary with the pressure/flow of the water source feeding it. So experiment with the hose bibb valve to recognize this. B. When learning the sound, get a helper inside with a flashlight to observe the black tank water level. Have them open a window or use you cell phones to facilitate communication. Then have them shut off the ball valve flowing water to the flush valve, and stand on the flush valve foot peddle. Their job is to advise you of the progress of filling the black tank. C. Before starting, make sure that all items on the bathroom floors (I.E. the lower one with the floor drain, and the higher one where the toilet tank sits) are removed from the area. One of my worst mistakes was having my dirty cloths hamper on the lower floor and flooding the area from gray tank goo. 😞 Cleaning a soiled bathroom floor is easy vs. dealing with 25 pounds of really really bad smelling wet cloths. While boondocking 40 miles from any laundry or water sources. GJ

Well, I tend to over-think and over-engineer everything, drives my wife nuts! Not that “serious”, but if I told someone my motto was “I strive for perfection to achieve satisfaction”, maybe they would understand! As for testing, I can only do so much in the driveway; need to travel and camp to see how all performs, or is that just an excuse to pack up and get away? This would be a ‘one trip wonder’ to see if I’m ‘there yet’. More to come, hopefully sooner than later.

We haven't had to restring shades (yet) in our 2008. I do remember, vaguely, Oliver changing up manufacturers at some point. So, maybe some need the Allen wrench, others don't?

Our shades are custom made in Canada and are a specialty item made only for Oliver. The company is Auto-Motion Shade Inc. 400 Bentley Street, Markham, Ontario. The Customer Service Representative is Alex Colavecchia. You can reach him at 905-470-6198 or alexc@automotionshade.com. But the guy you really need to talk to is Vick. He is the one that actually assembles all of Oliver's shades. His cell phone is 416-989-1075. He will send you the cord and an instruction sheet for free. All that having been said, the sheet is not very clear and after disassembling the shade it's like doing Chinese arithmetic trying to see where all the strings go. I never did get ours fixed. Thanks a lot for reminding me. I think I'll go eat a bug.