Leaderboard

Summary: make sure your accumulator is not rubbing against the bottom of the curb side bunk. Check the cutouts above the rear jacks. Check the duct under the curb side bunk. I noticed black dust on the board that the water pump and accumulator are mounted to. Turns out that the pump, piping, accumulator, valve, etc. assembly doesn’t really fit together well but it is screwed to the board anyway. The misalignment between the pump and accumulator caused the rubber bushing in the mount on one side of the accumulator to become dislocated and the accumulator rubbed against the bottom surface of the curb side bunk. I caught it before it wore through. I also noticed that both cutouts to access the studs to manually operate the rear jacks don't line up with the studs and would have made it hard to manually operate the jacks. I’ll enlarge these later. Also the 2 bolts on the rear curb side jack could rub through the heater duct.

So - That's 5 or 6 batteries replaced within 4 years - all due to the same type of issue? Even if the batteries were bouncing around in the compartment this seems a bit much to me. Bill

If you have the room, you could always bring along a 15lb propane tank and connect to your grill using an adapter hose. Less expensive and wasteful than using hose small tanks plus it could be a backup for your Oliver's tanks. Personally, I'd try and remove the regulator and add a quick connect to the grill so I could use the Oliver's quick connects.

Dave and Kimberly -- here's a long shot, but ... I sometimes leave the trailer hooked up to shore power but set the "ignition charge control" on the inverter to "auto-off." This allows use of 120V appliances without a constant charge to the batteries. Furthermore, I sometimes also turn off the solar to allow the batteries to drift to a lower SOC (for the health of the batteries). I've noticed the Xantrex charger/inverter draws electricity when simply connected to shore power. Thus, if you have shore power connected but everything else turned off (including solar), the inverter/converter could be drawing enough to contribute to a 3% SOC drop per day.

I wonder how this recall will impact the fair market resale or trade in value of repaired/recalled trucks? Who would purchase a previously recalled used truck? Personally I would pass. The recall history and engine replacement or rebuild will be a permanent VIN record with Toyota. Toyota has a massive undertaking is an understatement not only in addressing this the recall, but from a PR and future buyers trust point of view. I have previously owned (3) Tundras and was very happy with all three trucks. It’s sad that the Toyota brand is taking such a hit. My hopes are Toyota steps up and does the right thing, it would certainly be in their best interest.

Thanks to all. This is something i obviously did not think thru. Basically, what is the root cause of my battery failures. We will head out as is, we know there are a lot of 'Canadian Tire' or 'Battery Type' stores as we travel on Canada-1 from Regina to Calgary, before heading north. We will monitor, and sort it out on the way or when we return. I will try a few 'Where's Ollie' entries in our future. No need to make it to Faro, Mayo, Keno City, Minto Bridge, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, been there done that. As Usual, Kind regards to all who asked the right questions (saw the cable issue as a 'Red Herring' even though it was the Black/Neg one...), showed Concern & even offered up 'Reading Material'. B~Out, ...New Moniker to come, BMW (Bryan Maggie & Willis aka Kamper Kat).

No time for more design or installation changes, Maggie & Bryan are leaving on a 2nd go on a life trip to Alaska in just 3 days. Godspeed and God bless you, your family, and your upcoming travels! We're here, stand-by to help virtually always. If your battery bank charges up to 12.8V +/- just stop worrying about this. Go enjoy your travels. I can't wait to see your travel posts, my new friend. Yes, it would have been better to but a pair or four, but worse case you can simply buy lead acid batteries at any store along the way, and they may be cheaper given the exchange rate today in CAD$. Have a wonderful trip! On my list is AK and ND, add ME and these are the only 3 states in the continental US I have not yet traveled. See you one day soon! 😂

Bill's spot on. The odds are that you have an overcharging issue. Combine that with SeaDawg's statement I think applies to your situation. Conventional wisdom is when one goes bad, replace them all. This logic is based upon differences in internal resistance of the four batteries. The "outsider" (I.E. New One) of the family certainly will NOT have the same résistance as the rest of the family. As such no telling where the charge energy will be going. But it will certainly not be equally between the family members. Each time one of the family members will over heat and die From this picture, it is hard to tell if your battery cells are serviceable: Since you have tried at least twice now and the problem repeats: A. If your cells can be tested, get a hygrometer and test the acid strength. It is a direct indicator of the cell health. B. Provide close study of the current being provided by your Converter during the charging process. If the above is not possible, and I were leaving for a long trip, I would replace them all, fully charge, and then look at the draw down when being stressed by known amp draws. But be very aware that any Lead Acid/AGM battery should never be allowed below 40%. For many that's 11.7 volts. But check with your new battery mfg. But first, you may want to take a deep breath, get two beverages of choice, and take a deep dive into the attached Battery DIY document. It's only 12 pages long. My apologies for not indicating where I "borrowed" the article, but it is worth a read for those still not yet .... Lithoized. (Gotch JD! there's another one!) 🙂 GJ DIY - Batteries - More Than You Ever Wanted To Know.docx

The bigger question is: how well will one new lead acid battery play with three older batteries? Usually, the battery bank will only charge to the level of oldest/weakest battery. What happened to the 4th that you had to replace it?. How old are the other three?

Ok we are not PHD English majors, or million dollar news anchors. But we are generally into efficiency and math. Envisionating is concocted of two words: Envision and Creating. Typed these words require 21 key strokes. Envionsionating only requires 15 key strokes. So it meets your goal of less vs. more. Gotcha! 🙂

I have new AGM batteries and I keep my Ollie covered the nine months it's not in use here in Florida. Last fall I had what can only be described as a parasitic drain on the batteries. I first trouble-shot the problem thinking there was something wrong with the electrical system, the different fuses, inverter, and on and on. After disconnecting the batteries and charging them up separately I decided the cheap battery disconnect my electrician installed was causing the most trouble with its corrosion and basic uselessness. The batteries did take a full charge and then kept it even when the temperatures turned cold this winter. Now I know that keeping the batteries disconnected completely from the system is key when the solar panels aren't fully charging them due to the trailer cover and the shore power stays disconnected as well. Plus I don't trust the occasional charge from the 30 amp shore power I was accustomed to doing. The solar console takes some parasitic juice as does the radio, not to mention the carbon monoxide alarm and my composting toilet fan. Of course, I am a DIY dummy and work hard at figuring things out for myself. But my hunch is you need to fully charge your batteries and totally disconnect them when the trailer is not in use. And installing one of those cheap battery disconnects is not the answer either. Completely unhooking the battery cables from the batteries is the way to go. But what do I know? Good luck. Hope I was of some assistance though there are plenty more informed people here than I am.

Yes, thanks for posting. I will be inspecting these areas for sure.

WOW. I'll be adding this for my 2018 model OE2. Thank you for posting. GJ

@GlacierGirl also not sure what comes with the Renogy or what wiring it requires. Check this mod to start: SAE solar plug upgrade - Ollie Modifications - Oliver Owner Forums (olivertraveltrailers.com)

YES! Ditto. GJ

If after all the above you still are losing power, time to Recharge again and DISCO the batteries from each other. I have not heard of any such failures before, but at least this would be a warranty replacement for sure. You certainly could run without one of them during the process. GJ

Ok we have now almost completely killed all the possible loads ... except: There is a fuse panel in the attic. Hopefully you got those as well. Would pull the smoke and the CO2/Propane detectors out if you can. I think the CO2/Propane may be hard wired if so, leave it. A wild card: Have you had any problems with the trailer lights being on when they should be off? If so, spray out the plug with CRC brake cleaner. (Yea this is a very small leakage if the plug is wet and dirty. With a nod to Ronbrink, do you have a Xantrex? (Trip it's circuit protection) 1 amp X 24 hours = 24 amp hours. 360 AH system divided by 24 ah/day = 15 days to dead battery. If the battery charge is still declining as before, Recharge and disconnect the one of the 4/0 wires to isolate the batteries. If they sink out, then you know it's them. In retrospect this likely would have been a better starting point as suggested by Topgun2 and JD. But just think of all you have learned in this process! 🙂 😞

No the Road Trip will work off the quick connect. The regulator for the Road Trip is a removable. You can buy an adapter hose on Amazon with a connector that screws into the same fitting as the regulator used for the 1 lb green bottles. No need to by pass the trailer regulator. Weber, Blackstone, and others will work. There are kits where you remove the grill's regulator so it will work off the quick connect. They are all low pressure. The issue is with high pressure devices like Coleman and other camp stoves. Even if you remove the regulator they will not run at proper temperatures. For those you do have to by pass the trailer regulator. Some solutions is carry a spare tank. Or they make Y connects you can use on one of the trailer tanks. Hope this helps

I’m not sure what your normal usage cycle looks like. However, there is a good chance your other three batteries are not in ideal condition. In this type of setup most of your charging/usage current will come from your new battery. To keep this new battery healthy you should probably keep your reserve capacity usage to 30 ish amps, any more than that and you will be pushing the new battery. To keep the new battery (IMO interstate batteries are quality) from self distrusting on your trip I would check the water level half way through the trip (disconnect negative cable for a while before you open the caps). You will be cooking your new battery and it’s imperative the water is replenished. I would leave the Zamp controller in AGM mode even though you have wet cell batteries. I’m afraid the failing batteries might trick the controller into an equalize mode. I would limit the usage of your inverter for high current appliances. I would disable your on board battery charger and rely on the Zamp. Edit: Having said all that if I was leaving on a long trip I’d drive to Costco or similar and buy an identical interstate battery and ditch the three brightway units. That along with limited inverter usage would give you a worry free setup for minimal investment.

Bryan, have a great trip! Look forward to some pictures of your adventures. Be safe - Mike

Same here. 👍🏻

You are of course are correct. But, I already stepped on that land mine in 2019. I took the position you espoused (DISCO the Batteries). But got my knees taken out by an owner that said that may work for you (Me at the time) as your voyages are very long, His were short and doing the process many times a season was not realistic. I had to admit he was correct. Hence my 350 A BlueSeas Master Battery Switch install....

If the engineering behind the Lithionics product would allow ANY current to the heater when temps are above freezing or say above 35+ degrees Fahrenheit, the heater should be disconnected. This very well could be the cause of 3% daily loss. @Geronimo John hit this on the nail! Oh, and if you are losing 3% daily and the Lithionics app shows no negative current draw, the app is not reading correctly. Loss of SOC can only occur with -Amps over a period of time. Love my $40 shunt, pure and simple, mounted to the negative terminal of my battery bank ALWAYS shows -A when batteries are discharging, and +A the next morning in the Arizona sun! You can disconnect the ground and not worry about the cause (easy solution, takes just 5 min) or strip the overhead out of these batteries. If they were mine, I would first bypass the heaters, and if that did not solve the problem, I would disconnect their BMS and monitor my batteries the old-fashioned way, with system shunt or a simple voltmeter. 😂

For Lead Acid or AGM's yes. But when discussing Litho's, the Amps in vs. Amps out is the standard. Now, when you have a super small charge rate and draws, not even a SOC system (Such as Victron 712's and better) can keep up with the drift. So at the end of the storage period, a full on "fill up" is required with additional charging time for equalization. That should reset the clock so to speak. GJ

I saw some strange behavior with the Lithionics-reported SOC while our trailer was stored indoors in a similar situation, with some trickle from the solar due to interior lights in the garage, etc. The two batteries were "discharging" at very different rates based on the reported SOC. Importantly , the actual voltages were the same. I tried discharging them, then recharging to full to reset the SOC calibration with no luck. Then I tried turning solar off with no change. However, when I pulled the trailer out of the garage and got regular solar running again everything went back to normal. I have no reasonable explanation, but I don't think you can trust the SOC reading too much when it's stored this way. Voltage is a better indicator. @Dave and Kimberly, how do the voltages in this chart for 12v LifePo4 batteries compare to your batteries' voltages and the SOC being reported?

I kinda like them for the sheepherder nostalgia, but I’m not going to buy one.

Before responding back on JD's excellent post, not being familiar with your batteries, is there a way to absolutely ensure that all three battery heaters is OFF? Switch? Take a wire off? Etc? Now back to JD's Post. I agree fully. It is in line with what we discussed earlier but with more detail. I would take a micro-step further and suggest after getting to full SOC, that you equalize the batteries. See YOUR battery MFG procedure to do so. Then proceed as suggested with you fuse pulling effort.

Cool, a homemade camper using a utility trailer for the base/frame and using a sheet metal carport/outhouse for the cabin. Ingenious!

Sherry/Paul, The original build ones were replaced two seasons ago, by Oliver as they began to leak creating a strong Sulphur smell throughout the trailer. When i examined them, a couple were also VERY HOT. I was home by then and removed all from the OTT, sat them on the driveway, and it took a while (hours in the shade) for them to cool down. Last year on our trip to AK, one of those recently replaced by Oliver started to do the same, leak, Sulphur smell, but not hot. We were in Watson Lake at the time, I found the local NAPA and we replaced it with a NAPA Battery as they had in stock and we continued on our trek. (it was a deep cycle marine SLA, group 24, but i believe the 'cranking amps were a little less than the Oliver one it replaced.) I will check tomorrow. On our way home, towards the end of last year's trip I noticed the NAPA was leaking and it was more of a puddled gel type of leak. I believed it was due to the roads we were on in the YT & NWT. So, yesterday I now replaced the NAPA with an Interstate of the same type. Above when I say, "Same Type", that is to say, 'Deep Cycle Marine, SLA, Group 24, Cranking Amps 81-82'. One of my questions is, on the ZAMP, the 'Batt Type' should be 'AGM' correct? Apologies to @jd1923 & @Geronimo John, for not mentioning the background earlier, as the thread was on Cable length, not on root cause of the Battery issues. We leave AGAIN for Alaska on Monday the 10th. Just a different route than last year. B~OUT,

Looks to me that if you go to their website - https://www.peakmtncamps.com/ - and read after you have gone to the Oliver website - https://olivertraveltrailers.com/build-your-dream-camper/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=wbmpmax&utm_term=&utm_referrer={referrer}&utm_placement=&network=x&matchtype=&device=c&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvIWzBhAlEiwAHHWgvXVsduGtqVT4CnXOywMUENxHEFUY38hWpJD2axF5ub_6bfnm9P9xWBoCkC4QAvD_BwE - and read, most if not all of your questions would be answered. Am I missing something here? Bill

It's either a brain anonolly by a RoF or I'm trying to drive you off the edge! Or maybe it was a silly joke! 🙂 JPR

Personally I would more likely have whacked off the tab as you were pondering.

Have you removed the regulator on the Coleman stove? It won't work correctly if you haven't.

My DC-DC only puts out a partial charge when idling. Revving the engine should show an increase in output.

I experienced much the same issue, and will share what I found out and truly believe what may, in part, be going on. When on shore power, take a look at the Progressive Industries EMS digital display. I noticed a 1A draw and could not figure out why, despite the fact that everything was shutdown to the best of my knowledge. I would have to make a weekly trip to the storage facility to activate the ‘initial’ charging aspect of the Xantrex to bring my battery bank up; this involved tripping the 30A main breaker Off then On again. Upon researching, I learned that the Xantrex has a 1A draw even when turned Off. To remedy, I now trip the surface mounted circuit breakers for the Xantrex and DC located under the street side bed. Problem solved, at least for now; zero draw on the batteries! I plan to install a Victron Cerbo and dedicated charger to maintain the battery bank since the Xantrex ‘maintenance’ charge feature is not working.

I wanted to reach out to everyone regarding this issue. We have been made aware of the issue and are currently investigating. At this time it appears to be a single incident but we will be continuing our investigation.

We used the same one that @topgun2 refers to: The "O-ring" keeps paper goods nice and dry inside when the wet-head is being used as a shower... Here's a pic of our install/mod: Cheers!

It was just the last test stage for the new trailers...after the leak test.