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My camper has a 3000 Watt Inverter and the Lithium Pro Package. Right after a camping trip last November I noticed my batteries were not charging on shore power at home. I discussed the issue with Oliver and they recommended I take it to a shop and have the surge protector examined. Rather than take it to a local dealer. I setup an appointment at Hohenwald (it's only a 5-hour drive for me). Yesterday I went to Oliver and they worked on the issue. At first Oliver thought it was the inverter which they replaced. However, this did not fix the issue. They then re-checked the surge protector and found the wire from the EMS to the breaker panel burnt as well as a burnt connector. They put my old inverter back in and replaced the surge protector and the batteries now charge. The work was done quickly, professionally and I was charged for only what was actually needed. While it was there I had them fix a couple of other small issues and grease my fittings. This is my second trip to Hohenwald for work on the camper since it bought it new. I am very happy that we can still go to Oliver for work and really appreciate that we can set an appointment and reasonably expect the work to be done timely, and well. It was nice to be able to drive up Sunday, drop off the trailer Monday morning and then drive back home Monday night with the trailer.

M & O squeaking out their last cold "husky" nap in what's left of the snowfall...

Headed to the Q on Friday - planning a night or two at Picacho Peak SP.... Magnus is staying home with D this time, Oscar's coming with me (but he doesn't know it yet!). See y'all at Tyson Wells... Safe travels, all!

We were on our Way home from the Hershey PA show when we stopped to stretch our legs. A couple came up to us and said they had been following us for about 20 miles hoping we would stop so they could see our trailer. It turned out they had a you tube channel. You never know who you might meet on the road. Bill

John, good discussion! The Orions protective features are based on voltage rather than amps, and alternator voltage will drop in an overcurrent current situation. Thats one of the Dropout Voltage functions, it protects the alternator from overcurrent. The Orion allows you to adjust the Dropout Voltage enough to compensate for cable voltage drop, but not enough to lose the alternator protection or engine-on detection features. I was pleasantly surprised when getting 35.8 amps output from the Orion, but it is capable of 40 amps. With the 42 amp input, it equates to 85% efficiency, where Victron claims 87%. The difference in my output / input amps can be attributed to both efficiency and cable voltage drop because even with #4 we are undersized. Okay I see whats going on, you have a “non-isolated” Orion! So the b- current is divided between the #4 wire and your frame. Those angry pixies will always take the path of least resistance, so as you rightly pointed out, the wire is taking 75% of the load because the frame resistance is higher. I hadn’t considered that because I use an isolated Orion and it carries the full input current on the wires only. I don't think it's a problem for you, if anything, it's helping. Humm? The 50 amp Orion is non-isolated too, so JD would be well served to buy an additional 12' of wire for the truck b-, and get a performance boost at little extra cost🤙 Good stuff man!

Is Fiona standing or laying down?

Yep, we got a few more inches, but a week for it to be plowed away. It won't be above freezing before we leave next Monday morning, so no melting other than from salt.

A neat video promoting the “tubers” RV inspection business, Olivers Travel Trailers, and a good plug for your bird store business as well. Olivers really do sell themselves for those who have the means to spend the big bucks. I did not see anything in the video that has not been really covered in the many Oliver owner testimonial videos and Oliver University videos which I would watch if I were interested in purchasing an Oliver. We purchased at a what we feel was a really good price point in 2020 even got a nice discount due to an end of the month purchase. At today’s price point, only a short 5 years later, we would not be players on a new brand new Oliver. I have seen plenty of newer used 22,23,24 YM Olivers well optioned sell for much less than the original list price for various personal life reasons. Ouch. The price increase unfortunately does narrow the funnel of buyers to retired empty nesters with hopefully “disposable income” given that the OLE2 only sleeps three. Starting at 70k he was obviously talking about the Elite and not the Legacy Elite II. I have to admit the new price increase allows me to smile about our decision to buy when we did. All this said, we are happy with our 2020 LE2 and are sooooo glad we purchased when we did. Happy & Safe Travels and Happy New Year!

I'll second this - On my tour the frame jig was the very first stop on the tour. While Anita was explaining something, all I could do was "lust" after that frame and the welds. I knew at that moment I was about to shell our some bucks for an Oliver! I figured that if this company did THAT good a job on something that in a finished trailer I would not normally be able to see then the rest of the trailer must be good. Bill

The guy forgot to mention that my truck is a diesel and also has Jake brakes. It tows 7,700.00 pounds compared to a gas Canyon with a 5,500 lb tow capacity. I’ve weighed the truck and trailer several times on cat scales fully loaded and with full water, extra water, bikes and Kayaks and I come in more than 300 lbs under gross for the truck and the trailer weighs in at 5,600 lbs and the tongue weight is right where it should be. It’s almost light on the tongue with the e-bikes on the back but is ok. we’ve towed about 10,000 miles so far and it seems fine. Been through the smokies, Catskills and the white mountains with out a problem. Would a bigger truck be better ? maybe we are at its limit, but still within the manufacturers specifications. But getting 20mpg towing and 24 not towing and the truck fits in my garage is worth something. Plus my truck is my everyday vehicle and pulling the trailer is only about 5% of its use. Sometimes you need to make some calculated decisions to make it work. Bill

He gives a pretty fair review. I’m not sure the comments about being a lightweight trailer because of the aluminum frame are real accurate but it’s not a heavy trailer either. Your interior looks great ! Mike

JD: Good ideas for my Phase 2 efforts. Phase 1 is to adjust the parameters and add cooling fans. That Snackchaser 3% loss per a few degrees of temp rise of the Orion 30 amp unit was an eyeopener! If the numbers don't come up to something close to 28 amps to my Battleborns, then I'll circle back to your two suggestions. Both have merit. But they also are not pretty much free as what Snackchaser suggested! 🙂 I would however modify your "with and without the hitch connected" test. To also include disco the Anderson Chains, Safety Chains, 7 Pin Connection, and for grins the emergency safety cable for the Dexter's. Basically severing all metallic paths between TV and OE2 except my 4 AWG cables for the DC to DC system. But then I suspect that's what you were suggesting to do. GJ

A & O - Have a great time and safe travels! Tell everyone "HI" for me and I'll see ya in May. Bill

Geoff: Good info for sure. Was not aware of the Victron SS log. I'll check it out next summer. Some follow-ups: From my understanding of the 30 amp Victron Orion 12-12/30 charger, the unit is specifically designed not to overamp the draw from the TV battery. As such, the max draw to the Lithium batteries in the RV would by design be 30 amps. How is it possible you get 35.8 amps out of the Orion as it acts as a TV battery 30 overamp "fire wall"? Not by design. My 4AWG cables run: B+: TV battery to Circuit Breaker, an Anderson 175 plug, to Orion to Ollie Lithium (via outside terminal of Orion). B-: Ollie Litho's to Orion to Ollie trailer ground (Center Terminal of the Orion), and then (Outside terminal) to Anderson plug to B- at TV Battery But my 712 Smart display says 22 amps or so, and my clamp on amp meter only shows 16.5 amps. I therefore conclude that about 5.5 amps are going along a metal path of the TV/Ollie team. Yes. That's correct and it is what I am seeing in my system. But in this case the B- has two loops in it's path. The 4 awg cables and the metal path of TV/Ollie. Your statement is true. But I fully expected to see both B+ and B- cables as measured at the hitch area to show the same amperage as you also stated. But the meters don't validate my expectation. The return paths of the B- each has it's own resistance. Per my meters and assumptions, the resistance of the two paths look like the metal path has a higher resistance than the cable path. Specifically, the ratio balances the current measured by their flows. Since less current is flowing in the metal path, it must have a higher resistance than the cable path. Could it be possible that my Victron Orion non-isolated unit ground wire (Center wire of the cable connection) is the source of our observation? If so, are others with this set up seeing similar same amp flows? Roger. I think that most of us that have the older 30 amp Orion's would benefit from both of your suggestions. GJ

We have some friends nearby that we camp with a couple of times a year. They have a YouTube channel of Ohio's parks, and always end the video with "Keep it between the mustard and the mayo!" Being dense, he had to explain to me that it was between the yellow centerline (mustard) and the white edge line (mayo).

Our Canyon is not a gas burner as it has the Duramax Diesel with the (standard on all GM diesels) exhaust brake and is rated to tow 7700 pounds as well. As I stated, I don't tow our EII with it, never even tried. I learned the financial hard way by going from a Chevrolet Tahoe, to a GMC 1500 gas burner, to a Silverado 2500 Diesel and now to a Silverado 3500 diesel to finally get a vehicle that preforms any task I call on it to do.

Safe travels Steve, I once had the unique opportunity to meet Dale Earnhardt senior during my former career. I asked him how he was doing? He said just “I am just keeping it between the ditches”. 😄 So I will pass it forward, stay safe and keep it between the ditches and have fun!

I do think that he missed a very good point by not mentioning the rigidity of the aluminum frame structure. When I took a tour of the factory while there to pick our Elite up; the frame structure on its jig for layout and welding was one of the top selling features for me. It's a beefy piece of aluminum art.

We just got 5-8" and drifting. That time of year. Not sure we have had this much in one snow the past 3 years, let alone for a total winter snow amount.

Geronimo, JD, I also have the 30 amp Orion with around 90' of #4. With the TV at idle, and the lithium batteries around 60%, the average TV input to the Orion was 42.5 amps, and the Orion's output to the battery was 35.8 amps. Decent efficiency! Amperage flows equally in a loop, so the B+ and B- will always be the same value. Knowing that, the 25% difference that you were seeing between measurements was most likely due to the Orion auto adjusting the battery charging current, or changing the output current due to low voltage, or even the smart alternator searching. It's really hard to get a consistently stable amp reading with all that going on. The Victron smart shunt has a log feature that might provide a better overall picture of its performance. You have 18' more wire than me, and that will increase resistance and voltage drop more than it may seem. It sounds like you might also have some added resistance from using the frame through the hitch for B-. That can cause the Orion to reduce the output amperage, which reduces the voltage drop, which brings it back within the default set points. So it might help to change your Orion's default “Start Voltage” from 14 to 13 volts, and the “Shutdown Voltage” from 13.1 to 12.8 volts. I get into more detail in my post "More DC to DC charger Installation Tid Bits." You might also re-check the battery type settings while you're at it. A cooling fan would be good for the 30 amp Orion, especially considering it ramps down 3% for every degree above 104 F. I described a way to install fans using a 104 degree thermo switch so that it doesn't create a parasite draw. It's also in the afore mentioned post. FYI, I was checking into adding parallel wires with the existing #4 for a 50 amp Orion upgrade. Geez, I'd have to add at least a #1, but better a #1/0 to stay within acceptable voltage drop. That's a lot of trouble and expense so I'm going to stick with the 30 amp for now. I'm very pleased with its battery charging performance, but not so much for running the AC. Hope you will find this useful! Cheers! Geoff

JD: Not for our Orion 12/12-30. I ran #4 Battery Cables USA Premium cables B+ and B-. Total length for F-150 Crew Cab was right at 108' out and back. Fortunately my purchase was when copper was much less expensive than it is now. I typically only get abut 23 amps on the B+ cable, and about 75% of that on the B- cable. Where did the other 25% go? Appears to be Ollie frame to Bulldog and Anderson WDH, to F-150 frame to the frame/ battery cable to the B- TV battery terminal. I would think this is a much higher resistance path. As such, one would think that all the B- amps would use the cable path back, but that's not what my amp meter is telling me. Would not bother me much if I was seeing closer to 30 amps, but it is not performing at that level. Reading the great posts above, my next check this summer is to monitor the temp of the Orion. Thinking of adding a fan. GJ

Yep me too JD! Sadly last year I pulled the trigger on the Orion 12/12-30. DRATS. Anybody want to buy a 12/12-30? 😞 Seriously, good move on your part.... again. GJ

I was impressed with his review. His diction was perfect and we all should forgive him for mispronouncing Hohenwald. I'm with @Mike and Carol in that these trailers should not be considered light weight just because they have an aluminum frame but it’s not a heavy trailer either. However, my opinion is the Elite II in a ready to travel state is way too heavy for a Colorado or a Canyon to safely tow. We own a Canyon and think it's a great vehicle, we just don't tow with it.

Got the goodies yesterday. The 50A Victron DC-DC charger is much smaller than I would have thought! It’s 5x5” with mount height at 1 1/2”, only 1 1/8” thick with 3/8” feet. The SB175 Anderson connectors, which as pictured, added $79 to costs. They are larger than the charger! Why did I need 175A terminals for a 50A max system? It’s for 4AWG wire and larger. I purchased a similar SB50 10 AWG Anderson with “Environmental Connectors” for our 400W Renogy Suitcase solar. Very nice product! Makes me think about heavier cables. Go from 4 to 2 AWG, add $55 on my frame grounded 65 run. Make it 1/0, why not add another $135 for $230 plus tax. Need near 100 ft battery to battery 1/0, plan to spend $350, more if you like fancy brand names!

We really like our 2020 OLEll and continue to really enjoy it. And we truly believe it’s the best TT made, and it has served us very well. However at the price today for a 24/25 model we would not likely be a player at today’s retail prices. This where I think the preowned market is good. The higher the price for a new Oliver, hopefully will help hold steady the prices in the preowned market. I am really glad we purchased when we did and still feel like when the time comes we will do just fine with resale. A well kept, throughly documented and well maintained Oliver will still likely bring a decent price. Good luck @roguebooks selling your E1, I hope it moves quickly for you.

Pricing used older Oliver’s should be pretty straight forward. When we ordered ours in 2015 the base price was $46K-ish. With options (not as many available as today) ours was just over $50K. That’s where I would start if/when I decide to sell. I would add some for the lithium upgrade and a few other mods that have been done. Factor in the age of tires and general condition of the trailer and you might add or subtract some. For example, ours has a new inverter, new shocks, springs, bearings brakes and tires, and a fairly recent ceramic coating. Those are all adds. In other words, I’d want what I’ve put into it and it would still be a bargain for someone interested in a used trailer. Mike

Wanted to say thanks for your Oliver review (on the Oliver website) as your insight is turning my head from the Airstream Caravel to the EII big time. I wanted to share an idea for when you are in Zion as a token of thanks. My husband and I enjoyed amazing massages at https://cablemountainspa.com/ which seems like it is inside Zion NP. Walked from our campsite it was so close by. Cheers on your amazing trip to Zion. -Tiffany & David from Montana

Thanks for the reply. The first two times I attempted to join the Oliver trailers FB group, by clicking on the 'Join Group' icon, the status changed to 'Pending', but there were no questions to answer. A few minutes ago I logged in to FB to delete a bunch of posts that I had no idea of why they were posted to my account and proceeded to scroll down and delete them, when there was a post suggesting other groups that I might want to join, Oliver trailers among them. This time clicking on that 'Join Group' icon brought up the three questions that need to be answered to be considered for acceptance. As I said in my post, I'm not a Facebook user, and only opened the account to join the Oliver trailer group in order to list my trailer for sale, so my problem in submitting a request to join the Oliver group might be a PICNIC problem (problem in chair, not in computer).

Madison County, Virginia. Visiting a friend and I guess we'll be staying a day or two longer than we expected.

10 days to go. 4-6" of new snowovernight in the driveway, and 8" near the house and on the sidewalk. This is our first real accumulation of the year here in northern Ohio (only 0-1" prior.) The bad news is that it will not get above freezing before we leave next Monday, so I won't be able to de-winterize and fill the fresh tank before leaving. And we'll also probably be at a motel the two nights coming down instead of at Cracker Barrel. I'm sure glad we got a full hook up at the Eggs 'N S'mores Rally this year, so I can flush the lines and fill the tanks when we arrive at the rally! I'm going to have to find a truck wash to get the salt off of everything before getting to the rally.