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Hi, new to the community, having bought hull #1165, a 2022 LE2, on January 2nd! I've gained lots of pre-purchase info browsing these forums as a guest and would like to start off with a thank you! I appreciate everyone's help so much! Paul

Gotta go with the circumstances!

Tomorrow will be my 100th night in the Ollie since I left on my round-the-continent trip in early September. I'm on the way home now so I think I'll hit 102 nights before the trip concludes.

From what I've seen so far: Oliver has reported this to NHTSA and is self recalling for their own units as an extra precaution. The NHTSA and Truma appear to still be in negotiations about a larger industry wide recall. CS

Thanks guys. Because a couple of you suggested possible issues with the battery itself, I've submitted everything I know to the support email at Lithionics and will let you know their response once I get it.

Hello Steve Contrary to your post above, everything I've read indicates the part number for Bulldog replacements of the Monroe 555001 is HD1213-0656, not HD1214-0656. I put the specs for each as well as the Monroe OEM 555001 in the image below. The specs on the left are for the HD1214-0656 and the right frame is the 1213. If you compare it with the OEM Monroes (the bottom frame), the 1213 shocks line up much more closely than the 1214. My question is: is this just a simple mistake or is there a reason you were recommending the Bulldog HD1214-0656? I ask because I am about to change mine out on my 2018 LE2 (#344) and want a robust replacement.

Nice idea. Maybe someone artistic will step up. I like it! We never have kept up with nights, just miles. 160k plus, and we've slowed down a lot since covid/2020. And infant grand baby, who limits my travel, but brings me daily joy, this year! We've already traveled so many places with our Oliver, and foreign camping with rented equipment. None of them compare to the smile I get every morning from my grandson.

Thanks Bill, yes I've been doing my best to read all the manuals, watch all the official youtube videos, and peruse the forums and other resources on the site including the University. Definitely a steep learning curve but I'm getting there!

Paul - Welcome to the Family! And really glad that you decided to come off the "Guest" list and become a full member of the Forum. Be safe out there and let us know if we can help you in any way. Bill p.s. if you have not already taken a serious dive into the Oliver University, this would be a good time (during the Winter months) to do so.

I thought that this was/is the Truma water heater.🤔 (Note: my apologizes to Truma and its owners - just could not resist the chance to poke fun in response to all the Suburban water heater haters out there.)

What makes you think it isn't happening elsewhere? A recall involving Oliver would be addressed to Oliver only. If it involved say AS, they would get there own recall notice. This is a Truma issue. I don't believe there is any difference between what went on an Oliver or what went on an AS.

@SolitaryPine Welcome to the forum and wishing you safe travels and lots of fond memories. This is the place to ask questions for a variety of answers and true campfire stories! 😄 It will be interesting to hear how your Defender handles the high midwest winds when your rig is fully loaded and ready to camp. Onward! Patriot🇺🇸

With all the complaints I've read here with relatively newer hulls, I've wondered the same. Were the older hulls built better, or were similar issues just worked out years ago? Hard for me to tell owning a 9-year-old hull for only the last 19 months. @ScubaRx knows Oliver history better than most and he likely services his rig better than most. This is an important point he has made several times. Ours needed lots of maintenance since we purchased June 2023. And I have seen cock-eyed mechanical installations, electrical components wired wrong, and other minor items. Otherwise, everything works well as it should (except our fresh tank issue). An Atwood furnace was installed to replace a noisy Suburban (OTT Service 2018) and the window shades were replaced in 2020. With my mod the furnace runs great! And the noisy A/C, the HWH, 3-way fridge, Maxxfan, entrance door, toilet and seal, all good working for 9 years now. Many have had leaf spring failures. Ours have the correct arc with no sign of wear at the usual failure points. Just knocked on wood. @Ronbrink I always find some handy, right above my eyes! Most of the work I have done are Mods vs. Repairs. The TV worked fine, but not worth my time. The charger/inverter/solar/batteries were all fine, now they're first class. No EMS on our old hull, but now it does. Added LevelMatePRO, Ruuvi, Topeka and Victron. We had the so-called "high-end" mattresses (NOT, but now we do), new dinette cushions, and more and more! Due to the age of our hull, we have no Truma products. I would call the noise of the Dometic Penguin II a feature vs. a bug! Get the Atmos to replace it! Two Oliver owners have already and I should install ours by April.

Our 2022 Hull #1291 also has the 390 Ah Lithionics package. Your wiring is the same as ours. Our discharge and charge rates for our 3 batteries are not identical either (per the Lithionics app), but are closer than yours. But, DC voltages, as measured with a multimeter, are the same among the three, which satisfies me that "all is well." I presume you have done a full discharge down to reserve capacity, then a full recharge cycle charging for a couple of days until the all batteries show 100%? This is the recommended method for recalibration. I am interested in the response to your queries from Lithionics. Please post.

Took a break over Thanksgiving, leaving trailer and truck with brother in law for a couple weeks. Also, visited some friends who insisted we sleep in their house, even tho I always sleep better in #841. Those are the nights I slept in the trailer during this trip. I think I'm at about 7k miles since I left.

@SolitaryPine Paul: Congrad's on your purchase and welcome to the forum. Hopefully you have the Anderson No Sway Hitch System. When the chains are adjusted correctly, it will transfer some of the load back to the front wheels to provide better handling.

Thanks guys! And SeaDawg, the Defender's been really strong with the towing. I bought the Ollie from a guy in a mountain town, so I had to go up and over a pass on my first pull to bring her home. No issues at all. The 8,201 lbs of towing capacity, air suspension, and plenty of torque from the turbo inline 6 seem to be a good combo for this size trailer in CO. I'm a little worried about the short wheelbase and sway since I have the short 2 door version of the Defender, but with the electronic sway control and proper loading hopefully I'll be okay.

I like the idea of badges. They probably need more granular steps than just those 3 (every 250?). I am still in the early phase but dreaming of the day I can start racking them up faster.

I think most owners with the Dometic A/C would agree that’s it’s a tiny bit loud. (I suppose if you’re deaf it wouldn’t bother you at all - just your neighbors.) That, and I’ve read that at least two other owners have had issues with the bolts holding the fan motor backing out and causing significant problems. I had that issue myself. Luckily, I didn’t mind crawling on the roof to fix it myself. Others had to get professional help. The design and assembly shows a lack of care and proper engineering to an item that should be expected to regularly be exposed to a fair amount of vibration. As it’s built, this A/C should be -expected- to have problems. If I have to deal with the same problem again (before I replace it entirely) I’ll replace the substandard hardware with something more akin to what the factory SHOULD have used in the first place. Pretty sure I’m not the first one to have to replace the hinges on the Dometic fridge freezer door. Likely also why they’re a popular item on Amazon. Otherwise, I think it’s a great fridge - super freezer. Toilet seal leaked from day one. Wouldn’t keep water in the bowl. Tried the usual seal conditioners with no improvement. Replaced the seal with a new factory one. Worked for a few weeks, then same problem. Had a cheapo Thetford toilet in previous MHs - never had an issue with them. If your unit is 8 years older than ours - it’s highly likely that the components and workmanship were frankly - better. There’s really no such thing as “exactly the same equipment” build nearly a decade apart. Corners are cut, cheaper suppliers of parts and subassemblies are substituted, production processes are streamlined, workforces change, pandemics occur - and often - once-reliable items carrying the same model number are redesigned into something wholly different. (I believe there’s a phrase… oh yeah “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”.) Ask owners of White Mountain ice cream freezers. The ones made 20 or 30 years ago are bulletproof. The ones made 5 years ago will fail before you can make a second batch of butter pecan. We treat our equipment very gently - so it’s not as if we’re abusing our stuff into early failure. That said, I AM fairly demanding of stuff I pay a lot of money for. I EXPECT it to work properly and not fail quickly under normal operating conditions. OTOH - in those ‘less than three years’ - we’ve camped in 30 states and two provinces in Canada. We’ve crossed the continental divide four times. We use our Oliver for pretty much three months solid on each of the three vacations we’ve been on, and put 78,000 miles on our first tow vehicle during those three years. So it’s possible we’ve just use our trailer more than most folks. As for your lack of problems from any of your Dometic appliances - I’m happy for you! Really! It’s not like I -enjoy- having to diagnose, troubleshoot, or seek out other’s experiences to keep things working. I AM lucky to have a fair degree of mechanical aptitude, experience, and the tools to make most of my own repairs.

For sure the Furrion-Vizio combo that came with our 2022 LEII leaves much to be desired. We’ve replaced the gosh-awful Vizio television with a Roku TV. Which - even though is the same 24” size, is -functionally- much more user friendly. Yes, I do find the speaker arrangement on the Furrion in the Oliver to be lacking. Three speaker outputs and only two are used? Speaker placement? Missed opportunities to effect a much better outcome. I may add a third set of identical speakers amidships and hook it to the appropriate speaker output to make for a better sound balance. Also considering wireless set of speakers to take outside. Anyway, the remote has been tempting me to hurl it against a wall for three seasons. (“What? You were trying to adjust the volume and you changed the input?!” or “You had to turn the lights on to make sure you had the remote upright and could find the right button?!”) Now, it’s tucked away - hopefully never to be used again. V

Overnight low was 15*, with a high today of 38* and sunny. No problems at all! The Mopeka app shows me using about 1% per hour of propane from one of the bottles. 👍

We had a very rare Texas Snow Day yesterday, rather more properly deemed a Snow Half-Day! Taking advantage of this unusual low temp event to ‘cold smoke’ some sushi grade Scottish Salmon today, following two days of preparations. Looking forward to ‘rolling smoke’ through tonight until temps start to rise mid-day tomorrow. After which a trip to the Cow Barn to see how the Oliver survived this cold snap, winterization is also a very rare event in Texas, as well! UPDATE: Perfect Nova lox!

The HD 1213 is indeed a perfect fit for Hull 996 with our Alcan springs. John

Welcome and happy Camping, Hull #1045, Jolli Olli.

Maybe we need a conversion rate 😀. I imagine it would be self-reported and not an official metric we somehow track on everyone, some claim whatever badge you feel good about claiming LOL.

Truma AquaGo recall notice received today. Has anyone asked and received an answer as to why the recall is for Olivers only? I assume these water heaters are used across the RV (and maybe marine) industry?

Welcome from Fort Collins. Glad to see the Colorado numbers going up. I tow with a 3/4 ton Chevy. Sway is no problem even across Kansas with a 30 miles per hour cross wind.

He’s got more hair than I do!

For those of you who have been less than impressed with the tiny, difficult to use remote that came with the Furrion DVD player - stereo that came with your Oliver - thankfully there is an upgrade available. Though a Furrion dealer I contacted said that there was no full sized remote available, I looked on Amazon (where else?) and found this: Universal FUTVRS1-BL Replaced... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094NHGK5B?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share for the money, it seemed worth a try - even though a vendor on Amazon I also contacted also said it “will only work with TVs”. Oddly enough, this remote arrived with two stickers that said just “Remote”. They were stuck clumsily on the front and back of the remote. Since they were obviously crudely stuck on, I peeled them off. Sure enough, it says “Furrion” under the stickers. Dunno why they bothered sticking them on. At any rate, the remote controls the power, volume, DVD player functions, AM/AM functions, input/output functions - and probably stuff I haven’t even figured out yet. I haven’t tried to actually tune the radio yet, but I suspect that will also work as well. If you’ve been as frustrated with the tiny remote as I have, then you’ll enjoy this upgrade!

Me neither, but I can’t find any wood to knock on!

Hi, The SOC is calculated, but the voltage should be measured. At no load there shouldn't be any measurable difference between the batteries that are all wired in parallel. I think something is likely wrong with the electronics in the battery with the 12.9 V. The other 2 are pretty close together (.02V). That's quite a bit different than .7 volts. Odd too that this is the battery with much lower charge. Just a guess, but .7V is close to one diode drop, which could mean that this battery has a blown protection diode in it and is therefore the primary soldier and the others are along for the ride until he is discharged.....

You might be more than that... Sept, oct, nov, dec, jan. Long trip

Unless Oliver plumbing has changed, the black tank adjoins grey. No Black separation from grey, hence no/never choice for fresh. Don't even think about it, imo.

I am no longer apologizing for our Florida weather. We are setting new records, all along the i 10 belt, and so very cold (to us) in Tampa Bay. When the wind is cold and moist, we are kind of like the iguanas. Immobilized. Looking forward to a few nice days, soon. We've been through a hot summer, hurricanes, and crazy cold, now. It will pass.

Hi, Paul, Welcome

Welcome! Wishing you many miles of smiles. When smiles turn upside down with a trouble, we are here to help. Great looking rig. How is your towing experience, so far?

Paul, Welcome! There is a very knowledgeable group of folks here that can help with your questions. Beautiful rig! Please post photos of your Ollie adventures, too. Best Regards, Bill

@SolitaryPine looks like your batteries are wired correctly. I have 2 x 320ah batteries in our 2023 Oliver and have seen the same thing you have on the phone app. I read following on the Lihtionics website: The SoC is a ‘metered reading’ from an electronic Hall Effect Shunt and is a count-down meter that is most accurate on its first cycle after calibration* but becomes less accurate over time. It simply counts amps-in and amps-out but some losses will occur. Being a metered value, it does not actually measure state of charge “real time” but instead “calculates” or estimates state of charge. -Explanation: *every two weeks, a full charge cycle in which the battery reaches 14.4 volts is required to trigger a recalibration of the internal Hall Effect Sensor shunt. When the battery exceeds 14.2 volts during charging, the SoC re-sets to 100%. (In order to fully charge a lithium ion battery, the DC loads may need to be reduced so the charge current exceeds the discharge current to allow a full battery charge.) -Why does the meter “drift” and lose accuracy over time? When a consumer is micro-cycling a battery via a series of multiple discharge cycles and has partial charge cycles from solar or alternator charging, the SoC meter loses accuracy, called “sensor drift” over a two week time period. This is also called ‘short charging’ as the battery never fills and the SoC meter does not reach recalibration voltages of 14.2(12 Volt Battery, 28.4 (24V), 53.25 (48.0) or 56.8 (51V) batteriesrespectively. I think as long as the voltages are the same your batteries are fine.

For our "style" of boondocking our 300AH bank of Battle Born's are serving us well. At Quartzite now, low sun angles, and overcast, our 200amp "Solar Tracker" is augmenting our roof modules. We are burning through about 70AH/night and the tracker is bringing us back up to 100% SOC by 1300 - 1400hrs every day, FYI. The "tracker" is proving very efficient as a much lighter weight module than our 35# Renogy 400W suitcase IMG_3551.MOV Photos.app.zip

Perhaps some (later? Earlier?) trailers did come with a real remote, but ours didn’t. Just the credit-card-sized aggravating joke of a remote. Val

You are correct on $$. We like to throw them in on trips so we can do laundry. Much rather drop stuff at the laundry and head to the pool. No desire to sit in a Laundromat 🙃. If we want to spend time in a city, many KOA's are closer. We don't really like regular RV Parks. In 15 years we have stayed at maybe 3. Angle Fire RV Resort (Angle Fire, NM) was a treat, but expensive. It is nice being pampered and we will be back. We will definitely go back.

Thanks for posting this. Top of my list to order. It also appears that this remote may also operate the rare fireplace option that some Olivers have installed (wink).

In a recent post in the thread - "Truma has QC issues…. I mentioned that I had used a mod with a meat thermometer in order to - " tell me when the water is at about 104 degrees. Then I simply take a shower using only hot water (i.e. I do not "mix" cold water with the hot in order to get the temp back down to a comfortable level). This saves propane by not heating the water to 140 degrees in the first place, saves water because I don't have to mix the hot with cold (wasting that water until I get the mix right), and saves me from enduring that short burst of "cold" when taking a navy shower and turning the water back on." This mod is fairly simple- First purchase a meat thermometer that has a "cabled" probe on it like THIS one. Next - examine your Suburban water heater to determine how the Styrofoam insulation has been placed over the outside of the water heater. Note that most heaters have this insulation in two halves that meet at about the middle point of the heater (top to bottom). Gently lift the insulation and place the meat thermometer probe between the insulation and the water heater tank - try to get as much of the probe as you can in direct contact with the tank. Secure the probe cable to the outside of the insulation and tape the two halves of the Styrofoam insulation back together (note: at this point I also added a layer of reflextix insulation over the areas of the water heater that I could reach. Finally, route the end of the meat thermometer cable such that the end that plugs into the "read out unit" comes through the fresh air return grill under the street side bed. To use - plug in the meat thermometer read out and turn on the water heater. As the water inside the tank heats up you will note the "read out" on the thermometer will start to rise. It will not show you the actual temperature of the water inside the tank because the probe is on the outside of the tank. You will have to determine what is the temperature on the "read out" that equates to approximately 104 degrees (that is the temperature that most of us take showers plus or minus depending on how hot you really want to take your shower). In my case the "read out" will show between 93 and 95 degrees. At this point, I simply turn off the water heater, get in the shower and using ONLY the hot water, take my shower. Yes, there will be a few seconds for the water to turn hot when you first turn on the water but I usually "catch" this water in a small container (if I'm really watching my water usage). The use of the stock "shut-off" valve on the shower head for "Navy" showers can be used without the momentary shot of cold water when you turn the water back on - this is due to the fact that you are only using the hot water with no cold water being on at the same time. When not using the heater, I simply unplug the "read out unit" and store it one of the kitchen drawers leaving the meat probe wire barely hanging outside the furnace fresh air return. At one point I did fashion a holder for the "read out" unit and placed it near the fresh air return grill. However, I have since removed that because the "read out" unit is not very heavy and is fairly easy to read just hanging by the cable. Questions? Bill

When flying solo with Ollie, it is more of a challenge to find a stop for the night without prior planning. I for sure know where all the Interstate Rest Stops and free federal lands are along the way. That helps especially out west. However with my spouse on board, it is a LOT easier. I drive she finds the options based on how long we want to travel that day. In the mountains where snowmobiles run there are lots of huge parking lots near trail heads, with near zero people there during non-snow months. Another option for sure. GJ

Just look at all that coin you're saving!

@Steve Morris On behalf of all Floridian's, I will say "we do all we can to make our visiting Snowbirds feel right at home". Mossey

Doing what it takes to stay warm. 😁

105 degrees actually sounds pretty good right now... 🥶

Thanks Rich- after being a bit apprehensive to pull off, it worked. Straightforward and simple once a newby gets good advice!

Yes I edited my op before seeing your response, you have to remove the shade frame, just pull firmly on the corners.