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We were in Hohenwald today, and signs of how severe this storm was are everywhere! We came into town from the east on 412, and saw broken trees and power poles by the hundreds. There seemed to be a pile of debris collected along the road every quarter mile or so, some as big as cars. Then we left to the north on Rt 48, and it made the eastern side look like a teaser. Thousands and thousands of downed trees for miles! The worst ice damage I’ve ever seen. Hopefully, no one was injured and folks are somewhat back to normal now.

Saw this post from another user...quite detailed. I mounted the sending unit for our system (not Tire Minder brand) on the outside of our front jack power head. You can easily pull 12V from the inside of the power head and decide if you want/need an on/off switch for the circuit. * I just leave mine on all the time...as the draw is minimal.*

If you’re referring to the little device that relays the sensor signals I installed mine in the front jack housing, there is power in there and room for the module. I repurposed the switch that controls the jack light so that I can turn the module power on and off.

I just finished cleaning up after the blizzard and this is what I was looking at this morning. It's getting old. On a serious note, there was a fatal accident after the storm when someone was trying to pull out a stuck snow plow with a tow strap attached to a hitch. The hitch broke off and whipped into the cab of the truck from the tension on the tow strap. Most hitches aren't designed to handle the forces involved in a hard pull between two large vehicles. Just a reminder to be careful out there.

While editing my above post, I thought again about this statement that I just wrote. Until I was educated by Alcan staff, I didn’t realize wet bolts should be torqued when doing maintenance. I’ve not noticed this in a service manual. I always thought a wet-bolt with a Nylok nut only had to be there, not overly tight nor loose. I remember having a suspension lock up in a flat bed car hauler. The mechanic at a trailer shop, merely loosened the bolts on the center link and the suspension dropped into place! I never torqued the wet bolts on the original suspension, though it was REALLY loose when I removed it. Thinking now that @Patriot has the right idea on this one. Crawl under your trailer once a year, lube the Zerks and check the torque on the wet-bolts and U-bolts. I also like removing the tires every so often, removing all gravel while inspecting, looking for punctures, clean the inner rubber. With the old-style bearings, pack them. Spin the drums and set the self-adjusters that do not always adjust adequately so the shoes are just rubbing. Im taking the wheels off anyway!

Funny! Moderation with AH is the key! 🌋🔥 David

I was wondering if anyone would notice those. The latch is still in working order, but I know many trays with a single latch would sheer off. Those blocks of oak wood with two screws in each have been there since 2021. I think Jason Essary even mentioned them when he saw them, and how they seem to work well. LOL You have a keen eye Bill. You win the prize for spotting them.

More like this. But still the same idea.

You mean like - THIS VIDEO Bill

Hi Steve, thanks for your assistance with this plumbing project. I really appreciate it. Marc

Yes, the monsoon season, late July through September has chance of flash floods, but it would also be > 110F! Will soon be in the dry season, Q2 starting with April winds! It’s so BRIGHT up here, my eyes hurt after 3 days! Even with back to the sun, the Oliver looks like a high-powered light bulb! Maybe should have parked with curbside to the north. Chance of rain this week is 0-0-0-0-0-0-0!!!

Yes, I saw all of the glowing reviews six years ago when I did my upgrade to lithium batteries. Back then Oliver had just introduced their lithium trailer and there weren’t many choices for lithium batteries. Battle Born was the gold standard then. This goes to show that lab testing has little resemblance to real world life testing day in and day out over the years. Even now and with most things we buy, we do our homework and research the best we can and select the best option. I’m not too upset with the way this has turned out. These batteries have traveled many miles in six years and have been well used all without any maintenance. We on average spend four months out of the year in our trailer every year, in 2025 it was six months. We are ready for the next chapter!

After I had heard about the issues that Battle Born was having, I initially tested my three batteries. I installed my batteries about six years ago and at least initially didn’t have any issues with them. We were in the midst of a two month trip so my testing was very rudimentary. I just ran a 1500 watt electric heater on my inverter for about a half hour. That loaded the batteries to 122 amps which only put about 41 amps on each battery. With this test I was only checking for hot positive terminals. No issues there. After we got back home I decided to replace all of the Battle Born batteries with two Epoch 300 ah batteries at the wise counsel of another Oliver owner. Anyway, I decided to perform a more detailed test on the three old batteries. I had an old 400 watt inverter that I connected with a 100 watt incandescent light bulb (remember those) and connected the input to each battery one at a time. This would put approximately 8 amps load on the battery. I first charged each battery to make sure they were fully charged. I finished my initial battery test today. First and third batteries lasted about 12 hours each. The inverter will turn itself off at 10 volts which is the voltage that a lithium battery is considered dead. The 12 hour time frame seems about right, 100 amp/hr (battery) divided by 8 amps (load) is about 12.5 hours so I think my actual test is fairly accurate. The second battery only lasted a few hours and died to the point that the charger would not recognize any voltage so wouldn’t start charging. I had to jumper a good battery in parallel with the dead one so that the charger would start then after just a couple of minutes I removed the good battery and charging continued. Anyway, I’m going to re test the bad one tomorrow. My original 300 ah had turned into 200 ah! Over the past couple of years I had noticed that the battery pack seemed to draw down quicker than before and that I had to recharge them more frequently. We do all sorts of camping typically, a mixture of boondocking and various stages of campgrounds. We typically camp not just a few days boondocking which is easy for any trailer but we’ll boondock for maybe two weeks at a time. This past year we were in our camper for a total of six months. Four months in the west and two months in the south east. During that time we spent a week here and there boondocking and sometimes in campgrounds with no hook ups. Anyway, it had become more difficult to boondock in the last couple of years. We have a compressor fridge that of course runs 24/7 and then other typical loads. I didn’t know it but we had one third of our battery capacity gone! I’m glad I changed these out for the Epoch batteries! My takeaway and suggestion for others (not just Battle Born owners) is to periodically fully test your lithium batteries. There are load testers sold on Amazon specifically designed to test them and they are a little more elegant than the inverter/light bulb arrangement that I used. The Epoch Essentials 300ah batteries have Bluetooth and can be electronically controlled. The output or charge input can be turned off and on through the app so in a multi battery setup each battery can be isolated. I have not experimented with this feature yet but could potentially make it easier to test one battery at a time in place without having to remove them. Anyway, fellow Battle Born owners test your batteries!

We'll have 4 peaceful overnights in this beautiful and mostly quiet BLM lands. Quiet except for occasional UTVs passing by to run the shelf road to the top of Harquahala Mountain! (3 groups so far on this Sunday.) We got 100 yards off the main road and all I hear are the insects of the Sonoran Desert (perhaps too dry here for many birds). Not one sound overnight! Up close and personal with the Cholla and Saguaro cactus! 75F this afternoon and should reach 85 in a couple days! Drinking coffee this morning, in shorts, shirt off, basking in the Arizona sun. From I-10, halfway between Phoenix and Quartzsite, take Salome Rd to Eagle Eye Rd north. Or take Eagle Eye Rd south off US Hwy 60 at Aguila AZ. The roads are all paved until you get to the staging area and the road to the top is of course dirt, where decades ago there was a Smithsonian observatory. Our tow vehicle is only 2WD and I'm not much for hairy shelf roads anyway! I'd like to drive up close enough to hike the rest of the climb. We'll check it out soon! We each have a good book to read and getting some sun and warmth (got cold and snowing in Prescott) and much needed rest, is all we need to finish up this trip! 😎

They taste like chicken?

We saw that through TN, AL, MS, LA, and into TX. One of our usual COE stops was closed because of all the trees down in the campground. It was an eye opener.