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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/17/2026 in Posts
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Oh, boy... I'm going to attempt to explain how "the engineers" in drawing this conclusion are naive! A trained and experienced engineer should know there is much more to this than a simple comparison of data sheet specs. π Please allow me to explain. You could have used your True Induction cooktop every day on your trip, if only they had wired it correctly to the inverter. Your system is just fine for occasional induction cooking. I was hoping you would have rewired it on the road, it's what I would have done, but I do understand the warranty ramifications. I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning using a 10" Smithey skillet on our 1800W DUXTOP induction cooktop. It cannot be much different than your 1750W built-in unit, meaning the numbers I will present will be relative to your True Induction cooktop, 2KW inverter and 260 Ah batteries setup (your solar may vary). This induction burner starts at the medium #5 setting and within seconds the bacon started sizzling, so I turned it down to 3.0. After the bacon was done, I increased the setting to 4.0 and cooked a batch of scrambled eggs. I did not measure cooking time but maybe about 12 minutes total, I'll use 15 minutes to be conservative. You'll be amazed how many actual Ahs it takes to cook a simple bacon-n-egg breakfast or boil a pot of water (wait for the punchline). π Reading such nonsense from "the engineers," the engineer in me had to prove them wrong! So tonight, I went out and plugged in another DUXTOP that we keep in the Oliver to run an amperage use test. When it turns on at the 5.0 setting it quickly ramped up to 68A (DC amps) which comes to 816W (W = 12V x A). Your Xantrex 2KW inverter can handle this with just a low hum. I tested the induction cooktop at all settings (1 - 10). Here are the results! (I'm an IE and used to do this kind of reporting professionally for 30 years.) The first row shows the induction cooktop settings (1 - 10). The second row shows Amps produced by our Victron MP2 inverter, read from the Victron Connect app. The third row shows Watts calculated (amps x 12V). The fourth row titled %Spec is the actual Watts used divided by the 1800W maximum. Note on FULL this induction burner pulls watts at ~80% of spec. We call that a 1.25x engineering margin, therefore... Your inverter will NEVER use 1750W! The actual maximum will be closer to 1400W on FULL which can boil a 5-qt pot of water in just minutes. I could not read actual amps out of the inverter for any setting less than 5.0. For example, at the 3.0 setting the amp reading ramped up to about 60A for a second and then wound down, then repeated this pattern. I believe the heating element is not capable of a lower amp setting, so it would turn ON and quickly OFF to some timed algorithm. More OFF time than ON as the settings go lower. This is likely why the unit starts up at the 5.0 setting. In the table above, the amp readings in BOLD are actual readings, the lower numbers calculated. There is an obvious linear relationship, so I used a graphical extrapolation method to calculate amps for settings 1.0 through 4.0 which looks like this: Let me tell you how many Ahs I used to cook breakfast this morning! Estimating 15 minutes cook time, half of that at setting 3.0 (40A) and half at 4.0 (52A), so on average I used 46A for 15 minutes. Isn't it amazing, the technology where it is today, that I used only 12 Ahs to cook breakfast! (46A x .25hr = 11.5 Ah) On the #10 setting, you cook boil a large pot of water for pasta in say 10 minutes. This would use 20 Ah of your 260 Ah batteries. You could simmer a red sauce, chili or any fresh made soup for 2 hours on the 1.0 setting using 28 Ah. Sorry, you're under powered to get into the food truck business, but quick meals 2-3 times a day, np. Our 10-year-old less efficient 320W rooftop solar nets +12A when mostly sunning. This means an hour after breakfast in our hull SOC / Total Ahs would be back to where it was just before we cooked breakfast. Your 2K inverter and 260 Ah is just fine for your "Baby Ollie." We couldn't live on it, but I demand induction cooking while Chris toasts bread in the Emeril Oven and we stay cool running the Chill Cube A/C, on our 3KW inverter and 900 Ah. Please don't retrofit to an LP burner. Induction cooking is FAST, well measured, it's just GREAT! In our home kitchen, Chris now uses a single-burner induction cooktop regularly while our GE 4-burner natural gas cooktop sits idly by! π€£ She can't be without it, now that she knows it. Just ask @Ollie-Haus, who convinced me to buy ours! Just get OTT to rewire your circuit breakers so that induction cooking and everything else is on the inverter circuit except for air conditioning (or have any electrician do it). Thanks for allowing me to learn with you tonight. It was fun "engineering" again! Going into this study, I had no idea the numbers would be this good! π When we need advice, our forum is the place, great collective knowledge here! We thank OTT for providing us this platform. We should expect the company to continue manufacturing the best fiberglass hulls in the travel trailer marketplace, no doubt! π€5 points
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JD1923...What a great explanation based on your experiment and knowledge. This makes sense to me. We do not cook full meals or use a stove top for very long in our camper. Big stuff like meats, grilled veggies and such are outside on our griddle and that is only a handful of times when we camp. Hot water for coffee, eggs, pancakes, is more like what we make on the stove top; and it is just the two of us. This is so helpful. We are experienced campers and are good at conserving energy and water. We certainly don't live in the camper or even spend much of the day in the camper. Time to share information with Oliver. THANKS. These forums are GOLD.3 points
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We will see how long the perfect closure lasts but there is an adjustment you can try.3 points
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Here is a data point. We have done 34 states in the last 22 months. Just over 20,000 miles, 125 nights in the Ollie. We hope to complete the lower 48 next year.3 points
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@jd1923, excellent explanation about the power an induction cooktop actually draws. I have to think that the reason Oliver doesn't wire it through the inverter 120v AC sub panel is to protect inexperienced campers from themselves. The 2kw inverter may be plenty for the induction cooktop by itself, but the microwave is already on the inverter circuit, as well as the wall outlets. Imagine someone trying to use the cooktop, microwave and a coffee maker concurrently. Even when on shore power, one should be careful running multiple electrical appliances. Many of Oliver's customers are first time RVers who have little to no experience with power management. It seems to me that a 3kw inverter would be more appropriate as standard equipment for an induction cooktop equipped trailer since the demand could easily exceed 2kw. Maybe Oliver should just avoid wiring the air conditioner to the inverter since the battery bank doesn't have capacity for an extended run time. Steve2 points
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I used this method to adjust mine and it worked perfectly. Really like this model awning for its simplicity and ruggedness in windy conditions. It is a good idea to keep a spare gearbox for it on hand, though.. Mine last one went bad and took almost 2 weeks to source another. Nice job on the install!2 points
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FYI, I did speak with the sales person at B&B RV. As I anticipated, he was not aware that on this build unit the induction stove top was not routed through the inverter and wouldn't work when boon docking. He will also be contacting Oliver to discuss a remedy. So far, everyone I spoke with have been unaware of this issue and are hoping to find a way to resolve. That is a good thing.2 points
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I feel like I'm giving them an opportunity to step up. Those that I'm currently talking to are likely not ones who can make some Company decisions. I'm hopeful as the conversation progresses with Oliver and within Oliver that we can find a resolution.2 points
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Passing the buck. Oliver should be better than this. They built it. Again, for what you paid for your trailer (and what Oliver expects others to pay, based largely on their reputation) they should make this right. Building and selling an RV with no working stove in boondocking mode might be acceptable for an entry-level brand, but it's unacceptable for an allegedly top-tier brand.2 points
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I donβt want to offend anyone, but I have an entirely different view on this issue. It might be time to pull in the reins on the piece-meal fixes and take a fresh look. At lot of the advice provided is based on conventional auto electrics and trailer wiring. But things are much different with today's vehicles. There is changing technology with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) switching, and the way it interfaces with modern LED lighting, and the low-to-ground switching of your Chevy that requires solid grounding. High resistance grounds and shorts can be hard to locate, and they can cause ultra low currents that will be detected by digital systems of new vehicles. These include grounds and shorts that might only appear under heavy loads, such as from your brakes. The heavy loads can cause insulation breakdown and arcing that might not be otherwise detected. The flickering lights you mentioned might be an artifact of your 2023 truckβs older PWM system and a separate issue, or it could be caused from a poor ground. It could also be caused from a failing brake controller for example. I agree that itβs most likely a trailer wiring issue, but I wouldnβt go rewiring the 7-pin or axle wiring just yet, or renting a u-haul with a 4-pin adapter because you will not get definitive answers. Unfortunately, new grommets will not help at this point either, the wires were already taped. The breakaway switch amperage will be ambiguous too. A direct short would smoke the wire, a high resistance short would be lost within the range of 9-12 amps for the 4 brake coils. But there are enough clues to point to a potential ground issue, so a ground check would a good start for most DIY folks. The trailer is grounded to the TV in 2-ways. Through the hitch ball, and via the 7-pin ground wire. The ball ground can be iffy, so the wire ground is important! You can see the black ground wires in your junction box picture, they are connected to studs that are grounded to the trailer chassis. A good place to start checking. Use a multimeter on ohmβs setting. Find a good ground on the TV for grounding one of the meter leads, and then start checking ground points on the trailer with the other lead while jiggling wires, including those on the axle. You will need two people, and maybe jumper cables to extend the test lead length. You should have fairly consistent low ohms readings. You might get lucky and find a loose connection. However, it sounds like various technicians have already checked for obvious problems, so at this point you are really in the territory of an Auto Electric specialist with proper logging instruments to test for intermittent problems and the ability to accurately trace circuit continuity. Auto electrics is a field of itβs own, and they are far more knowledgable that the dealers and regular mechanics. Just my two-cents. Good luck! Geoff2 points
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JD, I need to talk to Wen about this :) Thanks for all your testing and research! John1 point
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Steve and MA, you are probably right. This is our 4th camper and with all of them (30 amp models), you made choices such as running a microwave vs the AC. We manage battery power, water, tanks, and propane. When you made the wrong choice, you learned and didn't do it again or you prepared for it. The induction stovetop is a new one for us and @jd1923 broke the info down in such a helpful way. Thanks for your comments.1 point
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After 8 years of the Carefree awning, I decided to go with what I a wanted originally. A Fiamma 45s 450 (14 ft 8 in.). The Carefree was well made and incredibly durable but had some shortcomings. Mostly regarding closing completely. The Fiamma has a much lighter weight aluminum pole for extending and retracting. Also, like the pole connector on the right side close to the door. I ended up using the old brackets (used a square to mark with both awnings on the ground lined up) just to make the install simpler. The awning extension pole bracket holes on the camper werenβt the same so you have to drill another hole, not big deal. Love the new blue awning and seeing it when closed shut perfectly on both ends of case!1 point
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This is a Camco Evo water filter cartridge that has been used on one trip for 20 nights in 6 different campgrounds in 5 different states. We set up for 3 additional single nights in 3 more CGs where we didnβt hook up to the water. I donβt know which CG water caused it to look like this. We donβt drink campground water and sometimes we canβt even shower with it. This is not the worst weβve seen. The worst case was near Leech Lake MN a few years ago where I had to change the cartridge after 1 night. Those of you using the blue bullet water filters should probably be changing them every few days. Water with high mineral or organic tannins content will stain your plumbing fixtures and certainly your clothes if you wash in it. Bill1 point
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What a scare that must have been. Glad you are ok. I wonder if it helps that attaching an Andersen anti-sway hitch requires me to lock the coupler on the ball and then raise the ball quite a ways in order to get the hitch attached? If the coupler were not secure on the ball I would never be able to connect the Andersen,.1 point
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Yes! I have a tiny pocket IR thermometer I got at Harbor Freight. Not super accurate, but you're only really interested in the relative temperatures between wheels - looking for one running significantly/unusually hotter than the others (every trailer we've had had one wheel that consistently ran slightly hotter than the others for some reason). HF doesn't sell it anymore, but they have similar pocket IR thermometers on Amazon. I prefer the pocket size to the gun because I can grab it at a rest stop, check my wheels, then drop it in my pocket while I head to the rest room. (You look kinda funny carrying a IR gun into a restroom...)1 point
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JD, thatβs quite the accomplishment! π Congratulations! You should post this on WTW, too.1 point
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Update: Water pump switch has been fixed. I was in Hohenwald for a furnace and water heater issue so I had them troubleshoot and fix as we are still under warranty. The issue ended up being a loose connector on the Seelevel switch. Mike and the Oliver service department were great in addressing all of our issues.1 point
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Update: W255H Issue Hull#1703 2026 LEII The furnace and water heater issues have been fixed! Mike at Oliver service was very accommodating and got us back on the road. Turns out the data cable was the issue. While trying to pull a new cable thru, the old cable broke, so I suspect, it got crimped somewhere and worked initially but as we traveled down the road it was compromised. Thanks to everyone here who tried to help me fix it without traveling back to Hohenwald and to Mike and Oliver service department!1 point
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That's great! I was excited when we finally completed my map. Now, I just want to revisit what we couldn't/didn't have time for . I've logged time in all 50. Not the Oliver in Hawaii or Alaska. When my grandson is old enough for preschool, we will be on the road again. In the meantime, treasured memories, as im sure you have.1 point
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