ScubaRx

I would also dump the mediocre Zamp PWM solar controller and get a shunt based MPPT system. Victron would be an excellent choice. This will be the standard for the 2023 Oliver’s.

I’ll take care of it for you.

It’s perfectly fine to use the spring plate.

You should run your A/C off shore power whenever it’s available, not the batteries. They do have a lifetime based on the number of times they have been charged/discharged.

We have found the coolest new tow vehicle. A restored 1968 Oliver 1250 tractor. We can also use it to clear an area to camp in.

Good work in troubleshooting and reporting this problem. This will help someone else down the line.

George, looks like a good job to me. I hate cotter pins, they always manage to slice open a finger.

As everyone has now has discovered, you should NEVER try to lift the trailer from in front of the tires. I tried that once just as George did and by the time I got the rear wheel off the ground, the front jack was at least 18 inches high. In the picture, if that jack had slipped off the sub frame, the jack stand would have punched up through the bottom of the hull. It might have taken out the right side bottom galley drawer as well. Best Practice would be to always place jack on the steel sub frame behind the tires. Keep trailer hooked to the truck with parking brake on. If it makes you feel better, chock the opposite side of the trailer. This will lift both tires off the ground and allow you to do your work. I recommend always using a jack stand (or two) under the lifted side. This way, if the jack slips or leaks down the jack stand will catch the weight without everything crashing down and ruining the rest of your day.

The forces on a travel trailer going down the road is like a 6.0 earthquake being towed thru a hurricane. It's little wonder that things rattle loose.

Let me preface this story by making it clear that I am NOT a hunter but I do now understand why we SHOOT deer in the wild... I never liked the taste of venison, too gamey or too wild or too something. So, I had this idea ...that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope, and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- NO Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer, but I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ..... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!! All these events are true, so help me God...An Educated Farmer

The sensors are sonic and read through the tank walls. They are not internal. They are only accurate to about 10%. That said, if the display was completely dark, I would say it was not getting power. I doubt that finishing mowing the yard had anything to do with the miraculous recovery. Unfortunately, I don’t see a correlation with your other two scenarios either. I would begin by searching for where power to the panel might be being interrupted.

Wow, David you are really organized. I'm impressed. We so rarely have any sort of reservations or a set itinerary. Sometimes we don't really know where we're headed until we get to the end of the street. Turn left we'll probably go North and East (maybe to Maine), turn right, probably West (Arizona, California...Alaska?) I do like the idea of keeping a log of what we do each day, but neither of us is motivated enough to actually write it. Thanks for the info.

A cut off switch is OK, but not absolutely necessary. I would install it if it made you feel better.

Virtually all generators will require the neutral-ground bonding plug.

We have had the same Yamaha EF3000ISEB generator sitting on the tongue of two different Oliver’s during the past 14 years. It will operate our 13,500 BTU A/C unit flawlessly without an East Start installed. It has a battery start but is not dual fuel. At 150 pounds, it is not light. Remember, using propane as generator fuel, at sea level a 2400 watt generator becomes a 2000 watt generator. At 7000 feet it will only put out about 1450 watts.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234545806758?hash=item369c04fda6:g:xjgAAOSwac1iLirK

Is that part of the transmission or part of the lifting mechanism? This may be all you need.

When the current run of Oliver trailers entered production in late 2013, they decided to do away with the Blue Sea Systems WeatherDeck Panel. The only effective way to completely kill power to anything now is to pull its fuse.

Whenever I'm inside someone else's trailer, I try to quickly set the alarm on their radio to go of at 0300 hours. Just for poops and giggles. 😉

Do the new Norcold refrigerator's not run on propane also? I assume you don't have 120 volts where your trailer is stored? You state: "I have everything turned off." I take this to mean the batteries are disconnected from the trailer. Turn the batteries back on, no need for the truck to be hooked up, Turn the refrigerator to propane. It does take 12 volts for the fridge circuitry to function properly. Do this a couple of days before you plan to leave and you'll be good to go. Or, if you have AC power and are plugged in, just turn the fridge to AC.

Take it and run with it. I think the grid should return to DC power.

Thanks for the lesson in electricity, Captain Obvious.

I’m glad you looked closer at that “red” cable coming off the back side of the shunt. All Oliver installed ground wires are yellow. So all is good there. And remember, turning off that breaker will not cut off power coming from the panels. It will only kill the (charging) power going to the batteries.

A less expensive option is a front hitch on your truck. You can thread a needle in this configuration.