mountainoliver

Mike, nice work! The installation looks perfect. I know you’ll love it. These fridges are like your home fridge, they just work no fiddling to keep it cold inside!

If you’re keeping track. My 2017 hull 208 has a 50.50 in. 3500 lb. axle.

I agree with Frank with a very important additional point. The tapered shank is only held inside the aluminum housing by a snap ring set into a shallow groove. I would highly suggest that if the whale tail is not used, a collar and the safety pin be used it hold the assembly together.

Oops, yes thanks for reminding me. That is for the Dometic air conditioner as supplied by Oliver for my 2017 LEII. I’m not sure if my suggestion is correct for the Truma unit.

Yes, for example the Battle Born folks provided the charge parameters for their batteries. Blue Sky Battle Born setup.pages I sent the BB folks a copy of the Blue Sky setup pages and they supplied the parameters that they wanted to see for the 3 BB batteries that I have. You will have to do the programming procedure as per the Blue Sky instruction manual. Very easy process.

I would remove the air filter and check the condensation drains. They pass through the air conditioner to roof seal on each side. There should be some sticky caulk around each tube. Also I would check the four hold down bolts. There’s one in each corner. To access these you’ll need to remove the inside cover/trim. I think that there’s six screws holding the cover. Don’t over tighten the bolts, just make sure that they are snug.

In 2017 when we picked up hull 208, the factory had not balanced the tires. The guys lifted the camper in the shop with all four tires off the ground, removed all four, and balanced them. The three jacks readily lifted the camper. Since then I have had one side or the other off of the ground on several occasions in order to level the camper. That said, I have the Andersen leveling wedges and use them nearly every time we camp instead of using the jacks for anything more than just stabilizing. Early on, there was one instance that I know of where a rear bracket was not completely welded and broke when the camper was being stabilized. Other than that one incident I have never heard of any issues with the ability of the jacks not being able to lift the LEII. Understandably, with an abundance of caution/safety, Oliver has backed off on suggesting that the jacks can be used to completely lift the camper. We must remember that the lightest our campers will ever be is just before we take possession of them. After that, they begin to gain weight. The phrase “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” comes into play here.

topgun2, this is what happens when you stay in Cracker Barrel parking lots too often! Google maps cameras catch you. This location happens to be on our way most anywhere west of Virginia so we stay here often. Maybe too often! 🤪

I am also looking forward to replacing the original air conditioner with a quieter version. Still waiting to find one that works out of the box without me rigging home made fixes to make it operate as it should. A year or so ago I almost purchased a Houghton unit until I found out that they had changed the operating profile. I had wire that color matched the furnace wire, a manual thermostat, I had run a pull wire from furnace to the thermostat area, sealant, etc. all ready. I even had a hoist partially set up to lift the old unit off and set the new unit on. I’m still waiting and looking. The Freshjet unit is one that now looks promising.

jd1923, maybe a couple of reasons to want a separate charger/inverter. My older hull number trailer has separate units already and it all works well so I’ll probably just leave well enough alone. Also, seems like the newer trailers with the combined units are having issues with both. If one unit goes down nothing works. I seldom ever turn on the charger anyway, I let the sun do its thing. Seldom use my generator as well. We’ll plug in if it’s available, sometimes. Really the only thing that must be plugged in is the air conditioner, everything else can run comfortably on either DC directly or on the inverter. The only situation that we would have had a problem is when we were caught in the Texas deep freeze about four years ago. Several days with little sun and highs in the twenties and lows in the single digits. Fortunately we had shore power the whole time. It’s a blessing to be able to own a trailer that is set up so that it really doesn’t matter if we have power or not and can easily allow us to camp most anywhere. I love it when a campground apologizes for not having a site with water or electricity and being able to say that it doesn’t matter we’ll be comfortable anywhere.

jd1923 I agree 💯. I basically did the same thing. I added the automatic transfer switch for the air conditioner and several months later switched to lithium batteries. However, I have not had any issues with running the Dometic air conditioner on the inverter. It does get warm but as long as my total watt load does not exceed 1,800 watts the Zantrex inverter should handle it. The specs say it is capable of handling 1,800 watts continuously and 3,000 watts intermittently. I have run the air conditioner for about a half hour and the inverter was very warm but I wouldn’t say that it was hot. It does have an overheating shut down sensor and it has never shut itself off for any reason. At some point in the future I plan on getting a 3,000 watt inverter but I’m not interested in one that also incorporates a charger as well. As of now I only use the air conditioner to cool down the trailer in the evening then open windows overnight unless we’re on shore power, then the air conditioner stays on if necessary.

I also have never run my air conditioner on the inverter if the trailer is on shore power. In fact I never turn on the inverter if the trailer is already on shore power. I’ve never had a reason to, either the trailer is on shore power or not. I know some folks leave the inverter on all the time and that really shouldn’t hurt anything but I don’t.

Concerning the issue of running the Dometic air conditioner on battery power through the 2,000 watt inverter. I realized that I stated that the inverter could handle 2,000 watts load. (I have gone back to my original post and corrected it) Actually the inverter is very similar to a 2,000 watt generator. The Zantrex inverter will run 1,800 watt loads continuously and 3,000 watts surge not 2,000 watts continuously. The Dometic air conditioner draws about 1,600-1,700 watts. The inverter will be at it’s limits so absolutely no other AC loads while running the air conditioner!

I used this transfer switch for running my air conditioner through the inverter. Only two cables no issues getting the switch wired. I did change out the cheap plastic wire strain relief bushings for standard metal clamp type bushings. The cable on the right comes from the power distribution panel and the one on the left goes to the air conditioner. I’ve checked the terminal strip screws on several occasions and they’ve always been tight. Don’t try to use the Zantrex 15A switch, it’s just enough to run the Penguin AC Unit but gets pretty warm after a few minutes even with the soft start module. I switched over to three Battle Born batteries a few years ago and they can run the AC unit for maybe a couple of hours, although I’ve never run it for more than a half hour or so because I haven’t wanted to totally deplete the batteries. My 320 watt solar system would take several days to completely recharge the batteries. The 2,000 watt inverter seems to handle the load well but, I make sure that there are no other DC loads at the same time.

I have posted this before when talking about this light’s propensity for leaking. My light leaked four times in the first three years of owning our trailer. Oliver caulked it twice and I caulked it twice. I realized that this issue was going to come back over and over so I decided to do one final repair. When I picked up our trailer, I asked for and picked up several sheets of fiberglass scrap cutouts from windows and doors. I used a piece of this to make a plug for the hole. I removed the light and epoxied the plug into the hole from the inside. I used a high solvent based epoxy for this then I later fiberglassed over the plug to reinforce the patch. Now four years later still no leaks.

Cool, a homemade camper using a utility trailer for the base/frame and using a sheet metal carport/outhouse for the cabin. Ingenious!

“Also changed the differential oil at 1,000 miles and found metal shavings on the drain plug/magnet that was larger than expected. 😐“ I owned a 2017 Tundra for a short while and also found machining shavings in the rear differential so I guess that nothing has changed in 7 years.

Do you have any photos of the installation? I’ve already installed a compressor fridge in my trailer five years ago but, there may be others who would be very interested in seeing the installation (I am as well!). Thanks

Yes and only slightly better looking than the Airstream horse trailer AKA the Basecamp. 🤪

I don’t know but it looks like the two screws came up from the underside, went through the piece with the igniter, and threaded into the top cover. Are the two bosses in the top cover threaded? Can you look from underneath at the other good burner and see if there’s two screws going up into the top cover? Could that burner never been assembled completely from the start?

That’s where I found the #6 welding cable and battery temperature sensor cable. I think that was the extent of the “solar pre wire” for my trailer.

I don’t know Steve, I don’t really like the term “exam”! That has all sorts of implications that involves sharp instruments etc. 😲

It is and thankfully Steve provided counseling to help me through it all! 🤪

As far as mounting the panels, the combiner box and, the interconnect wiring…. I paid Oliver service to do that. I bought the Zamp panels from Oliver and since they know exactly where the aluminum plates are located in the outer roof, they mounted the panels as well. All other wiring and solar controls ScubaRx and I installed. I had to look the other way and bite down on a broken arrow when the first hole was drilled into my new camper but have since gotten over that trauma.

I don’t remember that there were any wires pre installed in the ceiling but know that there were #6 cables and the temperature sensor wire running from the basement area just aft of the pantry up the wall between the window and pantry, into the open area where the radio is located. Oliver service connected to the #6 cables near the radio and ran those back to the attic area up between the roof panels and to the location where they mounted the combiner box.