Geronimo John

Even the best wax will not totally stop oxidation. Some almost don't even slow it down a lot. I believe that any Ollie parked outside needs to be well detailed, waxed AND covered for good protection. Then there is the ceramic route, and that's both out of my wheel house and pocket book size too. Steve: For your two year+ sun soaked baking of your Ollie. In order of likely cost, least to most expensive: Cover it. If you go this route PM me. Find barn space for rent and cover it. (This is what I do) Find a commercial overhead cover storage facility and also cover it. Do nothing. Then plan on spending $$$ for ceramic. And then plan on having it renewed every few years. Likely only $$, but not in my wheel house. Do nothing. Then plan on spending $$$$ for OTT to restore it. Build a storage out-building or Man Cave like MaxBurner and others have! (My dream solution) Good discussions for sure as many Owners struggle with this very issue. GJ

If you have Michelins as several of us do, they are well capable of lasting to the long end of TopGun's range. That means covered as Patriot suggests. If you choose to cover, keep in mind that your trailer is not as tall or wide as most covers are made for. I unknowingly purchased an Adco cover and it was two sizes too large. If you have an OE2, the "box" of the trailer is only 18' X 7' and the height of the box is just over 7'. Shop around and you'll find the "Custom Oliver" trailer covers are quite $$$$. Nice, but expensive for sure. Considering Grand Kiddo's: If I had known they were SO much fun, I would of had them first! Enjoy them! GJ

Does it really matter? If either of those issues are present, I would want my unit replaced. But that begs the question of "With What?". On that point, I'm in the BoondockingAirStream and Seadog camp. Give me something that works for 20+ years that I can maintain.

I agree. None the less, I am elated that OTT recognized the issue as a life safety one and launched their recall so quickly. That's taking care of our family first! With your experience, you may take the step to advise Air Stream, NHTSA and RVMA of your Air Stream thoughts about this product as well as Oliver's "stand up" actions too. Again, the right thing to do. GJ

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

I have often thought for very cold weather, that if we could just run our furnace fan on continuously (vs. it cycling with the furnace burner), many of our freezing issues would be ameliorated. Especially on the curb side. The benefit could be expanded to the Aft Port corner (where we generally first see freezing water systems) with the inclusion of an under bed return air duct to that area. An idea I suggested some time ago..... GJ

Listing them on Craig's List generally results in your getting $500+ pocket cash. Having the soft start and a really cleaned up and staged for pictures is a great start. But taking a video of it running with a date and shot of your pocket thermometer showing the discharge temperature was what sold mine for above that number. Bill: Any chance you could post a link to your post. Sounds like a great idea to be emulated. Thanks GJ

I really like the idea of having the hose connection "T" before the filter idea. I often need a hose sprayer, but generally have little control over flow when using one of the camp ground taps directly. I have a spare connector in my basement as shown below. Having both the lines out with their own valve would allow use of the hand hose without putting pressure or flow into Ollie. Thanks for waking up the idea! GJ

Relying on campground supplied water pressure regulation alone has risk to the care free enjoyment of our wonderful Ollie's. But WHY? It comes down to physics. The CG water system typically are sized to accommodate the anticipated max load when built. Rarely do the owners of the CG plan for much future expansion, pipe scaling, or future site space density of users increase. So over time the site's water pressure delta between high flow and low flow periods increases. But WHY? Increased demands over time, the flow efficiency of the system decreases due to due to flow friction. More friction begets lower flow, and increased static and dynamic pressure differences. The problems start cropping up at those customers at the furthest site from their water main connection. Low flow complaints lead to the owner reducing the pressure modulation on their end to increase pressure to serve the end of line flow requirements during peak times. The Delta Pressure between low and high flows can easily be 25 PSI. So effectively to be conservative with what pressure you want your Ollie to see is your own water pressure regulator. Hence, for all of the above reasons, we do not leave city water pressure "on" to Ollie unless we are filling the fresh water tank or using the dedicated black water flush system. GJ

Could be handy for the three-way units especially. It would need to include a means for terminating the propane flow. The 120 and 12 volt power sources would eventually ground and blow fuses so I would not be overly concerned about their contributing as reignition sources. GJ

This is a life safety issue. PLEASE SUBMIT A TICKET WITH THIS POST. It is a candidate for a massive recall. GJ

I like using my Garman RV satellite GPS for that. There are several different models depending what you need or can afford. That said, I don't use a Satellite Navigator to navigate our Ollie into the barn for storage. But I do back it in and out very carefully. the barn floor is about a foot above outside area grade. So I had to move a bunch of dirt and gravel to create a compacted 20 foot long flat spot in front of the 10 foot AFF clearance beam at the entry. Something to keep in mind if you think the storage facility could give your Ollie A/C or antennas a BUZZZ hair cut. JD: I didn't know your picture was on the cover of Mad Magazine. You are famous!! GJ

Bad description above. Thanks for highlighting it. I should said along the frame. I want the frame to at least somewhat protect the cables during off roading. Also not stated is that Ford requires all such cables to be run in high temperature loom to keep their warranty. Thanks GJ

The Victron Orion installation requires circuit protection from both sides of the system. One at the TV battery and another at the load side of the connection. JD prefers two fuses and that works great for him. I am in the Circuit Breaker camp on the TV side and a fuse like JD suggests on the Ollie end of those 4 AWG's. Of the two, I think the load end is the most important. Reason is that if you have a direct short our Litho's easily generate more than 3X the power that the TV battery can. The fuse sizing criterion includes: Amps, Volts, and Potential Power. Sure we could put a small fuse with a small 10 Ga wire on it. But if short circuited, it would be blown away and certainly not contain the potential energy generated by the 1800 amps or more that three Battleborns can generate. I would not want to even guess what those twin 360 AH Litho installs could put out but would bet they can melt 4/0 cables in two seconds. Hence using quality fuses as JD suggested or a quality circuit breaker and fuse.

For your purposes that may well be true. But for at least one of us when we are not connected to Ollie, we like to go play where off road conditions sometimes involves stuff impacting our undercarriage, frame and floor panels. Would like to avoid that, but stuff happens. That puts our cables that are exposed at some risk. I prefer to kill the breaker at the TV battery and not worry about it when doing so. Sure we could have run the cables thru the frame, but John Davies taught us that doing so we can not secure them from bouncing around. Since the frame is welded, I am not so sure that they ground down any of those robot welds smooth so our cables would not be taking a slicing as we bounce around out there. Sure there is a price to pay for the power loss through breakers. But I have come to terms with that loss as compared to the time of unbolting the fuse each time I go play. So, I guess I'm the Flipper Camp and you are in the Screw It Camp. Just the way it works out some days. But the good news is that we both agree that circuit protection of those lines IS in fact a very important safety element of our DC to DC charging systems. You did mention not knowing of any quality breaker makers. I don't know myself. So let's ask! After all, this sort of question was asked a few years ago and a fellow owner nicely introduced me to BlueSeas product lines. So here goes? Anybody know of a good quality circuit breaker for under hood install in the battery area that is rated at 60 amps?

I agree. But a switch has only and on/off function. Better is a circuit breaker or a fuse. Either provides protection to down range wiring in both the open and closed position. If you only have a switch, and something damages the conductors going to Ollie, an on switch gives you no short circuit protection on the wires from the TV Battery to the Orion DC/DC unit. My preference to use a circuit breaker and not a fuse at the TV battery. Quality fuses of this size and amperage typically are bolted in fuses. Compared to a flip of a breaker, undoing the two fuse bolts, is far less convenient.... especially when you drop the washer or nut into the manifold and have to wait an hour for it to cool down to fetch with your fingers because you forgot to pack the magnet on a stick at home! 😞 GJ

I'm with both of you on this one. I connect my TV to Ollie via a Anderson 175 amp connector. I have a 60 amp breaker at the TV battery. Disconnect the Anderson only with the motor off as well. I like having a breaker at the TV Battery. That lets me not worry about potential damage to the under frame cables in transit threat when not in use. I do not YET have a second 60 amp fuse on the Ollie end. I assume it should ideally be mounted at the B+ terminal on Ollie. I am assuming it's purpose to so kill power should a DC/DC charging B+ cable headed forward goes to ground. Correct?. GJ

Ditto. Just make sure you have the head room under hood for them. GJ

JD: Good ideas for my Phase 2 efforts. Phase 1 is to adjust the parameters and add cooling fans. That Snackchaser 3% loss per a few degrees of temp rise of the Orion 30 amp unit was an eyeopener! If the numbers don't come up to something close to 28 amps to my Battleborns, then I'll circle back to your two suggestions. Both have merit. But they also are not pretty much free as what Snackchaser suggested! 🙂 I would however modify your "with and without the hitch connected" test. To also include disco the Anderson Chains, Safety Chains, 7 Pin Connection, and for grins the emergency safety cable for the Dexter's. Basically severing all metallic paths between TV and OE2 except my 4 AWG cables for the DC to DC system. But then I suspect that's what you were suggesting to do. GJ

Geoff: Good info for sure. Was not aware of the Victron SS log. I'll check it out next summer. Some follow-ups: From my understanding of the 30 amp Victron Orion 12-12/30 charger, the unit is specifically designed not to overamp the draw from the TV battery. As such, the max draw to the Lithium batteries in the RV would by design be 30 amps. How is it possible you get 35.8 amps out of the Orion as it acts as a TV battery 30 overamp "fire wall"? Not by design. My 4AWG cables run: B+: TV battery to Circuit Breaker, an Anderson 175 plug, to Orion to Ollie Lithium (via outside terminal of Orion). B-: Ollie Litho's to Orion to Ollie trailer ground (Center Terminal of the Orion), and then (Outside terminal) to Anderson plug to B- at TV Battery But my 712 Smart display says 22 amps or so, and my clamp on amp meter only shows 16.5 amps. I therefore conclude that about 5.5 amps are going along a metal path of the TV/Ollie team. Yes. That's correct and it is what I am seeing in my system. But in this case the B- has two loops in it's path. The 4 awg cables and the metal path of TV/Ollie. Your statement is true. But I fully expected to see both B+ and B- cables as measured at the hitch area to show the same amperage as you also stated. But the meters don't validate my expectation. The return paths of the B- each has it's own resistance. Per my meters and assumptions, the resistance of the two paths look like the metal path has a higher resistance than the cable path. Specifically, the ratio balances the current measured by their flows. Since less current is flowing in the metal path, it must have a higher resistance than the cable path. Could it be possible that my Victron Orion non-isolated unit ground wire (Center wire of the cable connection) is the source of our observation? If so, are others with this set up seeing similar same amp flows? Roger. I think that most of us that have the older 30 amp Orion's would benefit from both of your suggestions. GJ

JD: Not for our Orion 12/12-30. I ran #4 Battery Cables USA Premium cables B+ and B-. Total length for F-150 Crew Cab was right at 108' out and back. Fortunately my purchase was when copper was much less expensive than it is now. I typically only get abut 23 amps on the B+ cable, and about 75% of that on the B- cable. Where did the other 25% go? Appears to be Ollie frame to Bulldog and Anderson WDH, to F-150 frame to the frame/ battery cable to the B- TV battery terminal. I would think this is a much higher resistance path. As such, one would think that all the B- amps would use the cable path back, but that's not what my amp meter is telling me. Would not bother me much if I was seeing closer to 30 amps, but it is not performing at that level. Reading the great posts above, my next check this summer is to monitor the temp of the Orion. Thinking of adding a fan. GJ

Yep me too JD! Sadly last year I pulled the trigger on the Orion 12/12-30. DRATS. Anybody want to buy a 12/12-30? 😞 Seriously, good move on your part.... again. GJ

Craig: Thanks for posting the pic. I once saw a young engineer cycle one of those valves and he was lucky to only get burns on his other hand.. At least yours points towards a wall so if it went off at 100 PSI from a runaway situation it would likely bounce somewhat downwards. Such an installation clearly violates the National Plumbing Code. However, I could not verify that it violates the RVMA requirements. Only a matter of time before someone gets scalded by this obvious safety hazard. Would especially be tragic if it was a steam release in a severe situation. At least they should install a full size 90 degree elbow to point the discharge down. In the meantime, it would be very wise for owners to be very cautious of this reality when working on our hot water heaters. GJ

That said, I'm sort of thinking that the Calgon beads and Pinesol is a great way to keep the tank clean on a regular basis. But I still recommend using the Thetford lubricant as many of our owners use and cleaning/lubricating the cables every four years or so. So, my inclination is to use both, but not at the same time. Certainly open to the thoughts of our members on this. GJ

Sadly I'm about 4,000 miles from our Ollie. I too have never had a problem with my TPV. But that's normal. Millions of them on hot water heaters just sit there doing nothing for DOZENS of years. Sadly the owners don't know that at least annually they need to be cycled. But since the UPC (Uniform Plumbing Code) requires them to be hard piped to the floor or beyond, when they do cycle it is to the floor. Not you face or into electrical systems as I noted in a different post earlier today. GJ