Geronimo John

Ok we have now almost completely killed all the possible loads ... except: There is a fuse panel in the attic. Hopefully you got those as well. Would pull the smoke and the CO2/Propane detectors out if you can. I think the CO2/Propane may be hard wired if so, leave it. A wild card: Have you had any problems with the trailer lights being on when they should be off? If so, spray out the plug with CRC brake cleaner. (Yea this is a very small leakage if the plug is wet and dirty. With a nod to Ronbrink, do you have a Xantrex? (Trip it's circuit protection) 1 amp X 24 hours = 24 amp hours. 360 AH system divided by 24 ah/day = 15 days to dead battery. If the battery charge is still declining as before, Recharge and disconnect the one of the 4/0 wires to isolate the batteries. If they sink out, then you know it's them. In retrospect this likely would have been a better starting point as suggested by Topgun2 and JD. But just think of all you have learned in this process! 🙂 😞

In reality it was an OOPs... Sorry about that! GJ

You are of course are correct. But, I already stepped on that land mine in 2019. I took the position you espoused (DISCO the Batteries). But got my knees taken out by an owner that said that may work for you (Me at the time) as your voyages are very long, His were short and doing the process many times a season was not realistic. I had to admit he was correct. Hence my 350 A BlueSeas Master Battery Switch install....

Precisely stated! Yep. For sure. Thanks for also sharing that a cheap service disconnect is not the way to go. GJ

For Lead Acid or AGM's yes. But when discussing Litho's, the Amps in vs. Amps out is the standard. Now, when you have a super small charge rate and draws, not even a SOC system (Such as Victron 712's and better) can keep up with the drift. So at the end of the storage period, a full on "fill up" is required with additional charging time for equalization. That should reset the clock so to speak. GJ

Bill's spot on. The odds are that you have an overcharging issue. Combine that with SeaDawg's statement I think applies to your situation. Conventional wisdom is when one goes bad, replace them all. This logic is based upon differences in internal resistance of the four batteries. The "outsider" (I.E. New One) of the family certainly will NOT have the same résistance as the rest of the family. As such no telling where the charge energy will be going. But it will certainly not be equally between the family members. Each time one of the family members will over heat and die From this picture, it is hard to tell if your battery cells are serviceable: Since you have tried at least twice now and the problem repeats: A. If your cells can be tested, get a hygrometer and test the acid strength. It is a direct indicator of the cell health. B. Provide close study of the current being provided by your Converter during the charging process. If the above is not possible, and I were leaving for a long trip, I would replace them all, fully charge, and then look at the draw down when being stressed by known amp draws. But be very aware that any Lead Acid/AGM battery should never be allowed below 40%. For many that's 11.7 volts. But check with your new battery mfg. But first, you may want to take a deep breath, get two beverages of choice, and take a deep dive into the attached Battery DIY document. It's only 12 pages long. My apologies for not indicating where I "borrowed" the article, but it is worth a read for those still not yet .... Lithoized. (Gotch JD! there's another one!) 🙂 GJ DIY - Batteries - More Than You Ever Wanted To Know.docx

Before responding back on JD's excellent post, not being familiar with your batteries, is there a way to absolutely ensure that all three battery heaters is OFF? Switch? Take a wire off? Etc? Now back to JD's Post. I agree fully. It is in line with what we discussed earlier but with more detail. I would take a micro-step further and suggest after getting to full SOC, that you equalize the batteries. See YOUR battery MFG procedure to do so. Then proceed as suggested with you fuse pulling effort.

Is your heater and cook top stove working properly?

It's either a brain anonolly by a RoF or I'm trying to drive you off the edge! Or maybe it was a silly joke! 🙂 JPR

Any idea how old that bottle of Dawn is? My new does not give any warning about bleach. It also says "50% less scrubbing" and "dawn believes in safety and quality of our products". Pretty good evidence that they changed their formulation. I too use Dawn a lot. Regardless of what those "Experts" say, I'll follow your lead and not be mixing the two. Good catch between the two of us! GJ

Personally I would more likely have whacked off the tab as you were pondering.

Ok we are not PHD English majors, or million dollar news anchors. But we are generally into efficiency and math. Envisionating is concocted of two words: Envision and Creating. Typed these words require 21 key strokes. Envionsionating only requires 15 key strokes. So it meets your goal of less vs. more. Gotcha! 🙂

At your service Sir! Not having a picture though I am at a disadvantage. But , I am envisionating (Yes that is another GJ invented word) that the carry handle is a protrusion that is preventing a flank to flank fit of the batteries. If so can you elevate the new battery so as to allow the flanks to meet? GJ

Thanks Dave, you read my mind! I will be putting the seal replacement on my 2025 Summer Tour Task List. Wash, dry, 303 them! Easy. Without interuptions, about how long does it take to do yours? GJ

I had not heard of Dawn outgassing chlorine gas with or without bleach being added. Its MSDS does not warn about such a hazard. So I went to Mr. Google: Below is a very good video about Bleach and Ammonia. BLUF: Dawn and Bleach does not create Chlorine Gas. BUT: Mixing Ammonia and Bleach CAN kill you. CONCLUSION: Right idea in stating Ammonia and Bleach should NEVER be mixed. But Dawn can be mixed with bleach and not omit toxic chlorine gas. GJ

In early 2017 I was a year from retiring. My goal was to purchase an RV. I knew exactly what I wanted as a result of an experience with my Father. I was 5 or 6 years old and we were up in the Big Bear area of CA. A truck pulling a large silver thing pulled into the parking lot. I said "Daddy is that a Space Ship?". He replied with great pride, "No Son, that's an Airstream Trailer, made in America. The best in the world. So during the ensuing 60 years, that was the trailer I was going to buy. But which one? For months in 2017 I studied, wrote, and rewrote 20 times my "Desired Trailer Attributes" document. During the 2017 Christmas break, my brother and I were down in Matagorda and an Airstream 26 footer was pulled into the parking lot. About every square foot of it It had been beaten to hell the day before. I spoke to the owner and asked what happened. It was a Thunder Boomer with pea sized to 1/2" hail that totaled his rig. I asked what he was going to do. He indicated that for $48K the factory will reskin it. That's when I decided that my AS dream was a non-starter. In January I had completed my Desired Trailer Attributes, and my summary of the various MFG's RV's. Here is what I wrote for the AS: AIRSTREAM TRAILERS: Sport 22 FB, 21.6’ x 7’3”, 6’3 interior height, GVW 4500, Dry weight 3600#, Single torsion axle. HAIL DAMAGE CONCERN. TILT. That pretty much launched me to a Factory Tour at OTT where I met Jason and the Team. That made my decision to get an Oliver. Art: Your story about the concern of our OTT family and your truck, and the lack of concern for the Ollie's in the damaging hail storm is legendary. Thanks for sharing it! GJ DESIRED Trailer Attributes.docx

Dave: I like the idea of going black and actually maintaining them (Wash/303) on a regular basis. It might be icing on the cake, but my goal would be to get two years between service. Would post removal and washing, then soaking them in some sort of mold/mildew preventer, drying and then 303ing them. Would that work with the material and the 303 product? GJ

JD: I am wondering how big those QUEEN size panty hose must be to get around the Air Conditioner unit on the roof. I can see them working well on the refrigerator vents. But the topic of this thread is the AC mud daubers. Kindly "EXPAND" on your vision because mine is watching you trying to install them on the roof. LOL

Roger that. I'm thinking the exact thing with the Ford EcoBoost Phasers. GJ

The issue could just be parasitic losses. But I seriously doubt it. But to stop them entirely is impossible if you are connected. If we can not visit our trailers often when stored, what most of us do is to install a battery cutoff switch. The BlueSeas 350-amp one is the choice many of us recommend and use. John Davies went the extra 20 miles to try to eliminate all of his. Hegot close, but failed to get to near zero. That said 3% a day is not parasitic. That's a load. I would turn off and pull every fuse in the trailer. It should take you WAY down, but not all the way to zero. I store my Ollie for 8.5 to 9 months a year during all the cold months. During those months, many on a mountain in Oklahoma, my litho's will lose about 10% SOC. Certainly not 3% a day or even a month. Then install several at a time to help you narrow down the circuit(s) "leaking" power. This will be visible on your Shunt. I also recommend a clamp on amp meter as Mr. Davies suggested. The Shunt will tell you how much, but it will not always tell you where. The amp meter is a great tool to figure that out. Battleborn has specific protocols depending upon your storage situation. So call you MFG of your lithos. But if they say kill the flow , see above. I hope this helps. GJ

Drats. At least it likely was not as obvious. Could new black ones be "clear coated" with some product to seal out the spores? GJ

Assuming the video is spot on, with main bearing assemblies cast into the block, the likely fix will be engine replacements. 100,000 replacement engines cost alone will be well over a billion dollars. That's based on 100,000 engines at $10K replacement cost. But to amass that number of engines and teams to replace them will not be a short term effort. I have very high regard for Toyota and the fact that they have "Rogered Up" to the problem. I also know that they will fix it, and when it is, the owners will be very happy with their TV's. GJ

Totally agree. I have found that it is not needed if you are using a Honda 2000/2200 inverter generator and a Houghton. Others may have different results for other generators. GJ

Some testing by an OTT owner indicated the best place to run the thermistor sensing end is where the Dometic T-stat is/was located. Once in that area just need to poke the end of the thermistor out the street side. Why here? it is out of the direct air flow from the unit and as such gives a truer temperature of the cabin. This install was done by others on SOB's, but not yet to this location that I am aware of. I will be doing mine in July and will post up the method that ended up being successful. There are three different approaches in my quiver and I have a thermistor that is 10 feet long to get me there. My goal is to have no wires showing inside Ollie and extending as stated above. More on this in July.... Try running the unit on low fan speed and drop the temp down until it maintains a more comfortable temp. GJ

I battle it on my white outside window trim. Some day I'll go black. GJ