Geronimo John

I thought that IS an essentials of life!!!!!!!! Got you! 🙂

Use of blocks: Picture a 2 X 6, preferably treated and washed. Now take a chop saw and cut them into 2" X 6" X ?". The "?" is the iD of your milk crate less a bit to allow easy removal from the box. Mine are 2 X 6 X 11". Now stack them to nearly the top of your milk crate. That is the limit of my pre-planning on blocks. IE I can raise up my jacks on blocks one milk crate high. 🙂 When at my destination with soft ground, I use two blocks side by side laid flat on the ground. Then I stack other blocks so that they are 90 degrees from the ones on the soft ground. This is done to spread the load and not have Ollie burrying my blocks into the soft ground. That is not necessary on hard ground or paved areas. There I just stack up the blocks. Slip Plane: This concept ir rooted in the coefficient of friction between to surfaces. Here is a web site that goes into some detail: http://www.slipalert.com/friction/ But to keep it simple: When we jack up our Ollie, the jack plate (the part on the ground) and the ground create a pair of surfaces that are pushed together. They create resistance (IE friction between them) that will resist their sliding apart if you try to drive off. This resistance (force to slide) can be measured and a "Coefficient of Friction" can be calculated. The two of them form what is called a "Slip Plane". Two surfaces moving relative to each other is resisted by friction. So if they have a high CoF (Lke dragging a locked rubber tire on concrete) then they don't want to slip. Now pretend that you raise your Ollie on soft ground. You can expect to see the jack plates being pushed into the ground. If you were to drive off, you surely would damage your jacks. Now if you always without fail raise your jacks EVERY EVERY TIME before moving your trailer, you are golden. But about 80% of us have proven to ourselves that we are not in that elite group of perfect people. As a result, a lot of jacks have been damaged. Sadly avoidably. So, if you place several sort of smooth timber surfaces together above ground, and if you move your trailer, they will 99.5% of the time slip relative to each other. Their doing so is a result of their CoF being much less than that of a jack stuck in the mud. Hence always having two blocks of wood or similar material in use under each jack. Ok you may think that I now only need six blocks. Why fill the milk crate with them? Or, why not have two milk crates of them? First, I only have room for one milk crate in my basket. A second reason is that there is a limit to how high we should even consider jacking up on a sloped surface. One is the limit for my risk assessments. And this is rooted in the concept of levers. If you stack up blocks to raise the trailer a fixed number of inches, you reduce the extension of your jacks by the number of inches of blocks you use. By raising up the height of the jack foot, it reduces the distance from the foot to the jack mounting bolts. Doing so reduces the lever arm, and makes it much more likely that the boards will slip before the jack hurts itself. For day to day routine use on firm ground, If I have used three of my blocks under each jack. Why three? Because it creates two slip planes. and if the first block is really stuck (maybe the ground is a littls soft), then I have another one to slip if my trailer gets moved. By slipping, it will save my jacks and as the jack foot moves off the blocks, it will fall a few inches and whispers to the entire camp ground it is not happy. Without going into the discussion of sliding vs. static friction... I utter a word or two .... and go pick up my blocks and raise my jack. Often looking around to see if anybody heard my OOPs. One word of caution is that you never want to jack up your trailer to the point that your blocks and jacks are no longer, or could become no longer, perfectly vertical. Doing so is a recipe for disaster. Another reason not to have more than one milk crate of blocks. 🙂 Hope this helps. GJ

Back to the question asked. Since my Charger is a fixed voltage, and from responses that the Renogy solar suit case and the Orion 12/12 DC to DC are smart, can they all play together?

I really like those machine screws WITH polished SS fender washers under their heads. I would have concern that they would damage the fiberglass over time with out the fender washer. GJ

I recommend adding a 1" fender washer to the bolt before inserting it back through the fiberglass bunk wall. I used 1/4 - 20 bolts (4 Sets). The fender washers on the outside are to spread the load against the fiberglass wall. The white plastic OEM mounting plate stiffens the wall and spreads the load as well. Especially since I used a LOT of JB Weld between them! Sadly for my 3000 watt Renogy inverter there are only four locations to mount, so each is critical. The bolts and fender washers are the easy (by comparison) to get in the holes. But the washer, lock washer, and Nylock nuts on the back side are a real PITA to get to. It takes patience and focus. But if my size 4XL hands got it done, you can too.

I recall that there is a path that the A/C condensate uses.

For sure! Leave at least one of our safety chains connected until AFTER you have chocked and leveled Ollie. When preparing for departure, back up to Ollie and first connect one of the safety chains. As I have stated before: "Nothing like having a 6,000 pound anchor!" GJ

YES!

I carry a milk crate full of 2 X 6 blocks. I use three under all my jacks to act as a shear-plane. Should for some reason the trailer moves, I'll hear a clunk and recall that I failed to use my check list. In your hill park picture, I see you are doing your best to keep Ollie in place. You even have a block to act as your shear-plane if it moves. Bravo! The two suggestions would be to: A. Use a line and tie off your brake emergency cable to a tree. If the trailer moves at least your Ollie brakes will activate. B. Bring more 2 X 6 blocks and shorten up the lever arm of the jacks as much as possible. GJ says: "Jack up Ollie as you need, but keep the jack extensions as short as your pre-planning will allow"

JD: Yep for sure on that one. Thanks for filling in the rationale. All: I'll likely mount our solar suitcase charge controller out of the weather in the Ollie battery compartment. My Keep it Simple is to just roll out the panels and plug them into a solar port on the door of the compartment..... IF it does not put out significant heat when charging at capacity. Anybody have the larger 200 watt Renogy solar suit case with the 20 amp charge controller think it puts out more heat than should go into the OE2 batter compartment? Thanks GJ

Having such a wand greatly improves the process. If you have an old 1/2" garden hose that should be in the trash pile, you can make one really easy from it and some scrap metal tubing and a hose clamp (El Cheapo GJ style). Or just buy a nice one with a valve on it. Either way good purchase suggestion

JD: Those look like hte100 watt solar suit cases. Assuming your batteries are at say 70% SOC = 13.2 volts X 6.7 amps = 88 Watts input to the controller. That's really good! Question: Curious why you did not mount the charge controller inside your trailer? Maybe with your Battleborns? Then use a solar port through the battery box door? GJ

Our 2018 4060 manual has a selector switch for LI and Flooded. The LI sets it at a constant 14.6 volts per below. When I started the planning for my system over a year ago, I called Battleborn about needing (or not) to change this unit out. They indicated that this model does not have the Charge Wizard for the Lithium switched mode. As such my charging instructions are to charge to the SOC 95% charge and kill the breaker to the Converter for day to day needs. For equalization every few weeks, charge to SOC of 90%, and then at continue to charge at 60 amps rate for an additional 90 minutes for my Battleborns. So basically my charger is pumping out 14.6 volts all the time the breaker is on. This is why I was wondering how the other chargers... that ARE smarter... would be impacted. I guess this would have been good info to have provided as from your response apparently some models of this are Lithium Charge Wizzard enabled.????? GJ

It was just a few years ago that a couple of sage wise Oliver owners dipped their toes into the Lithium world. Since then, following their foot steps, now many of us have DYIed the conversion to Lithium. Fortunately many of us RoF's (Retired Ole Farts) are now sporting the "Lithium Grin" and have survived the conversion process mostly intact. Those of us in the Boomer Generation that grew up with slide rules as our favorite calculating device, often were able to figure out the conversion process. Having mechanical and electrical power wiring skills made it possible. But, like myself, we lack the fundamental understanding of how the underlying technologies play or don't play together well. I hope that this thread can be used to help owners better understand how THEIR systems can, or should not "Play Well Together". So I ask forgiveness of the super tech savvy younger owners as what may happen is a series of "How will my system Play Together" questions. Likely mine, and a bunch more down the line, will remind you of the dumb questions we see their customers asking at the bottom of Amazon.com products..... This starter post is for Hull 342, our "Ollie". We purchased our 2018 OE2 with Lead Acid batteries and have a Honda EU2200 inverter generator.. This past summer, we successfully made these upgrades: PD 4045 to PD 4060 2000W Inverter to Renogy 3000 watt Three 100 AH Battleborns Victron 12/12-30 DC to DC charger (#4 AWG Cabling) Victron 712 Smart Renogy 200 Watt Solar Suit Case. I use the DC to DC charger when on the highway only. I use solar when camping. Significantly less frequently we use Shore/Gen power to charge. Questions: A. When on Shore Power OR running our Honda, is it advisable to use the Progressive Dynamics 4060 converter and solar suit cases at the same time? B. The Battleborns collectively can charge at up to 300 amps. Our total max possible charge capability is 102 amps (PD 4060 = 60 amps, DC to DC 30 Amps and Solar Suit Case effectively 12 Amps). There have been a time or two when we were in a jamb for time and I really wanted to maximize charging our batteries: Is it advisable to fire off all of the systems simultaneously? If not, which should I safely only use? Thanks, GJ

I'm thinking that Mike has a good first step to consider before making a thread chaser. My suggestion would be to take a pair of vice grips and grab the anode securely. Then using the leverage of the vice grip you will be better to insert and turn the new anode squarely to the water heater threads. If that does not work, then consider John D's cleaver idea. GJ

I totally understand your perspective. IF I were to be a salesman, and I wanted to poise my rig at an event, I would wave my magic wand to presto have the most macho looking tires on the market under both. But before I took The Beast and Ollie on a trip, I would wave my magic wand and go back to purpose designed tires for each of my rolling stock. 🙂 As an engineer I look at purpose and function. Traction tires, especially those that work well on our 4X4 TV's off road, have different priorities of purpose than our trailer tires. So, in my minds eye, they likely would not be identical twins. But that's just my perspective.

I was under the impression that they were no longer available for our OEM OTT rims. ??????

I have one in Texas as a spare that I would be willing to part with. It has the Lithium switch. Just PM me. GJ

Lithiums! But the change over is a time consuming effort that requires some mechanical and electrical skill. There are several threads on this topic. A simpler change is to go with AGM's. But if you are going to own your OE2 for a long time, the cost and performance benefit of Lithiums is WAY better than all other options. I don't know of any owner that still owns their trailer saying they wished they had not converted to Lithiums. GJ

For sure my screen/bowl has snagged plenty of installation shavings... especially in the first two seasons. But frankly I would like to change out the unit with a true water filter that would not be a PITA to install and service. Any suggestions along these lines? GJ

Max: I assume you are all talking about the Cooper AT3 tires as Mike stated. Correct? John G: Your selection of the Ageis Cross Country is very interesting. Here are the pictures of the tires mentioned so far: The Cooper AT3's have a great following and reviews. I will be considering them for replacement on my F-150 FX4. But for Ollie, I have concern that the tread pattern will be more susceptible to tossing rocks than the Michelin Agilis CrossClimate. I also like that the Agilis being a commercial vehicle tire. On Michelin's site they state it is "their most durable tire". Looks like I need to do some more research. Thank you for the suggestions! At least now I know that I do not need to change rims too! GJ

I have run Michelin's on all my rolling stock for 52 years. Never had a problem. As such, I consider my experience to their products to consistently be top notch. As such, my comments were pretty explicit. None the less, eventually my Ollie Michelins will require replacement based upon their condition, not some arbitrary age opinion. Sadly, as indicated on other posts, I understand that they no longer make LT or ST tires for our OE2 16" rims. Are there any brands that offer such quality tires as Michelin, that wear out before they age out, and fit our rims? GJ

I HIGHLY recommend that when doing brake/bearing service that you verify that the EzFlex "Heart Bolt" is torqued to spec. Always put your torque wrench on the nut side as the bolt head has splines to keep it from turning. We have documented four instances where for what ever reason, the bolt head splines were compromised and that allowed the EzFlex to spin the bolt and nut. What happened then is that the nut walked away from the trailer and the bolt tried to follow. Fortunately the bolts were hanging on by their last two threads. Had these owner's trailer gone negative (Deep pot hole or catching air), the unloaded bolt likely would have flipped out. Not something that you want to experience on the highway at speed. Per BHNCB the center bolt nut should be torqued to 65-75 ft-lb. Per OTT, the flank of the center bolt (NOT the threads) should have Never-Seize applied. If you find your center bolt nut not close to specification torque, you likely have compromised splines. Apply say 50% of torque specification. If it spins, remove and inspect. If you find your splines are damaged..... be glad you caught it. If so, see BackOBeyond's the forum post "Dexter axle loose bolt at the equalizer " and my June 9, 2022 fix. GJ

CRM and JD: What labels or product do you use to label them? I have see JD's many times and wondered where I could get them. GJ

Good to know. My 2018 has the Michelins. GJ