Geronimo John

Glad it works now.

I think all of us Lithium users would love such a procedure. However, the problem is that there are soooo many different situations that call for different procedures. For example: A warm location where hard freezes are rare, would likely have different requirements than a location such as ours where Ollie is on top of a mountain in Oklahoma and can see -10 degrees F for a week, and in the teens for a long time some winters. Some have shore power, some have solar, some don't have an inverter. Some have Lithionics, some Battleborn, some AGM and some LA. Each has different requirements. Some have internal heaters, some external heaters, some no heaters. Some can remove their batteries to a warm location... many can't. Some can store their trailer inside a non-freezing area, some outside, some covered. Is there someone looking out for the trailer on a regular basis, or is it all alone in harsh conditions for nine months? Just to name a few. Each of the above likely have impacts on a specific situation. So many so that a matrix would be useful... May I suggest that you summarize your specific electrical systems (Solar, Inverter, Converter, Shore Power, Expected Temperatures, how stored, how long will it be stored under what conditions it will be stored, etc.) and send it by E-mail to your battery MFG. Having their response to YOUR specific situation in WRITING would be golden. Your summary and their answer would make a wonderful thread on this forum. "Maybe titles: "XXX MFG Charging Recommendations for XXX Lithium Batteries". In the mean time, all this gets clearer with use and understanding. It is wondaful that we have o many great owners here that are so willing to help the new guys along the way get to truly enjoy our wonderful OTT's. Mahalo, GJ

Margaret: I may be totally off base with this as I'm 4,000 miles from my Ollie to check your pictures against my railer. There are two "intended to drip/leak" drains for our OTT's. One just aft of the entrance door is the water tank overflow drain. The second is on the street-side rear for the A/C condensate drain. Could these be the leaks you are seeing? GJ

For our 2018 version I have found: It takes a full 24 hours to precool. Also it does so faster on propane. We travel using propane 98% of the time. Not if using tunnels in some areas. Works best on propane Once cooled down, it works fine even in 105 degree F IF I park our trailer with the curb side facing Northish. This pretty much keeps the sun off the refrigerator area. If I can't get it sort of facing that direction, some awning shade is advantageous. Direct sun on the refrigerator area with temperatures over 100 is problematic. GJ

Bill: Roger on the symmetry thing. Super cool idea on having change remote colors. Better yet, get the kind that can dance to the music. Even better for when camping near noisy neighbors or ones that didn't get the memo about only using inverter generators: Get high power LED stage lights that can go psychedelic to send them a strong message "silently". LOL Back to reality. when one fails I'll order three.

For all the time and effort you and other Moderators put into this Forum, I vote that OTT award you one (with case) in honor of your service to us all! Let's hear it owners what do you think about this idea?

In the five seasons we have had our Ollie, I have not once used the "City Water" port as it is intended. If I work my pump to death as a result, that's an easy fix. Finding a drip in the basement would seem to be a real PITA. But if you do use the city water port, there is no need to buy pressure regulators. Just ask the RV camp maintenance man for one. They collect them by the bushel basket from new RV Owners that have left theirs connected on a daily basis. No slam here. That's what I did with the one OTT gave me. Classic Homer Simpson ice cream to the forehead .......Duhhhhhh Got to be on the top ten dumb mistakes that new RV Owners make. Humm.. that would be a fun forum topic. But let's not highjack this post.

JD: On your recommendation some time ago, I purchased one for my mainland Ollie and Beast. Then one for here in Hawaii. Then two for my sons. Then one for my bother. In summary now five. When I purchased, the case was separate. If getting one be sure to get the case if it is not included. (See below) Obviously I highly recommend this tool unit and appreciate your highlighting it here on our forum.

My last assignment was as the #2 in CENTAF/A-7 (Engineering). My Engineering RED HORSE Tiger Team from ACC and I spent some time in Iraq. Our fully "Air Conditioned" and Up-Armored (LOL, SIC) Hummer is behind us. This was one of the few times that we were not wearing body armor and carrying long rifles and backpacks with 240 rounds each..... The two outside gentlemen are the smartest NCO's I have ever met. My partner wearing "Green" was a fellow RED HORSE Commander. Great friends all. Sure miss the mission and the troops. God Bless all our service men and women. They serve our country well regardless.

For softer forms of M.F., you are spot on. Ours are left for 8 to 9 months each winter. They are a firmer version with no impacts... so far..... We have Ollie in a dark barn on a mountain top Ranch in OK. Gets cold there. Little or no sun on our Ollie, but I cover it regardless. That and two large buckets of Damp Rid and it has worked well for the past 4 winters. GJ

I would love to purchase your unit. Please PM if it is still available. GJ

For many apps (Such as connection for a telephone call), the iPhone uses Bluetooth. However, for navigation mine has to be plugged in to the truck USB port.

Four thoughts: A. Topgun2's statement is spot on. There is not much we can do about the heat in our tires except changing our driving habits as the road surface varies. That said, there are a substantial number of blowouts due to heat related to under-inflation causing sidewall flex and that causing blowouts. So, general consensus is that within the tire pressure range, it is better to be a bit high than lower. B. Knowing the impact of your trailer and all loads in and on the TV is important. Get this by weighing your TV and trailer, each fully loaded. Also weigh your TV with just normal day to day loads. With these numbers, check the tire pressure guide from your tire MFG. Adjust accordingly. And keep Thought "A" in mind. C. It took me a long time to understand how much tire pressure changes between "Cold" and hot conditions. I often thought I had a slow leak or a bad air pressure gauge during morning checks. So I recommend checking tire pressure early in the morning while the sun has not yet had much of a chance to mess with the tires. Once you have set them, don't worry about them during the heat of the day. As a young man while towing across Texas, I checked them at the gas station in El Paseo in 105 degrees. I made that mistake of lowering the TP to "Cold" pressure. The result was two blown trailer tires about 90 miles from nowhere. Sidewall flex heat generated from under inflation.... Once again, see Thought "A" above. D. Get a TPMS for your trailer and TV. They can give you advance warning that can easily warn of a slow leak or underinflation before it becomes a mess. I highly recommend the below air compressor and tire pressure gauge. I also use the below TPMS and have had good service. It however is a bear to program and reprogram. I bought my TPMS in 2018. Hopefully by now there are more user friendly ones. So, I recommend looking to the OTT Forum for more current TPMS recommendations. Bottom line is for this topic, for sure buy quality. ESSENTIAL TIRE MAINTENANCE TOOLS Dewalt 20V Air Compressor TPMS JACO Air Pressure Gauge NOTE: Every Jaco product is designed, manufactured, and supported in the U.S.A. Jaco has been manufacturing in Franklin Massachusetts for more than 45 years. Their tire pressure gauge is calibrated accurate to ANSI B40.1 standards.

Comment A: We could debate what "Not Matches" means, but for the sake of a brief response, the more you need weight distribution on your TV, the more one has to crank-up the Andersen Chain Nuts. More chain tension for such proper set-ups results in greater 2" ball wear. If you are towing with a 250 Super Duty, you certainly would not have much squat and a lot more load headroom on your rear axle. For that set-up, not much chain tension is required (if any). As such you would not have much ball wear. If you have a Land Cruiser or a Sequoia as John D has and GJ had, then seven threads would likely be all you could get and ball wear was in fact excessive on the smaller ball. Comment B: Your comment has some merit for some owners. But as written, it could be considered by most OTT owners to be a bit less than appropriate. Just saying.... Please take this constructively. After all you home run average is off the chart.

For towing an LE2 with an F-150 3.5 EB, I and others here get the 36 gallon tank, and FX4. For mine, the Heavy Duty Payload was not offered. In our case we absolutely use the first options every trip. For our use, the HDP package would have been nice. But not REQUIRED (for us) as the first two.

In the down position, It would put the mounting screws in more sheer. With it up, the TV is resting on the mount. That should take off most of the stress of travels. So my pea-brain says it should be up on rough travels. That said Thanks Seph and Dud B for the oops. If my mount looked like the below, I would consider adding an aluminum plate between the TV and the rack to stiffen up the TV side of things.

Great info Bill. Question about your cell phone connection. In my 2019 F-150 I'll be following the plan of this thread. I use an I-Phone that "talks" via an apple cord through the Ford USP port to the Sync 3. This allows the onboard Ford navigation systems and other programs to operate and also keeps the I-phone charged. Assuming I tap the cigarette lighter (vs. plugging the I-phone cord into the F-150 USB slot), would that negate use of the Sync 3 Nav and other programs that rely on the iphone data?

I don't recall reading anything about "Up" or "Down". Did I speed read over this chapter when I read the O&M Binder?

I also have a bit over 40K miles on our 2019. Guessing that 75% of those miles have been pulling hard with our OE2 in tow. Vast majority at interstate speed (plus) from TX to mountain sites out west. Because of the phaser rattle history on these engines, I purchased the FORD extended warranty. Like you, we have had no issues at all and also are consistently amazed with this engine. 🙂 For every dry start (Not having been run for a few days or longer), I use what I call the F-150 EcoBoost Forum "Full Throttle No Start" procedure to pressurize the oil system without the engine getting fuel. I believe that using this process has and will greatly extend the life of the old style phasers: Hold the gas pedal to the floor. This action tells the computer to not allow the fuel injectors to send fuel into the combustion chambers. No fuel and your motor will not start. Crank your engine for 10 to 15 secs at a time. Wait a bit in-between spins so the starter can cool a bit. While spinning the engine, watch your oil pressure gauge. It will climb as the oil pump pressurizes the oil galleries, turbos, timing chains and most importantly your phasers. When the oil pressure reaches "normal", take your foot off the gas peddle and your engine will fire off and run. I won a beer off my brother who said the above would not work. It does on all the Ford EcoBoost engines we have tried it on. GJ

Matte: I often think that our Owner's Forum IS the heart and soul of the OTT Research and Development Department. Seems that they do implement our ideas and solutions on a regular basis. Sometimes takes a while... but they do pay attention to our musings. This is yet another GREAT part about owning an Oliver. SO... if we are their advanced R&D team, then I would say yes, it likely having a "Bug Light Option" will be something from Oliver. 🙂 LOL! PS: Love your traveled map. Impressive!

Thanks MobileJoy, Mossey and WandR! Some terminology confusion between Courtesy (Puddle) lights and Porch Lights. Regardless, the idea on the table is to locate both Courtesy (Puddle) AND Porch "Bug" lights. From Mossey we have the below recommendation. At .5 watts, that would seem to be a great solution to 50% of the effort. thanks Walter for sharing Mossey's find. In my case, I would like to replace the Courtesy (Puddle) light at the door entrance with one of these. The other Courtesy (Puddle) lights don't give me much concern from a bug intrusion. If you see any down side to this logic line I would appreciate your thoughts. Moving up about 6 feet, I suspect that the porch lights are a higher wattage than the Courtesy (Puddle) lights. Any suggestions for a suitable wattage LED Bug Light for this application? Many thanks, GJ

Not sure where to post this, so picked this one. The Houghton unit uses a remote for control. As such, several have mentioned the desire for a spare one. To those owners this may be of interest from the RecPro web site: GJ

thanks guys. I edited my post. Speed reading... BAD 🙂

Granted this post is not about our "Wonder Egg's". However more than a few of us are towing our OTT's with late model Fords with the very capable 3.5L EcoBoost engines. This post BRIEFLY addresses those engines and their faults. ENGINE GENERATIONS: · Gen 1: 2011 – 2016: (Have problems with: Phaser Rattle, Turbo’s, Timing Set, Others) · Gen 2: 2016 – 2017: (Fixed about all the Gen 1 issues except the Phaser Rattle issue) · Gen 2: 2021+ (No new problems Identified that I am aware of, but they now have an again redesigned phasers. UPDATED PHASERS: Old part numbers start with a HC3S. The new phaser stock numbers start with ML3Z. New ones have a semi-enclosed face (Can’t see sprocket). This semi-enclosed face I suspect captures oil to lube the cam sprocket while system oil pressure builds and stabilizes. With oil, the phaser rattle is reported to be solved. Stock numbers for the new design are: · ML3Z – 6256A Cam Intake Phaser · ML3Z – 6C525A Cam Exhaust Phaser Any owner of Ecoboost engines model year 2020 and older: Make sure you get the new Phasers for your engine, not old stock as Ford is currently (as of this date) still selling and using. For more info about this topic, kindly review this video:

Wow. I just completed a 15K miles trip through Canada and did not garner any citations. Are we sure they are mandatory in Canada? Kindly disregard. Operator error. 🙂