MAG

Thank you! That is where I read the advice….. gosh, the advice that we got in our manual 9 years ago is completely different from the advice in The how-to video Oliver posted for sanitizing; it’s hard to know which to follow.and neither mentions sanitizing all three water intakes. my husband says, well we haven’t been sick, so maybe we just keep doing what we’ve done all these years…..

Somewhere I read advice that we should sanitize all 3 water fill locations, seems like a good idea, but I wonder what the best way to go about that would be? The official advice does not seem to cover that. Any thoughts?

Question for you @ScubaRx: Is this the appropriate wiring configuration for installing these batteries? Thank you for your help.

Yes, the batteries we bought are the one SeaDawg shows, the T105 AGM. Maybe we will regret it, I don’t know. We’re being careful: Last year we sent our Blue Sky controller to the manufacturer, it checked out perfect. A technician at Progressive Dynamics told us to check the converter output before installing batteries; we did, it’s perfect at 13.6 V. The solar panels are covered, for when we install the batteries. Blue Sky gave us the new inputs for this battery for the solar controller, so we are ready to do that once the batteries are installed, which we plan to do when we get back from a family reunion. If we are certain about how to configure the battery cables. Thanks for your help.

Hi John, I am so sorry for the miscommunication. I have great respect for your expertise, and that of the other wonderful folks on this forum who have been so helpful to us. The batteries we recently bought are AGMs….. Trojan T105 AGMs. We used these batteries for 7 years with good luck, before our problems started. They were the original equipment when we bought our Ollie.

Thanks for the thoughts SeaDawg…. Last year in a number of posts, folks helped us as we tried to understand why our previous batteries failed (melted, cooked). We have not been able to determine with certainty what the problem was……So, we plan to see how we do with 2 batteries (they are AGMs) for now, rather than risk ruining even more batteries. It’s been expensive and frustrating to get to where we are.

We are changing from 4 AGM 6 volt batteries to 2 Trojan T105 6 volt batteries. We would rather have technical help with this, but the trailer repair shops are running 45 days behind on battery issues. So a question about how to connect the new batteries…… would this be appropriate: For the cables that come from inside the Ollie to the battery tray….Copy the wiring pattern from the 4 battery configuration: for the positive on one battery connect the solar 2 color cable, and the red cable from the converter. For the negative on the other battery connect the temperature sensor, and the yellow ground cable). Then, on the posts not used for these, add a cross-cable from negative to positive between the two batteries. Thanks so much for your help.

Email to PDI:

Yes! Photos don’t do the reality justice. The 2 batteries ARE fused together. Am glad it wasn’t all four!

Okay! The batteries are removed! Two of those lunkers were fused together, a 140 pound mass that was worth something, just months ago! Thanks everyone for the advice. You're the best!

I don't understand this......Our plan is to put a Calmark Cover over the Ollie, to protect it from dust and bird poop. It might be possible for the solar panels to still make power, possibly. But are we talking about where the wires from the panels enter the Blue Sky Controller? Or in the battery compartment? And what is a plastic battery? I appreciate the help, and the education!

Unfortunately it is not a typo, but it was unintended to have the lithium switch on. Long story, but the tech that installed the converter did not notice the unit came set to lithium, so that's what it has been at since. We thought this might have been responsible for the batteries overheating, but that's not what we observe in testing. Thanks for your advice to remove the batteries for storage......thanks to both you and Bill. Once we get those deformed AGMS out, I doubt they will ever fit back in again, and am not sure if we can isolate the problem without batteries. Oh well. Grateful for you help, Mary

An update on our deformed overheated battery issue: The RV Tech who installed the converter a year ago & the batteries this spring worked with us last Thursday. Our primary question: What caused the problem? Is our electrical system safe to install new batteries without damaging them? We still do not have answers. He determined that the batteries, although bloated (and 1 has had a slight leak), are still intact enough to do testing of the system, and perhaps for other limited uses. We have spent the last 3 days observing what happens when we operate the electrical system 1) on shore power only, 2) on shore power plus solar 3) On shore power plus solar with the LITHIUM switch on. Can we recreate the problem? After 3 days of testing, we observed no problems, and have not recreated the overheating. A technician with Progressive Dynamics sent some documents, among them, on General Operation of this LI ready converter was this description: "....the OUTPUT MODE SWITCH sets the converter output to either a constant 14.6 VDC with the Charge Wizard disabled (switch in "LI" position) or a nominal 13.6 VDC with full Charge Wizard function (switch in 'LA' position). We have not observed any battery overheating from having the converter set to LI for more than 12 hours, including while the batteries were recharged from 70% to full. At one point it seemed possible that the Lithium switch was the source of the problem, but it doesn't look like it. Maybe it's the batteries, but we haven't seen others posting about problems with Brightway AGMS. We are frustrated, and out of time. And wishing we knew more about electricity. Normally when we leave for the winter, we put the Ollie in a barn plugged into shore power. Winter temps to zero and below are possible. Now our question is whether to leave these deformed Brightway AGM batteries in the battery tray for the winter, without shore power (because of not knowing what might happen), with the thought of trying in the spring to figure things out before installing new batteries. Or, do we pull the batteries now and dispose of them, so as not to risk damaging the battery tray? Does this make it harder to do more troubleshooting? Thank you for your advice.

Well, the idea was my husband Dave has a login & I have a login. Every so often we end up using each other’s. Yes, we are a couple and own Hull #55. Sorry for the confusion; will do better.