GarryandKristi

I just installed an Epoch 300 AH battery to replace our original 4-6 volt trojan agms. I have a victron shunt so I can monitor things. I did not disconnect the charge wire. So far I can only get 2.5 amps or so through the 7 pin depending on voltage difference of TV battery and smart alternator and TT. I went to the trouble of installing a normally open relay in the Oliver to isolate the batteries, and can attempt charging by turning on lights (trigger for relay). The black wire on the far right stud between the relay and the circuit breaker is the charge line from the 7 pin. Left studs are for trigger off green lights wire and ground. So, right now not much difference from just disconnecting although I need to make sure the charge and ground wires off the umbilical weren’t spliced to a smaller gage wires and test disconnecting the feedback to the smart alternator and see if it will output a constant high voltage.

I’d be very surprised if your Oliver has 10 awg wire for both charge and ground wire. Ours (2018 elite 2) has 12 awg charge and 14 awg ground. However as @John E Davies mentioned (I think in another post) he noticed a splice inside the trailer in which the wire gage was reduced. I need to check this myself in hopes of getting a tad more amperage. You may have already completed your charge modifications, but I can vouch that with the existing 7 pin and wiring, and especially with Lithium hose batteries you’ll be lucky to get any charging. I only get 2 or 3 amps. I like John’s idea of not having to mess with TV and TT wiring and just being satisfied with somewhere in the range of 11 to 18 amps. In our case that would at least offset the adsorption fridge draw of about 15 amps. I added a relay in our oliver that is triggered by the taillight (green) 7 pin wire so at least I could isolate the batteries and only attempt to charge (turn lights on) when the conditions are good. With the newer “smart” alternators sufficient voltage to charge with the existing 7 pin setup is dubious. There is no way that a 7-pin system can cause overcharging and too much lithium house battery draw as the voltage potential difference is just not there and much amp draw would increase the voltage drop and lessen the voltage potential difference. I am considering unplugging the wire from the shunt on the negative post of our truck battery to get a constant higher voltage from the alternator - at least for a test. If it seems ok I would only disconnect for times were were both traveling quite a distance and then dry camping. I am just not sure of what other electrical systems might do with the smart alternator feedback interrupted.

and much easier to “fabricate”.

Agreed. We actually exhausted our nearly 6 year old agms with 2 days of dry camping and to get the front jack lifted I had to plug in the 7 pin cable. That did the trick and was easier than dragging out the generator. It certainly offsets the refrigerator drain on DC setting while traveling between sites. Very glad we have the 3-way fridge to operate on propane while Dry camping. Also glad we have a separate inverter and not the new inverter/charger in which everything has to be run through the inverter. Ours is a 2018 model.

I had the same issue with the remote not working about 2 years ago. I removed the control board and thoroughly cleaned it (I believe with isopropyl alcohol and or vinegar as a mild acid). Reinstalled and it resumed working. Wish I had coated the board at that time. Issue has just reappeared after I entered the traIler and the fan was spontaneously running at max speed and the operator was in a dozen pieces. Original operator appeared to be cheap pot metal and replacement from etrailer doesn’t appear to be a whole lot better. Fan still works using the button board. Am thinking about pulling the control board again and cleaning and coating. May also install a voltage regulator. By the way, our fan fuse is in the sub-panel in the attic (7.5 amp). Hull number is 372 (2018).

The resistance of the factory 7-pin small gage wire would limit current draw so shouldn’t damage your alternator. Don’t know how much the wire would heat up due to line loss.

I agree with your thoughts. Short cycling is the most likely problem. We get this in our dometic penguin that came with the elite II in 2018. Air conditioners are by nature dehumidifiers (they why they have condensate lines). Having to run a dehumidifier seems like poor design when you have AC so it must be a sizing and/or fan speed issue. We’ve lived in the south for many years and never have had issues with humidity in our house even with outside dew points in the upper 70s. And that is even with a whole house ventilation system with some outside air being pulled in. Of course house hvac systems are far better than rv systems in design, etc.

Relative humidity is a pretty worthless measure of moisture in the air as it changes with ambient temperature (rh is the amount of moisture, or vapor pressure to the amount of moisture or vapor pressure at saturation) and warm air can hold more moisture than cold air. I am a big fan of dewpoint (temperature at which moisture condenses in the air) which doesn’t change unless you get a different air mass. I suspect the issue is running the fan constantly versus on auto so unconditioned air is being pulled in. We run our dometic on low (not auto) so the startup of fan/compressor isn’t so alarming. I do notice an immediate change in humidity with our domestic when the compressor turns off (but fan still runs). With a quiet AC it would be better to run it on auto so that the fan is not running when the compressor is off. So I am thinking it is not so much to do with the manufacturer/unit as it is the mode of operation.

We love these gutters as it has solved the perpetual battle to clean (with nominal success in the battle to prevent water ingress) the weep/drainage holes and channels for the windows. I applied in summer so the temps were warm/hot and adhesion was good. Also, as John mentioned, having a decent length of straight run beyond the curved section helps anchor things.

Other thoughts ..... cavitation - is the suction side fully primed? Maybe could tell by water in the filter bowl. Have you tried connecting city water and running it for a short period? Although the pump should be self -priming I think. Could be a bad diaphragm. Although the sound on the video sure sounds like an electrical (switch) issue. When ours primes it sounds a bit like a rumble.

I guess it depends on what you expect and actually do when camping. We have the 4 6v AGMs and over 3 years they have served us well. We can dry camp for 3 nights (we have no solar) and just plug the trailer in when storing. Camping on the East - and mostly mid south to southeast means a lot of trees for us and so the advantages of solar would be minimal. When the AGMs bite the dust I would considers lithium, but honestly I’d rather spend the extra money on a quieter air conditioner.

I can confirm that our Elite 2 has the “new” configuration of pump suction. We have hull no. 372 with a pickup date of August 2018. There is a fitting on the top of the tank about 1 foot from the aft end with apparently a suction tube extending into the tank. This is in addition to the 2 tubes on the side at aft end for fill and drain functions. The line at the top routes to the suction side of the pump so is obviously the suction tube. On a recent dry camping trip, we experienced cavitation at about 10% indicated on the level meter. I think 13% was the last good reading and at at about 8% could not draw anything (from memory and don’t exactly remember resolution increments of level meter). When draining (and raising front end) it seemed like a substantial amount of water drained, but I did not measure. Probably no more than 5 gallons.

Another thing to look at assuming that you have about equal lengths of awning extended is adjusting the pitch of the awning. I just did that with ours and it helped with retracting the awning flush on both ends. I made sure the trailer was level front to back, then checked level on the extended lead rail. I raised the low end by turning the 5 mm Allen screw on the attachment hardware at the top of the arm clockwise until nearly level then finished with lowering the other end a bit by turning that one counter-clockwise (didn’t want to put too much tension on the low arm). That pretty much fixed it. Will check extended length on both ends now that others have mentioned that. See Page 8 of the attached. We have had an arm slide over on the lead rail so make sure those Allen bolts are tight at the lead rail. We’ve also had to replace the manual retractor gear as it would not retract all the way without slipping (like a bad ratchet drive). These things are not carefree over time. Freedom-WM-Service-Manual.pdf

I put an hdmi switch (auto) in our attic too. We have the furrion tv and dvd/radio that has hdmi out to the tv. With splitter can use Roku stick (seldom due to lack of speedy cell phone service even with booster) or lightning to hdmi with phone and play downloaded Netflix stuff. The furrion tv was rigged with rca outs to DVD/radio av in. But, have to say just watching air TV with Andy Griffith and grit Tv westerns is kind of fun for a simple change of pace.

Definitely try tractor supply first. When recently having our Ollie serviced in Hohenwald, the women at the service desk said that she had worked at Walmart in Hohenwald and they didn’t have much of an RV section although hitches would be in automotive. Hard to beat Walmart prices in any event.

We have a 2015 RAM 1500 eco diesel and I love it. Pulls the Ollie great. Get about 16 mpg overall with the trailer. I have gotten as high as 27 mpg on long highways trips without pulling. But I think the 2 re-flashes of tranny and EGR system for an emissions settlement may have dinged the mileage a tad. With a diesel, it just feels like you are not straining too much.

It all depends on what scenarios you will actually be in. We have the 4 6v (2 pairs in series, then pairs in parallel) 400 AH AGMs. Got our elite 2 in August 2018. We chose not to get solar because most of the campsites we anticipated and do use are here in the east and shaded. We have done several dry camping trips (with a few 3 nights). Always had enough power but do switch the fridge (absorption) to gas and normally don’t use microwave much. We do run the max air all night most of these trips with no problem. Did get a bit low on voltage when we used the microwave more than normal. If we need ac when drycamping - so far we haven’t been in the situation- we would run our inverter generator (we did get the soft-start on the AC. So for us this works fine and upgrading for us would probably be more for re-sale. When the AGMs go - I suspect we will seriously consider the lithiums, but not an inverter upgrade as the only reason for that that I can see would be to run AC and that would require rewiring - plus you we wouldn’t be able to run the ac very long on batteries anyway. So, I guess we are one of the few without solar but for us it has been perfectly fine. Just another (lower end) perspective.

Never heard of Coarsegold, but you probably haven’t heard of my hometown either, Escalon, just north of Modesto. Welcome.

Nice. Next queue the Wagner.

Hi, curious to know if the covers have worked longer term. Ours tend to rust even when kept off the ground so I am wondering if these just prevent you from seeing the rust as it would seem to me that the sleeves would not seal the chains from humidity and they would still rust? I was thinking of plasti-dip spray but that would likely be messy with links partially “rubber welded” at their junctions.

We used to live in Fort Collins (mid to late 90’s when the micro-breweries were a new thing). We loved it. We visited a few years ago when I had a conference there and found it had grown quite a bit - still I think a nice place.

We have the Anderson levelers and find those are very handy. Don’t think you’ll need anything else not listed. Their has only been 1 time that the Andersen leveler range could not level our trailer. We just augmented with some square plastic pads - looked okie but worked. We’ve used camco filters. The short flex hose on ours developed a leak (not just a gasket problem) so I made a replacement using a section of garden hose and a hose repair kit for male/female ends. We have never had issues with power. I think the onboard power management systems of the Oliver’s guard against poor quality power. The readout in ours is in the attic but don’t know where display is on the new models. We purchased a “swagman bike RV towing mount”. The nice thing about it is that is does not require any other hardware or adaption. It will slide over the Andersen hitch bar (a square collar around the bar). It accommodates 2 bikes. It may be a bit tricky to orient and load the 2 bikes so pedals don’t clash,etc. but once you figure that out it’s. not a big deal.

OK, Bruckner Symphonies are too long so i’ll Offer this- something different and you just gotta love trombone choirs 😉

That should work. I got black wire from Lowe’s - brand is blue hawk and it was 16 gage. What I got will rust but one can keep an eye on it. The one you list is stainless so that would not be an issue. I think the point is to get malleable wire that can be twisted and tightened without snapping. Tie wire use in construction for rebar is black but of course just temporary and buried in concrete.

Our leds on our furrion 30 amp cord stopped working within about a year. They neither work at home, storage facility, or at any campgrounds. Cable works fine. I suspect the led or circuitry to them are bad. The bigger issue s sue in my mind of the furrion cords are the size of the male head. Many campground boxes have cord cutouts on the boxes that are not centered with the female outlet and the large furrion head and head to cable transition is not accommodated so it is difficult to impossible to plug the male end into the box without “box modifications” which may have already been attempted by others (pliers bending back cutouts for cord). I think the furrion cable may be a bit unique with the threaded female ring end to the trailer port. Haven’t checked out alternatives with a smaller male end that would fit more easily into electrical boxes.