Frank C

Very nice upgrade!

From this photo you posted it looks like you connected the 2 batteries in series but with one battery with reversed (incorrect) polarity. So you have the Oliver connections going to the negative terminal of the battery on the left and also to the negative terminal of the battery on the right, and then the jumper between the positive battery terminals. So that’s a net zero voltage output, which would explain why you saw no power at all to the trailer. Not sure if connecting them that way may have damaged them.

We have always been surrounded by those types of risks. Texas City 1947 comes to mind. One of the largest non-nuclear man made explosions in history. And if you notice the location & date on my old hydrogen car newspaper article, that was just a few short months after the very close call at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant just a few miles away from that Penn State campus. Even gasoline has risks (get well soon Jay Leno). Safety was one of the big arguments made for many years against moving to self service gas stations. Having the untrained general public handle flammable liquid transfer into a car!!!! I’m always surprised there aren’t a lot more incidents, fires, explosions at gas stations with people smoking, etc.

Thankfully, with the supervision of our engineering professors keeping an eye on our project from a safety standpoint, we avoided any “blasts”🙂.

We all managed to keep our hair (except for our engineering prof 🙂). And the engine (and hydrogen flow) was shut off at that moment for the newspaper photo. Too many hands and faces in the engine compartment to take that risk (moving fan blades, belts, etc.).

“Toyota is also exploring the simple burning of hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, which emits water vapor instead of carbon dioxide.” I always find the research into hydrogen powered vehicles to be interesting. I can speak from personal experience and background that getting an internal combustion engine to run on hydrogen does not take a huge amount of research (see attached photo from 1979 news article on my senior engineering project at Penn State, that’s a very young me second from right). Hydrogen is a great fuel for an internal combustion engine. That’s never been a problem. We converted a 1968 Dodge Dart with a slant 6 engine to run on hydrogen with some design and modifications to the existing carburetor on the car. And our research and work was based on previous efforts, so it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, even way back in 1979. The issue with hydrogen powered vehicles is that you can’t just go out and mine pure hydrogen anywhere here on earth. It always exists bound up with some other atom or molecule, with water (H2O) being the common example we all know of. It takes large amounts of energy to separate out the hydrogen, and it basically winds up being a break even equation. Because of that, it’s best to think of hydrogen as a way to change or transport energy from one form to another, not really a “free” energy source, but it is a very clean combustion process. The combustion byproduct on that old car was mostly just water vapor.

Probably correct. The Airstream website has the following. 3,500 lbs GVWR, and 500 lbs carrying capacity, but that’s probably bare bones standard equipped model, so any options (and 23 gallons of water) would use up most of that 500 lbs. pretty quickly. Not much left for food, clothes, camping gear, etc.

It’s the lever from your hot water heater bypass valve. Normally located on the back side of the hot water heater. JR Products 62255 3-Way Brass Diverter Valve - 1/2" MPT x 1/2" MPT x 1/2" MPT https://a.co/d/01O5kMI

I’d also be curious if everyone experiencing this has the king bed option, instead of the twin beds. The king bed may be creating a very different airflow pattern in the cabin from the rear most hot air supply vent back to the return vent.

How about an estimated 50,000 RPM on this Jeep flat towing fail? https://www.rvtravel.com/jeepdestroyed992/

Yeah, looks like Oliver doesn’t have the rally registration site up yet to pay the $100 per person fee. Still “coming soon”.

Working on a little accessory project for the Ollie and I’ve been looking for a good high quality DC cigarette lighter plug. Plenty on Amazon, all made in China, and sometimes the translations are comical. This one offers “Powerful Shrapnel” as a feature! 😂

See the headers on the chart for each type. The chart covers step bumper mount for the three vehicles listed on the upper part of the list. The lower section is for hitch receivers, but you still have to refer back to the specific section in the full guide for each vehicle for towing details/limits based on engine, cab size, bed length, etc. https://www.fleet.ford.com/content/dam/aem_fleet/en_us/fleet/towing-guides/2022_Ford_RVandTrailerTowingGuide.pdf

Note that there are some things that can trigger a false alarm on the propane monitor. A lot of aerosol sprays like air fresheners, hair spray, etc. will trigger it. Our propane alarm will trigger anytime I use Lysol spray anywhere in the camper. Did your alarm trigger shortly after you used any type of cleaner or spray in the camper?

Definitely a problem. And I’ve found that the aluminum inner window frames in the Oliver are a great condensing surface for that moisture in the air in cold weather since aluminum conducts thermally so well. The inner aluminum frames get really cold while winter camping, even colder than the double pane glass window panes themselves or the fiberglass surface of the inner hull. The edges of the aluminum inner window frames are hidden behind the plastic window shade frames so it’s not readily noticeable, but moisture condenses there on the aluminum frames very quickly in cold weather when you’re breathing, laying in bed right below those left and right rear side windows, and then the moisture drips down to the belly band and then to the beds. Fresh air exchange definitely helps.

Congratulations on the new trailer! And glad you had a safe trip back home. Just to clear up a detail though, the furnace doesn’t push external air into the trailer or pressurize the cabin. The furnace draws in cabin air that travels through the return vent(s) in the cabin, heats it, and sends it back into the cabin through the supply vents. And it’s isolated from the air used for furnace combustion process. Older Olivers like mine only have one very large rectangular return vent below the curbside bed that allows cabin air to circulate back to the fan intake on the furnace. I’ve seen photos from recent owners that show another return vent in the bathroom now on the newest trailers. With all the windows, fans and door closed, there’s actually very little air exchange of fresh outside air coming into the Oliver, only what gets in through the under hull scuppers. That’s why condensation, just from people breathing, can be such a problem in the Oliver. We try to leave the MaxAir fan open a bit or crack open a window to get some fresh air exchange to help reduce the buildup of moisture inside the cabin when camping in colder weather while running the furnace. Someone posted this graphic about typical moisture that will build up in a trailer.

I changed our Oliver window seals from white to black a couple years ago. Here are the before and after photos. I haven’t had any streaking from the black seals.

I had done all that usual checking of the traps, etc. The issue actually turned out to be a broken & cracked toilet mounting flange (see photos) that allowed black water to leak under the toilet and drip down onto the top of the black tank and between the hulls, causing the odor issue. The crack grew progressively worse over time and eventually the source of the problem became very apparent as water leaking out of the under-hull scupper below the bathroom anytime the toilet was flushed. Oliver uses an all plastic toilet flange which is common in residential applications but seems prone to cracking with a heavy porcelain bowl toilet in a trailer bouncing down the road. Other owners have discovered this same problem (sometimes on a brand new trailer, seems the flange occasionally gets broken during installation of the toilet). I replaced it with a new toilet flange that has a stainless steel ring for holding the toilet mounting bolts. I also installed a new Dometic seal between the toilet and flange. Problem solved, odor gone (after some cleanup & disinfection between the hulls around the black tank). Thankfully we only ever use the toilet for #1. #2 is done at the campground restrooms or roadside rest stops. Made cleanup a lot less of an issue.

Not always the case if only charging the batteries. I have the 4 x 12v lead acid wet cell battery setup and I keep it charged quite easily at home connected to a standard 15 amp household outlet using an adapter on the 30 amp Oliver connection. It never draws above 7 amps when I’m just recharging the batteries.

Thanks to the Admins for the reorganization and cleanup of the Classifieds section of the Forum. Much improved!

I have the 4 x 12v wet cell battery setup as well. If you are reading only 11.6 volts on the display, your batteries are very close to completely dead (see chart), and may be damaged (shortened battery life). Since you don’t have power available at your storage location, removing the batteries and taking them to your home and putting them on a battery tender is your best option. I store our Ollie at home and just plug it into house AC power every two weeks or so to keep the batteries from dropping below 12.2v.

Wow! A really nice professional job on that. Looks great!

Do you have the Truma hot water heater? If so, in normal operating mode it will cycle on and off to have hot water immediately at the ready. Not very loud but just enough to be annoying. We hated hearing that at night while trying to sleep, so putting the Truma in ECO mode stops that cycling but it takes a little longer to get hot water flowing.

A very sad story. Sometimes I think I over-prepare for emergencies on the road, but then I see a story like this. I’ve been carrying a Rhino tow strap and a Curt D-ring shackle for minor towing emergency recovery situations that may never come up (stuck in snow, etc.). Haven’t had any need to use them yet, but that article is an eye opener. And even with this stuff I carry (rated to about 10,000 lbs working load) there are situations that are still best left to a professional recovery service. Prayers for that family.

? You don’t have 3 yellow fuse holders like this photo under your street side (driver’s side) access hatch under the bed? Ours is a 2019 Elite II, Hull 461 so your 2019 should be pretty similar. These are the fuses for the 3 jacks, and the front jack also has a redundant 2nd fuse on the front jack post. And it’s a glass tube type fuse, not the blade type. Did you get a spares kit of fuses with your Oliver? (Ours came with a kit, and there’s a spare 30 amp fuse in the kit). And you can substitute a 30 amp fast blow fuse if it’s all you can find. It won’t hurt the jack, but the fast blow fuse may blow prematurely as a nuisance in a high current draw condition.