ADKCamper

I don't think anybody *likes* tolls... but if its a "modest" amount and the road is well-maintained, I don't think I can complain. Excessive tolls, or tolls on highways that are in bad shape rub the wrong way. We have encountered lots of interstate sections when traveling cross-country that are less than perfect but probably ok for a passenger car with squishy tires & suspension. Pickups and trailers with stiffer sidewalls & higher pressure tires are another thing altogether. Its not unusual to find highway sections where we have to slow down significantly below the speed limit to reduce the abuse on trailer and tow vehicle... which of course is not the safest thing to do on an interstate highway with all the "squishy" cars passing us with a significant speed differential :(

We were just at TRNP in April! Lots of Bison about, sometimes walking right down the middle of the road. Saw a few pronghorn, lots of prairie dogs, and a lone coyote looking for a late lunch in an active prairie dog village. In addition to the South Unit and the North Unit, we also visited Teddy Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch site. To get there you need to follow about 30 miles of gravel road (we didn't take the trailer!) and an easy flat 3/4 mile hike to get to the ranch site. The rangers seem to be pretty cautious about sending folks out over all that gravel road, but it seemed pretty solid to us. There were only a couple of spots that might be challenging if there was a lot of rain. There's not much remaining there other than a few foundation stones, and a couple of historic plaques, but you do get to see the view that TR saw during his time there along the Little Missouri River, and you can say "I stood where Teddy Roosevelt stood" 🙂 They're working on building TR's presidential library in Medora, but I don't think its supposed to be finished until next year. There's lots of TR history in David McCullough's "Mornings on Horseback" if that's your thing. The visitor center also had "Theodore Roosevelt and the Dakota Badlands" (Chester L Brooks & Ray H Mattison) which is a short, easy read about TR's time in the Dickinson & Medora area. Its likely available elsewhere as well. If you are into museums and have the time, there are a few in the area with lots of info/displays on dinosaurs (which were apparently abundant in the area), cowboys and native americans of that time and place: Bismark ND: https://statemuseum.nd.gov/ Dickinson ND: https://www.dickinsongov.com/museum-center Medora ND: https://medora.com/cowboyhalloffame/ (lots of rodeo stuff, but also other cowboy and native american info) We do have Glacier on our list, but haven't been there yet...

Great views, though... especially near sunset. Weather can indeed whip up fast as @topgun2 has mentioned. We were there for several days in the fall of 2023 while exploring Cody (Buffalo Bill Museum of the West, Irma Hotel), Yellowstone, Grand Teton and vicinity 🙂

Yes, Fish Creek / Rollins Pond is a great campground. Been there many times with the tent & canoe, but have not yet been there with the Ollie. Its on the list! Enjoy your stay!

Great looking installation! We've got a 2018 Dometic 3-way that's likely the same as yours was. It struggles in the heat and will probably suffer the same fate at some point... we're messing with fridge fans now, but the compressor fridge certainly seems like the way to go. Did the old Dometic have to come out in pieces? Did the new Nova Kool fit through the door opening without removing the screen or the door?

I would really like a disc brake upgrade as well... installed Kodiak discs on my boat trailer and it really worked out well. The problem is I can't find a "nice" place to mount the electric-over-hydraulic controller. Several folks with Elite-2's have mounted them in the propane enclosure, but there's not enough room in my Elite-1 propane enclosure. I mocked it up with a modified cardboard cereal box and it just won't fit in there without removing one of the two 20-lb tanks. I think I could mount it on top of the fiberglass in front of the front tongue jack, but its pretty exposed there, looks kinda funny, and screams "come mess with me" to passing by ne'er do wells LOL. I could put it in some sort of tongue box, but that would interfere with lowering the TV tail gate all the way.

No it did not. I replaced the original Progressive Dynamics converter with the newer lithium-capable model... At some point in the future I will likely replace the PD converter with a Victron charger which can be programmed to match my Victron solar charge controller; I just need the time to find/manufacture a place to mount it. There's not a lot of room remaining under the seats in an Elite-1.

I'm just finishing up a battery upgrade to a single Epoch "Essentials" 300Ah, to replace a pair of aging 6volt LifeLine AGM's. So far, so good. Connected to the battery via Bluetooth just fine, and was able to charge it on the bench with no issues. The standard Epoch app seems to work fine, although a tad confusing. It has a link for OTA (over the air) updates, which does nothing (not sure if the Essential batteries *can* be updated OTA...). There is a link for "Advanced" features that requires a mystery password (not sure if the Essential batteries *have* any advanced features that can be seen or user-modified). The only 3 real issues I have with the standard Epoch app are (1) there is no PIN to setup when you complete the Bluetooth pairing, so anyone can connect to your battery if you're not already connected, and (2) the app shows *EVERY* nearby Bluetooth device in the initial screen of available devices... not just the available Epoch devices. I have 2 screens of Bluetooth accessible LED party lights in my neighborhood LOL, and (3) the "Operation Manual" link in the app only shows the manuals for the Marine and Golf Cart batteries; nothing for the Essential series. There are currently 2 Epoch apps available - the regular app and the Pro app. The Essentials batteries use the regular app. I suspect most of the complaints about the app are related to the Pro app. Supposedly Epoch is working on merging the two apps into a single app, but I haven't seen any evidence of that yet. Customer service is indeed somewhat lacking. I've been able to reach them several times, though, with persistance (email + voicemail messages), and once in contact they have been helpful. Perhaps they are having "growing pains"? We're gearing up to head out on the road shortly, so I'll know more in a few weeks about how the Epoch 300Ah Essentials battery behaves under load, with Victron MPPT solar charging and Progressive Dynamics shorepower charging.

Looks good! Sure wish I could fit 2x Epoch 300Ah into the Elite I battery tray... Maybe someday Epoch will come out with a slightly smaller 200Ah Essentials battery such that 2 of them would fit side-by-side into the Elite I battery tray, and with no height issues.

I agree completely with all of the above... however its important to note the difference between the Elite and the Elite II with respect to their tire and axle configurations. Ignoring for the moment the differences in tongue weights, the variability between lightly loaded and heavily loaded trailers and whatever safety margin you prefer to factor in, the Elite II GVWR of 7,000 lb / 4 tires = roughly 1750 lb/tire which must be supported, while the Elite GVWR of 5,000 lb / 2 tires = roughly 2500 lb /tire which must be supported. For this reason, for our Elite, we have settled on 55-60 psi with E rated tires for our loaded Elite at highway speeds on "normal" roads. On rougher paved roads we have to slow down some, and on rough backcountry roads we slow down even more and sometimes air-down a bit to help cushion the shocks. There are several prior threads that discuss the relationship between psi and a tire's weight carrying capability, which can be looked up / computed based upon tire manufacturer's data. Camp on!

As always... we really appreciate all the information available on the Forum! We only turn ours on when we need hot water, and then turn it off afterwards (including the outside power switch). The only exception to the above is when it drops below freezing overnight. Then we leave it on in "ECO" mode until morning or whenever we leave the camper for the day.

I have not been to a dealer yet, but I suspect this is likely more or less true *for now*, as the dealer network is relatively new to the Oliver product line. Over time this will improve with dealer experience and whatever training the factory is providing for their dealers. Some service activities are just like they'd be in any other brand trailer; some of the Oliver-specific service activities will be easy to train-up on; others will take more time to develop the necessary expertise. Search for online reviews, both good and bad. The success stories will rise to the top!

Finding clear and up-to-date guidance is a challenge. In NY, back when they *USED TO* still have in-person toll-takers in lanes alongside the EZ-Pass only lanes, the guidance was to drive thru the manual toll lane with the EZ-Pass transponder active and tell the toll-taker how many extra axles you have. They would then adjust the EZ-Pass toll accordingly. *NOW* that there are no in-person toll-takers, I have seen what I believe to be up-to-date guidance to just register your tow vehicle plate with EZ-Pass and the new system will automatically determine the number of axles you have and charge accordingly. The couple of times I have checked the transaction log, this seems to be working correctly. *DISCLAIMER* EZ-Pass states other than NY may be different, and I would not make any assumptions about EZ-Pass tolls in the New York City area...

There is also a hot air supply vent in the 2018 Elite bathroom, as detailed above. No return vent (yet) in mine, but there will be at some point when I get around to it...

That is a difference between the Elite and the Elite II's. There is no "long" ducting in the Elite; there's just not enough room under the floor to get very far. In our 2018, like @DavePhelps 2015, the furnace is under the side dinette's forward seat, immediately adjacent to the bathroom. There are 2 fan-forced heat ducts; one dumps directly from under that dinette seat into the aisle adjacent to the bathroom door and the other dumps into the bathroom space on the wall to the left of the toilet. The only return ducting as delivered is via a vent from under that front dinette seat (i.e. beneath the side dinette table) into the furnace.

Thanks @DavePhelps I will have to read-up on the Victron batteries... Looking forward to your report on this new configuration!

Our 2018 Elite I battery bay overall dimensions (without the tray installed) are 17-1/4" wide x 11-3/4"H x 18"D (only 11-1/4"H where the 1/2" aluminum block hangs down for the door latch). The tray inside dimensions are 14"W x 14-1/8"D x 11"H (10-1/2"H where the 1/2" aluminum block hangs down for the door latch). Epoch 460's (either variant) will still not fit, even with the battery tray removed. Should be able to fit two Epoch 300's without the tray, or one Epoch 300 with the tray. There's only 1/2" clearance for cable/lug above the battery when using the tray... which *may* require laying the single Epoch 300A battery on its side to provide sufficient clearance for a fat cable on top. Also note that a "without the tray" configuration will require engineering an alternate method for holding the battery(s) down.

Interesting crimp... somewhere along the way when I was moving most of the wires out of the battery box and installing (+) and (-) bus bars, I encountered an almost identical crimp... the lug actually rotated easily on the end of the wire! I have installed 2x Battle Borns in my son's van conversion, and I'm not a fan of the "upright tab" connectors. Bolting a big lug and fat wire to those tabs requires a bunch of additional space above the battery. Not sure how much vertical clearance your battery box has, but my 2018 Elite is pretty tight. The battery tray is smaller than in the Elite II as well... from memory something like 14" x 14.5" . The Epoch 420 mentioned above won't fit in the tray, and may or may not fit with the tray removed. I'm considering a single Epoch 300Ah, as you mentioned, replacing my current (2x) 6v 220Ah (in series) AGMs.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season to the entire Oliver community… Best group ever!

Yikes! Glad you were able to track this down before it got too far out of control. I've seen evidence of overheated receptacles in campground pedestals fairly often. I *assume* most of that is from loose/worn blade contacts, but it could also be a loose terminal screw connection. Either way, loose = higher resistance = heat. I'll be watching the camper-side connection more carefully now as well...

Ahh, yes... For older trailers without the PI EMS you are correct! However, from a safety perspective I'm not sure what the RVIA thinks about the resulting isolated (normally grounded) neutral / disconnected grounding conductor. A partial/full short to trailer chassis somewhere (due to vibration damage to insulation, failed appliance component, etc.) might result in a "hot skin" situation. Since we're mostly fiberglass that probably translates to hot frame, hot appliance enclosure, or the like. I hadn't thought about this before... but a possible remediation to this risk might be to either (1) ground the generator / trailer combo when not attached to commercial shorepower (forcing a breaker trip if a sufficient short should occur), or (2) use one of the in-line GFI units designed for generators / extension cords on construction sites to interrupt the power in the case of any small current leak to somewhere other than the neutral return wire, or maybe even both of these? Are there any RVIA/NEC code gurus here?

Either way you'll need both receptacles; absent an additional Y-adapter of some kind... one receptacle to power the camper load and the other for the neutral/ground shorting plug to keep the Progressive Industries surge protector/power quality checker happy 🙂

We currently have the Honda EU 2200i Companion model. Yes it has a 30 amp receptacle, but unless something has changed since we purchased ours it is not a TT-30 straight-bladed receptacle matching the shore power cord. It is a NEMA L5-30 3-prong twist lock receptacle... so you will need an adapter to use the common 30A shore power cord configuration with the Honda EU 2200i.

Yes, blew out all lines, inlets and outlets with low pressure air prior to introducing RV antifreeze. The difference this year was I left some antifreeze in the toilet bowl. Usually I drain the antifreeze from the bowl into the black tank and leave toilet valve lubricant in the bottom of the bowl. There was likely more "antifreeze fumes" than usual in the air with what was left in the toilet bowl. Our RV antifreeze this year was also the "Champion" brand from Camping World, as shown above...

Seems to be a recurring theme... same thing happened to our unit yesterday. Just replaced the original Atwood detector with an RV-Safe detector in April due to the Atwood repeatedly false-alarming. Worked fine all season. Shortly after winterization (maybe an hour?) it went into (CO) alarm and would not stop. Tried 'reset' twice and it began to alarm again shortly after the reset each time. Propane turned off for 2 weeks, no appliances running, RV anti-freeze in the toilet, traps and water lines. Fortunately we are done camping for this season, so I pulled the fuse and visibly tagged the detector as "OFF". If we had had to winterize at elevation this month while still camping, this would be a bigger issue. Sounds like a design flaw???