GraniteStaters

When I saw the topic, nose art, my first thought was the "art" our dog always leaves on the windows when watching for wildlife. 🙂 Originally we wanted a decal of the Old Man of the Mountain (the stone face fell from the mountain in 2003, saddening many New Hampshirites). Unfortunately when we projected it onto a photo of an Ollie it just looked like a big, scary head on the trailer. Not the look we were going for. Our daughter started drawing other ideas. At the time the old farmhouse in PEI that we summered in had a barn that swallows made their home and we liked to watch them swooping in and out of the loft windows. When she drew a swallow we had our design and name, though we always just call it the Ollie.

I don’t believe so, but I had the 30# tanks shut off while I did this.

I said valve, but I should have said regulator.

I wanted to run my furnace to heat the trailer without using any of my onboard propane. I have this valve setup for quick connect for my propane generator so I simply borrowed it for my proof of concept. Worked like a charm as I thought it would.

Congratulations and welcome! Paula

I changed out the original regulator on our LEII and went with a larger capacity regulator to allow for more concurrent usage. I kept the original regulator as a spare.

I use Velcro to install in the dinette seat on the wall adjacent to the bathroom. It doesn't need to be visible and can be remove to install new batteries.

Great observations. I would add do not rush through your checklist, no matter how many times you've set- up/ broke camp. We got home after one trip last year and found that we'd driven the whole way with the steps still down! Paula

I thought I responded to this query, so I apologize for the delay. We bought the VMAX XTR-235AH marine batteries and they did fit in our 2019 LEII battery tray but required me to strap the long way on the battery tray as indicated in our posted pictures. I purchased directly from the VMAX distributor in Michigan and order on Monday or Tuesday and received the batteries on Thursday or Friday of the same week. I did take the time to insure they were fully charged before installing including letting them sit for 24 hours. The batteries have only gotten stronger since the install. I did do a test early on to insure that I wouldn't have a recurrence of the issue running the furnace for several days after a full charge. They worked well. I am also going to try to keep the SOC above 80 percent to make sure we get the number of cycles expected. This important for AGM or VRLA deep cycle batteries.

Rent out The Swallow? Never!😁. Paula

The buzzing is the Truma pump circulating the water so it can be heated by the antifreeze element.

I completed the installation of my new VMAX AGM batteries. There are 4 - 6V 237Ah batteries. Due to the very slightly dimension difference I eliminated the straps that clipped on the battery tray and use two heavy Nite EZ cargo straps that each hold down 2 batteries. After testing I feel confident we are back to normal when we don’t have shore power overnight during the heating season. I drew the batteries down almost 70Ah and still had a 93 SOC.

Moderators, I didn't see any of this spam. I thank you for that. 🙂. Paula

We received our VMAX batteries today. They are a tight fit in our 2019 LEII battery tray so I will need to use a different tie down strap. The metal hook for the tray is just a might too wide. I may go with an alternative looped strap instead or modify the existing strap. I also will have to order 2 new 4/0 gauge battery cables to allow sufficient bend of the cable because the M8 post and normal post are closer together so it is hard to fit the adapter Oliver used on the post far enough down on the post to insure it will stay pit. I only have this issue on the positive sides of the parallel connection but it is recommended that the interconnect always be the same gauge and length. After I finish the install I will attach a picture of the final install.

Well we pulled the trigger on purchasing 4 new AGM 6V 235Ah batteries from the distributor in Michigan. They will be here on Thursday. I have removed the old Trojans in preparation for the install. I disconnected from shore power and tripped the 60amp circuit breaker isolating the LEII from the batteries to allow their removal. I did decide to turn off the circuit breaker for the Progressive converter to eliminate any potential issues on disconnected power cables in the battery box and tray and afterwards realized that without batteries and the circuit breaker shut off and the shore power turned on, I realized I won't have any power on the 12V bus in the TT so no lights.

Welcome and congratulations from #509! Paula and David

We have had Amica since we purchased our LEII in 2019. After the first year, Amica was using the list price less depreciation that didn't include the extensive options or take into consideration of their actual replacement cost. We had them do a special underwriting using a number we felt represented the actual replacement cost in year 2 and 3. We will no doubt need to discuss this at our next renewal.

Well not having any better ideas we have decided to replace our batteries. I am thinking about 4-6V AGM batteries from VMAX. They have a battery made in Vietnam that will that rated at 235Ah. As anyone any feedback on these AGM batteries or an alternative that would give us the same capacity. We would like to make our decisions soon as we would like to make our next trip early in the new year.

So after doing more research while trying to understand the condition of our AGM batteries I decided to follow the advice that was posted on some sites. I decided to put a load of approximately 1.5 amps on my batteries after insuring the 4 AGM batteries were completely charged. I picked last night to start the test knowing that we would be getting rain for the entire day today and no solar gain. So far we are at a 36Ah draw down heading into the overnight. I will monitor before calling it a night and then early tomorrow morning if the batteries are still viable, I will record the overnight Ah draw and then start the furnace to see the impact of 4.5Ah draw while achieving the target temperature in the Oliver. More to come in AM.

I disconnected our Zamp Solar Charger from the batteries this AM after verifying that all the batteries were fully charged. I did this by removing the red wire that runs from the Zamp to the positive lug on the front battery where both the Trailer wire and Zamp wire are connected. The Zamp showed the B01 once I had disconnected the correct wire. The Zamp Charge Controller continues to run because it is powered by the solar panels. I then set the furnace to on and monitored power usage and battery voltages while it achieved the temperature set point, 58 degrees F. I also had my WiFiranger on the entire time. After about 1 hour and 20 minutes, the furnace stopped. I noted that the batteries were at 12.7V. I then turned on my shore power breaker. I checked to see if it was charging and it was not. Also, the Dometic A/C fan was running. I looked at the Progressive panel and found a 15amp breaker off. It didn't appear to be tripped. I turned it on and immediately had the Progressive Converter charging the batteries. Now I am wondering why the furnace which was running on Propane suddenly was using the Dometic A/C. I know the fan is not on Auto, it is on High and the thermostat is definitely on furnace and not heat strip.

My wife also is suggesting that I take the other two batteries in and have them load tested. I also want to check the PD Converter for proper operation. I intend to disconnect the Zamp Solar Charge Controller from the batteries. I will then run the furnace to draw down the batteries sufficiently and then turn on the shore power breaker to confirm that the PD Converter will charge the batteries.

Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I looked at the Google view of our street and there I was, walking the dog on the side of the road. It gave me the creeps. Paula

This is an update containing some new information about the AGM battery issues that we experienced this fall. Most of the background is in a T105 post by another Oliver owner. It is my host that an admin may be able to advise on how I might migrate some of the info contained into this new entry, but until then, I will briefly summarize concentrating on the new information. This fall we were boondocking in Maine and were using the furnace overnight, we had a low battery alarm that surprised us, but we had notice the furnace was cycling a bit more than we had experienced on the previous nights. Overnight temps weren't approaching freezing and we only set the temp to 58 overnight so we really didn't understand why it was cycling so much. When we had the alarm, the batteries were below 12V. We did some testing in our driveway when we returned from camping on several cold nights after insuring the batteries were completely charged by the solar panels. After some alarming test voltages on both strings of batteries that showed the first 6V battery in each string had very low voltage while just running the furnace, cell booster, and Wi-Fi extender for several hours after the sun had set. It was suggested that we have the batteries tested and I took the two suspect batteries, one was 3 years old and the other 2 years old, to Batteries-Plus for a load test after both batteries had been charged and sat for a day and both passed. I reinstalled all the batteries again and monitored for a few weeks during the warm fall weather with the intent of testing under colder temperatures. I completed my first major overnight test attempt with temperatures in the 20's last night. I had disconnected the shore power yesterday morning before the solar kicked in and it was a very sunny day so I ran the furnace, cell booster and Wi-Fi extender for the duration. The solar stopped charging at about 2pm, but everything else continued to use about 11Ah during the latter part of the day into the early evening. I went to bed in the LEII at about 10pm EST. We were at 12.7V on both strings when I went to bed and at 12.4V when the furnace and blower were cycling. When I woke up at 12AM, I discovered the voltage at 11.4V when the furnace blower was on and decided to shut off the furnace and move back to the house. The voltage was 12.3V when the furnace was shutdown. When I got up this morning at 6AM well before the sun has risen and started charging the batteries the battery voltage was at 12.7V. I was flabbergasted. I suspected that it would be about the same voltage. My Victron SmartShunt confirmed that we were at 94 percent SOC and had a very modest .37 amp parasitic draw. I am completely baffled by all this and still suspect that we have a battery issue or a furnace issue due to excessive cycling. We had a 34Ah draw down at 6am this AM since the last complete charge.

WiFiranger, a Winegard company, has just released the newest firmware and I have successfully installed it on my 2019 iteration of the product. The release, 7.1.0b13 supports the Ethernet tethering to Starlink as its major new feature and various bug fixes. The upgrade was announced on November 10th, 2022 and I did the upgrade on November 14th while sitting in my house with our Oliver gear on and connected to our Comcast Wi-Fi cable modem. The install did the SkyPro first and then the Core. Both are required to be at the same version and the entire install took over an hour and I had no anomalies.

The valve that controls draining the fresh water tank is on the very bottom of the trailer below the pump and to the right. You will see the PEX piping, blue, beneath the furnace duct by just raising it and moving it so that you can see the chrome 1/4 turn ball valve. it has a short piece of PEX, and elbow, and the piece of PEX that you see below the trailer on the curbside and just to the rear of the trailer axle in line with the curbside stabilizer. This is strictly a gravity drain pipe to allow draining after filling or as a part of the sensitization process.