GraniteStaters
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Posts posted by GraniteStaters
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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.
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Welcome and congratulations from #509! Paula and David
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Well, I did my battery test this AM before sunrise. I had the just two 6V batteries installed. Overnight the cell booster and parasitic draws was the only thing drawing power. There had been just 1Ah used. Batteries were both over 6.5V each. It was in the low 30's outside, but in the very low 40's inside the Oliver. I turned on the furnace with the fan set to low and the temp at 58 degrees. It ran for over 1 hour and 30 minutes on the batteries and the both batteries were at 6.3V while the furnace was running returning to just under 13V when the fan motor wasn't running.
Step two was to take the two suspect batteries to be load tested. Both batteries were fully charged and read 6.6V+ this AM. They used their load test tool and set it to 1100 CCA and began test and both batteries passed. I asked if that was the extent of a load test, having never seen one, and they said yes. I am still a little skeptical because they always work okay at first since onset of the symptom.
I am not sure where to go from here, but suspect that I will confirm my Progressive Dynamics Charge Controller to insure that it is set to VLRA and not Lithium. Zamp definitely has always said AGM. I may reinstall these two tested batteries again and do my test again tomorrow.
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I removed the first battery today and took the rear battery from the other string and reinstalled at the front battery. I now have the batteries installed and we had sufficient sun today to complete charging before the sun abated. I have taken battery I removed that dropped precipitously today when I started the furnace after doing okay overnight. It had used 11ah of power, but the furnace running quickly resulted in a 11.5V and then below 10V reading. The first battery in the string stayed pretty strong. I have now taken the battery I removed and manually charged it to full strength. It was pretty well charged by the sun when I removed it, but I topped it off for about 15 minutes before I disconnected. It was at 7.25V right after I removed the charger. Within a 1/2 hour it dropped and after about an hour it settled to 6.6V. Tomorrow I will take this battery and the other battery to have it load tested. I suspect as everyone else is suggesting that they will both fail and then we will be looking to replace the batteries. I have a 2019 Oliver that has the Progressive Dynamic Converter that supports Lithium so I may be looking at that option too and will be reviewing posts about doing this upgrade if we go that way.
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Both air and water sensitivity although as you stated the error indicates a propane supply issue. We usually purge the air by lighting the stove top in the Oliver whenever the Truma or Norcold have a propane issue.
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The other string are not installed at this point and have been sitting in our cellar since last Friday and are both at 6.66V. One of them was the first in string for my test last week and it got to 1.86V before I connected to shore power. BTW, some of my testing was done with the batteries charged and solar panels covered too trying to simulate overnight conditions without running the furnace.
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I am not sure about how long it took to reach 6.75V.
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The Truma is very sensitive to air in the lines. Make sure you bleed sufficiently before starting the Truma in either mode.
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This thread is so timely. We didn’t have any issues in the spring when we were on solar only for 26 out of 30 nights. We were camping in Maine September and on our last night, the 4th, the furnace ran a bit more often than usual and we were down to 11.5V on our AGM batteries. When we got home we decided to test our 4 6V batteries overnight. We weren’t connected to power and only ran the furnace set to 58 degrees, the MaxxAir fan, and the cell booster. We have parasitic draws for our Victron shunt and propane/CO detector only. The compost toilet fan was disconnected. Over night the first battery in each string was at 3.86 volts. Rear batteries were above 6V. Decided to do the test again using the two AGM batteries that were replaced in the fall of 2020. This test was overnight and only the fan, cell booster, and Wi-Fi extender were running. We hit less than 2V on the front battery. Rear batteries were over 6V. All batteries have returned to over 6.6V+ after being charged by the Progressive converter using shore power or the solar. We are very confused. Everything I read indicates that the SOC is 100 percent when these batteries are at 6.75V. I am assuming that the front batteries in the string are the only ones that are suspect. I am going to take both of the rear batteries and combine in a string and retest. Let me know your thoughts.
David
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5 hours ago, Brian and Brandelyne said:
I have seen several posts and comments about venting during rain and solutions around it. As a new owner in waiting, I have to ask; is this really a problem?
I mean, when it rains is there an issue with getting ventilation into the trailer without soaking everything? It is starting to concern me. I also have to say, when we were first looking at the Oliver I noticed the sliding windows and commented how our current (Airstream) windows were awning windows, i.e. they pushed out from the bottom and how much we loved having the windows open in the rain.
Every major manufacturer has moved to awning-style windows and I am sure it is for a good reason.
Someone please tell me this is a non-issue and more of a nice-to-have.
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Brian
I'd like to be able to keep the windows open on humid, rainy days but we do OK by keeping the main cabin fan open and running and opening the bathroom vent. Often we can open the rear window because it is straight, not slanted, so the rain doesn't come in as much as the side windows. Paula
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I wanted to update this thread with some additional information that a couple of us have uncovered. I got a call from Richard Weare earlier this summer when he was having trouble connecting the WiFiranger units to his home WiFi. This was an Oliver that he purchased used from someone who hadn't use the WiFiranger at all. He and I worked through the basics, but he was having issues with connecting to his internet provider. After resolving that issue he was able to upgrade to a newer version of the firmware, but not the latest. Winegard's support org indicated that he had an older version of the SkyPro and it would not support their newer version of the firmware. I had already upgraded my SkyPro 2 to the very latest. The SkyPro is really the most important piece of the solution for extending the range to a campground's Wi-Fi. The latest version of firmware is 7.1.0b12.
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Great post, John. I will factor these suggestions into my final install. I am running these fans for the next 6 days. Sensor is set for automatic so the fans won’t run when temp is 68F or lower. Attaching picture.
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I impressed with some of the posts about this issue. I did open a ticket with Oliver asking about what they would recommend. The discouraged me from trying to run the wiring and power from the cabinet access panel adjacent to the entry door and suggested using power from the 12V DC supply that powers the fridge. I decided to use a new bus bar and split the negative and positive 12V power cable and allow for connection of the fan to the bus bar. I have attached a picture.
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Oliver Service discouraged me about connecting my fan to the attic power feed that extends to the entrance panel so I have decided to use the 12V power and ground at the base of the refrigerator. The problem I am concerned about is connecting the very modest AWG wiriing for power and ground to the refrigerator 12V power and ground as it is 10 AWG stranded wire. I would normally use a bus bar in this situation, but the wiring behind the access panel would be exposed to the weather. I am interested in what others have discovered when they have used this power source.
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20 minutes ago, SeaDawg said:
Only the first photo was mine. The others are screen grabs (and the link) from Facebook.
My comment was referring to the photos NCEagle took at Lake Powhatan. 🙂 We were pretty surprised that we didn't see any rangers checking on the sites for food and coolers left so easily available for the bears because when we made our reservations the rules stated, in no uncertain terms, what they expected from campers re bears and food/scented items, even saying that anything not stored in a hard sided vehicle or bear locker would be confiscated. I think you are right about there being a ranger shortage. Every campground we stayed in on that trip had signs looking for staff. Paula
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Continuing saga of our Trojan AGM batteries on our 2019 LEII
in Mechanical & Technical Tips
Posted
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.