Ollie-Haus

I personally like the simplicity of the single battery option. The odds of a single battery failure in a multiple lithium system seems unlikely. If you do something wrong that will destroy a battery, both will be effected the same. Besides as you said, the generator is a satisfactory backup. I like simple when it's possible.

It is a pretty simple modification to add a DC/DC charger to a lithium battery setup, and it can be done any time in the future when it's convenient to do a one day project. It wires directly between the tow vehicle battery and the Lithium battery on the camper via relatively heavy wiring depending on your current settings on the charger. It does add an additional tether connection at the back of the TV from the camper. Many have added this and it provides safe and fast charging of the lithium batteries while driving.

Love this. Growing pains are just that, but I know the folks that run Oliver will not change. Like you point out, they are actually responding to our demands in most of this. And they are doing what it takes to add strength and longevity to the company and brand. Down the road we'll have conversations around the camp fire about the old way and newer owners will tell about their experience. And life will go on.

...... which is exactly what I said in the following sentence. : "Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us." It's all well and good to like haggling, but most of us chose the Oliver route knowing we would get our money's worth without the haggle, and we're glad for that, as indicated in the previous comment by @Rivernerd. I too am very glad I didn't have to go in to a dealership and haggle for a fair price and hope I was going to get treated in a respectable way. My only hope it that in the process of developing their dealerships, Oliver management puts a heavy emphasis on maintaining that level of honesty and respect for the customer. Honestly I have faith that's been the plan from the beginning. I'm sure customer surveys will follow the purchase process after the dealer experience to help maintain that reputation.

There is another side to this. Part of the dealer pricing game is driven by the customer desire to "work out a bargain deal". This is only a percentage of buyers, but we all know folks that like to brag about the deal they worked on XYZ. Dealers love this mentality also as they love to play the money game to make a buyer feel like they pulled one over on the dealer, and reeling them into to purchase. It's not all just about pulling the wool over on the customer, but also making them feel they are getting a bargain at that moment and locking in the sale. What I'm saying is there's a percentage of folks that prefer the haggle and wheel and deal process over the fixed price, no haggle method. And dealerships are just used to working this way. I think an interesting characteristic about this topic is that before the dealer option, Oliver sales attracted a certain kind of customer base that made us very relatable. We liked the direct factory purchase arrangement, and for many that was a driving force in our attraction to Oliver. We are the kind of folks that have no interest in the haggle game. We are straight shooters and we perceive Oliver as being very honest, straight shooters as well. Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us. Buyers that prefer the dealer purchase process and working their deal will choose that route for their own reasons. In many ways it is customer driven.

Hey David, I checked out your web journal and it's amazing. Stunning photos and great reviews. This is an awesome tool for folks like us that are really just getting started. Thanks for sharing your great experiences! Hopefully you guys will be back in the fold soon with another Oliver.

Funny you mention getting used to a small bed. We sleep in a king size at home and share it with two dogs 😏. I've been practicing for the Oliver for several years as my portion of the bed is about 1/4th. I'm pretty good with it because I have no problem sharing my compact twin in the Ollie with the same two dogs. 😍

We did it the other way around. Had a 34' standard travel trailer with a single large slide from 1996 to 2002. Sold and went without due to other family priorities until we decided to jump back in late 20-teens. We knew we didn't want anything large this time around having experienced all the headaches of the large stick and staple camper. Settled on the LE2 and ordered just over a year ago. Fortunately we learned many lessons the first time around and couldn't be happier with the LE2. Plenty of used ones hitting the market lately so you should have no trouble picking one up. Good luck!

Like most of us we’ve experienced the type that seem to go out of their way to disrupt the peace and quiet without remorse. I like to wait till others around us are packing up to quickly blow off the awning and then put it away. 👍

I bought a battery powered blower. Seems to work pretty good. Need a step stool to do a good job. Also don't like the noise so I choose my time to clean the awning when it will bother neighbors the least.

Wow love this! We've already noticed fine scratches on our counter tops so this is an upgrade I'd love to pursue sooner than later. Could you please share your source? Thanks for sharing.

So far I've made it my practice to test the plug prior to connecting the camper and rely on the onboard progressive unit to do it's job. I can see the interest some have in protecting the hard wired device, and have purchased a portable device but just haven't put it to use. I purchased a Progressive Industries circuit tester before getting the Oliver. I leave it in the same tote that I store the shore power cord in. Step one - Test the power supply. Step two - If good, drag out the cord and connect. Circuit Tester

Will be heading to the mother on Feb 5th for warranty service. I will definitely be enquiring as to the retro fit possibilities.

When I saw the title, I was expecting a different subject matter, that of upgraded 115v receptacles with smart features. I'm not sure what smart features would be useful on our Olivers, but I have considered changing out a few of the 115v receptacles for the type that have the built in USB receptacles. To me this would be well worth the upcharge from the factory. Regarding the actual topic of the thread, I knew of these from our boating days and hadn't even considered it then, let alone now with the Oliver.

Looks like another upgrade/preventive project for next spring for Ollie-Haus. Thanks for sharing. 👍

Correct. I knew I could see the aggregate charge from both solar sources on the Victron display, just didn’t know how to explain it so simply as you did. I like that because the Zamp control on the portable panel shows it’s output and the Victron shows the total going to the batteries.

John, without digging into the schematics, my understanding is that the auxiliary solar port Oliver installs on our campers is directly wired to the batteries. This is the reason a separate charge controller is required on the portable panel. At this level it's not a highly technical process. The charge controller on the panel reads the battery SOC and controls the output to the batteries based on that reading. Adding an aux solar port to a camper that didn't already have one is pretty straight forward based on Oliver's method. The portable panel you buy must have its own charge controller. Now if I'm at a SOC of say 50%, I haven't spent much time yet analyzing the output level of the portable panel to the output of the onboard 400w panel on the camper. And of course another variable to observe would be the effect of plugging in the shore power and how that effects the output of the two solar power sources. Again an experiment yet to play with next summer for me.

I felt like I was adrift in the pacific several entries back. 😵 I'm going to wait and see and then scratch my head and go "oh, I didn't expect that"! 🤔 Or just maybe I'll be saying, "wow that's exactly what I hoped it would do". 😍

@Cindy TownsendThis is most likely your solution. I've made this system change back and forth a few times. With the Xantrex app on your phone it only takes a few seconds. You have to be in the camper and connected via bluetooth. The change is made in the settings menu. You can change that setting pretty low as you are only float charging the batteries all winter. Sometimes a shore power GFI doesn't like what it sees when plugged into an Oliver charging system. I've not experienced this personally though.

Love it! Thanks for sharing.👍

Love your Star Trek metaphor descriptors! I'm absolutely sure your are correct in the different systems not recognizing the real world situation due to different software design and other factors. Best scenario would be all panels feeding through one charge controller and better yet, all the same size panel and brand. I'm straight up when I say I can't wait to experiment with the system once I get all components installed. My first thought is I doubt I will use maximum warp drive or ask the system to produce it. I just want as you eluded to in your first response to this topic to have multiple options. In theory I could set this up with all solar sources feeding through the on board charge controller and just have multiple points of input. Although it will be interesting to see what the output is on each charge controller during various scenarios and how they play together. There's already a number of folks that have installed the DC-DC chargers on their systems and the truck is charging at a relatively high rate while connected and driving. With the onboard solar panels always on the job in daylight, my guess is they do exactly as you describe and probably remain in a float charge condition with the truck doing the real work of bulk charging, as the DC-DC will allow 14.6 and relatively high charge current. The onboard charge controller would just tell the DC-DC system to have at it big boy! 😆

Thanks Dave, that's what I was trying to accomplish. 👍 Is anyone familiar with this dealership and what they are like to work with? I really want this to work for Oliver and the customers just the same. I'm sure that's the plan.

I have a permanent search set up on RV Trader and just now I got a notice via email that my search has 4 new Oliver adds. Turns out they are all for the same dealership in Georgia and they are for 2024 LE2s that they are selling. Thoughts, comments. The pricing looks to be very much in line with factory pricing. Here's a screenshot of the email I got.

BTW if anyone is interested in adding solar to a tow vehicle, camper or even a portable system, Renogy is offering pretty big discounts this week on everything they sell. Also most of the name brand lithium battery bank manufacturers are offering big discounts on Amazon.

Well fortunately for me Oliver did most of the thinking. My DC-DC will simply allow direct charging of my factory lithium batteries while the truck is running. It does require a heavy gauge Anderson connection be added from the trailer to the truck, but that been a planned addition to the truck from the time I ordered it. The charger install and connection to the batteries is pretty straight forward. The solar panel connection from the truck to the camper would be another connection at the bumper to the camper, probably just a simple SAE plug on each end with a 4' tether that would make the connection if and when I need to use that capacity. Obviously while at the camp site a longer tether would allow parking the truck in the sun and connecting to the trailer for a boost in solar output. The trailer side of this would be connected to the batteries the same as the factory supplied aux charge port, with the solar charge controller mounted in the truck side of the system. The portable panel connects through the aux port Oliver provided, which also is a simple SAE plug. It's a direct connection to the batteries and requires a charge controller on the portable panels. The Zamp suitcase panel we got with the trailer has the charge controller built in. To answer your question, all this sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's really very plug and play and each part of the system has it's own charge control that monitors battery condition, preventing any part of the system from overcharging the house batteries. Each part you connect and or turn on just adds to the influx of charge until the bats are topped off and the control meters back to a float output. The internal Victron monitor just indicates battery status without seeing the other sources of charge input, but that has little effect on daily system usage. As mentioned above I have yet to install much of this so there's no pics for the stuff listed out yet. As for the truck solar charging the lithium pack in the back of the truck that runs the cooler in the back of the truck, and has a direct connection from the solar panel to the battery pack. I use a Jackery and it like most off the shelf lithium battery packs has the charge control built in. BTW if the Jackery is plugged into the truck for charging while running the truck, the Jackery receives charge from both the truck and the solar simultaneously. I love the Jackery in the truck because in addition to the cooler, we can use it to power almost anything from the back of the truck while out remotely away from the camp site. You just have to decide how big of a lithium pack you need. We went with the middle of the road 1000w Jackery. It's enough to power the cooler for more than a day without taking up too much space in the back of the truck, about the size of a small drink cooler. The Truma fridge is on 24/7 with little attention required. I do monitor it if there's perishables inside and that's through a bluetooth app connection. All in all its a lot of stuff and Money spent, but like you I want multiple options when we are out camping, most of all in anticipation of remote dry camping, "glamping" in the case of an LE2 fitted with all the tech you can get. 😉🍻