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Three should fit no problem. Bottom red bricks are the 4x T105s, blue are the "new" Victron 200Ahs x3.

I am looking at the Victron 200Ah battery "type a" otherwise known as "new version". Old Victron: 11.7"x16.7"x10.8" 92 lbs New Victron: 6"x12.6"x9.1" 48 lbs So much smaller and lighter. Not yet available in the US, but coming "very soon" . If you already have a multiplus, color gx, and MPPT from Victron, then you just need to VE.Bus BMS and battery protect (And maybe Cyrix combiner) to use their batteries. https://shop.pkys.com/New-Victron-lighter-Lithium-200Ahr-Battery-BAT512120610.html has the pre-order out of MD.

The chart doesn’t capture the new 200Ah battery: Dimensions allow 3 with spacers for cooling/heating in our battery tray Weight 48lbs Orientation does limit capacity Recommended 200A Max 400a Current (7,680W recommended/ 15,360W max) with 3x batteries everything else is the same except My local European dealer has them for under $1800/ea. But then I have to get them back to the US and probably can’t claim the tax credit or warranty :) The only way I’ve seen better densities (Wh/m3 and Wh/kg) is either a hand-rolled pack, or upgrading voltages and needing a DC converter and taking the 5-15% of efficiency each way there, but gaining additional wattage performance.

Sounds like I found our new plan - go to Wisconsin and let our dog pay our bills in squirrel tails. She's a bit of a serial killer.

I figure generator on the front and all of my wife's stuff in the front closet would overcome the weight difference and bring balance - especially with the longer arm on the tongue and closet than the basement. But we will probably have enough capacity with 7.6kWh in the regular battery location. I'd look at more when battery prices come down further. I'll know when I finally get mine and start getting some usage/duty cycle numbers.

I think the new 200Ah will come to the states soon which should get 600Ah fairly easily and 800Ah if you want to live life outside the manual. The allure off the new Victron ones is much less weight than most competitors and also just having all the detailed cell by cell stats in Victron Connect. There's also the option of giving up the basement (or at least around half of its height) for 8 batteries and 18kWh of useable (90% of rated) power. That'd be enough to run the AC for a while... Then use the old battery tray for storing doodads on your "new" slide out storage system. Bonus is the basement is more insulated than the tray for winter.

The spray wand with water is probably fine - as the manual says avoid spraying in inlets/vents. Avoid getting the tip too close to the surface and be careful of the soaps as they can strip any wax you have fairly quickly. I would avoid any brushes they have - I usually find a car wash that isn't busy, use the wand to get spray the worst off, and then use a bucket and my own brushes/sponges to soap up and then the wand again to rinse.

Assuming 50% useable capacity on the T105 and 90% on the LiFePO4 it's a difference of 2.76kWh vs 6.9 (with three). Victron doesn't recommend the on end installation, but that would bring it up to 9.2 KWh and still less weight... Why didn't I pay for the T105 upgrade? :)

Victron's revised 200ah/12.8v battery. 22kg (48.5 lbs) and 6x12.7 inches. 3x should be roughly 18x12.7 inches and 145 lbs (vs 272 for the stockers).

Looks like three of them would fit fairly easily, assuming I can get the rest of the electronics to fit somewhere. Now I just need to figure out how to get them on my carryon as it looks like no one in the US has them...

Do either of you have good measures for the max dimensions of the battery tray? IE how much room do I have to play with? Trying to see how many of the 200A smart batteries will fit at 237mm x 321mm x 152mm I was also looking at separates, but the multiplus also gives you the ATS and power assist. I'd be interested to hear which performs better with voltage sag on AC or a generator struggling to keep up. It'd appear that having a separate charger and inverter would allow you to charge the batteries using the charger with lower AC voltage, and using the inverter to provide clean/proper AC voltage to the rest of the trailer (ie air conditioner). Only downside here looks to be efficiency. The Power Assist would work if you needed to plug into a 15A socket with correct voltage.

If you have both 30A and 50A service, you may try plugging into the 50A service with an adapter - ideally a y shaped one -- to see if either of those phases aren't overloaded as much.

We aren't committed to an order, but the problem is no one has a truck built remotely close to the way we want it. RAM currently has stopped accepting orders on ramboxes due to either supplier constraints or MY changeover. Closest I can find on a lot is the limited trim which means we lose the bench seat and gain 20" wheels and $10k+ in cost. The problem is we don't know when the ramboxes will be available or MY 2020 production starts -- so I am not even sure if we need a temp truck or not or for how long. We get back to the states a few days before delivery. I found some Enterprise truck locations do 3/4 ton for ~$350 for a weeklong rental and unlimited miles. A week would be enough to drive to the mothership, camp our two nights, and head back to the Northeast. Two weeks and we get more fun. We may end up with a last minute "home" on the West Coast - in which case shipping is probably the best answer then - but I'd still want to do a shakedown by the mothership.

you're 100% right, but overthinking things is also how I earn my money and 99% of the reason I ended up with an Oliver :)

We were hoping to travel initially. Some of the Enterprises were more like $1700/month for a 3/4 ton with unlimited mileage which wouldn't be the end of the world and might be plan b or c. I just finalized our order without the Andersen hitch. Plan A is hoping for RAM 2020 order banks to open or for the 2019 order banks to have our desired options or maybe the right dealer builds the right truck... I have considered buying something used, but really rolling the dice on buying a lemon / having it die on me.

Looks like an order SNAFU may have us out of 2019 and into 2020 for our TV. Anyone have any good ideas for a temp tow vehicle? Enterprise Truck seems to be the only commercial option that allows towing...

I am not a lawyer. But if you are in an accident and the police/ your insurance/other guys lawyers are after you and you have 2000 lbs of stuff in the truck, which is going to look better? The guy who has a door jamb sticker that says 2900lbs of payload and put parts on parts to make the truck more off-road friendly, or the guy that has a sticker that says 1200lbs (most PWs are around here unless you go for the base tradesman with PW package) and put stuff on to increase payload. That said, if you fit into the payload of the PW or PW package tradesman, they do represent great value. You can't even get an e-locker rear on a 2500 that isn't PW/PW package. All other trims are limited slip differential. Also note: a 3/4 truck isn't the best offload platform. Tons of weight, overhangs, and blind spots. Approach/departure/breakover angles are all decent compared to a Jeep. For example approach: PW 29.6/Rubicon 44 degrees.

You get more torque from gears. In the RAM 2500, I would give the diesel a hard pass for sure - it kills payload with ~800lbs of extra weight. 2700LBS vs 1900lbs on the trucks I saw on the lot. The gas 6.4L Hemi is now standard and is it a truck engine with 410HP and 429 lb-ft of torque vs 379hp/870tq for the regular cummins or 400/1000 on the HO cummins. It has a new ZF brand 8-speed transmission that shifts very smoothly compared to the 6 speed on the diesel which shifts unsurprisingly like a truck. With the newer transmission the spread from diesel to the V8 on unladen mileage has shrunk, but I imagine the diesel still gets a ~30% advantage on towing. Dealers weren't willing to let me hook up a u-haul full of cement to test though. For those unaware: horsepower is truly the key to climbing a hill or even moving down the road, low end torque (which also means low end horsepower) means you engine isn't spinning up as much for a more pleasant experience. Torque can be multiplied to the wheels - thats' what our transmissions and rear diffs do. Towing in a Diesel loping along at 1500 RPM will be more pleasant than a gasser redlining the whole way - but I don't think that is what the 6.4 Hemi is going to be doing either. The ZF is built to the 1000 ft-lb spec of the higher output cummins, so it I'd not be surprised to see it on the diesels in the near future. But, the current 2500/3500 hemi is lighter (more payload), cheaper, and comes with a better transmission. The diesel has more torque, and the turbos mean it will perform better as altitude increases. Every 1000 feet of density altitude (altitude above sea level corrected for nonstandard temperature -- higher temperatures mean a higher density altitude), mean a 3-5% decrease in power for a naturally aspirated engine like the hemi. So crossing Snoqualmie pass it puts out ~360 horsepower, ~330hp in Denver, ~295 in Aspen. Maybe better or maybe worse. Meanwhile the Diesel will have much less falloff, especially on a cold day where the intercoolers can work especially well. The diesel also benefits from the exhaust brake - this is added to diesels as they have almost no engine breaking without them. This could really save the rotors on descents and when using adaptive cruise in surging traffic. For me - especially being primarily on the East Coast - the Hemi makes more sense for something the size of the Oliver. If I had something with more surface area or weight the diesel would make more sense. For me it's mostly the transmission that I am choosing. For tonneaus/caps for ramboxes- there are no caps, but tonneau covers are possible as are racks to supplement. https://diamondbackcovers.com diamondback covers also give you a 1600lbs load bearing surface. Steven

Do you currently run a cap? Just wondering what draws others to ram boxes. Obviously I lose the ability to store some things in weather protected space, but it seems like a win in organization without having to go with a service body. The 2500/3500 with the Hemi are pretty impressive - I got the same mileage with them as I got in the 5.0/EB F150 on the same lap around the dealers. Cummins was nice, but the 6 speed shifts pretty hard and not sure it will pass the wife test and $9k buys a lot of gas.

I drove just about everything under the sun. I also got to check out service bodies and I don't think they'll work out as well as I hoped. We are almost settled on a Ram 2500/3500 at this point. So now my decision is Ram Boxes and Tonneau or a regular bed with a cap. I've only done caps before but the organization of the ram boxes combined with the flexibility to haul tall stuff is really appealing. It's also the fact that we will probably take delivery and drive to Hohenwald so it'd be delivered how I need vs having to add another stop for the cap install. Any thoughts from the crowd?

I checked the 2020 GMC 2500HD - also no adjustable pedals standard or as an option (it was code JF4 in the 2019s). We are looking long and hard at a gas Ram 2500HD now. Steven

[postquote quote=180360]I have not seen a 2020 Duramax yet but the 2019 have adjustable pedals.[/postquote] Yes, this is why I was surprised it isn't in the 2019 1500 or 2020 2500. We've come to the conclusion that it is possible to drive the truck at 5'2", it's just a tradeoff in visibility and safety that we aren't willing to make - so now we're between Ford and Ram.

I test drove the Ram 2500 (non-power wagon as the PW on the lot had 13xxlbs payload). I was surprised by how well it rode compared to an F250. I looked underneath and saw that even the non-PW (with 2900lbs payload well optioned) gets the 5-link coil suspension. Is the tremor still on leafs but just raised? The F250 drove more like the ram 3500 srw with air than the 2500.

Yes, legless electric. For 2019 the manuals are also legless. So everything seems the same except one has a motor and one has a crank with no difference in robustness. The new awnings are something I really want to see, as the one I toured had the older style with the supports that seemed more robust.

I checked out the Silverado to get an idea of what I will see in the HD next year. Nice truck and would be a front runner. Fell short when I was looking for the adjustable pedals which apparently the new Silverado/HD no longer get. Any vertically challenged (5'2" or less) drivers on the newer trucks without adjustable pedals? It'd be nice if my wife could see over the hood and reach the pedals at the same time.