theOrca

I agree with John on this. The “stern lecture mode” by ScubaRX kind of torqued me off a bit. A first for me on these forums.

When my Bright Way batteries finally die I will switch to Concordes. (They are made in USA; but with some Chinese parts, which caused no end of problems for Concorde a few years ago. I had these batteries in a 5th wheel trailer 10 years ago. They started showing blue electrolite corrosion at the + post bases of both batteries. Concorde customer service said some sailor words, but then send me a brand new set of batteries (6V) for free. When I asked them what to do with the replaced batteries they said "give them to someone who does not mind minor leaks, or recycle them." When Concorde sez "sealed", they mean SEALED. You can mount them in any orientation, even upside down if you are so inclined.

Is anyone else having trouble keeping the fresh water tank (and plumbing) free of slime mold? I have been using Chlorine Dioxide water treatment, and it just does not seem to do the job. For instance 6 weeks ago I flushed all lines in the trailer. I filled the fresh water tank with almost 100 parts per million of ClO2 in fresh water. I let it sit for 2 days, drained and refilled with a 10 parts per million solution (drinkable, but no taste). I am now getting ready for a trip, so I drained the fresh water tank again today. I saw dozens of colonies of slime mold exit the drain. Now I have to do the entire system again to be sure I got it all. That means all intake pipes, the city inlet has to hand pumped, and the filter has to be removed, washed and reinstalled. Grrr. Is anyone having better luck with household or swimming pool bleach? Slime mold, yuck, gives me the willies...

Meh! The written by Lawyers comment is spot on.

Do I read that correctly? Do you have a Truma furnace as well as AC and hot water. I don't see that offered on any part of Olivers web site. How did you find out about it?? Thanks,Bill

We are so screwed on the West Coast. Truma has only two service centers, Lakeland Florida and Elkhart, IN. Bah, humbug!!

Slightly less? That is like OMG less. Thanks for the info Steve.

When I read the email announcement about the upgrade I thought: "FINALLY!" I have found it very hard to get restful sleep with the Penguin A/C roaring in my trailer. The Truma Aventa Eco sounds like the solution... OK, the price is <!!!> but heck, some of the things we do with our trailers is financially nuts anyway. (My heating system upgrade probably cost me a thousand bucks in parts and tools, not even counting the hours of labor.) I have called Truma, and they confirm that the CP Plus control panel "will/can" control either heat + hot water, or A/C + hot water. They promise to update their website to show that capability. We will still get a remote, but with the CP Plus panel the remote can go into a drawer with all the other ones I don't use. Before I jump on this and schedule a 5,000 mile trip to Hohenwald, does anyone see a downside that I may have missed? Thanks, Bill

Well, evidently trip killers to me are merely minor inconveniences to some others. Who knew? I remain comfortable with my choice, even in the face of some minor snark in one of the above posts. BTW, Oliver handled this in an outstanding manner. Evidently a “one of” type failure.

The RV world is very familiar with the concept of "Trip Killers." Things like: no heat during a mid winter hunting trip, a roof leak over the bed, tire blow-out which does severe damage to the trailer, etc., etc., and etc. Most RV'rs are able and willing to make small repairs on the fly as needed, but some things are just not doable. I just discovered a new catagory which is engineered-in to the Legacy Elite II. Two days ago I left Oak Harbor on my way to visit Hohenwald and get some delivery warrantee problems fixed. I got as far as Stevens Pass, a three hours drive. When using the toilet, a loud "snap" sound occurred and the toilet came completely free of the trailer hull. I took things apart and found that there is a plastic bracket made by Oatley which is evidently modified by Oliver (according to Mike Sharpe) and then used to join toilet and hull. Service said they could ship me the part, but.... it would be three days to get it. (I'm not sure that UPS would deliver to the roadside at Stevens Pass..) My choices were: 1. Wait, install part, and drive hard to make my appointment, 2. Wait, install part and make a rescheduled appointment later this summer, or 3. hire a commercial hauler to take my trailer back to the mother ship. I chose number 3. You can be sure that my spare parts kit will now also contain one of those "special" brackets that I cannot buy at the average RV parts store. Dang, but I hate trip killer failures!! Bill

I recommend you go to my posting on this subject. I have what, where, and how-to with pictures. Bill

I modified my sail switch by bending it so as to make it more sensitive to the fan air. Fixed that. Now if I can just get the darned limit switch to keep from kicking off the propane every minute or so (for 20 seconds)... Oh well, at least the sail switch is workingl..

I think I have figured out why Oliver no longer uses the Dometic Awnings... My "purchase" date of Hull 615 was 6 April 2020. I had it delivered, so the first time I saw it was 11 April. Within 10 days I had noted a hole in my awning, and deep drag marks in the fabric, in the fore and aft direction versus open and close direction. I sent pictures to the Oliver Service department, and was told that I would need to take the trailer to a Service Facility for a Dometic Rep to take a look. (That was actually an error, as I found out that I could have communicated with Dometic myself. Camping World merely took pictures and sent them off to Dometic.) Dometic denied my claim! They claim that I only had 30 days to make such a claim vice the one year warrantee that is stated in the awning documentation. The awning has only been opened two times that I know of. Once by me, and once by Camping World (who agree that the defect was Dometic's fault, and should be covered by warrantee.) I saw no rush to get the awning looked at since I had documented the defect, and did not intend to use the awning again until the fabric was replaced. This coming week I will raise the issue with Oliver Service and see it they will intercede with Dometic for me. If that fails, I intend to lawyer-up an sue Dometic under Washington State law, which is pretty specific as to warrantee issues. No wonder Oliver dumped Dometic. Even United Airlines has better customer service than Dometic...

Wow! Your "easy" is several orders of magnitude beyond mine. What a great job!

I chose 100W heaters as a function of maximum load (three heaters, or 300W). That wattage at 12 volts equals 25 actual amps. I think even that amount of load will seriously deplete my battery bank by dawn on a really cold night. Hopefully the combination of my Honda 2200 for 3 to 4 hours the next day, PLUS the solar will allow full recovery. I will have the option to run one, two or all three heaters as needed/possible. I cannot see any way to get more reflectix between the two water lines and the lower hull on the drivers side... (Bummer!)

Note: I'll bet that only the outside lamps of all four assemblies are the ones lighting up.... The running lights are the wire right next to the 7 pin "hot" wire that goes to the batteries.

I just posted a similar story... Disassemble your trailer 7 pin connector. The moisture and corrosion is on the back side of the plug, not the front side. You are going to find a mess. Clean it up. Add a bunch of dielectric grease and put it together again. LED lamps have a very low "light off" voltage. Leakage which you would have never seen with old style lights will show up early with LEDs;.

Hi John: Skill counts for quite a bit. I watched a friend bring his 1 ton Ford towing a 15,000# toy hauler work his way down the east side of Waconda Pass into Republic on 4 to 6 inches of compact snow and ice. (A lot of ice!) West side of Waconda was snow free. He thought he was in 4 wheel drive. Turns out his truck was lying to him. The front auto-lock did NOT lock up his front wheels. His voice was getting squeeky by the time we rolled into Republic, but he made it. I was very comfortable with my Oliver and 1/2 ton Ram in 4WD

Sure do, 2,800'.

Just a simple data point: During the second half of a recent hunting trip the temperatures averaged 24 degrees at night. In 6 days I used 7 1/2 gallons of propane for the RV heater, and only 2 gallons of propane to run the Honda 2200 for 3 hours every night. I have the Hutch Mountain conversion.

In late October this year I took my Elite II Oliver (Hull 615) to Republic, Washington for Elk hunting. There was 2 to 6 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures of 8 degrees F at night, and highs of 22 degrees F during the day. I stayed in an RV park so as to have AC power readily available. I have a 5 probe digital temperature system installed in my trailer. Probe #1 is near the propane tanks, #2 is under the forward dinette seat, #3 is under the drivers side bunk, #4 is under the passenger side bunk, and #5 is attached to the spare tire. (Note, numbers 2, 3, and 4 are as low is I could get them.) During my first night I noted that #2 temp was at 28 degrees, #3 was at 22 degrees and #4 was at 38 degrees. The "ducted" heat kept ONLY the starboard side of the trailer above freezing. I put small AC heaters under the dinette seat and under the port side bunk. After that, all internal temps stayed above freezing. The drivers side bunk area never got above 36 degrees, even with the 300 watt heater. Having foreknowledge of the expected temperatures, I pumped 8 oz of pink antifreeze into all 3 of the exterior water fittings. I then wrapped the fittings in pipe insulation. I believe that I had not done that, all three fittings would have frozen and cracked. I completely forgot about the exterior shower, but evidently lucked out as there has been no leak so far. I intend to purchase 3 each 100W DC heaters, and install one under the forward dinette and 2 under the drivers side bunk. There is a spare fuse for the drivers side awning which I will use to wire all three heaters through. Have not decided where to put the switches yet. NOTE: Pulling the Olly over salt covered roads can cause a real mess inside the RV 7 pin plug. Oliver service talked me through a very strange set of symptoms, but a set they knew quite well. Symptoms were - with trailer in a camp, no AC connected, occasionally the outside lamps of all 4 of the trailer running light/turn signal assemblies would come on (very dimly). The would stay on until late at night when the battery charge fell below 12.6V. Then they would go out. Service said "it is stray voltage from your 7 pin plug, take it apart, clean it and put some dielectric grease in there." When I took it apart it was so corroded that I replaced the 7 pin plug. Remember, this trailer was delivered to me last March (2020). Service told me that they have switched to a molded 7 pin plug to prevent recent trailers from experiencing this problem. The exterior of the plug looked pretty good, but the interior was a mess!

Your idea works great John. Thank you! BTW, when my unit was delivered to me here in Washington, one of the 4 black wing nuts securing the solar panels was within two threads of falling off. One of the remaining three was merely touching the lock washer. I did as you recommended and drilled one end of each wing nut for the use of zip ties to keep the wing nuts from backing off. Zip ties are sure easier to apply and remove than the "safety wire" I had to use when I was a USN Aviation Electronics Tech! Bill Simons Oak Harbor, WA

Stand by for sticker shock if you have to buy Marinco products. The standard joke in the local boating community is that if it is "yellow" it has to come with a 100% mark-up because it is "Marine Grade" just from being yellow! I bought a 50' Marinco cable because the local West Marine store just wanted it to heck out of their store (heavy, big, took a lot of shelf space, had it for two years, etc.). The gave me a smoking good price, like half off! I then cut it up and made-up the sections and connectors I needed.