Rivernerd

Good to know. Mine is more than 20 years old. Probably time to replace it.

John: I am curious about your reasons for such a strong dislike of rubber torsion axles. My raft trailer came with 3500 lb. leaf springs. One of them broke after about 7 years, at a bad time and in a bad place. I was told that rubber torsion axles have a much longer life span than leaf spring axles, so I swapped that sprung axle for a 5200 lb. rubber torsion axle about 23 years ago. No issues, and of course, no leaf spring replacement, since.

Good questions. We have the Lithium Pro package installed by Oliver in 2022. It includes three 130Ah Lithionics batteries. This 390 Ah battery bank is protected from freezing by an external, switched, battery warming mat, installed by Oliver as part of the package. When storing our Hull #1291 during the cold Idaho mountain winters, I follow Lithionics Storage Procedure Rev. 7.1, a copy of which is attached. As I read it, that procedure recommends: (1) leaving shore power connected, with the warmer switch on, to keep the battery warmer operating, but (2) doing a drawdown/recharge cycle every 6 months when in storage. I am now in the middle of the fourth winter following this protocol. If I didn't have shore power in the detached garage where I store our Elite II, I would remove the batteries in the fall, reduce State of Charge (SOC) to 50% and store them in my temperature-controlled attached garage, per the attached protocol. Leaving the trailer connected to shore power, but with periodic discharge/recharge, is easier, so that is what I do. As Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries usually have at least a 10-year life when properly used and maintained, I may not know how effective my winter storage battery practices have been for another 6 years. But, so far, so good. As a footnote, if we had chosen AGM batteries when ordering our Elite II, now is when those lead acid-based AGMs could be nearing the end of their useful life. Years of working with Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) AGM batteries to power my CPAP machine on wilderness river trips persuaded me to pay the substantial premium for the Lithionics LiFPo4 battery package. No regrets. Lithionics Storage Procedure Rev.7-1.pdf

Good questions. Answer? You don't. If below-freezing temps are possible when in storage, you must have power connected to ensure the 12V battery heaters can protect the batteries. And, when power is connected, you don't need to keep SOC at 50-60%, just when no power is connected. Dropping SOC to 50-60% applies when storing the batteries for long periods in a temperature-controlled environment, like when the batteries are removed from the trailer and stored inside a home.

Thanks for providing your view on towing with an EV. I have three questions: (1) what, if any, hardware is needed to "fill up" (recharge) your F150 EV from a 50A RV pedestal; (2) how long does it take and (3) how long does a "fill up" (recharge) take from a dedicated EV charging station?

Good point with regard to older Oliver trailers. Our Hull #1291, late 2022, came with the Truma Varioheat furnace, which includes semi-rigid ducting throughout. It is much more durable than the flimsy ducting shown in the manufacturing photo posted by Steve & MA. See photo below.

It seems to me that the Andersen weight distribution hitch should supplement the ability of the safety chains to keep the trailer connected to the tow vehicle, in the event of an accident. Does anyone know if this has been tested, intentionally or unitentionally?

I expect the challenge is ensuring your batteries and your charging system are turned off every time temps drop down to freezing. The easier solution is what we have: a switched external warming mat placed under the batteries and wired to our Oliver 12V system. Ours was installed by Oliver with our 390 Ah Lithionics battery package. One similar option now available is from Lion Energy: https://shopsolarkits.com/products/lion-energy-battery-warmer?srsltid=AfmBOoo5_6ceyboAQUUVw1CNe_jCPeADkLbtop6B-CC3Z-THhq2OC5zhaDI

Agreed. The ratio of tow vehicle weight to trailer weight is critical to stability, to avoid having the "tail wag the dog." Jeeps are not quite heavy enough to tow an Elite II as safely as I prefer.

Was the aluminum wheel bonded to the steel hub on your Oliver, even though the photo shows a tire change on your truck?

Our tow vehicle for our 2022 Oliver Elite II is a Toyota Tundra, also a 1/2 ton truck like your Yukon Denali 1500. The key limitation for our trucks is cargo capacity, not towing capacity. There are threads on this forum thoroughly discussing whether a 1/2 ton pickup is an adequate tow vehicle for an Elite II. This one is informative: The bottom line: your Yukon Denali 1500 with 1547 lb. cargo capacity should be adequate, but not optimal, to tow an Oliver Elite II. That said, you should verify whether your owners manual requires a weight distribution hitch when towing over 5K lbs. (which an Oliver Elite II will be). The Andersen weight distribution hitch is the one recommended by Oliver. It may be the only one that works with the Oliver design. We have found our 2019 Tundra with a 5.8L V8 engine and tow package, which we owned before buying our Elite II, to be adequate with an Andersen WD hitch. I know the trailer is there, but it is manageable. Yet, whenever we replace the Tundra, we will buy a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck, which many Oliver owners who post on this forum verify will make towing an Elite II much less stressful.

Our factory-installed RVSafe propane/CO alarm has a "Silence/Test" button, which enables us to shut down false alarms without a quick disconnect. It looks like the one in the photo below. It has gone off when my wife uses hair spray in the trailer!

That State of Charge (SOC) differential is not a sign of damage to the battery. Our three Lithionics batteries also discharge at somewhat different rates. As advised by Roger above, periodic battery balancing is recommended by Lithionics. This is done by discharging down to Reserve Voltage Cutoff (RVC) (until they automatically turn off), then back to full charge. I have found that complete balancing after recharge sometimes takes 1-2 days on shore power before all 3 batteries show 100%. To discharge our batteries in the winter I run a space heater using the inverter (as I can't set the AC low enough in December in Idaho to get it to run). The inverter will shut down 120V power when battery voltage drops to the point preset at the factory. To get down to RVC, I then turn on a bunch of 12V loads, including all the lights and the refrigerator set to DC mode, for another couple of hours until the lights go out because the batteries have turned themselves off. I can then reconnect shore power to charge the batteries back up to 100% SOC. This process balances all three batteries. In my experience, the next time I use battery power, discharge rates among the three batteries are much more even, but never precisely the same. That is o.k., per Lithionics.

Our Hull #1291 came with such a vent installed by Oliver. I believe that venting was required by Truma when installing our Truma Varioheat furnace. We have noted no moisture in the basement from the shower. We run the bath exhaust fan when using the shower, and for 10-15 minutes thereafter, venting most of the shower-generated moisture outside.

The auto-switching function is most likely just broken, but the inability to even manually switch between tanks could have been frozen. Your regulator may not have worked properly even when it was new. With our hull #1291, I have had to manually switch between tanks since we bought it new in Hohenwald. That prompted me to invest in Mopeka tank sensors, which are on a Cyber Monday sale right now. Buy two, one for each tank. https://www.amazon.com/Mopeka-Check-Sensor-Steel-Tanks/dp/B09J6MXJKT/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7Exyy9znT-SQGS49BGKyHY8ska73Uv8UcW7kjFcD5amLXllefHdvZI9wor2zVTUu_HhYmQxB3bapRHQuaIsBOy6fqVjO7n3zsjQ9skHvk2LQmqIbgav0y31tXmkHXPjxRMvJD0WQLLb5H2SPD6tEMIXdiP5KAe6190HRcuSaGgLPY_82w62plWFkRqUzSt9C2P2BuIibPH-53VmHFVohGOm0i5u8ejoXxzjTHAFhKYA1KJi-YdzdikEnsHz5-nSqBoTB8mn2Lc_RZEoDJ-xbdZgGxet5-WJzelCBJJCRgn0.2nf7_EzuuwFWa_vGhzCEyPMqhD9F4i7-2d7c70IgJu0&dib_tag=se&hvadid=678467137404&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9029558&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=39930829735022087--&hvqmt=b&hvrand=39930829735022087&hvtargid=kwd-2239628814146&hydadcr=7696_13589679&keywords=mopeka%2B2%2Bpack&mcid=2a3b25f10644368bbbb60cf5e4c564c8&qid=1764610880&sr=8-6&th=1 I monitor propane levels with the app on my phone, then manually switch when one tank gets low. I am interested to know if you are able to manually switch the regulator between tanks once it thaws out.