Rivernerd

Ouch! Are you in the middle of an extended trip in your Ollie? If so, buying 3 more AGMs may be the best way to complete your trip, presuming the one you just bought is still o.k. AGMs, although not cheap, will buy you another 4-7 years of service, during which time the price of lithiums may continue to drop. If you are at home, this is the time to "cut your losses" and make the switch to lithium. If I read your posts correctly, someone at Camping World told you it was o.k. to mix AGM with wet cell? Then, when it didn't work, they now want to sell you 3 more AGMs? If your one new AGM is fried, I would lean hard on Camping World to sell me 4 for the price of 3, as it was their advice that killed your first AGM in the first place. Good luck!

Anything but "plug and play." Unless you are an experienced DIYer, it is wise to hire it done. I would not be surprised if you can find a local RV repair shop to do a lithium upgrade, perhaps with Battleborns rather than Lithionics, for much less than $11K+a drive to Hohenwald. This thread may give you a starting point for the learning process:

Although 4 years is on the short end of the optimal lifespan for wet cell batteries, replacing just one battery in the bank will ultimately be "penny wise and pound foolish." In your shoes, I would "bite the bullet" and invest in a completely new battery bank. And, if you can afford it now, I would upgrade to lithium.

A neutral bonding plug plugs in to one of the 120V receptacles on your generator. It looks like the image below. Your Oliver electrical system will not accept power from a generator without one:

I concur. I always carry a Safe Jack 6-ton RV Jack Kit when trailering. See the thread linked below, with one caveat: I have found that the 2x6 piece into which I drilled a hole to hold the jack post broke after couple of uses. So, I adopted the suggestion of another forum member and cut most of one side off of the u-shaped attachment, so it does not impinge on the wiring just inside of the frame at the jacking point. I now use the modified u-shaped attachment, for a secure grip on the frame when using the Safe Jack. I also lower all three "stabilizer" jacks to supplement the support provided by the Safe Jack if I am ever putting any part of my body under the trailer.

My favorite English professor in college used to write romantic stuff to his wife. He once wrote their initial relationship was like "sweet wine," but that over the years as the relationship deepened, she became more essential, like "morning bread." He reported that the "morning bread" analogy was not well received...

Yes, you can. It is my understanding that you simply turn the batteries back on after the BMS turns them off at the RVC level. BUT, that is for emergencies only. If you use the Lithionics batteries for too long after reaching RVC, you can permanently damage them. I would only turn the batteries back on after reaching RVC to run the jacks and get the trailer hooked up to my tow vehicle, then I would turn the batteries off again. I would then tow the trailer to a place where I could fully recharge the battery system. That is one reason I carry a generator when boondocking: so I can recharge should the batteries ever get down to the "shutdown at RVC" point without having to find 30A shore power somewhere.

2-3% daily loss seems reasonable to me, given that the only 12V power draw is for the battery heating mat. As the heating mat has a thermostat, and only turns on when ambient temps fall below a preset level, I expect the extent of power draw depends on how cold the weather gets. Per Lithionics Storage Procedure Rev. 7, I keep our Hull #1291 connected to shore power, and perform the procedure for draw-down to Reserve Voltage Cutoff (RVC) every 3 months while in winter storage. I expect your system of draw-down and recharge every 3 weeks or so accomplishes the same purposes (keeping the Lithionics batteries from freezing and periodically "exercising" the lithium batteries), but requires more frequent monitoring.

Yes. After disconnecting shore power, I started out by just leaving the 12V lights on to run down our 390 Ah Lithionics Lithium Pro Package battery bank. After a couple of days, I chose to accelerate the draw-down process by running a 120V space heater plugged into a receptacle with the inverter on. After a few more hours that day, the BMS in the Lithionics batteries shut them down, as they had reached Reserve Voltage Cutoff (RVC). I then re-connected shore power. I put our Hull #1291 into storage in our shed in early November this year. In early February, I plan to not only turn on all of the 12V lights after disconnecting shore power, but start out with a space heater plugged in to a receptacle, running off of the inverter. I will then monitor every few hours, until the BMS shuts the batteries down at the RVC level.

As Geronimo John suggested, you can still operate the 12V tongue jack from the batteries so long as the circuit breaker to the refrigerator is off. That is the easiest way to operate the tongue jack.

With what size 1/2" 12-point socket?

I am encouraged by the report that the Georgia dealer is listing the trailers for the same price Oliver is still selling them in Hohenwald. Perhaps, unlike sales of "stick and staple" trailers and most cars and trucks, Oliver dealers will not play the "jack up the asking price, then squeeze the buyer for every last nickel of extra profit" game. Time will tell.

This thread has made me wonder if I should carry my combustible gas detector in our Oliver. If a CO/LP detector alarms, it would make it easy to quickly verify either (a) the location of any propane leak or (2) the absence of such a propane leak. That might avoid camping in cold weather with no propane appliances operating for fear of an explosion!

That meerschaum pipe looks like the one Ulysses S. Grant used for years. No surprise he died of throat cancer....

The Elite II trailers now being made, which include the Truma Varioheat furnace system, can be used in temps down close to single digits F without modification. The thread below includes my report using the stock trailer down to an ambient outside temp of 11 degrees F last year. With the furnace set at 70 degrees F, temps in the lower, more exposed parts of the trailer did not get below 38 degrees F, so I did not worry about plumbing freezing. The thread also contains lots of ideas for mods to expand the cold-weather capability of an Oliver trailer. With the right mods, it appears the Oliver can be used (with the plumbing not winterized) in temps down to the single digits F, so long as the furnace is kept running.

I presume your battery bank consist of four 6V AGM's wired in series? If so, I must defer to the expertise of others on this forum, who are more experienced with 6V systems, for the "best" answer. That said, it seems to me that the "safe harbor" is to: (1) take a photo of the battery bank wiring so you can replicate it later; (2) remove one battery at a time from the battery tray, and then (3) using the Repair mode, with the charger set for 6V batteries, begin the repair/recharge process on the first battery. I would monitor progress with a multi-meter every 6-8 hours or so. Then swap out the remaining three batteries one at a time. One advantage of this approach is that you may be able to isolate any truly dead battery or batteries in the set and just replace it/them, since your batteries are only 1 year old. Do any of you electrical engineering types out there disagree? Presuming he has 6V AGMs wired in series to create a 12V battery bank, is it o.k. to just attach the leads from the charger to one of the positive and one of the negative terminals, and recharge/repair the entire bank using the 12V setting?

Note the absence of snow. And the fact that you can't see the actors' breath. They are wearing what would pass for fall or spring gear in Idaho, with no hats. This is consistent with my earlier observation that the stock Oliver is a "4-season trailer" where it is made, in the Southern USA. It would also be useful in winter in many parts of Western Washington, Oregon or British Columbia (such as the coast, where it rarely snows). But, without significant modifications, it is not a true "4-season trailer" for use in Idaho, Montana, Northern Utah, the Northern Great Plains, New England, Canada East of the Rockies, etc.

Your engineer grandson can surely follow the simple wiring diagram posted by Mossemi above to enable you to install much-more-available 12V AGM batteries rather than the harder-to-find 6V AGMs. "4/0" and "6 ga." (or AWG) should be wire sizes with which he is familiar. The key is fitting the replacement batteries into the Elite II battery tray. Once your battery box is re-wired for 12V, your will be set for the next time you need replacement batteries. I recommend you measure the "footprint" of your battery tray, provide it to your engineer grandson, then look for 12V AGM batteries that will fit within that footprint. Since you rarely boondock, maxing out the space available in the battery tray is not essential for you. You just need enough amp hours to get you by when not connected to shore power, not the maximum number of amp hours possible in that space (which is what Oliver does when installing AGMs at the factory). For example, you can buy (3) 100Ah 12V Renogy AGM batteries from HomeDepot.com today and have them shipped to your home, with free delivery. The price is good, at $190 each+tax. They will provide you with 300 Ah of 12V power, which should be fine for your camping style. At 6.9" W x 13.1" D x 8.6" H, all three should fit in your battery tray, it if is the same size as the one in my 2022 Elite II (14.2" W x 21.1" D). See link below: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Renogy-Deep-Cycle-AGM-Battery-12-Volt-100Ah-Safe-Charge-Most-Home-Appliances-for-RV-Off-Grid-Solar-System-Maintenance-Free-BATT-AGM12-100/303412933?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&srsltid=AfmBOorSneKvTVWw2r3sIKlQ45WwEGlz22BrxiHdIMFves4CLf8EQjveME4#overlay That is what I would do in your shoes. Great price, sensible solution given how you use your Oliver. Once your grandson rewires your battery box for 12V (any additional 4/0 or 6AWG wire needed for the rewire should also be available at any Home Depot retail store), you should be good to go. Good luck! And, please post the solution you end up with.

Have you tried the Batteries Plus store in Savannah, at 7170 Hodgson Memorial Drive? From an online search, it appears they may not sell Trojan brand, but they may carry 6V batteries that will fit the same footprint and provide the same output.

Then increase the furnace temperature set point, i.e., if you usually set it at 70 degrees F, increase that temp setting to 75 degrees F. Keep changing, if necessary, until the cabin is comfortable and the toilet supply line remains unfrozen.

Good idea. Not good to leave the toilet supply line frozen; even though Pex is quite flexible, it can still break when stressed too much. And, you might consider leaving the bath door open with the space heater on the floor pointing toward the toilet supply line. That reduces the risk of overheating that small bath area, and also allows cabin air warmed by you furnace to help with defrost the toilet supply line.

Not me. But, FWIW, I own two flexible solar panels which I have mounted on top of Pelican 1600 cases to recharge batteries I use to power my CPAP machine on wilderness river trips. One is almost 20 years old, the other just 1 year. The 20-year-old 11-watt panel cost me more than triple what I paid last year for the newer 20-watt panel!

But, be really careful using "Great Stuff" standard expanding foam to avoid overfilling the cavity. You could bow out the fiberglass hull if overfilled, which, given the degree to which the foam expands, could be as little as 50% full before expansion. A safer, but in my experience less durable, option is minimally expanding foam.

I have not used mine in Power Supply mode. I once used it in Repair mode (which I believe uses variable low, not constant voltage to desulfate) when an AGM battery I used to power my CPAP machine on wilderness river trips got more fully discharged than I liked. It restored the battery to full charge on that occasion, although I was never able to verify for sure that the over-discharged condition had not shortened the battery's life a bit. That was before I switched to 12V LiFePo4 batteries (with internal Battery Management Systems), to power my CPAP.

Then, as John Davies suggests, invest in a high-quality (ergo more expensive) lead acid battery charger that has a "repair" or "desulfate" feature. I have had good luck with NOCO Genius chargers. They are small but effective. Below is a link to a 10A version for $79.96 that includes a Repair feature for deeply discharged lead/acid or AGM batteries. If your AGMs are 6V, it can be set to 6V as well as 12V. https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GENIUS10-Fully-Automatic-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B07W3QT226 In your shoes, I would invest the $80 to see if the batteries can be salvaged. Your 400+Ah battery bank will take several days to recharge with this charger, even if it can be saved. After the charger has done its job, verify voltage of each battery with a multimeter, at least twice, before concluding that you have "dodged a bullet." Even if you can't save the batteries, a NOCO Genius charger is handy to have around just for maintaining automotive lead/acid batteries. Good luck! And, please report your results.