johnwen

I know the feeling...we did the same as you at Quartzsite this year with the help of a few patient friends. It's soooo nice to not be worried about the batteries! (2000w Xantrex and 3 way fridge). Usually 85-90% in the morning with cpap and television usage. The days sun (if out) tops them off by early afternoon. Congrats on your success, John

Has anyone relaced the vip3000 with the vip3500? Is it an easy swapout? The bolt pattern and spacing appear to be similar. I'm a little tired of the grinding sound sound it makes at the upper half of its travel. I've had it apart and checked the grease...it appears fine but either the motor or gears are binding. It has been that way since OTT's annual service last year. Probably just a coincidence. It may just be wearing out...55000+ miles full timing and just over 3 years old. John

My ground is about a 1 1/2 feet (2 max) to the truck frame from the Andersen connector.

thumbs up!

JD Testing shows 5-30a on the Victron shunt with all power disconnected and solar controller off. I have an isolated 30 charger...2 in and 2 out connections. Negative to B- bus and positive to B+ bus and of course the other 2 are Positive through resettable breaker at the TV battery and Negative to ground on frame near the rear bumper. My trailer batteries are already fully charged so that's why the 5-30a variation as the batteries need it. Hope this helps :) John

Will check in a couple of days, on our next leg. As I remember (have only used a couple of times since installation and really haven't had a need for the charger...rooftop solar is sufficient since we don't use much energy) we had amperage flow.

Hi, JD, My equipment consists of a solar controller, a shunt and the dc to dc controller. When the dc to dc is disconnected at the andersen connector from truck to trailer there is no bluetooth blue light on the controller...nor is it discoverable. When I connect the andersen ends together it then becomes discoverable with no charging as the truck is off, but it does indicate truck battery voltage. Texas is one windy place :) Onward, John

I wore my arms slap out the first couple of times on the 90ftlb nuts. The 65 pounders weren't so bad. Glad I didn't wait for this mod 5 years from now! Hi from us both!!! Going to a music rally this week (Dogwood). Safe travels my friend. Are the blueberries in bloom yet? John

We had Alcan put the 5000# neverlubes on last month so not much experience with them (no problems so far). You can get the axles without the neverlube option. Per Lew, the bearing inserts (on the neverlubes) can be replaced down the road without replacing the axle if one does go bad. We full time so our weight is maxxed out at all times when disconnected from the TV. Peace of mind for us. As David mentions...stay true to Lew's torque directions, and then some. I was still torquing at 1000+ miles. Best of luck, John

Thanks MUCH! Just what I needed to push me over the edge :)

You're reading my mind...will do :)

Does anyone know the weight difference between a full 30lb aluminum tank and a full 20lb steel stank? John

Thanks, John

Hi JD, Wish I had paid more attention while we were at "The Q" but I didn't notice how you locked the battery tray. Do you have a pic? Safe travels, John

Congrats!!! That's quite impressive...277+ miles a day for 18 days :) Hope you have the best of times enjoying your new trailer. Safe travels...John

Love It!!!!

Roger on the locktite....will post next week on the install (so far so good). Thanks :)

We just arrived at Alcan for our axle replacements and noticed that one of ours had "left the building"...we're looking for a suitable substitute for the jack pad. I think ebay is a possibility. We just passed 53000 miles on "Bessie" and suspect our full timing is a little more demanding on a trailer than many experience. GJ's comments make a lot of sense...check tightness periodically and maybe a safety chain :) John

JD I'm finding this to be be true for us...

Thanks JD...just what I need :)

Just wondering... I have the 30a Victron as well, along with my Zamp solar controller, a Victron solar controller and the Xantrex 2000w inverter/converter. I reset all of them to accept the new 300ah x 2 Epochs using their generic lifepo4 settings. They all seem to have slightly different charging parameters. Should I just accept all as is or try a different user defined setting? The Xantrex has Absorption value of 14.6v and Float value of 13.6v. Seems high but don't know. All seems to be working exceptionally well but don't want to exceed any voltage limitations for the Epochs. Any suggestions/references I should follow concerning the percent usage before charging i.e. let deplete to ? % once in a while instead of keeping topped off? I rarely seem to go below 82% and the rooftop panels spend no time in boosting back to 100%. One note to mention...when I set the Xantrex up for lithiums I was at Quartzsite and no shore power so I cranked up the inverter, changed the settings using the FXC control app and later noticed the batteries did not recover to previous levels after the first time we were on shore power. Sure enough the battery setting on the Xantrex reverted to AGM. I reset while on shore power and all seems to now be operating as expected. John

Thanks for the info, Art...currently sitting just south of Flagstaff. We delayed here for a day to let the snow pass through there. Not many ways to get around Flagstaff. Alcan still scheduled for Monday!!!! :) John

Congrats from Wen and John.