Jps190

Colter bay RV park. Grand Tetons.

It really depends on how particular you are about how your ollie looks and also how you store it. I have ceramic on both my truck and my wife's car. Her car lives in the garage and still looks and washes like the day the ceramic was applied. My truck lives outdoors and the ceramic started to fail after the 2.5 year mark. If I stored my trailer indoors then the ceramic would be a no brainer but since my Oliver lives outside at a storage facility I just wash it occasionally and but and wax every 6 months. Does it look perfect, no, but the great part about gelcoat is that it can always (within reason) be brought back to life with a little effort. John

The houghton is designed to have the fan run when the compressor is off. Turing the fan to low makes it less noise and still allows the air to circulate. The issue with the Houghton is that the thermistor is up inside the unit which is why the fan was designed to run constantly according to the manufacturer. I would return the unit to its original design (no relay) and see if that solves your problem. John

We just finished up a 4 week trip and during the last few days we have a horrible gray tank smell in the trailer after a travel day. The first time I noticed it I verified the valve was closed and before the next travel day I made sure there was water in all the traps (both sinks and shower). Happened again today on or last leg home. Tank was empty, valve was closed (verified under the front seat). Anyone have this issue or ideas before I start tearing into things? John

I just looked at my hinge pins and they appear to be installed opposite of those directions also. john

Just my .02 but if I were you, I would seriously consider the switch to Lithium. If you are boondocking 9 days at a time then lithium will give you much better performance in all aspects. They are lighter, last longer, charge faster and you can pack more power into a fixed amount of space. The Elite 2 battery tray can fit 2 of the Epoch 300ah batteries which would give you plenty of power for long boondocking adventures. John

I have done some rather extensive mods to the electrical in my trailer. I have 2 SCCs that are both run through a Victron Lynx distributor. One SCC is for the roof solar (600 watts) and the second is fed from the zamp solar port on the side. The advantage of having the SCC in the trailer as opposed to on the solar panel is that you can run small gauge wires since the amperage is relatively low coming out of the panel. When panels are run in series the Amps aren’t ramped up until after the SCC. Using smaller gauge wire makes it easy to locate your portable panels away from the trailer which may be in the shade. I just use cheap landscape wire which is easy to roll up an store away.

It’s been awhile but here is how the final install turned out. The fridge fit perfectly into the old surround that I scavenged from the norcold. I planed down a piece of walnut to cover the hole, install the digital display and add a vent. Overall turned out great.

I second the Epoch batteries. Great build quality. Those Dakotas are WAY overpriced. John

There is no way to remove the screws from the front without pulling the fridge out. You may be able to get to the screws through the upper vent on the outside of the trailer. There are only 2 of them if I recall correctly. John

Looks Like Jim is the lucky winner. I’ll be in touch. John

I'm not completely done just yet. I was able to extract the face frame from the Norcold to use instead of creating a whole new frame. I still need to get that installed and figure out some vent covers and where I am going to mount the Isotherm ITC controller. My install is very similar to John Davies with regards to building a platform and wiring everything to a bus bar on top of the fridge. I was lucky in the fact that my cabinet area was relatively square. I'll post some finish pics when I'm done. John

I am finishing up installing the Isotherm fridge in my 2021 Oliver. I removed the Norcold 3-Way fridge and stripped the 2 circuit boards and front control panel. They are free to anyone who wants them. Just pay the shipping costs. John

Anyone know the dates for the 2025 Rally? John