GAP

Where did you source that vent? It's exactly what I was looking for. In my case, I vented the bathroom into the space below the front dinette seat. Also added a 4" return in the rear face of the same seat which I use to tweak air flow coming from the bathroom as too much would reverse exhaust venting from my composting toilet. That same adjustable vent cover would be great for the return vent under the seat.

If the fan running while the compressor is off is the source of the problem, would it make sense to have chosen a smaller unit? Would the 9.5 BTU in an Elite 2 run the compressor for longer periods, removing more moisture from the air? I would also guess that the smaller unit running for longer would have a similar power draw to what the bigger unit would use running for a shorter time.

Has anyone replaced their cooktop because of the "NHTSA RECALL 22V350 Damage Cooktop Control Valves May Leak Gas" recall posted on the forum? My Elite 2 falls into the dates of potential problematic units. I'm looking to find out where the serial number fror the cooktops are located and to see if anyone has suffered the infamous Dometic black hole where their service centers refuse to work on warranted product because the center does not sell Oliver trailers while Oliver refuses to do the work because they are not a Dometic service center. On an additional note, I feel it would serve customers well (not to mention making plenty of sense with little cost) for Oliver to include all product serial numbers with each new trailer. In my two years of ownership, searching for serial numbers has been a fairly frequent occurence as in having to repair/replace/maintain my bathroom sink, Maxair fan, inverter, fridge, furnace, thermostat and now, cooktop.

Great to hear that the aluminum frame is standing up to marine environment so well. Guess that makes plenty of sense. Even with lots of exposure over last winter to the hideous stuff they apply to winter roads here in NE, my frame looks pretty good but, you can bet, I'll be watching as that mystery stuff is a different animal from ocean salt. The overly wordy descriptor (apologies) I offered above about Fluid Film is very worth considering for those of us exposed to winter roads for both our trailers and vehicles. Perhaps not for the frames of the Olivers but my trailer axles and suspension parts, LP tank trays - which were heavily corroded - all looked old beyond their one year of exposure. I used a spray can of FF being careful not to contaminate the brakes. After my truck is a couple of years old will have that sprayed stem to stern too. Really stops rust dead. Let a little surface rust form first for something to adhere to, wash and apply. If you have flaking rust, hit it with a wire brush and paint scraper just to take off big bits, wash and apply. Stops all undercarriage squeaks and cuts new rust growth to zero.

Not that it applies just to the trailer but Im wondering what you would refer for an anti galling gel? There are steel on aluminum spots on the Oliver that are concerning to me as is the case with my mountain bike and some of my fancy pantsy camping gear. Thanks on that.

You are right about aluminium in marine environments but that is different then the effect of whatever scary material they are spraying roads with. That said, while the metal on the axels and suspension on my trailer is certainly beat up, the frame still looks surprisingly new which is why Im holding off for no on spraying the Fluid Film. BTW, this stuff is a grease not a paint. Much the same as beeswax that you use to oil leather products. Washes off with water and soap. I sincerely doubt there is any chance of it having anything but a positive protective effect on the frames of our trailers. Easy enough to find gory details on the website. https://www.fluid-film.com/

We live and travel mostly in coastal environments. Do quite a lot of winter trailering too. The stuff they put on roads nowadays is murder on vehicles. I used to have a film lighting business and had a number of trucks. Historically, rust related problems ran me thousands of dollars. Did some homework and found that plow guys often undercoated their gear with Fluid Film as did maintenance folks working on bridges in marine environments . It's a natural based fluid, sprayed on undercarriage (with options of spraying into rocker panels, etc...) which acts as a penetrant and lubricant. Used if for years on work and personal trucks and absolutely swear by it. Lots of folks apply every year. I used to clean my vehicles, coat with fluid film, repeat again the following year then do every other or 3rd year depending on how much use the vehicle sees. Commercial applications at garages is about $20/running foot but, if you have a compressor, you can buy the kit to do it yourself. A garage should discount as there is only frame to do on our trailers as opposed to the entirety of an average vehicle. Stuff goes on like viscous fluid then absorbs dust and firms up a bit. I used to go right from garage to drive on a dirt road. Turns into a brown, rubbery coating. You can leave entirely alone till next application or spray with low pressure but will wash off with high pressure and soap. I put on a 5 year old box truck which I had another 10 years with absolutely no new rust growth. You hit rusty spots with a wire brush - lightly - apply the film and that's it. Unlike standard undercoating, will not trap moisture and cause further rust creep. Penetrates into nooks and crannies really well. There is overspray which gets on exterior of vehicle but is easily cleaned with a hose and whatever cleaning soap you use. Have to be careful not to get on brakes. I always had the tech steer clear of them and I would follow up with canned spray Fluid Film which you can get at auto stores/amazon to hit spots they missed. I have not applied to my entire Oliver undercarriage yet but have done the axles, trays that LP tanks sit on, base of the tanks themselves and suspension bits. Our trailers have so little metal in undercarriage that it would probably be easiest and certainly less $ to just buy a few cans and apply by hand. Will do a test by coating a cross member under the Oliver and checking progress in the fall before doing the whole frame. My f150 is just a year old so will wait till the fall before having it done. Some folks say it's best to wait for a bit of corrosion before applying so there is something for the film to stick to.

Thanks both of you for that. Much appreciated.

Hey All, I was doing some work under the bathroom sink. Pulled the insert out of the vanity and left the switch for the water pump hooked up. Someone trying to help me out unhooked that connection and did not map out how things were originally attached. No good deed goes unpunished. There are 6 potential points of attachment and only three wires to hook into those points and I have not yet been able to figure out the configuration? I'll run at with a multi meter but am not a master of that device. Can anyone help me out with this?

Lots of great stuff there Gj. I am especially interested in the insulated flexible vent duct options. I'd like to replace sections of duct close to the furnace as that is an area least in need of heating that runs super warm because of heat loss through the duct itself. I've replaced the duct line that feeds the cabin mid way under the curbside bed. Ran the new duct to a spot opposite the existing vent under the galley so now there is one close to the battery compartment. I used semi rigid duct which gets hot so it has heated the compartment surrounding the exterior shower and opened a vent through to the garage to share heat with pex lines run through there. insulated (with reflectix) areas close to electronics to protect that stuff. Will add some of your suggested insulated duct from the furnace till the duct comes out under the streetside bed as to minimize heating areas where not needed. The ideas about running a fan and portable AC powered heater sound like smart thinking but I have yet to winter camp somewhere with access to shore power so may be a project for next summer. Thanks much for sharing. Very helpful stuff.

Geronimo John and Seadawg are on to something. I vote that, as a forum, we pitch in for a dedicated proofreader. Bet if we spend a few more $, we can even get someone to compose our posts for us.

That is great. It's is a vast improvement over what my 2021 would have done before I tweaked the heat system. Would be interesting to test readings in the rearmost area of the garage as the pex lines there are likely the most susceptible. I'm earnestly glad for you folks that have the new upgraded system and commiserate with the rest of us of us that have to do some pretty serious surgery to have trailers that work well (= having access to water) in actual 4 season conditions.

Hey All. My bad. Seadawg pointed out I was confusing pounds and gallons. I need a personal proofreader. Mabey a new year's resolution in the making?

Sounds like a great experience. Glad to hear it but your post does bring up a couple of follow up questions: - You state that you used about 1.5 gallons per night and have two 5 gallon tanks. My experience with the Dometic furnace in similar situations (but likely colder daytime temps) was burning around 15 gallons/day off a 30 gallon tank. I'm surer the Truma is more efficient but would be surprised if the difference was that much. The two stock options for tank sizes on the Olivers is either a 20 gallon tank ( similar to what you would find on a gas cooking grill) or a 30 gallon tank. A 5 gallon tank is about the size of big guy's head. Is that what you actually have? - You shared the belly temp of 38 degrees on a night where it was single digits. That's great and, I agree, is likely an improvement due to the new return placements. Out of curiosity, where did you take this reading? The area of most concern for me, which is likely the most vulnerable, is behind the garge at the very rear of the trailer as that is where the lines to the exterior shower run. I would bet your "sweating walls" was condensation settling on the walls as they and the windows are so much colder than the rest of the csbin. Thanks much for the informative post

Can anyone who has done the Houghton install themselves go into a little gory detail of what it took? I would love to give it a go. Am happy to end up using a remote to control the unit as long as the heat could still run off the existing thermostat.

Soooo, I spoke with the head honcho at the link. Background is that my light bar works perfect till my headlights are on. Then the turn signals get crazy glitchy. Turns out that it's a common Ford problem but can happen with any vehicle that has "modern conveniences" such as blind spot monitoring (which is deactivated when trailer is attached) and the only fix is to hard wire. There is a bar light that is made by one company that will work in plug-and-play mode but it is (drum roll) $300. Does have a 3 year warrantee which, from my research, is three times the average working light of even good bars. Crazy! Seems like the solution is following John's excellent set up or spending a pile of $ and tossing my current bar on the trash heap. John's fix and instructions are, as usual, fantastic but I am intimidated by drilling a through hole and doing the electric work. Etrailer carries a set of running/turn lights that terminate in a standard 4 pin connector which the claim will play nice with the Ford. Not as good a solution as a 60" bar but I may give it a go.

I'm sure I 'm not alone in trying to find a workaround for bikes mounted on the rear bumper blocking the rear lights. Particularly bad in my case as I wrap the bikes in a protective travel bag. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNPS8CM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1. The bag is fantastic for keeping the bikes dry and clean and has translucent panels on both sides to facilitate rear lights shining through but cuts the light too much to be of use on a sunny day so my turn signals are useless. I purchased a 60" LED lightbar that terminates in a standard flat, 4 pin, connector. https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Redline-Triple-Tailgate-Sequential/dp/B0771WDRHH/ref=rvi_sccl_4/144-1395279-4476013?pd_rd_w=VSM8e&content-id=amzn1.sym.f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_p=f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_r=76TJTKPWAPHZRG5MA7A3&pd_rd_wg=hgQej&pd_rd_r=d840fc24-bf18- . Fit perfectly on lower rear bumper and was clearly visible under the tires of the bikes. "Dry tested" it and it worked great. Ran wiring under the trailer, mounted the bar and all seemed great. Found that the turn signals on the bar got super twitchy when my headlights were on. Turns out, all these bars get twitchy when using 4 pin plug-and-play with modern vehicles that have BLISS (back up assist), blind spot monitoring or OEM reverse cameras. Top fix, you need to hard wire to rear lights. Crazy stuff. I can't tap into my truck's lights as that could potentially void the warrantee. I have no idea how to get to rear light harness on the Oliver. Hate to do electric as I really don't speak that language but need to do what I got to do. Any ideas?

Sounds like some good ideas there. Have a couple of thoughts. If the fan is itself under the dinette, where would you be drawing warm air from tho heat between the hulls? On the newest trailers (and mine after tweaking last season) there is a vent cut from bathroom to under the dinette. Using the fan would work well in that circumstance but, if you have a composting toilet, could reverse the flow of the air through the solids box = sad faced smell. Another option would be to cut a small louvered vent under the forward dinette seat so the warm air could be drawn from the cabin. You are spot on about opening the internal dead ends. There are walls between basement and garage under streetside bed and another behind the furnace which prevent warm air from getting to the rearmost water lines. It's a shame otherwise to heat the garage but those lines (that feed the external shower) are the most vulnerable in the trailer.

GJ, you've offered up some great suggestions on this topic on both this chain and the 3.75 Season Trailer forum. That said, this one really hits home. Even though we travel with 3 30lb tanks, for both cost and convenience, I was dreading heating the belly at temps north of mid 20s where it is not necessary. I'll switch out the 8x10 existing return air vent for one with a louvre and plan to do the same for a couple of the others vents I've cut between dead ends in the garage and basement so I can tune the system 1) to the need to share heat between the hulls and 2) adjust flow to send the most air where it is most needed. Very helpful. Thanks on that. Question: My trailer has the "rumpled" accordion, lightweight 4" foil ducts. I notice this is super delicate and have already needed to repair with foil tape in a few spots. You mention "smooth bore" duct. Can you be more specific as to the type of product and why it is more efficient? Unlike the "semi rigid" duct I've added to the streetside, I have not noticed the rumpled duct exterior heating up.

I've experimented with this quite a bit. Non scientific but I can absolutely feel a difference between my tires with different air pressure. As I use the Anderson weight distribution hitch, I run the same pressure in all tires. Name plate on the door suggests 35lbs. Max pressure, as printed on sidewall, is 55. I have tried towing with everything in between and found that 45-50 is the sweet spot. At 35, feels to mushy and looses responsiveness. At 55 feels a bit sharp and gives a chattery ride.

In had never heard of an isotherm fridge. I am starting to have concerns with my Norcold 3 way absorption fridge as it seems to struggle a bit in hot weather and the whole leveling thing has caused us a couple of shut downs on surprisingly level surfaces when we forgot to shut down such as being in town in a parking lot with seemingly normal run-off grade. Can anyone speak to differences between 3 way absorption, vs 2 way compressor or 2 way isotherm style? My simplistic understanding is that the absorption has trouble in hot weather, is super inneficient in 12v mode and hates being off angle but, has more usable storage space for the same size. Compressor and isotherm have no problem being off angle and both are super efficient in DC and Ac modes. Also supposedly both keep constant internal temps no matter what exterior conditions are. Gerry

Hey John, In addition to the 4" round vent cut from bathroom to the dinette area I also put one under the streetside bed to wall the garage and yet another one through rear wall under curbside bed, right next to the furnace. That wall is fitted super loosely so allows a lot of air to flow past anyhow. The plan is to partially cover some of the pre existing 8x10 return vent. My goal is to increase warm air flow past exterior shower and the shower's feed lines which inexplicably are buried all the way in the rear of the garage.

Question from an admitted techno boob: Is it not possible that this problem is caused on the return air vent placement? As has been suggested in. previous post, could it be that warm cabin air drawn into furnace through return vent could be causing the unit to overheat and cycle through periods of shut-down to cool-down? As a qualifier, I don't have this problem. Mine is a 2021 twin bed with Dometic furnace and thermostat. What set ups do you folks have that are suffering with short cycling?

Ken, Fantastically useful info. Thanks on that. My responses and thoughts in bold in body of your post above.

Hey John, Thanks for the clarifications. Yes, we do travel with a 3rd 30lb propane tank. We found last winter that once temps got below 10f, we went through a 30lb tank every other day. Will probably go through it faster this year because we've made tweaks to run warm air through the closet, basement and garage so will be heating more areas. Also, if it seems safe, will be turning on the water system this season so the water heater will eat up some BTUs. I am intrigued by your suggestion to blow out lines in addition to using antifreeze. As I've never blown out before, I'll look for youTube procedure to do so. I have a regulator which supposedly with limit pressure to 45lbs. I do remember hearing that the danger was not to expose pressurized air to one of the systems - water heater or pump mabey - can't remember which. Does this ring a bell and how do you workaround when you do so?