GAP

This chain does bring up questions I've been wrestling with. I have a Ford 150 on order. 3.6 eco boost with lots of fancy safety stuff including their electronic anti sway feature. According to Ford suggestions, any trailer over 5000lbs should use a mechanical anti sway device with the 150 - as opposed to their bigger trucks. I have an Elite II with the anderson anti sway/weight distribution unit which I love. Questions: - I've read but am wondering if anyone has experienced a situation where the TV anti sway electronic works against the mechanical device, actually causing sway? - The Ford anti sway feature can be disabled but must be reset each time the truck is turned on. Do any of you experimented with doing so? Gerry

The problem is that all bike racks (I've found) that are "RV approved" require a 2" receiver. If you use an adapter for a 1.25" receiver, it voids the RV delineation. I was told by service at Oliver that the chocking down of their receiver was a result of some dummy using the older 2" receiver to tow a car behind the trailer. I understand their concern but the stickers they currently attach to the receiver area clearly states the weight and usage limitations. By supplying a 1.25" receiver, Oliver is charging $800 for a unit that should not be used for what it is intended to do. Safe or not, they are minimizing their liability by maximizing ours

We live in the northeast and have a 2021 Elite II. For the first year of ownership, we've been storing our trailer naked, out in the elements. Have washed and waxed a couple of times and am appreciative of how durable and weather resistant gel coat is but, here comes winter and we fell it's best for the trailer to be somehow under cover. Am looking for suggestions as to a cost effective option to keep out of the sun, snow and rain. We have a paved area of the driveway that is free to dedicate and are considering some sort of fabric hoop house. This may be a good fit for us as we will probably be moving next year (to Vermont = colder and more snow) so could disassemble a hoop house and bring it along with us. Do any of you have experience with this type of structure and, if so, any ideas how to set it up for stable but temporary use so as to avoid having to place permanent anchors into the driveway?

That stealth Olli could have been me but I was spending the weekend coaching at a rough water kayak symposium along the mid coast area. Was wrapping up Monday after a three day event and was headed back to Connecticut.

I do have the Honda 2200i. Great generator but... Were I to do it all over again, I'd get one like the Yamaha shown above. The Honda will run the air conditioning all day long with no problem but it was a pricey unit and requires a pricey conversion kit to run off propane. Carrying a small gas can and that generator takes up as much space and probably weighs not much less then the Yamaha dual fuel. That unit can run off propane when appropriate (lower altitudes) without the stink of the gas can.

Late to respond here but to answer your question directly - yes, the 2200 does require a "neutral ground plug". I use a cube tap (available at any hardware store and in attached file through Amazon) into one of the 20amp plugs, where I can plug in both the 20a to 30a cord adapter to the trailer and the neutral ground plug

What about ti8re pressure for E2s? I have the stock tires which are Cooper Discover HT3s, LT 225 75R16. I looked on line and at the card both stating max PSI is 80lbs which is what it was when picked up from Oliver. The on line chart suggested PSI by weight which seemed to infer that these tires should be inflated to 40psi if used on a dual axle with each tire carrying 1500lbs which is both accurate and unnecessarily complicated. I had found that the 80lbs inflation ride was stiff and bouncy so had already decreased to 60lbs which seemed to track better and was less stiff. The recommended 40psi seems too low to me but I may give it a go as an experiment. Any of you folks have thoughts on this?

We've had a composting toilet since pick up in December. Love it. Watched the you tube videos before and learned from other's mistakes so has been issue free. We bought a spare blower from the company just in case of a potential break down and it would be super easy to instal while on travel. If you follow the recommendations on their site, there is no smell at all. The fan actually serves to lear the air "live" so no need to put warning tape across the bathroom door after usage. Our medium has not been changed in a few months now even though it's seen a lot of use. We usually go a couple of weeks between trips and, once home, unplug the fan after a couple of days so the medium does not dry out. The organic matter digests over those two weeks and it is all ready for further usage. Truthfully, we can't tell how long we can continue with this cycle as, so far, there is no increased smell. That said, we don't put toilet paper or wipes in the container. Keep a tiny, lidded, foot operated garbage pale between the toilet and sink and use our old deli meat zip locks for that material. throwing the bag out every 2-3 day and, no smell even in how weather. We also carry a spare pee bottle with cap. Never had a reason but if we needed to store a full bottle (mabey to wait out bad weather?) we could leave a full bottle with cap waiting outside till it was convenient to empty. Even while emptying the bottle, I've noticed very little smell. Certainly not as much as you would expect to encounter in a bathouse or, for that matter, in many RV bathrooms with flushers. I agree with using a bucket being a good solution for vomit. Would probably do the same if we had a flush toilet. Concerning diarrhea, I've been down that road and it was no problem at all. The inside of the bowl is super slick so we never clean with anything other then a wipe. Any over spray, were it to occur, could be spritzed off using the same spray bottle of vinegar mix used after peeing.

Great info Mike. Sounds like a good routine and safe enough to get through a tire rotation. Thanks much Gerry

It's time to rotate the tires on my Elite 2. Was wondering if anyone has successfully used the rear stabilizers for this purpose? Oliver suggests doing that operation with jacks which, I assume would mean jacking up both axels on each side and lowering onto jack stands. Sounds like a lot of work. During our delivery day debrief, it was suggested not to use stabalizers to lift the trailer due to potential aluminium frame bending concerns.

I was under the impression that the stabilizers were not suggested for this. Oliver pick up day briefing was when I first heard as much. I am looking to rotate my tires and would love to use the stabilizers to get it done. Problem is, I'd have to do both sides at the same time. Assuming I put 6" blocks under the stabalizers and do adequate equivalent to chocking (mabey leaving the unit hitched to TV with E brake set and wheels chocked) does this seem prudent?

I appreciate arguments on both sides of this issue but, that said, since picking up our E2 in December, I've had 13 issues involving 6 of the after market products. Of these only two could be fully resolved with the help of Oliver and all the rest required at least one call to the manufacturer. While Oliver has been exemplary (Jason in particular) in making themselves available to assist, there is only so much they can accomplish over the phone. Considering Oliver has one location, it does seem like a prudent and minimal effort to share this information up front. Almost every manufacturer I've sought assistance from asked for these particulars and, in some cases, such as the MaxAir Fan or Dometic AC, I've had to do a certain level of surgery, following their directions, to even find where the tags are located. Much more humane for Oliver to do at the time of instal than it is for me to do, standing on the roof, with a phone in one hand and tools in the other.

I'm a bit confused as to the intend of #28. In dealing with the folks at Xantrex, they've explained that the units will always prioritize appliance demand over charging. For example, when I use my air conditioner, there is very little power, if any, flowing to the batteries. Is 28 intended to set a limit so the inverter/ charger won't try to feed an appliance and bulk charge the batteries at the same time? I may be doing it wrong but I've always set #28 to reflect the available "grid" power so I set it to 15amps when on a 15a circuit, 30amp when at a campground with 30a service, 18a when using my Honda 2200i, etc...

While not on the road, i've recently started keeping my Elite 2 plugged in to power a dehumidifier. As I did not want to have the charger constantly topping off the lithium batteries Per manufacturer's suggestion), I went to #26 in the Xantrex menu and set to Auto which disables the charger but still allows incoming for AC power for 110v devices such as the dehumidifier. After about a week, I noticed that my two 200ah lithiums had drained down about 25% which is way way more then the normal parasitic draw would account for - LP/carbon monoxide detector, lights on the stereo display, etc... In checking the Xantrex display, I can clearly see that the dehumidifier is drawing power from the shore source and not from the batteries. My gut tells me that the increased draw is from the Xantrex itself. The unit turns on automatically when the trailer is plugged into an AC source so I'm guessing that the power supplying the unit itself is drawing directly from the 12v system. Does anyone know if I'm on the right track? GAP

Fascinating subject and lots of out of the box brain work going on here. We picked up our L II in December and did quite a bit of dry winter camping at various ski resorts over the season. Temps going down to single digits on multiple nights and staying well below freezing on most days. Our routine was to keep the trailer winterized, run the heater, carry a back up (Mr Buddy or small box heater) and, for water, we carried two 1 gallon soft sided BPA free CANTEENS, a 7 gallon storage container with spigot like THIS and run that water through a Brita type filter before drinking or filling the canteens. Did a few freezing days/nights with water system fully activated but was concerned about the exterior shower vulnerability. We constantly monitored various areas with temps sensors and had some interesting take aways: - We lightly insulated (w/reflectex) the outside shower door. Love the idea of memory foam. Hung a temp sensor as close to the outside as possible under the streetside bed. We keep the cabin temps in the low 60s and, even in single digit weather, it never got colder than the high 50s. The plan is to put in cut off valves before next winter, once we figure out how exactly to get that done - All other areas seemed to stay plenty warm enough, while using the on board heater, to keep the water system live during winter trips. The bathroom does get chilly so are going to follow the smart suggestion to cut a vent over the door to allow better circulation in there. - Covered the vented door to the battery compartment with reflectex. We have lithiums that are happy to discharge semi efficiently down to zero but will only take a charge if above freezing. It stayed surprisingly warm in there, never dropping below the high 50s. - We bought a roll over "double bubble' reflectex off Amazon and made insulators for all the windows. Two layers thick joined together with the foil refectex tape. Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot are all good sources. They hold in place.nicely by closing the solid blinds. Made similar for window in the door by enclosing a layer of 1.5" foam in reflextex. Held in place by the screen door. Bought a 14"x14" Camco insulated vent insert and hold it in place with a plexi 19x19 vent cover that we ordered through Home Depot. This would cover the max air fan and is easy enough to remove. Not sure how much that will get used as we sometimes vent while cooking to minimize condensation. - We really need to see what it takes to keep all the compartment areas warm enough if using a back up heater. I suspect lids to lower compartments would need to be opened and a fan places strategically in one of them. - Our biggest challenge is in figuring out how to travel in winter temps with a non winterized trailer. While internal temps hold well on a stationary trailer, our concern is the effects of wind chill carrying away heat. While we aren't shy about traveling with the propane heater working, we aren't sure without experimenting if it will be enough. I suspect that if all the streetside compartments are left open and the bathroom has the additional vent, all should be good.

Hey NCeagle, I never did ask directly why the techs thought using #26 to turn off the charging aspect of the inverter/charger was a bad idea. The first tech I spoke to suggested it and it worked so I never felt compelled to dig much deeper. That said, I did challenge one of the techs by pointing out the contradiction and he had no answer. I'm with you - if it works, why not do it? Hasen't seemed to hurt anything. I just ordered a dehumidifier today and plan on leaving that plugged in up until the late fall. To run it and a fan to circulate air around the cabin and open compartments, I plan on leaving the Oliver plugged in that entire time. There is no way I would want the charger to be continuously topping off the batteries for that long.

Great and greatly complicated topic for sure. Hull #701 (I think). Lithium, 3000xc Pro Inverter, Honda 2200i Generator. - SteveCr: From talking to Xantrex, it was explained that the unit will focus on draw before charging. In short, if there is a draw on the inverter such as air conditioner, this will be fed first with left over power (if any) channelling to the charger. I recently noticed that when the AC would cycle down after achieving the temp set on the thermostat, the charger would kick on to full bulk rate. When the AC was cooling, the charger was running at a trickle. May have been effected by battery charging needs but the change in charge rate seemed to be tied into the AC draw. - NCeagle's approach to setting #26 to "off" to prevent continual charging of lithiums, which in the long term is a bad thing, works but, in asking the same questions to 4 different techs at Xantrex, 3 said that approach would either not work or is not suggested. The one tech that suggested that approach thought it was perfectly appropriate. That said, I do use that setting for that purpose if Im going to stay plugged in for multiple days straight such as living on shore power to feed a dehumidifier. From talking to the battery manufacturer, it is not bad for the lithiums to be on continual charge except over a long period of time. - For those of us using a Honda 2200i on gas, I've found that you can set the charge rate (#28) to 15amps with no problems. Watts (1800 which is the running wattage per Honda) divided by Volts (120v) = Amps (15a)

Story with a happy ending so that's great. In our case, a tech from Xantrex walked us through the analysis of the inverter itself and the remote panel. While our trailer was brandy new in December, both the inverter and panel were a couple of updates behind. The tech emailed firmware and instructions. Took another call for some handholding but all is good. We are three days into a trip and with no problems. It too some time resolving the Xantrex issues but Jason stuck with us and shared a few great ideas and insights along the way. The folks at Xantrex were also super helpful. They helped me figure out how to reset my charge rate to reflect source. I had been having problems when using the inverter on sources other than 30a service including household 20a and my 2000i generator. The Xantrex tech talked my through how to adjust the inverter demand depending on available amperage at the source so 15a for 15a household circuit, 20a for 20a circuit, 18a for little generator, 30a at campgrounds.... They also assisted in setting up specific to lithium batteries: New bulk and float charge rates and an auto cut off at 10% battery vs 50% for AGM. These units ship with factory presets that assume certain conditions (plugging into a 30a circuit and using AGM batteries) so it is worthwhile to figure out how to tweak to reflect how it is actually to be used.

Sounds feel like we have a (loud) ticking time bomb temporarily cooling the trailer. Oh well, hopefully the inevitable retrofit is easy. Thanks much on the information.

Rounding back on this old subject. I'm interested in installing the EZE Gutter on my E2. Have never done it before. As far as placement goes, do you place the gutter right up against the sealed edge of the window frame? If so, if the window requires resealing, is it neccessary to remove the gutter material to allow space to remove and reapply the window frame sealant?

Fluid Film will remain as a high viscosity goo until it absorbs enough dust (or termites) to seal it's outer coat. I spoke to the manufacturer a couple of years back and they stated that the inner layer of film will continue to protect against rust after the outer coating becomes gummy from the dust. Otherwise, the product will eventually wash off from rain. When udercoating my trucks, they actually suggested I drive around on a dry dirt road to help this process along.

So, I figured out and fixed the problem with the air conditioner. Turns out that the bolt I found came off of one of the two forward facing motor mounts. This allowed the motor to twist a bit and had the front impeller scraping slightly against part of the plastic AC housing. The noise was super loud when we first heard it and "clanky" which was probably the impeller scraping the head of the bolt that sat loose, under the blades. Looks like no damage done. Reinstalled the bolt and added a nut with a little loctite to both the screw ends so they could not shake their way loose again. The bolts screw through a rubber doughnut style mount with nothing to hold them in place so I am betting I'm not the only one who has had this problem. Still plenty loud but that must be the native noise that always comes out of these units.

I feel Csevel's pain for sure. While I have not had a leak to deal with, my 2021 E2 has been keeping me busy since picking it up last December. Off the top of my head the issues I've dealt with includes: 1) tank sensor fell off fresh water tank, 2) malfunctioning heat pad for lithium batteries (still to be replaced), 3) Xantrex was set to AGM batteries instead of the lithium package I had causing multiple issues 4) radio/tv anteana was not attached to mast correctly so fell off while driving, 5) leaky pex connectors under curb side bed - connections were way too loose 6) exterior LP leak (still to be tracked down), 7) Xantrex remote ongoing panel warning 20 issue, 8) no pressure in the water pressure tank, 9) super loud and clanky air conditioner - loose bolt found just below the impeller, 10) fridge could not get cold enough to function - sensor placed in wrong position, 11) faulty board in Maxair fan, 12) loose nuts attaching solar panels. I'm fairly sure I've forgotten a couple more. This is my first trailer and I appreciate that complex systems in bouncy conditions (trucks, trailers, boats, space station, etc...) are prone to shake related malfunctions but most of the problems I've had seem to be of other sources. Upside is I'm learning the systems in combat conditions. Downside is, I'd rather be camping. Question to you more seasoned Oliver-ites: Does this seem like an excessive list for a trailer that is just 6 months old? However you cut it, this stuff is a pain in the ass but has not yet cut a trip short or forced us to loose the camper to a service center. We love having our Oliver but wish it would be less of a ongoing maintenance issue.

I pulled the shroud today and, sadly, no birds or bees in there. There is an insulated cover inside and a plastic housing above the impeller that blows air into the trailer. Didn't have a chance to dig too deep but looks like part #33 from john's diagram, may be rubbing Slightly against something. Also found a 2" bolt laying loose in that area. May be at the heart of the problem. Will get out again and do some more analytical digging. Will take Russel's wise words into consideration and pick up some sort of cover for the unit to minimize the chance of critter infiltration. Am also going to take Overland's suggestion and see if I can figure the problem from inside the trailer.

John, as always, thanks so much for the support. Great info. I have had a ton of issues involving a few systems supplied by third parties. Fridge, inverter, water pressure tank, antenna, heat pad for lithium batteries, Maxair fan, etc... All were fairly simple to work through and I dealt with each issue by contacting manufacturer directly. Have found it is the path of least resistance on a number of levels. Sometimes feel like having a new Mercedes but having to reach out to Jensen on a problem with the radio. As this is my first trailer, my assumption this is just what it takes to tweak in all the different systems on a new unit. I've often thought that it would be handy for Oliver to supply all model numbers and serial numbers to help facilitate the process.