Jim_Oker

I've heard that a lot of fleet vehicles end up with Rear View System cameras, for what little that's worth...

Yes, that's clearly better in this case 😉

Yeah on my van I've really appreciated the view from the mount at the very top of the back of the van, which is almost as high as the top of the back of the Oliver. I can see higher potential obstacles and when we have bikes on a rack I can see where the back of that is in relation to whatever it's approaching while reversing. I also have found that it gets less dirty from road spray than the one mounted above our license plate on our little wagon. As an aside, If, like me, you have a tendency to often pull into camp late, it's also nice to have a camera with night illumination (the one on our van is from Rear View Systems - NOT Rear View safety which may also make solid cameras but I have no experience with them, and I have really liked the RVS camera including the little weather shield above the lens and the easy to clean hard shield in front of the lens.

Yes, you don't know how good something is until you test it to failure 😄

Yes, ditto on the thanks, and I second what John says about source of indoor moisture once you are spending the evening/night/morning in there (along with possibly moist ski clothes etc.). In our camper van I've found that in colder weather we need to crack a window and our Fantastic roof vent lid a bit - the amount required depends on outdoor humidity and temperature. Otherwise the condensation on the windows (and presumably hidden surfaces w/in the walls) gets pretty out of hand. A compact dehumidifier would of course change that picture (and use more amp hours) somewhat. Our van has a Suburban propane furnace with the intake/vent holes on the exterior so as here the furnace propane burning is not a contributor of moisture.

Any suggestion for a wire choice? I see LOTS of options coming up in a search on Amazon but narrowed it a bit by searching on "motorcyle safety wire." Something like this?

I don't know how far south it extends but we have a LOT of water forecast to come down tomorrow up in the Puget Sound area. There may be some lowland snow as well though it will be falling on fairly warm ground so if it happens it won't stick around.

Makes sense. Even that, IIRC from passing though that way four+ years ago, has a bit of a mountain crossing while still in AZ. Thought not quite like crossing the Sierra.

topgun2 it was somehow the perfect reply! ❤️

Oh the irony! 🙂

Well I wouldn't get it just for the ability to use it instead of a generator but I don't dismiss the actual benefits of the hybrid tech it uses out of hand. I just saw MPG estimates for the truck that were something like 26/25 in 2WD and 24/24 in 4WD which is a nice improvement versus their similarly powered non-hybrid gas engine systems (and yes there's a cost for this both in the purchase price and down the road as well but there are costs of burning more gas that we don't have to directly bear in the price of the gas also...). Yes, regenerative braking and so forth add complexity so it doesn't follow the KISS principle but frankly my take is that none of the vehicles I've had are true KISS systems since I sold my '67 VW Beetle. 😜

Welcome. I live in the unincorporated region between Redmond and Woodinville, and will be in possession of a new Elite 2 in relatively short order. I hear you about the design and the PNW weather - seems like boat-like is not a bad idea for us!!

Good suggestion - this is doable via Outdoorsy for sure. Another option that at least gives some sense of towing is to rent a utility trailer from U-haul or another local rental place. That at least gives some sense of things like connecting to the trailer, backing up, swinging wide on turns, dealing with traffic, etc.

Nice to know. I appears I already have a backup system for shore or generator based charging that isn't to big and not heavy at all. Thanks John! Just gotta think through where the clips should go.

Dumb question - you mention checking cutoff switches. Is there a switch on the inverter itself that you haven't checked? My van has a Xantrex inverter (different model I'm sure, from 2004 and 2K watts) and it has a stealthy little on/off switch that early on I learned was easy to knock into the off position with cargo (which led to discovering the switch...).

Good luck when you hit the mountains. Have fun.

With our camper van, we use a one gallon refillable propane tank and a decent length hose for either or our little Weber grill our two burner Coleman portable stove (used to have a Primus which was very nice but it eventually rusted, alas...) so have a few of the little disposable bottles in the van too for when we're using both simultaneously. I suspect we may just mostly keep using the portable bottles but I opted for the quick connect option since we do prefer to cook outside when the weather is at all amenable to doing so, and if we find we're often cooking next to the Ollie I think we'll likely just use these instead of the portable tanks/bottles. I think we may use the trailer's propane for running a generator some as well but that depends on how fast our overall propane use actually drains the tanks. Net was that it seemed worth the gamble to buy this option, and I suspect it won't hurt a resale.

I'm glad to read of these cutoff switches, as in another thread LBB confirmed that the ideal storage practice is to get the batteries to roughly 50% charge and then cut them off from charge and drain, and then monitor and top off periodically as needed to return to that roughly 50% state. That discussion didn't touch on long term hookup or sun drenched camping.

Cool, thanks. That is what I had homed in on based on just a little "DIY conformal coating" reading. Seems like the makers of these fans should be coating the boards (perhaps they do but not well enough??). If it's not wildly hard to get the board out it seems like a good prophylactic step to take with a new trailer's fan (one of which I'll be receiving in short order). As you note, that spot is bound to be a condensation magnet in certain conditions.

I'm curious which type of coating you used and if spray or brush on. Looks like  quadcopter  hobbyists sometimes do this to  the circuit boards.

I'm in your camp

I look at the Lithium option as a way to gradually wear away at the charge level while boondocking, topped off by solar or if necessary (I do live in the PNW...) generator now and then between opportunities to plug in. Based on our van battery usage w/o solar, I'm hoping we can still be sipping off the battery many days between plugging in to shore power or generator especially if we can get some sun on the solar panels. I am not thinking about it in the "must be back at 100% nightly" frame. It seems that between usable charge and lifespan even if this is somewhat harder on the batteries they should still last a decent while. edited to add: I don't mind running a generator now and then kinda like I don't mind doing laundry now and then but I don't want to be doing it daily for the most part. As for the main thrust of the thread, I thought the concern was that merely plugging the trailer 7-pin to the TV was at least for one person (who maybe had a non-Oliver Lithium implementation?) was draining trailer battery charge out toward the TV. Given that I have chosen the Lithium/solar package for a unit that should be built any hour now I think I'll check to see what the fine service folks know about this with respect to the factory setup for the 2021 models (which is what's currently being built).

Yeah, I saw that linked from the 890 page. Clear as mud.

I haven't looked any further into it than noticing this in their  marketing copy "Pair RV 890 with our BC™ 35 wireless backup cameras (sold separately) or compatible third-party wired cameras to help you can see what’s behind you." So what I wonder is, and haven't found in a fairly quick hunt, is what constitutes a "compatible third party wired camera" and for instance could you use a Rear View Systems camera (excellent IME and used by a lot of fleet vehicles fwiw)?

If you'll be crossing high passes (including on the major interstates that cross the western mountain ranges) in winter then you'd certainly want them for both TV and trailer. Kind of depends on where you'll be going I think (and willingness to hunker down for a few days if needed to let roads get better).