Jim_Oker

With the LifeBlue batteries that Oliver installed in our hull #709 (December 2020 delivery) the BMS in the batteries that reports out via a phone app provides info on both state of charge and the amperage being drawn (along with battery temperature and # of charging cycles the batteries have been through). I don't know if the Lithionics batteries they've been installing have a similar feature.

Yes, for sure. Compounding, even with super fine "finishing" grit, takes some material off the surface. By design. Not a good way to solve the issue of stuff like mildew that might be creeping down into the micro pores in the gelcoat if you can get them off with some sort of cleaner. And as your first reply to this thread implied, even harsh cleaners will take some toll on the gelcoat so best to work up to that. All this said, having done the relatively small job of rehabbing a neglected fiberglass van top, there's no way I would take on any significant compounding task w/o the benefit of a power buffer (which btw does a GREAT job of buffing paste wax such as the Collinite Fleetwax 😄 ).

Why do you say this? I've followed the advice given in Practical Sailor magazine to restore a chalky and dirty white fiberglass van top which included using a buffer - for amateurs like me they seemed to lean toward a dual action buffer like this one from Shurhold. They wrote that the more agressive rotary buffers like this one from DeWalt present a higher risk of amateurs burning the surface or leaving swirl marks though in the right hands they'll get the job done faster than what I bought and used. In any case, compound and buffing may not be the best plan of attack, at least not until more gentle cleaning type approaches such as outlined by SeaDawg are tried here, escalating from most gentle through stronger cleaners as needed. This is one of several good articles on the topic of maintaining fiberglass in Practical Sailor - it's a great resource which I learned of here from SeaDawg

If you can see the point and can reach it with something like a small disposable paintbrush you can paint some of the dish soap plus water on the area and if there's a leak you'll almost certainly see bubbles appearing fairly quickly there, and they will keep appearing even if you brush them away so long as the area stays wet.

BTW, for turn-by-turn type directions while away from cell reception, I have added the TomTom Go app to my phone, which allows easy downloading of regions or countries (much more useful for offline than the gmaps map download feature). You seem to be more focused on the feature set of handheld GPS units typically used for walking or if in vehicles maybe more like "overlanding" but for road routing, this so far seems to be a decent option.

The Gaia app is the place to start, and add as needed if the layers and features you can get there aren't sufficient. The one problem I have with relying solely on Gaia when I'm hiking or backountry ski touring is that if my phone screen gets sufficiently wet, it can be tough if not impossible to interact with. Backup, whether compass/map (and maybe altimeter) or a dedicated GPS unit is wise. But fwiw the mountain ski guides I know (IFMGA, ACMG certified) tend to start with Gaia or whatever is the closest equivalent when they're in Europe or Canada but keep a Garmin GPSr unit charged and in the bottom of their packs, with waypoints entered when plans warrant. The interface on the phone is just better (when the touchscreen works and the battery has charge).

This of course depends on latitude and time of year, and I suppose how long you and your wife leave the electric coffee maker plugged in. In a sunny site in June at the southernmost tip of the WA coast, we were back at 100% charge by noon each day with some daily microwave and furnace use as well as some use of the vent fans and of course lights (with the factory installed 340W of panels). We make out coffee with the stove but I'm guessing the outcome wouldn't have been dramatically different with a plug-in coffee maker. OTOH, one month earlier up along the coast in Olympic National Park, in a shady site during a mixed sun-and-cloud period in which we also used the furnace a bit more than we did one month later, we got a little back each day but would have been needing to use the generator if we'd stayed there for two weeks ish.

Good point on portable panels. Do you have one of this type? If so, have you augmented its stand in any way? I imagine it would have to at least be staked out in wind, if not even also needing additional support.

As you compare AGM to Lithium prices, consider how long you are likely to be using the trailer and if you believe "many years" is likely, then it's worth factoring in the comparative predicted lifespans of the two battery types. Lithium doesn't look quite as expensive once you do that, and if you boondock a lot especially with unreliable solar conditions then the Lithium also offers potentially significant additional benefits

I've found my Garmin inReach to be super useful for written communications with home etc. when beyond cell signals. It's a good backstop and of course also offers SOS style communication to emergency agencies should something bad happen to me/us. It's of course more tedious than a phone call but when I pair the Garmin with my phone I find the text input to be acceptably convenient. I've found, when in places with sketchy or no reception such as big areas of southern UT or out along the more remote parts of the WA coast, that I can still get enough planning done in those moments when I DO have reception, though it does take a bit of thinking ahead. With a cell coverage app I can pretty well predict when I'll be entering a signal-free zone. I get that my strategy won't work for folks who have to work while on the road but I don't have to do that in general and I actually find it kind of liberating to get beyond the reach of most electronic tethers. While I mostly appreciate the march of technological progress (and I spent a career helping that march along...), I would be perfectly happy if it takes a long time for Starlink or anything similar to provide mobile internet everywhere you want to use it. In the meantime, I will use this thread as a reminder to get out and enjoy such places before the "digital nomads" arrive in droves. In the meantime, there are PLENTY of places where they can go and get their work-on-the-road done across our public lands.

What little snow I saw around then was up along the highest roads, was brief, and was inconsequential, fwiw.

I've been down around there a few times at around that time. I think Zion and Arches and Canyonlands and the GC will be fine. It's *possible* that you'll see snow going over the flanks of Boulder Mountain between Capitol Reef NP and the Boulder/Escalante area, but odds are you'll be fine there. Same deal up around Bryce. If that is what the forecast claims to be in store once you get there, you could scoot around a more southern route from the Moab area toward Zion and then GC, going via Tuba City/Page/etc. There are a decent amount of boondocking options along with some established campgrounds along that route if you decide it would be more prudent than your Plan A, but Plan A will likely go at least based on my two fall trips.

We have it and it's been OK so far. I like the rear view camera we had installed on our camper van more - it gives a much better view at night and has better resolution, but the one that Oliver installs is adequate.

I read what they wrote as they rarely ever use the 12V fridge setting and the 110 only if plugged in...

Yes, up here in the PNW we are often camped under tree cover and/or heavy cloud cover and in a decent chunk of the year the sun is also quite low when it is actually visible. We also like to stay put for many days on end for some of our trips - having a compressor fridge would almost certainly mean having to run a generator somewhat regularly for such trips here. I can see that for many folks having a compressor fridge would work just fine but I've been glad not to have that additional draw on our batteries!! Even phantom loads, some lights, and a modest bit of furnace use in the morning and evening will add up over a week+ of camping in the rainforest!!

We love good coffee too, whether at home or camping. Once you grind coffee, a lot of the flavor starts being lost quickly if you don't brew asap. So a good quality small portable burr grinder is a must. We used to use a classic looking Zazzenhaus mill but after many years of use while car/van/trailer camping the burr was shot and not replaceable, so I got a Hario Mini Mill to replace it - it works reasonably well and has no glass (whereas the larger Hario mill has a glass bowl to catch the ground coffee - I'd prefer to avoid glass for a camping grinder...). For brewing, we both like the Clever Dripper. It looks like a classic filter cone type brewer, but it actually brews more like a french press in that the coffee sits in the cone extracting flavor from the grounds until you put the device on a cup/mug and then a stopper opens up and lets the coffee pour through. But unlike french press, it's as easy to clean as a simple plastic cone with a disposable filter and you get no grounds in your cup. You grind as for french press and let it sit for minutes in the cone with a stir partway through before letting it rip into the cup. It's definitely not for someone who want a high volume of coffee fast but it does make an excellent cup once you get your grind and timing down. We have two Clever Drippers so we can brew our own cups simultaneously (and do our own mix - I do mostly home roasted decaf which is better than almost any decaf beans I've ever found with the one exception being a now out of business small batch roaster/cafe on the WA coast). I love the espresso we can make at home but the Clever Dripper makes equally fine cups of coffee albeit in a somewhat different style. https://www.sweetmarias.com/clever-coffee-dripper-large.html

Browsing that data sheet leaves me wondering how much gypsum dust the folks on the Holloman AFB (which is next to White Sands NP) breathe in their time there...

Thanks John. It was a fun evening - and I was lucky to be there for it! I did not bring my Oliver down there. I had been planning to take 3-4 weeks and drive down and check out places like Death Valley etc. on the way to and from a photography workshop I signed up for at White Sands (a great place for such a workshop, in part because the workshop organizers were able to get an early entry permit that let us go into the park at 5:45am whereas the general public was getting in at 7am (right about sunrise time when I was there) so we could park, walk way out to find the unmarked dunes we'd scouted, and be shooting from twilight to a bit after sunrise when the light got quite harsh. But life changed my plan - I had some shoulder issues that led to a frozen shoulder in October, and by the time of the workshop in early December I'd realized I needed to minimize time away from my osteopath and physical therapist. Thankfully my shoulder is fairly close to normal now I think thanks to a "capsular distension" procedure plus way too much painful stretching - it apparently often takes 1-2 years for a frozen shoulder to resolve even with the PT so I think I'm lucky (plus I think the somewhat new capsular distension procedure is worth investigating with your doc if you ever have a damn frozen shoulder!). So to make a long story short, I flew down (right as Omicron was starting to spread in the US - yay!) and rented a car in Albuquerque. After going there, I think I'd park the Oliver outside the park and not bring it in - there's no need to have it in there other than not wanting to leave it somewhere else while there. There's no camping there other than backcountry camping out in the dunes (which is still closed as part of COVID adjustments at the park or I probably would have spent a night out there if I could score the permit). There's a fair stretch of driving on the gypsum which is either going to be wet and prone to caking on or dry and prone to invading every tiny crack and orifice. Or some of both.

BTW the dunes are spectacular and clean if you catch them during or soon after a big blow. It was a treat for photography to get this experience on my last evening there, after four prior days shooting sunrise and sunset there in which a big part of the challenge was finding good sense didn't have obvious footprints all over them. And the edges of the ripples and the dune edges were softer/muddier looking than this last evening. Thanks for sharing your experience - it makes sense driving out to the end invites the gypsum into all the nooks and crannies. In my case that was a rental car company's problem. I think they're used to it.

That gypsum is super fine. When the wind kicks up there it looks like fog hanging in the air above the dunes. In this shot, the wind was ripping - I'd guess 30+ MPH gusts and pretty steady 20 MPH ish between gusts. The glow on the edge of the dunes is a thick layer of suspended gypsum. Above that, running up to and well above the top of the shot is less dense suspended gypsum - the fog bank. And in this next photo, maybe around an hour later, the wind had died down to maybe 5-8 MPH but you can still see a lot of gypsum in the air where it shows up against the mountains in the background (the lighter haze against the bottom of the mountains). I picked my lens for this shoot while i was in the car, and even then was fast and careful about changing that lens on so as to try to avoid it infiltrating the inside of my camera.

I must say that this incident combined with the Truma maker's response leaves me with some degree of regret at having opted for the Truma in my trailer, and thinking I'm likely to avoid their products in general in the future, unless you happen to report back that they have had a change of mind after seeing the unit you send back to them. Thanks for taking the time to write this up for us.

It's a transformer!

Yeah - fully agree with points above. A key point is that if you can "self insure" - ie if you can afford to replace some items if they prematurely fail, then you will in the long run almost certainly do better than if you'd gotten all the extended warranties. The folks selling those have a much better sense of mean time between failures and have actuaries doing the math to determine a profitable price for the extended warranties - their profit equals the warranty purchaser's loss (again, on average).

I wonder what percent of the time it would tend to be on. That could chow down the charge of even a big lithium battery setup fairly quickly especially if you don't have great solar gain.

Susan covered it pretty well. I followed the directions I was given by Oliver service for removing the old one and installing the new one. It was reasonably straightforward. I used a magnetized screwdriver for the mounting screws which helped a bit with not dropping the screws. Indeed there were a few settings that needed changing from their defaults in the factory inverter I'd been sent by Xantrex. See this page for settings https://support.olivertraveltrailers.com/portal/en/kb/articles/xantrex-freedom-xc-pro-inverter-settings I have the LifeBlue batteries and Jason included this note when he sent me that link: ". LiFeBlue batteries can be set to 120a charge rate"