Jim_Oker

Thanks, great advice - yeah I figured I'd better snapshot my current settings so as to not end up with an improper set of default settings.

On my phone the selfie mode wouldn't focus that close so I only saw heavy blur A portable mirror would indeed be a handy thing to have for such shenanigans. I may have to buy one someday

Yeah to be clear I don't blame Xantrex for trying the "send us your unit and we'll look at it" mode as the first response. I just wanted to let folks know that at least in my (and it appears one other's based on Jason's comments) case it was possible to get a better third response from them (the second reply to my asking how fast their turnaround was and whether they could send me a replacement instead was "maybe you have a warranty repair place near you..." which wasn't going to help afaict) with some background nudges from Oliver. Earlier in this half year plus adventure I was a little surprised that it took multiple months for a decent answer from them (relayed to me via Oliver) on things to even try to address the Error 20 problem, but I get that some problems are tough to track down and offer a semi-reliable fix for, and I'm sure they've been taking orders faster they can service them downstream in the current market environment. And yeah, when I get the replacement unit I'll be writing down the inverter's serial number in my maintenance notebook before I mount it in the trailer!!

FYI I got e coli fun from drinking water at Tumalo State Park in Oregon some years back. The morning after our first day there, they put up a "boil water!!" notice on all bathrooms and water taps. I saw it after a morning of writhing in cramp ridden agony due to the water I'd drunk the day prior. A hydrogeologist friend who does groundwater work for the state of Washington told me that in her experience State Park water supplies are dodgy. She explained that their systems are big enough to be tricky to keep clean but too small for them do have a dedicated water system expert dealing with the potential issues. So they are in a sweet spot for infected supplies, and she's seen multiple cases in WA state parks. I asked the ranger I saw later that morning at Tumalo how often they test, and she said "once a month, but don't worry if you were drinking water before today as we didn't see a positive result until this morning!" Remember that they'd not tested for a month before that morning, so this gives you an idea of how clear the logic can be on the part of the folks responsible for keeping these supplies in good shape. Thankfully the sort of e coli you will tend to get from this sort of water supply is NOT typically as bad as the stuff that kills people who eat lettuce at fast food chains etc. It only makes you have digestive fun for many months on end afterwards. Suffice it to say I do not drink unfiltered state park water any more. You can pay more elsewhere for more heavily marketed systems as I mentioned above, but I got one of these (you can likely create something similar from parts from a HW store for even less but I found buying this fully set up to be worth a small premium). I use this for both filling our drinking water jugs as well as filling our Oliver's tank from any supply I'm not fully confident of. I'm still wary of drinking significant amounts of water from my Oliver tank given the taste. We use portable jugs for our drinking water (including coffee) and use the Oliver tank water for showering and dishwashing etc. I have wondered if one of these systems ($$$!) would both remove the plastic flavor as well as protect against any critters my amateur sanitizing regimen might still allow to exist in the system. I know that a pitcher or something like the Berkey would cost less but damn it's convenient to be able to just get clean fresh drinking water from a faucet and it looks like I might be able to fit this in under the sink. And it doesn't appear to have too big a power draw. Could even be put on a switched line to eliminate any phantom draw... BTW I like a system that filters both particles and has a carbon element for filtering out at least some chemicals (including chlorine!). I have such a system under my sink at home that feeds a separate filtered water tap, and the water for sure tastes better than what comes from our tap, especially in warmer months when they seem to increase the chlorine load in our water supply.

One other comment - if you deal with Xantrex they will want the serial number. It's of course on the side of the unit that faces the floor, BUT that side is a few inches above the stuff below so I was able to get a readable photo of it with my phone (with flash turned on) after blindly taking about 15 photos of various spots along that side.

I assume you eventually solved this puzzle. I ended up finding mine by blindly taking photos of the side of the unit that faces the ground, which thankfully has a 3-4" gap which is enough for my phone to get a decent image. It only took about 15 images before my manual scan of the space yielded an image with the number in it! 😃 Just figured I'd add this in case anyone else has to tell Xantrex the serial number of their unit.

FYI I started a separate thread (here) while trying to hear from others who may have dealt with Xantrex on fixing or replacing units that won't update the firmware. Long story short, once it became clear that the firmware update was failing on my unit, Oliver service pointed me to Xantrex who walked me through the steps I'd already done with some files they emailed me (identical to what I downloaded from their site) and then I sent them the log files that had been written to my USB drive in the process of trying but failing to update. They got back to me a day later asking me to send them my inverter so they could troubleshoot - I balked and tried to negotiate receiving a replacement and simultaneously let Oliver know what was going on. Sounds like perhaps Mike Sharpe from service worked behind the scenes with Xantrex to prod them to send me a replacement and have me send mine back after receiving the replacement. Jason Essary emailed me to let me know they've been trying to get Xantrex to change their standard policy of having folks send in inverters (and thus have no inverter in their unit for potentially several weeks!!) and instead do as they finally agreed to do for me. In the meantime, it seems that perhaps enlisting Oliver Service to advocate on your behalf will do the trick if you have this problem. I suggest anyone who has been dancing around the E20 issue w/o engaging with service get a ticket open and walk through the steps that Oliver will suggest, and if you find you're unable to update the firmware (as Susan and I and at least some other owners - per Jason - have had happen with their units) get that unit fixed or replaced as you really do want to be able to install firmware updates and you want to get this fixed while still under warranty!

I just heard from Jason that Mike called Xantrex after seeing their mail which is forwarded to Jason and Mike/service to push them on sending me the replacement. They’ve been working to get Xantrex to do this as a standard response when the issue is isolated to the inability to update rather than having Xantrex have customers be stuck with no inverter for some time. But it seems it still takes some pushing from both customers and Oliver service, FYI. It sounds like Susan and I aren’t the only customers to have gotten a bad unit and at least one other customer has had Xantrex agree to provide a replacement (with a push from Oliver as in my case). Again, I hope this info is helpful if anyone else here is dealing with this issue. Oh and thanks Susan for the offer to look for your notes. Jason told me today that when I get the replacement inverter they I should call service and someone will walk me through the relatively simple steps of disconnecting it without electrocuting myself. So I think I’m set. [minor historical note - according to a comment in this thread Oliver was aware of the Error 20 issue at least a week before our Dec 18 delivery date, for what little it's worth]

This page lists the latest version numbers https://www.xantrex.com/power-products/inverter-chargers/freedom-xcpro.aspx

It’s linked from the product page for the inverter on the Xantrex site. Check there for the number and files

Based on issues I've been dealing with for half a year now w/o resulution I strongly suggest including a check of the firmware versions on your Xantrex inverter if you have one in your unit as well as the version of the firmware in your inverter remote panel. If they're not current ask Oliver to update them for you before you leave and if they won't update properly ask that they replace the inverter unit in your trailer.

[Update: after politely explaining my current frustration to Xantrex in email and asking them how quickly they would expect to turn around my inverter if I send it in to them to troubleshoot in their shop, they emailed me telling me they're quite backed up in that sort of tech troubleshooting work (you think!!???) so it would take a while to turn around, so they're instead going to ship me a replacement unit and RMA info for sending my unit back once I receive the replacement. I'm hoping it's fairly straightforward to remove and replace - looks likely to just be a matter of shutting off its breaker and being disconnected from incoming power and then taking it off its mounts and removing a few wires (looks like I'll have to remove a panel to get at the connections). I will review the manual and have asked Jason Essary for their take on steps and any warnings as well. I will reply back to this thread once I've dealt with the replacement. I do not know whether Jason intervened with Xantrex on my behalf or not, but in any case wanted to quickly update with this info in case anyone else has this as an outstanding problem. If you're not sure, you may want to try updating your firmware if its out of date (the manual discusses how to see the current versions) and consider whether you want it fixed if you're under warranty and yours also won't update! /update] After months of grindingly slow responses from Xantrex and Oliver for the E20 issue on the Xantrex remote, and after finding that my unit fails at attempts to update its firmware, I've finally been told by Xantrex to ship them my inverter so they can troubleshoot it on their bench. I'm not super happy about having this removed from my trailer for an indeterminate amount of time particuarly given how long it seemed to have taken them to even start to address the issue with Oliver so I'm wondering whether anyone else here has had the same issue and if so what steps did you have to take to get it resolved? Did you remove your inverter yourself and ship it in? Have it done at a shop? Or did Xantrex send you a replacement in exchange for your malfunctioning unit? I'd like to have a sense of how this was dealt with for and by anyone else who's already dealt with this to have an idea of what I should be trying to negotiate here. [rant] I get that the components in the trailer will have troubles from time to time but damn this was broken out of the box and was clearly a known problem for m onths before I took delivery so it would have seemed that Oliver would have likely been able to easily know whether they were delivering me a defective unit before my delivery date. And given that it clearly didn't work from day one I would have hoped to have gotten to this point much faster. I hope this is an outlier in terms of service experiences in my future with this trailer. Otherwise things have gone mostly fine with my trailer but damn this is a big pebble in my shoe. [/rant]

I don't have a knowledgeable answer here but I wonder if a carbon filter cartridge plus UV type under sink filter plus a two-stage filter that gets out cysts and things like chlorine when filling the water tank or hooked up to "city water" would suffice. These folks have a decent range of offerings at prices that aren't as marked up as some of the heavily marketed filter solutions btw https://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/rv-water-filters-and-systems-rv-water-filter-store

Yeah though a photo of the cabinets and ceiling is probably a bit different. Yeah we are no strangers to having our stuff filling our camper having used a class b van for two decades and in the Oliver it's similar if spread out just a bit more. But still we are liking having taken some steps to soften the Scream-like aspects of the interior. In ways that allow us to easily remove the decor for cleaning btw 🙂

Good thread - I've been thinking I should try some stabilizers on the front portion of the frame after noticing how much movement up at that end, particularly going up or down the steps, will rock the trailer. So it's helpful to hear from folks who are doing this regularly.

It's good to read that they appear to have stepped up their recent game in this regard!

We got ours in December 2020. The smell lingered until warmer weather even though I aired the trailer out whenever we had dry weather in the cooler months. Come May and June it largely went away even when not vented though if I open the closet there’s still a mild dose in there. It seems that warmth helps move itt along, like many molecular processes And yes smells can be super evocative of associated memories.

Yeah we're all different. I like the feel of the wood in the Escapes and while the wall surface isn't my favorite neither is the starkness of the all shiny white interior of the Oliver which looks like it was used as a set for the Michael/Janet Jackson video Scream. But other factors tipped me to buying a TN based trailer rather than the one five hours from me just across the border in BC (most decisive was the interior plumbing on the Ollie versus the exterior on the Escape with the option to have foam sprayed over it and electric heat pads added under the tanks - the Oliver seems like a better four-ish seasons design). The formica and flooring and upholstery on the Escape can be customized with a very wide range of options available btw. There are other details on that list such as molded in versus screwed on cabinets etc. That said I toured the Escapes up in Chilliwack and liked them much more than other campers I'd seen up to that point in terms of build and aesthetic. What really bums me out are the RVs with dark stained wood cabinets and big baralounger type seating and such (the seventies are calling to get their designs back!!). I've done a few modifications to help soften the feel of the interior - putting some fabric on the walls in the corners at the back and also on the ceiling above the beds (covers the a/c which we'll at most rarely use - takes twenty seconds to remove via velcro attachment - and then replace - if we do want to use the a/c) and putting photos on most of the surfaces where they'll fit and look good and not get kitchen mess on them.

Looks like for $10 you could try the parts LCTraveler linked and thus likely isolate the problem a bit. If that helps then there’s something wrong with the Torjik or how you installed it. Did you try the grill before the conversion (ie with a connection to a regular tank fitting)? If not you could also put the regulator back on and try that to be sure the grill will get the heat you expect if the supply is sufficient

Ditto - side sleeper (with some badly compressed cervical discs and related stenosis btw, so I'm pretty sensitive to pillow setup and mattress type), I like relatively firm but not rock hard. The KTT felt a little soft at first touch but I sleep great on to the point that I now am thinking I may need a latex mattress at home now to replace my 20 y/o memory foam mattress with its divots. Is that Southern Mattress made of latex foam or some other material? We have a custom mattress maker near us (they also sell some standard models but have a significant business for custom work for things like RVs and boats) who quoted me well more than the KTT cost for a pair of latex mattresses for the E2, but they also quoted synthetic foam at a much lower cost...

Maybe someday when my one gallon refillable propane bottle is no longer refillable I'll think about how to connect an exterior stove and grill to the QC fittings but in the meantime all I'm likely to use them for is a dual fuel generator (which based on solar results thus far I don't expect to be often at least in the sunnier times of year). Looks like now however might not be a great time to try to buy one of these unless you happen to find one in a dusty corner o f an out of the way little hardware store... https://smile.amazon.com/Worthington-281149-1-Gallon-Cylinder-Prevention/dp/B000SKX63U/ref=sr_1_27?dchild=1&keywords=one+gallon+propane+bottle&qid=1625250319&sr=8-27

At least they didn't use the Oliver specs... A friend recently ordered one of those Escape 5th wheels. I wish I liked their trailers as much as I like the Oliver as it would have been convenient for me to buy from someone just 5 hours' drive from me instead of from TN.

I’m not sure which model I got. I got the same for both and it doesn’t read humidity (which is fine by me) the ones I got let you to put the probes into the fridge and freezer and keep the unit with the radio that reports back to the base in one of the adjacent drawers.

I got this base station plus two fridge/freezer sensors and 4 temperature/humidity sensors. It will support up to 8 sensors. https://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WS-08-8-Channel-Thermo-Hygrometer/dp/B00EW369VK

Yeah before trips I've always turned our fridge on to 110 while still plugged in at home for at least a day before I start loading stuff into the fridge (have done so for many years with our van's Dometic and am on the same program with the Oliver's NorCold). If it's hot or muggy out (not common here despite the fun we just had with the "heat dome") we give it longer to get cold.