bradbev

<p style="text-align: left;">Boy, lots of new products and features. I stopped using mine several years ago. I see that the yearly service charge is higher, but i can see where it might be justified with all the new features.</p> Many or all are discounted right now. Sorta like printers, they give the hardware away but make their profit from the supplies.

A SPOT unit is a satellite based SOS type device. Great for those that venture out of cell range. I have an older one that has 3 types of message. I'm OK Not an emergency but need help Or Emergency help needed. Each message includes GPS data. On my old one, messages 1 & 2 were pre addressed to family or friends. The third went Direct to emergency services. The newer units are much more advanced and can be linked to a smart phone so that a message can be composed and sent direct from your location. .

I'm planning to add the Sureflo 182-200 accumulator and trying to come up with a good mounting arrangement. My system was making a lot of noise, much of it was the white hose on the output side of the pump. It was vibrating against the mounting board. I unmounted the pump and slipped a sheet of foam rubber under the pump and the vibrating hose which made a difference. I then hooked up the accumulator and tried some different pressures. About 30 to 35 psi was about right. Now I need to get this stuff mounted rather than letting if float in the air. Any suggestions or pictures? Wondering how the factory is mounting? Much easier to do it from scratch rather than trying to re-plumb it.

Beverly and I sleep in our twin bed version of the E2 with our heads toward the kitchen. I sleep on the street side, and place my CPAP on the shelf under the pantry. When on shore power, there’s an AC outlet right under my bed, and when on battery, I use a small 300 watt plug in inverter plugged into a 12 volt outlet under the dinette. The 2000 watt sine wave inverter is great, but it’s not made for small loads. (I use my CPAP without the water vapor generator.) On small loads, the big sine wave inverters probably (and I say this without facts at my finger tips) draw I’m guessing about 3 amps for internal loss, and another 3 amps to run the CPAP without water evaporator. So, about twice what the CPAP would draw on a small inverter. So, our 2000 watt unit is mainly used for microwave or other high current demands.

Many charge systems are set to equalize periodically. I noticed my ZAMP solar controller had the 4 T105's up to 15 volts. Later back down to the 13's.

Just to comment. When I was at the factory, a tech was cleaning the black smoke residue around the frame welds with acetone. If If it still looks like that, you might put some acetone on a rag and see if it cleans up. Might make inspecting the welds easier.

Some great ideas fonks. Thank You

I've got the extended twin beds and the remote meter is mounted down in an area where I'd have to really dig and move stuff around to get to it. I'm looking for suggestions for a better location. If it was an attractive meter, I'd mount it up around the current solar meter, but being surface mount with the wires coming out the bottom rather than the back, I'm afraid it needs to be out of sight but easily accessed. What do you suggest? Brad - Santa Fe

I agree John. Oilver knew what they were doing when they positioned the batteries right over the axles.

During our recent 3 month 10,000 mile trip to the North East, we stopped in Raphine Virginia at the Pilot Travel Store and weighted our rig. The procedure is to weight the total rig (3 zones), steer axle, drive axle, and trailer axle. Then weigh again with the rig disconnected so the trailer axle zone is the trailer disconnected and the axles and front jack are all on the 3rd zone. Then, you will have almost all the information you could ask for, including the tongue weight using a little math. FYI, my cost was $11.00 for the first weigh session, the $2.00 for the second. There was an discrepancy of 40 pounds between the two sessions, which is probably within the tolerances of the scales. Session One: Steer Axle 4,520 Drive Axle 5,180 Trailer Axles 5,880 Gross Weight 15,580 Session Two - Trailer disconnected: Steer Axle 4,800 Drive Axle 4,260 Trailer Axles 6,560 Gross Weight 15,620 So, bottom line, total trailer weight loaded is about 6,560, the tongue weight is about 680 lbs, and the axle weight is about 5,880. The easy way to calculate the tongue weight is the subtract the two different trailer axle weights. You can also examine how much weight is added to the rear tires of the tow and subtract the amount reduced on the front axle of the tow. (That calculates to 640 lbs, but remember the difference is weights due to tolerances. So a safe guess is about 660 lbs if we split the differences. This is fully loaded E2 with 4 flooded golf cart batteries, solar, extended twin beds, Honda generator in the basket, etc. Fresh water tank full, black and grey empty. So the tongue weight is about 10% of the total trailer weight. The rig tows beautifully with no sway without any equalizing or sway controls. The tow vehicle is a Dodge Ram 3500 diesel with the bed loaded. Brad - Santa Fe, NM

I reread the thread and looks like it evolved from the overhead CO/Smoke to a possible propane monitor issue. Propane monitors are netoriously unreliable, they love to false alarm around 3 AM.

We purchased the keyless lock and love it. We did have a problem that proved to be an installation issue, a wire was crimped during the initial install. The Oliver guys fixed it pronto. I wouldn't hesitate to get one, I've had to crawl through a window more than once with the standard manual lock over the years. I haven't seen any RV lock as reliable as a residential unit, any of them can have issues. Try to have a "Plan B". Just stick a magnet key holder down on the aluminum frame. ☺

I assume you have the dual CO and smoke detector like ours. You checked which lignt was flashing? I'm having problems wirh ours (new in July). It's the smoke section. All was fine until we set off the alarm on the road and since then it's become overly sensitive and sounds off frequently with no reason.

SeaDawg, I think the AC only recirculates air, no fresh air is drawn into the trailer.

Flipping the blinds just takes a minute or two each. I flipped the two by the twin beds and the one by the dinette table. I've got the swing down TV mounted in the center of the trailer so I haven't done that blind yet. I prefer them flipped however the blackout material may be a little heaver than the see through, so they may tend to drop down a little, but not enough to bother me. Brad in Santa Fe

When traveling from Dallas to Odessa yesterday, used the inverter to warm lunch, then to run a small electric heater for a few minutes to take the chill off. By the time we reached Odessa, the batteries were fully recharged between the truck alternator and the solar panels.

Thanks for sharing your experience with high altitude operation Brad

My bud that doesn't mind tweaking things helped me finish the Installastion. No one mentioned an optionsl installation kit that might have been helpfil, but we completed it and no smoke was released. We had no fancy test equipment other than multi meters and a kill-a-watt . The test was before and after starting in econo mode. Before installing, the Honda started the compressor but acted like it could have easily stalled out After, the Honda just smoothly ramped up to a higher speed without complaint. My bud wasn't sold on the EasyStart, now i think he may start saving his money for one. He was impressed. We're on the East coast at lower altitudes and cooler ambient temperatures. Next test is when we start west next week.

Who makes the blinds? My bud would like info for his Bigfoot. I've reversed mine and like it. A couple seem to be loose so i may need to figure out how to tighten the cords. We were lucky in that i expected to paint the frames but we received the white. Anita said they'd requested white for some time without success from the supplier, then recently without advance notice, they opened a new shipment and there they were, white ones.

It doesn't seem like the 310 can efficiently remove solid waste when flushing. Water seems to flow down the sides of the bowl but no swirling action like the literature suggests. Pump is running full tilt but maybe not generating enough pressure? Anyway, same for everyone or what. Another model might work better. Suggestions? Brad

I bought the two camera package and had issues with the front camera. Richie was able to resolve the problem, but when I switch over to it, there's about a 5 second delay before the video appears. The back camera comes alive quickly. Is this normal?

Edited to explain that the below info was for factory tour, not pickup. <p style="text-align: center;">Pets wouldn't do well inside the factory so I'm glad there are other options. Also, wear some closed toe shoes. When we were there a few weeks ago, a couple had to reschedule because they just had sandals with them. If you don't have glasses, they will loan you a pair of safety glasses.</p>

I'm not sure when the changeover to the ZAMP controller was done We ordered around the first week of May and was aware of the change so no surprise when we picked up in July. We're on a 3 month trip to the NE (Maine right now) and the ZAMP is working fine, but I intend to swap out to the Bogart system soon. In fact it's in a storage box but we've been touring with no time to swap it out. The Bogart is PWM so no great advantage other than having a full feature information display including percentage of battery by having a shunt in the negative battery lead so the computer can track usage versus charge currents. Bogart has a new owner who may come up with a MPPT controller sometime in the future (I hope). I've installed Bogart in my last two trailers and helped friends install in there's.

We came into Campus Park and Ride without a reservation after calling to check on how full they were. Didn't need them, however today quite a few rigs here, so I'd suggest you give them a call. When you get here, they'll give you a sheet telling you how to use the bus system. We used it today and had I read the instructions better, there'd be no issues, but we muddled through it and got back home. "We don't need no stinkin' instructions".

Thanks for the suggestions. FYI, we're staying at Campus Park and Ride in Philidelphia. It's a old trucking terminal used by the hospital for parking. Nothing but concrete but secure and free bus to hospital then free bus for seniors on into town. Friendly staff. Google it or look at rvparksreviews. For us Olivers, it works out about $53 per night ( $30 for rig, $13 for tow plus about $10 tax). It's a good deal to see the city.