Overland

If you have a built in inverter from the factory, all the outlets come off a single 15 amp breaker, microwave included (Maybe 20? The 2017 wiring diagram says 15, so is this different for 2018's or just wrong in the manual?) Regardless, even if you have 20 amps, that's only 2400 watts which probably wouldn't be enough juice for both appliances anyway - you'd likely need 30; i.e., two separate circuits, for it to work reliably. Now, if you don't get the inverter, then the microwave gets a separate circuit direct from the distribution panel with it's own 15 amp breaker, so you get 30 amps total and can easily run two appliances at once. I suspect that this is in line with other manufacturers, though I don't know for sure. It may be a limitation of the inverter/transfer switch the way they have it wired. When we added our inverter, we put it in front of the distribution panel, so shore power runs directly to the transfer switch/inverter and then to the panel. That arrangement makes much more sense to me and it gives us both an inverter and a dedicated circuit to the microwave, or in our case a toaster oven.

Jason just sent me a few photos of our trailer and you can see similar depressions along the street side awning gasket. You can see one right over the bath window and another between the other two windows, and possibly a third at the far end. Do these match up with the ones on yours? Interestingly, they don't show up on the curb side gasket, which of course is the one we've used the most. I seem to remember one or two there, so maybe they've worked themselves out over time.

O.K. that’s interesting. I’ll need to take a closer look at mine when it’s back. Thanks and please keep us updated as to what you learn.

Mine was/is like that in places also. Like Tom said, what you're seeing is the seal that Oliver installs, and they don't always get it even. It looks like it may be trapped under those screws a bit. You can try getting up on a ladder and pulling on it to see if it will pull away from the screws and lift into place. Might help to hit it with a hair dryer to soften it up and reshape it around that plate.

After the G159 scandal, I wouldn't trust a goodyear tire on my wheelbarrow.

That's a nice rack, and what looks like a nice set of knives. I love the handles - don't blame you for wanting them out in the open.

The system could be simplified by omitting the color control panel, since the charger works (or can work) autonomously. But I think the graphic display on the color control is a large part of the benefit. Once you understand why the system isn't working on restart, it makes sense because part of what you want the CC to do is turn the charger & inverter on and off. What Victron should really do is add some code to the charger that tells it to switch to autonomous mode until it can detect a signal from the CC. I also suspect that if I used the Victron batteries and BMS, then the system would come back to life on it's own since they would all be talking to one another. The Battle Borns are unable to communicate with the Victron, or anything else, so they can't say 'hey charger, we're shutting off power to the control panel so when you get power back, pretend for a few seconds that it's not connected'. But it's really not a problem, since running the batteries down isn't exactly part of the regular plan. When I slightly rework things though, I do want to add a split in the UTP cable so I can just unplug it there instead of opening up the charger. The charger also has a second 12v out, which I believe isn't switched. If I can tap into that to power the CC, then problem solved. Oliver has my manuals right now so I can't check. Anyway, yes, this sort of system is naturally going to be more complex, but it's just this sort of situation where the benefits seem clear. It alerts me remotely when something goes wrong, and shuts down fairly elegantly to save the batteries.

Yes, it worked as designed. The batteries shut off at around 9.7 volts this time. The problem is that the charger won’t kick on automatically when it gets power back since the control panel for it runs off 12 volts and if the batteries are dead the panel can’t tell the charger to turn on. And the batteries won’t kick back in and give the panel power until they see a charge so you’ve got to break that loop to get the system charging again. The solution is to unplug the panel and the charger will then work independently. It’s not intuitive, and is really a bit of a pain since you have to unscrew the cover of the charger to unplug the cable from the panel.

Oliver used to install a disconnect, but they don't anymore. I was really surprised when they told me it didn't. I've got disconnects now on both the batteries and the solar panels, so that I can work on it without worry. Although, unfortunately, I was actually in the process of moving the battery disconnect when I took it in and the switch is bypassed and sitting in the back cabinet right now, lol. Eventually I want to put in a manual transfer switch as well, so that I can bypass the charger if something ever happens to it. As it is, if it were to ever have a software glitch or something, it would leave me without 120 - not the end of the world but worth attention in the long run. What I'd really like is to replace the distribution panel with a nice custom Blue Sea panel that incorporates the disconnects and transfer switch, but they're quite proud of those things. I'm not worried about my own batteries, but given that Oliver has a 100% track record now of allowing them to fully discharge in service, I'd find it hard to believe that it hasn't happened before with someone else's trailer. They just need to put a policy in place where when someone comes in every morning that they check the state of charge for all the trailers in service and check off that they're charged enough for the day. And they probably need to make sure that all the trailers are plugged in for the weekend or holidays. I think it's one of those things that when they just had one or two trailers in service at a time, it was maybe easy to keep on top of, but now that they have six or seven in at a time, which is what I've seen on my recent visits, it needs to become part of a routine and checklist. BTW, everything popped back on line this morning. Could be that they just now got around to plugging it in, but I bet that they only realized this morning that they had to cycle the charger to get it to turn back on and so it was plugged in yesterday without doing anything. That's caught me out before - it's an easy thing to overlook even if you know about it.

So I woke up this morning to an alarm from Victron telling me that they'd lost the connection to our trailer. A quick check showed that the batteries had been run down to zero. This is the second time that Oliver has allowed them to run down while in service, in two visits. This time there wasn't much turned on other than the various monitors, which draw about an amp total. That would have lasted 12-14 days normally, but Oliver worked on it a few times during the last week and had some things plugged in, so we lost a few days' time. It also looks like someone may have turned the fridge on, or left something plugged in that added another amp to the draw for about three days. Hopefully no harm done to the lithiums but I really wonder how often they allow the same thing to happen to other customers' trailers with lead acid batteries. I mean, I'm pretty sure that we're the first customers to have remote monitoring, so if Oliver has allowed other customers' batteries to fully discharge, how would we know? Anyway, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt the first time, but twice in a row? Jeez. I've emailed Jason and copied Scott, asking them to put something in place to keep this from happening again. But frankly, given my experience, if any of you have left your trailer at Oliver for an extended period, I'd just assume that they allowed your batteries to fully deplete while there.

Has a schedule of events been worked out yet? We'd like to come but we'd have to arrive late Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon.

Barker advertises their jacks as tongue jacks only, so I doubt they'd officially approve of how Oliver uses them anyway.

That is the usual course of events.

We use gaia for hiking more than driving, but it's proven worth the small cost. You just have to remember to download the maps ahead of time, which makes it less useful for us when driving since we tend to plan day to day. Or hour by hour. Boer maak 'n plan.

Yeah, I don't think I'd win that battle though. Maybe if Oliver became a sponsor, lol. But, I think their snobbery will come back to bite them. There are a lot of those types of expos starting up, like the one John is going to, and they look like just as much fun, if not more so.

It's a blanket policy against trailers over some length. They started it last year. I asked them about it since I thought it was odd that they started that policy the same year they moved to a campground that had paved RV sites, and Jonathan told me it was mostly about the optics. He said he didn't want the 'Good Sam' crowd there. Seems silly to me since no one goes to the expo to see the campsite, and you'd think the crowd that does go there is sort of self-selecting anyway. The year I went, I don't remember seeing any elkhart style trailers or RV's, outside of the vendors themselves.

If you go to the Flagstaff expo, just know that they won't let you bring your Ollie into the campsite. They've gotten persnickety about who they allow in, and Olivers aren't overlandy enough to make the cut. Maybe if you put an Earthroamer sticker on the side you can sneak it past the guards.

Too far from us, but looks like fun. Hope you have a good time and if you spot that Ollie flatbed, be sure to talk with the owner and let us know the history behind it.

The question about the jacks has evolved over the past year or so. Originally, Oliver's message about the jacks, though unwritten, was that they could be used to lift the trailer off the ground - and the jacks are certainly strong enough to do so. That's what we were told on our factory visit, and it was touted as one of the advantages of the trailer. And so many owners have for years done just that and continue to do so. But then there were some discussions here about the frame flexing on some trailers when jacked up, and some new and prospective owners asked whether they should really be lifting the tires off the ground when camped, and at that point Oliver responded by changing/clarifying their recommendation to using them only for stabilization. Some took that change as gospel, and some took it as Oliver saying, "Well, since you're forcing us to give you a legally binding recommendation, we're going to have to give you one you don't want to hear." But until Jason's comment above, the recommendation to use them for maintenance has remained in the manual. So they've either just realized that discrepancy in their message, or have decided to get more strict with their recommendation for whatever reason. I suspect the owner's manual will be rewritten to reflect Jason's comments, and what you do with your own trailer will, as always, be up to you.

What Jason was referring to is something like this. Alternatively, if you have leveling blocks, you could use those. I don't think every owner will necessarily find it intuitive to jack up their trailer like that - it's a bit of a hack, though it works and obviously people do it. But the procedure should probably be spelled out in detail in the owners manual, particularly since as John said, the current one tells you to use the decorative jacks. This is a good thread, and I think now that it's been raised, the topic deserves a technical bulletin from Oliver. In the past, Oliver owners have been pretty hands-on and mechanically adept, but that's changing. So owners need to be able to tell service technicians the proper way to lift the trailer, because without that instruction some technician is going to put a jack under the frame, and possibly bend the frame and crack the shell. And I'm also worried that John is going to use his hi-lift on the bumper. Also, if one of the options is to lift the trailer with a jack somewhere under the subframe, it should be spelled out exactly where, mostly because I'm not certain there's actually a spot to do that - especially on the older trailers that don't have the extended subframe.

At this rate, by the end of the year Oliver will start denying that there are any jacks at all on the trailer.

I think I’d put the jack under the jack. Or on the subframe somewhere in that vicinity, assuming there’s a big enough spot to access. I’d avoid lifting anywhere along the aluminum frame, from fear of crushing it of course, but also any spot you find is going to be too far aft or forward anyway. I don’t think I’d want to try to lift it anywhere foreword if the wheels so that pretty much leaves the area around the jacks. That, or ignore dexter’s advice and put the jack under one of the axles. On older Ollies, the subframe doesn’t extend beyond the springs so there’s no place to get a jack under it. For those, your only choice is under the axle or the jack.

I agree the jacks are strong enough to do the job - it's just the side to side wobbling that could potentially be an issue. Like John says, on level ground and little wind, no problem, but on the side of the road at an angle, or with a heavy wind, I'd be super cautious getting the whole 6000lbs up on stilts. With one set of tires anchoring it down though, no issues there especially on the newer models with the extended subframe.

I have no problem using the jacks to lift one side, though I wouldn't lift the trailer up on all three. I think it needs one set of tires on the ground to provide lateral stability.

Great info - thanks! I was wondering what the split in the door was about - I like the way it looks and shortening the door projection should be an advantage. Our door folds down, and I can't decide if I like it or not. It's never in the way, but it looks like it is so that bothers me, lol. It does make for a nice shelf when it's down. But I like the look of the gloss cabinet so this is something I'll definitely have to file away for consideration.