Overland

Warm temps for most of yesterday and all today, plus rain tonight, should clear the roads across the state completely. All in all, we’re pretty proud of how well TN dealt with this. At least on the western end, no major utility problems and our city even had the forethought to bring in snowplows from outside. The worst problem for us has been low water pressure, but that’s a tiny inconvenience, considering. And I suspect that an add on silver lining will be a reduction in COVID rates across the southeast, what with everything shut down for a week.

You’ll run into a similar airflow problem on the other side, since the black tank drain takes up the majority of the channel underneath the dinette floor. You could remove the drain, of course, since you’ve got a composting toilet. Otherwise, the airflow will be limited to the gap between the floor and hull/tanks. Perhaps a vent under the pantry? Plenty of airflow between there and the furnace.

Actually, thinking about it, I believe that the standard fridge sits lower than mine - right at the floor? That’s probably why the ‘baffle’ exists, since it’s just an extension of the rear wall of the fridge compartment. If so, then you’d be cutting into the fridge compartment. Perhaps that makes the situation worse, since you’re then dependent on air making it’s way around the fridge to get into the basement. Either way, the dinette is certainly an easier solution. If your weep vents are anything like mine, they’re 90% blocked with fiberglass dust gunk from construction, so probably not much to worry about.

I’m just catching up on this - haven’t been too active here the past few weeks. A vent at the fridge could work, but would probably involve a good bit more work than cutting one at the dinette. If your trailer is built like mine, there will be two problems with the fridge vent. First, there is a solid floor underneath the fridge that separates the fridge space from the basement, so you’ll need to cut a hole in that as well (easy enough, and desirable for future maintenance anyway). Second, there’s a fiberglass ‘baffle’ in the basement area separating the area under the fridge from that under the sink. You’d have to cut through this as well to get good airflow. Possible, but it would be little hard to get to. I’m not sure if the baffle has a purpose - I doubt it and suspect that its just a vestige of construction. Here are some photos. The first shows the fridge space with the access hole that I cut in the floor (the small vent on the left is for my fridge). The second is in the basement area looking toward the fridge from the rear, showing the baffle. The access hole that you see is directly below the sink and the hose is the fresh tank overflow. Hope this helps.

No, they were part of a one-off disk brake experiment Oliver did for me.

I think if we didn't already have ours, we might have tried those. Actually, one of the bags was leaking a bit this last trip, so maybe I should take a look at a replacement.

Sleeping bags for us, definitely. We tried real bedding but it was too much trouble and honestly just didn't feel like camping. If we were full timers, then I imagine that we'd reconsider. We carry both lightweight and heavyweight bags, plus a couple smaller Rumpl blankets, which are great to have around camp. We've found that instead of sleeping inside the sleeping bags, we'll put one down as the bottom and then one on top as a comforter. That's less constricting and the bottom one acts as extra cushioning. Everything is down, and thus can all be easily stuffed into the top of the closet, with some netting to hold them in place. It takes two minutes tops to put everything away in the morning, leaving us with a great lounge/dining area in the back and not feeling like we're camping in our bedroom.

Correct, starting this year. I have them on mine and they're zero maintenance other than occasionally checking for any leakage or play in the bearing. You'll still have to lube the suspension bushings, however.

No need whatsoever. If anything I should apologize if I came on too strong. We all have our opinions, things we stress over, don't stress over, etc. Like anyone else, I'm just a guy with an opinion, and a year from now I may have changed it. I just don't want people to think that this is something that they absolutely have to do if they swap out to lithiums. Some people may read this and decide to take the extra precaution, and some may want to just wait and see if it really turns out to be anything worth worrying about.

I wonder if Oliver would help fund the first Ollie Antarctica Expedition?

I still think this is a lot of drama over numbers in technical specs without much in the way of real world failures actually pointing to an issue. I’ve been running lithiums for three years now with no circuit board failures and this thread is literally the only thing on the entire internet that I can find expressing concern over lithium charge voltages. IMO, go camping and stop worrying.

I'll take that as confirmation that Oliver is working on a seaworthy model. Will there be an upgrade for existing owners?

Speaking of bluetooth thermostats, MicroAir has one now that works with our Dometic ACs. It costs a good bit more than the Dometic version, but it's programmable, works via either bluetooth or wifi, works remotely, has a nice touch screen, etc. Pretty nice. https://www.microair.net/products/easytouch-rv-thermostat?variant=32199143555156

The trick to heating the bath is to make sure that the main duct is open - it’s the tall rectangular flap with a mirror on one side. We also only use the heat when it’s super cold, and even then we set it to 50 or something. And I just recently swapped out the thermostat for the Bluetooth one and being able to turn on the heat in the AM from the comfort of your sleeping bag is definitely better. It’s easy and only takes a minute to link your phone.

Time to invent a system that will lift one axle when making tight turns. Don't some semis have axles that will turn slightly when cornering? Relating this back to the pressure thread, higher pressures should limit the tire flex shown in that video and make the tires scrub more rather than flex. Something to think about.

Obligatory...

It turns out that even though the new raptor won’t have a hybrid option, you’ll can still get the built in generator - in fact it will be standard. I guess I forgot it was an option for non-hybrid regular F150’s. Also they've upped the payload and towing by 200 lbs each. Not a big difference but every pound helps. Makes it tempting to upgrade.

Interestingly, when I had a new set of tires put on my truck this past fall, they aired them up to the max and told me that they do that on all LT tires. The dealership also delivered my truck that way even though the door sticker lists much lower pressures.

The correct answer is that it depends - not everyone’s trailer weighs the same and not every tire requires the same pressure. And with a single axle, there will be more variation in correct pressures than with the Elite II. Looking at the chart for my particular tires, the correct pressure for an Elite I could be anywhere from 45 psi, for a trailer that runs close to the dry weight, to 70 psi, for one that runs close to its gross weight. So the ideal solution is to have your trailer weighed when loaded as you typically travel, then consult the load chart for your specific tire and adjust your pressures accordingly, maybe adding 5 psi or so as a safety margin. You can typically find the load chart for your tires on the manufacturer’s website. Having said that, running higher pressures isn’t going to damage your tires so long as you aren’t over the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall. It will just mean a harsher ride for your trailer and more work for your shocks. As stated earlier, it’s would be no surprise and arguably correct if Oliver were to deliver trailers with the tire pressures set for the trailer’s maximum gross weight. So like I said, as long as that pressure doesn’t exceed the maximum pressure for the tire itself, then it’s perfectly fine, though as an owner you may want to lower it to something more appropriate for how you load your trailer. Of course, if Oliver is delivering them at 80 or 90 psi then that’s probably going to be too high regardless. Personally, I think that the tire pressure is more of an issue in the Elite II, since with two axles you don’t need nearly so much pressure even at the maximum gross weight. 45 or 50 psi is pretty much the max required, even when fully loaded. So it makes very little sense to deliver them with 70+ psi in the tires. This has been a well debated topic since before I took delivery of #256 in 2017, as I was warned by a longtime owner at the time that I would need to lower the pressures down. So I know well that Oliver has been asked/told/complained to about the tire pressures and my only guess is that unless they’re being needlessly stubborn, they have a reason for delivering the trailers with tire pressures that high. More likely, perhaps, that the question never makes it to someone who can do something about it. But if there’s a reason, some communication on what that is would be welcome, so I look forward to whatever they have to say.

Easier to retrofit the whole axle assembly. Make a new subframe, bolt on two axles, add a converter and done.

The new Raptor has been officially announced - https://www.caranddriver.com/ford/f-150-raptor The good news for V8 fans is that next year they'll have one as an option. I'm not in that camp, so it's all disappointment for me as they apparently won't have a hybrid option. Boo. The suspension looks pretty sweet, though, and 37" tires! Plus other modern goodies. I think it looks a little less edgy than the last version, which is unfortunate but expected, since they kind of rounded off the regular F150.

That would all make sense - it sounds like the exact setup that they gave me, at least in terms of brakes and axles. I hope that they use the Hydrastar actuator though.

@ScubaRx’s post on his disk brake swap I also have disk brakes, but Steve’s post is more relevant and his choice of components is better IMO than what Oliver used on mine. I’m sure that he’d be willing to give you more info if you send him a pm. fwiw, my pump is located below the propane tanks mostly within the space of the frame. It has a bash plate protecting it and has so far gone unharmed. I’d recommend taking a look at the Centerpoint suspension while you’re at it. It’s an easy mod on its own but especially so if you’ve already got everything off.

You might check your tire pressures to see if Oliver is still filling them with concrete. I keep mine at 40-45, which for us eliminated the flying blinds. That's for an Elite 2, so the single axle might need higher pressures.

He's good, and I've given thought again to building a battery or two, or six, after watching many of his videos. He also has a video tour of the Battleborn factory, which shows a bit more of the battery insides.