Overland

I noticed last month when washing my Ollie that the gasket had deteriorated and was coming loose. I pulled off the loose bits but it sounds like I need to take the cover off and clean the rest out as well. Thanks for the heads up. Does the cover snap off? It looks like there are a couple of screw holes in your photo but I can’t see how you’d access them from above. edit, never mind - just took a look and it’s obvious

Yes, on a sunny day with no shade, your solar panels will likely recharge your batteries completely. How likely depends on a few factors but that’s probably a subject for a separate topic. With the vehicle’s stock wiring and no other modifications, your alternator will provide some charge but not a lot.

Leave it as it is and you’ll be fine. The discussion above is only relevant if you rewire your truck with heavy gauge cables. It’s an important discussion, but it applies only to the very few people who want to modify their vehicle.

John, I think a ¾ ton truck is more likely to have a traditional alternator these days, though I assume that's changing. You might find the link in this post from @Dean interesting - they had a dual alternator setup with lithium but had trouble overheating the primary one as well as trouble getting the secondary one to charge. Their setup worked, but their ultimate recommendation was a B2B charger.

At 83 amps that will give you a 5.4% voltage drop on 30' of #2 cable, or 13.6v at the load. I don't think at that level that the battery will be able to balance the cells (correct me if I'm wrong), though occasional charging at that level seems fine. Typically, a maximum 3% drop is the recommendation, and for that, you'd want 00 cables.

@JEssary @LiFeBlueBattery I think the advice you're giving is outdated and potentially dangerous. It also flies in the face of what your competitors (BattleBorn), your own, well respected suppliers (AM Solar), and known experts in the field (Victron, Redarc) have to say on the subject. The fact that everyone else in your field disagrees with you makes me concerned that you don't actually know the product you're selling. Your design was perfectly fine ten years ago with a traditional alternator and lead acid batteries. You cannot apply that same solution to modern alternators with modern vehicle energy management, and it is potentially dangerous with lithium batteries and a traditional alternator. Even more so with the hybrid drivetrains coming out now. The links provide ample evidence of that.

Including your Oliver. At least mine has them - Oliver replaced a few cracked ones for me. My 2018 F150 has solid lugs.

I'd recommend placing the shunt outside of your battery box, since all the negative leads need to attach to it. If you put it in the box, then you've got to deal with all those wires, whereas if you find a spot outside the box, then you can simplify your battery box wiring with only a single negative cable coming in from the shunt. Is your avatar a new logo for your trailer?

I don't think it matters while driving. Technically, I've read that most alternators are only about 50% efficient, meaning that half the energy going into them is turned into heat rather that electricity. But it's a small fraction of your engine's power that's used to drive the alternator.

@JEssary @LiFeBlueBattery I do not think it's wise to give this as generic advice - for two reasons: 1) If your truck has a modern, smart alternator, then it likely will not provide a continuous 14.4 volt charge. It probably will at first, but after 5 minutes or so it will back down to around 13 volts which won't charge your lithiums. 2) If you have a standard alternator, or know a way to trick your smart one into charging continuously, you should only wire your vehicle like that diagram if you know for certain that your alternator can handle a 100+ amp draw for extended periods at low RPMs. (Or being maxed out if you have a lower rated alternator.). Burning up your alternator will make for a very bad day. Remember that just because an alternator may be rated that high, that doesn't mean it was designed to sustain that current for long periods, especially at low RPMs without adequate cooling. Better advice is this - 1) Test your alternator - measure the voltage across the battery right after you start and then again five or ten minutes later. If the voltage drops down below 14 or so then you have a smart alternator and you can stop here - you will need a battery to battery charger to charge your lithiums. Sterling has traditionally been the choice, but Victron also makes one now, and they make solid kit. 2) If you have a traditional alternator, then find its rating. I don't know for sure, but my gut feeling is that if it's below 150, then I'd probably go back to using a B2B charger. 150 amp is probably marginal, and 200 amp is probably fine. Don't ask me to pay for a new alternator if that turns out to be bad advice. If you have a smaller alternator, then an alternative to a B2B charger would be a current limiter, like this one. I can't say anything about how well that works - I just know it exists. 3) If your alternator is dumb and beefy, and you aren't risk averse, then OK, go for the diagram above. As a personal recommendation, I use a Victron Cyrix relay on my truck and it's been dependable so far. Personally, I still don't think I'd go this route with lithium (my truck has an AGM house battery). Even if your alternator can handle it, it will still run hot for however long it takes and I don't think doing that repeatedly with a component that could leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere is smart. A battery to battery charger won't charge as fast, but that's ok. And it will also charge your batteries to 100%, whereas due to voltage drop your alternator will probably only take them to around 80%.

Congrats on the new truck. You'l really like the 3.5 eco boost. Great color, too.

I was thumbing through Victron's products and ran across their new(ish?) Smart Shunt, which I hadn't seen before. It looks like a great alternative to their BMV-712 battery monitor, which has become so popular with Ollie owners. With the Smart Shunt, there is no external display to worry about - the bluetooth module is built in and it communicates directly with the Victron Connect app on your phone. As a bonus, it appears to be about $50 cheaper.

The 30 amp convenience port is for 120 volt AC current from a generator or shore power. It wouldn't accept DC input, and the cables would be too small anyway - 12v would have 10x the current of 120v for a given amount of power. But...that's why the new F150 is interesting - since it has a high power inverter in the bed, it could deliver 120v to the convenience connection easily, just like a generator. Much less fuel efficient and a good bit more expensive than a small generator, but one less thing to carry.

I really don't think you need to bother with disconnecting the charge circuit with the stock wiring. On the other hand, I guess it does no harm to do so. The proper solution seems to be something like what Victron offers, which is specifically designed to charge from and protect an alternator; but of course with that, the cost and complexity increase. The advantage of LB and BB kits is that they're a simpler, all in one solution and I don't think the value of that can be overstated for 95% of owners. But in truth, I don't even know how well a Victron system would work with a trailer, given the distances between components, vs something like a fire truck or ambulance, which is what they're designed for. Another interesting detail, Victron's LFPs seem to be designed with vehicle charging in mind, since they have a nominal voltage of 12.8 vs the 13.2 of a typical LFP. I'm curious why LB and BB batteries aren't designed the same. Probably both source generic cells vs custom. At the end of the day, I think you just have to accept some limitations unless you really want to throw money and time at the problem. I'd love for someone to do that though - just not me, lol.

That’s a good (excellent) setup. I’m surprised at the 6awg wires on the truck side but considering the short distance it probably makes little difference. I tried using the Sterling charger that they recommend, for the house battery in my truck, but found it to be a bit finicky - it didn’t play well with the smart relay on the starter battery. I talked to Lifeline about it at the time and they echoed my experience and recommended that I remove it and just let the truck’s regulator take care of things. So far, that’s worked fine but I can tell from my battery monitor that the truck really doesn’t see the battery and only charges when it feels like it. So I think some patience with figuring out the Sterling would pay off. Actually I think the right solution would be to remove the relay rather than the Sterling. My first lesson in charging house batteries contained dire warnings about GM voltage regulators. That was six years ago I think, and it seems like the other manufacturers have followed suit. At least my Ford does what it wants, and doesn’t seem to believe that any other battery exists except it’s own.

My comment was about stock wiring, but yes, like I said in another post, if you rewire your truck and trailer you’ll get less voltage drop and a better chance of charging your trailer batteries - when your alternator is engaged. But, how are you dealing with the voltage difference between your LFPs and the AGMs in the truck? The alternator will typically make 14.4 volts when engaged, but it’s only going to engage when the voltage falls below whatever threshold for which it’s set - which is going to be lower than the voltage range of your LFPs. So how do you get a reliable charge from a modern truck without a B2B charger? My truck will produce 14.4 for only a short period, even when my house battery needs a charge, and I haven’t figured out a trick to get it to charge more reliably. It’s connected with a relatively short run of 00 cable, so no issue with the truck not seeing the load. Others have the opposite problem, where the alternators don’t want to turn off. Also, while charging while driving is beneficial since you’re just skimming a fraction of the power that’s being used to go forward; I can’t imagine a more inefficient way to charge your batteries while stationary than to use a 300+ hp engine to push 12 volts around. You’re going to push 3000 watts through a #2 cable for 30 feet? No, you’re not. Even converting it to 120 to transfer and then back, like has been discussed in the ‘21 F150 thread, is inefficient, though at least a reasonable idea. Besides, alternators are important. If the alternator is charging constantly then you’ve got the opposite issue. I carry enough spares already without worrying about burning one up charging a 400Ah battery bank every day.

Correct. Unless you rewire your tow vehicle and trailer, you'll get minimal charging even with AGMs. Think of it as a maintenance charge. With LFP, think of it as irrelevant. That's nothing specific to Oliver - same with any trailer. It's easier with RVs and vans since the house batteries are in close proximity to the alternator, connected with heavy gauge wiring. Trying to charge a 400Ah battery bank with 30' of 12 awg wire is futile. This comes up all the time. No one would connect their solar panels with 12 gauge wire, yet everyone expects their truck to be able to do it with that - and at four times the distance!

Don't overthink it. You'll never get a charge to your LFP batteries from your truck except when the alternator is running, and even then, not much. The resting state of a fully charged AGM battery (your truck's battery) is 13 volts, and with a 12 awg wire 30 feet long, you'll see ~12.5 volts at the battery. That's equivalent to a completely dead LFP battery. So, even if your LFPs were completely wasted, they couldn't receive a charge from your truck because the voltages are at best the same. Your truck will never detect a draw from your trailer and as a result will only engage the alternator when needed on its own. I'd be more worried about your truck draining your batteries than the other way around. Not that you should worry about that.

I still think that there's too little to go on to think that this is more than a few isolated cases. Only time will tell, of course, but like Mike says, if it's a real issue then I'm sure that Oliver will step up and correct it.

The ratcheting shifter handle looks like it would work, too.

I'm very curious what the fuel mileage would be on a supercharged V8 while towing.

That seems to look very similar to the discoloration I had.

Looks like they're really giving the Raptor a run for its money. It certainly has it beat in the horsepower department, and I like that rear suspension much better. The cost though - this thing starts almost at what the Raptor tops out at. Ford has a new Raptor coming out, too, so I'll be interested to see what they do to match the Ram. I know they'll have a similar rear suspension setup, so the question is what they'll do with the engine. Some say they'll have to put the Mustang V8 in it, but personally I hope that they stick with a smaller engine and go with a big hybrid instead. People will love the sound of the V8's of course, but I'd prefer my truck to be as quiet as a mouse. With either truck, I'd hesitate to recommend them as a tow vehicles unless you really plan to take it offroad. Though if the coil springs on either one lend themselves more easily to air bags than the current Raptor, then I'd say go for it.

On mine it’s not. But a jigsaw can quickly change that situation. Making an access port under each cabinet shouldn’t effect the cabinet integrity nor would it be visible. You’d want to make a lightweight cover of some sort so that something doesn’t bounce out of one of your drawers and end up in the hull space. I’ve had it on my list to do both that and create an access port in the closet floor. I may need to do both soon since I’m planning to insulate all the plumbing lines. Those access ports might even be enough to allow me to replace the flex duct with rigid, which might be a good project to tackle at the same time.

The only thing I can think is that the lights and motor might be on a separate circuit, so maybe check for a blown fuse. One question, though - I took a peek at the manual on Oliver University and it's for the 120 volt model. Is Oliver really installing the 120v version? Do you have to turn on the inverter to use the awning?