Overland

Just for fun, these acoustic panels got a lot of curious questions at the rally. Do they work? Maybe? But they break up the white ceiling, so I'm keeping them. They're just held in place with 3M VHB velcro.

I added some additional photos of our ever-evolving storage here.

Since I was taking some inside photos today, I thought I'd snap a few to add to this thread. Plus I'll add some that I've posted in other threads recently. Here's how we organize all our drawers: Top right, we use an expandable cultery tray from OXO - I cut out some pieces of a stiff felt liner from Ikea to put in each of the compartments, which cushions the utensils and helps keep the tray from getting marred - In the middle two and bottom left, we use a different OXO tray, with the same felt lining as above - Then on the bottom right, we keep two cutting boards, place mats, coasters, towels, etc., so no need for any organizer - For the nightstand drawer, I used the excellent trick that Bill came up with. But instead of the aluminum angle, I added some adjustable shelf pegs to the drawer, and then stuck some thick felt on the sides of the insert to both center it and keep it from sliding around. Then I placed a similar 10 x 16 tray in the bottom, also with some felt pads to keep it in place. Man, now I know where all the lip balm and sharpies end up. I added two wire organizers to the pantry door (glued some 1 x 2 PVC to the door to give some extra depth and something to screw to.). Unfortunately I can't find these exact items on Amazon now to link to - We added storage nets galore, and these are incredibly handy - In the pantry, I added a stainless plate from Amazon, to which I attached a small box from Ikea (discontinued) to use as a spice shelf. (The box slides under the pantry shelf when closed to keep the contents from bouncing out.). A bungee across the very top on the inside holds a folding drying mat perfectly. The boxes are Sterilite Clip Boxes, medium and small, which you can get on Amazon or at Target. They're the best fitting that I've found so far. On our last trip, I had trouble finding stuff to fill them. The light in the pantry is a Luminoodle Click. By the way, I buy bungee stuff from www.hookandcord.com. I asked for the cabinet instead of the microwave/convection oven, and we keep a toaster oven there, plus I made a shelf for plates and bowls - Some hooks by the door are always handy - As are some flashlights - Over the kitchen, I found these boxes for glassware, mini bar, etc. They're another discontinued item, but if you want to find something similar, they're 6.25"w x 11.5"d x 5"h. We keep out the two or three pans from our Magma set that we use all the time, while the rest stays in their storage bag. I lined the back of all our upper cabinets with the same stiff felt from Ikea that I used on the drawers (they had them on closeout sale, so I bought them out.) Like with the drawers, it keeps things from marring the fiberglass, plus I think it looks a lot better - The bath cabinet stays stuffed, but these boxes from Ikea help to keep it somewhat organized. I covered the back of the door with black vinyl to protect the mirrored surface - In the back of the attic, I put another storage net to hold books in place, and then in front of that, we keep camp chairs and other small items that get unloaded at the camp site. The rest is filled with electronics. -

Both the nightstand drawer and upper cabinets now come with locking latches as standard - same as on the pantry and closet doors. Those were both requests of ours during construction, though we changed our minds on the upper cabinets before delivery - we felt like the locking hinges were too much trouble for something that we would use as often as the upper cabinets. After seeing them on the new trailers, I'm glad we kept the thumb latches. For owners of the upper cabinets with the thumb latches, there's a simple mod you can make that will make them perfectly secure and tight - just place a few washers under the latch. I believe that you have to buy longer bolts to make them work, and while you're at it, some nyloc nuts will keep them from vibrating loose. I want to say that it was Reed who came up with that solution, and it makes those latches feel 10x more solid and once done, the cabinets will never come open on their own, even on the roughest roads. Our solution for the kitchen drawers coming open is a simple bungee across them. I had installed a towel bar at the top already (Ikea refrigerator handle), so it was an easy job to add something below to hook to. I chose some recessed anchor points from Sea Dog, and they work great. I had asked Oliver about the push button latches, but we couldn't figure out how to make them work with their drawers. Those would have been nice, but honestly I think these bungees are less trouble. We've made several small modifications like these, along with judiciously tieing down plumbing and wiring, and today we have no worries whatsoever when heading onto a bumpy road.

Nor have I. I'd be interested to know the circumstances.

Your profile page and avatar seem normal to me, and my PMs are O.K. You might try a different device and see if you have the same problem on there.

I've never used the Zamp port but the only thing I can say I don't like about it is the cheap plastic cap. My eventual plan is to convert my portable panels to 24 volt and run them through a separate charge controller. If the Zamp port can be used like that, then I'll just use it. Otherwise, I was thinking that the easiest place for me to have a new port would be either in the back or just in front of the basement door, since that's closest to where I would place the charge controller.

Will do. I know you've asked before for this - I'll try to get some photos in the next few days.

Thanks - like most everything else on the Ollie, it's been a learn as you go endeavor.

Looking at the options on some of the used LEIIs for sale, I’d say asking price is about $10k lower than new on average. And many of the trailers that go up for sale are just a year old. Colors are easily changed, most options are easy to add, and the shells and frames are like new for years, unless they’ve been abused. So I think the asking prices are reasonable. But of course if you want a base Ollie, there aren’t that many built to begin with so finding one for sale would be difficult. The financing situation will eventually work itself out and who knows, then we might even see a boost in pricing because of it. But then again, whomever values the trailer’s might not know much about them and lowball the figure based on the rest of the industry. You guys would have a field day with what I’d want to ask for mine to recoup the time and cost of upgrades, lol. I’ll be putting it up for sale in about 30 years if anyone is interested.

I find that my 10 speed shifts very smoothly and doesn't hunt for gears at all. It also stays in 10 when towing except when accelerating or going uphill, of course. If anything, I find it too reluctant to shift - particularly on undulating roads, where the truck will allow the speed to drop on uphill sections much more than I'd prefer. When that happens, though, I just lock out the top two gears and it's fine.

It was just a passing comment from Scott, so I wouldn't count on any movement there - but of course you never know. It's got to happen eventually.

And we expect photos.

You're going to love Steve's slider - it's really something.

I don’t have the hookup on the front, nor the built in surge protector. But you could tighten up the wiring in the dinette seat considerably, compared to what I did. I had the space, so I used it.

I reorganized the pantry earlier this year. Painted the back of the door to make it easier to clean and added a stainless sheet I got off amazon. Then attached a small box from Ikea as a spice rack. The boxes I found at Target and they really fit well - much better than the ones I had before. And I added a LED strip light to the side to make it easier to see. You can't really see it, but I ran a bungee across the top and it's a perfect spot to store one of those folding drying mats. Also, I had some plywood left over from the electrical, so I made a quick shelf to go over the toaster oven (in the microwave cabinet). I ordered a giant neoprene mouse pad off of amazon, and cut it to size to keep the dishes from bouncing around too much. The cabinet itself was just bare wood, and was starting to get dirty, so I sanded it and added a coat of poly to make it easier to wipe out. I couldn't get used to plastic dishes, so I bought a few plates and bowls at Ikea. They haven't broken yet is all I can say.

Pics

A little update on what I've been up to so far this summer, which has been all electrical. I've been wanting to redo all of the electrical work that I did when I took delivery, just because one, I was rushed, and two, I learned a lot both doing it and since doing it. So I made some new plywood boards to mount everything on, since I didn't really trust the PVC ones that I originally used. I rounded the corners of the plywood to try to minimize the chances of the corners digging into any cable that rested on it. Then reorganized it all, made sure all the cables were wrapped, and tried to tie down everything as securely as possible. I've been using zip tie cable supports. They're nice and small and grip the cables well. I used washers under the screws to prevent the ties from pulling through. Since part of the work involved removing the inverter, I decided that while it was out I might as well go ahead and get rid of the black tank and the sewer line. (You'll notice that I still need to recap the sewer at the grey tank.). That was a pain, but since I wasn't trying to salvage anything I could just go at it with an oscillating saw. I had to cut the pipe into pieces to get it out the rear hatch, and the black tank I had to cut in two as well since it wouldn't make the turn out the dinette seat hatch. Also meant I had to cut the vent pipe but I needed to remove the shower caddy for my next project anyway. None of this was too difficult and getting rid of the sewer pipe gave me a ton more room to run my cables. Before this, they were wedged pretty tightly in places, not very accessible - I was worried that they could wear against a sharp edge of fiberglass or something else that I couldn't see. I mounted a half-height milk crate where the black tank was, and enlarged the hole under the composting toilet. As an excuse for not deleting the black tank, Oliver once told me that it was needed as structure for the bath floor. That was pure fiction of course, since there's a gap between the floor and the tank, and you can enlarge that hole almost to the edge of the toilet and the floor remains solid as can be. That's where I'll store zip lock bags of extra peat moss in case we need to empty the toilet while traveling. It should be perfect storage for that - since I'd have to pull the toilet out anyway, access to the peat will be right there. I'll add a small rubber gasket around the hole to prevent shower water from seeping in. It hasn't been a problem, but with the larger hole I'd like to make sure. I also took the time to straighten up the rats nest of cables behind the fuse box as best I could. I don't know what other Ollies are like, but prior to this, I could barely even see in there. I'd even lost a small Atom smoke detector under the wiring after it fell loose. It was a few months later before I found it by wedging my phone randomly into the wiring nest and taking photos. Another thing I did was to saw off the sharp end of some screws in that space. Pretty much anything that is screwed into the fiberglass, like courtesy lights, has sharp screws that could potentially damage an electrical cable. All in all, I feel a lot more confident about the electrical, at least in these areas. This was all done working an hour or so a few days a week, so it seems like it's taken forever. I got about half of it done before the rally, but then it was slow going after that - a bit here and there as I found time. And I could still go back through to secure or wrap a few more things - seems never-ending. Also, working with the power off means no A/C and I have confirmed that I never want to boondock in the summer. Oh, I also added LED light strips in the compartments to make things easier to see. They really make a difference, so I highly recommend them. I'm using the Luminoodle Clicks that I listed above, but any similar strip light would work. Pics - Charge controller and breaker with cutoff switches for solar and batteries. Panels feed into bus bars on the right. I left space to the left for a second charge controller, breaker, and cutoff for external solar, just in case I decide to go that route someday: I moved Oliver's electrical and the positive bus bar onto a vertical panel. Main fuse is mounted to the battery box above: Negative side. The coiled cable is from the Zamp port, which I'm not using right now: And the inverter, which is much more secure now than it was when mounted to PVC:

@rideadeuce reminded me of this and I wanted to get back with why my numbers were off. The A/C actually pulls 1731 watts, per Dometic, which would give me 3600/[(1731-500) x .75] = 3.8 hours. Close enough. It doesn't surprise me that the wattage number that I was seeing was off. I've talked with Victron before and they admit that their inverter readings are just estimates. Next time I'll pay more attention to what the battery monitor is saying vs trust the inverter, as it should be more accurate.

In the only experiment I've run, I got 3.5 hours on a day that I was getting 500W from the solar. That was 75% DOD, which is when the inverter started kicking off due to low voltage. See here. I'm not familiar with the Lifeblue but Scott Oliver was telling me that they were looking at a battery with built in bluetooth and so it may be the same.

400Ah of those batteries will cost you $1200 more than I paid for my Battleborns. $1200! Yes, you get the room to add another battery, but you've paid $1200 extra already, plus $2200 for the third battery and another $200 for the BMS and battery protection. That's $3600 for 200Ah that you'll rarely ever need. It seems like for the trouble you're going through that you'd just buy individual cells and actually save money. Victron batteries aren't anything special. They just package them in blue plastic and charge more.

It’s more about the yaw inertia than balancing front to back. The more weight you have at the ends, the worse the stability will be. Better to keep as much weight centered over the wheels as can be done within reason.

I'd be careful about the basement since that's a lot of weight in the rear which will affect stability. I'd like to find a way to line them up in the hull space between the dinette and street side bed but I haven't given enough thought to it to figure out how to secure them. But it would be a perfect spot.

See my edit - you can get 4 in the tray on end. What batteries are you looking at buying?

14" x 21" - to get four, you have to stand them on end. And yes, it's a PITA to wire them up that way. The power assist on the Multi is seamless. I use it all the time at home since all I have is a 20A connection. I limit the Multi to 15A and let the batteries make up the rest if I run the A/C.