Overland

Mike, the only difference in the installation would be not running the 30A cable to the Multi and back, which isn't difficult. To bypass the charger, all you do is remove the charger module. So I think you'd just be paying more for a less capable system.

Or a Cigarette Station. It’s a retro design after all, so you wouldn’t want to walk more than 3’ without a lighter handy.

Charger Socket? Cigarette Socket?

Saw these and thought they looked pretty useful. At a 9000lb breaking strength, I might just velcro my trailer to the bumper, lol. https://jeri-rigg.com

We ran into the same problem. The dealership ordered the wrong color truck and we had to start over. Fortunately/unfortunately, Oliver was also running behind and we ended up getting the second truck before delivery.

"It makes them work better." "How much better?" "Double" "Sold" What it does sells itself. What it costs, how dependable it is, how solid and well built it seems, etc. will determine sales, imo.

And of course Coy will face the inverse problem. If he advertises 250% gain, well maybe that's an average or only on the winter solstice in Calgary. There's always going to be someone in Tuscon, 12 noon June 21 comparing his system to his buddy's and getting mad that they're showing the same output.

What they had was a rough but working mockup. It sounds like Coy (@hardrock) is going to be the beta tester, but you could always send him a PM and ask.

That's fine, but then Coy is selling the trackers, so it's his job to educate his customers, not Oliver's. If Oliver gets a cut and wants to do the same, sure. But don't say that they're misrepresenting anything now, because they just aren't. If Oliver were to downgrade their advertised wattage by whatever random number, then that would be misrepresentation. Because then someone sells his trailer and tells the buyer it's a 180W or whatever system and then that guy decides to upgrade, tells AM Solar he has 180W of panels, they send him the wrong wires and charge controller, and his trailer burns up. It's no different from HP or torque numbers on your truck. You'll never see those numbers, but that's just how you measure output. It's not GM's job to say that actually that's just theoretical, but if you buy this other guy's intake system and exhaust, you'll get closer to those numbers.

Brakes

About the battery temp sensor - are you certain that info will make its way back to the charge controller? I’ve wondered if it did, and it would make sense that the CCGX would work that way, but I’ve never found any confirmation in the manuals or Victron’s website. Maybe I’ve just missed it or just not looking in the right place. I’ve had the same question about the voltage sensor on the MultiPlus and whether it shared that info with the charge controller and BMS.

I put my MultiPlus in the dinette seat by the bath. It fits well there on its back with plenty of air space around and even a bit left over for something else if needed. I’ll take a pic for you. Actually I just got done pretty much rewiring everything to fix things I didn’t like from when I first did it, plus to take advantage of the extra space I have since I took out the sewer line. So I’ll take some pics of it all and maybe post them in my Snowball thread. I actually ran a lot of wiring through the pantry - I stuck it in the front corner and it’s out of sight and out of the way. Probably wouldn’t want to run the heavier solar cables in there though.

I think it’s clear that he tried using the Anderson but took it off. What may not be clear is that Ford says to turn off sway control when using a sway control hitch like the Anderson - so turning it off every time he got in the truck was a pain. I agree with Landrover - check the ball, check that there’s no excessive play in the receiver, check that nothing is broken on the trailer suspension and that the shackles haven’t flipped (the trailer should ‘hang’ from the springs), and then check the truck.

Oliver advertises the panel’s STC rating, same as every other retailer and panel manufacturer in the world. That standard allows consumers to compare apples to apples when shopping for panels - Standard Test Conditions (STC) refer to lab tests for solar panels evaluated in a solar simulator called flash tester. During the test, the modules are exposed to artificial sunlight with an irradiance equal to 1,000 W/m². This irradiance value is associated with the maximum solar radiation typically at noon and assuming the Sun directly reaches the module. Moreover, the temperature of the module is established at 25°C and the atmospheric density or air mass is equal to 1.5 (shortest optical path length of sunlight through the Earth atmosphere). The test is designed to give a potential maximum power from the panels so that consumers can then size their wiring and charge controllers appropriately. IMO, to advertise them at some lower wattage than their STC rating would be confusing, and even potentially dangerous.

The printed substrate is thicker vinyl than the solid color, plus with the solid you get sharp edges and no rasterized color. All that is really only a potential problem on something you see close up. On the front graphic, I don't think it matters; but if you do something on the side, it may be worth paying extra. I could only find one place in town that was even willing to do separate colors, and they really didn't want to. One other problem that I ran into with the printed version of my side graphics is that, because of their geometry, they had a difficult time registering the print to the cutout. The final version isn't perfect, but I'm the only one who would notice. But of course, if I could do it over, I'd insist on separate colors rather than printed. I want to say that the warranty was better on the printed version - something about the ink itself acting as a barrier to UV, etc.

The early models had the battery disconnect but they dropped it at some point. On my trailer, Oliver's side of the 12v electrical connects directly to a few items, like the CO detector, then through the main DC breaker, after which some other things break off, like the jacks, before anything goes to the fuse box. So at least on mine, there was no way to fully disconnect the batteries without removing a battery cable. There was also no disconnect for the solar. I added both, and it certainly makes working on things easier.

A couple of comments: First, if you eventually go with LFP batteries, like the Battleborns, it's going to be extremely tight in your battery box with all of that cabling. And connections to those batteries are awkward, to say the least. You might consider moving your shunt into the hull space and maybe adding a bus bar or combiner post for your positives. That would limit your connections in the box to a single positive and negative, plus temp and voltage sensors for your monitor and multi, which can be wrapped together, so just 3 cables total. That's what I've got, and it's still tight enough that I have to guide the cables in place when I move the batteries to make sure that they don't bind or kink. Second, I worry that your solar charge controller is going to run hot in that space. It's a small area with no circulation and you've got a hot stereo in there as well. You're also going to get a good bit of heat from the sun on the hull in there. Minimum, I think I'd get a remote temp sensor, since otherwise your charge controller is going to assume that the temperature in that compartment is the temperature of your batteries and so is going to miscalculate its compensation by a good bit. (I'm actually surprised that AM Solar didn't include that in the package - it's a $40 add on that's a no brainer, imo, for the Smart Solar series). I know that's where Oliver puts theirs, but that doesn't make it right, plus you've got more solar now and so a much bigger/hotter, not to mention smarter, controller. Then finally, wherever you end up with your controller, I'd add some strain relief to those cables, and generally tidy up, wrap, and tie everything down as best you can. I think one of the biggest potential dangers in any trailer, especially for those of us who are on gravel roads a lot, is fire from a positive cable that's come loose and starts to spark on something, or wears off its insulation from constant rubbing. By the way, I didn't realize it when we were talking about it earlier, but Victron does make a plate for both the CCGX and for the CCGX and BMV combined.

If you just need to get the trailer home, you could use a shipper.

I've learned to do it the same way as Trainman, and it's much easier. It's also much easier if you do it two handed - pull the cable tight with one hand so that the hook is loose and more easily maneuvered.

IMO, the 100W suitcase is the best balance between portability and power. I have a 200W set and don't carry it since it's too heavy to lug around and too difficult to store.

Here's my procedure - Empty water tank. Open drain valve, both faucets, Truma drain, and turn on pump. Raise trailer nose and tilt trailer toward curb side. Allow to drain until empty, then turn off pump and faucets and close Truma drain and drain valve. Lower trailer nose to back level and tilt trailer slightly to street side. Mix ½ cup of bleach into 5 gallons of water. Set pump valves and pump all five gallons into tank. Reset pump valves to normal operation. Begin to fill the remainder of the fresh tank from the city water connection. While tank is filling, turn on pump, and run each faucet, both hot and cold, until you smell chlorine and all the air is out of the system. Allow tank to fill until water flows from the overflow by the door. Let sit for 24 hours. Turn on pump and run both faucets until all water is transferred to grey tank. Refill fresh tank . Let sit for 48 hours. Empty grey tank. Refill fresh tank and repeat step 5. Empty grey tank again.

Wish I could, and hopefully someone can. It seems like Oliver has changed the fuse configuration often, and at least on mine the fuses don’t match the label anyway. My advice is to just pull them and see what goes out. I’d guess that one of them goes to a sub panel somewhere, since you don’t have fuses for the stereo, tv, etc. Mine has a 12 volt breaker panel in the attic and there’s a fuse for it - but I’d heard that Oliver no longer does that? Also I see you have a 20A fuse for the dinette 12v outlet but don’t you also have an outlet over the kitchen counter? Maybe that’s the other one. Do you have a composting toilet, and if so, why do you have a 7.5A fuse going to it? 5A is the max and I think 2A is recommended. Oliver used to put 1A fuses in there, lol.

That does suck. Part of the new norm I guess. I’m guessing the best way to see AK right now is online. Bears anyone?

As a non Anderson user, I have to say that I’ve been totally bewildered by the number of Anderson related topics lately. Is there anyone who actually likes these things? Anyone want to get together to design a WD hitch that not only works with Ollies but also, well, works?

I think these days any modern truck is going to be good for ten years or more.