Overland

Looks good. And you'll really start to appreciate the color control once you have the multiplus.

With good solar access, Oliver's standard solar package is well balanced for the battery bank and more than adequate to recover from a night of typical use. Typical use would be using the lighting however you wish, ~20 minutes of microwave*/toaster oven use, hair dryer, water pump, etc. Basically, just using your trailer without too much thought towards conserving electricity. That seems to be around 70-80Ah for most people and we've found that to be quite accurate (if we exclude our marine fridge). That's an average, of course. We've used as little as 40Ah and as much as 160Ah. YMMV. If you plan to sous vide short ribs for 48 hours, then you probably need a generator, or better menu planning. IF you plan to camp in winter, or shady areas, or have an additional draw like a 12 volt refrigerator, then a 100w portable panel will be of use. It will also be helpful for charging while in storage, if you store your trailer covered. IF you plan to boondock for more than three days at a time, then either a generator or a 100w portable panel plus extra battery storage will be of use. (All the solar in the world won't help if you're parked under a tree canopy.) IF you need to run the A/C while boondocking, then you need a either a generator or an additional truck to carry the batteries and solar that you'd need. For most people, I would recommend a portable panel long before I'd recommend a generator. For people who boondock a lot, I'd recommend a generator long before I'd recommend extra batteries. This is entirely down to the relative cost. I would also recommend a portable panel long before I'd recommend upgrading your rooftop solar, for both performance and versatility reasons. Read this post about how we determined our solar needs and for good rules of thumb for determining your own - our estimates were spot on FOR US (marine fridge plus winter camping). Ideally, you both size the panels for your needs and balance the battery bank and panels. Our system would have been oversized for the battery bank, but we ended up adding more storage to match our panels and that turned out to be wise. Our system is overkill in Moab in May with nothing but sun, but right on the edge in Big Bend in December with 50/50 clouds. And in the Smokies in November with rain and shade and fallen leaves covering our panels, it requires diligent power conservation or plugging in mid-week. Our goal was/is to be able to camp for a full week in spring, fall and winter without hookups and without having to worry about it too much, and we're pretty much there. * Not sure about the MW since we don't have one.

I hate seeing this, knowing how much I spent on mine only a few years ago - that's a great deal on good quality panels in a very practical size.

Looks great - congratulations!

[postquote quote=181362][/postquote] As I said, this is not a wise plan. The valves on the grey and black tanks DO NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST provide a sanitary separation between the two, and your grey water is not nearly as sanitary as you think. So before you set sail on the Typhoid Ollie, you need to completely separate that tank from the grey, both the drain and vent. Unless, that is, you plan to carry a good supply of Cipro and camp only in ER parking lots.

That does not sound like a wise plan.

[postquote quote=180978][/postquote] That's interesting, thanks. I'm only going by what I've been told in the past; so if it's on their website, I believe them. I do know that the RVIA standard is to count only the box when advertising the size, though obviously that guideline isn't followed by everyone.

That's a surprising amount of slack, and it makes me wonder how much the trailer flexes the other direction when bumping over rough roads (and what damage the clothesline might potentially cause over time). Maybe worth adding a bit of additional slack to the line, or a spring at one end like Mike suggested, or swapping out the stainless cable for a bungee?

Trained mice with little disinfectant scrubbers on their feet. That's the usual way. I wouldn't worry about your vent pipes. They're stinky by design.

I moved this out of the "How to use the forums" section and into General Discussion. The extra width of the Airstream, as with most stick built trailers, allows them more freedom with the floor plans. They also measure 23' as the length of the box, whereas Oliver measures from tongue to bumper, so the AS is actually 5' longer. Their 19' Caravel/Bambi is probably the closest to the Elite II in size, though they're still a foot larger in both length and width. But there has been talk and rumors of a larger Oliver for as long as I've known about the company, and it is certainly a likely avenue for expansion. I imagine though that there needs to be another step in both production capability and general demand before Oliver goes down that path.

I haven't had good luck countersinking with a metal bit - the gelcoat always wants to chip. But a tapered grinding bit on a Dremel seems to do the job well.

If the A/C runs fine on shore power, then that's almost certainly the case. I had similar symptoms on mine - overload on compressor startup, but otherwise it would work. In my case, Oliver actually forgot to install the easy start, which I'm at least 99% certain was why it wasn't working.

Sounds neat. I’d love to see a photo of that if you have one.

[postquote quote=180264][/postquote] The first answer is that you have to match the controller to the panels, both in maximum voltage and amperage. But, depending on what 'normal' is, I'd say yes. The smallest charge controller that Victron makes, for example, is rated to 75 volts. If you go to the web page for their controllers, they now have a calculator at the top where you can input what panels you have, how many in parallel, series, etc., and they'll tell you which charge controllers will work. (But if I put in 2 100w panels in series, it tells me to buy their smallest controller). The second answer is that you wouldn't want to combine a 24v panel and a 12v one to the same charge controller. You could do it, but the voltage of the combined units would be limited to that of the lowest panel, and you'd lose half the power of the 24v panel. But with two controllers, each will output its standard charge profile regardless of what's happening on the input side. So from the battery bank standpoint, it doesn't matter if one array is 24v and the other is 12v - all it sees is the 14.4v (or whatever stage they're in) that the charge controllers are putting out. Similar situation to having both a solar charge controller and shore power hooked up. Here's a nice primer on the do's and don'ts of mixing panels.

[postquote quote=180249][/postquote] Pretty much, that's all correct. But I think the biggest problem in connecting to your existing charge controller would be that it probably isn't rated for much more power than your roof solar is providing. You'd run the risk of frying the charge controller on a sunny day and so you'd probably want to upgrade it. If you're looking for the ideal solution, you would have a separate MPPT charge controller just for your portable panels (onboard rather than built into the panels). Then you'd rewire the two panels of the portable unit so that they work in series, for 24 volts nominal, which would have less voltage drop with longer and/or lighter gauge cables. 24 volts would also provide more voltage for the MPPT charge controller to work with, meaning it could operate more efficiently (the charge controller will output 12v to the batteries regardless of how you wire the panels).

Thanks, so just a small strip in each corner, looks like 1.5" or so?

Looking at the Lance, certainly you can boondock in it, just not well imo. Of course, everyone has differing ideas of what boondocking means. Is it summertime camping for a weekend at a national park campground that doesn't have hookups, or are you going to bang the trailer into the middle of nowhere down long gravel roads to spend a week in a snowstorm? I think with the Lance, you're limiting yourself to 1) warm weather camping, 2) a generator, and 3) paved roads. That's going to be due to 1) external tanks and uninsulated plumbing, 2) inadequate solar, propane and battery capacity, 4) fragile slide out and cabinetry. But if you're O.K. with those limitations, then the Lance will certainly save you some money and give you more interior room. I think then it becomes largely a question of how long you want to own it.

Not a problem! - http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/water-saving-mods-and-adjustments/

[postquote quote=179967][/postquote] Worth trying, but did they say what that bit of velcro does to keep it closed?

We leave the outside switch on except when traveling or stored. The inside switch we turn on and off as needed.

Unless you want the generator for home, I just don't see why you'd want to lug something that big around with you. With your extra solar, you're hardly ever going to crank that thing. We could have used a generator literally once in two years, and didn't truly need it then.

Wow, #501 already. These things might be getting popular.

That’s beautiful photo - looks like a wonderful place and I’m super jealous that you’re skiing in friggin July.

And people ask why I only camp in winter.

I think your overall question has as many answers as there are owners. Everyone is different. Some people can't live without their InstaPot, whereas I couldn't imagine taking up so much space with something like that. And I have no doubt that people would roll their eyes at a few things that I find indispensable. Basically, figure out what you're going to cook and what you need to cook it. Same with bath stuff, dishes, clothes, etc. I wouldn't worry about weight on your first trip - you'll figure out what you need and don't need quickly enough and can pare down on your next trip. And it will probably take two or three trips to really nail down everything. If you think you're taking too much, then it's probably a good exercise to kind of map out where you're going to store things just so you have some idea if it will all fit. I have heard of some people who showed up with so much stuff that they actually had to drive back home to dump half of it. The Magma cookware is top notch and worth every penny, imo. It's as good as any high end cookware you'd find for your kitchen. But I like to cook and like to cook with good tools - which is why, apart from the Magma cookware, few to no 'space saving' items have made the cut in our trailer; and we've ended up replacing those things with duplicates of what we use at home, regardless of their size or weight.