Overland

Oliver vs Unimog, Angel’s Peak BLM campground south of Farmington NM. Nice couple from the Netherlands touring north and South America. Great free campground about 6 miles down a well maintained gravel road. Nine sites, I think, most of which are better separated than these two. But these are the two with a view so it’s a decent trade. On the other hand, the wind is gusting to 40 now so after a quick hike we’re hunkered down inside. Maybe the wind will blow all this dust off...

Their chart recommends 40 for me. I run 45 to give some buffer if I have a slow leak. Also, I believe those numbers are maximums for each pressure so I don’t think you’d want to be on the edge, just like you wouldn’t want the tire on the edge of its maximum rated pressure. I check my tires at every stop and they’re only ever slightly warm to the touch, always a good bit cooler than my truck tires, which I’d also characterize as warm. I also have temp sensors as part of my TPMS and as I’ve said before, sunlight has a far greater affect on their temp than pressure or speed. You tell me, why do you think Michelin doesn’t know the proper pressures for their own tires?

Unfortunately that’s not true. I wish it were as that would make things much simpler. But many appliances will need their regulator replaced with a valve and some will require you to bypass Oliver’s regulator entirely, since they require higher pressure than what that regulator provides.

Most owners must consider Oliver a better authority on Michelin tires than Michelin. Really, the only reason people don’t run Michelin’s recommended pressure is that they have a hard time reconciling that with what Oliver put in. I’ve yet to see anyone give an authoritatively backed reason to not use Michelin’s recommendations. I use 45 and the only thing I’ve noticed is that the brakes lock less often and things stopped breaking.

Yeah, that link appears to be dead. Here's one that should work -

Here's a photo of what I was talking about. Upper part waxed with Rejex, lower not waxed at all. It's not like it's sheeting off either, just holding onto the water.

If they are, I'm putting them back in and putting the lithiums in the garage. Problem is I don't think they're heavy enough to hold the slab down.

Just to update on the Rejex. I just washed both the truck and trailer for the first time since waxing - the black streaks came off without too much effort, except for on the window trim. I'll have to find some sort of solvent to try to get it off there. I think what's left is faint enough though that only I'd notice. What surprised me was that the water wasn't beading anymore, which is weird because it beaded with just the bare fiberglass. After it sat for a while it would, but not like it was before. More interesting is that here was one patch that was still beading, and I'd remembered that I didn't wax that part because I wanted to reapply the graphic there since it had a small crease in it. So I took a closer look, and sure enough, there were no black streaks on that patch. The streaks petered out as they went down it, then picked back up on the lower section that had been waxed. So definitely the streaks and the wax are related. I really don't understand why the waxed areas are beading less than the unwaxed now. They beaded more when I first put it on. I hope it didn't do something to the finish. Anyway, my blunt verdict is that this stuff is junk. Don't use it, don't let your friends use it, send a bottle to your enemies, etc.

Mine came with the standard package and yes they're two 12-volt 100Ah marine batteries. I use them to hold down the slab in the garage.

Ideally, they'd add a 1" or so spacer between the mount and awning. Then they could lower the awning back down to meet the roof with a seal, just 1" further forward, and there wouldn't be any obstruction from the mounts at all. Even though I don't have the vertical dam on mine, it's still the mounts that collect the garbage. I think a clean, unobstructed seal would collect far less gunk, and be much easier to spray out with a hose. I also think that they could use a stiffer and easier to clean L-shaped gutter rather than trying to seal it with the soft gasket.

Another question to ponder while we wait: the placement of the panels is right next to the maxx fan, so if you rotate them as they are, they'll swing over the fan. So I'm guessing this mount either moves the panels forward or raises them enough to clear an open fan?

No negatives. The limiting factor on the generator will be the trailer's converter, which charges at 45 amps, while your generator can produce 160 or so. That means that when running your generator, adding an external solar panel won't actually charge your batteries any faster, though I don't know at what amp draw your generator goes into quiet mode, so it might be that the solar would help to keep it at the lower revs. Of course, depending on how much solar you have and how much power you actually use, you might find that an all day charge from the panel(s) allows you to not use the generator so much - for example, if you have to replenish 60 amp hours, then you could run the gen for an hour, then let the solar finish the job.

Well I hope no one takes my questions as criticism. After all, I haven't even seen it. I'm just impatient to know more!

Interesting - your bracket design is new. Mine doesn't have the vertical stiffener, and that looks like why yours is holding so much water. I wonder what's the reason behind changing the bracket, and I'm thinking that no one in the design process realized they were building a small dam.

Is the connector standard now, or does it come as part of some other option? Mine doesn't have one, though I've thought about adding one to use for an extended cellular antenna. Projects...projects...

And you can come back after your hike and wonder who now owns them, put out your back trying to unpack and pack 200 watts of panels, spend your day babysitting panels, etc. Every system has its pros and cons. Sounds like Coy has found a way to take something most of us already have, and make it far more useful. I'm all for it and super excited to see it at the rally.

Coy, I’m really interested to see what you’ve come up with, and I have quite a few questions - It sounds similar to a ‘goto’ mount for a telescope; i.e., there’s a GPS receiver that gives the mount location, date, and time, and a compass to determine orientation. Then an internal map of where the sun will be relative to that position. Is that correct? I’m curious about the structural integrity of the mount and how securely it holds the panels at highway speeds. Have you done any real world testing yet? How flexible is the mount for different configurations of panels? Can it hold more than Oliver’s standard two 160 watt panels? Can it accommodate smaller or larger individual panels? Do you have to manually start the system every morning or will it automatically reset for the next day, provided it hasn’t detected movement? How does the mount communicate with your phone. Bluetooth? WiFi? Would it be possible to control the mount remotely? Are the panels held in position by the motor(s) or it there a separate mechanism that locks them in place, say for travel? Is there a manual override that would allow you to lower the panels in case of failure? What would happen if someone accidentally started it up in their garage? Would the unit sense an obstruction and reset? Do you have any photos? And of course, how much will it cost? Finally, congratulations! Sounds like you’ve been working on this for a while - there’s definitely a lot of potential for something like this.

First question, can you recycle the grey water - Sure, the easiest way since you don't use the black tank would be to just collect the water from the grey tank drain in a bucket, and then pump it through a filter back into the fresh tank. It would be a very expensive system and I imagine you'd go through a lot of very expensive filters, though. Second question, can you get the grey water into the black tank - yes, again with a pump, and another pump to get it where you want to from there, with a filter so you don't contaminate your fresh water system. You'd also need to add an overflow drain to the black tank. If you don't want to filter it, then you'd need to make sure that whatever lines you're pumping the water through are completely separated from the freshwater system. The only practical application I could see for doing it that way would be to separate the outside shower and use grey water there for hosing off muddy boots or something. It would be an interesting project. I'm waiting for someone to do something with that black tank. I'm considering just pulling it out, mainly because I want to pull out the drain from there to the T at the grey tank to give me a better channel for electrical cables.

You might want to put a strip up high on the rear. I've learned from experience that traveling down a muddy gravel road will completely cover your rear end with mud, due to a considerable low pressure area behind the trailer. I've had it so bad that even the marker lights up top were covered. I placed a few red/white strips on back of my rear solar panels, but a strip on the AC housing or above the 'Oliver' would work, so long as it doesn't angle upward any. I think you'll find that the flat strip on the front of your trailer won't be of much use, since you have to be about 90° to the tape, both you and the light source, for it to reflect. The cross strip should work, though. Test it with your rear view camera, though. Those cameras don't have a ton of range and a strong light source could make them darken the image so much that you can't see the hitch. Here's some tape I put onto my hitch for the same reason. Looks amazing in a photo, but in real life does nothing -

They have people teeth and people claws.

They ask for the bear spray to see that it is in fact labeled bear spray and not pepper spray, which is illegal to take across. Seems silly, since bear spray is typically more powerful, but it's all about intended use.

Definitely bring it to the rally. I want to check it out.

Never heard of that. We went last year and they didn't ask anything about propane.

I think there's a capacitor in there that you'll want to short out, but that should be the only potentially dangerous thing. If we don't hear back from you, I'll assume I'm wrong.

Update - I ended up buying a pair of the Helinox Sunsets that I mentioned above. I can see why they've become so popular - they really do seem to hit the perfect balance of portability, sturdiness, comfort, size, etc. They assemble and pack back up with very little effort, and packed up they're an easy to store 18" x 5". Best part is that, unprompted by me, when my wife sat in one, she said "These can replace the Zero-G chairs!". I got their little hardtop table to go with them. Just the right size and hight, and sturdy enough to put your feet up on it if you want. I also got my wife one of these blankets to go with the chairs - that really sealed the deal.