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andrew

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Everything posted by andrew

  1. Thanks Chris, I appreciate that. I was very happy with how everything came out. With what we did, we we were able to spend the entire week at Burning Man without unreeling our shore power cord or starting our generator! We were down over 70AH when we arrived because I ran the fridge on DC most of the trip there. That was the lowest I saw the batteries and every morning by 10am they were again full. The most power I saw from the solar panels while we were there was 235 watts which I that was fantastic.
  2. Got the pictures of the completed Solar setup uploaded. The only thing left is to figure out how to put the raising and lowering of the panels on a button instead of having to do it manually http://oliver.hewus.com/Mods/Solar/Final
  3. Yay! Successful tests of the inverter/charger and the solar system (panels, controller)! Everything seems to work. Just need a few more brackets and clamps to keep the panels on the roof and we are done.
  4. The rest of the stuff showed up, I hope to get it installed by the end of this weekend. I can't wait! http://oliver.hewus.com/Mods/Solar
  5. I've always liked that placement for the solar panels ever since I saw the two panels on Seadawg's Ollie. Your angular swing of the panels from down to up is large. Will you be able to fix the panels at numerous angles to maximize energy capture or will it be all or nothing? The plan is that the panels will pivot at the point near the center of the roof to allow us to maximize energy. The pivot point is so far from the panels so they will clear the AC when they pivot. Eventually I want to motorize it and put it on a solar tracker, but that is a future project Getting more amp hours would also be a gooooood thing. Very true, and I think a lot of them could fit in the ~60 inches between the frame rails. Can't wait to see the finished project and hear how it works for you. I can't wait either! Hopefully the panels will show up by next weekend and we can get them installed in the next couple of weeks.
  6. We are working on modding our Oliver with some solar panels and a new inverter/charger. I am adding stuff here about doing it: http://oliver.hewus.com/Mods/Solar The most interesting so far are probably the brackets we are having custom made: http://oliver.hewus.com/Mods/Solar/Parts/Brackets I will update this thread as we go along. Let me know if you have any questions. One interesting thought I have for the future is that since we have the 4" lift, we could build a battery box under the trailer that spans the width of the trailer just in front of or behind the axle and add quite a few more amp hours plus gain the storage space where the batteries are now.
  7. I find the warm white are close in color to the existing incandescent lights and the cool white are very similar to the LED floor lights. I don't mind either way, bugZ prefers the warm white.
  8. It hasn't quite been a year yet, but Cherie and I are back where it all started last July -- camped inside (yes - inside!) the Oliver factory in Hohenwald, TN. Congratulations! Water Pump: ... Hot Water Switch Location: ... SeeLevel with Switches: Here is the link: http://www.rvgauge.com/products/model_709PH.shtml I sent the factory an email recommending it a while back. The problem that I saw is that although they have one with a 3-way switch and one with a hot water switch, they don't appear to be available together. It seems that an RV manufacturer should be able to special order from SeeLevel though and get exactly what they want. Grey Water: There should be a way to leave the grey water drain open while leaving the battery bay closed. This would be nice for when semi-permanently hooked up to a sewer system. I have heard, although I don't know the details, that doing that increases the gunk build-up in the grey tank. I don't have experience, I have just heard not to do that in an RV. Battery Chamber Lock: It would be nice if there was a way to lock the battery chamber, and perhaps even the tongue propane storage area. (This may potentially not be allowed by law??) Our battery chamber I believe does have a keyed latch, tho I have never used it. I do know that the latches on our propane cover have locks, but they said they were not allowed by law to give us the keys and on newer trailers stopped using the keyed latches. Bumper Storage Chamber Height: The back bumper storage area does not have enough clearance to store a typical sewer adaptor, meaning that it can not be stored along with the hose. One inch more clearance would make a huge difference here. Ours was close enough that I put our adapter on the table sander and made it the 1/8" shorter so now it will slide in there.
  9. I was going through some old unread posts that I had missed, and somehow I hadn't seen this thread. We use the changeover indicator on ours, but I added the remote indicator, it blinks a yellow LED whenever the first propane tank is out. We don't do many long trips, so when it starts blinking we just switch the tank selector so it stops blinking and refill the empty tank at the next opportunity. http://oliver.hewus.com/Mods/Remote_Pro ... _Indicator (We usually never run it out while camping though, usually we run out the BBQ at home and then go steal a tank from the trailer and then refill just before we leave)
  10. I am working on a few electrical upgrades, and lacking a schematic for the Oliver, I would love some advice. I have been digging into it because I want to put in solar before Burning Man, so I will be looking into more of this as I go. I dunno what your time frame is on this, but I am probably going to start ordering parts in the next couple of weeks for our solar. My question: Is it possible to fish a wire up and over the roof (between the shells) to get from one side of the trailer to the other? Or will I need to run the wires all the way around the back? It appears to me (I have to do more looking to be sure that it goes all the way) that there is a gap between the two shells at the top of the trailer. However it appears to be about 3/8ths of an inch. So although data cables should reach, but I am not sure about connectors. At the moment my plan is to just use that area to get in to bolt in the solar panel brackets and run the data cables all the way around the back with the rest of the wiring, only because it is still not that far and it seems easier to get to to troubleshoot. I did find that the current wiring goes from the top to the bottom of the trailer between the shells on the street-side of the emergency exit window and it looks like there should be enough room to put more wires through there. Secondly: I would like to have separate master switches on the panel for the inside and outside lights. Lacking a schematic of the wiring harness makes this a bit difficult to figure out, but before I start tracing wires myself - has anyone mapped out where the power for the outside lights splits off from the panel? One other thought is to route the ground lighting into the solar controller, so that I can make it automatic dusk-till-dawn lighting. I have not tracked those wires down, but I can't imagine they would be too tough to find since the switches are up on the tongue of the trailer. I am planning to use the "load" on my solar controller for the fantastic fan because we don't full time in ours and so being able to leave the fan on permanently seems like a really nice feature and then the solar controller will take care of shutting it of if something goes wrong and the batteries run down. When using the trailer I can see that disk-to-dawn lighting would be really nice. You could still switch that so you can turn the lights off from inside the trailer. The inverter is located down under the front small dinette seat. What is the easiest way to run a wire from down under there to the cabinet up over the fridge? I believe that you can fairly easily fish a wire from one side of the trailer to the other under the floor and up next to the fridge. I could well be wrong though so you may end up having to go all the way to the back and up through the "raceway" at the back of the trailer with the rest of the wires. Ultimately, this is how I plan to have the switches configured: (currently three are unused) Sounds like a good way to split them to me, the only thing I can think of is to put things that you are going to switch frequently towards the inside of the trailer because I find I can easily switch the 3 switches that are closest to the inside of the trailer without going around to look at them, but the other 3 are too far away to reach easily. Also to note is that Sea Dog Line has if you need them.
  11. When I installed our soap dispenser about where you put that water dispenser, I thought about putting in an RO system. I didn't because it seemed easier to bring drinking water as often as we have time to go. When I was thinking about it, my plan was to mount the filters under the seat by the water heater and water pump. I am sure that eventually I will install one.
  12. It makes me wonder, is it too early to start a OLIVER DIRECTORY ? Maybe a online directory ? I know that Betty and I wouldn't mind being in such a directory. We have #4, and wouldn't mind. I can put something up on oliver.hewus.com, but what sort of information should be collected? Do you have an example of such a directory?
  13. As an alternative to using suction cups to hang things on the interior walls of our Oliver trailer, we would like to consider actually drilling holes to attach various sorts of hangers. If you had done so, please post information on how successful that has been for you. Please describe the process, what precautions you have taken, types of drill bits used, the types of fasteners you have inserted through the fiberglass to make the anchor, and any other information that you think would be useful. I have done it, check out our mods, and it was fairly easy. I used normal drill bits and hole saws and went slow. I generally used some masking tape so that I could measure and mark on it and make sure I made the hole where I wanted it. I used machine screws with nylock nuts and fender washers on the back to hold everything. I haven't drilled anywhere that I couldn't get to the back of what I was drilling yet, so I haven't had to use any fasteners like that yet.
  14. I'm also experimenting with some of the new chrome finish 3m Command hooks. They really hold tightly, and support a lot of weight. However, I haven't tried to remove any yet. We'll see. I have used them (the white ones), and removed them and they work very well. However, I have to put them all back up now that summer is over and it is cooling off enough to go out camping. They are only good up to 120 degrees and then they apparently fall off. But, they came with enough extra double sided tape stuff that it isn't a big deal. We also use velcro to hold many things in place... flashlights, remote controls, small framed photos.... That's great stuff! I have also used Velcro and it seems to work well for certain things, however it doesn't hold as well as I would like for heavier items (maglite) or things that are pulled on (paper towels), so we did drill and mount some items permanently.
  15. With all of the amenities available for the Oliver it seems to be getting very close to the gross vehicle weight rating if all of the storage tanks are full. Is it possible to have it made with a heavier duty axle? They are actually doing this. Jim has some 5800 pound (ok. I might be wrong about the exact amount, I just saw them once, but at least 5000 pound) rated axles that he says they are going to be putting on the Oliver in the future. He said that they looked into it because of the rock collectors that had Olivers. He has some at his house here that we are going to swap onto our trailer. We are just waiting for the weather to cool down before we do, and then I can tell you more details and post pictures. The factory probably has more information about them.
  16. There is one feature I would like to see. ... I love the shower spray faucet in the bathroom! I would love to have it in the kitchen also! All the faucets on the Oliver are from Scandvik, they have a catalog available at: http://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm/metho ... aucets.htm I bet that Oliver could really easily put in just about anything they have available. I believe this is the current kitchen faucet: http://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm/metho ... /ID/17.htm but, these other faucets looked like they would be nice in that they include a sprayer (which I don't think should be an optional part of a kitchen sink!) http://www.scandvik.com/index.cfm/metho ... ID/697.htm They may also have a separate sprayer available, but I didn't find one in my brief look through the catalog just now.
  17. I want to get a Xantrex Prosine 2.0 to put in our trailer eventually. I like the true sine wave inverter because electronics generally like them better. Specifically, our Dish receiver won't run off the crappy inverter we use now. The reason I am looking at such a large inverter is that I want one that will allow us to re-heat a cup of coffee in the microwave (for 30-45 seconds) without turning on the generator! However, it is over $700 for a refurbished one, or almost double that for a new one. I also want to figure out how to NOT run the fridge through the inverter, but I haven't found a decent dual breaker box to support things that aren't on the inverter. I also do want to get some solar eventually, but haven't looked into it much so far.
  18. We went back to Hackberry again, although it is getting a bit warm during the day, we are going to have to either stay home and swim in the pool, bring more gas for the generator, run the AC and hide inside during the day or find another place to camp where it is cooler. The nights are beautiful though!
  19. Sure, many questions can be answered by the Search link near the top of every page.
  20. Here is a look at the water transfer valve and hose setup. It will pump water into the Oliver's fresh water tank, using the onboard pump that supplies water to the sink and both showers. Just flip the valves and put the hose out of the window to your container, and you are in business ! Ok. Now I want that, but I am rather confused. How do you get the water pump to pump water INTO the fresh water tank? I can see that doing what you are talking about would allow you to use an external container instead of the internal tank to feed the sink and shower, but how do you get the pump to run backwards?
  21. Good one, andrew, where was it taken ? It was taken on the road, on the way home from Hackberry. I am not sure if it was on Route 66 or on I40, but somewhere there. I went through some of my other sunset pics and posted a few them The rest of these are from our backyard at home. I still haven't gotten one that is "the one" for the mural on the trailer. I am still trying though.
  22. Do I have to keep these limited to photos I have taken while camping? I have quite a few that I have taken at home that I may post if I get the time.
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