rideandfly

Tested the new MPPT solar controller with two 100W Renogy Suitcase solar panels. Charged at 12.6 Amps, the 100AH BattleBorn Lithium 12V battery charged quickly this afternoon. 🙂

Like my old 2003 Toyota pickup, it's simple and durable. Thanks!

Yep, I'm the same way, easier to pack. The older I get the more I don't like picking up heavy stuff if I can avoid it.

Yep, Walmart is where the white plastic board the solar charger & Victron Shunt were mounted on (Cutting Board) and silicon lid were both purchased.

My experimenting has been east of the Mississippi with the 2022 Tundra so far. Very interested to learn how the Tundra’s twin turbo V-6 performs up to 10,000 msl. Look forward to hearing about that! With a 5% grade found 6th gear and 55mph to work, if I remember correctly rpm was around 2150. Passing some 18 wheel trucks. Towed Ollie up 7% & 8% grades so far. Like to experiment with different rpm/gear settings for different % grades. Never try to maintain speed limit while towing up grades. Just find a rpm/gear combination up to maximum torque rpm. Don’t want to overheat drivetrain components by keeping up with automobile traffic towing up grades. Found it took too much throttle management seeking the highest gear causing transmission hunting instead of going with a little higher rpm lower gear combination up to maximum torque rpm of 2400. Believe the new Hybrid Tundra is a towing beast up grades, but have not driven one, yet! 🙂

John, All of my testing was under 65MPH towing Ollie. When we pass through WY, will bump it up to 8th gear. Initially had to work hard with throttle control using 7th, 8th, & 9th not using cruise control. Found using 7th gear @ 2150 RPM & 61MPH with cruise control on was a more pleasant ride with better average MPG in TN & NC hill country.

John, Tried tape & neoprene plugs, the tape did not stick well on the door interior surface or seal well. Neoprene plugs did not install easily. Silicone plugs seal nicely and easy to install & remove. Are you working on your suitcase solar panel installation?

Now that you mention it, I did have enough lid left to make a sink stopper, all for a $1.96! 🙂

David, Thanks! Going to test the system very soon, too!

Contacted Oliver to see if current battery compartment door with louvered vents will fit on our #75 LE2 Ollie, but Oliver said the latest door is a different size and will not work on our Ollie. Decided to remove plastic plugs I installed in original battery compartment door vents and use 1/16" thick soft silicone plugs that can be installed & removed easily in original vents. Purchased a silicone lid and cut out 8 plugs installing in existing vents. Plan to monitor battery compartment temps or remove vent plugs while away from campsite when solar charging with an indoor/outdoor Acurite temperature monitor this season, will see:

Previously installed a little Gorilla double sided tape on fiberglass where belly band is installed. When initially applied it can be removed in one piece, but if left for 24 hours difficult to remove, but removable with elbow grease, alcohol, and wood scraper made out of paint stir sticks with sharp edges on ends ground with belt sander. Tested a Dremel tool with wire brush attachment on a small section of belly band adhesive to rough up the old adhesive and it worked OK. Guess if you wanted to remove original adhesive stips, it can be done with a more aggressive Dremel attachment. Decided to install Gorilla double sided tape directly over existing adhesive on the belly band without roughing up or removing old belly band adhesive. Let setup for 24 hours before re-installing band, left white backing material on clear double sided tape until installation. Applied pressure rubbing over complete belly band where re-attached with microfiber cloth at least 10 times. EDIT: The Gorillia Super Glue double sided tape did not adhere in the corner where attached to fiberglass after several days. Cannot recommend it.

Believe the Ford & Toyota turbo V-6 powerplants and the Toyota 5.7L V-8 are all fine engines. Before buying a new pickup, always checked out TFL videos on that vehicle, if available. Speaking of frontal area/drag, used to tow a 2,000 pound aerodynamic brick (SOB) travel trailer and could only get 13MPG with a 4.0L Frontier in the lower 48. Towed Ollie home from MO to NC with the same Frontier after we purchased Ollie and had to check actual fuel consumption twice to believe we were getting slightly over 15MPG with a 4900 pound Ollie. Personally don't tow like TFL does, but they present real world scenarios, that some may experience. I slow down for steep grades, even if power is available to maintain the speed limit, to increase MPG and decrease overall drivetrain operation temps. Searched for a while towing Ollie with the 2022 Tundra for the right combination of RPM/gear to find what I believe to be a good combination. Maximum torque of the 3.4L twin turbo engine is 2400RPM, found 2150RPM in 7th gear (10 speed transmission) with cruise control on yielded 61MPH (GPS) and over 15MPG in hilly NC/TN areas. Toyota Tundra's 5.7L: Normally aspirated V-8, 381 hp @ 5,600 rpm and 401 lb.-ft @ 3,600 rpm Toyota Tundra's 3.4L TT: 3.4L Twin-Turbo V6, 389 hp @ 5200 rpm, 479 lb.-ft. @ 2400 rpm

Installed airbags on rear differentials on two vehicles and Timbren systems on two vehicles. Personally prefer air bags on the rear differential. Run 5PSI when unloaded and 20PSI towing Ollie. Did not install onboard compressor for airbags, instead installed valve stems to release pressure or pressurize each bag as license plate mount studs: Use our 4 cylinder Tacoma to only move Ollie around the house (builds Tacoma's confidence) , 30PSI in Tacoma's air bags, with no sag 🙂:

Ours came loose on the curbside. Going to reattach the band using Gorilla Super Glue Double Sided Tape this week, one strip of double sided tape under each adhesive strip on the chrome band (between original band adhesive & hull) with the Gorilla tape under the chrome strip. Available at WalMart:

We're looking at the 2024 Tacoma, too. Purchased the 2022 Tundra to tow Ollie. If we buy a new Tacoma, it will become our daily driver! Looked through the paperwork from when we purchased the 2003 Tacoma, it was less than $12,000 new and still running great. The 1st generation Tacoma had frame rust issues in areas using road chemicals, Toyota replaced frames under warranty. Our Tacoma has not been driven on treated roads and the frame is fine. Tow other stuff with the Tundra: The Tacoma still works nicely towing when we want to take a motorcycle on Ollie camping trips on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Our 2003 2.4L (4 cylinder) Tacoma (passed 200,000 miles yesterday) has a payload capacity of 1475 pounds compared to the listed payload capacity of our 2022 Tundra's 1400 pounds. This little truck rides like a truck, many of the new 1/2 ton pickups including the new Tundra have a softer ride than our 2003 Tacoma. Probably put a couple hundred thousand miles on 3/4 & 1 ton trucks with firm rides at work before retirement. Last time I weighed the 2022 Tundra's current curb weight with full tank of fuel, aftermarket & factory accessories installed the actual payload capacity came in over 1500 pounds compared to the listed 1400 pounds from Toyota. We have towed Ollie with the Toyota 5.7L V-8 and 3.5L twin turbo engines. I like how the 3.5L V-6 engine develops maximum torque at a lower RPM compared to the 5.7L V-8 engine. Our 3.5L powered Tundra gets better MPG towing and not towing, too. Had to be careful when towing Ollie with our 2016 Tundra keeping TV under GVW with Ollie attached. With the 2022 Tundra it's easy (for us) to have the TV 300 to 400 pounds under GVW with how we camp. We camp light, but understand why folks like HD pickups for towing Ollie, too. Always wondered how SAEJ2807 standards effect new pickup capacities compared to older non SAEJ2807 vehicles.

Congrats on your new to you Ollie!

Same here! So far so good. We attended events this year requiring parking in large remote parking lots making it easy for convertor theft. Believe someone here previously had catalytic convertor theft on their Tundra.

This thread will make a good informative collection of Tundra information. After reading about catalytic convertor theft, installed a Talon's Garage Powder Coated carbon steel Cat Shield earlier this month weighing in at 38.6 pounds. Used a Craftsman ATV jack to position the Shield making it easy to install the tamper proof bolts. Will weigh the Tundra/Ollie Rig again to keep up to date rig weights.

Had rear air bags on our 2016 Tundra and really liked them, easy to install, too. Also had Diamondback bed cover, like that better than the Toyota hard bed cover on our 2022 Tundra. Installed Timbren rear suspension enhancement on our 2022 Tundra, they work fine with a little sag. With the Timbren system installed and if the Tundra is empty, there is air gap between the Timbren blocks and rear differential giving a smoother ride. If you have one or two hundred pounds in the bed, the Timbren blocks contact the rear differential giving a firmer ride. Fuel economy with the 2016 SR5 5.7L 4X4 was around 12MPG towing Ollie. 2022 Tundra 2WD 3.5L Crew Cab MPG Testing: OEM installed GeoLandar street tires on Tundra. TV tire pressures 40 PSI and Camper’s Cooper tire pressures 50 PSI. Camper's weight between 4900 to 4950 pounds with empty grey, fresh, and black water tanks. Rig weight around 11,020 pounds. Check Rig & TV/Camper weights periodically with CAT scales. Set cruise at 63MPH yielding 61MPH GPS speed. Tow haul mode used with 7th gear. Engine speed was 2150 RPM. During the test while climbing a 5% grade reduced speed to 55MPH and dropped down to 6th gear. One way test from Crossville TN (TN plateau area) to Denver NC yielded 15.8 MPG. Round trip from Crossville TN to Howenwald TN and back to Crossville yielded 15.5 MPG. Found the MPG indicator in our 2022 Tundra to be a few tenths lower than actual MPG. Using a CAT scale found actual load capacity to be over 1500 pounds, higher than the operators manual's 1400 pounds. Weighed after installing side rails, mud flaps, bed mat, Timbren load enhancement system, and Toyota hard bed cover. Toyota was conservative with the load capacity on our Tundra. Tundra manual Load Capacity: Here's Tundra/Ollie Rig CAT scale results:

John & Kim, A thin flat washer will probably change where the fitting points when it bottoms out. I pointed all of the pin straight zerks outward, the grease gun I have works OK with them. routlaw, Did the fitting take grease easily when the EZ Flex was installed? The single pin port should be pointing horizontal to pump grease in the bushing with weight on the wheel. If the port is pointing up or down, you may not be able to pump grease in with weight on or off the wheel, depends on which way the port is pointing. Try with weight on the wheel, too.

The MN State Bird must have migrated to a campground in Nebraska. One morning while at the dump station I was attacked by the mosquitoes, there were many, they were big, bad, fast, and hungry. ☹️ On a more pleasant topic I guess, we were at a local State Park the morning after Nebraska beat Miami in a football game. Someone shot a cannon at 7:00AM at the campground, still celebrating. 🧨 We felt out of place with a Black TV, all the Nebraska fans had Red TVs. The football game was close by, made reservations months ahead of that date and never understood why the campground was full until the day of the football game. 🙂

We purchased our 2015 LE2 #75 used during 2016 from the original owners. Scheduled a plant tour with Jason during May 2016 and our new to us LE2 also came up for sale on the forum during the same week we were scheduled for the plant tour. After the plant tour we headed to MO that afternoon to see the used Ollie. Camped in Ollie that night on the previous owner's farm and purchased Ollie the next day. Towed Ollie home with a 2013 Nissan 4.0L Frontier. First thing learned even though our previous travel trailer was less than 1/2 the weight of Ollie with fuel economy at 13MPG, fuel economy increased to over 15MPG towing Ollie with the Frontier from MO to NC. Ollie had great towing manners and stopped nicely when someone pulled out in front of us during the trip home. Had some water leaks from the dinette window and rear Oliver sign. Once the leaks were fixed, no leaks since. 🙂 Now towing Ollie with a 2022 Toyota Tundra and getting over 15MPG in NC & TN. Our LE2 did not have original factory installed solar charging so we use portable suitcase solar charging with BattleBorn lithium battery. Always admired the white window shades in later model Ollies, so we purchased a set from Oliver. Next camping trips will be on the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC! Still get the comment "Is this a brand new camper"! 🙂 Valley of Fire NV: Blue Ridge Parkway NC: 🙂

Yep!!!! 😁

On the bottom LH side of this converter you can see the LI (Lithium) & LA (Lead Acid) switch like JD said.