Steph and Dud B

I just finished cleaning up after the blizzard and this is what I was looking at this morning. It's getting old. On a serious note, there was a fatal accident after the storm when someone was trying to pull out a stuck snow plow with a tow strap attached to a hitch. The hitch broke off and whipped into the cab of the truck from the tension on the tow strap. Most hitches aren't designed to handle the forces involved in a hard pull between two large vehicles. Just a reminder to be careful out there.

If the previous owner accidentally connected the batteries backwards, even for a second, the reverse polarity fuses will blow and your converter won't charge the batteries. So, first, verify that your batteries are connected properly: positive cable (usually red) connected to the positive battery terminal. Just to be sure. Next: Those 2 green 30 Amp fuses at the bottom of your photo appear to be the reverse polarity fuses that are suspect. Pull them and test them. If you don't know how to test them, just buy 2 new 30 Amp fuses and replace them. See if that solves your problem.

As others have said, it sounds like your converter isn't charging the batteries. Could be a failed converter or blown fuse. Question for the hive mind: does the converter in a 2015 have reverse polarity fuses between the batteries and converter?

Hi. Go to Google and search for "Oliver trailers lithium upgrade." Several relevant threads pop up, including this one: Lead Acid to Lithium - Ollie Modifications - Oliver Owner Forums https://share.google/oayGb76nRTfLxwQnx Lots of good information in those threads that can help you.

Update to our situation: I found a good fiberglass tech here, someone who's worked on Corvettes for many years. He wants to determine whether this is just a gelcoat crack or if the underlying fiberglass is damaged as well. To that end, he wants to grind off the gelcoat and inspect the fiberglass beneath. If the underlying fiberglass is damaged he thinks we should take it back to Oliver to have the water heater removed and the fiberglass repaired. I did get a better picture of the back side of the cracked area.

We've had the 640Ah Lithionics from the start with a 3-way fridge. More battery power than we've ever needed. I think the lowest we ever got was 63% after a week camping in full shade during rainy weather. It's funny. We were used to camping with a single lead acid deep cycle battery in our old trailers so I still find myself going around turning off lights and watching the battery SOC like a hawk. I have to learn to relax. Like @Steve and MA said, holding tanks are the limiting factor now.

We never lift the tires completely off the ground when setting up at a campsite. We usually level with "Lego" blocks under the tires first, then use the jacks to take most of the load off the tires, so there's no tire bulge at the bottom. Sometimes I will also use a jack to help level side to side, maybe an inch.

For all those bright LEDs: https://a.co/d/02j1OZft

We replaced our 2022 detector last fall for the same problem: hypersensitive, going off for no apparent reason. I also used Wago connectors to make the next replacement easier. I think the RV environment is especially hard on these detectors, especially in small campers like ours, where they're often exposed to low levels of various chemicals: propane from the stove, exhaust from the fridge coming in the screen door, even hair spray. Not to mention temperature extremes while in storage. On another note, always disconnect power before cutting or splicing wires. It's easier to find and pull the fuse than to repair whatever damage you might cause with a short.

Got out the snowshoes and went around the house with the roof rake today. Was starting to get ice dams up there. At least we're through January!

Looks like this second storm will mostly miss us here in CT. Good luck to those still in the path.

They're 6 panel doors, 10' wide, 14' high.

About 14” from the weekend storm. At least the Oliver is safe indoors. Looks like next weekend might bring more snow. Haven't seen a winter like this in CT for many years.

Our state (CT) emergency management office just advised us that southern states could have a major ice storm (1"+) that could pull linemen out of our area for a couple of weeks to help restore power down there. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Meanwhile, we're expecting to to 20" of snow up here.

The warmup band just started playing in CT and the plows are running. Expecting the main act Sunday.

Good luck to all in the path of this storm from your friends up north.

We found an extra brake backer plate nut loose inside one of our wheels. It would randomly get caught up in the brake assembly, emitting a terrible screech. Could be hard to notice because it would stick to the magnet.

Yes, we're connected with the usual parasitic draws plus the internal heaters. Lithionics says leave them on the charger all winter while the internal heaters are being used but I don't like leaving them on the charger 100% of the time, so I've been letting them drop a bit, then bring them back to 100% SOC once every couple of weeks.

Update: The v9 Lithionics firmware is only available for external BMS batteries at this time, but they say they'll be releasing a similar update for internal BMS batteries soon. For now, those of us with internal BMS will still need to draw the batteries down to 0% SOC to recalibrate SOC. I'll wait until the new firmware is available...

Hi, all. We have the 640Ah Lithionics lithium package and we rarely use even a quarter of that capacity. Winterizing is per the Lithionics manual: kept plugged in with their internal heaters doing their thing. I've noticed a bit of SOC drift, so I decided to do a SOC recalibration by taking the batteries down to low voltage cutoff and recharging per the Lithionics procedure. Learned some stuff. I disconnected shore power and let the batteries slowly discharge until they were reading 51 and 61 percent state of charge respectively (there's that drift). Then I turned the inverter on and connected a small 780W space heater to finish the discharge. BUT... The Xantrex inverter cut off with a low battery error when the SOC dropped to only 40 and 50 percent. The Xantrex low battery cutoff was set to 12.1v per Oliver specs and the Xantrex panel reported 12.0V when the inverter cutoff occurred. HOWEVER, the Lithionics BMS were both reporting approx. 12.6v, well above the cutoff point. All battery connections felt tight and cool to the touch. After breaking out the voltmeter and talking with Xantrex this is what I learned: 1. It is normal to lose some voltage between the batteries and the inverter under load. Just a fraction of a volt, but that matters here. Retesting with a voltmeter showed a drop between .4 and .6 volts under that 780W load. Xantrex support said I could safely change the Xantrex low battery cutoff (LBCO) to 11.5v. That should allow me to draw the batteries down much farther. 2. Lithionics has a firmware update (v9.0.04) that improves SOC calibration by automatically rough calibrating at certain setpoints during discharge: https://lithionics.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/154000127575-what-is-soc-drift-and-how-to-avoid-it- We've got a bitter cold spell coming, so I'm going to stop playing for now. Recharging the batteries to full today before it gets real cold. I'll install the battery firmware update later and change the Xantrex LBCO setting before I try again. Always a learning curve...

We often tow with a full fresh water tank, often for long distances. No problem at all.

FWIW, we have the self-heating Lithionics and they've been great. Don't have to worry about them much. Don't have to remember to turn a heating pad on. But we live, and mostly camp, in the Northeast.

Merry Christmas from Connecticut in the "season of the sticks!"

If you don't want to drill holes in the hull, why not use a portable solar panel on the ground with it's own charge controller and just run the cables through the open battery compartment door?

Excellent rebuttal in the second video. I'm not an electrical engineer, but I can't see how this can be a "safety feature" like BB claims. Loose connections on high amperage devices create heat, heat causes cell failure and potential thermal runaway in lithium batteries.