Steph and Dud B

@jd1923 that is perfectly normal wiring. Our previous trailers all had that wire hot to the batteries. (As others have said, it is not that way with our lithiums.) We even made a jumper plug to connect that terminal to the running lights so we could leave the running lights on if we had to leave the trailer on the side of the road at night because of a breakdown. You might see some campers leave their trailers lit that way in campgrounds, too. Kinda a newbie thing.

If you're on shore power, have the 2 power connectors outside (left side body and right side by the propane tanks), and the transfer switch doesn't click/microwave doesn't beep when you plug in, can your cord reach the other power connector?

We had an electric fireplace in our last fifth wheel. I thought it was silly, but it was a standard feature. Turned out, we really liked it. It was basically an electric space heater, so it was good to take the edge off on a chilly night if we had hookups. And the fake fire glow was actually kind of nice. 🙂 Here's another article from the same source, this one a review of the production Cortes units. Saw a couple of those at our local dealer this summer. https://www.theautopian.com/this-new-fiberglass-camper-has-some-great-ideas-wrapped-in-terrible-marketing/

A new company. This one's made of plastic with welded seams. I think the interior might be plastic, too. Very lightweight. https://www.theautopian.com/this-new-lightweight-plastic-camper-promises-a-leakless-future-with-no-rot/

FYI, you can't really manually adjust Dexter auto-adjust brakes if they're too tight. You can back the star wheel off, but it will just go right back to where it was next time the auto-adjuster kicks in. However, you can adjust them with the star wheel if they're too loose. Go figure. (Also, the Dexters auto adjust while moving forward.) John's right. They're more trouble than they're worth, IMO.

Interesting. How was the bus bar a power drain? Our was it high resistance?

At John's suggestion, we have a little Alpicool fridge/freezer to keep Steph's meds at the right temp while dry camping. We keep a Govee wifi thermometer in it to monitor the temps. It worked fine all summer.

This is how I discovered a brake failure on a previous trailer. The brake assembly fell apart due to a broken spring and the parts were rattling around inside the drum. I noticed that wheel was running hotter than the others - but not hot enough to trigger an alarm - so I pulled over to check. The early catch may have prevented spindle damage.

You can also check error codes and battery details on the Lithionics app (as long as the batteries are On and connected to Bluetooth).

TPMS is the first thing we install on every trailer. Learned the hard way with trailer #1.

A thermal camera won't find moisture. It only displays the surface temperature.

It's a trailer. It's going to move. When Steph says it's moving too much I go outside and give the rear jacks a little nudge. It's still better than our fifth wheels.

Have fun!

Do the fuse failure LEDs come on when you pull the fuse from a connected circuit? They look off in the photos.

You have a Xantrex inverter, correct? On the wall panel remote for the Xantrex, when the silver button is out, the inverter function is off. There should be no LEDs lit if you're not connected to shore power. When the silver button is in, a green LED and the display on the LCD screen indicate that the inverter is functioning.

That doesn't make any sense... Just to be sure, because I can't see it in the photos, what jacks do you have your multimeter probes plugged into on the meter? Want to be sure this isn't a test equipment error.

Honestly, the rust I see in the photos doesn't look much different from the underside of almost every older car here in Connecticut. It's part and parcel of living in a coastal state that also uses brine to de-ice the roads every winter. Even those of us that frequently rinse the undercarriage still get rust if we drive in the winter. Maybe go easy on the current owner. She may have been taking reasonable care in an environment that simply rusts steel quickly.

What kind of weird hobby do we have where there are fan boys of cables vs chains... 🙂

Our 2022 came with chains.

I saw several Cortes campers on my local dealer's lot a couple of weeks ago. The only other double-shelled fiberglass travel trailers on the market. It would be interesting if OTT partnered with dealers who also sold other molded fiberglass trailers. That might seem counter-intuitive, but think about it. The price range would be more comparable so the Olivers wouldn't seem like such an outlier and the Olivers would have a chance to show off their advantages side-by-side with another fiberglass unit.

Our closest non-fiberglass cousin is Airstream. They have dealers. They're more expensive than most of the competition. They seem to be doing well. How do they do it? That might be an appropriate model for OTT. (Although I have heard some stories that Airstream quality has slipped since Thor bought them out. Can't personally say if that's true or not.)

I sincerely hope so. That would be the best case scenario.

Precisely. Therefore, there's no need for OTT to establish a dealer network to improve service. Lots of us have had warranty work done by our local shops, who were then paid by Oliver. No issue. The main reasoning for this move has to be to increase sales. However,@New2Oliver makes some solid points. We've owned 2 previous trailers from independent, non-Elkhart manufacturers that were somewhat superior in quality to the Indiana-made trailers - and slightly more expensive. Even with a better quality product, both companies went out of business. The majority of consumers couldn't appreciate the difference in quality between their trailers and the other ones sitting on the lot. But they did see the higher price. And too often chose the cheaper unit. I'm glad our hull number is from before they start cranking out the dealer-sold units. If @New2Oliver is right, the original factory-direct units will be in demand after this transition.

Same thing happened with our first trailer. The wires were actually folded inside the axle tube and chafed until they shorted. Dumb design. Same repair. Never had another problem.

This. So many stories about shoddy work by dealer-based service centers, including our own experiences. There are lots of good independent service centers and mobile techs that might reflect well on Oliver, but I'm not sure many dealerships can. Their focus is on sales, not service.