Steph and Dud B

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.

Wow! That is bad engineering. Here's a direct link to the video:

We still carry a genny. Never use it, except to charge Stephanie's e-bike, but it's nice to have, just in case.

Have you checked the wire connections inside the transfer switch housing (with all power disconnected, obviously). Those wires have been known to come loose.

A couple of thoughts: 1. Does your trailer have 2 shoreline inputs, one on the driver's side and one on the passenger side of the hitch? If so, try the other one. 2. Does your unit have a power management system display, perhaps in the attic cabinet? With shore power connected, does the PMS display show anything? Any error codes? Not sure where the transfer switch and converter are in your model year. You should be able to find that information online in Oliver University

These look pretty close. https://a.co/d/4vsDRnm https://a.co/d/fXL5iZq

The awning power switch needs to be on. Then you can turn the lights on/off with the awning remote.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I've heard of these. Looks like an easy option for those who want to run their A/C with a 2kW generator and don't have factory installed soft start.

We've towed various trailers with everything from a V8 Ford Explorer to a diesel F350 dually. I concur with the previous posts that you might need, and would definitely be happier with, a larger tow vehicle.

Yep, square cut opening for the water heater. This is the location of the crack. Considering that Oliver is a fiberglass company first, not to mention the premium prices they charge for their trailers, I'm really disappointed that they would cut corners like this (both literally and figuratively). I'm sure a good boat repair shop could figure out a repair, but would they be able to remove and reinstall the water heater with its associated gas line, plumbing, and wiring? We could go back to Hohenwald Service, but we've had sloppy work there, too, and it's a long drive. My wife just came in the room and suggested maybe we should get this fixed, then sell the trailer. Really sad to hear that because this was her dream camper. (And, for those keeping score, I missed one on my previous list. This is actually #22. 😕)

Back on topic, I'm still unsure of my course of action. Should I take the trailer back to Hohenwald for warranty fiberglass repair? That's a lot of expense and inconvenience for us. What kind of shop could do this repair locally? A boat shop? Or is OTT better equipped? Would a repair be permanent or just crack again at the same point? OTOH, is this only cosmetic and unlikely to spread further? Even so, a "cosmetic" crack won't help with resale on a very expensive trailer. I asked OTT how long a repair would take and I'm waiting to hear back on that. I think I may actually know when this happened. We had just set up at a campsite this fall. When I stepped onto the steps to go inside there was a sharp noise from the back of the trailer. It was odd enough that I actually went back and looked underneath to see what it was, but saw nothing. (Checked underneath again today, still OK.) Would gelcoat cracking make an audible noise like that??

Look, a butterfly! (Sorry...) 😁

In retrospect that's what I should have done, but this was on the warranty list for that first trip back to Hohenwald. They had the trailer for a day and a half. When we went back to get it, they told me they couldn't find a problem with the bolts. I asked them to fetch a torque wrench and I showed them myself. Then we had to wait another two and a half hours while they got a new bracket from the factory and put it in.

@jd1923 OTT must have changed their jack bracket setup. This is what we had at the base of our jacks. Looks like what you fabricated. Also the source of one of our other problems. If you look here, you'll see the square hole circled in red is larger then the other. Too large, in fact. The carriage bolt just spun around in the hole and couldn't be tightened. I found this trying to trace down the cause of that jack creaking under load. Don't know how that passed QC and got the little green marks on the head and nut.

This is valid. There were many, many RVs built around 2021-22 with far worse quality issues than we've had. The problem for us is that we paid quite a bit more than a standard RV's price to avoid those issues. I can forgive problems with 3rd party things like appliances and fixtures. Oliver couldn't control that. I'm far less forgiving of workmanship problems like wiring, plumbing and, obviously, their own fiberglass. Yes, I would like to know more about what's going on here. Is this strictly cosmetic or is that a significant stress fracture? (I've been underneath looking at the frame in that area and it all looks OK.) Should I worry about water intrusion and freezing? Will the crack spread up the curve onto the sidewall proper? Scheduling a long trip in advance is difficult for us because my wife's medical treatment plan can change on any given month. But I can't think of any shop around here experienced enough in both fiberglass repair and RV appliances to do the work. (I'm assuming the water heater needs to come out.) The last few trips this year had been uneventful and I was perfectly content waxing the trailer (and thinking we had come to some sort of understanding) when I found the crack. Ugh!