CRM

Well, that's not the case anymore... Inquired about a month or so ago and they said they wouldn't send one out for free anymore. They are more than happy to sell me one for $237.00 dollars though! 😲

This is where the WiFiRanger or Cradlepoint routers if you have one, come in handy. We use ours as a local network to connect all our devices together even when there isn't WiFi available at a campground.

Ok, now I think I understand what you're talking about. I was breaking it down into a simple DC circuit in my brain and not thinking about the charging aspect (like i should have) which is where your scenario of taking the B+ off the battery and shorting it makes sense. That said, I still the Optifuse breaker shown above would trip in this scenario since they react to current flowing through them and break thermally. The breaker in my Ollie doesn't even have B+ and load terminals on it which is what I would expect if it were directional. I did see where there are directional breakers available but they all seem to work magnetically instead. I do agree with you that fuses are the way to go, though, and will definitely be using them when I finally get around to installing solar.

Do you have a digital volt/ohm meter? If so, you can do a voltage drop test of your cables and connections while under load to determine what is causing the excessive draw to trip your breaker. If only the breaker is getting warm I would test across both terminals of it first. With a 1000 watt load and using the millivolts scale on your meter you should read less than 15mV. Much more over that and the breaker is bad.

I would like to learn more about this "bidirectional" protection. I realize fuses and breakers operate differently, have different reaction times, have their own strengths and weaknesses, etc.. but I've never heard anyone talk about their directionality in a DC circuit where the flow is only in one direction. Both respond to the amount of current flowing through them and I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around this one.

I have an HDMI cable that connects my phone to the TV. I'm sure there are other ways but it's probably going to be tricky if the phone and TV are not on the same WiFi network. You might also want to try setting up your phone as a WiFi hotspot and then connecting your tv to it.

The campground might have a webpage that must be accessed first to accept terms before entering the network key. I had this happen once before and I just ended up streaming from my phone to the TV instead.

I had high hopes myself. I've owned nothing but Toyota's for more than 35 years and just when I'm ready to retire and travel the country they come out with this dud. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out eventually, but it's going to have a few years of no engine issues under it's belt before I'll feel comfortable buying one.

And I think we'll see further engine recalls in the not-to-distant future. Low mileage engines are still blowing in trucks outside the current recall dates.

Anderson isn't one of them. For their WDH they say not to grease the ball or coupler.

I fully understand how the Anderson WDH works. I think some who have had wear issues may not of had the chains tight enough which could allow some movement between the ball and coupler instead of both being locked in place together and turning inside the friction cone. I also think greasing the ball could increase the chances of movement between the ball and coupler if the chains are set too loose.

Then you undoubtedly have your chains tensioned correctly and it's keeping the ball from turning inside of the coupler even with the grease on it.

I agree. I think those who have had issues with wear on the ball didn't have enough tension on the chains to prevent the ball from spinning inside the Bulldog coupler during turns/sway. I have never greased the ball and other than a few scratches it still looks like new.

I weaved a large zip tie used for air conditioning ductwork through the top of the mesh bag to make a "mouth" in it that would keep it's shape. I then used two smaller zip ties to mount it to the dump valve cables that are on each side of where the shower hose is so the shower hose would always stay in the bag. My setup looks much different than yours from the back so I don't know if this method would work for you or not.

I attached a nylon mesh bag on the back to keep the hose from catching on anything. Before that it was always push-pull until I was able to get the whole line out.

There are several non-safety issues that can cause a GFCI to trip when an RV is plugged into it. One thing I would always check if this happened is to make sure that the neutral and grounds aren't bonded in the RV. That could potentially cause a serious problem when plugged into a standard 30 or 50 amp outlet.

Ouch, I'm surprised the drums were salvageable.

Thanks.. And now they're $400 more than they were when I first started looking at them! Thankfully it's just a want and not a need at the moment. Will jump on it if the price comes back down or my Coleman poops the bed... whichever comes first.

That's good to hear, and I hope they continue to work flawlessly for you. Personally, it's a red flag and I won't run any appliances in my home or Ollie without a UL or ETL certification. Even then, still not a guarantee that the unit is actually certified as seen with the Gree dehumidifier recalls that covered a decade of units that caused hundreds of fires and a few deaths that were found to have faked UL certifications.

Looks like it doesn't have a UL or ETL certification either...

Yep, never a neutral in a DC circuit.

I'm starting to think that it may be due to the location of the busbar's in the case. The ground bar is set further down in the case (bottom) and the neutral bar set up higher (top).

Not at home so I can't check mine visually, but this diagram from the manual may help. Green shows as ground and white as neutral, but it looks like they're calling the top bar the bottom and the bottom bar the top. Strange...

Autoformer's should be standard equipment in all RV's and probably would be if Hughes didn't hold the patent on it . And smart that you permanently mounted yours inside too.. Keeps it safe and secure plus no prying eyes to accuse you of "stealing power". 😄

Gary- looks like the tariffs are hitting all of them. Was getting reading to order a Greenland Inverter AC unit and the price jumped $300 overnight. On top of that, now they're out of stock at the moment too. Think I'll wait until the tariff situation is resolved and hope my 16 year old Coleman holds out a little longer...