John E Davies

My daughter has an eleven year old AGM battery in her Subaru, and it still works fine. That doesn’t mean that is anything near normal. She and you have both been very lucky. My Ollie batteries were acting up by the third season, and tango uniform by the middle of the fourth. Two were shorted out, so I tossed those and limped along on the other two until I bought lithiums…. John Davies Spokane WA

I don’t know if this is a BF price, but it is the best I have seen anywhere and has free shipping. (Amazon Prime is $72.) https://tweetys.com/tank-check-024-1002-dual-propane-level-sensing-system-with-bluetooth-technology.aspx The base spacer rings are not cool, they are a little cheaper than Amazon, but then they stick you with an extra $10 shipping charge. Buy those here: …. Mopeka 024-5002 LP Check Tank Halo I plan to use the IOS app, I personally think the battery powered monitor is ugly beyond words, but if you like it, you could always hide it in a cabinet. EDIT, Tweetys did not charge sales tax, most unusual, that saved me 9%😬 John Davies Spokane WA

The rubber in the closets and cargo area also lift out. The cushion covers can go in the washing machine, gentle, cold, dry flat. The foam may have to be replaced, but sitting outside over the winter might work for them, prop them up so air can circulate. I have to ask, didn’t you notice the smell before you bought it? Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

Oliver service is charging $120 per hour labor. Even that seems way too high to me, for a small town shop. They can’t have all that much overhead in terms of payroll and expenses…. Except they have to pay off that new building and the campground. But IMHO a few hours of that would be enough to buy some shade trees😬 John Davies Spokane WA

I disagree, most allow it for limited hours. Seven campgrounds with "Gn" in the table allow them, but there is a 60dB limit, so no noisy box store units. If yours is quiet enough, you should be fine with the Yamaha 1000. Just make sure all your other 120 volt AC breakers are open, just leave the converter operating. I would check to make sure it works before leaving home.... 😉 Always check right before you get there, to make sure your info is current. https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm John Davies Spokane WA

Here is Muncho Lake BC. One easy mod you can do is remove both Exit stickers from the glass, and put a single one above the window opening. That way your eye does not focus on the stickers. I also removed the screen permanently, we never open that window, so that improves the view. John Davies Spokane WA

Battle Born has a big sale, and there is free shipping, as always. The 100 AH one many of us like is $799, down from the regular price of $949. https://battlebornbatteries.com/product-category/lifepo4-batteries/ Keep in mind that for the IRS solar tax credit all purchases for a solar system must be made in the same calendar year. So also buy the cables, terminals, add-ons and maybe even an MPPT controller before the end of the year, for your winter project. And if you already took the credit for a factory solar option, you can’t take it a second time. John Davies Spokane WA

In regards to lithium life span, those numbers are based on full discharge cycles. A set of batteries in a home solar installation, where they are deeply discharged every single day, will work orders of magnitude harder than on RV trips with partial discharges. My Battle Borns have been used for one season, and rarely did they ever drop very far below 50% state of charge. In about 45 days of use, the Victron Connect app shows just 12 cycles. Obviously if you are full timing off grid, you will stress them more, but at the rate I am going they will probably last for the rest of my lifetime….. and be healthy for the next owner. The expected life is 3000 to 5000 cycles. John Davies Spokane WA

Rfer800, I agree about the solar/ battery equation being backwards, but a generator solves that problem for those grey days when the solar panels are just idling…. and you will definitely want to be able to run the air conditioning anyway on blistering hot days. I do not suggest running it often off the batteries though. The factory lithium packages are a work in progress. However, with your technical abilities, installing a Redarc charger would be quite simple, and that will give you 11 amps hour after hour without even touching the tow vehicle wiring. If you were amenable to modifying the truck also, and beefing up the cable size in truck and trailer, you can triple that rate. I don’t really think it should affect your decision, just consider it a challenge. John Davies Spokane WA

A three way fridge running on DC uses about 15 amps pretty much continually. Your old compressor fridge used way less and cycled on and off depending on temperature. You won’t be able to recharge your depleted Ollie batteries while driving with it set to DC, though you might just keep up with the discharge rate. If the sun is bright, your panels will do the job, but what about grey days? I recommend that you learn to accept the idea of traveling with the fridge set to gas, and if you are super concerned about fire danger get a Gas Stop device for each bottle. I had 4 AGMs and solar originally, I think the real battery killer is heavy use of the microwave off the inverter. If you don’t often microwave two TV dinners in a row, then you should not have much trouble. But you can’t expect them to last long powering the fridge all day. FYI: Your lithiums would NOT charge off the truck anyway, without some modifications. Oliver does not even connect that wire to the seven pin harness. You must install a DC to DC charger to get that to work correctly. Does that affect your decision? John Davies Spokane WA

The closet ceiling has an inner and outer shell, with maybe an inch of space between. Here is a pic, the LED light opening is on the left. I ran a pair of wires up through a new hole and spliced them to the factory light wires, then stuffed everything back in the space. The Oliver wires head back across the cabin entry to the switch panel near the microwave. This is for Hull 218. Yours may vary.: From this thread: ... https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/1994-how-to-santa-cruz-locking-shotgun-mount-in-the-closet/ ... That antenna would be perfect for the front of the trailer IMHO, no worries, it is very low down and the cable hole is underneath. Just drill straight through both hull surfaces, rout the cables to your box on the top shelf. It could not be much easier. Your cables would be super short too, that is always a plus. I don't know how big it is, you have to register to download the data sheet. maybe you could do that and add that info here. It appears to be about 6 or 8 inches in diameter. About the same size as the bath vent cover, in fact. Here is the bath vent fan, for scale. The sewer vent comes up inside the closet, just on the other side of that bath wall. A good spot for your antenna would be in front of that white vent cover, in line front to back with the bath vent.. John Davies Spokane WA

The rate can vary wildly, depending on your own data (driving record, claims, towing experience) and where and how the trailer is stored. My Progressive RV policy is $465 per year, stored in a secure indoor location at my home. Sometimes they will try to bundle roadside assistance, you can decline that if you have that already. John Davies Spokane WA

How big is the antenna, do you have a schematic you can share? I am dubious about installing a tall fixed antenna in front due to vulnerability from tree branches, or bird strikes, would a magnetic mount work? Also, I seem to recall that you need dual antennas for best results with Cradlepoint, how far apart do they need to be? The redneck method to mount the antenna is to put it near the sewer vent, run the cables down through the vent pipe and back out into the closet. The pipe is fully exposed there. An alternate and much more professional way would be to drill a hole in the roof to the right (street side) of the sewer pipe and run the cables that way, putting the antenna on top of the hole to seal and hide it. Or if the cables from the antenna are in the open, use a marine through deck (pass through) grommet. Mount the box in the closet on the top shelf. Getting power to the unit will be a little tricky, but if you were willing to lose the functionality of the inside closet light, you could bypass that switch, since it is on its own separate circuit, disconnect the light positive and negative wires, and use that pair to power your black box. Or use the two light wires as a fish to pull an extra pair through the ceiling above the outside entry….. No need to run stuff all the way back. I actually think that the top of the closet is a much better location for small electronics. But you should add some vents, it gets toasty in there unless you leave the door cracked open, and even then, the heat is trapped at the top in the dead end space there. Installing air vents is not hard, I think Oliver should vent all of their cabinets. It would be SO much simpler if they made the holes during production. There is a whole lot of dead air that capture heat in the summer. I haven’t done this, but if I decide to install a better outside cellular antenna, it will be in the very back on a 20 foot extendable mast coming up from the rear frame. Have you considered that approach? John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, Amazon Prime has Rock Tamers for $390, but they are available a lot cheaper, shop around. Here is one I found. https://www.unbeatablesale.com/product.jhtm?sku=myrd82286 And no, they are not part of the Andersen package. Oliver service can mount the flaps for you and trim the height as needed. Keep the extra strips of rubber, those can be added at the top to help seal off the gap there. The flaps should be rotated at an angle, not straight up and down, for best effect (so the rocks are deflected downwards, not back at your truck). They are quite heavy (37 pounds) and when combined with the Andersen (55 pounds) that adds a lot of weight behind your light duty truck. That all takes away from your available truck payload. If you want a much much lighter solution, look for one of the “broom” style gravel guards. Your Expedition Max should be a great TV, there are several others here with that truck, I think. Since your truck has third row seats, you could pull them out, that should get rid of perhaps 75 to 100 pounds of dead weight. John Davies Spokane WA

There has to be a good story behind that, can you tell us? Are you trying to reseat the bead? Is that the “hair spray and a match” trick? John Davies Spokane WA

Adjustable hitches are cool and extremely handy IF you tow a lot of different trailers, but they may rattle, and they do hang down very far, and that can lead to certain situations where it smashes hard into the ground. If it happens to be onto a paved road, it will rattle your teeth and spine and make you swear. You can hacksaw off the bottom few inches, but that is irreversable 😀. I did that to my Andersen one. The Weigh Safe is very neat, especially if you tow different big trailers, but in reality, once you weigh your Ollie’s tongue you probably will never have to do it again, so a portable scale like the Sherline LM1000 works great. I have used mine twice in five years, normally it stays safely stored in its box in my garage. I bought it when I sold my Ram 3500 and bought the LC200, I had no need of it before then. So if the only “heavy” trailer you tow is the Ollie, the Weigh Safe is overkill. Plus an 18.5k (max 2200 pounds TW) hitch gauge will be inherently less accurate than a 1000 pound one. (Gauges are most accurate right in the middle of the scale.) I suggest that you buy a simple one piece drop mount steel unit like FrankC posted, plus a “slopper stopper” anti-rattle device of some type (especially if you also add mudflaps, they rock around like crazy otherwise) and in the future you could choose to invest in one that is ten times as expensive….Plus a cheap unit is much less likely to get stolen. If you want actual numbers, load and stock your trailer, fill the fresh tank and get Oliver to weigh it for you with their portable scale before you leave Hohenwald. However, if you tell us your options and what stuff you plan to carry (generator, ebikes, cast iron pots) we can probably guess your TW within about 100 pounds. Finally, I suspect that most Ollie owners have no clue what their tongue weight is, and for those with HD trucks it is pretty much irrelevant unless you own an oddball one like a Power Wagon. So don’t sweat it too much. These LE2 trailers are not all sensitive to tongue weight variations. John Davies Spokane WA

I was not implying that Dexter brakes are junk, just drum brakes in general. Well, some Dexter parts are junk, like their China made bearings and seals, and the chafe-prone undersized cross- axle wiring. And their “Nev-R adjusters” that often don’t adjust. I have struggled with hydraulic, electric and surge drum brakes for fifty years, both on my trucks and my trailers. I am not new to this. If you have had great experiences with them, I am glad for you, consider yourself lucky. John Davies Spokane WA

Would spraying silicone lube down into the rubber gasket help? That plus rocking should be enough, without having to lose your temper. Bad things often happen when you get mad. John Davies Spokane WA

My understanding is that white pvc degrades in time from sunlight exposure, becoming yellow and more brittle. I see white vent pipes sticking out of all the houses, including my own. I guess for waste and radon vents that is not a worry, but for other uses it might be. That has nothing to do with toilet flanges, but it is an interesting fact. I once made a compressed air spud cannon with a 2 inch bore with Schedule 40 pvc, in retrospect that was probably an unwise choice for a device that was used outdoors, banged around, and pressurized to 100 psi. It never blew up, but I got worried about it eventually and scrapped it….. John Davies Spokane WA

We have been asking this for many years. I ordered mine (Hull 218) with an Atwood Air Command 9.5k as a zero cost custom option, it is way more quiet. They no longer do requests like this, but I do not understand why they continue to use the noisy brand which NOBODY likes. John Davies Spokane WA

Albert, welcome to the forum. Especially if you are brand new to towing, you might want to seriously reconsider towing above the posted limit. There are members here who have talked about towing at 85 mph, and that makes me shudder. The Oliver brakes are typical trailer junk, so you need to be aware of that too. When working properly, they are just barely adequate. But usually they don’t work well….. Plus you burn a whole lot of extra fuel. The Andersen hitch is very easy to install, and you will find it discounted online, so take it off your order build sheet. What is Oliver charging for an installed one? I have seen the hitch itself for as low as $512 delivered. Use the money you save to buy a generator😀 John Davies Spokane WA

Was this what you had in mind? I love the tow vehicle. Or this?: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/6238-stone-stomper-in-the-muck-stewart-cassiar-hwy-british-columbia/ John Davies Spokane WA

I agree, there are no issues other than kneeling with your head upside down for long periods; use a foam knee pad!. I do recommend that you do NOT run the cables straight back along the tongue. Instead, add a weatherproof junction box with a small fuse and a ground terminal post. That way if you wreck the front of the big cable somehow, you will only need to replace or repair the front four feet. A big Anderson Powerpole pair will theoretically unplug itself if you drive away with the trailer unhitched, but you never know. Here is what I did for the 7 wire cable, after I needed some extra length. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2688-how-to-junction-box-for-trailer-harness-repair-or-extend-the-harness/ Please be aware you have to run two cables, not just a single positive. And I would go larger than 4 AWG, to reduce the voltage drop to zero and for robustness, and for future upgrades. The difference in cost between 4AWG and 0 or 00 gauge is not too much., When you get into the really huge cables like the 4/0 ones, that can get costly. I paid around US$8 per foot for that, if I recall correctly. Please post a pic of your truck, it sounds cool as heck. I hear you about not boondocking much, I recently competed a 4500 mile jaunt up BC and into YT, and was struck by how little access to forest lands there is; compared to the USA there are hardly any forest roads, and the ones that are there are being actively logged and have very heavy truck traffic. Mile after mile after mile of forest, and no side tracks off the highway whatsoever, that is very weird for me. Actually, I did see a few, and they were brushy double tracks, with a stop sign, which IMHO was very polite of the DOT. But they were not something I would venture down except with an ATV and several cans of bear spray.. John Davies Spokane WA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IOEFBKS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title Though I admit to rarely using it, mostly I just grab the broom. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01ASYZSVI/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It collapses and tucks away neatly in the closet using a single Command tool holder. John Davies Spokane WA

Perry, this topic has been around for many years and lots of people have asked your exact question. You need to contact Oliver Sales, if enough people push for an option, very often it becomes available. That is how it works…. I somehow thought that units exported to Canada required them, but I might be mistaken. The design posted here by Minnesota Oli is simply beautiful, but it requires machine tools and very good fabrication skills. You can do your own in an simpler way if you are reasonably handy. Several owners have copied this. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2513-how-to-rear-mud-flaps-for-the-ollie/ John Davies Spokane WA