Steve Morris

@John E Davies Thanks for the input. My driver's side 60% second row seat is out, and that's where the National Luna 90 Twin lives. I keep the 40% side in for the somewhat occasional third person. And my Heritage is the version without the third row seats. I already have the 200W panel, and it fold into a roughly 2' square a couple inches thick, so not too big. It, my camp table, and my Snow Peak Iron Grill Table live wedged between the fridge and folder 40% seat. So not having the panel would not really change my available space. Plus, it is used to charge the Bluetti EB70S (the power source for the fridge) when I'm somewhere without the trailer and any power of several days. I do have a generator at home, but have no plans to take it while travelling. I only mentioned the AC use as a reference to how much of the available battery it used, which was roughy 10% SOC per hour. I'm used to tent camping and the Hiker squaredrop without AC, so my usage will be minimal. I never intended to run it hours at a time; just evenings before bed to cool things off, or the random highway lunch stop. A Redarc DC-to-DC charger is always an option down the road if necessary. So's a supplement fuel tank. 😉 Mostly, my question was: I already have this solar panel, and there's already a really good MPPT charge controller in the trailer. Why not see if I can use them together! @Galway Girl's use of a controller directly on the battery for the remote panel is certainly an option as I mentioned above since I already have a cheap MPPT controller sitting unused, and I think that's how John has his set up. I don't know if the battery is smart enough to work with two different charge controllers at the same time, and I don't know if the Victron "sees" the additional charge coming in. I figured if the Victron has the capacity, why not combine the two rooftop panels with the remote panel. Mostly I'm trying to learn what's possible with what I already have. I haven't looked at the calculators that @rich.devand @mossemirecommended, but I definitely will, and thank you for the suggestion. Are the Oliver panels wired series or parallel? Thanks to everyone for the input!

I have the Lithium Platinum package, which includes two 315 Ah Lithionics batteries, 400W of whatever brand the current solar panels are, and the Victron SmartSolar 100/50 MPPT charger. The inverter is the Xantrex 300W version (oh how I wish they'd used the Victron Multiplus II instead!) And I have two Bluetti EB70S portable power stations and the Bluetti EV200 200W solar panel.

Huh! Right you are! My order sheet and the option sheet for 2023 shows 340W, but my bill of sale shows 400W. That puts me at 50A under ideal conditions, which might be marginal. That also explains why I saw a peak of 329W the other day. I thought that was way too efficient. Thanks! Original post edited. So, that's 600W and 50A under perfect conditions. Does my idea of adding the exterior panel still seem feasible?

In my Hiker squaredrop trailer, I used a Bluetti EB70S Portable Power Station to power the trailer and a Bluetti EV200 panel to keep it charged. I have a second EB70S in my Land Cruiser to power the 12V fridge/freezer. While the EB70S is way more than needed for the trailer's LED lighting and Fantastic Fan, it was handy to have two of the same unit in case the one in my tow vehicle gets low, then I simply swapped them out. Now, with the Oliver's 630 Ah of battery, the weak link is the 400W solar panels. As an experiment, I ran the Truma AC from the inverter for two hours, which reduced the battery SOC 21%. It took about 48 hours in my driveway for the panels to recover to the previous SOC. It would be nice to supplement the solar with the 200W portable panel, especially if camped in the shade. The Oliver has the Zamp solar port on these, which is connected directly to the batteries. But my panels do not have an inbuilt MPPT charger. That's internal to the EB70. I have a generic MPPT controller that I could connect directly to the batteries and plug the EV200 panels in there, but then the rest of the system doesn't know what rate of charge is being used. Ideally, I'd like to add a pigtail with an Anderson plug to the Victron SmartSolar 100/50 MPPT controller, and feed all of the solar input though this much more sophisticated device. Oliver's panels are 400W and the EV200 is 200W, for a total of 600W. The Victron 100/50 has a nominal input of 700W at 12V, so I'm good there. 600W divided by 12V equals 50A, and the Victron 100/50 is rated at 50, with a maximum short circuit current of 60A, so I think I'm marginal there. I know that panels put out over 12V, but I'm not familiar enough with the technology to know if I'm safe combining the these panels with the Victron 100/50 installed by Oliver. Is anyone familiar enough with solar charging to help me understand if this will work? Thank you for any input!

Oh, I'm so sorry to read that, Chris! Such a sudden loss for your and his family. Our thoughts are with you.

I hope that you thoroughly enjoy the delivery experience tomorrow, and that everything is perfect for you! I look forward to reading how your trip goes and your initial thoughts. If anything like ours, you're going to be thrilled! Have fun!

Ah, the manual! What a novel idea! 🙂 I do have the rear camera installed from the factory, so it isn't that. I hadn't read that a front camera was previously an option. That would sure be handy without having a front window. I've considered adding a cheap camera mounted to the awning bracket to keep an eye on things while camped. High of 42° F here today, with possible snow overnight. I'll wait a few days to see if I can figure out where they go. Thanks!

Yesterday, I was rooting around behind the wall in the attic, looking at a location for my cellular router. What a rat's nest of wires! Any idea what the two tan wires with nothing connected are for? I'm guessing they are one of the options I didn't get, which would be the wifi and cellular boosters or Cradlepoint cellular. I haven't checked to see it they have power, and if so, if and where they're switched.

Thanks! I put the yellow caps on my jerk fittings a couple of days ago (along with brake shield dust caps), but only found 12. I'll crawl under there again and see if I can reach in to add the caps on the other four. Otherwise, I'm waiting until the first time I remove the wheels. I appreciate the reminder!

Hello Mark, and welcome! As a new owner myself (12 days), I appreciate your interest and enthusiasm. There's a wealth of knowledge and support here on the forum. It really is way above the norm, from my experience.

I imagine it is too late now, but I'm going to call tomorrow to see if they have any available slots following the rally. I'm terrible about washing and waxing vehicles, and having owned several boats, I know how quickly fiberglass oxidizes.

We arrived back home in northern Ohio late on Thursday. Traffic was miserable on I-75 and I-71! Totals were 691 miles (16.7 MPG) on our way south, and 1160 miles (10.6 MPG) towing to Pine Mountain, Georgia and then home, for a total of 1851 miles. What a fantastic trip! I'm ready to head out again!! 😃 Including the five nights so far, we have 31 nights scheduled for this year (plus the Egg rally in Florida in January) and another two tentative. Plus whenever I can drag Deb away from her gardens to go somewhere. Now, to do all things to personalize our trailer and make it even more comfortable, and all the tinkering I plan. I'll eventually create another thread not in the "Delivery Photos" sub-forum. A huge than you to all of you for your help, encouragement, and support. We honestly would not be here with a new trailer without you. YOU make the experience fantastic! Steve & Deb (yes, I have a cheap extension cord going in the bathroom window for a ceramic heater. I have every dogbone imaginable except 30A female to 15A male. Amazon is delivering today...)

We’re camping at Cracker Barrel in Corbin, Kentucky tonight! Storms rolled in, so we stopped. So another first for us. Over two hours to get 6 miles in Atlanta, then probably a half hour or more delay each in Chattanooga and Knoxville. Half the vehicles in the country must be on I-75! We will get home in northern Ohio late tomorrow, and then we’ll really get organizing. Plus swapping out the OEM cushions for the KTT mattresses waiting at home. (Although theses are really comfortable! Maybe we should have waited to try them before getting KTT mattresses.)

Congratulations! It was wonderful to spend the evening with you, and thanks for the Yeungling!

309 miles today from David Crockett State Park to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountan, Georgia. Everything from rolling interstate to steep punchy curvy mountain roads. Zero problems! The onboard computer said 10.7 MPG, down from the 18.2 sans trailer. The top two gears on my 8-speed automatic tranny are overdrive, so I locked them out. Stuck it on manual mode the entire drive, from 4th to 6th, depending on conditions, keeping the engine in the 2500-3000 RPM range. Now three nights at the lodge here and then the 776 mile slog home, only to turn around in six weeks to come 664 miles back for the Oliver rally! We love our new Oliver!!

Roll-up solar panels work great on the Webb space telescope, so should work on an awning. 😁 Funny that Mossey showed the sliding solar extensions, as I was already going to see if something like that would work on ours. A fellow Hiker trailer owner did something similar. Not extensions to existing panels, but hidden panels that slid out from under his roof top tent. They worked great!

A beautiful day at David Crockett State Park!

Welcome, Steve! We chatted earlier about the LC/E2 owners spreadsheet. I was in your shoes last summer, but our Hiker squaredrop had no plumbing, HVAC, or electrical. So I also inundated the forum with questions. At least you are used to towing a similar load. Our Hiker is 680 pounds empty and maybe 1200 loaded with too much stuff. So no brakes before, either. I didn’t realize that you were one of MUD’s Conquerer owners. David’s shop was in Bellefontaine, my home town. We visited a few times. That’s where I bought my steeply discounted National Luna 90 Twin, when he was changing over to snowmaster or what brand. Now, he’s the importer for Kimberly, and we looked at and seriously considered a Kruiser. But that was in 2020, and with shipping increases and higher costs everywhere, the $100k Kruiser quickly turned into a $150k plus trailer. A vast majority of where we’d go can be reached with the Oliver, so that sealed the deal. Enjoy the experience! After a whopping three days of ownership, we are thrilled!

We were not. We left about 2PM yesterday after two nights. Bryan and Sondra left yesterday morning. Phil answered a similar question on the Facebook group that they had high winds but no damage. We were 25 miles south, at David. Crocket State Park last night and tonight. We had a wonderful lightning show, and a lot of heavy rain, but not super windy. 1360 passed the leak test with flying colors! In found this morning that quite a few people here at the campground left during the night. Me? I slept like a baby!

Thanks! Coincidentally, I ended up at 4 after my short drive. I bedded the brakes five or six times with it set at 6 without locking up. I’ll still hit them hard several more times to get the pads, err, shoes worn in and the fine tune some more.

First two nights went spectacularly! Having never used indoor plumbing, we *really* need to practice better control. We used the city hookup, and thought we were being conservative. 48 hours later, we had a 75% full gray tank and 60% black. 😳 Hookup took just ten minutes. Easy Peasey! First time ever at a dump station took a while because we were being extra careful. All good until the cheap glove ripped just as I was disconnecting a hose I thought was done draining, but wasn’t. Oliver’s bathroom came in handy… Setting up at DCSP was a breeze! I only had to straighten out twice, and the Andersen leveling ramps made it so easy. Backing in until sitting in the camp chairs was easily under 30 minutes. Maybe substantially less. 34 mile drive was fine. I’ve never used a brake controller before, so I fiddled with the Redarc trying to dial it in. Too short a distance to tell, but my calculated 18.2 MPG for 608 miles from Ohio to Hohenwald dropped to an indicated 9.6 MPG. 😞 And finally, to my quality/manufacturing report: A+! Absolutely no problems at all so far. Fit and finish is spectacular. Everything functions as intended. Zero defects! a HUGE thank you to everyone involved at Oliver! And again, thank you to everyone here who have helped us get to this week!

Just experimenting to see if we could maintain a comfortable temperature just using the cube. It is a simple two speed with no thermostat that we’ve used for years in our squaredrop. We had it on low, and the Truma set to 68 degrees, with the ambient temps in the 40s. Once the Truma kicked on, I just let the cube continue running. Like I said, just playing with everything the first two nights while at Oliver. It is now Friday, and we are at David. Crocket State Park for two nights. Here, we are dry camping, running totally self contained. So testing the opposite of the previous “use electricity instead of propane “ mode. Just learning. 😁

And for added embarrassment, Aaron Wolters from Oliver just finished filming us for one of his owners videos. Hopefully, the memory chip gets lost… 😂

Paul Harvey mode on: “And now, for the rest of the story!” The inspiration for the came from a video by the “From She To Me” YouTube channel, which is the travels of a couple our age in their class B van. The voiceover for a recent trip was “Every one of our journeys begin with curiosity. What will we discover? What challenges might we encounter? What will be the lessons we learn?” I paused, replayed that scene, and paused again. Epiphany moment! I turned to Deb and asked how “Curiosity” sounds for a name for our new Oliver, and she was all for it. Then I looked at various images for graphics inspiration. I saw the corporate logo for Curiosity Software Ireland, and thought I’d fiddle with something along those lines. On a whim, I wrote to them asking permission to use their logo. Surprisingly, not only did they approve, but enthusiastically so, offering original graphics files and their endorsement. They plan to tell our story on their social media blog. Crazy how both events happened!! Serendipity! (which was my original thought for a name.)

😁 Yea, I’m a tea snob like some people are about coffee. The kettle on the stove is one that I use with my outdoor kitchen from the Hiker squaredrop. I usually just steep loose leaves in a 20 oz tumbler with strainer. But at home I use a traditional bone China teapot. Didn’t want to chance using that travelling so bought the Coffee Gator French press to try. So far it works fine.