DanielBoondock

Fair point, retract the 1750s from what I said, except perhaps for people who lightly use their trailer It was a reasonable starting point but charging now comes with risk aversion to change probably. Maybe they’ll do it sometime as an update. 2027 looks like they’ll be adding a DC-DC converter, it’s already labeled in on the electrical panel. I don’t need it but useful for ICE TVs 3k miles and I’m hearing the suspension squeak now, doing my first grease. What a pain, getting a right angle grease gun fitting

Also OTT seems to have changed their insulation scheme. From factory walkthroughs it used to be outer bottom and inner upper. This was probably for ease of installation. My trailer is reflective outer bottom as before, but on top Nice thick outer insulation, no air gap as far as I know. So now maybe it seems to be a combo of infrared reflective and usual dead air insulation, all on the outer

The person who picked up their factory trailer after me was from Alaska, if they join the forum would be interesting to hear their experience. Regarding four season I think no TT will measure up to your home. Emperial claim almost 3” thick walls though so an inch or two of insulation maybe, it does look good. OTOH Eskimos camp in an ice igloo and nobody would tell them it’s not four season 🙂 Point being there is no definition, but I think that if you can be comfortable in your TT in year round conditions then sure, it’s year round. Some TTs might require less energy to be comfortable but otherwise it doesn’t matter, does it? I think the biggest issue is moisture management. I’ll give the prize to the 4 season prize to the one that manages condensation the best, and damn the heating bill

The battery is rated to 131 which is pretty usual for lithium so that’s ok, I just don’t like it. It was a warm March with a heat wave (another 100 year event) and the battery was getting plenty of solar charging so I think it was just conditions. Back coastal it’s normal temps again. Anyhow I’ll try the temp activated fan and do a write up

Great solution - I love the Blutech stuff. We’ve got the filter unit with UV, and the softener and iron tank. For inside the camper I’ve thought about adding that but don’t like drilling holes. But now they’ve got a new solution for hooking into your existing faucet. When the Black Friday deals come around this year I’ll probably pick this up.

Checking the BMS temps the problem with my Lithionics was more of too much heat, easily getting up to the high 90’s in early March. The batteries produce heat too from the BMS board and just from charge/discharge. The battery has a built in heater so if it gets cold no problem, that’ll take care of that. On my list is to add a automated fan to a top vent, I won’t otherwise insulate it. When we got to camp I’d open up the door to get it to cool down faster as the sun went down.

Looks to me like what you’d expect, just a temporal lag and smoothing. I think you don’t see the same minima/maxima because of the time lag - outside is already turned around before the inside reaches the min/max. fwiw tl/dr I spent a lot of stupid time (meaning I could have been doing something more useful 😅) thinking about the insulation on this thing. It’s really interesting, it’s basically all reflective/infrared. But for the most part air gapped everywhere except the belly band, which is what you need for that to be effective. Fiberglass bat This primarily slows down the rate of heat transfer. If the trailer had that we’d see a larger delta in the charts above. So it doesn’t stop the heat transfer, just slows it Reflective with air gap (Protex) This primarily works by actually reflecting the infrared heat, not the thermal brownian heat in the air its in contact with. So it does stop heat transfer - look at the moon landers with gold foil, or the James Web infrared telescope with its many laters of foil. Both effectively eliminate heat transfer from the sun Bits and pieces Rule of thumb I heard from an engineer in this field; reflective works better the greater the differential (outside to inside). Fiberglass shells are horrible insulators However, we have a double hull. Air gaps of 1/2” or under is as good as insulation bats (not a big enough space for convection currents. Note that seems to be about as much of the gap as we have. So the double hulls act as a buffering system, both giving the Protex the air gap it needs to work, and that enclosed air gap acting generally as dead air space. Putting it all together, in extreme conditions (hot or cold) the trailer should perform great due to the large delta between outside and in and the dual insulation, which is what I hear from owners. But due to the .5-1” air gaps you won’t see a large time lag in an idle trailer.

Intuitively that feels like a good solution. With your years you’ll know there’s few or no hard rules here. Every design outside of Aerospace comes with a lot of windage - ‘yes but …’ Anyhow I think all of these - 1750, 2400 and Alcan are likely just fine and there’s little to fear with any. But I do want to see power spectral density charts with each of them, easy to get with our phones.

Good to know To be fair - says the forum (Disclaimer: see blow). The manufacturer says differently. Handwaving arguments about Oliver having been wrong before, went overboard initially with 80 psi, this and that are not evidence that their recommendation today is wrong. I spent an hour looking for current documentation from Goodyear and couldn’t find it - have a link? There’s an old 2017 pdf, and a couple tables of indeterminant provenance that get reposted. I suspect Goodyear is not posting this information anymore and leaving to OEM’s. So having some tables isn’t convincing to me. I did find a lot of engineering common practice information which warns against too low a pressure for safety reasons, not too high. Low pressures are commonly used for low speed offroad traction use cases. I’m not seeing it done to avoid jounce. Does anybody here lower their TV pressures? Why not? I don’t understand why it’s OK for our trucks to be at specified pressures, but not our trailers. Or our cars. If your wife complained about a bumpy ride would you drop her pressures in half? Think about that for a second, now it becomes a safety issue. But this is me handwaving now. As it happens, today I’m mooch camping for a family thing (poor me writing from my Ollie tonight 😅). I didn’t take measurements because I needed my phone on the way out. One the way back I’ll definately be taking measurements and analyzing. Specifically doing a spectral power density and comparing it to some example charts. This won’t be definitive - nothing is definitive. But it will be a demonstration of how much of the road rumble makes it past the suspension. Little point discussing it more until we have data - that’s for sticking with me *********** Disclaimer: I’m an engineer and for 40 years have been arguing technical points with others as a part of the job, just business as usual and no feelings involved. Take this discussion in that spirit - a search for best practices and not a keyboard warrior food fight. I’m happy when others disagree, I don’t claim to be always right, but through a healthy discussion can perhaps get somewhere. Reality is the final arbiter as my EV 6k trip proved, and I’m planning on doing the same here and will be delighted to find if I’m dead wrong. With the springs discussion for example you saw me switch sides (pending data) ***********

You can see from my truck I'm not afraid to stick out like a sore thumb 😅Thanks for not taking offense. Really I'm just figuring this out for myself, I wasn't designed to take things for granted. On the 1750's I was a skeptic, then mostly a convert, but its still pending taking data. Here I'm a skeptic of airing down, don't expect to convert, but also am waiting for data. I suspect I'll end up with 1750's and 65 PSI, but we'll see. Most likely is it's much ado about nothing regardless I wonder. Yeah personal experience towing back from the factory to California was two things. One the trailer did feel a bit soft and bouncy. Two, I'm quite sure I bottomed out the trailer suspension hard on numerous occasions. Arizona freeways in particular were pretty bad. Terrible porpoising around Albuquerque with bottoming, and hard bottom hits elsewhere. So bad you heard the slam. Anecdotally hand waving, but this makes me suspect a too compliant suspension. If you're worried about jarring, bottoming out is the equivalent of dropping the trailer on the ground with no suspension - high G. At any rate reality is a b*** and as an engineer I'll tell you even the engineers don't know. It's often as much experience and windage than having a hard result. Most of the time we do what's being discussed. Design with extra margin/buffer (e.g. higher rating on the suspension and higher PSI range than lower), then measure in typical conditions. If it looks good, cross your fingers, hope for the best and keep taking data 😅

Good thought, but also I believe the LBCO is for the inverter to prevent loading the battery too much - you get voltage rail droop on high loads. I know this because the factory incorrectly set it to 11.1V when it is supposed to be 12.1V. When I corrected that I was getting less simultaneous use (e.g. microwave and induction) out of the battery. From the manual for this particular battery So interesting, the inverter was off, presumably we’re at 12.0V/10%, but the battery was still on. I didn’t hit the switch, but I checked the lights which worked. Seems like NeverDie didn’t trip, maybe it was 10.X% and 12.05VDC or something, not sure, but seems like I was right on the border.

Misunderstanding, I know why we're upgrading the springs and I'm doing it too. I just meant 'why do we all invest in a high end suspension if we don't believe it'll cushion the ride sufficiently?' Basically, we invested in a high end robust trailer - one of the most if not the most robust and well build. Additionally we beef up our suspension. I don't get then why we pamper that trailer like it's a wussie Some Other Trailer - especially when I see tons of Airstreamers running 65 PSI with these tires no problems. Of course it does. During a factory tour it was discussed how they have to add honeycomb panels into the glass to reinforce because the panel cutouts lowers the rigidity. And generally you don't want a perfectly rigid structure; the vibration has to damp somehow. And no doubt 'there have been issues', but its anecdotal without details. OTOH when I was there a tech told me about a recent trailer they got back in. The guy fell asleep at the wheel, the trailer flipped over on it's side and got dragged down the road a long distance. With a pretty good rug burn you can imagine 😅(more later). But the tow company just put it back on its feet and ... guess what ... just towed it back normally! The hitch was mangled I think but they chained it up just fine. So the insurance wanted an assessment, and you know they could have actually repaired it just fine. The engineers issue was liability. It has burned through the belly band on that side pretty well, sure they could repair but then they have to support it. Wasn't worth messing with and they called it a total loss, except it wasn't really. Anyhow you speak to common sense but I don't think that is a good guide here because it's too hard to judge. My common sense says underinflating - with a trailer this robust, is adding risk for no benefit. We need numbers. From the spring thread I suggested taking measurements. I recommend a vibration app for you phone, tape that to the floor and test how much vibration the trailer is getting. Test and different PSI's. I'll bet it's small, and dropping significantly (e.g. recommended 65 to 35) doesn't greatly help, while lowering efficiency, increasing heat and overall risk. I'm taking a trip next month and will measure how I'm beating my trailer to hell at the factory recommended 65 PSI and post the results. Another member said he's upgrading his springs soon and will also measure, which will tell us the spring performance, and how much vibration we're getting.

OK, but these OEM’s do vibrational test. At my day job where it’s a measurement device (not for RV’s) we do vibrational test and specification, there are stringent procedures for this, and often companies pay dedicated test houses. Let’s look at the Xantrex specifically as the most expensive and sensitive, according to search it conforms to UL 458. UL standards are very stringent, on the Lithionics batteries, to get UL they had to have two BMS’s in case one failed - that’s nuts No need to dig into the standard but there’s simply no way that a Oliver, with our upgraded suspension, with the build quality we all extoll, will destroy this thing at 50+ psi. I mean why are we all upgrading leaf springs and Dexter EZ-Flex if we have to air down. Make it make sense …

I’m curious why people are worried about ‘beating’ their trailer? For these tires I’m reading Airstream forums where they’re running at least up in the 50’s-60’s with no issue, and those things can and will grind rivets out. The Ollie is a brick, the fiberglass is rock solid and non flexing, there’s no moving parts or dissimilar glued/screwed/riveted panels or parts like in conventional or Airstream. Also in those what can happen is the cabinets can loosen because they’re screwed in, but ours are part of the structure, and actually providing structure. This is all without talking about the frame, who has a two part steel/thick aluminum frame? Nobody I can think of. I guess I just don’t see the motivation to provide further cushioning, for the one trailer on the market that doesn’t need it, in exchange for greater wear and risk. Not trying to convince anybody but I’m just not seeing any reason for it.

Wow that’s a changelog! Technical Confusing user information, Neverdie cuts off at 10% so have remaining discharge time match, even though it still has reserve After a week of rain and some vampires I left on I found my inverter off and the battery at 10%, but the lights and 12V still work. That’s NeverDie in action I believe saving the last 10% for emergency. If I’d check the remaining discharge it would have said 10% when due to this it’s zero (except the 12V appliances still work, so not sure the thinking here Algorithm calibration improvement Automatically recalibrate the usable power based on a calibration of actual performance - nice! Edge case if battery is powered off for a long time how some things are calculated previous releases are here https://lithionics.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/154000237109 This one is from 2024 so looks like now they’re not updating too often

Nifty solution. Lighting is everything, I'll post my Hue light solution here when I can get some pictures (the trailer is a mess as I reorganize) Not clear but did you put a cover on the end? Ideal solution would be to have a phosphor coated glass or plastic. Hue does this I believe, the LED's activate the phosphor which than readmits a broad spectrum soft light. But I'm not finding such a thing, probably has to be in a vacuum. However there are other solutions like this LightDims White Dims Self Adhesive Dimming/Softening Sheets for Harsh LED Lights Probably just an etched screen but something like that might help soften it

Here’s some suspension p*rn of a shock absorber upgrade to a trailer with a similiar suspension. Except no Ez-Flex, which has a low compression puck. I’d expect the puck to be a low pass filter (e.g. absorb high frequency road tooth noise) Around 10:20 he has great views of the suspension in action. Just basic leaf springs and shocks are doing a lot of work here, looks like only higher frequency vibrational is making it to the trailer. And this oliver with basically no seams I think would just laugh at that. Especially the way they install everything, biggest danger is how you pack the storage.

For reference the specs on my new 2026 Goodyear Endurance ST225/75 15(E) 65 PSI cold press Cargo limit 1630 lbs Measured 60 PSI after a 4k trip, probably was 65 from the factory. Will check the spare, expecting 65 there. FWIW I’m not a fan of lowering pressure except for low speed offroad traction. At freeway speeds it just heats up and stresses the tire, it’s the suspensions job to absorb shock. The tires job is to provide traction and to a minor degree filter road surface tooth (high sidewalls biggest component of this). If the suspension performance isn’t up to your expectations then that should be addressed with springs and shocks. And before doing anything it should be measured before and after, on the leaf spring thread I discuss a simple way to do it with your phone. Finally, the tire has a sidewall warning “TIRE FAILURE DUE TO UNDERINFLATION …” Anyhow, to each his own, I won’t criticize anybody’s ride. From the drivers seat it rode fine from the factory so I’ll keep it at 65 psi.

My working life was in measurement equipment for NASA, three letter agencies and other spooky groups 😅 It would be interesting to see it broken in frequency bands. For whatever reason I suspect we’d see a response shift. Basically the suspension is a filter and we’re changing the parameters Anyhow I found a top drawer shop locally that specializes in trailer suspension so I’ll do it here this year, pending your data. I recommend a low hard surface like the floor to capture the from suspension output. Vibration might increase further up, and we want to avoid induced response from dirtying the signal. Might not matter either and we’re looking for order of magnitude anyhow but will be interesting Best of all is taping it to the frame directly if you’re comfortable with that

Great correction thanks, the post I got that from was misstating it Bingo, I talked about this above but kept it short so the post wouldn't get too confusing. Buffer is what I call margin, and exactly I mentioned that it's there for overloading (which happens) and impulse load (road conditions). As for the relationship between static and dynamic load, AI says (asking for cars as the models will be deeper on that topic, but its obviously the same) This lends me to think that the five spring, which I think Alcan suggests here, is the better choice. That's a 11k static load rating compared to 9k for the four spring. The axles are rated at 10k, but as the brunt of the dynamic force is taken by the sprung suspension, so being a bit overspec there isn't bad. So, five springs here I come ... tl/dr As for the counterargument that it will transmit more road shock and vibration, the true test is measuring it. Before/after vibration tests. Fortunately this is easy using your phone, Vibration Meter stores history and outputs CSV. Test procedure would be to Securely attach the phone to a hard surface in the trailer. 3M Velcro Command Strips to the floor Start measuring and drive Synchronizing before and after should be done ideally. Simplest is probably a 'clapboard marker' by just noting the time you pass a GPS coordinate or landmark Or don't be so precious, simply measure RMS I'll do this test by measuring on the same road(s) before/after

These Lithionics batteries are really top drawer, and priced to boot 😅I happened to come across a video yesterday showing why Generic Brand X: Typical cylindrical cell. Lots of plastic, zip tied and a BMS bolted on. Problem: Many weld points, many cells which need to be leveled, plastic construction can have heat issues and doesn't conduct heat. Glued tinker toy construction possibly more prone to issues in a trailer. Lithionics Large pouch cells for higher energy density, fewer welds and leveling. Aluminum for head conduction, integrated BMS which per OP has an app and firmware updates. Also they test and there's a lower internal battery impedance. Not to mention extra features like built in heating pad and on/off/status switch

For other newbs I went through about half the posts on this topic so you don’t have to. I think I captured the essence Summary Alcan are rated for 2k (8k total) vs 1750 (7k) for Dexter Spring rating depends on how well you do it (yes as an engineer this is the unvarnished truth). There’s no stock answer, they’re all approximations to the truth. Alcan is apparently known for using a well regarded approach (software I think) Alcan’s analysis of the 1750 Dexter is that they’re underrated for this trailer and the Alcan 2k is more appropriate One could surmise this is them ‘talking their book’, but so far the story has a ring of truth for a small shop that take their work seriously Alcans specialty is springs, OTT is trailers, I think Alcan has more authority here. In addition OTT has many considerations, supply chain being number one. Dexters are always available, easily replaced, come as a set with the axle, and if any owner wants an upgrade that’s available. So I think its entirely reasonable OTT is sticking with Dexter But in the matter of the best spring for the application I’ll go with Alcan The Alcan’s therefore have a better margin in case of overload and road stress - actually they have margin, the stock at rated for max with no margin And it’s only a (IIRC) ~15% stiffer spring, which isn’t a great difference For me, other than build quality the sell is that the springs provide margin without going into over engineered/overkill range. I was concerned that this is ‘bigger is better’ mentality but no, instead it’s just giving some extra room on top, which is generally a good idea. So I’m sold, I should be retired next year and will plan a trip to Colorado to have them installed. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/2/?&_rid=8320#findComment-103428 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/2/?&_rid=8320#findComment-103477 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/2/?&_rid=8320#findComment-103486 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/6/?&_rid=8320#findComment-103733 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/7/?&_rid=8320#findComment-103752 https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/10/?&_rid=8320#findComment-104836

The TrailerSmith has a video on the Dexter Nev-R-Lube, notes He's only seen these in the case that the bearing cartridge has failed, nobody brings them in for inspection (big surprise) It truly is a zero maintenance drum, you can't perform any maintenance Read the owners manual - you have to inspect it every 12k miles or annually Jack the trailer and check for end play (wiggle the tire and spin, if you can wiggle it that's end play) If there's any end play, the cartridge needs to be replaced Assuming no premature failure (e.g. end play) it should perform just fine for ... It has a five year, 100k warranty Therefore, replace the cartridge and possibly the entire drum before every five years (or 100k) regardless of the end play "I will tell you, if the bearing cartridge keeps its grease and is maintained properly, you will get all your years of service out of it ... pretty much guaranteed" "The problem is, people don't do their service checks, even if you haven't driven it much, maybe some moisture has gotten in there, check it annually" A failure most common with these is with horse trailers which are heavy. If you overuse the brakes the heat transmits through the hub and can boil out the grease. If you see the paint peeling off or heat damaged, pop the cap, if you see grease then you have boiled it out and the cartridge needs replacing Unfortunately OTT doesn't have Dexter manuals in the university, but here's the flyer for Nev-R-Lube where it makes clear the maintenance free (not inspection free!) five year 100k service life. My take: as long as you're doing the regular maintenance (end play check) you should be fine on the road. Bringing along a tool kit is definitely 'belt and suspenders', but instead I'll just do the maintenance checks and replace in five years.

The nice thing with a big fat lithium in there is I am leaving it on while parked at the lot. Other trailers - with probably SLA's, have portable solar out to keep them topped. I'm mostly in the shade but get some sun at parts of the day which the top panel soaks up. Since I'm going over there frequently getting it cleaned and set up it's convenient. Not sure exactly but I think the inverter is the biggest vampire, I'm thinking of keeping that off while sitting rather than shutting the whole system down. Side pitch for the EV - it did get down low at one point, 10%, but it was an easy top off from the truck. Anyhow if I had lead acid I'd upgrade to lithium in a heartbeat.

Past 2030, 2035 at the earliest I’d estimate. And then there’s a long rollout and it’ll be initially expensive. Before that other wet chemistries are coming out, namely LMR (Lithium Magnesium Rich) prismatic batteries. These will be in GM EV trucks in 2027. They offer higher energy density and equal cost to phosphate chemistry. But the kind of batteries we can get for trailers will be wet LIPO for at least a decade. Anyhow, in these sizes (a few kWh) I don’t think there’s any point in waiting, dry chemistries won’t give you any real benefit. I upgraded to the top battery, which might seem odd given the basically unlimited power available in the truck. “Pay once cry once”, and with electric cooking I think it was still a good choice. And - best part, it’s a more sophisticated battery with built in heating and especially, and on off switch. I don’t think the other options have that? When I had some kerfuffle with my Xantrex the Oliver tech kept telling me to start wrenching on the battery terminals. Took me several tries to get across that there’s a switch on it 😅