jd1923

It sure is! 🤣 And yes, it doesn't get any easier as we get older. For months, I got used to kneeling on a dinette back cushion (have new cushions now) to get my upper body into the basement openings. I was 69 then, and now at 71 if I had to do it again, it would be harder! Looking back at the summer of 2024, I spent the whole time working Oliver upgrades. We don't travel much in the summer. I worked my main electrical upgrade Jul-Aug, just after (almost) finishing my duct work mod. I say 'almost' because I was still waiting on delivery of the return duct and filters. I've gotten used to patiently waiting on parts for one project while working another. There's always something to do! At least that was the case for quite awhile! My first Oliver project was a new A/V system in July 2023. My last major project was our Chill Cube A/C upgrade Dec 2025. I worked 35 documented upgrades in these 2 1/2 years! First step was replacing LA batteries with lithium (lucky you starting with 640 Ah Lithionics)! Then removing a Xantrex 2K inverter with external ATS, and some crazy junction box containing a dozen residential wire nuts, OMG! Then rewiring everything to the under dinette seat area (no switches/fuses under the bed) and this ended with the Victron Multiplus II installed on a custom platform, all in working order. Then I added the SC and wiring for a 400W Renogy suitcase (Aug-Sept). I added the Orion DC-DC charger the next spring as I collected all the necessary parts in the time between. We had 100 things to do and if one effort was on hold waiting parts, I started on the next task on the list! 😎

Dean, many of us are looking forward to seeing your work and new Victron system! 😂 I think I have +/- 1000 hours in +/- 40 upgrades over 3 years, likely 200 hours in electrical upgrades alone. Yeah, I'm in Excel for everything from paying bills to keeping to-do lists. I have an Auto Maintenance worksheet with a tab for every vehicle we have or have owned. One for the Oliver of course, another for the TV and everything else. It denotes the dates of expenditures and maintenance completed so to keep a full history and what's needed next. My $5K included 900 Ah Epoch Essentials mostly at 2024 prices ($2,819 total). Today, I would go with a cheap model since the batteries I have cost $3,750 list price today. We spent $2K in Victron devices; a SmartShunt, the MP2 and two interfaces (Bluetooth and MK3-USB-C configuration interfaces), a 30A MPPT SC, the 50A Orion DC-DC charger, 15A SC for TV solar and 12|24 DC-DC for Starlink power. Then a 400A ANL fuse and housing, two 400A buses, 35A breaker, 4 and 10 AWG wire, etc. The first reason costs are higher now is two years of inflation (cost of copper!) but in comparing systems it's mainly the cost of dual 50A SCs (vs. my single 30A) and the "Victron Lynx Distributor, Cerbo GX MK2 with GX Touch 70 Display." Instead of a cabin display (I read my app more often when outdoors or from the driver's seat), I went with a simple VE interface for $83 which reads temp and is a Bluetooth interface for the Multiplus II. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FCV43LQ/ The two GX devices are likely $500+ depending on where you buy them (do not suggest Amazon), more when buying from a "professional installation company." I went without Cerbo accessories for not wanting additional device integration, nor a cabin display. I used basic 400A 8mm pure copper buses, a pair for $40, where Lynx Distributors can be $200-400 each. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D59Z9S7W/ We all have different needs and I can tell you, when you do all the work yourself, have ready all the parts you need to minimize time (drawings, good planning), and buy all the hardware you want that makes you happy! 😎 As it costs 2-3 times as much to get this work done for you, labor included!

How much does OTT charge for their Platinum package? The 2027 Oliver EII Platinum is $101,000. The EII Standard is $85,000. OTT's "most popular" package adds $16K for an array of electrical options. Now that's truly "money growing on trees!" 🤣 You get a 3K Xantrex inverter, 400W solar with SC from Zamp or Victron if you're lucky. Of do you? Would OTT instead install a "Rich Solar" system like we've seen recently? Add 640 Ah in Lithionics. What make shunt is used? It could be a Victron. And then some off-brand DC-DC charger that should NOT be wired to the 12 AWG AUX wire in the trailer harness in the first place! With 3-4 brand names OTT must drill many large holes into the pretty interior hull of your Oliver for multiple screens! If you prefer apps, you would need to learn how to use ALL of them. "Keeping life simple" is not happening here, not at all! Simplicity no, complexity is the word and there's only a few of us Oliver Owners on this Forum that understand most of it. In a fully integrated Victron system, add a screen if you like or not, and one user-friendly app is all you need to see status of all devices. Our hull has 6 Victron devices and 2 more in the TV. Include 900 Ah in heated LiFePO4 batteries and we have spent a total of $5,000 in Victron components, buses and all wiring, everything (labor not included). The DIY-capable owner should buy the new 2027 EII Standard and add their own solar-inverter/charger/lithium upgrade. For those incapable or not wanting to do the work, they'd have 10K for labor in buying the Standard over the Platinum model. Yes, 10+ have upgraded to Victron, discarding what was installed OEM. How many would make the choice if a Victron installation was offered? This is the real question. Want true simplicity? Skip all these upgrades, buy the Standard package and plug into 30A shore power! Or OTT could offer a fully integrated Victron system, first for superior overall performance and for the simplicity of the integrated system! 😎

Prior owner left us a roll of this and more of it was under the cushions. This stuff works, Con-Tact Brand Grip Premium by KITTRICH Corp.

Water would be "our biggest constraint" if we did not have our secondary fresh water tank. Yes, we always fill both tanks before leaving home; the 32-gal in the Oliver and 35-gal in the TV (a lifesaver): https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/horizontal-leg-tank-35-gal-2137324 Also, we do not use onboard water for cooking or drinking. So we also carry 10+ gallons drinking water in 1 and 2.5 gallon food quality jugs. And with cold water in glass carafes in the fridge AND truck fridge, we start with about 80 gallons total. Our Wisconsin friend @FloraFauna also always carries an extra 35-gal fresh water! Steve once wrote something like, "I wish it was larger!" The most we ever got out of our Oliver Fresh Water tank was once 28 gallons (measured when refilling). More often it's closer to 22-24 gallons when you can here the water pump taking air. Lift the front jack another inch and you could get another 3-4 gallons but it's time to refill the tank. With the TV hitched, 35 ft of hose (10+25) will connect the secondary tank to the Boondocking water connection. It's so easy with Eley hose quick-connects on all parts! When refilling the first time, I use about half (18 gal) so that we can refill again. Water in tow we can last 10 days, with quick showers every other day. So given we have enough water for 10 days and our 900 Ah with solar suitcase we can also last 10 days. It's the Black Tank that limits our travel. We can dry camp for 10 days, IFF we dump the black after 5 days (based on 2 of us). If you have composting then you would not have this constraint. I mounted our tank (special order mounting straps) and put a cloth cover over it to keep direct sunlight out (unnecessary with a truck cap). Put it in the middle of the bed, the area which is hard to reach for other items. I could not see carrying 5-gal jugs to the rear. What's 5 gallons, about a half day of usage? Gotta have water, the more the better and more so in the desert southwest! 😎

We leave it out at night. One exception, we stayed at a sketchy campsite one night where I did not have a good feeling re the neighbors (van life types and some living out of cars). So I brought it in before going to bed and we left next morning to find a better campsite! I bring it in every time we leave for the day. In fact 90% of the time we use the truck mount, so we have to pull it down. I put it in the Starlink travel bag ($40 option includes a dish frame and bag) and it with the 2' pole extension sits in my truck tool box. Takes 1 minute to mount or remove. Once camping outside of Durango, we drove into town and halfway there I realized the Starlink was still up on the truck mount, NP! 🤣 Most of you have truck caps. I believe you could easily side-mount the base-mount 2" PVC pole to the side of the cap. The second removeable piece of PVC pipe mounts above to provide height. Paint it to color match and have it there ready. Ron and others have tall poles, mounting suction cups, etc. I just don't want the hassle, love the truck mount. If you can move the dish 10 ft up to avoid trees, you can also move it 10-20 ft over to a clear spot. How far? We've never needed the dish more than 30-40 ft away from the Oliver to clear trees, but we're not often in heavy woods. Where we camp, the Ponderosa Pine is our tallest tree. You wrote "WIFI to WIFI." I believe you mean what MobileMustHave.com calls "WiFi as WAN" (check them out, they have videos explaining everything). I have a Pepwave router which is capable of this and so could your router. Just recently I created a hardwire solution for my truck mount (30V power and Ethernet LAN). So now I have the Mini wired to the Pepwave router directly which allows us one login. You should have up to 50' distance with Wi-Fi as WAN, though it will depend on your router antenna. We have the extremely capable Parsec Husky which in my experience covers 100+ ft radius in broadcasting Wi-Fi. When I cannot park our TV in clear view of the northern sky, I will use the portable stand with battery and change login to the built-in Mini Router. I installed our router in our truck for a number of reasons; 1) our Internet connection ALWAYS travels with us, day trips too, 2) The Oliver will be parked in the shade more often and the tow vehicle can be moved some, the trailer not so much, and 3) when we travel for business or pleasure without the Oliver we have our Wi-Fi, no need to use unsecure hotel or public Wi-Fi. My portable stand is large and clumsy. Next mod will be to remove the post and replace the large plastic tank with a flat metal base. A short pole and flat base will be much easier to store when not in use. Very often with our router setup and T-Mobile Business 5G Cell SIM card ($30/mo) we do not need the Starlink (80/20 rule). Boondocking in a canyon? Time to connect the Starlink! This link will go to my final post of the thread, when I hardwired the Starlink. =>

Scotty is camping and he might not have a pic before he filled the holes. I filled mine too but have this picture from before. You can see two holes in front and look closer to see two more on either side. The Dometic P2 was twice as big inside and out. There are two more in back 6" beyond the much smaller Chill Cube. Notice the headroom too! Another reason it's quiet is the air handler/fan are not hanging down into the cabin interior like ALL the others! Scotty got his installed at summer end, and he was only able to test the A/C minimally. He got the newer Heat Pump version and we hope to hear about that function soon. The link below goes directly to page 2 of my Chill Cube post which shows the installation. Pages 3-4 have some of my reporting on its efficiency. We ran ours all summer (all of 2026) and we just LOVE it!

LAST CALL! These are at the Rally now, so please write me if interested. Thanks, JD

OTT installed our microwave on an independent run to the 120VAC power panel, using white Romex (14-2 AWG). On a separate 14-2 run are the 110V outlets. OTT wired two (2) hot/black wires to one 15A breaker. In how they wired this, better not run the microwave and a blow dryer at the same time! 🤣 Wiring to the 20A breakers, for A/C, HWH and Fridge, is the yellow Romex (12-2 AWG). I understand OTT in later years used 12-2 Romex for all 120VAC wiring. The first outlet which is under the dinette is a GFCI outlet, so all other downstream outlets are hence GCFI protected. Our microwave was not wired by OTT to a GFCI circuit and therefore neither is our new air fryer. Since I disabled the PD converter when installing a new inverter/charger, I used the 15A circuit breaker for the converter now for our oven. Now we can run the oven and blow dryer at the same time on the two 15A breakers since the inverter can handle it. In our 1980 built home, we have one 15A GCFI breaker in the 200A panel. It protects 5 outlets in three bathrooms and 2 exterior outlets on the deck. There must be 150 ft of #14 wire connecting these 7 outlets. I guess that was local code 46 years ago. What I've read here is new homes now have GCFI outlets throughout the garage, bathrooms of course, and exterior walls, etc.

It would be cool if you could troubleshoot your oven with Geoff's help! I'm sure we'll hear back on this. If you have to replace it, there should be several models that would fit. Now that you had it out, you know the internal dimensions. I was able to repurpose the OEM microwave grill to fit around our new oven (by merely cutting off the inside plastic tabs). I'm actually surprised OTT would install an oven in an uninsulated closed cabinet. I know some of the very early hulls had oven vents but they stopped that (history provided in the thread linked above). We had microwave only, so without the oven feature there is little external heat, no real need for proper insulation and venting. However, a convection oven is a different thing! I suggest any Oliver owner who has an oven and uses it for more than a few minutes at a time should add proper ventilation! Two 3" vents in the top-back corners truly allow the hot oven air to escape without needing a fan. Kiln insulation helps too. We use our oven regularly, running on inverter, 400F for 20 minutes or more and the cabinet surround and the kitchen cabinet above are just warm to the touch. 😎 Good luck with this, Bob!

Yes, at some point OTT replaced two (2) brass two-way valves with four (4) basic open/shut valves. Both configurations achieve the same end result of three (3) plumbing configurations, 1) Normal Camping, 2) Sanitation/Winterization or 3) Boondocking positions. Maybe the change was due to the higher cost of lead-free brass or the 1/4" flow restriction in the OEM brass valves (see pic). I replaced ours with 2-way motorized ball valves with 12mm ID. I've never seen inside the basement of an LEI, but both models have similar kitchen sinks, wet baths, outdoor showers, 3 water inlets, etc. Of course things are more cramped and some things are mounted in different locations.

Yeah, I missed that too. Dave has the older EI along with a couple of others who frequent our Forum. Oh, and there are no plumbing schematics older than 2019 as far as I know. Maybe @DavePhelps could review the 2019 diagram and comment re older EI differences. The plumbing should be similar. EI and EII have 3 water inlets with similar (same) valving configurations. They likely install water line restrictors on both models. I forgot to mention, there's no restrictor on the boondocking line since the Oliver water pump supplies the suction there's no need.

Turns out these parts as pictured will be at The Rally next week 4-Sale. A good traveling spare set would include a left and right hand set to cover a full axle rebuild. Anybody who can change a trailer tire can mount this hardware on roadside if necessary (think Alaska trip). The hubs come off with a small circlip and one large nut. The brake backing plates connect with 5 nuts on the axle studs (you can see 4 of 5 nuts in the picture). These parts are listed on eTrailer to see their retail value. These are brand new parts to be sold at a very good cash price. Please PM me if interested. You could pick up the parts pictured at the Rally and I would ship a like set for the other side to you free shipping.

Welcome @AKPilot and congratulations! Btw, there are quite a few of us who feel OTT built a darn good Oliver back in the day! I've been restoring our for 3 years and finally all the major stuff is done! 😎 I would start with Dave's suggestion, meaning first be certain your valves are set correctly. There is another reason the boondocking port may work and the others do not. If you look closely at the OTT plumbing diagram at the City and Fresh Water inlets it shows backflow prevention aka check-valves on both lines. What the schematic does not show is that OTT also installed water flow restrictors next in line (see pic, rear wall of basement, Hull #113). This statement had me thinking. Perhaps hard water left in the plumbing over a long period of time would evaporate leaving heavy calcium deposits in these waterline devices. I say heavy because there is a bit of water upstream. Our check-valves always leak a little when unpressurized. With ample water uphill and basically an opening downstream, more and more evaporation over time could lead to calcium buildup that would eventually close the openings. This may well be your use case. I've had it on my long list to REMOVE these restrictors. A true pressure regulator on the fill hose is superior to an inline restrictor, since limiting pressure vs. restricting GPM flow rate are not the same (the former is good, the latter no so). I believe removing them is best. At the same time, the check-valves could be cleaned with CLR but most owners when getting in there have replaced them. They're a relatively inexpensive part and yours are likely to crusty to clean anyway. Hope this helps! Please post your maintenance, repairs and modifications here as you work through them and of course ask questions for anything you need!

There must be a direct positive (+) battery connection to the Optifuse. Geoff ask you to retest, but when you're certain there is no power on the battery side of the breaker (or both sides) then the +battery cable feeding the Optifuse is either 1) disconnected, 2) switched OFF or 3) has an added inline fuse that is blown. You must have an open circuit for there ot be no power on "either side of the optifuse." OTT in their OEM build did NOT add a switch or redundant inline fuse in this circuit. The Optifuse is the breaker that protects your batteries from shorts in ALL DC lighting and appliances (all DC loads). If you have anything but a solid stretch of 6 or 4 AWG between the Optifuse and your batteries it must be an aftermarket installation, perhaps something was added during April 2025 when you had LiTime batteries installed. Your solution is simple. Just follow the battery cable from the Optifuse to the batteries. Given your Optifuse is under the streetside bed, the cable will run a whole 5 ft total, first under the pantry area, then up through a drilled hole/grommet into the battery bay, then connected to a positive battery terminal. Your "Tech" could have added a +bus somewhere interior, if so test for +13V there. But if the retest shows +13V on the battery side, but NOT on the load side of the Optifuse, then replace the Optifuse with a 60A ANL Fuse. There are no other possible causes for the full loss of DC power in the Oliver. You either have an open circuit in the battery cable or a bad Optifuse breaker.