jd1923

We do the same. That's what the kool kids do! 🤣 Honestly, I stopped looking at SeaLevel gauges when they did not read correctly in a Class-A we had, in a Class-C, and again in the Oliver. The Oliver is so sensitive to level that you can bring up or down the front jack an inch and the reading may change 10-20%! We stopped looking long ago, though given this thread I will study this during our trip to the Q this week. We fill the FWT when we hear the pump pulling air, we know our gray tank lasts 3-5 days and a good 10 days on the black, so we don't bother with readings that are more often inaccurate. Our hull has the suction tube defect. We pull air way sooner than 13%! (more like 44%) We have only 18 gallons usable in our FWT. Good thing we hold another 36-gal in the tank in our truck bed, having 3 x 18-gal for 54-gal total. I know it's 18 gallons. Every time the water pump pulls air we refill the tank via the boondocking port (good thing I replaced the 1/4" ID brass turn-valves for 12mm ID motorized valves). I measure the refill and after 4-5 times measuring it has always been right at 18 gallons. BTW, measuring the amount it takes to refill, 'til the tank starts to overflow is the ONLY way to determine the amount filled and the net amount remaining in the tank! Filling both tanks tomorrow to head out to the Q this weekend. Warming up soon with highs of 80F in the SW valleys next week! 😂

Searched this forum, far and wide, using so many keywords (rally, meet, national, lake, guntersville, 2025, etc.). Is there not a thread re the 2025 Oliver National Rally? Where is this advertised? What are the dates...

Yep, that would be us! Our hull #113 is titled a 2016, yet every time I tear something apart I see 2015 dates! Everything on our hull is approaching 10-years-old in 2025. I filled our tanks in November after our October trip to the Texas Rally. I asked the parts guy at our Ford dealer (best local LP price at $2.50/gal) about the date codes and neither he nor I could decipher the codes on our 30# tanks. Any advice? The date codes on brand new 20# tanks, purchased locally for our grill and fire ring on our deck, has very clearly marked date codes. I run the furnace while parked outdoors over the winter at 40F, to keep the cabin just above freezing (40F is the lowest setting on the Dometic thermostat). I used one tank in ten weeks since and just recently turned to tank #2. Friday when home I will refill the empty tank for a week in Quartzsite! I guess if the local tech can't determine the dates then I'm good for this trip! 🤣

Given this statement, why spend much more money than the 300AH Epoch, going to 400AH Victron batteries? Without an inverter these AHs are overkill! It's difficult to use 100AH running 12VDC only let alone 3-400AH. Your batteries will likely sit above 90% SOC most of the time. Another way of looking at it is you could stay off-grid and wait a week or longer for a sunny day!

Thank you and @Cameron too. Our older hull did not have an Optical audio cable installed, HDMI only. Good to know.

Took me a minute, GJ! Yes, this only works for those who live nearby and check into their Olivers occasionally. 🤣 Flat spots are not that important on a trailer anyway. You can't notice them when towing and they will smooth out after some miles down the road. May slightly affect the life of tow tires when stored more often than used. The cars/trucks I have in storage get pulled out and moved around every so often (1-3 months). When I used to store for >9 months, I would store on jack stands (along with battery grounds disconnected and Ethanol Shield in the tanks). No real worries re the Oliver over annual winter storage.

We've had this conversation before. Yeah and watch out what you're trading for! I'd rather keep my tanks than take the chance on an exchange. Extra 20# in the TV takes up more precious cargo space. The ladder idea works but you need to get the tank into the truck bed anyway. Why not back it up within inches of the tanks? Reach down lift up and set it down, strap it into the back of the truck.

Every month or two, you could just use the jacks to lift the trailer, spin the tires and change where the trailer is sitting on each tire. Then put the tires back on the ground, jacks just keeping it stable.

Two 20s is not enough, love the 30s! I’m 6’ 2” though when standing on the tailgate I’m about 9 feet tall! 🤣

So really, two of you winter camp with the Oliver thermostat set at the same 58F? Day and night? Y’all must wear a lot of sweaters! Sorry, but lately I’ve read many posts on freezing issues, running space heaters instead of the furnace as designed. If we noticed a hint of pipes freezing, I would up the furnace temp asap.

Run the furnace at 64F or higher!

Rich, you caught me just in time! Leaving very soon to drive to Vegas (not towing today) to teach my PMP Prep class Mon-Thu this week. Next weekend heading to the Q with family and Oliver in tow! Hope to see you then. Turns out the Barker can be set at any height. You can ease it open which can be helpful when letting gray go in the BLM or NF lands (yes, it is legal when at a distance from others and water sources). Of course, when dropping the black tank into a sewer/septic system you would rather release all waste quickly, valve full open. Not the Valterra valve which is either all the way up or down. It must be due to the switch which could be replaced with another DPDT switch (pictured). The odd little breaker or reset button is odd. I would delete it adding a simple butt connector on the white wires in and out and wire a 5A fuse at the + bus. Without the faceplate this switch could be mounted where the pull handles are located, but I cannot determine if this switch is waterproof (unlikely). Barker has a 1 1/2" valve model and I have not been able to find one in the Valterra brand. I want to motorize all 3 valves, especially the 1 1/2" valve which gates the gray water from the bathroom. It will be great to merely push a button and remove the pull handle from the bathroom! I will do this work Feb-Mar, weather and time depending.

I did buy the Barker product and then there was an Amazon "like new" Valterra valve so I thought I would get both to compare and later return one of them. I believe you did good on the Valterra. Made in Mexico vs. USA but I like how it's an integrated unit. The motor is heavier and feels stronger running. Included is the valve and seals, the Barker kit contains motor, bracket and switch only and you may need a new valve to mount the Barker easily (handle vs. cable pull). The Valterra has the better wire harness and switch with both black/gray faceplates. At least you can recess the switch (cut large holes), both switches are too big! Not fond of the fuse in the faceplate, prefer the separate fuse wired at the bus. I powered both up and they are in the raised position as pictured.

Wondering, what are the internal dimensions of the Elite I battery bay? (with and without the tray) From memory, the E2 battery tray is 14"W x 21"D and the overall space is 18"W x 24"D x 15"H. Two 220AH lead acid or AGM 6V batteries wired in series produce 220AH at 12V. Given 50% you currently have 110AH usable. Using 80% for LiFePO4, the 300AH Epoch yields 240AH. You will more than double your AH capacity. Good plan!

I decided to get more into the proper balance of truck and trailer and purchased the Sherline Tongue Weight Scale. Love the simple design, ease of use and Made in the USA! I also have a dual-axle flatbed trailer which hauls our side-by-side and I need to get that straight where I can strap down the UTV further up or back to get it truly balanced to pull with a 1/2 ton truck. There is an Amazon business price at $152. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007REK28M?ref=fed_asin_title I tried it out today, though our Oliver has no water in the fresh tank, no clothes in the rear cabinets or closet and no food or other supplies in the pantry and fridge and no gallons of drinking water and various adult beverages in the floor of our Oliver closet! I will measure again next week prior to heading out to Quartzsite! After a first trip, we came home and measured 6,000 LBS for the Oliver. This was likely the average weight at the time, but after mods and more travel stuff we should be camped today closer to 6,600 GTW (will soon, but have not measured GTW recently). More or less empty today, I measured 565 LBS Tongue Weight, and being empty at say 5,800 LBS this is 9.7% tongue weight which is at the low end. My first thought is to think hard about mounting bikes or other cargo on the rear of your Oliver. Our OEM OTT 2" bike rack is removed and sitting in our shed. As mentioned, I will do this again next week when the FWT is full and we are packed to leave town! I like this little gadget!

Good you did, Mark! Otherwise you would have had freezing issues in the Oliver basement. No snow yet in Northern Arizona. Not even on Mt. Humphries and the Arizona Snowbowl at 12K FT! Hopefully we get deep winter snows during Feb-Mar.

With all the complaints I've read here with relatively newer hulls, I've wondered the same. Were the older hulls built better, or were similar issues just worked out years ago? Hard for me to tell owning a 9-year-old hull for only the last 19 months. @ScubaRx knows Oliver history better than most and he likely services his rig better than most. This is an important point he has made several times. Ours needed lots of maintenance since we purchased June 2023. And I have seen cock-eyed mechanical installations, electrical components wired wrong, and other minor items. Otherwise, everything works well as it should (except our fresh tank issue). An Atwood furnace was installed to replace a noisy Suburban (OTT Service 2018) and the window shades were replaced in 2020. With my mod the furnace runs great! And the noisy A/C, the HWH, 3-way fridge, Maxxfan, entrance door, toilet and seal, all good working for 9 years now. Many have had leaf spring failures. Ours have the correct arc with no sign of wear at the usual failure points. Just knocked on wood. @Ronbrink I always find some handy, right above my eyes! Most of the work I have done are Mods vs. Repairs. The TV worked fine, but not worth my time. The charger/inverter/solar/batteries were all fine, now they're first class. No EMS on our old hull, but now it does. Added LevelMatePRO, Ruuvi, Topeka and Victron. We had the so-called "high-end" mattresses (NOT, but now we do), new dinette cushions, and more and more! Due to the age of our hull, we have no Truma products. I would call the noise of the Dometic Penguin II a feature vs. a bug! Get the Atmos to replace it! Two Oliver owners have already and I should install ours by April.

I should have looked closer the first time at your pics. Your battery #1 could be going bad. That’s a very large SOC and voltage difference. How can such a voltage diff be possible, with 3 batteries wired in parallel? Ask the manufacturer about a testing procedure for warranty claim. Do not upset the cabling, in case of warranty claim, but I would love to know voltage readings of the three batteries individually, and with a reliable multimeter vs. an app reading.

Not sure this should function in the way you desire. If playing a DVD through the Furrion, the HDMI out is connected to the TV for picture and the audio channels of the HDMI are played locally through the Furrion speaker outputs (try this to see if you can make it happen). When the input/source is via the TV, broadcast TV or streaming, the Furrion is likely not in the loop and audio out is pushed through the TV speakers. If your TV has output selections which include the Furrion system, this would work, but your TV likely thinks of the Furrion as an input source and NOT an audio output. On a more advanced TV with a HDMI-ARC circuit (certainly NOT this plain OTT OEM system) you could get this working (requires a high-end TV). Instead get a soundbar and connect to the audio out of your TV (connect by audio cables, HDMI, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi).

Wiring is fine, but who knows why OTT has three (3) runs to the batteries directly, no need for that. It's odd that on the B- side there are 2 heavy gauge wires, likely two 4/0 (not sure given the picture) and one 6 AWG and on the B- side there are one (1) heavy 4/0 and two (2) of the lighter 6 AWG cables. I would correct this. One 4/0 +/- connection goes to the inverter, another connects your MPPT SC and the 3rd my be your heater pad. On our hull we had one 4/0 cable on both +/- cables and two (2) 6 AWG cables. I removed all of the 6 AWG connections to the batteries and connected them directly to the Inverter and internal buses. Yes given the pen markings, this is OEM and correct given this fact. I tested mine today in my installation (NOT Lithionics)! Watching TV, running about 3A with the A/V system on inverter and a few cabin lights on the draw was 3A and pretty even between the two 300AH batteries at 97% SOC. I fired up our Emeril Air Fryer, requiring about 124A and the closest battery was drawing 6-8A more than the next battery. This is normal. You showed a picture at 35% SOC. In this case the difference between the two batteries should be more than when total SOC is fuller, near 90% SOC. Question is, when done, say at night not connected to the SC or shore power, do the 3 batteries read near the same SOC. If so, you're over-thinking the details, not to worry, the batteries will balance out soon enough!

High 52F and sunny today, 40F at 7PM, 29F now at 10PM, near the forecasted of 24F at sunrise as late as7AM, to start the new day! Tomorrow will be another sunny day in Arizona, high of 57F when I take my afternoon walk, sun always on my face. Another sunny day in Arizona, you can count on it!

Come up to Prescott on your way back to northern New Mexico! It’s snowing in Galveston TX and the pan-handle of Fla! Yet a beautiful 58F, no snow at 5400 FT in N Arizona! Can’t wait to meet you in person, my virtual Oliver friend! 🤣

When you search, just search for ONE word at a time!

I believe you could tie or tape the probe touching the metal of the pressure valve just above the heater to get a good reading, or wherever you mounted yours. The difference is your sensor only reads the temp and you have to manually turn the HWH off at the time it achieves your desired temp. You must be there watching to time it right. These devices will activate 12V to the heater circuit to automatically turn it on and off. You could keep it at 104F 24x7!

104F is the high setting on most hot tubs. You could use an electronic thermostat switch to automatically control the heat at a set temp vs. reading the temp and having to turn it off manually. Not sure if this would be the best part, but some thing like this: https://a.co/d/0nnLInc