jd1923

I agree with Bill, given you checked most everything else. @Mike and Carol you have a new tire now, so all is good for many miles, long after you return home. Whatever you do, please do not take the bad advice given to raise your tire pressure! Always maintain tire pressure based on trailer and TV axle weights and tire manufacturer load tables. This is a matter of physics vs. opinion.

I went back out to the Oliver today, first to disconnect shore power (I trust the solar charger more so for charge maintenance), and to measure the 30A receptacle mount (2 1/2" square, 3 1/2" diagonally). Then I did check the twist lock and IT DOES WORK. Before I was not thinking twist-lock (Duh) and just pushed the plug in and screwed the large plastic retaining nut. Given it connects when needed, and I seldomly use it, for $269 +tax for the SmartPlug kit I will likely take my time with this repair. I may check with Furrion parts, but the ring alone is likely not available. Thanks Bill, good question!

Mossey, this is so cool! I'm assuming the 2nd pic is your computer screen (or smartphone) connected by Wi-Fi and VRM. Besides battery and charge data, looks like you have your GX device integrated to temp sensors placed in the cabin, fridge and other locations (I would place one on the incoming water lines by the rear wall in the trunk). Also, you tapped into your tank level panel or the sensor wires to read resistance for % full. Please confirm my assumptions. Thank you. This also confirms @Ronbrink does not need a Bluetooth dongle with the Cerbo GX. If you have a Mod post on your installation, I sure want to study it. Also, please let know what temp sensors to purchase that can be read the VRM as you have shown here. Very nice!

I just did a quick look through the Cerbo GX Manual: Cerbo GX Manual (victronenergy.com) I'm not certain, but if I owned this product I would read the Manual page for page. It mentions connection to the VE.Direct Dongle and it has VE.Direct 3 ports. Each Victron device has an IP and/or MAC address, so I believe they can be daisy-chain wired, one off the next one. But there are already 3 ports; 1) MPPT Solar, 2) SmartShunt, and 3) another VE.Direct device like their Dongle. I believe it states the Cerbo GX has built-in Wi-Fi and if it has Wi-Fi you do not need the Bluetooth Dongle, as Wi-Fi is a stronger connection and can be network based. This product is the brains of large VE systems and MUST have connectivity to their apps. You will be very likely to connect via Wi-Fi and see your battery status from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, given you have a VPN you can login into remotely. I know enough to be dangerous here but take a look at page 87 of the manual (PDF page 93). They mention an offline connection which means direct w/o internet (w/o VRM their internet app). They also refer to a VRM and this is where you can check remotely via internet. You may need professional help in such a configuration. Perhaps VE has good tech support, so place a call for help to get your Cerbo GX configured effectively. One or more network connections are certainly available.

I must resurrect this subject and thank you @Gliddenwoods for bringing this to my attention. Like I posted earlier, in the short 7 months we've owned our older EII, I likely plugged her in 2-3 times, as she sits daily batteries charged full by solar. Connected to our home shore power last night, after our return from a short camp, batteries being down to 67% and being unusually cloudy here lately. I had trouble getting the threads on straight and after putting light on the subject, I noticed the threaded plastic part was cracked, and then a chunk fell out! I believe the front streetside of our Oliver has seen quite a bit of AZ sun through the years. I now find myself in the position to replace the 30A inlet. SmartPlug is comparable in price the OEM Furrion brand. eTrailer sells the Furrion SS replacement inlet for $147 and the Smartplug SS inlet for $160. I understand being little to no need to replace a working 30A inlet, but I now must purchase a replacement. Actually, I would have to spend $269 for a full replacement set, the inlet and the matching power cord male end. Should I spend $122 additional to switch brands? I will say beyond all the marketing hype, some of which is plausible, there is one key feature that separates these brands. SmartPlug is "Made in USA" and Furrion is not! Most likely China made; "country of origin" not listed on eTrailer. The other thing is I don't believe mine every "twist-lock"ed into place. The screw ring held it in place and the copper on the receptacle looked old and somewhat bent, the plug side dirt in the openings, copper dull. The TT is over 7 years old. Buying a new inlet and plug set would make everything new at the Oliver end and the shore power plug is easy to wire brush like new. I have not yet measured and checked the specs, but if the 4 mounting screws are of the same pattern, I may switch brands at this time. I have said 100 times and made 1000s of purchases paying double for Made-in-USA brands, so for me (and my soul) another $122 is worth it. I have found regardless of marketing promises that these 3 little words 99% of the time mean a far superior product when available. We are not towing a foreign made TT! This alone makes SmartPlug the better choice. Knowing this, what would you do if you had to replace yours? My next dilemma is I can purchase the replacement set on eBay for only $200. But I should likely go with eTrailer, spend the difference in fear of receiving a China manufactured knockoff on eBay! 🤣

Hey @MAX Burner, ya know ya posta to work da mods prior to departure? It is a long day when alone in the desert. You need D to get there soon! 🤣

I made a post earlier today about Quartzite. I forgot about this thread and the "Fiberglass Gathering." It is the week of this event that we will be passing through. I still work parttime and with work and other plans two nights starting on Tuesday, Feb 6th is our plan. We'll be in Yuma before and White Tank afterwards. We've driven through Quartzite many times on I-10 and Hwy 95, but never spent an overnight at the snowbird RV capital. Perhaps we will just head to Dome Rock at this time. Now we have a target location, unless some of you have a better spot. Thanks

Anybody going to be in Quartzite or anywhere southwest Arizona the week of Feb 5th? It would be great to run into some Oliver Owners! We're meeting an old friend at White Tank Mountain Regional Park (west valley of Phoenix), checking in on Feb 8th for 3 nights. BTW, they still have some sites on the 8th and 10th. Since I have that week off work, I thought we could leave a couple of days earlier if something was going on that week in Quartzite. We'd be lost in Quartzite without someone to meet up with and would likely camp near Wickenburg or somewhere that direction. Art @MAX Burner will likely be leaving before too long. Would love to meet up. Anyway, let us know. Thanks

We did a drive-through at Dead Horse Ranch State Park a few years ago and it looked like a very nice place to camp! Thinking of exploring the Verde Valley and Sedona areas more closely from this campsite (still on our list, though we've been to Sedona and throughout the Verde Valley dozens of times). The park borders north end of Cottonwood, and the Verde River runs through it, while Jerome is a 10-mile 2000 ft climb SW almost to the top of Mingus Mountain. Sedona does not allow dispersed camping anywhere around their beautiful village (must have a Red Rock Pass to even park at many of the trailheads) and this park is truly the best place to visit everywhere from Sedona to Jerome to Camp Verde, including all the ancient Anasazi Indian sites (Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle and Well). Don't miss Cornville where the Oak Creek snakes through this picturesque valley town. Everywhere so green it's truly an oasis, downstream from the majestic Oak Creek Canyon, Slide Rock State Park and Sedona, just before it merges with the Verde. Another item on our list is to take the restored Verde Railroad from Clarkdale up the Verde Canyon to Perkinsville, AZ. Want a truly cliff-hanging scary drive? Drive the dirt road (FS318) from Perkinsville to Jerome along the northside of Woodchute Mountain (don't take your Ollie)! We did this white-knuckled route once, about 15 years ago but never again! Getting to Perkinsville, to see the headwaters of the Verde River is a drive itself, from either Chino Valley to the west or Williams to the north (easier to get to by rail). We've hit every trail in the area on dirt bikes through the years. Sierra Vista and points SE of Tucson are certainly on our list. That area is about the only part of Arizona we have not explored. Wish we made it a winter trip priority earlier as every winter we head down to "the Valley" and points beyond. However lately, the locals of Central and Northern Arizona will not travel that direction until they get the US border back in control (our family too). SW AZ, from Quartzite to Yuma is OK, but be truly careful, packed and ready, if you venture to SE AZ at this time.

Charley is the "Liver & White" Springer, from Texas Springers English Springer Spaniels in Aubrey, TX | TEXAS SPRINGERS He's going to be 10 years old this summer, and we got him as a pup when we lived in the Austin area (past homes in Georgetown and Lakeway, TX). Honestly, he doesn't care whether Dad does it right or not. Just can't wait to get out, sniff his new surroundings and lay on the camping mat to post guard! Poor guy has gotten older and with a torn left CCL and our new tall mattresses, he now has his own new doggie mattress situated between us on the floor. He whimpers looking up for 5-10 minutes and then lies down for the night. I have no idea how some of you share such little space with your dogs! He's also 65 LBS and were not lifting him anymore! More on our Burro Creek visit when I collect my thoughts and download a few pictures. Thanks to all who commented!

Excellent work John! Would you happen to have a picture of your work before the mattress was added? Rails off, showing your platform and how the nightstand was either cropped or removed. That would be a great addition to your post. Thanks

About 70 ft to the LR couch, 90 ft when i was in the DR on the other side of the fireplace. This morning it would not work behind the stone fireplace, but when I walked beside it, still 90 ft it connected quickly. Is worth it. Don't challenge my math @mossemi, as an Industrial Engineer, with MSIE and PMP, I've spent a lifetime correcting the math of so many MBA financial types. What I wrote earlier is the purchasing the Dongle at $40 is 30% more than the $130 SmartShunt alone ($130 + $40)/$130 = 1.31 a 31% increase. The common feeling is the SmartShunt product, advertising Bluetooth from Victron should do the same job as their Bluetooth Dongle, not some half-@ss weak version. Why should the consumer have to pay 30% more for it to work effectively? Not truly inflation, was just a joke re what the gov has been doing to us lately! Both are shameful, the latter much worse. I'll take spending an extra $40 on this vs. the extra $600 we spend on groceries monthly, then the fuel costs, utilities, restaurant... I'll stop now!

I was able to read battery data while driving all the way back from our trip. It was of greater interest, since the batteries had less charge and this was the first time I ever ran a DC fridge while driving (LP off). We only have lead-acid although a decent 450AH. We ran our inverter most of the time, played DVDs, the TV and soundbar, the furnace overnight, an electric tea kettle the first morning, a little microwave and batteries were down to 79%. The next day was cloudy, only got up to 85%. Next day boiled water with LP instead, down to 75% and back to 85% on a sunny day. The sun is really low during winter, isn't it? Seemed like it hardly came over the deep canyon walls where we camped. Ran the fridge on DC today, 3 hours back with a lunch stop, batteries got down to 67%. Plugged into shore power and back to 100% in a little more than an hour. At least that's what Victronconnect reported. It should really take longer, as the charger kept giving lesser amperage all night. BTW, now that we're back home, Oliver parked behind our shed, the dongle is performing better than ever! Before we left, I had to be near our LR window. Now anywhere in the living room it connects instantly. So as a test, I walked past the LR, behind our double-sided real granite stone fireplace and it connected. It took 3-4 seconds longer to connect but did so without timing out as it had before.

I plugged the VE.Direct Smart Dongle directly into my SmartShunt IP65. If you have the Victron Cerbo, it appears it has three (3) VE.Direct ports (see pic), so should not be a problem. When I purchased my dongle, I was not sure if I was going to end up with 2 male connectors (or 2 female? very hard to see), so I purchase this kit which I did not need. I believe you can daisy-chain as many connections as you want and also make extension cables if needed: Amazon.com: 20 Sets Mini Micro Jst 2.0 Ph 4 Pin Connector Plug Male With 150mm Cable & Female : Electronics In fact, if you want to mount the dongle up high for better reception, you can cut off micro 4-pin connector, drill only an 1/8" hole through the fiberglass and then solder a new connector after passing the wire. Not a bad deal, 20 connectors for $8!

Living in Central Arizona we are surrounded by so many great day trips! Less than an hour to Jerome and Cottonwood, 1 1/4 hours to Sedona, 2 to the Grand Canyon. Check out Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area, even better (2nd largest canyon in Arzona) just 90 minutes, just past Williams. Just to name a few! We're here for 3 nights, at $14 a night or $7 with the Lifetime Senior pass. Where can you get 3 nights in a most beautiful canyon for $21. No hookups, but a dump station and a separate freshwater station. 85 miles and 2 hours from our home. Burro Creek Campground | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov) NO cell service though. Starlink would be great to have here. Also, no TV or even radio reception in the canyon. At just under 2000' elevation, winter is the season here. Low mid 30's last night and at 1:40 PM it's now 62 (a cloudy day today, otherwise it be 70+). It's too hot in the summer here. Half the sites were empty, many of them listed FF on recreation.gov. I'm thinking if you could get service here, this place would be fully booked. Stopped for lunch at LUCHIA’S RESTAURANT - 136 Photos & 97 Reviews - 15797 S Hwy 93, Wikieup, Arizona - New American - Restaurant Reviews - Phone Number - Yelp Highly recommended on any Phoenix to Vegas trip, quick stop on the Hwy 93 just north of Wikieup, AZ. They have guest Wi-Fi. Much more re our trip when we get back home this weekend, as we plan to spend our remaining time offline! Note in the first pick Charley is busy watching Dad setup camp.

Update for those of you with the SmartShunt. On our road trip yesterday, 85 miles from home to Burro Creek Campground, I connected while driving the whole way on the main page showing V and A. When clicking on details for the shunt, no-go the connection timed out. Doing the same with the dongle, it connected quickly every time, full details page after taking another 1-2 seconds to read data. And right now, I only have mine taped to the batteries. I'd say worth the extra $40 + tax.

On a different vein, another thing to think about is the water valves, HWH bypass, etc. There is also the furnace to think about. When you cover the walkway to the nightstand, you will be covering the main (first) heater duct and the air return. You may want to close off that duct, pushing more air to the other(s). I'm not remembering now how many there are. By having a heating duct in a semi-closed space with the return you are cycling the furnace. The hot air comes out of that duct, and it has nowhere to go but right back into the return. @Jps190 If I was to do a king, I would work your original idea! Drill out those rivets carefully and lose the rails, so you can have the mattress(es) at one common height. This is the best answer, given you want the king bed setup the majority of the time.

"... Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave..." Love it - thanks Art!

That would lose a prior Bluetooth connection.

@Jason Foster I believe I'm starting to get your sense of humor!

A king is nice, but in this application hard to climb into and even more so to get out of! We're not getting any younger! We had a full length (60x80") queen in our old Class-C, instead of the shorter RV queen, and there we had side paths to exit. The Oliver twins are a single, half a short queen with radius corners to boot. Space is at a premium, in this narrow Oliver. At home we have the best hybrid Cali-King money can buy from Brooklyn Bedding. At 6' 3" and 220 LBS on a good day, I would kill for these little singles to be 80" long, let alone the 84" length of the California King! We did one short trip on the Oliver premium twin mattresses and listed them in the Free Stuff section on Craigs when we got home. Nice to have them out of the way for my other upgrades! Went with BB again at rvmattress.com for new single mattresses available from 6" to 14" deep. A king mattress will not fit (4" too long), and an RV king will not fit through the Oliver door. Keep the two single beds and add a center cushion? The best you could do for a permanent installation would be to buy two high-quality twin beds allowing each person the 39" width of a twin vs. the 30" width of single. Just some thoughts to consider.

Good test @MAX Burner and keep in mind the dry air of Quartzite is likely best conditions possible. An overcast day on the coast would impede the signal a little. We're on the road tomorrow, on way to Burro Creek, so I'll report on what I read from the cab of our TV. Thanks

I went ahead and purchased the Victron Smart Dongle: Amazon.com: Victron Energy VE.Direct Smart Dongle (Bluetooth) : Electronics I really need to stop spending on this Oliver, but after $130+tax on the SmartShunt, what's another $40+tax to achieve a decent Bluetooth range? Maybe I've gotten used to the 30% inflation manufactured over the last 3 years. Getting used to it, that's scary, but yep spent another 30%! So far, I can't say whether the Dongle has truly increased range, though I believe it created a new home page reading in the VictronConnect app (see pic). From the 60' distance to my living room, I cannot connect to either device for the detail page. Click on either device and the connection will time out. However, on the app "My Devices" home page, it now shows battery voltage and amperage flow on both devices. I'm not absolutely positive, but I do not remember seeing these readings prior to installing the Dongle. The Dongle does plug-in directly to the SmartShunt (at least for the pre-wired IP65 version I had purchased). I have not yet mounted it, as the Dongle right now is just hanging off the outside face of the batteries. Perhaps signal distance could be improved if mounted at Oliver window height. The cables end-to- end add up to close to 10' and they do sell cable extensions (let's spend another 10%). BTW, adding another device, more wiring and more $$ one of the most frequent complaints on several RV forums. Honestly, battery voltage and +/- amperage readings is all I need and care about. I don't need to % full, if your over 13V you're full enough! Don't often care about charge history and other data. Notice in the pic how the shunt has 5 bars and the dongle one. This is NOT accurate, as these reading will flip back and forth constantly, at least when they are close, but out of range. And best yet, the Dongle already saved my butt the very first day I installed it! We're leaving on a camping trip tomorrow, so over the weekend we were getting everything ready. Cleaned the interior again (after all my upgrade work), unwrapping new mattresses, new bedding, filling the pantry, and more. Turns out one of the mattresses, while laying sideways in the hallway, had turned the fridge on, and with shore power disconnect, LP turned off, it was running in the DC position! Late that night, I opened the app again to test, only to see our batteries were down to 12.2V and the other reading was -14.5A! What? How could that be? Got dressed again and went out to see and finally noticed that fridge LED was on. Like I wrote in an earlier post, you want to check these two readings at least every time you leave your Oliver! If not, I would have gotten up today to lead-acid batteries below 50% for sure. Turned the fridge off (will plug in and fill the fridge today) and amps went down to -0.5A. You can see in the pic below that the OEM solar package already has our batteries pretty full at 13.1V adding net +5.7A at 10:20 AM. I wiped the solar panels with a wet towel yesterday, boy they were dirty!

OK, so let's call that worn shackle bushing needing replacement vs. the trailer needing an alignment. When these bushings go dry and get bad, after a whole lot of miles, you would hear screeching or some kind of metal on metal noise. The trailer wheels would still drive pretty much straight and could not be the cause of cupping one of 4 trailer tires.

Make sure your spouse's phone, a laptop or another device is not connected. The message "LINK OKAY" likely means there is a connection, but perhaps not your source. When we've had this connectivity issue, this is generally the cause.