jd1923

I'm 6'2" and closer to 230! Not fun getting in there, but again great job!

Well said, and yes, it's easy for those of money to say it's not. I'll be working well into my 70s, God and health allowing. We're getting there pretty soon. The Oliver ain't goin' nowhere.

Yeah Jason, so you and I are perhaps the minority here, i.e. still working for a living! I want to retire when I have very little to do! 🤣 Not happen' soon?! We need an annual OTT Texas Meet (and on occasion points West)! Isn't Texas the center of the United States of America? Yep, just check a map. It was its own country for a while and if things keep going... It may have to step up again! Heck, I'll move back. Again, we would love to meet y'all for an OTT Meet but after over 45 years east, family stuff and who's... Will y'all travel west for a meet? Or just head west and visit our amazing High Country of Arizona for a few days. 😊

Made a few cable crimps today, in between a full day of working on the TV. More pics to follow after the TV new battery installation. The first one shows the 4/0 cable and lug on a length of cable I purchased recently (looks way better after the heat shrink). I'm not installing 4/0 cable soon but wanted to work the new tool 🤣! The 4/0 die when crimped did not hold the 4/0 cable. It will depend on the lug, its thickness, etc. and often you will use one size smaller to finish. Got all my truck battery terminals fixed today. The second pic shows a 2 AWG cable that will connect TV battery to the power panel (the fuse panel that delivers 12VDC to ALL vehicle circuits). The OEM cable is 4 AWG, but I had a length of 2 AWG in a parts drawer, so I made this second cable! Love working on this stuff!

@rich.dev this is very nice work! What's your secret on getting back there to do this? Are you just small and thin, or is there another way? My large frame can be a handicap at times, so sometimes i get my son to crawl into the hole! Again, very nice work, even though your avatar has you sitting comfortably in a lawn chair! 🤣

Agreed, I always see one Amp number, the net of -A being used and +A from any charging source. It would be nice to read Amps in and out individually. We have an old shunt as part of the Blue Sky solar charger installation. So, if I was good at reading their panel, I imagine it reads solar charge data alone. You can install multiple shuts to segregate systems for this purpose. I installed a Victron SmartShunt at the battery ground, so this reading is a net IN and OUT Amps. The pic shows an afternoon reading, shore power unplugged, solar has the batteries fully charged. There is a net +0.75A of the incoming solar, less the outside courtesy lights (we leave them on 24x7 to deter rodents), electronics and other parasitic draw.

I understand though perhaps 60 degrees is too high a temp for the basement areas. I'd like it to be 45 degrees below overnight when we set the interior to 65. You wrote "Especially the rear corners where there is a lot of vulnerable plumbing." For sure, check out this picture. These are the Fresh, City and outdoor shower plumbing lines. In the worse possible location along the back outer wall and check out the large brass backflow preventers. The brass as a conductor will allow these lines to freeze more quickly. They should be better insulated, a 12V wire heat wrap added, or just heat the basement as you are doing! I have one of our Ruuvi temp sensors sitting down in this area.

Recently, I received the best of battery cable tools! I did not have these tools when I added the Victron SmartShunt (to start this thread), so the hack saw and crimper/vise worked for one shorty cable. I'm working on my truck this week, adding a tuner and gauges set, new starter batteries and all new battery terminals. These tools will be in use very soon and again with a future LiFePO4 upgrade! These are the tools I purchased but I didn't want to pay these prices! I wanted a die-based hydraulic crimper. The "Dieless" crimpers create a triangular-shaped crimp vs. the hexagon shaped crimp dies. Klein Tools 63035 Cable Cutter, Utility Cable Cutter Cuts MCM Copper and 350 MCM Aluminum Cable, with Shear-Type Hook Jaws, 16-Inch Handles - Wire Cutters - Amazon.com TEMCo Industrial Hydraulic Cable Lug Crimper TH0005 V2.0 (11 US TON) 10 AWG to 600 MCM Electrical Terminal Cable Wire Tool Kit with 32 Die Sets - Amazon.com The 16" Klien cutter cuts cables up to 4/0 AWG like butter. When I looked at Amazon 3-4 weeks ago it was $90. Today at $68 is a good price. I found an eBay auction, where the seller had 4 of them at $52 ea. I bought one and the next day all 4 were gone! Found the TEMCo TH0005 on eBay too, a "used-once" set. Seller had it on a 7-day auction, opening bid was $69. I contacted the Seller to see if he would offer a good buy-it-now price. I thought he would come back at $100 or something. He changed the auction to buy-it-now at the same $69 price, OMG! I bought it in a heartbeat. Paid for it on Sunday, shipped on Monday and received it Wednesday (yesterday). eBay can be this or that, often gets a bad rep. I started with eBay as a Seller 23 years ago and have sold 100s of old car parts, used sporting goods, etc. I buy used USA made tools very often on eBay. With a little time and patience, I saved over $150 on just these two items. Check 'em out!

I'm not @SeaDawg of course, but I can chime in @dewdev since my name was used. You just start typing the @ symbol followed by the name you want, and it will show up in a drop-down menu to select. The name is then tagged when used and the forum member will be notified which is a great feature.

We are closer to weekenders than full-timers for sure. Many here have travel-trailered more in the last 1-2 years than we have in our lifetimes. We go for at most 4 weeks annually and 4-5 shorter trips, hopefully more when fully retired. We just spent a week in cloudy/rainy days in Yuma, the Q and West Valley. We used the Xantrex 6-8 hours a day for kitchen appliances and TV at night and occasional quick microwave. We got down to 64% after 5 days out (the last 3 nights we had hookups). I calculate that if we instead had 600AH LI batteries, the monitor should read 78%, all things being equal. The usage is in the storage, the recharge is in the solar, generator or shore power. If I can get 80% of 600AH LIs, vs. 50% 450AH of LAs, we can camp at the same use rate 2.13 times longer! Good sun, chargers or connections will of course extend what's onboard. It does take patience to watch the monitor read 64%, thinking it could quickly go lower. Would be nice to experience LiFePO4 batteries! 🤣 Are you with LI worried when it reads under 50%? You shouldn't be.

Wow, so why do you need an Oliver! I imagine in your most wonderful part of the country, that at times you 'overland' and for longer travels you pull the Oliver!

Thank you, Bill. This makes so much sense! When I upgrade to LI, I really only need to change the configuration on the Blue Sky solar charger set for LI batteries. Given 90% of the time we are not plugged in, and live in sunny Arizona, any LI upgrade will get to 100% by solar on most days. Yes! 😊 The LI upgrade at $2K will be enough and I can wait on other related upgrades, e.g. the PD charger and the 2KW Xantrex inverter, until one fails. Thanks again.

Like having an older home where the only GFCI outlets we have are in the bathrooms. I ran 125' of 8 AWG burial cable, installed a 60A service panel in our shed, and a 10 AWG feed to a 30A outlet for our RV pad. Y'all should think about doing the same, being able to run A/C during summers, no cable overheating issues, etc. Often multiple GFCI outlets are run on the same household circuit which could be the cause. But basically, a GFCI outlet is not designed to feed a RV 30A power panel!

Agreed, keep the profile low and make it a permanent installation. ethernet cable run and 12VDC as @MAX Burner suggested.

Wish you had the Elite II like most of us! And your older hull seems to have a different layout than the late models EIs. I wonder the same, why our return and main ducts are within a few feet of each other (all rear curbside on the EII), not much heat getting to the bathroom. I have seen several other mods regarding this question. Changing the return location is something new here! Does it make sense to heat between the hulls so much? Isn't the reason for the dual hull construction to be an insulation layer? Otherwise, you'd be blowing a lot of heat to the outer hull, dissipating to the exterior. We will likely never do serious winter camping but would enjoy better heat/airflow in the interior. Thanks

Our even older hull likely does not have the LI/LA switch either, though I have not yet looked to verify. Given this and looking towards 600 AH Epoch batteries for 2025, it may be time for us to upgrade the Xantrex 2KW Inverter to 3KW! You could spend $400 +/- with tax for the charger alone: Amazon.com : Victron Energy Phoenix Smart IP43 12-Volt 30 AMP 120-240VAC, (1+1) Output Battery Charger with Bluetooth : Sports & Outdoors Or you could also trade-up to a 3KW inverter/charger for $1,100. Amazon.com: Victron Energy MultiPlus-II 120V, 3000VA 12-Volt Pure Sine Wave Inverter and 120 amp Battery Charger : Automotive Hmmm, so many choices today!

I was going to run mine from the battery bay up to the pantry or somewhere, but then the Dongle worked fine just tied to the rear battery ground cable. I did not have to run it higher to receive from the TV and farther. If you need to run much farther, this kit allows you to make your own cables, any length for $8 plus the costs of wire: Amazon.com: 20 Sets Mini Micro Jst 2.0 Ph 4 Pin Connector Plug Male With 150mm Cable & Female : Electronics

Mine had the rubber insert, edges a little chewed by pack rats. Like @MAX Burner wrote, it should not leak without the male connector inserted. Looked at mine again yesterday and the valve was at 45 degrees again, partially opened by our sewer hose, the end of the hose being right there. If I do not remove mine, I will use a zip tie to keep the shut-off valve at 90 degrees (closed).

I'm thinking two of the smaller 300s when they run another Black Friday sale. Two sitting sideways will fit nicely with enough room left over to mount a DC-to-DC charger on the wall behind them, huh. It will be a great Christmas gift for us and the Oliver!

We always carried the extra 20 lb. tank in past RVs. I really like being able to plug into the two 30's we have onboard. It was some work to remove the regulators in our grill and fire ring, but glad to have done so. I would prefer if OTT got rid of the rear one forever! What a dumb design! The front one should be built-in to the propane housing, 12" above where the current one is located, vs. just bolted under the frame. It would be safer and more usable. I do agree with you @Rivernerd. If I was to buy new, I would opt out of these connections and build one myself, since it is convenient. I was under the Oliver today and these LP fittings are on with more than Super-Glue. Tomorrow, I will spray some penetrant on the LP fittings... I have 2 weeks of other projects, before I can get back to this one!

We had a propane (LP) issue on our last trip. We arrived at our third stop and I setup the outside camp, the blanket, chairs, grill and fire ring, etc. Then I decided to start the fire ring, since it was getting late, and it gets warmer after the stones heat up. The fire ring flame was half of its usual force. I hollered at Chris, who was inside getting things ready for dinner, to start a kitchen burner. This is something we do each time we open the LP tank valve, so that we know there will be gas to the furnace later. The kitchen burner was also at half strength. I was puzzled for a while, and eventually checked the rear LP connection. You know that idiotic design where you have to release to bumper, revealing the sewer hoses, to hook up (why not mounted like the front one, aimed curbside)? Turns out the rear shut-off on that port was half open and it was leaking out of the cable connection without a fitting in place. It's not supposed to do that! I moved the shutoff to 90 degrees, and it stopped leaking. It had moved likely from the sewer hose hitting it over bumpy roads. The fire ring and kitchen burner were now again at full pressure. This useless rear connection is also dangerous in another way. They run a copper/brass line without protection directly under the frame. This is somewhat OK in front of the trailer wheels, but not a good idea near and behind them. One of several reasons to have the LP off when towing. I will be removing this line soon, certainly before our next outing. We never have a need to connect at the rear and never pulling the bumper to do so! I have a 12 ft line to a T-connection for grill and fire ring and they each have lengthy lines. We can connect at front and position the grill as far as the rear bumper if we need to. I will post info and pics on removing the rear LP line, just past the furnace T, which btw is also behind the trailer wheels. I will cap the rear line and likely add some form of stone-guard or protection. More on this coming soon!

I think it's just you Art! (Given "the two knuckleheads" stayed outside.) I sometimes call ours "butthead" and Chris says, "That's not nice." I've driven by that stretch of I-10 some twenty times...

These Air Tags are really cool, though I hope to never have to track down stolen property! I drove yesterday to fill the Oliver LP tanks plus two tanks we have on our deck for the grill and fire ring. So, I was at the Ford dealer on Sandretto Drive, waiting on the tanks being filled (see pic). Two tags for my keys and truck were at this address. The Oliver is shown parked at home and our GX was at an address on Lee Blvd. When I got home, Chris was already home and I mentioned, "So, you went to Trader Joe's?" She asked, "How did you know?" I replied, I tracked you!" Chris has a Samsung phone, so she did not get a tracking notification.

You purchased the model with the Victron comms: 12V 300Ah V2 Heated Bluetooth LiFePO4 Battery - Epoch Essentials (epochbatteries.com) Wondering what that does for you, that adding the Victron SmartShunt would not do? I already have this shunt and their smart Bluetooth dongle for communication purposes. This Epoch model is also 300AH without the Victron comms but slightly smaller, so thinking it would fit in the OTT OEM battery tray as-is. Are there other features that made you decide on the higher-end and slightly larger model vs. this one? 12V 300Ah Heated & Bluetooth LiFePO4 Battery - Epoch Essentials (epochbatteries.com) I just read your comment above again. It appears you ordered the smaller model but was supplied the V2 model instead since it was in stock, in time for your trip. Still wondering if the V2 model is worth it considering fit. Other V2 benefits?

We have used Campendium for years at no cost. Recently, Chris paid for an account for additional benefits. Last thing you need is a pass from some app/website to get into another! Looks like the common scheme to get new accounts by linking prospects to some other service. Like the 100s of reseller websites that sell your going through them to buy insurance!!! Buyer beware and stay away! OMG, this world could do without prostitutes and the marketing profession which is far WORSE! At least with the prostitute, you know what you are buying!