jd1923

Certainly do these things. You may also find lifting the front helps at the dump station! When you blow out the drain (30-50 PSI is good), ALSO blow out the overflow which is under the fridge (only do this when the drain is open). A restricted overflow will impede draining, even if the drain is wide open! Learned this in high school chemistry class. 🤣 And you could use that compressed air to blow out the lines and forget about using antifreeze at all. If OTT in a video actually said to leave the fresh tank half full over winter!?! Please ignore that odd comment! Your manual drain valve has a 3/8” opening in a 1/2” PEX plumbing system. I replaced this valve with an electric motorized valve with a 12mm opening (near 1/2”). My tank now drains twice as fast! I often open the drain while on the road driving home, but don’t do this in prissy locations and those with an abundance of police officers! 🤣

How did I miss this one? Don't watch the one either about lubin' the stabilizer jacks! 🤣

Yes John, you and Susan, and your wonderful, infamous Jolli Olli, please come see us on your 2025 western trip! We have power and water hook-ups for those who are off-grid challenged 🤣, and a dump station just down the steet! It would make our day, no, it would make my year to see Y’all in Prescott Arizona! God bless

Where you live Derek, you need something good and cold to travel during summer and some of the shoulder seasons! We’ll make it through our June trip and next plan is north rim of the Canyon Sept-Oct, no A/C required.

I want to thank my friend @Derek B again for making us aware of this new A/C technology. I'm also hoping for more action on this thread, others here finding additional inverter A/C product offerings! Maybe I should custom install a mini-split in the Oliver! 🤣 I really wanted the sound level of the Turbro Greenland to be better. Both video reviews mentioned noise while Turbro writes, "as low as 45 dB" (likely at lowest fan and compressor settings). Though I love how the inverter compressor is always-on variable-speed and manages power so efficiently. I contacted Kevin at SDG last week to ask a few questions. The Atmos with SoftStart, LTL shipping is required this year at $150 (UPS was damaging units, go figure) and they do charge for out-of-state sales tax! I was not expecting all this which comes to near $2,000 total. I have decided to wait on the Atmos (even though @rideadeuce just posted a rave review) and any A/C purchase, at least for now, in hopes that a new inverter model will become available. The Greenland is a first production model and should get better soon. I wanted it for a summer trip though we leave late May and will be home by the 4th of July, heading to Minnesota and coming back through the Dakotas and Wyoming. We'll hope for the Jet Stream flying low early summer of this year!

I believe I will be next. I've read the $100 sale may end for awhile after Mar 31st. I found out that Home Depot is a reseller for Starlink and I have a 10% coupon also ending 3/31. These Mini's should get cheap at some point, but net $450 may be the best price for 2025, at least until Black Friday sales late in the year. I'm thinking the Trio Mini Speedmount with magnet mounts for doing a fixed installation on the roof of our tow vehicle, integrated to the Pepwave router. And for the case where we need to get out from under trees, etc. I will get a battery setup and not use a power cord. This way, we would use the Starlink vs. the Pepwave Wi-Fi. I found several $20 kits that use the 20V DeWalt tool batteries. We always bring 3-4 DeWalt batteries with us, for a flashlight, an impact tool, a vacuum and leaf blower, and we have an extra charger permanently in the attic. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM1T6VX2/?th=1

Last test for now... What if when boondocking, far from hook-ups and other campers, you're needing A/C on a HOT afternoon, and your batteries getting low? You could start and connect the tow vehicle to the DC-DC charger. Diesels can idle forever using little fuel. The truck alternator via the Orion charger could supplement inverted power to the A/C for some period of time. The approx. +40A noted before at idle should offset the AH used by the A/C system. These readings (pic1) show this to be true, +39A were being supplemented by the charger at this point in time - nice! Also notice, the Time Remaining stat increased from 2 1/2 hours to 4 hours given the lower AH usage. I will eventually install an A/C that uses much less power than the Dometic PII. That's all folks.

I needed to verify numbers showing for the Orion Charger are relative to what the Victron Smart Shunt was reading at the batteries. The screenprints (Orion vs. Shunt) were as follows (pic1). Why does the Smart Shunt showing 10A more? Because the Blue Sky solar (pic2) was adding +12A and the remainder -2.3A is used for inverter standby overhead, exterior Courtesy Lights (always on) and some parasitic. These numbers add up nicely!

At start of the performance test, the 600AH Epoch Essentials LiFePO4 batteries were at 100%, rooftop solar sitting in the midday Arizona sun. So, I started the A/C on inverter. It was a mild day low 60s. I set the thermostat down to 55F, opened the windows so no cold air would collect inside and just 34 minutes later SOC was down to 86%, with the old compressor of the noisy Dometic PII running continuously. I also warmed up the tow vehicle and after 25 minutes idling the gauges looked like this (pic1). Engine Coolant Temp (ECT) was up to 160F (190F is fully warmed up). The idle engine speed at 800 RPM and battery voltage held steady at 14.1V. I did not take a second picture but when the truck was connected to the DC-DC charger, voltage read 13.8V on this gauge. At first I had configured MAX charge to 30A and took a reading and quickly reconfigured it to the default 50A max charge. Below are the two screenprints, shown left to right (pic2). Set at 30A MAX, 30A was received and 30A also in output. Set at 50A max, the charger output was 40A. This must be due to the 800 RPM idle speed. At highway speeds, the Cummins is generally about +/- 1900 RPM so the HD alternator should produce both higher voltage and amperage. Again, voltage measured at the truck was 13.8V and when the charger was set for a 30A it read incoming voltage at 13.6V, a -0.2V voltage drop. When producing 40A, the Orion read 13.2V, a -0.6V drop. Is this voltage drop along the wiring? And I do not understand the lower voltages produced on the output side, as I would think the Orion charger would output higher voltage in the range of 13.6V to 14.2V to the batteries. Maybe Geoff @Snackchaser knows, how does this makes sense? The 30A charge looks fully efficient. Set at 50A I got 40A idling at 800 RPM. The final test, I will run start of your next trip, will be to test the 50A charge setting at highway speeds. All this was done sitting at idle in my driveway. More to come…

Next is the tow vehicle side installation. The Ram Cummins and most diesels have dual batteries. I chose to connect to the RHS battery since there are less connections, because its proximity to the alternator, and because I wanted a straight run down the frame to the RHS of the rear bumper. Looking ahead, last year I installed a custom Nations 180A HD alternator. OEM rating on our truck is 130A, thus gaining 50A for charging ampacity! Starting at the battery, I ran the B+ cable along the fender rail to keep it away from the heat of the exhaust manifold and entered the main frame member just behind the engine. Conveniently, there are two holes in the frame just behind the front wheel (pic1). The RH opening is where it comes from the engine and the LH is where it continues all the way to the rear wheel. I had 100’ of 1/2" automotive loom from a past project which made for a clean installation! I removed the RR wheel for ease of access in running the cable. It took a couple of wire ties to get up and over the rear wheel-well but mostly the 4 AWG cable just lies nicely inside the frame beam, very well protected. I decided it should come out below the rear bumper yet above the trailer hitch. The Anderson SB175 connectors are huge (pic2). A full inch or more of bare wire is required inside each pole connector, so I crimped each in two places. There are a series of holes across the bottom of the rear bumper. I used the two holes closest to the center, fabricated and simple bracket to hold the heavy environmental boot in place (pic3). This worked out great as you can push in and pull out the trailer side connection with one hand and it does not budge! So, I have the trailer harness connection on the left and the DC-DC cables on the right (pic4). It looks clean, nice and balanced. Many on this forum and elsewhere believe you need both B+ and B- 4 AWG (minimum) wire running all the way end-to-end! This is certainly true for the B+ cable. For the B- cable, I merely ran a 2 ft length from the Anderson coupler grounded to the rear frame. I believe an 8” section of steel frame will produce less electrical resistance than 4 AWG copper and testing showed this to be either true or “good enough!” I ran another short 4 AWG ground wire from the B- battery terminal to the front of the same frame member. Last step was to connect the B+ charger cable and reconnect the battery terminals. I used another 60A MRBF for the main run (pic5). I also ran short cable from the B+ terminal to the alternator (for redundancy, this connects the charger B+ to both the alternator and batteries with new 4 AWG copper). I’ve never seen anybody take these extra steps, but I believe it will provide better charging performance. You’re running 4 AWG everywhere else, but OEM cables from battery to alternator are usually only 6 or 8 AWG and solid grounds are often an automotive issue. BTW, OTT only installs one 6 AWG ground wire for everything running on DC! I added a second 6 AWG ground cable from the negative bus in line to the batteries in a previous upgrade. This should work great, I really liked how it turned out. I measured carefully and purchased only 65 ft of black 4 AWG wire (not bad for wiring an extended cab long bed pickup truck tow vehicle)! I used all of it, and every run has slack on both ends and the trailer side connector is 6” longer than the standard hitch coupler cable. I ran thorough testing today and I'm getting 40A charging output with the Cummins diesel running at idle! Yes, engine running at idle. I captured pictures of all the Victron Connect screens showing Orion and Smart Shunt data. I'm getting rather tired tonight, so to do this reporting justice I'll get all my data together and add another post tomorrow. As I opened my thread above, "this charger setup is awesome!"

I’ve had the parts forever and between work and some travel, a list of injuries (that made it extremely difficult to kneel in the basement or crawl under the truck) I finally have this done, fully installed and performance tested! The bottom line is, “this charger is awesome!” A month ago, I was working on waste valves under the front dinette seat when it occurred to me to run the charger cabling in the Oliver since I had everything opened. I always drill the smallest hole possible, no fancy cable glands for me. Two 3/8” holes would been enough, but I had grommets in a parts box 1/2" OD and 3/8” ID which were the perfect size. I glued them in place and afterwards caulked all of the cable openings front of hull (no pics taken). It makes sense to wire the charger before mounting the board (pic1). The wiring is rather simple but the 4 AWG wire barely fits into the terminals. The 4 AWG wire will not fit into the Oliver ground/neutral bus, so I crimped on a lug and cut it to fit the opening. I installed the two grounds side-by-side (the other coming from the tow vehicle) (pic2). When I worked my earlier inverter upgrade and rewiring projects, I had saved room for the new Orion DC-to-DC charger (pic3 close-up and pic4). The main + bus (in red) is protected by a 90A Marine Rated Battery Fuse (MRBF) that connects by 4/0 cable directly to the Victron Inverter-Charger bus and then through a 400A ANL fuse connected to the batteries (400A Victron Mulitplus spec). All major circuits are connected to the main bus; the 40A breaker OTT installed for all the Oliver 12VDC circuits, two solar chargers (OEM Blue Sky for rooftop panels and a Victron 30A MPPT charger for a Renogy 400W suitcase) and the new DC-DC charger circuit which is connected through a 60A MRBF (see center of pic3). The secondary +bus (in black because I purchased a set) is protected by the OEM 40A breaker which connects to the 12VDC panel, the 3 jack fuses, etc. These are 8mm thick solid copper buses for minimal resistance. A considerable upgrade compared to the original OEM installation. I attached the Anderson connection, front of trailer, and then got under it to see all the many zip ties that OTT installed. OMG, they should have better cable management! I replaced a lot of these because of age, but I did not want to merely zip tie this new heavy dual cable harness! Instead, I used the u-bolts that hold the front basket and cut brackets to support the cables including the trailer harness in two places, in front and rear of the basket. The picture shows the front bracket (pic5). And after taking this picture I hammered both ends of the bracket to curve them up almost touching the upper bracket to create a D-shape. I could have purchased pretty brackets, but these were on hand, fully functional and can only be seen while lying on the ground! The trailer side installation was then done! When I finished and reconnected the house batteries, the blue light on the Orion started blinking and it was listed as a device on the Victron Connect app. So before even working on the tow vehicle installation, I was able to update the firmware and configure the Orion charger. I reduced the output charge to 30A for safety concerns and initial testing. The battery settings were close enough, within 0.1V of the specs for Epoch LiFePO4 batteries.

We love Elon Musk in our family and before this year, I was never interested in an EV or even wanting a Starlink connection. TOTAL respect of this great American! His products are the most forward-thinking products of the 21st Century (Tesla, SpaceX, AI, his work in healthcare, etc.) OMG! Besides, who else do you know, on planet Earth or Mars, who measures 99.999% right-of-bell-curve in intelligence, with engineering and business sense? He's also good person, soft-spoken and humble. He who just rescued two NASA astronauts, left stranded by .gov! Those who protest, speak to the contrary, are very wrong. He's respectful of others at all levels and wanting the American dream he achieved for all Americans.

I'm thinking I may have this wrong, the "too good to be true" kind-a-thing. To me the $50 for 50 GB plan is good enough with $1/GB when over 50Gb. Then I read where you can pause the 50GB plan, use it for a few days or weeks, pause your access and then use it later. Can any current Starlink Roam plan user confirm if this is indeed true? I likely have this wrong. But if so, there would be no reason to buy 10 MB plus $2/MB when you can pay for 50GB and use it only when needed. If it cannot be paused, I would buy 10GB to get the Starlink installed, configured to our router, test access and then buy the $10 plan for a few days on the road, or pay $50 for a longer camp! 🤣

Wow, $55 or more! I have more tools than most, except for @ScubaRx of course! Two issues I see with this tool. First, you're not understanding the underlying cause, i.e. why is the Zerk stuck? Like Steve noted, the wet bolts are likely misaligned. Second, I would say half of the Zerks in the Oliver and ALL the other vehicles we have, there is no way in the world you have a straight-line shot to the Zerk where you could get this device and a hammer behind it. It just will not fit in too many cases. I did buy the suggested DeWalt power grease gun though, and it has been a blessing to the old body!

Be careful with using these ramps. The inner shackles on the Oliver leaf springs are know to flip and when I tried the ramp (one I've had for years) it flipped the leaf shackle and the suspension looked cock-eyed when rolled off the ramp. I had to tow the Oliver over a curbed entrance to a service station to get it to flip back. Wait for the LOUD BANG when it flips itself back! Just use the built-in jacks for this purpose or when changing a flat tire. There is a member here, with more experience than all of us, who says the Oliver can sit on these jacks forever. I prefer to park near level using Anderson levelers and do not like the trailer wheels to be up in the air when camping or parked for any extended period of time, but NP while you are servicing the trailer. However, if you are going to remove both tires, you can use the jacks to lift the trailer then please use jack stands for your safety. I always travel with one jack stand in the truck toolbox!

Wheel bearing grease is high temp, but a heat gun can burn the grease and will not solve your problem. I would use the stabilizer jacks one side at a time to relieve the pressure.

I believe the trick is to have enough bottles to mostly fill the space, left to right, so they hold each other up. We fill the bottom space and use the top bar for a wash cloth.

Are these available everywhere else, but not yet in the USA? Dometic's new FreshJet 7 with inverter compressor: https://www.dometic.com/en/outdoor/lp/freshjet-7

Maybe because the 30A is an older design. At least we know you and @johnwen are seeing the same thing disconnected, but until he gets a reading on the app there is no way to know if it's truly charging and how much charge it's producing. The Orion XS 12|12 50A powers up with house batteries only connected. It is Bluetooth discoverable and no VE. port, no other connections (+ input open). Our Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 also powers up when connected house batteries only (and this is of the same old design, same large size of the Orion 30A with huge heat sink). All 5 Victron devices that you see in my app picture above will be on or in standby mode 24x7. So I'm of the opposite opinion. Meaning this is how it should be and I'm happy for that. Without connection to the tow vehicle, you know the device is working and it can be configured. Having more than enough available AH and wanting our Victron inverter/charger ready on 24x7, parasitic draw, who cares? Maybe everybody but me! The Victron Multiplus-II on standby takes 1A and this efficient Orion 50A charger only requires "standby current consumption < 1.5mA." I also run our exterior Courtesy Lights on 24/7 using 0.3A. Our hull sits outside, never in storage, and with solar it's always between 97-100% SOC, except when camping using large appliances. I figure with all devices on standby we use <40AH in a 24 hour period and solar recharges that everyday in 2 hours +/-.

That's odd. The blue light came right up on my Orion charger as soon as I reconnected the house batteries and I don't have it connected since the truck is not yet wired! Even when the Anderson coupler is disconnected the DC-DC charger is getting 12V from the house batteries which should allow it to power up. I wonder if your Orion charger is properly grounded to the Oliver negative bus and it's only getting ground through the truck. Either that or the 30A Orion works differently than other Victron products. Have you checked how many amps your getting when towing? Just hoping yours is functioning as it should. Asking @Snackchaser and @MAX Burner, does your Orion DC-DC charger power up when disconnected from the tow vehicle? (blue light on or showing in the Victron app)

This didn’t make sense to me originally, since my Victron solar charger does not need to be connected to be discoverable and see it on the app. I asked this before, do you see it on the app now when you park and disconnect? I just got my trailer side wiring done. No work on the truck yet, so the Anderson is obviously disconnected and I got this immediately. I have not yet logged in so it’s in an Other Devices list. We got us a Victron family of five with the new Orion added bottom of the list!

Below is another video on the Gree Eco-Cool. Look at the specs sheets he shows. Right at the 5:20 time the spec sheet states: Starting Current - Inverter Driven Soft Start. It does not state that on the user manual I downloaded. Can their statement about not needing a soft-start be true? The second video shows the Gree performing and during start-up does not spike and always running at 900W! Watch at 27:00 time.

So in the video he measured with a phone app, and who knows how accurate that is, but he measured both A/C units the same way. His numbers were 64 for the Turbro and 56 for the Gree which is a significant difference. Each time he was in the room with the Turbro the sound was apparent, and he complained of it, but not so the Gree Eco-Cool. Gree advertises High Fan 56, Med 52, and Low 43 dB which seems reasonable. The Dreiha Atmos spec sheet merely states one number at 53 dB, go figure. So many spec sheets have wrong data listed, trust but verify. The Turbro is an inverter design, but I do not believe the others are so. It appears to be a great product, technically. I wish the interior air handling was more thought through. Given its low power consumption, trim exterior design, very low exterior sound and other factors, it may be a very good product for those who live in hot/humid areas needing to run the A/C often and for those wanting to run A/C on superior battery AH and inverter capability. I can certainly see why @Derek B is interested! With some time in the market, I hope to see some positive consumer reviews.

Haven’t heard of anything. I just checked 511 AZ app typed destination Show Low and no warnings along the route from here to there. Don’t know about New Mexico. Camping should be wide open Mar~Apr and temps are warm for the elevation. Come see us in Prescott! Have a great trip.

The Gree Eco-Cool Spec sheet still states R410 refrigerant and all dimensions look to be identical except Gree is stating height an inch taller at 12.2" where the Atmos states 11.14". Not all spec sheets are accurate but the upper shell can be different. Gree Eco Cool Spec Sheet.pdf