jd1923

My son’s first USTA tennis tournament was on the grounds of Texas A&M!

Welcome! Pretty soon the forum cops will suggest you add a signature including hull and tow vehicle info. Some write a book with all mods info… and others do something simple like ours. Very nice first pic!

The Santa Catalina Mountains from the Catalina State Park of Arizona. Was dry as bone here, no real precip this season, daily highs in the 80s!

Again, thank you Mike! I would have not looked there first, or second and it’s so down low on the floor. I did have it closed for two months since I had winterized late November and just turned it back on the day before the leak occurred. Do you believe in coincidence? Let you know in a few days, TY!

Thanks Mike. This leak could be of my doing when replacing manual valves with electric 18 months and 50 nights out earlier, but not likely. I will figure it out soon and let y’all know when I know! We had two broken frame welds upon purchase, but I will say, two years and 64 nights out camping, this is the first failure in our quite wonderful, very well built OTT! 😂

Out on a camp this week. Left home after positive tests of our new waste valves, no issues there. First night at Lost Dutchman after filling the Fresh Water Tank (FWT) all was good, not a drop for 24+ hours. Second night, parked at a friend’s house near Tucson, in their driveway we had an obvious leak out the curbside rear, but as we moved at different levels it would leak at any weep hole but front left, TG! Y’all know for sure, I’m the working sort but not during the time when we are away enjoying life. So we only turned on the water pump when needed. I tested the City Water connection, same thing, which means it’s not in the connection. What do you think would be the cause of the leak. My hope is it’s obviously and easy to reach. We’ll be home tomorrow. I’ll put the beds in the house and run a fan down there to dry things out! Good news RH here is <10% so no mildew. Will let you know what I find but would like to know if any of you had this experience?

Yeah and BTW, please do not travel Arizona without reaching out and stopping by. 😂

Yeah, Duh! Cut me off Val, before I have a Bromance issue with you! 🤣

Yep, ours too and we still have them. I upgrade a lot of stuff, but since this is in the area of liability insurance, I figure OTT is responsible if I do not touch what was installed by the manufacturer. This should receive comment! 🤣

I wrote a mod post on this. I strongly suggest moving the bus under the street side bed to the area under the rear dinette seat. Blow a fuse and remove a bed, what was OTT thinking?! 🤣

Hit a deer with my ‘84 Goldwing Standard, coming home one night in Georgetown TX. Saw her coming and kept it up on two wheels as she glanced off the side of my bike. Heck, the raccoons in suburban Chicagoland are larger than the deer in Texas! 🤣

Very similar backgrounds, the two of us were west-siders, 6 years in N VA on the way to 9 years in Texas. Our last cold winter was ‘99 unless you consider VA cold. I worked for that late great 20th century manufacturer of communications equipment, also headquartered in Chicagoland!

My first job was installing stereo systems in cars which led to working through college installing aftermarket kits (alarms, cruise controls, etc.) Install 12-16 automotive accessory kits a week at every named dealership and a few Oliver mods are quick and easy! Love your quote here. I also enjoy the repairs! Like buying an old motorcycle priced low since it doesn’t run and driving it in the neighborhood a few days later! The of course restoring it fully. Not the 10-hour day I used to work but a half day teaching (my paying job) followed by a few hours in the garage. Or half the year when I’m not working, a half day on a repair and playing pickleball or going on a hike in the afternoon! Call me nuts, but I/we have always worked our own yard work, and always on properties with acreage! Don’t understand how full-timers survive, being without a good home attached to the ground! Couldn’t be without my 3-car garage with wrap-around work benches, toolboxes, cabinets and shelves, besides our two outbuildings for more parts and tools. Love when I do repairs using hardware and parts I hoarded from decades ago! No trip required to True Value or The Depot. Most members here online rave about being retired, not me. Like my life working occasionally. My uncle retired at 51 after selling his half of 3 Chicago restaurants. Moved to Port St. Lucie and although he was a near scratch golfer, got bored, disliked his retired life, feared reinvesting in something new, passed of a heart attack while on a riding mower at age 64. His brother, my father worked everyday of his life until he passed at 92 years. I won’t be at either extreme! I’d be gearing up for spring yard work soon, but with no real rain or snow in the last 5 months, this will wait until after the summer monsoons! 😂

I understand, but it’s too much money. What I’ve done to our Oliver in less than 2 years would be near $20K in labor! And that doesn’t include the total restoration of our tow vehicle. I rarely buy new vehicles, last time was in 2001, don’t like warranty claims or insurance, so we go with minimums. Close to 50 years wrenching for me. Turning 70 in April and I still prefer to do my own work. Hope I can when I’m 80, although very few parts of my body don’t hurt these days! 🤣

Rounding error! 🤣

True although as the article states, “Propane is stored and delivered as a liquid.” And later it states, “These meters include a volume correction device known as an automatic temperature compensator.” Given delivery is adjusted for temperature, when you buy a gallon of LP it should be the standard weight of a gallon at the standard temp 60F. If it’s a cold day your getting less actual volume, but the gauge in the dispensing tank is temp-compensated standard. The person filling should be trained, but if not, do not allow much more than 6.8 Gal on the gauge to be added to an empty 30# tank! (4.5 Gal for 20#) Temp swings up and down is why the tank should be only 80% full. The 20% gas portion allows for expansion and contraction. The cold tank filled with over 8 gallons had no room for expansion, so it had to be released out of the tank when the temp increased.

My understanding is that Ford caused the Firestone blowouts that caused I’ve 450 accidents and 250 deaths. Ford was getting complaints that the Ford Explorer of 25 years ago drove too harsh, “drove like a truck.” A ford exec sent a service advisory memo to the dealers, asking tire pressure to be reduced to 26 PSI from the Firestone spec of 33 PSI! Ever wonder why only Explorers had these blowouts and not the F150 of the era that had same drive train and tires? Ford caused the demise of Firestone, arguably the best tire company of the 20th century, certainly the greatest market share. The public stopped buying Firestone tires. Their stock plummeted trading at pennies on the dollar when the Japanese parent co of Bridgestone Tires bought them out. Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone created a partnership that lasted for 7 decades until this time. Henry II married the Firestone granddaughter in the 50s. At least this is how I remember the story.

I’m with you 98% except for tires where often OEM is satisfactory and better performance can be found easily. OEM auto parts yes, sometimes performance aftermarket. I restored more than 10 vehicles to original condition. Can’t stand an old car chopped or moded in any way. It’s like they wrecked an old car and has no future use even for parts in a boneyard! Anderson, no grease, no problem. One less thing to maintain. Yes grease collects dirt and grease on the hitch ball has wrecked many a good pair of pants!

The thought of instant hot water is nice, but not Truma given all this! Our old school Suburban with 6 gallons water weight and the waste of draining often… But it’s running now 10 years and I like the choice of using LP or electric. This trip we heated the tank twice on inverted battery power, using about 10% of 600AH!

Sorry about that, I generally do not use so many. I’m sure you know the electrical acronyms like AWG, VAC and VDC. I also used FWT for fresh water tank and HWH for hot water heater. MP2 is short for the Victron Multiplus II Inverter/Charger. I got the 4 AWG wires run in the Oliver last week while working on waste valves. We’re camping this week but I will get this done in another week or two. I will run tests setting the Orion XS 50A configured at 30, 40 and 50 amp settings. 30A will be no problem and we’ll see if it can run somewhat higher without issue. You did answer my question, thank you. I answered it myself at the end of my post and you confirmed my thinking.

We’ve never yet run out of LP while on a trip. So we always fill up at the same company in Prescott, where an empty 30# tank consistently takes 6.8 gallons. My understanding is they should be filled 80%. 16.9 / 2 = 8.45 and 6.8 / 8.45 = 80%. Your tanks were filled 100% with no expansion room for the liquid to turn to gas. In the future know that 6.8 gallons is the correct volume. Tell any unaware attendant to stop filling when it hits this number!

I understand the EE standard calculations. Question though... How am I charging at 50A through a 25 ft 10 AWG cable in series to a 14 AWG extension cord? (see pictures) We left home yesterday batteries down to 34% after running our fridge for 48 hours on DC, lights and radio, etc. We usually leave with full batteries and tanks but day one was only 2 1/2 hours to Lost Dutchman SP were we could charge and fill the FWT. When we got here we had a drive-through site and want to park the opposite direction, so I needed the extension cord. First I turned the MP2 to inverter only (no charging) and ran the HWH on AC. Even though we were connected, I guess the MP2 sensed not enough available amps on the 20A shore power connection and was pulling 127A DC from the batteries. This translates to approx. 10A 120VAC but maybe the HWH was using 10A in addition to the limited shore power. I should have checked the EMS readout for shore power amps used but did not think to at the time. A half hour+ later we had hot water, we turned the breaker OFF, and the 600AH batteries were now at 20%. The Victron picture taken at 11 PM (5 1/2 hours later) showed the batteries up to 60%. This adds up that the charger was supplying 50AH. When I woke up in the middle of the night the batteries were at 100%. The extension cord never got hot. What's the deal here? Does the 14 AWG cable work because voltage is 120VAC and the 4 AWG will not be enough for 50A at 12VDC (13.6V actual)? Also, does voltage drop really matter when the Orion XS 50A accepts input voltage as low as 9V? (input range spec 9V - 17V)

That makes sense about cable wear. The 90 by the pull handle is large radius which should not be an issue. Mine has an issue at the waste valve in that they mounted it vertically right near the wall of the dinette seat causing an 180 to 200 degree turn. I can’t yet see a way around this turn with a major plumbing change. Hope the new cable will improve the action, Problem solved, yes. Like to see a pic off your switch installation Val. Thx

Water test went well. I filled the black tank at least half full. Filled the bathroom sink until there was 3" on the floor. Ran several gallons down the kitchen sink. Let everything sit for a couple hours, not a drop anywhere and the height of water in the bathroom floor held without change. All three valves are now renewed. New seals on the black. New valve, seals and pull cable on the gray. Motorized valve on the 1 1/2" gray line from the bathroom. Having an electric switch is amazing! Though I still had the batteries disconnected during the test, so I used the pull handle to manually open the drain. Reinstalled our inverter and connected the batteries and all is good! Pulling the gray waste valve open is feather light with new valve and pull cable. The 144" cable for the black tank waste valve was delayed twice by the USPS, go figure. Leaving today, so this last part will have to wait. For the long black cable an easy way to run it is to first remove the old inner cable. Then cut the old cable sheath at the area under the streetside bed. Insert the new cable through the outside opening and feed it into the sheath and use electrical tape to keep them together. Then detach the old sheath from the waste valve and pull it through from there. This way it will run exactly where the old cable was with minimal effort and neck strain! Another 20-30 minutes of work for me when we return from our short trip. I found that silicone grease on the cables did not help at all, in fact it added to the resistance, making it more difficult to pull and push. On the new cable, I greased the pistons on both ends but not the cable itself. I don't imagine that any of you would be looking forward to doing this work! For me, I'm so happy this is in my past and with no worries for the next many years. 😂

Anything in life worth having is worth working for. — Andrew Carnegie