jd1923

Got it back together Friday. Laying on the ground to get the adjusters close, what a pain! You have to turn the power up on your brake controller when first towing. Pulled the Oliver some on Sat and Sun. Used the controller actuator to get them to kick in often and adjust. Got the brakes nice now. I can't understand wanting manual adjust shoes, not me. And the wheels had quite a bit of up-n-down play before. Not anymore and it's done finally.

Study, look long and hard at the Progressive Dynamics (PD) interface diagram above. I have for hours and have learned so much from it. I installed their model PD1618 in an RV. What amazing products PD makes for RVs and their user manuals are easy to understand, as compared to others. Don't be afraid to run your inverter long, if your battery bank is sufficient. We have 450 AH now, last time had only 315 AH and would run ours on-n-off, day and night, and always make coffee in the morning, solar recharging by 10 AM. Check out the 120V AC split-bus concept, with main panel (shore/generator) and sub panel (Inverter). This is drawn out, see bottom right corner of the PD diagram, also on page 6 of the PD1600 Operation Guide. PD1600-Operation-Guide-701580.pdf

NP Scuba Steve, you're the best and the Guru of all things OTT! Elegant in a way yes, though it will soon be improved to be more shock resistant. Ordered my bus parts and will share soon. I'm going for solid copper busses at both +/- terminals. Thanks

Here's our #113, parked level in our driveway. The front jack must be lowered, and lowered again, until it's less than 4" off the ground! Exterior Courtesy Lights running 24x7 to fend of the Arizona Pack Rats! We love living in the mountains. Was brought up as flatlanders, you can keep suburbia, worth the effort to escape, for us never again living flat and humid! BTW, don't jack up the rear, behind the rear stabilizer jack, for maintenance of the wheel bearings, brakes or ANYTHING else, without first having your OTT level! Working maintenance, I will always be careful as wrtned. However, it totally s@cks that we have to level like this to merely fill a FRESH WATER TANK!!! (or run the fridge, OMG!) Hello OTT, you can install a flat FWT designed with interior baffles, so that it can be filled to 90% capacity at ANY level! Yes, can be done! Ty

Thanks Bill, again I can count on the owner of that young girl named Twist #117! This thread goes from a drastic alarmed state, must replace it, to just be aware and keep an eye on it. I have a nose that can smell LP, other fuels, ammonia, any household cleaner in milliseconds. I also hear machine sounds that nobody hears! The only thing I should change is not to park her on our unlevel driveway 2 days prior to leaving. Keep it parked level. Get the longer hose to fill the tank there and pack and get ready on the flat.

Our RV parking spot at home is somewhat graded. Five years ago, I installed a TuffShed. We picked the most level spot on our property, still Adam and I moved a lot of dirt downhill to level the 10x20 FT pad. Ordered a full truckload of driveway gravel for under the shed and a 10x30 parking area below it. Later I ran 125' 8GA burial type cable to a new panel in the shed, for lights, outlets and 30A service for RV use. I also built a ramp/platform out of used 2x10s, 3 layers so it's 4.5" tall for the downhill trailer wheels. We park the OTT level. Problem is the parking spot is also 125 FT away from the hose bib on the house. If I buy another 50' length of hose for potable water, it can reach, so I will buy a third hose soon! The fridge is off when parked, with door cracked open. We do start it up 2 days before leaving. Often, I pull it up towards the house for it to be easy for Chris to pack clothes and food, and I fill the water, check tire pressure, etc. It's not level in our driveway. We run the fridge on LP from 2 days before any travel until the day after our return and there is no way to be level. What about the fridge on while driving in the mountains? Not often level in route! That's when you always need LP. Never heard of this issue with other makes, though the Class A and C in my experience had full size fridges. Also, our Bigfoot had a 63-gal tank that we were certain had 60-gal when full. Every RV manufacturer makes bad design decisions. BF put their large freshwater tank behind the rear bed, adding 500 # as far back as possible! I'll have to keep my eye on it. There is a thermostat-controlled ventilation fan added to our unit.

Said I needed a day off and then took 4-5! Worked a couple hours each of the last few on this job. One day, jacked up the curb side and tore everything down. Next day cleaned the brake parts and today I ran the pressure washer on the suspension, the brake backing plates and everything I could reach underneath. Been working a bit more than usual, getting in the way of my OTT work! It's nice to line everything up to be ready. I need to install the races; the old ones are out. It's best to mount the shoes first with the spring-pins. Then the adjuster, the magnet and pulley line, and last the upper springs (got a nice tool to pull them). Notice this side has two (2) like designs of the Nev-R-Adjust brakes. The ones with two small upper springs connected in an 'A' shape. My other side had the rear with the long horizontal spring, like @Ronbrink's above. What did a PO do? Smash the rear wheel and have to replace it? Or did Dexter build an axle like this, with different assemblies on each side? The one-off assembly had a thin weak spring in the adjuster. The other 3 did not and in all my life doing brakes on old cars, none of them ever had a spring in the brake shoe adjuster. Both assemblies are equally clean. There is just more shop lighting on the left one. BTW, a little Sil-Glyde grease on the lever and spring behind the magnet helps too.

No way to be level at all where we live and travel. Only had our Oliver for 4 months and only went on one weekend trip so far. We left with a "full tank" as it did overflow. The meter was all over the place, before and after, never counted on any tank reading in any RV! Our gray and black tank readings are also not accurate. We ran out of water after two days out. From our past RV experiences, thought we could not have used more than 20 gallons, 25 max. Good thing we have a 35-gal fresh tank in the truck bed. Pumped it into the OTT fresh tank to finish our trip. Will have the electric motorized water ball valves soon, so not to move the bed. Figure we will always have 55-60 gal with both tanks filled (full s/b 70 gal). We fill up at home when going on local boondocking trips. There is no way on our property to park flat, unless I spent time with leveling blocks and I'm not going got do that at home, when packing for a trip.

@John E Davies you're going to like this one! Before and after on the battery tray in my old Bigfoot. Other BF owners on their forum purchased a new Kwikee tray $$$, but it was my challenge to rebuild this one with new 20" slides and toolbox rubber lining.

Thanks Steve, for the bit of OTT history! So, I should be happy with Hull #113, vs. #200+. I withdraw anything I wrote bad re Blue Sky. There was nothing wrong with the system, only the knee-height installation! I should move that screen ASAP, waiting for the Bluetooth version that @SeaDawg suggested. Our previous RV had only two old marine batteries on a rusted battery tray! I knew nothing about solar and inverters, but learned as I installed a complete system. Below is the system design I built and a readout of the Bogart Engineering battery monitoring system, Wi-Fi connect to my phone. I cut the power bus in the PD55, to create the dual bus system you see in the bottom right corner of the diagram below. One side for most appliances, shore power or inverter with instant change-over, and the other side for the A/C not powered by the inverter. You could read ALL charging stats, sitting in your warm living room as the RV was out in the winter cold. The lefthand readout picture below shows morning status after running the inverter with TV A/V system on all night, and the righthand picture showing status fully charged after a sunny day. Hopefully the Blue Sky Bluetooth version will display something like this. I can certainly move the smaller cables inside, but that is not the problem. Look at my first picture above in the top right corner. You need to mount two (2) heavy gauge battery cables, in this one position. These short battery terminal posts do not have the depth to do that.

I will test each battery separately, when I have them out. My feeling is I have a set of like new batteries, as advertised installed in 2022. I removed the shore power today, turned on the exterior courtesy lights and will run more stuff during the day and night to make these batteries work. Like to bring them down to 60% and then see the solar charger bring them up after a long sunny day. Everyday is a sunny day in Arizona! Good news is the battery bay door seals nicely, none of that AZ dirt inside, that iron oxide red dust that @John E Davies has warned us of. Took the negative battery post apart today. Can see why past owner added these tall posts, as there is no way to mount 2 heavy gauge battery cables. I would have purchased similar batteries with taller 3/8" posts. These are 1/2" short 5/16" posts. I need a battery terminal to add two battery cables and 2-3 8GA cables to each post. Looked for 15 minutes on Amazon, weeding through the cr@p, not much there. With only a few minutes into this, I'm thinking why not just mount a copper bar. I'm interested in @John E Davies input on this. For $18 on Amazon, I can buy an 8" length of pure copper, 1/4" thick, 1" wide. I can cut this into two 4" pieces for both +/- terminals. Drill a 5/16" hole to mount to the battery post and drill two 3/8" holes for the cables and bolt through with copper washers. Love to find a quality prebuild post, but not seeing anything that would work effectively for my need. Please let me know if this idea would work, is a copper bar good, perhaps aluminum is better in the elements, or are there better options? Thanks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9NDVW9J/?coliid=I35ZMYZFHWRUXC&colid=2UU65RMAO0WYD&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

Our cable grommets at the rear of the battery bay are loose. They aren't even rubber grommets, but a vented plastic type. Brand new they would not keep battery fumes from entering the areas under the dinette and bed. It appears the only way to correct this is to first pull the batteries out completely. This will be the time to correct the cable angle and connection bolts mentioned above. Any suggestions on a long-term fix for this? I could just glue these back in place. Maybe an exterior quality, minimal expansion, "Great Stuff" kind of product? Let me know if this has happened to your rig.

Yep, thanks again @John E Davies and Bill and Sherry! These bolts are going and will get the cables coming from the other direction, so not turning against the wall. Lol yeah, the Prestone was a similar looking tool, made for checking antifreeze concentration. My hydrometer is likely in the same tool drawer. They're both turkey-baster kind of tools!

Bill, when you wrote "original" could you mean your batteries are the originals, now 7 years old? If so, this is a testament to life of the 6V golfcart battery! I will certainly remove these tall posts soon. They can't be good, would accentuate any vibration of the main cables down those two extended posts (same thing on the main -neg post). A past owner must have added this for some reason, maybe for better clearance of the cables. I need to remove all four batteries anyway, for a repair to the back of the bay. More on that later...

Thanks @SeaDawg everything you have here is great advice. Thanks for the link. Had no idea there are videos available like these and yes, I've been into so much other maintenance that I've been dreading studying the Blue Sky manual. I was really good with our last Solar/Inverter system, because I installed it and understood every component. Not near yet on this one. You asked the question, "is it on or off." @John E Davies asked it first, but it was at the end of so much other stuff that I didn't see it, and after your post @topgun2 wrote it again. Thanks Bill, third times the charm! I hate to have to admit, that I simply had the switch off! What a dumb newbie thing. Sorry to waste everybody's time, but I do have other battery related questions to follow... First thing will be per @John E Davies suggestion, I should move the Blue Sky panel to head height! I remember about 2 months ago, reading a post about Inverter issues, needing a complete power off to reboot and I went out to learn some about this system. I had turned the big red switch off, then found out there is no battery disconnect switch, and after some interruption I forgot to return and switch it back on. It was summer then, connected to shore power to run the A/C when parked, set at 84 degrees. It has been disconnected from shore power 3-4 weeks now and I run the Exterior Courtesy Lights 24x7 to fend off the dreadful Arizona Pack Rat! So, over 3-4 weeks the batteries dropped from 100% to 78% as normal. Back to 100% this morning. Threw the main switch, input from the solar panels. The Blue Sky lights came on and with voltmeter measured 14.42V across both pairs of batteries, showing it's charging as designed. What a dummy I can be at times. 🙃

JD thanks for the Battery 101 stuff. I do have a 70s or 80s Prestone hydrometer in the shop but haven't used it for quite a while! All four 6V batteries were at exactly at 6.16V yesterday, and ALL 4 were at 6.69V this morning, after connecting to shore power again, being charged overnight by the PD4000. All readings are accurate to .01V, both pairs adding up to 13.38V in series, I would say this is the best battery bank I've seen in years. I'm more the restoration kind-a guy, vs. everything is a poor design and the needs replacing kind. There is no way in the world I would replace these brand-new batteries at $299 ea for SLA. NEW Interstate 6V 6 Volt Golf Cart Battery RV marine solar deep cycle GC2 T105 | eBay They are both lead-acid and the SLA is not serviceable. With sealed batteries you cannot use a hydrometer, nor see the acid and plates. Love the quick disconnect battery caps on these. The plates in these batteries are CLEAN, absolutely no calcification, the acid crystal clear, like the distilled water added, which only took a cup or so of water for all four with 5 minutes of maintenance. No need for baking soda, as the picture shows how clean they are. I will check acid levels 1-2 times a year and keep these for many years to come. most Class-As have these batteries, many lasting 7 years.

I'm remembering a few months back, when we first joined this forum, you remarked that our Olivers were cousins. Old is good, or we're in trouble. I'm married to an old girl, she's wonderful and I can't live a day without her! And we have two old girls in Hulls 113 and 117, ours perhaps a few days older! It seems @SeaDawg understood my question. Her reply was exactly what I was looking for! Nothing wrong with the batteries or connections. There are odd posts for the main cable connections to the TT (see close-up pic). Thinking I should remove these tall bolts. Could this be original?

We have an older 2016 Oliver #113 and one of the features that weighed in on our recent purchase of this Oliver Ell (besides being conveniently 4-sale used in our hometown) was its Inverter-Solar-Battery setup! It appears we have newer batteries, advertised to be 1-2 years old and they look new (to bad installer did not punch the date codes). I love the setup in general and I'm totally fine with the installation of four (4) 225 AH 6V lead-acid golfcart style batteries! I'm not the guy paying $XXX for LiFePO4 to save a few pounds, and a little more capacity, on an already light trailer. However, I'm certainly jealous of those of you who have the OTT Lithium Package - just nice! Cannot afford it here, while spending $XXX on other stuff! Anyway, nobody really needs more than 450 AH, lithium or lead-acid (except for a few YouTube Class-A crazies!!!). Yes, we have ample storage, according to the battery labels, and I understand, though not verified, 380 watts of solar power! Over the last 6 weeks, ever since the Oliver did not need A/C during the heat of the day, I left her unplugged (think Eric Clapton's unplugged version of Layla - yeah! ... Lol, just kidding). I believed the solar charger should take care of things. Unfortunately, this was not so! Last week, I noticed the interior Blue Sky panel was reading batteries at 82%, then 78%, even after a long day of Arizona sun, WTF. There is enough solar power for sure after 12+ hours of clear dry sun. Is the Blue Sky charger insufficient? I'm thinking so. Can solar panels go bad, or weak? Don't know... Next thought, I should check into battery maintenance. Opened them up, added some distilled water, though no acid level was below the charging plates. Anyway, glad this maintenance is now done for this year. Found the front battery strap to be broken, with bungee attached and just crafted a new one. Batteries were at 12.32V and I would expect more, like 13.1V after a day in the AZ sun! Connected a trusted automotive charger, watched the voltage gain gradually, while adding a light 10A charge. Batteries looking good means the Blue Sky solar charger is not. Got the batteries up to +12.8V, measured after the charger was disconnected for a few minutes. Later, plugged into shore power, first time since August, and soon volts read 13.01V. Will check again later tonight and in the morning. So, how horrible is this Blue Sky ? In the older OTTs (ours), the LED panel is mounted just above knee height, and I have a bad neck!

For sure no sense changing wheels sizes, when thinking new TV! I went with 17s and I believe it is the best upgrade in size when starting with an OEM LT265/75R16 tire size. The 17" wheels allows you to go to the LT265/70R17 size, keeping the exact tire height (do not get taller tires when towing) and width in this case. This upgrade also allows me to go to 17" front brakes, as mentioned above. Also, the 70-profile tire is a better highway size than a 75-profile tire (for off road, 75 and 85 are preferred). 18" wheels become too large an upgrade from 16" and you would need a 65 profile or they will be taller, causing drive-train stress and difficulty climbing mountains. Newer trucks with 65 profile or less will handle firm and drive rough, and the OEM 75 profile is softer, a little bouncier. "Tire guys" that say 18s or larger, do it from muscle memory, since "everybody" wants BIG 35-37" tires that stick out beyond the fenders, right?

For sure their logo is unique. If you want the covers, some are against them, and do not care re the logo, you can go with any number of caps. The domes are standard, and the cap size standard, with so many choices of logos or art patterns. These solve the issue at $15 for set of 4. Hundreds of other choices too. The size (47mm OD of inner stays) listed in this ad is what you need: Amazon.com: Modengzhe 4 Pcs Plastic Snap-in Type Wheel Center Hub Cap 54mm Outer Diameter and 47mm Inner Diameter for Cars, Chrome ABS Base Lattice Top : Automotive

For future reference, when you have 12VDC+ (nominal 12V, not 3-4V) at the pump (red wire) and ground (black), two things are true: 1) Any and all relevant fuses must be good, and 2) therefore the pump must be bad. RV pumps and most any electric pump do not need water to start! Just power. I'm installing an upgraded water pump in ours. It's on my workbench not connected to plumbing at all. I connect it to my shop marine 12V battery and it runs immediately. It's loud to start-off without water. Put my thumb over the inlet with a little pressure and now new pump runs quietly. Push hard with my thumb to shut off the air and the pump stops as it achieves cut-off pressure. You can always bench test 12V appliances. I do it upon receipt, so I do not go beyond the Amazon 30-day return window. It might be too late for you, though Amazon is great on returns! Now is a good time to upgrade your water system. My OEM pump was 3 GPM at 55 PSI and my upgraded Seaflo pump will produce 5 GPM at 60 PSI. I am also adding two .75L accumulators in series on the output side of the pump to reduce water pump cycling (can flush the toilet at night, and the pump under wife's bed doesn't run). I can't stand a weak shower and we carry 35-gal extra water tank in the TV! Amazon.com: SEAFLO 55-Series Diaphragm Pump - 12V DC, 5.5 GPM, 60 PSI : Industrial & Scientific

Received our Maxx Air Fan 6" Dome w LED from Amazon today. Got lucky again with Amazon used. Fan for $69 plus tax, yes packaging well damaged, but all parts included and cosmetically new. Tested the fan and LED light with my shop 12V marine battery and again all good. The product included all parts, rain guard, 6" ceiling extension, and everything you need. Earlier I suggested using 3M VHB tape and this will work on the exterior portion for sure. However, there is such a perfect flat surface, round around the external perimeter, OMG TG they do not have holes predrilled here! I'm thinking, if I can source a quality waterproof exterior glue/sealer instead of tape, I would apply a full-circle bead of glue to set this piece. If this was done, you would not have to caulk. Just apply and position in place and you're done! (again, no screws). The rain guard was included but will not be used. This is unnecessary, given the fan is installed and sealed correctly. This is designed for a wall-mounted installation. On an RV/TT you would need one with no vents to help somewhat. Put the solid portion up top and it may help when parked. Put it up front, and it my help when driving at highway speed, either way unnecessary. The interior portion is a bit trickier! there is not a full circle flat surface. There is an inner flat portion that goes 90% around the circle, and if that will contact the ceiling surface, you're good with VHB tape. You would have open screw openings on the fan surround on your wet bath ceiling. You could find 4 white plugs. Or if needed mount the 4 screws interior, which cannot cause a leaking situation, as the interior is merely cosmetic, holding the trim ring and LED light. Hope this helps!

@John E Davies made a good point. A quality rubberized plastic casing would be preferable, as long as the copper blades remain in good condition. Mine were toast! Hoping my new metal-cased plug lasts as long as the internals. I’ll apply dielectric grease around the plug so that dust and water will not affect the terminals. Take a look at my pic. This Mopar hitch has a housing for the trailer plug receptacle welded to the hitch in the 90-degree direction. It would be difficult to change this. There is 4 ½ inches clearance to the eyelet for the safety chains and 7” total to the 2” receiver. The standard plastic trailer is so long, I struggled every time, connecting and disconnecting. Now I have 2” extra room with this metal shorty! Tested all circuits today and all is good. Thanks

John, thanks for the link and yeah, I get it and thought some about that. I really thought the metal would be better in the SW and worse anywhere north where they salt the roads! I purchased this because it is 2" shorter than all the plastic ones. My receptacle runs in parallel to the bumper and the end of the plug goes over the hole where you mount the chains. Bad design, but it's there unless I change everything. I did run electrical tape around everything inside, about 3 layers of tape between wiring and the metal housing. I will buy a backup plastic one. Anybody know of a short plastic bodied plug? Or a 90-degree trailer plug?

Thanks @Frank C this makes sense and yes, the front jack has the same yellow fused link (I have pulled off that jack head for servicing). And thank you @MobileJoy the solar cutoff makes sense right there. I'll test mine to make sure at some point. Turn it off and the display should show 0 amps incoming. Why isn't there a battery cutoff on these OTTs? (or is there)