jd1923

For the main battery fuse, check your inverter spec. OTT had a 250A ANL fuse installed in our hull for the 2KW Xantrex that was our original system. When I upgraded to the Victron Multiplus II 3KVA Inverter-Charger the manual stated using a 400A fuse. Most applicable inverter specs will be in the range is 250-400A. When choosing a cut-off switch, it should be rated equal to or above the proper fuse rating. Most go with the available Blu Sea 300A or 350A rated switches. For your solar, use what is specified for the solar charger. Or if your MPPT Solar charger is rated for 30A, then a 35A or 40A breaker or fuse is appropriate. Our Blue Sky SC is rated for 25A and OTT installed a 30A breaker. When I added a Victron 30A MPPT SC, I believe the book said 35-40A and I installed a 35A breaker. So not to get shock while working with battery cables --- It is common practice when installing battery cables is to install the B+ side first since when the ground is not connected, the B+ side has no potential. When removing battery cables, use the reverse order, remove the B- side first. This is why in my battery installation, I positioned the main B- battery closest to the door. This way I can remove the ground (vs. having a switch) even without sliding the tray open and the closest B+ connection is 8" deeper into the battery bay, providing a very low chance of touching it by accident.

I'm not seeing this on Campendium or Recreation.gov. The one I see at Devil's Tower is Belle Fourche, the FCFS campgrounds I referred to:

Yes, it has been an amazing, yet awaking adventure! 🤣 So it's Sunday and we're in Central ND, and only 2-3 days out to Mt Rushmore SD, and I finally realized, "I'm friggin' crazy!" It's mid June and we're driving into the greatest tourist stop in the National Park system, OMG! We not only have no reservations, but been so busy in our day-to-day travels that we have no idea where to stay, or even what are the possible choices! So first, I truly needed a strong drink to deal with this situation and promptly got on Campendium and Recreation.gov! I quickly found Horsethief Lake Campground, a primitive campsite only 15 min from Mt Rushmore. They had 3 sites open only on Thursday 6/19, so I booked one for the one night that was available! Before getting there I figured we would boondock on the Badlands Wall and afterwards would head to Devils Tower. There is a FCFS primitive site very near there and most RV people gotta have hook-ups, but knowing so little I thought not to count on that. Then I booked 2 nights at Rueter Campground, and a nice drive through the Black Hills to get there. This was done on Father's Day evening. In between I got calls from my step-son and later my son. After another drink, Chris made us a great grilled Walleye dinner, creamed broccoli and baked potato, nice! It was finally time to enjoy the wonderful campsite we had booked for two nights, Beaver Creek Recreation Area just on the river from Linton North Dakota, life is good!

Good thinking, you want both. Your batteries feed your 12VDC loads (and 120VAC loads if you have an inverter). Your solar panels through the solar MPPT charger also feed 12VDC to everything wired in the circuit. You must cut off all power sources to do M&R or make mods on your electrical systems. Some place a blanket over the solar panels, which is fine if you must! Better to be able to open any and all electrical systems with a breaker or switch.

Nice install Goeff, on the Zamp cutoff. If there is extra length on any of the Zamp wires, that would be perfect for the short length needed to a switch in this close location. No more opening the marine hatch, easily accessible, nice!

That’s great! Now @Tony and Rhonda you have a forum electrical expert that knows the Zamp!

I agree with the premise here. On the rare occasion, when I need the batteries disconnected, I merely grab a 1/2” wrench and remove the ground. That’s me and we use our Oliver during all seasons, never stored nor winterized. Issue with the latter suggestion is the breaker is under the bed! It’s a whole lot easier to cut power just inside the battery bay vs. removing bedding and mattress to do so. This is more important if you have thick heavy upgraded mattresses and your wife doesn’t want nicely made beds all messed up! OTT mounted stuff anywhere they could glue down a board with little thought to practical use during ownership. I made a whole project and post re relocating all breakers, switches and +bus that OTT had under the street-side bed to under the rear dinette seat. Where btw the DC fuse/AC breaker panel and negative bus are located. It’s just common sense. From the many posts I’ve read, those who regularly store their Olivers are very happy after adding a battery ground cutoff switch.

I'm not certain re the Zamp. On our Blue Sky SC, their tech support wrote me that either side could be switched. Maybe work your cutoff switch for now and re the Zamp you could leave well enough alone since it has been fine for many years as it was installed.

My mistake GJ, I had not remembered the post migrated to comparing the Toyota 4.7L and 5.7L engines. The 5.7L must be a beast! Best wishes, JD

Do that. We have a simple 1" drip edge on the curbside and do not get streaks. Nothing on the streetside, it gets streak. If I was to ever get our Oliver polished and waxed or otherwise coated, I would put new drip edge on BOTH sides.

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Tynulox-Copper-Electroplating-Jewelry-Plating/dp/B0B9NF3X1T/?th=1 This is the cheapest one I could find on Amazon today. This would make two adequate 4" bars. When I did this in an older installation, I drilled two 5/16" holes in each end and then used heat shrink to somewhat insulate the length of the bar.

Agreed, I do not see power switches. In your second pictured I copied almost every device is a fuse or the obvious breaker. This wiring is foreign to me, nothing like our hull built in late 2015. God love OTT, that they would install the display to your Progressive Industries EMS under the bed! Are you kiddin' me, now I have seen all in Ollie-land! 🤣 In later hulls they put the display in the attic which is almost as bad, without having to lift a bed! Yep, after you plug into shore power, run as fast as possible into your Oliver, open the Attic door, see that all is good, and then go back outside to get back to what you were doing! As far as you main fuse, and as Dan wrote above, you likely have one and Dan did not change that part. He just added the shut-off switch to the ground. Yours is likely OK too, but who knows for sure until you chase it down. If you follow your 4/0 positive cable after it enters the hull, on the left side of your battery bay, you likely have a 250A ANL fuse as we do in our hull. See my pic. This can only be seen if you open the rear dinette seat, get your head in there and look up at the opening in front of the pantry! 🤣

Flood away! Any and all the questions you have are good. 😂 Your are correct in the second statement I quoted. Either a shorty cable or some use a copper bar. The second picture you copied, I believe is Dan's @tallmandan. This is the more common wiring, where you fuse the positive side and switch the ground side. Please provide pics of your battery installation and your Zamp setup. I've never seen the OTT Zamp install. In our older hull we have the Blue Sky SC. OTT installed a Blue Sea switch on the feed coming into the charger and a breaker between the SC and the positive bus. It would surprise me if one year or so later OTT went to the Zamp and installed it with neither a switch or a breaker (you only need one) at all! But who knows? Those who have the Zamp SCs please chime in. Love to see a picture of it. Best wishes.

I believe @Dirt Duff has the 4.7L which was the standard V8 in older Toyotas. Newer Tundras, which are certainly bigger and heavier, have the 5.7L which must be more powerful. We have the same 4.7L in our 2008 Lexus GX470, hence the model number. The GX will get up and go, being 100s of lbs lighter than the next gen GX, but it doesn't have a feeling of torque. The Tundra could be geared differently though. It's all in the gearing!

There was a little hiccup getting into the Sheyenne National Grassland. The last 3 miles were dirt and it had been raining everywhere. Given the condition it drove like a single-lane road. Then up ahead were train tracks with a hill to climb to get over them and strange thing was the dirt up at the tracks was muddy black dirt! I was worried in getting over it and since we are running with a 2WD truck, I thought to get a little more speed leading up to it. Wow, first time towing the Oliver we fishtailed at the crest and when the truck went one way, the Oliver went the other. Since I was brought up driving in snow, I gently turned into the direction of the spin and after my heart moved up into my throat for a few seconds, all was good. Whew! The first picture was taken the next morning going the opposite direction. It shows the mud that hit the Oliver, but look behind the Oliver to see the train tracks on the hill and the muddy section. Then look even more closely and you can see the tire skid marks made by the Oliver the evening before! Good thing on the way back it was a soft glide downhill over the tracks. So we're driving an hour north to get to Fargo and as soon as we got on I-29N I said to Chris, "Try to find a truck wash." I was thinking the kind of place that has a tall booth and a pressure-washer, the DIY kind of wash. Turns out it wash a full-service truck wash. This is the best invention! I walked in first to see if they wouldn't mind washing our non-commercial vehicle. Then waited in line for 20 minutes with 18-wheelers fore and aft. Not only the mud on the rear of the truck and the entire Oliver, but after 2400 miles on the road we had bug splatters all over both fronts. I paid to clean both TV and TT with an under-carriage wash. This was the absolute BEST $75 investment I've made for the Oliver! Works well in our budget vs. that $3K CGI detailing. Pics attached of Dirty Ollie and Happy Ollie! 🤣

We ended up in the Sheyenne National Grassland in southeastern North Dakota at Hankinson Hills Campsite and what a beautiful place. 😂 Amazing! The green and golden pasture views with cross-fencing like a Civil War battlefield! We drove up just after one trailer had parked, two of us in 25 campsites. They took their loop and we took the other. A little later, three girls with two trucks and horse trailers came to camp and pulled in next door to us. We walked over to say hello and what beautiful people with their draft/show horses. These 3 women is their 30s had never traveled out of North Dakota in their lives! Chris and Kayla are pictured below. We would have stayed 2-3 nights but wanted to get to Fargo the next morning and then head west in search of sunshine again...

We've been moving slowly the last few days, family can do that to you. Looking for meat stores and country markets and we had Walleye for lunch on 4 consecutive days, love it! 😂 The 5th day, not finding of a worthwhile establishment, we cooked grass fed burgers tailgating in the back parking lot of America's best, the Dollar General! 🤣 On the road again... From Brainerd we headed to Fargo and then made a detour south and found a treasure... 😂

So... Before leaving Brainerd MN and heading west, I thought to watch the movie Fargo! Streamed it on Amazon Prime and after half watching it, last time in the late 90s, we had no idea it took place mostly in Brainerd Minnesota! 🤣 Like the movie Fargo, the next few days would take some time, but I promise nobody we know ended up in the chipper-shredder!

It’s likely the age difference between our hulls. If you keep up with yours every year or two they may stay nice!

Yeah, I would do that too! But not what OTT installed years ago. The screen is bulky and low res, and not sitting on my dash. Do I remember correctly, powered by a cigarette lighter plug? Mine has been in a box since we got our Oliver 2 years ago. Except for our Victron inverter and multiple charger systems, total rewire of all things electrical, a bunch of sensors and apps, powered water and waste valves and a few other items, like our Samsung A/V system… Our Dodge and Oliver are mainly old-school! 🤣

That's the real difference. We hope to travel so not to use the awning, nor the air conditioner for that matter! It's 52F cloudy with light rain here in Brainerd MN today. Yes, the awning could have helped for the rain, if I put it up when we got here yesterday. But, we were hearing thunder and you can't trust to leave it out overnight in these conditions. Get stuck in a burst of wind and downpour trying to manually retract it. I imagine that wouldn't be fun, so ours just doesn't get used.

Us too, we never use our manual awning. Tried it once to know how to extend it, and since it was such a pain to do so, I haven't wanted to open it again. If we had the powered model, I would have used it on this rainy morning for a little protection at the doorway when we took our dog out for morning business. Also if we had the powered model, in a heartbeat I would rewire it to bypass the auto-retract feature. I dislike features that idiot-proof for idiots! People should realize when it's windy and know to retract a power awning when leaving the campsite. 🤣 Last time this subject came up, I offered all who complained of their powered models to trade for our dependable manual awning in like new condition. We got no takers.

We moved out of the Midwest 26 years ago and there were two things I had forgotten about, one bad and one good. The bad are the huge storm fronts that can come through slowly and sometimes just sit for what seems to be FOREVER! Low pressure started with the storm that came through central Kansas. Then we caught up to it again the next day in Nebraska. And then it was still there ALL through Iowa and after two rainy days at Wilkinson Pioneer Park near Mason City Iowa it also covered most of Minnesota (so far). Fortunately we only had 3 rainy days but we have not seen the sun in 12 days! Let me tell you, this is difficult for us who live in sunny Arizona. Non-descript GRAY skies. You can't make out clouds, it's just a pale shade of gray. I remember a year in Chicago about 1980 when the Chicago tribune headline stated 45 days of gray. That was during the winter though, the first 12 days of June being nothing but gray, wow! The good one I had forgotten was how large and tall deciduous trees can be in the Midwest. Over the last 20 years we've lived in AZ, Central TX and S FL. No tall trees in these locations except for Ponderosa pines in AZ. Every town in Iowa, the pretty houses are surrounded by huge tall trees. Then we got to Chris' sister's home in Farmington MN. This was our best campsite so far. A private little spot in the woods along their driveway a couple hundred yards before their lakefront home. We spent 4 overnights with family here. We left today and drove up to Brainerd MN, staying Gull Lake Rec Area another ACOE park. Drizzle and gray again today. Just staying here one night. The plan is to boondock in the Chippewa NF for the weekend, but... If it's raining to the north when we wake up, I'm driving west to Fargo ND or further west as far as we must to see the sun again! 🤣

Most of us suggested no but you can just make it, if that's what you want. However, the mountains of the Pacific NW is not an easy traverse. I have an older Ram Diesel and wish it had more than a 4-speed trans and an exhaust brake like modern diesel trucks have today. The mountains we travel through are not an easy climb for the trans and not as easy descend on the brakes. I also upgraded wheels an inch larger to upgrade to larger brakes of the next gen Ram, big help. I believe the 600 LB number is subtracting the average weight of a full 5 passenger load from the total available 1421 LBS. Another thing from your tire pressure label. Same on our GX, Toyota puts P-rated tires on these trucks, P stands for passenger cars. It's a must with towing to upgrade to LT tires. Our GX now has LT265/70R17 Load Range C tires and if I was going to tow with it regularly I would have purchased Load Range E instead.

Simple answer, NO. When we purchased our Oliver EII two years ago, I was hoping to pull it with our ‘08 Lexus GX470. So, same engine with some frame differences and ours has completely rebuilt Eibach suspension, new springs shocks, CV axles, everything. I installed a Redarc brake controller and this GX has the tow package. I pulled the Oliver around town. The Oliver was tossing the rear of the GX left and right, up and down, btw with the Andersen WDH attached. Came home and I looked at Chris, “Honey, we need to buy a truck.” She nodded, yes in agreement. Several owners do this, that or the other to make their half-ton truck or even an SUV work. Do yourself a favor and get a 3/4 ton truck with long bed so you can carry what you need now and through the years. Our Oliver was 6400 LBS first camp out, thinking we must be a couple hundred more today. Our truck has 8,800 LB GVWR. BTW, when I did my test drive, third row seats in the GX were removed, rear cargo area empty. The Oliver was also pretty much empty, fridge closet cabinets pantry, were all empty. It’s better to feel you have AMPLE capacity, not close to advertised limits. Sorry.