jd1923

Yeah Toni, likely not ALL. Of course seasonal sites will be closed off-season. If they allow campers to show up and pay the host or at a kiosk (we paid the host $36 cash for 3 nights), then I believe the 4-day rule applies. This rule allows for drive-up pay cash locations. If the campground ONLY allows for online reservations then all available dates should be available to book online. It seems we've run into not being able to reserve tonight or next day at many locations we've stayed.

Hello again Bob, and thanks! I merely purchased a 4 ft piece of 1 1/2" PVC (2" OD) and a coupler from Lowes. Sawed the PVC in two 2 ft sections and the coupler will join the two only in the truck installation (pic1). The lower 2 ft section is permanently mounted to our extra fresh water tank. This works in an open bed but the lower section could be bumper mounted or to the side of a truck cap or the Oliver front basket. For the "umbrella stand" option the set screws from the stand fit into the drill holes. There is also a 3rd drill hole up top (cannot be seen in pic) to hold the Starlink set screw. Half fill the umbrella stand with water and it's not going anywhere! Good sale price on this today at $27! https://www.lowes.com/pd/Patio-Premier-Patio-Premier-Square-Blow-Mold-Umbrella-Base-Black/1002629278 Starlink includes two mounts. Mike mentioned he would merely lay the Mini on a flat surface. He's using the simple base mount that has a kickstand to produce the correct angle. I started the same way but found often in the woods finding a flat spot to support the dish is difficult. Starlink includes a second mounting plate (pic2) which comes with the 2" mounting hole with set screw. Notice the two drill holes in the upper post. If I'm using the umbrella stand, these line up with those set screws. I love the 1 1/2" PVC mount and would not stray from this. If I was to buy a stand again, instead of the umbrella stand which is large to store, a folding tripod would be OK, if I could find one that would hold the 2" pipe. I wouldn't want to get into camera stands, 1/4-20 screw mounts with adapters. IMHO, a soft 1/4" screw should not be the only thing holding the dish, not in heavy weather. No skinny stands, no long poles, no suction cups, nothing fancy for me. Just open your compass phone app, mount the dish pointed north, check alignment on the Starlink app, just a one minute installation required with this setup! 😎 Sorry, acronym from eBay sales, means "New in Box."

I’m 100% with @Todd B on his post above. I have the name brand Andersen version and wouldn’t camp without them. After two years though the red ones sure are beat. This Amazon item has a 4.7 rating with 3K reviews which is huge! Camping in the mountains I wish they were taller than 4” but taller might not fit between the tires! The Apex has AT tires but is the diameter actually larger? I don’t think OTT would design a suspension that would not accept these levelers. You should ask them or know the tire brand and size and can find the dia in the tire specs.

Bummer just a few days before your trip, and sorry but most things Truma take long. Check into what Craig wrote. Then if you need further troubleshooting, re-open the bypass, remove any access plates/covers inside and out so you can see inside as much as possible. Start the water pump again and recreate the leak. Keep it running until you can eyeball what part or connection is actually leaking. Don’t worry, if water gets in the basement it will drain out of the weep holes along the hull bottom.

Hey Bob, there is much experience here. Mine is just one input for you... I purchased the extra router when Geoff posted this (impulse purchase because of the $40 sale): https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/10918-the-new-starlink-mini-router-for-what-ails-you/ Turns out a year later, I've never used it (still have it NIB somewhere)! I just last week integrated our Mini to the Pepwave router which is pretty cool, but our installation is far beyond what you expressed you want. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9933-pepwave-cellular-router-and-not-the-common-install/#findComment-126971 You really don't need anything but a simple way to mount the Mini. At first, I just sit it on an upside-down milk crate. I was using battery packs so not to string wire, but the Mini comes with a 120VAC power supply (inverter ON required) with produces 30VDC with a 50' cord. We're always 50 ft within view of the northern sky and I would not want the hardware sitting much further out of sight. The simple stand pictured, better than my old milk crate, is what we use when our truck cannot be parked in the right spot. I have a camping rule to minimize setup which in turn reduces all the work to setup and tear down and we move a lot (as you will going all the way to Alaska)! No poles and suction cups for me. As far as service, there is the monthly $10 cost for stand-by service which includes enough bandwidth to setup, download updates, configure and test the installation. You can also slowly load a web page or send an email, again very slowly but the connection is there. When you upgrade service (Starlink must be positioned and phone setup must first be connected to Starlink W-Fi when there's no cell service), they prorate the first month. Our billing date is the 4th of the month, so for example, if I start service on the 20th of the month, given my billing date I will be charged about half the plan cost. I can immediately change the next month plan to return to Stand-by $10/month, so I don't forget. On such a trip to Alaska, you may just need it ON for 2-3 months. This is good to know, but more so for us where we have the cellular antenna and router and T-Mobile 5G SIM card which costs $30/month on my business plan. If we're getting cell which is about 80% of the days we travel then I'm paying for Starlink only when necessary. But when you activate, you're charged on that date through your billing date.

And nothing like the diesel engine with exhaust brake! 😎 I use it always, even around town, towing or not. Somebody cuts in front of you and you're slowing down as soon as you let your foot off the gas. Drove recently Prescott to Phoenix to pickup Chris at the airport. It's a 4300 ft drop in elevation and I made it down the mountain without pressing the truck brake pedal once. Without it, I'd be on the brakes most of the way down. Towing the Oliver down I-17 does require braking a few times where the drop is 6-8%. For sure! Note a couple Forum members recently posted they prefer when the TV weighs more than the TT. It provides balance which boosts confidence when towing in less than ideal conditions. Our truck loaded and hitched (with tongue weight) is 8K LBS with 8,800 GVWR, and the Oliver loaded is 6,400 LBS. Never will the tail wag our dog. Given you're buying new, it's the right time to make it your last and best TV purchase. We're not getting any younger! 🤣

I didn’t comment earlier, since I don’t follow new tech and models. But I’m with @FloraFauna 100%. I used to buy used Cadillacs (one Lincoln Mark VII LSC) for my drivers back in the 90s, like the Seville STS, nice car to commute Chicago traffic! They’d come off a 2-year lease, with under 30K miles, and always with a dealer add-on 70K powertrain warranty! I’d keep them another 2 years and trade for another beauty for very little money. I’d spend 28K OTD, for what new would be 60K plus dealer fees and taxes! In AZ if I buy from a private owner, there are NO sales taxes. From a dealer, the plus 8.6%! Think about total cost of ownership. For what you’d be spending for new, you could get the same model but the HD 2500 series, low mileage 2-3 years old, for same or less $$$! Our TV is 26 years old and pulls the Oliver NP! I’ve purchased about 60 vehicles in my life. Only 4 of them were new. I have a little brother who won’t buy anything used to save his life! Maybe because when young he got all the used hand-me-down clothes I grew out of. He’s paid through the teeth and I’ve always had far better rides, way too many to park in our 3-car garage! 🤣

Not bad for $12/night! I think going forward, besides boondocking we'll focus on National Forest Service or Army Corps of Engineers sites that give half off with the senior pass. But kind of a bummer that now on recreation.gov the next 4 nights cannot be reserved online. But you can go online to see what is reserved or FF (first come-first serve). Our campsite #7 is shown, all sites no hookups, some pit toilets, water spigots in 5 spots around the campgrounds but without hose connections. All the campsites inside of the loop are setup in the wrong direction (curbside away from picnic table). A little road noise being right off US Hwy-160 but always quiet in an Oliver! Just east of Mancos CO, Target Tree is within a half hour of Cortez to the west and Durango to the east, with Dolores nearby and Mesa Verde NP. Beautiful roads with beautiful mountain views, forest service access trails everywhere! 🤠

When concerned, replace your DC circuit breakers with ANL or MRBF fuses. You simply know when a fuse burns and there is always a reason behind it. Fuses protect overloads in both directions on the circuit. Simple DC breakers are directional, will protect power to ground faults on one side of the breaker. An issue on the other side of a DC breaker is not covered. I've kept two DC breakers that OTT installed (30A rooftop solar and 40A for jacks, etc.) When I rework something or add a new accessory, I prefer to add a fuse holder over a breaker (only in 12VDC systems). Just keep those breakers/fuses and switches out from under your spouse's bed! 🤣

Yeah but... Given the pics above, we see 11.2V, then 11.1V, then 11.2V which average with great precision in the range of a dead lead acid battery. The OP posted both 11.7V and 12.7V numbers without supporting pics, no mention of the voltage numbers displayed in the pictures. Lead Acid batteries will go to zero, more load-more quickly. In my understanding, given 3 independent readings from 3 independent hardware vendors, Zamp, Xantrex, and SeeLevel; they're all displaying the exact same voltage reading? (within 0.1V deviation on one device). Not likely at all. The batteries are reading near dead but not too low to recharge. Check the multimeter again as wired and check it again with battery cables all detached. It cannot correctly read 12.7V when 3 simple BMS systems are agreeing to 11.2V. Likelihood is the11.2V is correct. Connect to shore power and charge your batteries for 24-48 hours asap. And perhaps it's a blessing, time to scrap the AGMs! In another OTT Forum thread there is a link to well-featured 300 Ah LiFePO4 sale priced at $600. It's a good time to buy lithium. Just one of these batteries will provide 50% more Ah capacity than 4 brand new AGMs. They will last 3x as long and at deliver full capacity in their lifetime. Most who install the LiFePO4 upgrade today go with 600 Ah which will deliver 3x the power!

We have an older hull and have 320W total in two OEM rooftop panels with an old SC not Bluetooth connected. You may have 400W rooftop. Regardless, these numbers are rated capacity, perfect world numbers. We have our Renogy 400W suitcase solar running right now. I took this screenshot for you! We’re near Mancos CO at 7760 ft, with pure blue skies. Suitcase panels setup, picture taken at 4:44 PM with a good angle to the sun, input wattage is now 231W. The highest number I’ve ever seen is 367W midday for merely a few seconds then down closer to 330W midday. Light clouds will cut these numbers in half. Heavy humidity less 20%! On average our 320W rooftop solar nets only half what the 400W suitcase pushes since the rooftop is flat/stationery. Of course the NE and SW are polar opposites, given altitude and humidity, so getting 200 of 400 watts with rooftop stationery panels seems the right number, likely your high number. If you travel more than you sit for weeks at campsites, the Victron Orion 50A DC-DC charger will charge 2x more per hour than 400W solar in the best of conditions. Numbers I count on are 40 Ah/hour towing with the Orion DC-DC Charger, 20 Ah/hour on the 400W suitcase for about 8 hours per day, a little more if your anal about moving the panels, and about 12Ah for the rooftop solar. +100 Ah all day is the best we get from rooftop solar. With 400W you could add 25% but given your NE climate +100 Ah may be your best. Sorry to be the engineer! 🤣

IMHO, when in storage pumping tire pressure up to the max limit will help to eliminate flat spots but your PSI numbers are correct for towing. On classic cars I had, I’d put them up on jack stands. For the Oliver, just use your leveler jacks to take most the weight off the tires. If you visit your storage monthly, get your tires off the ground with the leveler jacks and give the tires 1/4 turn.

Complete Victron, yeah! 😎

Chris, I wrote about this in my install thread. You can keep the tray if you remove it first and machine cut the steel back wall off the tray and reinstall. The inside battery would hang an inch off but I believe Steve told me they added a longer base sheet inside the tray. Either way 3 in line will just barely fit inside. Notice the change in direction of the straps to hold three together on the tray. Too bad they didn’t show this part of the installation in the video. I was going this route but after removing my old tray, the sliders were crusty and the tray itself weighs 30 LBS. I prefer it without the tray which allows for 2-3” extra height too. I can check/tighten the bolts and remove the main ground as they sit on 3/4” rubber and foam insulation surround. With the tray, it has to be rolled out for battery post inspection or disconnect.

It’s easy to test for voltage on either side of the awning switch. Your LevelMatePRO has been working, so it should be wired to the right side. Where is the LevelMatePRO grounded? You have an odd set of lights out, others working. I don’t believe they’re wired like Christmas lights! See if a ground came loose common to all dead circuits. A ground that’s open will not blow fuses and your fuses are good. Good luck with it and let us know.

Yes, and they just look better in white!

Welcome to the Big Boy club! 🤣 Three (3) Forum members now have 900 Ah Epoch (one with 920). 🤠

Pulled the truck up for Starlink to be centered between the trees! 😎

🤣😎🤣😂

Dan, we disagree half the time and you always come back with something good.

Why should there be? My flatbed trailer which we use to haul dirt bikes has one (no house batteries on board). Have you touched one on your Oliver? Something starts your 9K LB sled of batteries! 🤣 You’re going to have to realize 99% of us have “starter batteries.” When you go off in EV-land, like what the F is a Frunk? 🤣 Please translate to those of us who turn the key to start a combustion engine, gas or diesel. We have “starter batteries” and we all have “house batteries.” Pics if your EV fuses, hence my confusion. Thank you. And we have many posts here on disconnecting the AUX wire on the 7-blade connector. This winter, please come to Quartzsite! I’d love to meet you! Spend some time with us, including Steve @ScubaRx. He’s The OTT elder, the guru of everything OTT. Me, I’ve rebuilt everything I’ve ever put my hands on, after 3 years with Hull #113, there’s honestly no better Oliver out there, IMHO of course! 😎

I'm not getting this. Do Oliver TTs have something new in late model units? And I don't recognize the fuses in the picture above. Not familiar with Brightway either. On our Oliver I'm pretty sure the breakaway switch uses power from the house batteries applied to the brakes when the pin is pulled. I often pull that pin manually to test for amperage at the trailer brakes. I have a breakaway battery on a flatbed trailer we own. It needs one since it doesn't have house batteries. Is this not disconnected by design? (so that truck starter batteries and house batteries are isolated.)