jd1923

Just leave it on. Measure how much amperage it is drawing. The older 2KW Xantrex we had, took 1A when no 120VAC is being supplied. Our new Victron MP2 also takes approx. 1A at idle. This adds up to 24AH per day. Divide 24 by the AH of your battery bank for SOC loss. We have 600AH which comes to -4% per day. But with the solar charger running, net amperage is always positive during daylight hours, until you run a 120VAC appliance. We generally leave it on 24x7 unless we're gone for the day. We run our TV and Soundbar afternoons and nights, often the next morning too. Use our 1100W electric tea kettle to heat water for coffee and SOC is often 90% or high 80s. Maybe some microwave use and it's always back to 100% by the afternoon, unless it's raining or extremely overcast. Not sure if Xantrex has a good app. We added the Victron SmartShunt prior to upgrading our inverter. I'm checking SOC and +/- Amps on the phone app regularly and always just before leaving the Oliver for the day. One night we hit the fridge into DC mode without knowing it. I should have checked the app but had my phone charging at the dinette when I got into bed. Woke up at dawn to see the DC light on, checked the app and SOC was down to 63%. That was with the 450AH lead-acid we had at the time which is not a good situation. The following sunny day we got back up to 83% and then 90% the day after, rooftop solar only. Still used our inverter, ran the TV, but heated coffee water using LP on the cooktop! Keep in mind due to the fridge DC mode, this error would have occurred with the inverter on or off.

This is also true with the Victron MP2 setup where "User Defined" allows you to manually set charge rates to battery manufacturers' specifications. For Epoch batteries, the Absorbtion rate is 14.2V and Float 13.6V.

Thank you, but the old body is too sore, and our to-do list is never-ending! 🤣

Can you buy just the rack, less storage boxes? I’d like a 12VDC fridge/freezer back there, locked down, very nice given it fits in the receivers on our old hull. TY!

btw, this is a real bus! rated at 400A, 5/16” of tinned plated copper. You want copper vs. brass and 1/4”+ for high amperage. The OEM bus I relegated to a low amp split bus is brass plated and <1/8”. https://a.co/d/2fpogyT

Yes @MnG KY the other thread just got bumped. She removed the OEM installed restrictors to use the external pressure regulator (restrictor-bad, regulator-good). My first picture shows the backflow preventers (necessary) coupled with restrictors (should remove if using external regulator). I also removed all the OEM valves that had 1/4" openings for motorized ball vales with 12mm openings (.25" to .47"). The valves on your newer hull look different but are still small ID restricting. The drill bits in the second picture are 1/4" and 3/8" showing the inner diameters of these parts. OTT installs 1/2" PEX plumbing but the system is downgraded at every elbow, connector and even more-so at every valve.

OTT should realize regardless of customer choices in solar/inverter/battery options, only two holes into the battery bay for +/- battery cables are necessary.

Hoping everything we need while traveling is now more accessible. I've had the beds in the house for 2-3 months while working on it. Hope when we get them back in there and made, they can stay put. 😂

Don't forget the B- Ground Bus! Mine was full, not an open slot. Also, OTT glued and screwed two short busses together, the connecting jumper wire took two slots, and I needed to add several grounds for new chargers, etc. Found a Siemens 30 slot bus, nice! SIEMENS EC3GB30 Ground Bar Kit with 30 Terminal Positions - Wall Dimmer Switches - Amazon.com I could not get the old one off (OTT can glue to hold), so I removed all the original screws and used a pair of bolts to connect new to old, then a pair of long thin wood screws to hold it to the board. Cut off all the old wire ends and stripped clean news. There was only one 6 AWG wire to battery ground, so I added a second 6 AWG ground.

Our inverter upgrade placed the new MP2 Inverter under the streetside bed (turn ON/OFF via Bluetooth), which created a lot of room under the rear dinette seat. Both buses in the picture are B+ positive (I just purchased the two-color set and decided to use both). Look closely at the RHS of the upper bus to see the 4/0 cable coming from the inverter & batteries. This is the 400A main bus, with 400A ANL fuse from the batteries. The two solar chargers, and soon a DC-DC Charger (white space top-right), all feed into this bus. Two breakers in the picture are from the solar chargers. The third breaker (bottom center) creates a 40A sub-bus for most connections (lower bus with black cover). New home for the stabilizer jack and other fuses.

Notice in the first picture, the 3 fuses for the stabilizer jacks, breakers from the solar charger and to the B+ bus. This was all moved under the rear dinette seat. Still wanted a small bus though fused at the main bus under the dinette. I cut the center out of the original bus to create a low amperage spilt bus. Only new HW, the Victron SmartShunt, VE.bus and the Beech Lane cooling fans are now powered here. It amazed me that the wiring for the stabilizer jacks and all other wires on this bus, started from the front (even power to the jack that is 1 ft away). I removed 6' of wire and two butt connectors on all of these wires, added one new connector. I contacted Ryan Gurin at Sun Forge LLC and he verified that I could effectively turn off the Blue Sky SC by tripping the breaker to the battery. So, I moved the breaker but did not take the time to move the Blue Sea switch, to be left in the ON position. The blue colored device top of second picture is the Victron VE.Bus with Bluetooth, connected by the yellow ethernet cable to the Victron MP2 Inverter/Charger, app used instead of a display. The SmartShunt is also below on the main ground (not pictured). All of the Victron equipment can be programmed by ethernet-USB device (under dinette) and/or by the app.

Ever since we bought our Oliver, I thought "Why is everything under the beds? First step was to replace the manual water valves with motorized ball valves and high-end water pump. We refill the FWT often when boondocking and like to drain the FWT at times. Wrote up a mod thread on this in Jan. Fixed the furnace ducting this June. One last task is to move the fuse for the water pump so it is accessible.

Here's a close-up view of the Anderson SB50 connectors and environmental boots from Powerwerx. BTW, not easy to crimp these HD 10 AWG crimp terminals. My pneumatic crimper only goes as small as 6 AWG. I used a hand crimper with an extra-large channel lock on the crimper handles for extra leverage!

@Nan This will not help you immediately, but you will want to make this upgrade. See my installation, bottom of page one here: Refrigerator Cooling Fan - Mechanical & Technical Tips - Oliver Owner Forums (olivertraveltrailers.com)

That's the way to do it. You will see what your amazing new solar installation gives you even with the 6V LA batteries. I went with two 300s because I knew I wanted at least that much and a third will fit in the battery bay with tray removed. Also, 1-2 more would fit in the basement under the pantry and battery bay. Our goal is all off grid while running an efficient A/C, go to RV parks when needed and not have to connect. The 460AH Epoch Essentials weighs in 84 LBS and the 58 LB 300A model was enough to carry! Tough to fit an extra 460 if you want more. @rideadeuce just squeezed two 460s in the bay, with no tray, but only the more expensive model with Victron comms will fit. Last year Epoch gave 15% OFF for Black Friday. This timing might be very good for you.

Useful idea, great plan with drawing and knowledge of relay wiring! And thank you for showing all the camera wiring too, very helpful! Wondering if instead of this switch, could the same relay read power from the trailer 7-blade hitch connector? The black wire shows 12V+ while connected. Oliver disconnects it from the +bus for LiFePo4 installations, but if so, it is likely capped and laying below on the basement floor. It's the black wire you see in my picture when I disconnected it in our older hull. Wiring in new hulls is likely different. You could instead pick up the feed from the yellow wire for the reverse lights, but the camera would turn ON/OFF switching in and out of reverse.

Or if 460AH is enough, a couple regulars here have installed two of these: https://www.litime.com/products/12v-230ah-plus-lifepo4-battery The 2-pack is $984.58 plus tax, free shipping, on sale for another 30 hours. Though I certainly understand waiting for the right time, as I continue to spend way too much on our Oliver!

Hard to beat this price and two of these fit nicely in the battery tray. Epoch has a USA10 code now for 10% OFF. Buy direct from Epoch and they charge sales tax and shipping. Buy from this company and get them to honor the Epoch 10% OFF sale. They do not charge tax and shipping. I bought these for $1,798.20 total during their 4th of July sale. Epoch Batteries 12V 300Ah | Heated & Bluetooth | LiFePO4 Battery - Epo – Renewable Outdoors

I'm thinking yours is more than a coffee issue. We have always used an inverter. We stream TV shows or YouTube, play a Blu-ray at night, turn on Newsmax in the morning, can't do that on LP. We have two tea kettles for drip coffee. If it's going to be a sunny day (80/20 rule in Arizona) we use our 1100W electric and if SOC is low and the forecast is mostly cloudy we use LP instead. Forgot about your generator. We haven't needed one in a while, so I did not consider it in my earlier comment. We had a Class-C with a small inverter and at first no solar but a capable built-in 4KW Onan generator. We would watch TV, run any electric appliances including the microwave. During afternoons we would run the generator, run the A/C then too and meanwhile recharge the batteries. How OTT wired the 2KW Xantrex (pictured above) was as follows. 4/0 battery cables (2/0 is actually enough) go to the inverter first and then they used 6 AWG cables to power secondary 12VDC needs. The automatic transfer switch (ATS), is shown center of picture. Notice the label "connect to AC load only" which was wired to the one 120VAC breaker that handles the microwave and 110V outlets (make coffee, watch TV, etc.). The ATS allows this circuit(s) to be run on shore power OR inverter. The wiring is relatively simple. Besides an inverter with ATS, perhaps longer/heavier cables, I would suggest getting a shunt-battery monitor, so you would know when the inverter had used enough power to require recharging (50% SOC for lead acid). We have the tank level monitor too, but I never use it. I added one of these for reading amps and AH used, besides SOC. The VictronConnect app makes it so you can read this data via Bluetooth. It's good to know when parking/leaving your Oliver whether you forgot/left something on that would drain SOC, check the -Amps reading which should be very low. Hope this helps! Amazon.com: Victron Energy SmartShunt IP65 Battery Monitor (Bluetooth) - Victron Smart Shunt - 6.5V-70V, 500 amp : Automotive

Given you cannot get the #5 position to stay on after selecting it, can only be the board. We usually run ours in the #4 position, saving #5 for when we might need it. Did you work the new fan installation?

Agreed, the only way to have an inverter (or any kind of charging station too) is to also have the means to charge your batteries. You could add a solar suitcase, or a DC-DC charger tied to your truck alternator, so that you would charge while towing. You need something. Looks like you have four 82AH 12V lead-acid batteries wired in parallel for 368 AH total. You could be making a pot of coffee say two mornings if the third morning you would be back to shore power to recharge. However, it appears you have no battery monitor so no way to tell where you stand on state-of-charge (SOC). Taking a close look at your pictures, it's very odd that a 2022 model with no solar or inverter would have multiple extra holes drilled into the battery bay. Also, it looks like you have 4/0 cables between the batteries yet a smaller gauge leaving the bay. These would likely have to be upgraded to operate an inverter, though not sure without truly knowing the AWG. OTT mounted our 2KW Xantrex inverter under the rear dinette seat and when I replaced it, with the much larger 3KVA Victron MP2 it had to go under the rear streetside bed (see pic of OTT OEM install). BTW, this working 2KW setup is for sale cheap if interested. Our OEM installation also came with 340AH rooftop solar and we could run many appliances, including the microwave, except on truly overcast days (then LP for coffee). There are a whole lot of inverter, solar, battery upgrade threads here. I would study these for a while and come up with an upgrade plan that fits your needs. It will take a combination of upgrades that can range from a small to large expense and amount of work depending.

I'm not going to get the nice case. An extra battery is always good, but we have enough. This eBay seller had this item for $200 with a Labor Day 20% coupon. Today I got a notification they lowered the price to $160, only $128 plus tax: DEWALT DCGG571B 20V MAX Variable Speed Cordless Grease Gun (Tool Only) New 885911330381 | eBay Bought one today! $141.35 OTD with AZ sales tax. I'll find a plastic bin for it when sitting in my garage, not bringing it on trips. And a thank you to @mossemi who got me thinking about this. I will grease truck and trailer after I get this and before we leave for the Texas Rally in October.

I've got the DC-DC install still on my list. Will use Anderson connectors for 4 AWG cable and likely a similar "pigtail" design mounted on the hitch where the 7-blade trailer connector is located. Thanks Ron!

It's been partially to mostly cloudy for the last 3-4 days which will happen in our Monsoon Season. I was able to get a good reading at 366W at one point when the sun was strong. You can see total charging current at 38.7A with 26.1A from the suitcase, leaving 12.6A from the Blue Sky MPPT rooftop solar. When it's cloudy here, it's cooler too. I've been able to run the old Dometic P2 all day for two days now, no shore power, thermostat set at 82F though I will kick it down 76F while I'm inside. It's been low-mid 80s during the day, but keep in mind the Oliver is sitting in the sun and the sun is strong when the clouds do roll by (and more solar charging). SOC has ranged from 85% as you see at 11:45 AM and would get down to low 60s, one day lowest was 55% late afternoon. This should work great when I replace the old P2 with an efficient A/C model requiring half the amperage for when it is truly hot outside. Another great mod for old hull # 113! 😂

I purchased 10 AWG THWN wire at Lowes, on clearance for $0.23/ft, nice! Yes, do note the economic theme behind much of my modification work (I promise not to get political re the economy, but it stinks)! 🤣 Had a lot of 1/2" split wire loom from a past project, the same kind OTT uses. It was an easy run the along the bottom of the basement to feed wires up to the dinette. 10 AWG wires in loom go all the way from the rear opening to the MPPT charger. Used the exact same wire and loom to make a 33 FT exterior cable, crimped MC4 connectors on one end with a Renogy 15A fuse on the positive lead, and the mating Anderson plug on the other end.