Olive2Roam

Holy crap! I am just seeing this. Thank you, Geoff, for the detailed analysis. I intend to share your post with the Inverter Service Center folks that installed my charging system. But a quick glance under the hood looks like the DC-DC charger’s negative cable is indeed connected directly to the Pathfinder's battery post. I will start there. I'll be back to report on progress as I work through the other potential issues. By the way, I had the alternator tested at the dealer today and it came back as 14.6 loaded and unloaded voltage as you would expect. So hopefully that variable has been ruled out. Bob

Thanks, JD. This is the best description of the smart alternator that I have found. https://www.thefastreligion.com/mr-smart-alternator-function What I have seen on a couple of other forums (https://www.pathfindertalk.com/threads/disabling-vvcs-voltage-variable-control-system.45074/) is that some choose to disable the variable voltage control system and make the alternator act like they always have and just pump 13.4 V to the battery 100% of the time. I will definitely have the alternator looked at. There might be something going on there. Thanks for your thoughts.

So we have had a DC to DC charging system on our LE I for a year now. It worked very well, but has become inconsistent and unreliable. The system was installed by a local inverter service center with a solid reputation. They actually are the supplier for some parts, such as solar panels, to Oliver. The tow vehicle is a 2024 Pathfinder with a "smart" alternator. The charger is a Victron Orion 50 amp. Using the Victron app I can see that the voltage on the input side of the charger is sitting between 12.2 and 12.4 volts. Aside from a brief spike on start up to 14.4 or so, it remains there. When driving the voltage remains that low and occasionally jumps to 14.4 or so and occasionally that casues the bulk charging to start. But this lasts only for a short time (seconds) and the voltage drops, and the charging stops. Bottom line is that the batteries are not being charged. The inverter service center has worked with me to make sure all of the parameters are correct, but there is still something wonky that we can't figure out. Out of curiosity I had the tow vehicle battery tested by a couple of battery shops and all looks good there. 12.2-12.4 seems very low for the output from the TV battery. In fact, the Victron parameters require 13.3 volts (default) and we have dialed that down to 12. 9. Any thoughts as to why the voltage from the tow vehicle would be that low? Also, does anyone know a DC to DC charging resource/expert that I could connect with to trouble shoot this? Thanks, Bob

Sorry to hear that. Stopped by and dropped off the heater this morning. Bob

Sounds good. I’ll bring it along. Bob

I recently had the new rec pro on-demand hot water heater installed in our Oliver. I have this heating unit from our trauma left over if anybody could use it. We will be at the rally. However, we are leaving tomorrow morning to start our road trip so if you get back to me quickly, I’ll throw it in and you can have it when we get to the rally. Bob

Let's chat at the rally. We travel a lot in the Ollie but we also travel a lot without it. Just returned from 2 weeks in Scotland, and getting ready to head to Yellowstone. Tim's Ford Lake is a beautiful area. There is at least one other couple we met down there (War Trace) with an Ollie. We'll look forward to meeting at Lake Guntersville. Bob

There was a prototype of the LE I with apex trim on the showroom floor this summer. They said there was no plan to take that to market though.

Ironically, I just went through this when our awning began to jam because of a piece of debris. I was really annoyed that the bottom end cap screw was inaccessible and went hunting for a right angle screw driver. But even with that the screws were pretty locked up and took an effort to remove. I ended up replacing the bottom end cap screw with a hex cap screw so I could (next time) remove it with a wrench or socket. You won't realize how good @Tom and Doreen tips above are until you need them. 🙂

If you want to consider the smaller LE I check out this post. We have been very happy with the smaller unit.

Just to close the loop on this, I was banking on the fact that Oliver may eventually be able to get more weatherstripping from Lippert, however, it seems that that still has not happened. So we tried a couple of different solutions to clean the weatherstripping before ordering the black, and lo and behold a solution of bleach and dish soap brought things nearly back to the original white. Minimal amount of scrubbing. Soaked for about 20 minutes.

Good tips. Thanks. Yes, the humidity is the bane of our existence here in Nashville.

Nasty.

Thanks for the link for that cleaner. If I don't swap the weather stripping out for black, I will definitely check out this product. Bob

I will for sure check the profile. And your thoughts about black are growing on me. I think I will give that a try to eliminate the need to replace it again 2 years down the road. Thanks! Bob