Olive2Roam

We are in Nashville, approx 1.5 hours from Hohenwald. That is the biggest reason that we went with Oliver. Bob

Very compelling reply. 👍

Thanks, Rob. I will take a look at the Fogatti. I am open to all options. Also, we have an LE I so that may create different space limitations from the LE II. Bob

John, As always, very helpful. And the LP only model would be an interesting option.

Thank you, Scotty. As far as needing more room under the bunk, so the suburban would not fit into the aquago metal "box", is that correct? So there is some reorganizing of the space under the bunk? I would probably look to have OTT do the work. Bob

Not to rehash any particular issues with the Truma on demand water heater that I have experienced, but I am considering replacing the Truma with the Suburban. My primary reasons would be reliability and serviceability. I don't ever want to be 800 miles from home with no hot water if I can help it. I know that there are no perfect solutions, but I want to reduce the likelihood of an outage. Based on some other threads here I see that some have chosen the suburban route, and been quite happy. The on demand is great when it works, but my experience has been less than satisfactory in the nearly 2 years of using it. Any thoughts on the wisdom of making that switch? Thanks!

We have our campsite, but how do we register for the rally through Oliver?

Here is a data point. We have done 34 states in the last 22 months. Just over 20,000 miles, 125 nights in the Ollie. We hope to complete the lower 48 next year.

What a scare that must have been. Glad you are ok. I wonder if it helps that attaching an Andersen anti-sway hitch requires me to lock the coupler on the ball and then raise the ball quite a ways in order to get the hitch attached? If the coupler were not secure on the ball I would never be able to connect the Andersen,.

UPDATE: As you can see from my first post, we experienced the issue captured in the video late on Saturday the 30th. After reading the information provided above, and doing a little more research, I called and opened a ticket using the forum link to the ticketing system, called Oliver customer support and left a voicemail, and lastly I sent the video in an email to support@olivertraveltrailers.com with a copy to one of the leadership team. Sunday AM: I received an email from Oliver asking for the model and serial number of the Truma, which I promptly sent. Monday AM (8:30ish) : I called customer support at Oliver and I barely got out my name when the tech said, "oh yes, you were the first topic at our team meeting this morning. You should expect a call from someone on the leadership team to help resolve this." An hour or so later, sure enough, I received a call, and the ball was rolling. A full explanation of the plan to get us back up and running with hot water was laid out. (Note: My Aquago was not in the range of serial numbers that were part of the recall, but the plan we were executing assumed that it was. More on that later.) I was in Pennsylvania the day the issue occurred. I was in Buffalo NY headed to Rochester, when I received the first call on Monday. Oliver gave me several options for where I could have the burner swapped out, and we chose an RV facility in Rochester since we planned to be there for 3 days. Oliver next day aired the part, worked with the RV store to schedule the repair, and the work was completed Wednesday, and we were on our way - WITH hot water. 🙂 For the record, my AquaGo is under warranty. Whether or not the issue is the same one addressed with the recall, I don't know. I will let Oliver and Truma work that out, but it appears to be a different issue. Bottom line, Oliver went above and beyond on this one. There was one individual who was in the driver's seat at Oliver, and she will have a thank-you card and a small gift on the way as soon as we get to a stop where we can make that happen. We are grateful for the response and count ourselves lucky to be part of the Oliver family. Bob P.S. It probably helped to provide a video of a fireball on the side of the trailer. 🙂 Nevertheless, good job, Oliver.

Oliver's response has been outstanding. We are working together to address the issue. More to follow when I have a chance to provide a detailed update. Bob

Thanks so much @Galway Girl. I appreciate the information. I have already submitted tickets and called Oliver. I will be on the phone with Truma first thing Monday morning. Bob

I appreciate that. I have opened a ticket and sent a copy of the video to Mike Sharpe. I checked and there are a couple of Truma authorized service centers near where we are (Buffalo/Rochester area). Thanks for weighing in on a Saturday night. Bob

Oliver has told me repeatedly that my water heater was not part of the recall. I have had numerous issues but this one is the most serious.

IMG_3472.mov Almost hate to post this video, but I am in week 1 of a 4 week loop and just encountered a major issue with the truma. The video speaks for itself. Any thoughts?

I did call service. Disappointingly, the response was, "we don't stock that part" and I may be better off finding a welder to spot weld it back on. I was happy to pay for a new part and have it shipped. I could have pressed the issue but I needed it quickly because we are heading out for 3-4 weeks next week. Like I said, disappointing response to say the least. I would have even been willing to drive to Hohenwald to pick up a part.

Ah! Why didn't I think of that? Good call. 🙂

Hey all, A quick search did not turn much up so maybe this is an unusual issue. The welded washer at the forward end of the steel rod that allows the entry steps to slide up for travel has broken off. See below. Oliver does not sell that part so the repair options and pros and cons that I can think of are below. Option 1: I considered having a welder reattach the washer. Cons, fairly expensive, $65-100 depending on the welder, and the possibility of recurrence. Option 2: Purchase a new steel rod, cut to length (24 1/2"), and drill holes for cotter pins to anchor. Cons, still expensive, and some machining required, but close to original. Option3: I temporarily cut a half inch threaded aluminum rod to length and used 2 nuts at each end to secure without tightening to the frame. Pros, quick and inexpensive. Cons, threads may bugger up the track that the rod rides in (maybe). Aluminum is not as strong as the original steel rod, but this temporary fix is functional. Option 4: Same as 3 but use a threaded steel rod for strength. This would almost surely wear grooves in the track as you pull out and store the steps. Thoughts from any of the metal working gurus out there? Bob

When I get over to storage I will get the exact dimensions so I know exactly what I have to work with. I agree, the bluetooth apps are a must. Bob

1000 watts of solar does sound like a lot, especially when we are at 260. I think even if/when I find higher AH batteries I will add at least one folding solar panel. I should have done that by now. By the way, love the Adirondacks. I climbed all 46. 🙂

Great information. Thanks so much for the reply. I will definitely add these to my list to investigate. Bob

Thanks JD! To answer a couple of your questions, our LE I has a battery tray that has two 130AH lithionics batteries. They are 12.5” x 6.5” x 8.5” (L x W x H) with about an inch to spare. Without having the it in front of me, I think the tray is roughly 14 deep x 13 wide. Not a lot of room. Here's a pic I took a while back. It looks like the LiFePO4 (looking at the 460AH) dimensions are L20.55*W9.45*H8.58 so I will have to see if there is any wiggle room with the tray removed. I'll take a look at some of the specs on the other Li Time options. If I can't find a good fit, maybe a 400W suitcase panel plus the DC-DC charging will get us by until we find an option with the right footprint.

Thanks Mike. We would love to get a 600 AH capacity. Did you do that with Lithionics?

We are looking to identify all of our options for increasing amp hours available when boondocking. We are in the Ollie I with the specs in our signature below. We have found that during the winter months (minimal solar efficiency even on sunny days) we get a maximum of 2 days out of our 260 AH Lithionics bank. We don't try to conserve, so we have a small ice maker going most of the time, use the microwave frequently, etc. We recently added DC-DC charging so if we are traveling frequently there are no issues. We are back to full charge by the next stop. But when we are stationary for 3 or more days we would like not to have to worry about running out of capacity. So these are the options I have identified for expanding capacity while stationary during winter or cloudy weather. Are there others we should consider? Thanks in advance! Add a portable panel(s) to more efficiently capture solar Replace the 260AH lithionics with batteries with a similar footprint but higher capacity Find a way to add another lithionics battery to our bank (Is there a way to do this? There is no enough room in our tray where the 2 batteries sit.) Use the DC-DC charging system to charge while idling (this has been a little unreliable so I have been researching why that is) Add a standalone power source to be used as reserve such as a 2000W Jackery power station Try to conserve while boondocking (probably not going to happen) Carry a generator (this option is a distant last) Thoughts!

And for the LE I owners, 9'2" is pretty accurate per the specs. The only thing we have had to back out of is a Chick-fil-a drive through and for that we only needed a couple more inches of clearance. 🙂