Can’t get help. Electrical/voltage problem.

[SeaDawg]

Because you bought a trailer with a lot of technology,  there will be a number of techs unfamiliar with your particular equipment.  

From what you have described,  I don't think this person has done a lot of higher end tech work. Unfortunately. 

11 hours ago, Chukarhunter said:

only way to accurately check the voltage of a battery is to disconnect the batteries from the system to ensure they are not receiving a  charge or seeing a load.  If they had been charging before disconnecting, then let them rest awhile and then check the voltage of each battery.  This is known as the "open circuit voltage".  If you haven't checked the open circuit voltage of your batteries, this is the first thing you need to check.  It could save a lot of unnecessary troubleshooting if it turns out you actually do have battery problems. 

If you decide to try this, yourselves, just MAKE VERY SURE you have disconnected from incoming power sources, ie, shore power, AND that you have  interrupted the solar charging circuits,,with either the breaker, or in your case you may have a  switch to turn off power from the panels. Do not leave cable ends hanging where they could touch each other, and short out if power is accidentally applied.

This is very important.  

Take care to take photos, and label, the battery cables BEFORE you make any changes/disconnects. So that you can reconnect them properly,  later. Please. 

[Katjo]

Update: Are Ollie is fixed! *insert happy dance* After a cry for help that I posted in a local camper group a virtual stranger from my neighborhood came to our house today and fixed it! He discovered it was a faulty main ground wire. I cannot thank him and every single one of you who reach out to try to help us, we are eternally grateful. 

[katanapilot]

30 minutes ago, Katjo said:

Update: Are Ollie is fixed! *insert happy dance* After a cry for help that I posted in a local camper group a virtual stranger from my neighborhood came to our house today and fixed it! He discovered it was a faulty main ground wire. I cannot thank him and every single one of you who reach out to try to help us, we are eternally grateful. 

Glad you were able to get your trailer fixed. Sorry it has been such a source of frustration and disappointment.

Faulty main ground wire - it’s almost always the ground in a DC circuit! 

[SeaDawg]

7 minutes ago, katanapilot said:

Glad you were able to get your trailer fixed. Sorry it has been such a source of frustration and disappointment.

Faulty main ground wire - it’s almost always the ground in a DC circuit! 

Yup. 

[Katjo]

8 minutes ago, katanapilot said:

Glad you were able to get your trailer fixed. Sorry it has been such a source of frustration and disappointment.

Faulty main ground wire - it’s almost always the ground in a DC circuit! 

Thank you. If was definitely a learning experience! 

[SeaDawg]

Thank goodness for kind neighbors!

I'd note that rivernerd, backofbeyond, and katana pilot suggested poor ground, early on. Thank you,  guys.

So often we've chased our tails, and it turned put to be a grounding issue.

 

[SeaDawg]

Now, the issue will be trying to bring your lithionics batteries back to life, if they're really 9 volts,,as you suggested, in an earlier post.

Usually,  to revive lithium you need to charge very slowly,  and separately, from what a friend told me, to bring cells back into balance. 

Any suggestions,  from those of you with lithionics?

I still run with agm batteries. 

[Rivernerd]

4 hours ago, Katjo said:

He discovered it was a faulty main ground wire.

Did you or your helpful neighbor take any photos of the faulty main ground wire, and the properly connected main ground wire that provided the solution?  Those would help others, including me, to more quickly diagnose similar problems in the future.

[Katjo]

4 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

Now, the issue will be trying to bring your lithionics batteries back to life, if they're really 9 volts,,as you suggested, in an earlier post.

Usually,  to revive lithium you need to charge very slowly,  and separately, from what a friend told me, to bring cells back into balance. 

Any suggestions,  from those of you with lithionics?

I still run with agm batteries. 
 

It wasn’t the batteries that showed 9volts it was the monitored inside that showed 9 volts. Now after fixing the bad ground wire it’s 13.1 🙂

[Katjo]

2 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

Did you or your helpful neighbor take any photos of the faulty main ground wire, and the properly connected main ground wire that provided the solution?  Those would help others, including me, to more quickly diagnose similar problems in the future.

I’ll take and post a picture tomorrow of where the ground wire was not connecting properly and more detail on how they fixed it.  

[Katjo]

21 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

Did you or your helpful neighbor take any photos of the faulty main ground wire, and the properly connected main ground wire that provided the solution?  Those would help others, including me, to more quickly diagnose similar problems in the future.

Here are a few photos. 
The photos that you see of the bolt, wires, nut and the silver metal plate below it were covered with an insulated black tar type coating from the factory, this was causing a bad ground connection. The bolt you see has been changed, the original was welded and it was a HORRIBLE weld with spatter all over the screw it was barely able to make a good ground connection!! There is also a bolt that goes through to the main trailer frame connecting that silver metal plate that you see.  this completes the correct and secure ground!!
 

[John E Davies]

Thanks for posting the pics, that badly repaired ground stud would certainly throw a bunch of circuits out of whack! The black tar stuff is perfectly fine too, it is generically called “liquid electrical tape”, and it is used for putting a flexible waterproof coating on any connection that you want to stay corrosion free indefinitely. The down sides are it’s quite messy, and it can cover up a lot of sins like your crappy welded repair.

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

It is very similar to pruning spray or liquid used on trees. If I did this repair to “Mouse” I would probably NOT recoat it, but the stuff is most excellent inside a 7 pin trailer connector, for example. I am not sure why the person applied it inside your trailer, it is not a wet or corrosive area.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

 

[Katjo]

1 hour ago, John E Davies said:

Thanks for posting the pics, that badly repaired ground stud would certainly throw a bunch of circuits out of whack! The black tar stuff is perfectly fine too, it is generically called “liquid electrical tape”, and it is used for putting a flexible waterproof coating on any connection that you want to stay corrosion free indefinitely. The down sides are it’s quite messy, and it can cover up a lot of sins like your crappy welded repair.

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

It is very similar to pruning spray or liquid used on trees. If I did this repair to “Mouse” I would probably NOT recoat it, but the stuff is most excellent inside a 7 pin trailer connector, for example. I am not sure why the person applied it inside your trailer, it is not a wet or corrosive area.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

 

 

1 hour ago, John E Davies said:

Thanks for posting the pics, that badly repaired ground stud would certainly throw a bunch of circuits out of whack! The black tar stuff is perfectly fine too, it is generically called “liquid electrical tape”, and it is used for putting a flexible waterproof coating on any connection that you want to stay corrosion free indefinitely. The down sides are it’s quite messy, and it can cover up a lot of sins like your crappy welded repair.

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

It is very similar to pruning spray or liquid used on trees. If I did this repair to “Mouse” I would probably NOT recoat it, but the stuff is most excellent inside a 7 pin trailer connector, for example. I am not sure why the person applied it inside your trailer, it is not a wet or corrosive area.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

 

That black tar coating came like that from the factory as did the poor weld job. The spatter from the weld on the screw would not let the screw make full contact, it only had a partial contact on the electrical spades on the wires which caused the poor ground and a very minimal ground contact. Because of the weld spatter the spade could not make full contact and there was a arc spot on the spade from only touching that “blob” of weld spatter. Now, the plate, nut and the screw after we repaired it is covered with dielectric grease and now full contact between all connections including the screw in plate. 

[Cameron]

Sometimes I feel like the buyer is the final quality control agent in the process and that we have to go through each and every component in the trailer and make necessary corrections and repairs. Of course if I lived in Hohenwald I could just pop over to chat with Jason and the team. But I don't. The upside is that each problem solved (and shared on this fantastic forum) increases our ability to keep our Ollies going wherever we go out on the open road.

[John and Debbie]

22 hours ago, Katjo said:

I’ll take and post a picture tomorrow of where the ground wire was not connecting properly and more detail on how they fixed it.  

I am glad it's fixed for you.   That was a bad way to start life with your Ollie.   Hope it's all trouble free from here on.   Have a great first summer with it. 

[Katjo]

15 minutes ago, John Welte said:

I am glad it's fixed for you.   That was a bad way to start life with your Ollie.   Hope it's all trouble free from here on.   Have a great first summer with it. 

Thank you so much! 

[John and Debbie]

1 hour ago, Cameron said:

Sometimes I feel like the buyer is the final quality control agent in the process and that we have to go through each and every component in the trailer and make necessary corrections and repairs. Of course if I lived in Hohenwald I could just pop over to chat with Jason and the team. But I don't. The upside is that each problem solved (and shared on this fantastic forum) increases our ability to keep our Ollies going wherever we go out on the open road.

Katjo's experience was very educational.   The pictures she shared and the comments were valuable.   I do want to learn as much as possible before we get our Ollie in five months.   The forum has been great for learning. 

[John and Debbie]

5 hours ago, John E Davies said:

Thanks for posting the pics, that badly repaired ground stud would certainly throw a bunch of circuits out of whack! The black tar stuff is perfectly fine too, it is generically called “liquid electrical tape”, and it is used for putting a flexible waterproof coating on any connection that you want to stay corrosion free indefinitely. The down sides are it’s quite messy, and it can cover up a lot of sins like your crappy welded repair.

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

It is very similar to pruning spray or liquid used on trees. If I did this repair to “Mouse” I would probably NOT recoat it, but the stuff is most excellent inside a 7 pin trailer connector, for example. I am not sure why the person applied it inside your trailer, it is not a wet or corrosive area.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

 

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

John,  I see it comes in clear also.   Do you use clear on the 7 pin plug to seal out water?  Do you use it anywhere else? 

John

[John E Davies]

1 hour ago, John Welte said:

STAR BRITE Liquid Electrical Tape - 4 FL Oz Can With Applicator Brush Cap - Protective, Airtight, Waterproof, Flexible, Dielectric Coating - Indoor & Outdoor Use

John,  I see it comes in clear also.   Do you use clear on the 7 pin plug to seal out water?  Do you use it anywhere else? 

John

I have always used black, it makes it easy to see how even the coverage is. I have used it on 7 pin connections where the wires attach, and also on a solar power cord I made that goes in my side port. I also wired up a junction block for the lights on a utility trailer, and coated all the cable ends and terminal screws afterwards, since it was fully exposed to moisture. A couple of heavy coats is usually plenty. It is long lasting and tough, usually you have to physically scrape it off.

Here is an excellent example, I don’t know if it is the same exact product. Natures Head replacement vent fan now comes from them with all the connections and solder joints protected.

The connectors are actually covered with heat shrink tubing first, then covered with the coating, that is pretty thorough workmanship, I guess they were having problems…..

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

[BackofBeyond]

Glad you are back in business.  Those ground connections can wreak havoc sometimes. 

RB

[Landrover]

13 hours ago, Cameron said:

Sometimes I feel like the buyer is the final quality control agent in the process and that we have to go through each and every component in the trailer and make necessary corrections and repairs. Of course if I lived in Hohenwald I could just pop over to chat with Jason and the team. But I don't. The upside is that each problem solved (and shared on this fantastic forum) increases our ability to keep our Ollies going wherever we go out on the open road.

The up side is the service Oliver provides. You wouldn’t get half that attention from another company. Glad the elec was an easy fix.

[Hokieman]

36 minutes ago, Landrover said:

The up side is the service Oliver provides.

Case in point, consider  Jason spent 2 hours via phone helping to resolve a non-warranty situation for a second owner. 

[SeaDawg]

@Katjo, glad your story had a happy ending, over the many chapters here. Now, you can salvage some of the shorter Michigan camping season. 

For future reference,  could you please complete your signature with hull #, model, and general location so folks can more easily answer questions? 

 

As you begin your new Ollie adventures,  I'd also recommend that you dive into  the videos in Oliver University,  and read through some of the manuals. Your trailer has so much technology,  and different features from your previous trailer, that there will be a bit of a learning curve for you, but I'm sure you'll find it a worthwhile investment in time. 

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/oliver-university/

Also, do get that multimeter, watch a video on YouTube and practice the basic functions,  as it will be very helpful if and when you have another question.

You might also consider taking a vacation to middle Tennessee, and schedule a complete annual service with Oliver. It could set your mind at ease that all systems have been checked and functioning properly,  since your trailer is a pre-loved unit with apparently unknown maintenance. The area around Hohenwald offers great camping opportunities (though a bit hot right now, of course), and you'd get a chance to meet those very knowledgeable and helpful guys in the service department. There would of course be a charge, but you could get an estimate ahead of time.

Best of luck, and happy camping.

 

[mossemi]

Since I only have my Oliver to compare to, I have a couple of questions to ask to the forum group.  The repair pictures show what has been identified as liquid tape.  Does anyone else have liquid tape on their frame ground stud or connections?  My second question concerns the 4/0 x 5/16” lug attached to the ground stud.  Does anyone also have a 4/0 ground cable connected to the frame ground?  Are these now common methods on units coming from the factory?

Mossey

[topgun2]

15 minutes ago, mossemi said:

 Does anyone else have liquid tape on their frame ground stud or connections?

My Oliver does not have any liquid tape on it or in it.

Bill