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We would like to announce the location and dates for our 2018 Rally. The 2018 Oliver Rally will be held May 4-7, 2018 at Lake Guntersville State Park in Alabama. Lake Gunterville State Park offers many fun activities including an 18-hole golf course, fishing, hiking and biking trails, boat rentals, ziplining and more. More details to come. For now we ask to hold off on questions. We will update the webpage dedicated to the Rally as we get more information. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/rally/

Yes, I did a factory tour, yes, I thought and thought and thought, yes, I've crunched numbers til I can't crunch any longer and YES, I paid my deposit last week and locked in a production date! Now....Decision time. Solar or no? AGM batteries or no? I am a life long camper, retired school counselor and do not have unlimited financial resources. BUT, I do want to do this Ollie right. Thoughts, opinions, guidance sought?!??

We limited the adds to what we really needed to go off-road and boondocking. The added-cost options are never cheap but we selected: Brown Leather Grain Vinyl Upholstery Standard Dometic Penguin II w/ Micro-Air Easy Start A/C System 2 Lifeline GPL-4CT AGM Batteries (needed for solar package) Fiber Granite countertops, accents, and tables Composting toilet Solar package Xantrex 2000W Inverter Package 30 AMP Convenience Connection Aluminum Storage Basket

Hi Mary, welcome! A lot of us struggled somewhat with what options we should get. As a life long Camper you probably know your camping style and what you might use or not use. I’m sure you will get some advice and also some questions. Are you getting the Elite or Elite II? We did get the solar not knowing how much we would use it. As it turns out we are glad we did. We have been visiting national parks and they have great campgrounds but usually without any hook ups. The solar allows us to have electricity as long as we’ve got some sun. We use the inverter quite a bit too. Since we use our phones as hot spots, the cell booster gets quite a bit of use. We did not get the WiFi booster and haven’t missed having one. Big options not available when we ordered are the Truma on demand hot water and the composting toilet. Folks seem to like both. We’re happy with what we’ve got. Don't hesitate to ask your questions, you’ll get plenty of advice and recommendations! Mike

After seeing that many of you have or had a 1500, and after a ton of research, I opted out of buying the 2500 Duramax because I felt that I didn't need it. Then people started coming out on here and saying that they have sold their 1500's and moved up to the Duramax, which I had thought about for a long time. This is my 5th Chevy truck in the last 40years and in that time I also have had 3 Ford's of various sizes, and still I did a ton of research. As far as high altitude overheating, I had no problem going over the sumits into Flagstaff, Az that top out at 7300', but I did test the trucks fuel to see if anything has changed in the last 50 years... or 49 being that my 1st Chevy was a well used 68 that a friend owned before me. I did notice that running regular fuel over the summits is still a questionable choice. Years ago with my 76 Chevy 1500Crew Cab, I found out that running higher octane really made a difference and that I could get up to 14mpg by using Octane boost on long hauls, over the 8 or so mpg that I would usually get. Now a days, the 76, known as Big Red has been our primary snow plow for the past 30 years and still runs great. A few days ago, I filled up with regular again, while knowing that we were going to be driving thru the valley and then I put in one last tank full of 87octane to go over the 4500' Oregon/California Siskiyou Summit and it was simply, OK. It made it over but the temp did creep up just a little from normal and my transmission went up from 178° to 196° and the power was simply OK, not great, but still more then enough. Basically the 5.3 litre feels like a standard 350 and tows just fine. Knowing that we were heading up over 7000', I switched over to premium 92octane, like I've been doing forever and had no problems at all accelerating and keeping it around 65, while going over the Flagstaff summit. The speed limit on that section is 75mph and we had a severe head wind and I have noticed that the gas milage really drops when you get over 65 and you can really feel the force in the cab that's being created at higher speeds with the Ollie in tow, neither of which are that aerodynamically designed to drive at that speed. Most of the time I kept it around 65 going over the summit but I did take it up to 75mph and watched my milage drop from around 7.2mpg, going up at 65 to 4.2 when climbing at 75mph. Still though my 50 mile average stayed around 7.2 mpg over the summit. Then on normal flat ground, I'm getting around 13.2 when towing at 60mph in California, which is a far cry from the 19.4mpg that our Mercedes would average... but that's a different story. So all in all, I'm real happy with my choice of truck and just like my friend Mark, who has the Duramax, we both slowed way down going over the summit with the 25mph headwind holding us back :) Running Premium 92 Octane makes a huge difference in the performance of the 1500 Chevy trucks. And if you know beforehand that you will be crossing over a high altitude summit, switching from regular to premium really makes a difference in both power and mpg. So if you own the 1500 and feel like it's dogging over the summits while towing your Ollie,make sure that you switch over to premium for at least that day. Most of the time, when not towing, I just run regular, but they do make Premium Grade Gasoline's for a reason... and that reason is better performance under certain circumstances. Reed

I am with Pete on this one. Even if it is cold out the Sun will melt away a lot of snow on the panels. Our trailer is in storage over the winter and we can't clean the snow off. When we pick up in spring.. Full Charge! Scotty

If you have retired your Ollie for the winter season and it is plugged in and you don't plan on using it until Spring, I would tend to let it stay and melt away when the temperature rises. If you want to use the panels for electrical production for your batteries or intend to do some winter camping, that's something else. The panels should be strong enough to withstand the snow. After all, they are installed on rooftops all over the country. Although they are silicone there is a bit of elasticity in them that aids in resilience against inclement weather conditions. Snow also cleans your panels. I have 43 panels on my roof and after a recent 2' snowfall melted away the panels were sparkling clean. Here's a good read on the subject https://energy.gov/eere/articles/let-it-snow-how-solar-panels-can-thrive-winter-weather

Your truck looks great with the new wheels and tires! Tires make all the difference when you are in mud, sand or slush.

We opted out of the microwave and am sure glad we did. The resulting cabinet has been an incredibly useful and much needed pantry for storing all kinds of stuff we use on a daily basis. In the Elite, there is just not a lot of storage, and this cabinet has really been useful. The interior dimensions are: 21-1/2"wide x 14" deep x 13" tall. The actual opening is a bit smaller because of the face frame and the door itself. That opening is 19-1/4 wide x 11" tall. Dave

Perfect time to update the List! I have started a list of attendees for the 2018 rally a will update as information comes available. The list is in progress and contains basic info such as, Names, forum name, Spot #, home state, and hull#. We also have a GOLF list in progress with just 4 people who are planning to play. I thought that this basic info will help everyone get to know each other but won't be intrusive as the info is available on the forum. I have attached the word file and will also paste it in below my signature. If you want to be added or correct / add any info please either post to this thread or PM me. Let me know if you want to play GOLF as well. Quick Question for Matt Duncan: Matt, would you be comfortable sharing your list with either me (to add to this list) or with the group directly. Happy to be the main point of contact on this but your info would help make sure we reach everyone. Thanks, Scotty 2018 Oliver Rally Camper List Names Forum Name Spot # Lives at Hull # Brandi & Winn Shaffer Bshaffer B 06 TX 10 Laura & Dean (casita) DeanCHS1980 D-4 KY Casita David and Carol Kemp trumpetguy D 8 FL Airstream David Stillman DavidS D-10 UT 164 Gregg & Donna Scott ScottyGS E-17 NJ 145 Steve & Tali ScubaRx E-9 MS 50 Mike & Carol Thompson Mike and Carol E-10 TX 135 Grayson & Ann dharmardr E 13 CT 112 Mike & Gerri MikeandGerri E 22 ? 189 ? SupersizeLIFE E 31 AK 249 David & Jane Droll dedrol E 21 OH 238 Don Thompson donthompson E-39 IA? 126 Tom and Debrah Mohan mgbtom E32 TX 71 Clair & Kathy Reed Kayrae51 E12 TN 245 Greg & Janet Gato Greg & Janet Gato F 42 FL 122 Foy & Mirna Foy_Mirna G-24 FL 227 Dennis & Pat G 15 NY 153 Bill Topgun2 G13 NC 117 Malcolm and Ursula M. Monlezun ?? CO 204 Coy Gayle hardrock ?? AL 73 Darrell & Kathy Waters wdw0528 E38 GA TBD 2018-Oliver-Rally-CAMPER-LIST.doc