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Personally, I wouldn't worry about it, but the only places I can think that wouldn't be covered by the bikes would either be on the rack itself or up above the window. A few of us have the license plates mounted to the side, but I think they'd be no more visible there. The 1up rack on my truck completely covers the license plate when it's folded. You can't even tell I have one. But I've only gotten pulled over once, in Hohenwald. I said I was going to Oliver and he said in that case no problem sir nice truck. Not sure how far outside of Hohenwald that trick works.

Trainman - I'd check both your owner's manual and look for any stickers on or under your hitch on that Ram. For most (if not all) 1/2 ton trucks it is a manufacturers' requirement that a weight distribution hitch be used if the hitch ball weight is 500 pounds or over. In the discussion above a point is made concerning of the differences between weight distribution and sway control. Shortly after bringing my Elite II home I went out without my Andersen WDH just to see what the trailer would do. I turned off my Ford anti-sway control too. Up to speeds of 65 mph I simply could not get the Oliver to sway. Mind you I didn't go crazy given that I was not on the road alone, but, I did really try to get it to sway. There was not one hint of sway. However, like it or not, the Andersen WDH is the only one that will easily work with the Oliver. And, it does not come without the built in anti-sway portion. Therefore, I really do not think that Oliver is trying to hide anything regarding the stability of the Oliver Travel Trailer - I believe it is simple - the Andersen is the only WDH that easily works with the Oliver Travel Trailer and since WDH are required for many vehicles it is the one they sell. Bill

[attachment file=2 HOBOS.jpg] Got the permanent tags for hull #414 which we will take delivery of on 1 May. This was the very last 2018 Elite II produced. Getting really excited. 2-HOBOS4.pdf

John, It is my understanding it should be closed during travel so the contents of the grey tank does not slosh up into the shower pan through the floor drain and open when in use. Andrew

Russell thanks! We purchased the original Oliver rack. We didn’t like that it is difficult to remove /install due to its weight & access to the back sewer connection is harder. But now that we want to change to heavy electric bikes knowing that this flat bed setup can carry 150 lbs is great news. And John Davies idea of removing the batteries is a good idea.

If this interest anyone our new 2019 Ram 1500, 4X4, Crew Cab got 14.1 MPG pulling our 2018 Casita this week. We only went around 350 miles to Tyler State Park from Ft. Worth, Texas, pretty flat driving and not too many hills along the way. No 18-wheeler's, or cross-winds gave any problems for the truck or trailer, in fact I never felt a push from the wind on the trailer in any direction, I do not use a sway-bar, or equalizer hitch. I do not plan to use a sway-bar, or equalizer hitch when pulling our new Elite II, or at least I will try it first and see how it handles. The Casita with tongue weight of 430 lbs. is reasonable to the Elite II with is around 460 lbs. dry weight. I've done a weight test on the Ram's hitch and the truck will only set down 1 1/2" with that amount of weight hitched. The Ram still sets correctly and the front end never felt light and was always under control at highway speeds, remember I will be looking for any problems that may occur when testing without the sway-bar and equalizer hitch. Remember the new Ram has upped there GVWR and it's well within its max limits, so I do feel that I will be operating within a safe margin to experiment with this test setup. We do travel light when we camp, so our Ram will have very little weight in it except for our weigh we will probably be caring around 200/250 lbs. max and that will be in the cab of the vehicle. Remember it will be a test to see if we need an Anderson setup or not. trainman

As others have stated, the new design with the smaller single mount is just not going to handle much weight, 100lbs sounds about right. I prefer the original rack mounting scheme Oliver offered. The current one has a similar frame mounting attachments which are quite sturdy. It would not take a lot of effort to fabricate a stronger mounting platform similar to the old system. I have a tandem Thule attached to the one on my Oliver. It is very sturdy, and I am confident it will handle up to 150Lbs with no issues.

I would worry more about the bike rack, must be a special bike rack to hold that kind of weight. A lot of racks in small print will say do not use this bike rack on the rear of a trailer. Double check your manual.

I believe that it's rated for 100 lbs.

Overland, if you're headed to Arches be aware of the long lines at the entrance station. On our arrival day, we drove past at 11 AM and there was a very long line. The week before we left there had been an article in the SLC newspaper about possibly an entrance reservation system. After arriving and setting up camp, we went for a bike ride and went into the park early the next morning. The NPS web site suggests "to avoid traffic, we recommend entering the park before 8 am or after 3 pm." I think that is true seven days a week during the spring. We arrived on a Tuesday in the morning and a lot of the campground sites were taken. Fortunately, there are a lot of areas with good BLM dispersed camping sites.