Leaderboard

Seems strange to me to buy an Oliver only to leave it parked for the winter! So much to do and see and usually you have it all to yourself. I'll be picking mine up in late January and driving it back to Montana after a quick scoot down to Florida for some fishing. I fully intend on beating the snot out of it. I'll let you guys know if I can break it.

While we had our trailer in the shop for some upgrades, we needed a place to stay Monday night. We chose Meriweather B & B right off Main St in Hohenwald. What a pleasant surprise, it's really a top notch place to stay. Melisa, the owner, allowed us to check in early and check out late while waiting for the trailer to finish. She goes out of way to make her guests feel welcome. Only down side,,,no kids or pets, but this time we left our dog with our son. And a big thank you to Oliver for having a level with electric spot to overnight at the sales office. Nice touch.

So, you can preorder a Tesla pickup truck, starting tonight . It's, of course, an unusual design. And, actually, somewhat affordable. Starts at 39,900, rear wheel drive, smaller 250 mile battery range. Top end, 500 mile range, almost 70k. I wish they'd done some towing testing. But, they did drag an f150 uphill, in a tug of war video . And, of course, killed it against a Porsche in performance off the line. Comes standard with air compressor, and 110 and 220 outlets. Stainless steel body. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-cybertruck-unveiled/ Sherry

The good news is the Oliver is on wheels for a reason. I don't have to stay in Montana. We don't stay in campgrounds very often so none of the closures really matter to us. I know you wanted to visit The Breaks at one point. While its fantastic at various times of the year, it and many places like it can be life changing in the winter. We like to go up late December early January and watch the smaller 100+ elk herds bunch up. Sometimes we're lucky enough to have a shoulder tag for December. I've stopped counting at 800 and figured there were at least double that. I've heard of a group in Eastern Oregon as big as 6000. The game preserves of the world are ok, but put yourself in the middle of them all in a natural setting with deer, antelope, big cats, wild dogs and sometimes even bears in a warm winter, it feels like you're in the middle of a great migration. Snowmobile in yellowstone, hot springs in Idaho and New Mexico, skiing anywhere, hiking the parks in Utah and Arizona, rafting in Moab, fishing and stone crab season in Feb. when people from Florida think its cold! Winter camping is literally endless depending on what you like to do. I'd highly recommend it. As for dumping, thats the magic of the composting toilet. It is not technically raw sewage until you mix liquid and solids so you can dump anywhere once you've dried everything out sufficiently. We always carry an extra primed and ready container for a composting toilet, the hardest part is keeping the full one warm enough to compost. Between the two though even if we don't dump it, we can get well over a month. As for the liquids, it's no different than taking an Andre The Giant sized pee in the woods! I don't cary trailer chains. I keep two sets for the pickup but rarely use either. I expect the Oliver to be the best tracking trailer I've ever owned so I don't anticipate much we can't get through. I've towed a horse trailer with 6 horses through 16" of snow getting into The Bob during an early season storm. You'd be surprised what vehicles can do nowadays and as long as you're not doing anything silly, your trailer will just follow your tracks.

ahattar - Let me answer that for you - Yes, you can break it! However, most likely, you will have one heck of a good time doing it. Bill

I have to say, from a designer's standpoint, this is a far better attempt at what an electric truck might look like than the generic offerings from Bollinger or Rivian, the designs of which are just 'make it look like a truck'. Those two vehicles remind me of the early automobile designs, which all looked suspiciously like horse drawn carriages. It's definitely a departure from the aerodynamic bodywork that you expect from a 'green' vehicle, but I suspect that's the entire point. The faceted design is very much in keeping with what you see from offroad customizers, who work largely with plasma cut aluminum and steel; and of course it also has a very military vibe. It's a design language that is perhaps polarizing, but will immediately resonate with the under-40 crowd. For others, I suspect that this looks weird today; but a year from now it won't. I would definitely say to watch the videos, because it looks much different there than in photos. Also, to me it looks a lot like an early Lotus Esprit on steroids, which is pretty funny if you know Elon Musk's history with that car. Like Musk, I've always been a fan of the Italian wedge cars from the late 70's myself, so I can dig it. I didn't watch the reveal, so they may have answered my main question, which is why they made it so long. From what I've seen this morning, it has gobs of room inside, plus a 6.5' bed. I would have thought that a short bed, extended cab model would be a better fit for the initial market. But then, obviously they wanted to make a 'real' truck, so I guess that a full size long bed is where they wanted to go. But that breakover angle looks ridiculous. The exoskeleton structure is the most interesting aspect to me. Range is what you'd expect. Towing capacity is just a number at this point - I don't think it will really matter until they can double the range, and even before then, towing figures need to be indexed back to range to be meaningful. I do like the variable suspension. Overall - pretty cool. I'm really eager to see where this leads. I suspect that in five or six years, we'll see new owners asking serious questions about towing with an electric truck.

I drove I70 west through Denver and up and over the Rockies last March on a trip from Minnesota to Moab, Utah while towing our Elite II. Had to drop down to Kansas to avoid ice and snow in Nebraska. I70 was shut down to clear avalanches for an hour or so someplace around Silverthorne, CO. Parked next to lots snowmobile trailers in the CO mountain pass rest stops. There was packed snow and ice on the pass everywhere. The Oliver behaved itself and stayed back behind the truck where it belonged. This winter driving was in addition to a few trips towing in snow during hunting season in MN. Being from Minnesota I’ve driven on ice and snow my whole life. Towing the Oliver, or any travel trailer, in the winter isn’t exactly routine, but certainly possible. My 200 series Land Cruiser had AT tires at the time with the mountain snowflake rating. It would have been even less stressful with my current set of dedicated snow tires (I have three sets of tires now; all season (daily driving), all terrain (trips out west, hunting season), and dedicated snow). My Oliver has the Michelin tires The worst part of driving in the winter is the road chemicals. All the alloy on the trailer frame/bumper/storage basket has lost some of its luster. One of the stainless handles on the propane cover has started to corrode. The coupler and shocks are showing rust. Its not horrible, and it still looks good, but it’s not new looking anymore. The fiberglass and anything above the belt line is still as new. It might bother some people, but I Just see all the fun I’ve had with it. If you need it to look like new, leave it parked. Otherwise go have fun. Obviously I’d rather use it than keep it pretty while in storage. My camping season would only be six months long if I didn’t risk winter weather. It tracks fine on winter roads if you drive according to the conditions. hth, Ken

The one that Oliver sells as an option is great - you simply never have to worry about it working or getting stolen. In the case of surge protectors - the more you spend almost certainly means the more protection and functions/features you get.

Reading this topic gives me pause - a standing topic location where folks can post about upcoming trips and planned stops would be cool - invite others to join for informal get together. I suspect this happens on the down low anyways, I know we have done similar - Bixby and his human family have met us in several places, here there, and at home.