Leaderboard

Hi! We are Vic & Wanda Shumate out of Auburndale, Fl 33823, retired, been RV’g for 31 years, prior RV’s (1991 HR imperial 33’ gas, 1994 HR Navigator diesel 38’, 2001 Bluebird Wanderlodge LX 500 diesel) It was Time to downsize as age is catching up but our zest for bluegrass festivals, Smokey mountain trips along with state parks nature and more, would not let us go quietly! Our last RV (Bluebird) was sold about 6 months ago) our exhaustive search for a replacement small RV pull behind begin about 2 months ago and ended with the selection of the Oliver Legacy Elite II with a sales order written today 8/12/2021. Thanks to Josh White! No need to tell you all why we chose the Oliver lol and yes we took the factory tour 8/19/2021….. looking forward to our ownership sometime in June of 2022…….At the moment we will be towing it with a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 liter V8, summit……We also have on order a Tesla cyber truck two motor due sometime in late 2022 that we hope to use too! We are excited about the Oliver and look forward to future meetings with other owners……..

Calling all Oliver owners near and far. We love Katherine Hanna Park. Camping under old-growth live oaks and access to a mile of wonderful beachfront is just a magical camping experience. We are planning the Second Mini Oliver Rally at Hanna Park this October 15th through October 18th. A Fish Fry meet & greet, lunch on the beach, and dinner in town to close it all out. If that sounds fun, we’d love to have you join us. Details to follow... Onward, Foy & Mirna Sperring

Welcome to the Oliver family. We enjoyed showing you our Oliver Wednesday evening. Now there are three Oliver's in Polk County. Duke and Chris hull 292

As to the batteries in your last line above about Lithium vs. AGM: Here's a link to an article I wrote on my conversion from 4 AGM's to Lithium. https://4-ever-hitched.com/ggs-blog/f/lithium-battery-upgrade At the end of the article I provide an update data I've gathered...and an estimate on how long our Lithiums run in not sunny (PNW) weather...and another estimate how much longer a Platinum Pro might run (630AH) vs. the Lithium Pro package (390AH) in those boon-docking conditions.

A wax is just a protective coating, polish has a little more aggressive cleaning action but does not really protect the finish. Most common are a polish wax combination. The polish wax combination does not protect as well as a true wax; a wax will not clean the surface. The combination mixture works fine on a finish that needs just a quick touch up. Best to use a random orbital polisher with a polish or light compound to clean the oxidation and dirt film, then clean the finish to remove the polish or compound…..then apply your wax for protection. I have used both types of machine polishers/ buffers over many years and found the random orbital to be safe and effective. If you use a good quality polisher with variable speed control and good quality pads, you will not harm, or burn the finish. I am in the process of polishing, then waxing my Oliver now. It takes time to do it correctly, but anyone can do it without fear. It does not take long to get the “rhythm “ of the polisher. My Oliver has light marks from the previous owner cleaning the finish with a car wash brush, and that can dull/lightly scratch the gel coat. It is cleaning up great and looks as new again. Once you get it cleaned and conditioned, it will take much less effort to keep it that way. Steve

We picked our Ollie up last Thursday 8/5/21. After an excellent walkthrough by Hannah we got u/w for Davey Crockett site 67 where we spent 5 nights. Based on others forum posts i figured to test everything and if a problem arose i would be close to the factory. Well, no problems 861 was in excellent shape, as i expected😊. I have been reading these forms constantly since i first started thinking about buying one. They have been invaluable to me. Too many to name individually, especially for fear I would forget someone, but lots of great advise and suggestion are available for anyone willing to read. Thanks alot to all you who contribute. On our way home in Florida, but looks like TS Fred will change our schedule😂. For info the pickup is a Ram 2500 with the 6.4 Hemi. I started to get the Cummings but after realizing the cargo was equal to a half ton around 1500 lbs where as this one was 3002 lbs. To me that was a game changer as i don’t expect to live long enough to wear out a diesel. Dewey

It's not lower end, as no Oliver ever made is lower end. It was evidently the best decision for you, based on your camping plans. Practical. I commend you for not overspending, for something you won't use. Thanks for providing another perspective.

Definitely try tractor supply first. When recently having our Ollie serviced in Hohenwald, the women at the service desk said that she had worked at Walmart in Hohenwald and they didn’t have much of an RV section although hitches would be in automotive. Hard to beat Walmart prices in any event.

It all depends on what scenarios you will actually be in. We have the 4 6v (2 pairs in series, then pairs in parallel) 400 AH AGMs. Got our elite 2 in August 2018. We chose not to get solar because most of the campsites we anticipated and do use are here in the east and shaded. We have done several dry camping trips (with a few 3 nights). Always had enough power but do switch the fridge (absorption) to gas and normally don’t use microwave much. We do run the max air all night most of these trips with no problem. Did get a bit low on voltage when we used the microwave more than normal. If we need ac when drycamping - so far we haven’t been in the situation- we would run our inverter generator (we did get the soft-start on the AC. So for us this works fine and upgrading for us would probably be more for re-sale. When the AGMs go - I suspect we will seriously consider the lithiums, but not an inverter upgrade as the only reason for that that I can see would be to run AC and that would require rewiring - plus you we wouldn’t be able to run the ac very long on batteries anyway. So, I guess we are one of the few without solar but for us it has been perfectly fine. Just another (lower end) perspective.

I used painted cowboy in December 2020 to tow mine to my house in Washington state and they did a fine job. I washed the frame soon after it got here but I know I'll be subjecting it to equal or more abuse in coming years. Family issues made this the best choice for me and I'm happy with the choice and the tradeoffs. But I view my trailer as an expensive piece of recreational equipment and not as a collectible classic vehicle. We have had no more issues than I see owners who towed theirs home from the factory having when they're too far to go back to Hohenwald for quick fixes so missing the shakedown cruise wasn't costly for me (and I am just familiar enough with the classic RV systems to have been OK w/o the in person orientation to the trailer albeit with a few email exchanges with Jasen E et alto get some basic questions answered). Maybe I'm just lucky but that worked fine for me. If your delivery is in a freezing time of year be sure to have them winterize the water system after they do their test of it and before it's shipped to you!

Congratulations and welcome to the forum. This is a very informative forum and the people here are great and very helpful. We ordered our Oliver in February and pick up in late October. The anticipation and planning are half the fun, but I can't wait for our first few adventures in our new trailer. Please share your experience with the rest of us.

Wow. The Nature's Head is on backorder? This Covid has messed everything up. It seems like these supply issues are creeping into every aspect of our lives! For me, the composting toilet is one of the most important upgrades I wanted, right up there with the solar package. I wonder if you delayed your production date a couple months if it would make a difference? Otherwise you could wait and see if they're available around the time of your pickup and ask Oliver service to install it at that time. I bet you wouldn't be the only one doing that.

I would never recommend having your trailer shipped. Mainly because you miss the shakedown opportunity at a local CG where problems can be identified and fixed at the factory. Our trailer was also ready to pick up in December but I didn't want to drive out to Tennessee and back in the middle of winter. So Oliver held my trailer for me until I picked it up in late April. Hopefully they would still do this. It's a great trip out there, and especially back with your new Oliver! I'd recommend at least two days in the local CG that Oliver sets you up in and thoroughly go through all the systems. Then you can be on your way. Shipping would be a last resort for me. Dave

Hi, and welcome to the forum! Another Florida Ollie. Quite a few of us in Florida.

Welcome Vic and Wanda! New to Oliver but seasoned RV’ers so we’ll be anxious to hear about your travels. We’re bluegrass fans, too! Mike

Work. I am an ED doc in Oregon. With the COVID surge going on there is no way I am getting extra time off during the holidays to make that drive. Grew up in FL, then school in Cali, then NY and now Oregon. So have done that drive both northern and southern routes in everything from a soft top Wrangler to 26 ft Uhaul with said jeep in tow. Driving through NYC to Long Island was not fun with the later. Thanks. Now back to deciding on AGM vs Lithium....

And here's a review of the Shurhold from Practical Sailor magazine

Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska; We have been searching for a "travel" vehicle for the past few years, camper, van, trailer, but not a tent. (Been there done that.) I stumbled upon the Oliver website, joined this forum and have read countless posts by current Ollie owners and I think we have found our dream traveler. The only BIG problem is that living and owning an Oliver in Alaska is quite rare. The only Ollie I have seen in Alaska is last week while my wife and I were driving between Savage River and Teklanika River campgrounds in Denali National Park. Imagine my surprise to see an older Oliver Elite being towed by a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck 30 miles into Denali National Park. We were not able to stop to chat, but it was pretty cool to actually see an Oliver in Alaska. However, we want to experience areas in the Lower 48 where most Ollie owners live and travel. This means a 4,000+ mile journey to and from the Pacific Northwest or Montana before and after our exploring with an Ollie. (I have driven cars, trucks and a Born Free motorhome to Alaska many times since 1974 and loved the journey each and every trip.) Our kids and grandkids also live in Alaska and we would love to go camping with them durning our short, but intense Alaskan summers. An Ollie should allow us to travel "The roads less traveled" here in Alaska and explore durning the fall and spring in the lower 48. Sorry for the long post, but we are semi struggling with ordering an Oliver trailer that will spend a lot of time enduring the weather and Mother Nature events of Alaska. Also concerned about the thousands of miles of wear and tear on an Ollie traveling the Alcan highway on a yearly basis. Any thoughts, comments or alternative ideas from current Oliver owners? We will be here in Anchorage until October 8, when we head to Maui for some R & R, so if any Ollie owners who make it to the Anchorage area in the next few months, we would love to meet you, (and your Ollie!) Since this is my first post, I am not sure if someone can PM or contact us, but I'm sure someone will lead us in the right direction. Thanks for reading our rather long post, and I look forward to any replies regarding owning an Ollie in Alaska. AlaskaGreg

I'm adding screenshots of the product for the day the Amazon link stops working. That looks really nice. I bought some u-shaped trim at an auto supply for ours years ago.

Bear in mind that a 100 gal. auxiliary water tank will weigh 835 pounds when full.

We entertained the idea of the composting toilet. After reading all about it I just did not feel it was worth the extra cost and effort. As I recall, you need to collect the urine in a jug that fastens to the front of the toilet. Obviously when the pee jug is full you need to dump it (while your wife is reading her book). In a campground you can't just toss it into the bushes. I prefer to have the convenience of a flushing toilet and spend the night at a campground with facilities to dump it now and then. When boon docking you can go several days before you have to dump the black tank. When camping at primitive sites, just grab your shovel and some TP and head for the trees. Be considerate of others and go at least 50 feet into the woods before you do your thing. We hike a lot and carry a little shovel in case the need comes up. The National Park Service says to get a minimum of 50 feet off of the trail before you do your thing, so that is the standard that we "go" by. Ha ha!

Academic though at the moment as Oliver will not allow you to order a composting toilet. Mine was removed from the order that I have to finalize tomorrow, as they are out of stock per sales rep. Currently sitting here deciding between AGM vs Lithium. Fun times. Lithium to run AC in summer in the PNW or AGM for staying in the RV spots at Mt Bachelor.