Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/22/2021 in all areas

  1. I would recommend that you contact the folks at Good Sam. I went to them and they set me up with National General Insurance for a "full replacement cost" policy that is less than $500 a year. They also give you a discount for long term storage if you let Ollie sleep during the winter months. Just call and tell them you are putting it into storage and then call again when you plan to put it back on the road.
    4 points
  2. Oh man, it is everything we hoped for. It’s the perfect size for the two of us. The size allows us to go almost everywhere. So easy to pull and the Gladiator does a great job. The long trip home gave us both great experience with the Jeep and the trailer. My wife handles the trailer like a pro. The sizes does not intimidate her at all. I am surprised and pleased how well she does backing it into a tough site! She’ll be able to solo with “Lil’ tow” any time she wants. I'm also impressed with how well the Gladiator does pulling the trailer. I’m not going to win any speed records but it is very capable. Since I only get about 18-19 mpg on the highway I was very pleased to get 13.7 mpg as the towing average coming home. All in all, I couldn’t be happier. I have already started our vacation plan for 2022. Out next trip is just a couple of weeks away. When the ski areas finally open, I will get good experience pulling it in the snow. So much fun to look forward to!!! Carl
    4 points
  3. Apologies if my comments were construed as a criticism of anyone's trailer, or of Olivers in general. Oliver makes two of the best RVs on the market, which is why we're selling our current fifth wheel and buying one. Likewise, the use of the word "cheap" in my final sentence was not intended as a criticism of the A/C quality, but of my theory that OTT may be able to source the Dometics for less money. But that air conditioner is loud. Louder than any of our previous RVs. That's not Oliver's fault, per se. The roof is lower, the space is smaller, and the A/C isn't ducted, so it's just... loud. It's a side effect of the overall design and construction. Still, it is a downside for those who will be camping in hot, humid climes. Is it a deal breaker? Not for us. Olivers have many other positives that outweigh the negatives. Even so, I can see where there might be potential customers who would consider it a deal breaker to not be able to watch TV at a comfortable volume with the A/C on. So, it would be nice if it could be addressed, even as an upcharge option.
    2 points
  4. That's been our feeling about our Elite 1, for 14 seasons. I'm really happy for both of you. Hope you enjoy yours, long term, as much as we have enjoyed ours. 14 seasons, over 100k miles. Wishing you many miles of smiles! And, happy travels.
    2 points
  5. I seriously doubt that. I have friends in the marine industry, with volume, maybe, 3 to 10 per cent. Pretty much across the board. Why? Because, seriously, they don't have to. There's a big market, and if you can supply, you don't have to cut price. I understand lots of folks wanting to make the best, even better. I get that. Some of us just wing it, and try rogue stuff on our own. If you actually need ac a lot, I commiserate. Virtually none of the readily available, standard ac options on rvs today are very quiet. We camp at altitude in heat. Or, live with the consequences. I'm with @mossemi. I happen to really enjoy my Oliver. Yes, we tweak from time to time. We're like that. Nothing changes my opinion, made 14 years ago, that our Ollie was the best choice, for us. Hopefully, we'll get to enjoy another 14 years.
    2 points
  6. I guess it’s time for me to try selling my Ollie! I probably won’t be able to find anybody that wants to buy a used trailer with an air conditioner that nobody likes, but it does keep me cool when I use it. Not to mention the junk brake system that left skid marks when I made a hard stop last week. And the Andersen WD hitch ball has some chrome worn off, maybe I should replace it before it kills a potential sale. But wait a minute! My Ollie is the only RV I have ever owned, which also makes it the best RV I have ever owned! So maybe I’ll just keep it, warts and all. What I should probably do is stay off the forum and avoid all of the expert opinions trying to convince me that I bought a piece of poop. I think I’ll just make a better effort to remember my mother’s sage advice, “if you don’t have something nice to say, keep your mouth shut". Maybe I’ll join Facebook, I heard it’s a great place to get information and I just might find somebody like me, that likes their Ollie! Sorry, I do know the rules for capitalizing some words, but I think may be a form of shouting, so I left those out. And if I offended someone, I didn’t mean to, I was just going with the flow of the postings that stuck in my mind today. Peace, Out! Mossey
    2 points
  7. I'm assuming they have a pricing deal with Dometic that involves bulk purchasing a certain number of Dometic products every year. Which is fine. However, they are marketing a top line product to a discriminating niche market that is willing to pay a premium to get upscale items. Since this keeps coming up as a customer complaint, it would seem reasonable to offer an optional upgrade. If they stray too far toward economies of scale they risk becoming just another RV manufacturer in a sea of competitors. Why risk losing sales over a cheap A/C unit?
    2 points
  8. We have been asking this for many years. I ordered mine (Hull 218) with an Atwood Air Command 9.5k as a zero cost custom option, it is way more quiet. They no longer do requests like this, but I do not understand why they continue to use the noisy brand which NOBODY likes. John Davies Spokane WA
    2 points
  9. We have state farm for our insurance needs. $345 a year with $1000 deductible and 5 years coverage for replacement cost. Rates vary depending your state and area you live in.
    1 point
  10. Adjustable hitches are cool and extremely handy IF you tow a lot of different trailers, but they may rattle, and they do hang down very far, and that can lead to certain situations where it smashes hard into the ground. If it happens to be onto a paved road, it will rattle your teeth and spine and make you swear. You can hacksaw off the bottom few inches, but that is irreversable 😀. I did that to my Andersen one. The Weigh Safe is very neat, especially if you tow different big trailers, but in reality, once you weigh your Ollie’s tongue you probably will never have to do it again, so a portable scale like the Sherline LM1000 works great. I have used mine twice in five years, normally it stays safely stored in its box in my garage. I bought it when I sold my Ram 3500 and bought the LC200, I had no need of it before then. So if the only “heavy” trailer you tow is the Ollie, the Weigh Safe is overkill. Plus an 18.5k (max 2200 pounds TW) hitch gauge will be inherently less accurate than a 1000 pound one. (Gauges are most accurate right in the middle of the scale.) I suggest that you buy a simple one piece drop mount steel unit like FrankC posted, plus a “slopper stopper” anti-rattle device of some type (especially if you also add mudflaps, they rock around like crazy otherwise) and in the future you could choose to invest in one that is ten times as expensive….Plus a cheap unit is much less likely to get stolen. If you want actual numbers, load and stock your trailer, fill the fresh tank and get Oliver to weigh it for you with their portable scale before you leave Hohenwald. However, if you tell us your options and what stuff you plan to carry (generator, ebikes, cast iron pots) we can probably guess your TW within about 100 pounds. Finally, I suspect that most Ollie owners have no clue what their tongue weight is, and for those with HD trucks it is pretty much irrelevant unless you own an oddball one like a Power Wagon. So don’t sweat it too much. These LE2 trailers are not all sensitive to tongue weight variations. John Davies Spokane WA
    1 point
  11. I didn’t realize how big a difference a diesel makes on braking. With the air brake on I rarely touch the brakes on downhills and slowing. Mike
    1 point
  12. We have USAA and they use Progressive for customer RV insurance. Mike
    1 point
  13. Replacing our AC is near the top of my mods list. We’ve been complaining for years about the noise, it has even influenced our camping locations… we tend to go to much cooler climates and endure the AC while we’re escaping the Texas heat. Although loud, it does cool the trailer down pretty quick. We’ve camped in 100+ degree weather and ran the AC on low. Ear plugs help! Mike
    1 point
  14. We wondered the same thing for our GMC dually. I was able to take careful measurements based on previously posted info that the top of the ball should be approximately 23.5" above the ground when hitched. Of course, that includes any sag from the weight of the trailer and truck cargo, so it's hard to know for sure before actually hooking up. I was able to connect another trailer of approximately the same weight as an LE2 and get a sense of the sag. We decided to go with an adjustable drop hitch and went with the Weigh Safe for 2 reasons: we wanted to see our loaded tongue weight before we left the factory campground, and I wanted an aluminum hitch for weight and rust resistance. One nice thing about Weigh Safe and some of the other drop hitch manufacturers is that they post detailed drawings of their hitches with all the measurements to help you select the correct one. In our case, I had to flip to drop hitch to a rise position. We needed a 4" drop hitch for our dually but your mileage may vary since duallies tend to sit lower and we also put 1" drop shackles on our truck for our fifth wheel.
    1 point
  15. Not knowing the height of your receiver the only recommendation I’ll give is to be careful of the gtw of the hitch ball and draw bar. One of the reasons I don’t really like a 2 inch ball for a 7k trailer is there are a bunch of 3.5k and 6k rated units out there. Personally id make sure the connection equipment is rated at or above the gross rating of the trailer.
    1 point
  16. We have used good Sam's since day one, 14 years, for the same reasons @LongStride stated. Reasonable rates. We also use their roadside service. Their top plan covers not only our Ollie, but rentals, in Canada and Mexico, and covers tow of tv and trailer. The only annoying thing about good Sam's is their pretty much constant stream of mailers and emails, encouraging you to re-up early, etc.
    1 point
  17. I want to restate that I love my Ollie. Out of the 5 campers I have owned over the years, this is hands down the best. I would not trade it for a different trailer manufactured in the US (or anywhere else for that matter). Yes I do not like the noisy AC unit but I have lived with it as it does work and does the intended purpose. I like that the Dometic controls which control both the AC and the furnace. I have not really camped in the deep south US so have not had to use the AC at night. Camping up North, I just use the AC in the late afternoon to cool down the trailer and then turn it off when going to sleep and use my fans. Works for me. Mossemi - Looks like you were kidding about selling your Ollie. Stay on the forum (not Facebook) as we like you ideas and opinions!
    1 point
  18. We recently returned home (3,500+ miles) from Hohenwald. We did not come straight home 🙂. I pulled the LE1 Ollie home with the Glyder hitch. For the most part it worked OK. We could not get the trailer level at the Oliver factory using that hitch. It’s important to note that our TV is a Jeep Gladiator. We finally settled on the trailer being somewhat “nose-up”. I needed to be able to lower the hitch ball at least another 3”. There is another adapter that Gen-Y sells but that would the make alignment worse. In this configuration, the hitch had a tendency to lift the tongue of the trail up when backing or during more sudden stops. By design the hitch raises up when the tongue weight drops. When backing the trailer into a site, the tongue would lift up and we had to make sure and pull forward slightly to make sure the hitch was in its lower position with the full tongue weight on the hitch otherwise the trailer would slightly shift positions then raising the tongue off the hitch when disconnecting. It gave us quite a start the first time it happened. It bothered me enough that I switched to the CURT 45949 Rebellion XD Adjustable Cushion Hitch Ball Mount 2-Inch Receiver when I got home. With 15,000 lbs of tow capacity and 1500 lbs tongue weight, and a 6-Inch adjustable drop. This hitch allows me to really dial in the trailer perfectly level. The new hitch pulls very well without the problems mention above. CURT 45949 Rebellion XD Adjustable Cushion Hitch Ball Mount 2-Inch Receiver, 15,000 lbs, 6-Inch Drop https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S5GQ6W9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_8YFH8QRV0KVSZ5FFV6RE?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 This hitch is a much more robust hitch but after my initial test drive, I’m very pleased with the new hitch. if anyone is interested in a used hitch, let me know. Carl
    1 point
  19. FWIW, Dometic, nor any other brand ac, is actually "cheap." They all cost over 1k. The Dometic equivalent of my unit was more expensive, considering the Houghton comes with the adu (interior unit), and Dometic and most others are priced separately. We had the original Dometic in our trailer for 13 seasons. It always worked. It also drained through the Oliver drain lines. I don't think any of the other brands, to date, have that facility. I would say it's true that getting Dometic units has seemed to be a reliable supply chain for Oliver. That's an important factor for a manufacturer. But, i wouldn't regard that as a cost savings, by any means. Do I love that my Houghton replacement streams water down the rear of the trailer? No. But, it fit my size requirements for our self-installed bigger solar panels. It's narrower (which we needed), but longer, which might interfere with Oliver's current panels, with shadowing. IDK. I could have saved $$$ by installing a second fan, instead of ac, for as seldom as we use ac. Unfortunately, the majority of the US accepts the noisier ac in most cases, so the big guys don't spend a lot on bringing the quieter, more efficient European/Australian available units here. I see that changing, as Dometic has brought one of their quieter units in, as a retrofit only, perhaps as a test. Truma has entered the US market. As has Houghton. Coleman ndq is making some advances, though I think supply chain is still tough. Keep asking. Eventually, something will work. In the meantime, yes, it would be nice if service were allowed to install the Houghton. But then, who warrants it? Will there be parts availability? That's a much bigger deal for them, than for us, as individual owners.
    1 point
  20. I love my Oliver. I wish it was possible to change out the standard microwave for the convection oven, but service told me that was not possible as the size of the hole in the fiberglass is different. I wish that Oliver would look into an offer a AC unit that is not so noisy? Has/is Oliver looked into this possibility of a quiter AC unit?
    1 point
  21. We're getting our OLLIE for Christmas! 😀 And all the accessories..... mb
    1 point
  22. 1 point
  23. My wife and I have a 2022 Elite II on order for late summer delivery. The upgrades referenced in your post are much appreciated. We would be thrilled if you offered one more upgrade: a quieter air conditioner. A number of Oliver owners posting on this forum have replaced their stock Dometic Penguin II AC units with Houghton/Rec Pro or Coleman Mach 10 NDQ units. They report that these are MUCH quieter than the Dometic, which has been compared to a "lawnmower in your trailer" or even a "jet engine." If you can find a way to offer a quieter AC unit for a reasonable upgrade price, we want one! Ralph Pond
    1 point
  24. All great stuff! Thank you for all you do to build a quality trailer.
    1 point
  25. Wow -- I had no idea. This appears to show up on the windshield, but it's hard to really say. I could see the speed limit, my current speed, and there were warnings as I approached a school zone. The downside of all of this new technology (imo) is that it's all requiring those pesky little chips that are stuck somewhere 'in transit' or not yet available. I miss the days when I helped my Dad gap the plugs and change the timing belt, when it felt possible to do some of the maintenance on an engine.
    1 point
  26. Sorry but these new Toyota trucks are not due at dealerships until December and even then it will not be the full line until late 1st quarter next year. There is a lot of chatter because their trucks have proven to be reliable, comfortable hard working trucks over time and have a great, loyal fan base. Whenever a major manufacturer announces a totally redesigned line and its being the first major change from Toyota in its larger truck in something like 16 years, there will be great interest. I've said it many times on this Forum - there is not a "bad" 1/2 ton or even 3/4 ton truck out on the new market today. Comfort is subjective, interior design is subjective but all of the performance specs on these trucks fall fairly close to each other. In today's market - good luck in finding the "right" truck for your needs. Bill
    1 point
  27. 700lbs is 13%. Well within the recommended 10-15% range. I dont have any issue with it but will measure total loaded and tongue on a CAT scale when I get a chance. 490 lbs seems light for a trailer weighing 4,900-5,000 lbs. i have towed trailers with 10% (and less) tongue wt before and it could get whippy. Ill stick with 12-14% as my target
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...