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  1. Just a few numbers from our recent completed five month journey of Hull #381 around the country. Total Mileage 16,231 Gas expense $3720 Propane Expense $59.55 Laundry Expense $114.00 Total Nights 152 Campground Expense 54 paid nights $1252.77 Thousand Trails nights 60 Harvest Host nights 4 Boon dockers Welcome 1 Free nights 33 which include Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Mooch docking, BLM etc. The most expensive nights were 2@ $115.00 at the Liberty Harbor RV park which is a 5 minute subway ride from central Manhattan. There were a few nights at around $35 but everything else was less than $30 with many out west at $10 or less using Forest service campgrounds and the senior discount. If your trip is in an area where you can utilize a Thousand Trails membership it can really help keep your nightly cost down. Another interesting fact is that though this trip included the entire summer, I only used the generator to run the A/C one day. Selecting the street side awning was really worth it in keeping cool. Of course the solar package while a bit pricey at over 5k really makes boon docking a no brainer. Would it be nice to have a few more inches inside the trailer… yes but the outside size is really perfect for traveling and that’s what we bought it for. Finally, the Elite 2 tows like a dream behind my E350 Ford van with a 5.4L engine. My MPG was usually high 12’s. It was a great trip and the Oliver really made it nice.
    4 points
  2. I bought a Black Series HQ19 and have been waiting for it to arrive in Salt Lake City. It finally came in last Monday and we went to see it. There have been a lot of modifications/upgrades for 2020 and I am really impressed. Also, there has been some chatter on various sites about these, over the last couple of years, but not too much from people that actually have one, or have even seen one in person. They are currently selling more than they can make and are having a hard time keeping up with orders. These trailers are a game changer here in the US. If you look around on-line, look for videos from RVs of America on YouTube. These are current videos and not several years old, or from Australia. A bunch of these videos were removed because they were using drones in National Parks and on BLM lands to show the capability and practicality of these trailers in real use by people who love to camp and go off-road. They got into trouble for doing this, but there are still enough of them to really get a feel for how they are made and their advantages. One of the issues that has come up is the suitability for "all-season" cold weather camping. They are not as well suited for very cold weather as an Oliver, but this issue id being addressed. The 2020 models have floor insulation, insulated piping and tank heaters. There is also a winter package being developed by Black Series and a winter package that can be installed by RVs of America in Salt Lake. I am getting this and have also designed a couple of mods to improve it further. I am comfortable that this trailer will be fine in any weather I want to camp in. Even the Oliver must be kept warm in cold weather to prevent it from freezing up. The first of the 2020 models are now showing up and they are impressive! Heavy duty swing arm suspension, full bathroom with porcelain sink and toilet, large fiberglass shower, washing machine, lots of storage, luxurious interior with oven, vent hood, beautiful wood trim, queen size bed st solar system as standard equipment, AGM batteries mounted over the axle, enclosed propane and storage lockers in front, heavy aluminum body and roof with hot dip galvanized frame, dual spare tires, large fridge with separate freezer compartment, beautiful dinette table that is very rugged and can be used outside as an additional table, full stainless steel outside kitchen with sink and preparation area, dual water system with triple filtered drinking water and separate 50 gallon general water tanks. The charging system uses an inverter/charger combination that does away with the traditional converter and transfer switch for an inverter. The 12 volt system has a marine style master switch and heavy duty circuit breakers at the batteries. Then it has a full 12 volt panel with 12 volt circuit breakers, digital tank readouts and monitoring system. All at eye level over the stove for easy access. No more automotive fuses down by the floor. The incoming 120 volt power goes through a Square D residential electrical panel with breakers that are available everywhere for about $7.00 if needed. The bed is a queen size with what looks like a memory foam top. They include six pillows, sheets, and mattress cover. There are four perimeter outside LED flood light and an LED automatic porch light. The screen door is an Australian design that is very robust and far from the conventional trailer doors. It has a triple locking system and integrates with the exterior door in a very nice and secure way. The exterior door has a large clear window with curtains. The rest of the windows are double pane polycarbonate that swing out. The kitchen sink is stainless with a stainless faucet that has two outlets. One for the general water and one for the filtered drinking water. All cabinets have a positive locking catch that will not open when driving. All exterior doors have stainless steel catches that positively latch and lock, with full rubber gaskets. All hinges are stainless steel piano hinges. Al drawers are soft close with latching catches to keep them closed while driving. These trailers are very heavy duty and corrosion resistant, while being extremely comfortable inside. They are designed to withstand heavy off-road use and are covered by a five year structural warrantee. Warrantee work can be handled by any RV shop and Black Series has a full stock of parts ready to ship if needed. The appliances are Dometic brand. The awning can be either a legless electric design, or a manual design with legs. I ordered the manual one. I plan to pick it up next weekend and do a shakedown cruise in Utah, and then, probably a coastal trip to N CA and Oregon as winter sets in. We'll be in Quartzsite in January and Guntersville in May for the Oliver Rally. I'm expecting a few raised eyebrows as we pull in without our Oliver. Liye's pot luck spring rolls will be produced outside on the marvelous outdoor kitchen, along with some spectacular breakfasts! Then, the large tires and off-road friendly suspension will be perfect for the long trek into Death Valley on the gravel road to the hot springs.
    3 points
  3. How to weigh your truck and trailer at a CAT scale: CAT scales are at most rest stops frequented by truckers. They provide your steer axle (front wheels), drive axle (rear wheels), and trailer weight. This lets you know if you are in limits or not. 1) find a cat scale - they have big yellow signs that say CAT scale on them. https://catscale.com/cat-scale-locator/ can help 1a) Sign up for Weigh My Truck and download/setup the app if you want to use this service. It lets you get the weight and a PDF of your results without ever having to go into the store and interact with humans. https://weighmytruck.com/ "create driver account" - you'll need to add a payment method. Sign into the app on your phone afterwards and make sure it's working before you are sitting on the scale. 2) drive to the scale - I try to use them when there aren't a bunch of truckers queued for them. 3) drive onto the scale, you will see two yellow lines on them - put your front wheels just past the furthest line, and make sure the second line is between your trailer and rear wheels. 4) shift to neutral, use parking brake - this prevents weights being skewed by loads from brakes being applied. 5) either press the button the app (you are done) or press the button on the intercom (it'll probably be a little higher than you'd like unless you have an MDT). 6) get off the scale - get the receipt inside if you didn't use the app. If you want to get an idea of your tongue weight, disconnect in the parking area, and reweigh just the truck. I strongly advise against dropping your trailer on the scale.
    3 points
  4. I've had a couple of trailers that I thought were going to be fine for mild off-roading. One was a 24' toy hauler and one was our beloved Oliver. They have identical suspension, but I upgraded the Oliver to the heavy duty kit to make it last longer and be greasable. One of my favorite places to go is Death Valley, and in particular, the hot springs. This requires a trek of about 60 miles each way on a gravel road and pretty much off road in one area. The toy hauler made it one trip before I realized I would kill it if I did to a few more times. It was trying to disassemble itself. With the Oliver, I aired down and went very slow. But it too, didn't like it. Cushions everywhere, window frames falling off, and overhead cabinets opening, lead to chaos. The microwave tried to escape twice from its cabinet. But the body was fine and it is quite maneuverable with it's long tongue and good ground clearance. I've had it up other rocky roads where I was spinning all for of our truck's tires to pull it through and carefully walked it over rocks and around tight corners. The primary limiting factor, in my view, is the suspension. I don't want to race across the desert, but I want to find a reasonable speed that the suspension can absorb without pounding the trailer to pieces. The Oliver has very little suspension travel and hits metal to metal as a stop when the axle bangs into the frame. While carefully looking for it, I cannot find a speed, other than dead slow walking speed, that will not cause problems. So, we will see, but the HQ19 has larger tires and independent suspension with two real shocks per wheel and urethane stops. It will get the test before long and I'm optimistic it will be better. Not a racer, but better. Plus, none of the cabinet doors will ever open while being held with their secure latching mechanisms. The Oliver is very streamlined and stable while towing. These features make is excellent for highway travel. The brakes seem somewhat temperamental and require adjusting to keep them working well. I'm hoping the larger 12' brakes on the HQ work better, as they have on a couple of other utility trailers I have. One of my favorite features on the Oliver is the long tongue and jack location. This allows the truck tailgate to be opened anytime and allows for tight maneuvering. It is actually a little longer than the one on the HQ.
    2 points
  5. OLIVER FORUM GUIDELINES Welcome to the Oliver Forum, a great place for Oliver Travel Trailer owners and future owners to interact, share knowledge, solve problems, and most importantly, to develop friendships. Respectful and considerate responses help build this community. You’ll find a wealth of experiences here, and many owners willing to share their experiences. Have fun, but please keep others’ viewpoints in mind. Respectfully state your point, share your information, or ask your question. Keep it casual and friendly. Reread your post before you hit submit. Is it helpful? Thoughtful? Please try to stay on the original topic of the thread. Confusing the issue may cause the member’s original question to go unanswered. Start a new topic if you have a new question. It’s important for all members to have the environment and opportunity to contribute in a considerate manner, and to learn. Inflammatory and trolling comments shall be removed by a volunteer moderator. We encourage members to use the “REPORT” function (bottom right corner of each post) to help us, as we’re not reading every post, 24/7. If your post is removed, you’ll receive a PM about it. If there is a continuing problem, further action may be taken, up to and including your removal from the forum. Some inflammatory topics to avoid include religion and politics. We’re all about camping, and Oliver campers. Over the years, we’ve seen a few simple topics turn into heated debates. It’s natural to want to jump in, but honestly, it’s often better to let it go, and hit the report button, instead. We moderators are avid campers. Even as we write this, we are all out camping, some with limited bandwidth. We respond as quickly as we can, and the sooner we know, the better. Some have asked why our forum is linked to the Oliver website. Valid question. Since the beginning of our forum in 2008, Oliver Travel Trailers (OTT) has paid for our Oliver “sandbox”, including our web space and an administrator who knows way more than we do about maintaining the software, for which we are very grateful. OTT DOES NOT CENSOR OR INTERFERE with the moderators’ management of the forum content. Moderators are not employees of OTT. We are Ollie owners, and receive no remuneration. OTT does have a employee designated to read the forum for the purpose of improving the “Ollie Experience” for all, but that’s a few minutes a day in a busy job description. If you should ever have an issue or a warranty claim, call tech support. Your post might not be seen on the forum by an Oliver employee. With that in mind, we moderators ask you to communicate directly with the company and afford them an opportunity to satisfy any serious needs before flaming OTT on the forum. We are not asking that anything to be swept under the rug. Just, please, let Oliver Travel Trailers have the first shot to meet and exceed your expectations. Sometimes, communications here may be misinterpreted, because the written word just doesn’t carry the visual clues of face to face conversations. Should you believe a post is a little ill-mannered, consider the poster might be trying to be helpful, but isn’t able to put his or her words together the way you might. Forums work best when our skin tends to be a bit on the thicker side. Remember as well, whatever you post will likely be permanent, and picked up by automated internet software programs. Though this is our forum, it’s still on the world wide web. Our words may very well outlive us. Please, be especially patient with newbies. Our search feature is still being tweaked, and they may not have found an answer by simply using “Search”. You may remember your own newbie questions . . . of many years ago. If you have already answered the same newbie question as many times as you care to, relax and allow someone else to step up and reply. Help foster a community of teachers. We recommend all phone numbers and email addresses be sent in private messages and NOT posted. If you must post personal data, we suggest you post in a manner so trolling automated internet programs will not grab your personal information and use it nefariously. For instance, a phone number might be “8ThreeZero, 5one5, 9 2 eight seven”, or for an email address, something like “Bill DOT Fisher at flyboy DOT com”. Please reread this, and help us continue to make our forum a great place for everyone. We hope you enjoy our forum. Thank you, bugeyedriver, SeaDawg, ScubaRx, Mike and Carol, topgun2 , Mossemi Oliver Owner Moderator Team
    1 point
  6. Hi Mike, I will be continuing my subscription. There are many interesting places to stop and even though Judy and I don't drink, many wineries and breweries offer other things to purchase. And some of the locations are fabulous. Supersize Life has a 15% discount coupon. They just added 600 golf courses for a premium as well.
    1 point
  7. I've been away from this discussion because I've been focused on selling Hull #126 and finalizing the build on my Zone EXP 12.0. My Australian camper would not suit many Oliver owners. I considered buying a Zone RV Off-Road 17.0. It would be amazing--true off-road capabilities combined with a level of luxury that exceeds the Oliver's, Airstream's etc. The options are unbeatable--tons of solar, lithium batteries, an air-conditioner that will run off the inverter, a washing machine!, etc., but I decided that I just don't need that level of luxury. I also didn't want to spend the kind of money required (probably not much less than $95,000 U.S. delivered here). I camp alone and I use the term "camp" intentionally. When I travel in the Ollie, I spend my days out and about--hiking, mountain biking, exploring nearby towns, museums, etc. I usually cook breakfast and evening meals when I'm away from civilization. If I'm near a town with decent restaurants, I'll eat out in the evening. Most of my time in the Ollie is spent reading while lying on one of the beds and sleeping. Like John, I have had experiences towing the Oliver on rough roads that weren't pleasant. But more important, I've avoided places that I knew would be too much for the Ollie. So, I've replaced the Ollie with an EXP 12.0--a camper that not many Oliver owners would find attractive, but I think it will suit me. I understand the risks buying a camper manufactured in Australia. I've researched the company and I think it's the best in the Australian market--the "Oliver" of Australia. Yes, Zone RV could go out of business at some point in the future and leave me high and dry. So could Oliver Travel Trailers. So, I've taken a big leap, hoping to land on the other side of the gorge. Hoping to pick up my EXP 12.0 at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff in May, 2020. Zone will have another U.S. purchaser's EXP 12.0 on display at the Expo and I hope to schedule a full day delivery tutorial with the Zone people either before or after the Expo.
    1 point
  8. My guess is that the local VFW Auxiliary would love to fill orders as a way to raise funds. If Oliver was to just recover costs, it would reap many benefits for them in brand recognition (and a lot cheaper than advertising). Brand recognition and awareness is in valuable, ask any major sports team...
    1 point
  9. Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful, detailed responses to my question regarding the squeaking and flexing bathroom floor in my Oliver. The pictures were great and your ideas are certainly worth considering - things I hadn't thought of before. I will definitely give your suggestions a try. This forum provides a great service to all of us who are perplexed by certain problems and challenges owning a travel trailer can sometimes present. Kathy
    1 point
  10. I considered two different Australian campers before deciding on our Ollie. The first was a fold-out tent trailer, which seemed like a great design but their US distributer folded. The second was a Kimberley, which was more comparable to the Ollie. It had everything we wanted and I was really interested in it. But then a few people who had them here in the US and who had originally gushed over them, admitted that they were having problems with the trailers and problems getting them fixed. One guy had an issue that made his camper completely unusable and the only fix was to send it back to AUS and have it rebuilt. So I ended up with the Ollie and then a year later heard that Kimberley filed for bankruptcy. Point being, be careful and know that no matter how good the trailer/importer/manufacturer looks right now, they could fold up tomorrow and leave you on your own. The only Australian company that has succeeded long term in the US has been EarthCruiser and they did it by essentially moving their business over here. But if you accept that and are still willing to go for it, then absolutely do so. The other thing I would say is that the Ollie is a lot more rugged than it gets credit for. I've banged mine around a good bit and apart from an initial round of build issues, it's been a real trooper so far. I've personally come to believe that the big long travel suspensions on these "off road" trailers aren't really of any benefit, and what really counts when banging your trailer around off pavement is maneuverability, toughness, and build quality. And I think that the Ollie really excels in those areas, particularly the Elite I, since it's so small and light. I do like some of the features of the Aussie trailers, like the extra spares, galvanized frames, and outdoor kitchens. But some of the features I think are a drawback in the US, like the Webasto diesel fired everything.
    1 point
  11. Unfortunately, what you're suggesting won't work. The electric antifreeze kit is only designed to protect the unit itself from freezing. You use a separate mode to turn it on and it doesn't work in the other modes (comfort or eco). If you select either of those modes then the unit will try to fire up, and unless you have the propane on it will give you an error. And unless you have the comfort plus, the unit can only circulate water within itself, not the water lines. In fact, even if you did have the comfort plus (I think only two Elite IIs have it) then you'd still only be protecting the hot water lines and not the cold lines or the faucets.
    1 point
  12. So, you guys have us itching to go back to Australia, and camp the half lap around the west and north. We've camped the entire east and south coast and tasmania, but only as far west as Adelaide. The mdc owners group is really fun, like our own. We've met the nicest people camping down under. Thanks for the memories. I'm looking at flights and camper rentals ... We love camping in Australia and New Zealand. And, seeing the very interesting campers and caravans. Mostly, we've enjoyed meeting the Australian people. They're great campers. Lots of tent camper vehicles. No big campers Always fun, always interesting stories. Sherry
    1 point
  13. Btw. I followed John's link to the portal. The comments on Black series weren't impressive. https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/black-series-hq-tips-tricks-and-learning.203716/ I hope the mdc isn't diluted to lower American standards.
    1 point
  14. Welllll, how particular are you? Doodles are nature's velcro. We are on day 122 of our 160 day +/- meandering trek from FL to AK & back. When we left home our sweet Ollie looked so quaint. Matching bedding, pillows, rugs & I did my best to keep it that way. After a few weeks, I reassessed my priorities & ditched the fluff. The pretty entry rug was replaced with a plastic grass one to catch as much of the outdoors before it made its way back to the beds. (We have the king/dinette version but because the bed/table made the interior feel tight, we left it with family in KS.) We sleep on the benches with memory foam & the dogs get the space at the back & on a dog bed on the floor. That is where they hang all the time, except to drink from their water bowl that's in the shower. Weather permitting, we are outside most of the time, which I think is the norm. We mostly boondock but between locations we stay somewhere with full hookups & do a deep cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, you know. What I learned the hard way is that trailers do not have enough water pressure to bathe the dogs. Groomers are impossible to schedule. If you know where you'll be far enough in advance, you might be able to schedule one at a Petco or the like. Otherwise, I find a do-it-yourself dog wash. Some places there are car washes with one bay converted to a pet wash. Quite clever! Only restrictions we've encountered is hiking in National Parks or anywhere there are bear problems. But then, I wouldn't take them anywhere dangerous. Despite all of the above reality, traveling with our Doods is a pleasure; they are the reason we have a camper. If you decide you need more space, I wouldn't blame you but there are huge tradeoffs. The obvious is the quality & comradeship you'd lose. Ollie owners are truly special.
    1 point
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