Jump to content

ScubaRx

Moderator+
  • Posts

    3,091
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    158

Posts posted by ScubaRx

  1. 2 hours ago, John Welte said:
    4 hours ago, John Welte said:

    The combined weight of occupants and cargo should not exceed 1408 pounds.   I weigh 200, my wife weighs 140.  I think the hitch weight is 700 pounds on the LE2.  We would probably have about 6000 pounds in the trailer with water, clothes and food.   Usually with our tent trailer we just hook up to city water at the cg.   We haven't done boondocking with our tent trailer.   I foresee doing mostly state parks and hooking up to water and electricity.   I am thinking of the composting toilet so wouldn't use the black tank.   Does this sound doable? 

     

    Based on your supplied numbers, you have the capacity for 368 more pounds of cargo in your vehicle. Be careful, it won't take long to get there. I would not try to shift weight from the vehicle to the trailer since you're already so close to your max tow rating.

  2. The possible addition of bunk beds has been cussed and discussed hundreds of times by both owners and the factory. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever come up with a workable solution.

    Personally, I think it is a great idea and if you can figure out a feasible way to accomplish this, I'm sure Oliver would be interested in seeing it.

    • Like 2
  3. My father died young, he was only 47. I was 20. He taught me many things that I was not smart enough to appreciate at that age, but something he once said to me has stuck with me these past 50+ years. I was contemplating buy a new tool. The one I wanted was a name brand and was quite expensive. I found another brand that was not nearly as well respected but was considerably less expensive. I weighed the pros and cons of each. Finally, I asked his opinion, should I buy the better brand or should I save money and buy the cheaper tool. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "Nobody was ever sorry they bought the best there is."

    There have been times through the years that I have ignored this advice and bought some item that was cheaper or lacked all the features I wanted in an attempt to 'get by.' In almost all cases, I've ended up later buying the one I really wanted and ended up with two of the same thing, thereby having spent more money than I would have if I'd just gone ahead and bought the better one in the first place. I just don't buy things that I consider to be disposable.

    I still have and use that tool that I bought on dad's advice. Can you really afford to buy cheaper items that you will just end up having to replace?

    "...Nobody was ever sorry they bought the best there is..."  James Holly Landrum 10/1923 - 05/1971

    • Like 5
  4. Personally, I'd go with option #3. You get the trailer you really want and you get to keep the truck you already own. You will be able to use the combination and see how it meets your needs. If not, then you can see about getting a bigger truck.

    If I were traveling single with the EII, I would get the setup of one rear bed opposite a sitting area (couch like).

     

    • Like 2
  5. Remember that the weight of everything you've added to the vehicle or put into the vehicle comes out of the cargo carrying capacity (CCC). 

    i.e. for two adults, between 300 and 400 pounds or whatever your actually weigh. The tongue weight of the trailer, easily 500-600 pounds for the EII. Those two things will usually eat up about half of the CCC.

    Then there's everything else, cell phones, pets, all your camping gear, clothes not stored in the trailer, the hitch and ball you put into the receiver. This includes literally everything that was not attached to the car when you picked it up new.

     

  6. 6 hours ago, John Welte said:

    ...buy high quality and maybe enjoy for 10-15 years and be able to sell it for maybe half what we paid for it.   That selling value is from my imagination.   Suppose we bought her R-pod for $40k,  at the 15 year mark I believe it would be worth next to nothing.   In short,  my argument is that both trailers would cost us 40k in the end.   My question is how did you convince your other half to just bite the bullet and go with an Oliver?   I did an order sheet with what I wanted and it was about $80k.   Thanks for any help. 

    There is a 2008 model (Hull # 024) being advertised on facebook right now for $37,500, It originally sold for $27,924. How's that for holding its value?

     

    • Thanks 1
    • Like 1
  7. On average, a fully loaded Elite II will weigh in at 6000 pounds or more. Personally, I'd consider a 6600 pound towing capacity extremely marginal. Plus, your cargo carrying capacity would be very limited as the tongue weight of the Oliver will be about 600 pounds.

    All that said, it would easily handle the weight of the Elite and be a reasonably good tow vehicle for it. 

    Many owners are towing with a 2500 3/4 ton diesel vehicle. Some are even using 3500 1 ton vehicle. At the end of the day, you're gonna need a bigger truck for an Elite II. 

     

  8. We've owned two different Oliver's over the past 12 years. Collectively, we have traveled over 150K miles. I have had one fitting to break and it did cause a mess. I agree that brass fittings are better than plastic and they should be using them. I always carry several feet of tubing, a few different brass pex fittings, and the tools to replace them in case that ever happens again.

    • Like 7
  9. 23 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

    Looks like an interesting and scenic drive.  Seems like the exhaust brake on a diesel truck would come in handy on the descent. I’ll wait for the after-action report from those brave enough to go!  I still want to do Alaska, but when…..?  Mike

    This would be a fantastic side trip on our next Alaskan foray. You're correct about the exhaust brake. There are many descents that I never touch the brakes, just coast all the way to the bottom. Sometimes it's miles, feels pretty good to get 99 mpg for 10 minutes or so. Of course, you have to pay it all back on the next accent.

    • Like 2
  10. On 7/19/2021 at 1:30 PM, Kevin and Theresa said:

    So happy to see this idea active again. Fort Tutill State Park right outside of Flagstaff Arizona is where the Overland Expo West is held. Plenty of room and things to do.  3 days?  Spring? Fall? We pick up our Oliver in Feb. We are definitely in for a West Rally!

    Spring would not work for a Western Rally as it would conflict with the Oliver sponsored rally that is always in May at Guntersville. There's no sense in making folks have to choose between the two if the dates are too close to one another.

    We would come to a Western Rally even though it would probably be a 4000 mile trip for us.

    • Like 2
  11. I doubt Oliver would ever contemplate an Elite III that is only 18 inches longer than an Elite II. Their goal is to build something in the 28-30 foot range and increase the width to 8 feet. They most likely would do away with the trolley top outer shell. I could care less about a dry bath, I'd rather have the storage space.  A large front window and sitting/dining area would be nice. We would not need space for more than two people to eat.

    • Like 1
  12. This Aventa unit has a cooling power of less than 8200 BTU's (2400 watts). That might work fine for an Elite, I'd not try it in our Elite II. Also, it's currently only available in 230 V – 240 V ~. 50 Hz models.

    • Like 2
  13. 1 hour ago, Fargoman said:

    Andrew, are the feet on  the Oliver jacks large enough in diameter to contact the magnets on the Andersen jack blocks?

    The round foot plate is 6 inches in diameter.

     

  14. 4 hours ago, Overland said:

    Steve, if you put a foam noodle around your shoehorn and Velcro it above the door, you’d kill two birds with one stone.

    Stick a few corsage pins in the noodle and now you’ve got a place for your corsage pins. And another shoehorn. 
     

    Excellent idea, you can always count on this forum to solve just about any problem...

    • Like 1
    • Haha 2
×
×
  • Create New...