mountainborn

Welcome to the Oliver Forums PETE !!

Rick, as you have probably figured out, we boondock quite a bit. The jeep facilitates that better than any other tow vehicle I can think of. The mileage isnt bad either. The cool part is when we drop the Oliver, we can go places most other tow vehicles won't consider. Storage space is however a issue. We have plans to add a trail rack and a safari rack to aid with storage for extended boondocking stays. Why don't you come pull our Oliver with your Jeep, then you will know from a first hand experience. Call me at 479-243-5450 to visit about it if you want to.

Welcome to the Oliver Forums RvBella !!

This short trip report is a paste from this link: > Only the very evilist of intentioned geocachers would place a nano cache in the woods. Butcherknife and I had paused briefly for a cool drink in the breezeway of the RKLMBL abode. Busy chatting amiably with our hosts, I must have missed the plotting stage of the episode that was about to unflurl before my very eyes. I still didn't catch on when Ron said to Betty, "would you mind babysitting Maribeth for a few minutes ? Mike needs to catch a cache while I have a key to the gate. Larry hasn't got it yet either, and this may be the only time the gate may be open for a long while." Now, I wasn't paying much attention because I was amongst friends, or so I thought. Little did I suspect that there were two evil geocachers plotting to put a South Arkansas Hillbilly in over his head at a geocache that would be burned into his memory for ever ! As we arrived at MIKE'S CACHE, my inferior Magellan Gold was off by eighteen feet. Evil cacher #2, AR HICK, was right on the money. As we were enroute to Mike's cache, we passed a cache site that was mentioned casually as handy to the road with almost no walking, a simple park and grab. Later it turned out to be the location of the nano in the woods. On the way back past that cache, we noted two soon to be married cachers at that site looking for the cache. Evil cacher #1 said "should we stop and help them ? " Evil cacher #2 said, "yeh." Even then, I didn't catch on that putting me in a situation where I would be looking for a NANO in the WOODS, was their underlying evil intent ! With two fellow cachers in full search mode and in need of assistance, I stepped from the pickup truck with my trusty but dated Magelllan Gold in my hand. Even at this point the two grinning evil cachers, who had stayed sitting in the truck, had not mentioned that it was a nano cache. Team golfnuts was searching dilligently while muttering about "why any one would place a nano cache in the woods". I thought to myself, what did they say ? Then it dawned on me. NANO IN THE WOODS. HOLEY SCHIZZLE ! Looking around quickly to protest to my companions that were still sitting in the truck grinning widely, I couldn't help but grin back at the mischiveous plotters ! So there I was. Cast into a unfolding geo drama. Two of the best cachers around, were there, searching dilligently though un successfully, and I had been sent to help, me, a hillbilly with defective equipment. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders up towards the cache area, and waded on in, with the chortle's and snickers of EVIL CACHER #1 and EVIL CACHER #2, still ringing in my ears. . . . . . . . . . . Ain't geocaching such a good game, especially when shared with friends ! > CLARKSVILLE OR CACHEVILLE, you be the judge. What a great gathering of friends. _________________ We were able to show our Legacy Elite to over twenty people at the geocaching event. Butcherknife took three different groups of four Ladies at different times through the day. The guys seemed to want to do a one on one tour and I lost count of how many I took through the Oliver. The intrest level was high and I'll bet that Robert is getting calls already.

Welcome to the Oliver Forums richard martel !!

Welcome to the Oliver forums john sperling !!

Welcome to the Oliver Forums justme !!

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Indiana Camper !!

Very cool Pete !

June the 26th. 2005, we released this White Jeep Travel Bug in a geocache in the Arkansas Outback that it takes a Jeep to get to. This has been a favorite place for me ever since coming back from nam'. The links will take you to the story of placing the geocache and the other link to the story of the Jeep's travels. > > Here is a paste from another forum: > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This WJTB is presently touring Europe, FRANCE, after being released in the Arkansas Outback's "Lock Yer' Hubs", http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ebe29bed-58b7-4aa9-8ef2-24dac3a9e150%20 Cache. Here is the link: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=294b01a2-0d0b-4225-aac2-a1cfe8701c46 This is the geocaching web page where the White Jeep Travel Bug is at now, in France: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3ce11ac6-9782-4545-af6f-038d8b5d967c

SWEET ! Butcherknife and I were looking at those pix and remembering the day we picked up our Ollie.

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Steve !!

Wewlcome to the Oliver Forums brain !!

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Buddy !!

Well done Pete ! I tend to be a bit brief and sometimes even cryptic. Your response filled in quite a few voids in my response. Again, thanks. By the way, Astrocaster, those were pretty insightful questions. You are going to be doing alright with your new Oliver.

Personal note to Pete: Thanks. We found a smiley face "tap light" that reminded us of your wonderegg: > Please PM your mailing address and we will send it to you. Butcherknife says, "turn it a bit sideways so it looks like it is looking at you !"

(11) The description of the trailer on the Olivertraveltrailer website says that "The axle also contains a powered braking system. The installation of an electronic brake control is necessary for use." Does that mean that one needs to purchase an outboard electronic brake control box (I have searched the Web and see them advertized for $60 to $200 or so) and have it installed in your tow vehicle's cabin, so that it can be accessed by the driver? As part of the tow package for our Suburban, we received a "brake controller pigtail." It seems that this would be what we would use to connect the electronic brake controller to our vehicle's electrical system. Would you agree? > Yes. We use a Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller because it gives us a readout of any problems that we may have with braking, such as a shorted wire not allowing power to get to the brakes on the trailer. It also does a system check upon start up and sends a code that lets us know that the system check was ok, or not, before we release the parking brake on the tow vehicle. The Tekonsha Prodigy comes with a pigtail that will match your tow vehicle if you order it that way. Insuring a quick and accurate install. Most trailer supply places can install the brake controller , and charging circuit wire to the trailer so that the trailer battery charges while driving.

(10) Have you found the use of a weight-distributing hitch necessary or helpful? Sway control devices? Our tow vehicle will be a 2002 Suburban with the factory tow package. > Don't own either device. Have never needed either device. We tow with a Jeep Wrangler that is shorter, lighter and has less weight than a suburban. We tow at freeway speeds to stay with the flow of traffic. For us it is a safety issue to be at the same speed as those vehicles around us.

(8) I understand that there is a "gas line quick connect" available as an option. Can you tell me what this is and what the advantage would be in having one? > The ability to connect a barbeQue grill or other appliance quickly to your propane supply line.

(7) I understand that 30-pound LP tanks and regulators are available as an upgrade. That sounds like it would allow one to go for quite a while longer without having to get a refill. Would there be any downside? The reason I ask that is that sometimes I have found that something that seems like it could only be for the better may present problems that would not be considered until they actually show up. > This is a upgrade that we have thought about several times. It is a good option for those that boondock a lot. However, the regular 20 lb. tanks leave room to store small items such as two water hoses, water filter and generator cord.

Whistle !!!! TIME OUT !! Upon official review, it has been determined that I inadvertently bypassed question #3. Here it is: > (3) Additional 12-volt outlets are available as an option. Would you find that useful? > Yes, particularly if using a 12 Volt appliance such as a laptop, ect.. We do, we have them, they're great.

(6) I understand that a "generator quick connect" may be available for the Oliver as an option. Can you tell me what that is and what the advantage would be in having one? > Ease of hooking up to the genset when mounted on the tongue, some owners with this option leave the genset connected all of the time , letting the automatic transfer switch decide if it is getting shore power of genset power. It is a seperate cable that doesn't require pulling out the shore power cable. A boondocker's friend !

(5) Similarly, the 13.5 KBTU A/C unit would seem to require quite a lot of power to start. Have you run it with a generator? In particular, have you used the Yamaha EF2400iS successfully? > The 2400 Yamaha will run the A/C quite well, however the Oliver is insulated to the point that some owners are putting the smaller 9.5 KBTU unit on their trailer, making it easily ran by a 2000 watt genset.

(4) Does the "convection oven/microwave" described in the Oliver brochure require shore power or generator power? If so, how many watts does it draw? Does convection operation require more power than microwave itself? If so, how much? > Tough question, because some models may run both the microwave and the convection function seperately or at the same time. > Power consumption is a critical issue for those that boondock, for it determines how long they can stay in their favorite place. We use a model P4400 KILL A WATT meter to measure current draw and other things such as voltage, cycles and power factor. Now that seems a bit complicated, so to boil it down: It isn't important when on shore power or genset, unless you try to run the Air conditioning and the microwave at the same time. That all changes however, if you use a inverter to run the microwave on batterys, and it's not really practical. Here is a photo of our Kill A Watt meter: > > You plug it into an outlet then plug your appliance into it. Various push buttons give you the different data you need. The meter sells on eBay for $20/25.

(2) Does the Sound and Video package (LCD TV, DVD/CD player, AM/FM radio, etc.) run on 110-volt AC or on 12-volt DC? They run on 12 Volts, but are supported by the converter when plugged into shore power, or genset.