mountainborn

Welcome to the Oliver Forums GWNorris3rd !!

ED, I'll give er' a try. Semi tractor trailer rigs, eighteen wheelers, are weighed carefully by many states during their cross country travels. Many have a sliding fifth wheel, which is where the trailer pins to the tractor. On many trucks this fifth wheel assembly will slide. This allows the trucks weight to be made "legal" on each axle. Instead of the entire payload being on the trailer, which could result in the trailer axles being over weight, more of the weight can be moved to the truck by sliding forward. This will even place a part of the load on the steering axle. Moving the fifth wheel to the rear, results in less weight on the steering axle, and when the trailer is empty, "tugging" can be reduced or eliminated by sliding all of the way to the rear. Since when we tow, we are dealing with three single axles, and reap the benefits of improved gas mileage, weight distribution is important to us. ED, I am afraid this isn't the engineering or mathematics answer that your question deserves, but, it is as close as this ol' hillbilly can get. I think that most of us would like to get a better grasp of this issue, so here's hoping that others will post on the subject.

Robert will be out of the office until Monday, I expect. I am not sure that the charging system is that sophisticated in the on board converter, but the owners manual might answer that for me. I guess I need to do some home work on that one. Should you opt for a solar installation then that system's charge controller does all of that. Seems like the last delivery time I heard was bugeyedrivers and it was six weeks , or so it seems. Robert the sales manager will be on here first thing Monday morning, if the creeks don't rise, he lives on the banks of the beautiful Buffalo River. Hence the screen name "BUFFALOBOB". He is very good about answering those type of questions promptly.

Ouachita Mountain Winters are fairly mild by most standards, but they do have brief periods of really bad weather. The quick escape to warmer weather is South into Texas or Louisianna. The distance to travel can vary with the Winter we are having, sometimes as little as two hundred miles and sometimes over four hundred miles. One winter we went to the Gulf and still had near freezing temperatures over night, though the days were nice, where we were camped. Back up cameras are a very cool thing, especially if backing into a tight boondocking location by yourself. Maybe two cameras, switch between them as needed, one on the tow vehicle rear bumper to help with the hitch alignment when hooking up ? We pull our Oliver with a Nissan 4 cylinder 5 speed 4x4 for short distances. To Deer camp, to the nearby lake, to the carwash, ect.. But out on the highway it just doesn't quite have enough power. The larger displacement tacoma 4 cylinder engine may do it better, but the towing capacity could be cutting it a bit close. It doesn't take long to accumilate a thousand pounds of "necessary stuff" especially when full timing.

bugeyedriver, while cruising through the album of your Oliver being built, I found this photo. I have heard talk of a new insulation called Lizzard Skin, it wasn't available when we picked up our coach, is this it in the photo ? If so, can you tell us something about it ?

Ok, here it is up close. The experimental electric cable / power reel hatch. Looks much more durable than the one on my early 08' elite ! Hey, Butcherknife, I have found another reason to trade up ! It looks like the push button to operate the power reel may be at the top and easier to get to. Hey Robert, any reports from the field testing crew ? Does it seem to be working out in the field testing phase ? Is there a chance this might be standard some where down the line ?

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Carl !!

Oopz, sorry Dusty, I missed a question: How difficult is it to learn to tow correctly? > With some fiberglass travel trailers as well as others, others you will hear stories about the necessity of having a WEIGHT DISTRUBITING HITCH and a SWAY BAR. Not so for the Oliver ! Because the tongue on the Oliver is extensible, or adjustable, the need for those heavy, time consuming and expensive items is eliminated. The Oliver tongue gives the travel trailer the ability to adjust the amount of weight that is transfered to the tow vehicle. Difficulty level on a scale of one to ten, I would put at a one or a two. The "learning curve" is just nearly a verticle line !

Dusty, welcome, good choice in molded fiberglass travel trailer, ease of towing, fuel economy and handling in general, will be your reward. Though some tow with larger tow vehicles, we find a shorter wheel base Jeep Wrangler four door has absolutely no problems in towing or handling the Oliver. The Oliver's dry weight of 2400 pounds gives one a wide range of choice of tow vehicle. It could be as simple as adding a hitch to your present vehicle. A pickup gives more choices for other stuff you may want to carry. It doesn't take long to add up in actual weight that you are moving down the road. You ask about a 1/2 ton pickup. Many chose that for it's capacity and economy, often adding a fiberglass camper shell on the bed of the pickup for additional carrying space. The small accessorys often really add to the ease of handling. Example a good set of mirrors don't have to be expensive, but make all of the difference when backing up comfortably. A 1/2 ton pickup with a factory tow package might well have mirrors that extend and retract for easy use. We tow our Oliver with the factory mirrors on the Jeep Wrangler and it seems to work well for us. These forums are a good place to get up to speed so you are ready for your new Oliver ! The members here have many years of combined expeerience and will share freely with you, so just jump on in !

Chuck said: These trailer have more little ideas built into them. > You know, buddy, that is more than good engineering, it is the product of years of hands on use and common sence. It is the kind of thing that endears a particular coach to the users. > By the way, I see that Lane and the Poodle girls have made their way pretty well out there into the desert SouthWest, posting on CasitaClub, had any contact with them, or are they still aways off yet ?

Located under the rear dinette seat. The operation is simple and straight forward. Pushing the red button at the center right of the switch disconnects the battery from the coach. When the red button is pushed, a small lever drops down at the lower left of the switch. To reconnect, simply flip the lever back up. Our old Class A MOHO, replaced with an Oliver, had no such switch and leaving it plugged into electricity over the Winter would "cook" our batterys to death. Causing replacement before use the next Spring. No such problem for us now ! We have left a oil filled heater set with the thermostat set low and with only one heating element turned on, all winter. Our Winter has been so mild, and we have been useing our Oliver so often, that we have not Winterized it this year. Should you be one that has a solar panel on your coach, then you will not even have to reconnect the battery every few of weeks to keep the charge up to snuff.

A talented friend made our first one. We weren't quite sure that we might ever need it, though it seemed a really clever idea. It would fit away in a small location of our chosing because it was pretty small, compared to the one we use now. Brightly colored and hand made, it might hold eight or ten. Times and habits change, and we change with the times or we get left behind in the dust, or so it seems. The one we have hanging in the closet of our Oliver now, will probably hold thirty if properly compressed. They are becoming commercially available now, not just at crafts fairs or made by a friend. There is no doubt about it, we needed it, and still do, now, more than ever. Somehow our friend saw a trend developing and made hers and ours, just alike. It was a great storage idea for those extremely elusive plastic shopping bags. If not properly recycled into trash bags or other uses, there are ever so many uses for them, they become a blight on our nation's scenery. The slightest breeze sends them aloft to tangle in tree branches to slowly photo degrade. Tucked discretely away in a seldom used part of our closet our "BAG, BAG" turns out to be a pretty handy and ECO friendly thing.

During our tour of the Oliver Factory, one work station in particular just absolutely captured my total attention. Lead man LALO had a frame in the framing jig that he was putting the finishing touches on. I was mesermized by the quality of the fitting and the welds ! Butcherknife finaly had to nudge me to get me to move on with the tour. The gusets fit so well and the assembly as a whole was obviously so strong. I am sure that I was getting in the way of the leadman's work effort, but he took time to explain to me each time I asked a question. Here is a photo of the tongue section. Note, I have left the photo large on pourpose to be better able to view the fit and welding, particularly where the extensible tongue fits in. Please note also that this is a frame that is still under construction and some of the welds are so fresh that they havn't been buffed out yet.

Found this link over on rvroadstew.com forums. It is a link to a myspace video. A very clever spoof on caravaning in England. Here is the link:

Thanks for the heads up bugeyedriver ! Butcherknife and I have really enjoyed watching the progress.

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Bubba !

Welcome to the Oliver Forums DGMoke !

Doing anything special today ? One thing I always do is visit with mom and remember grandma. But for my sweetie, butcherknife . . . . . . . ... Today at work she recieves a popcorn box, all gathered up in pretty paper, containing a CD, an officer and a gentleman, candy snacks, flowers and a couple of movie passes to a premier event. He,he, yeh, it's a clue of sorts. . . . . But when she gets off of work, ( I am off today ), I will be sitting there with our Oliver. Her own private movie theatre, with surround sound. The dinette will be set with an ordered to go, favorite dinner, you know, the one she really likes. You see, she is my sweetie, even at the end of a work day when she is ready to sit down and put her feet up. Foot rub ? Huh, Sweetie ? Let's remember those that we love today, whether they are with us , or not.

Welcome to the Oliver Forums Dusty !

Hi. Looks so peaceful out there... off the beaten track is where we love to be, too! A question about your "road wings" that took care of most of the mud on that long unpaved road. Did you get them from the Jeep dealer, or are they an after market product? We're looking for something for our Silverado to keep the mud and stones off the new Oliver when we pick it up later this month. Thanks. Sherry > Good idea, particularly if going to Alaska. Our road wings were installed by the Camping World in Nashville Tennessee, first stop after picking up the coach at Hohenwald. They go on and off easily because they are attached to the trailer ball part of the reciever hitch. In the photos above, the splatter was what managed to come back to the Oliver. The rocks that might have caused damage to the coach's gel coat were stopped by the wings. There are several brand names of those "wing" type mud flaps, but the Road Wings was what the Camping World had in stock at the time. They are made a bit long and are cut to the correct length for your tow vehicle. After the outing, when Butcherknife and I washed the Oliver, we examined it carefully for any chips or pits in the finish and found none. Our conclusion was that the after market mud flaps had done their job.

Those look good to me ! The only thing I can see is we need more of them !! They are just beautiful.

Welcome to the Oliver foruns martin larry !

Belonging to several forums, I have came across this topic from time to time. Some times I have joined in the debate, some times not. Fully self contained RV's let campers "roll it their way", and, some terms seem to have became interchangeable, at times. The terms used are: Overnighting Dry camping Boondocking Today I found this description posted on the Trailer Life Forums: > Dry Camping: Means no utility hook ups such as water, electricity, sewer, cable TV or telephone and may or may not require a fee. Can either be in a city, state, or federal campground, a sporting venue or a parking lot. Overnighting: Stopping at a Rest Stop, Flying J's or WALMART overnight to catch a few winks. Boondocking: Means wilderness or primitive camping out in the "boondocks." Natural beauty with little or no (noisy) neighbors. This type of camping (usually in Public Lands like State, BLM, and National Forests) is usually FREE. Just find a place and park. Finally, you always dry camp when you boondock, but you don't always boondock when you dry camp. * This post was edited 04/26/06 08:46pm by Mello Mike * > What do you think ? Is the author: a. Way off b. Close but no cigar c. Dead on d. None of the above > What do those terms mean for you ? Tell us please.

I recieved this from earthdancer by PM and thought there might be those that would be intrested in this festival. Here is the paste of the PM: > FROM: earthdancer Message Inbox Hope it helps! The Spat festival is so-so....... but this one is good and the first weekend of Nov Apalachicola has a great seafood festival ! Here is the Apalachicola C of C website, I think most of our festivals are listed. Just living here is a festival! hahaha! http://www.apalachicolabay.org/ and a listing of events: Thanks for your interest. It is so beautiful here and is a slice of real small town America! We only have one traffic light in the whole county, no McDonald's or Walmarts in the county and the most beautiful beaches you can imagine! Several good campgrounds too! In fact, Emily (Namad Woman) from Casita Club, arrived yesterday from Kansas to find sunshine and 70+ degree weather! Geri

Welcome to the forums, Sandra Lair !