Trainman

If that Ford is a F-150 3.5 Eco-Boost with tow package it will pull anything you can get into the truck and trailer. If your a minimalist camper under most conditions you will never overload your Ford, or get close to it, just Install the Anderson and hit the road, you will never know the trailer is back there most of the time. On a rig like to have I would not even spend the time putting the pencil to it, many on this forum are pulling will a Ford with your setup and have no problems. trainman

I'm still going to pass on electric vehicles for now, even the hybrids are still out for me. I'm sure the day will come that it will be the only thing you can buy, but at age 76 I'm sticking with the fire breathing gas engines. trainman

We are what I would call minimalist campers, that is we carry only what we are going to use where we are going camping. Things like a Clam, bicycles, extra chairs, small extra heater, fans, are all items that are either taken with us, or not depending where we camp. We have other camping friends that take everything every time and much of it is never unloaded and used. It's just like spare parts, you can get carried away on this, I personally just take tools to handle most repairs and if something goes bad I just go to town and purchase what is needed to make temporary repairs, or a complete repair. We do not Boondock, so for those who do I can see you might carry more stuff, but it's not for us. trainman

I use quick disconnects on everything, all water hookups as well as my cable TV connections, I just purchased a Camco brass set on Amazon, 6 pairs and it did everything on the trailer plus and extras for future use. All my LP gas connections are also quick disconnect, grill, firepit, etc., which is pretty much the standard for LP gas connections. trainman

John, people don't buy Jeeps to pull trailers of any size larger them say the smaller utility size trailers, or like a Casita, Popup, or something in that size group. No, I'm not going to buy a Jeep to pull the Elite II, but Yes I'm going to buy another Jeep Wrangler for my TOY. trainman

I see in the Jeep Wrangler the towing capacity is only 3500 lbs,, but in the Jeep Gladiator it is 6000 lbs. The diesel engine puts out 260hp and 442 foot lbs. of torque, hardly on the low side for a diesel engine. I think this setup would have very little problem handling an Elite II. Maybe some of the road test on YouTube might give a little thought to this 3.0 EcoDiesel. trainman

I'm going to order a new 2022 Jeep Wrangler and looking at the new EcoDiesel 3.0 and just wondering if anyone out there has one, or giving it some thought on purchasing one. I'm not going to replace it for my 2019 Ram 1500, but would be buying it as a TOY and if it could handle the Elite II might use it on shorter camping outings where some Jeep off roading could come into play. The diesel engine cranks out a lot of torque and has decent HP, is it too small for a tow vehicle for the Elite II, or not and what do you think about it. trainman

This will be our 5th year to attend the Pineknot Rally, we first started going with a Casita and now have an Oliver. There will be three, or four other couples there that we see at other Casita Rallies with there Oliver's and more are showing up each year at the Pineknot. Plus look for other fiberglass trailers, many have Escapes and there numbers are growing each year. trainman

That's one of my favorite colors in the Jeep Wrangler, but my RAM being that color would be too much Gray. trainman

Yes, I used the search button, but could never get to what I wanted. Just wondering what is the choice of black tank treatment chemicals used by most of you out there. I have been using the Camco in the orange packets and so far it does work very well, but I'm tired of the packets breaking all the time and having to mix them up before putting in the tank, I know you don't have to do that, but I want it dissolved when it goes in. I want to probably go to a liquid type. Just dump it in and be done with it. Just a good general idea from you out there what works for you, I don't want any home remedies, so please don't tell me about them, I just want to pick up what I need at Walmart. trainman

Our camping friends have just purchased there 2021 Elite II and are towing it with a 2019 Tacoma pickup. It has all the towing features offered by Toyota and they say it is ok and by ok they have to tow the Oliver around 60 MPH, it pulls hard at 65 MPH and doesn't tow well, per there info to me. They think it would be hard to tow in hilly condition and the mountains would be pretty much out, which they haven't done yet. Maybe the Ranger, or the Colorado would do better with a higher HP and torque engine, but for myself the smaller pickup would be out for me all the way around. I personally feel uncomfortable with a small tow vehicle, plus it does limit your carrying capacity and storage. Most who purchase the smaller pickups do so because it is there run around town vehicle and a smaller vehicle works better for them, I don't see it that way, but many do. I personally look at towing as a serious matter and don't want to sacrifice any thing in a tow vehicle that could take away any safety when towing. trainman

Does anyone know if you can get the twin bed risers that were sold some years ago as an option. Just wondering if parts might sell them, they were a great storage option, but you would need a ladder to get into bed. trainman

These are the ones that I purchased, hoses, quick couplers, and both male and female fittings. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rv+lp+quick+connect+fittings&crid=3QB4TMUH1SNXC&sprefix=rv+lp+quick%2Caps%2C187&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_4_11 trainman

I agree with this method of using the hitch, it works well for me, but just this last year I've given it some thought and I did feel that it was putting a lot of pressure on the hitch and ball and have now taken the steps to loosen and tighten the adjusting bolts on each side when hitching and unhitching the trailer. I find this very easily done and I will keep doing it this way most likely in the future. Trailer tongue weight and tow vehicle squat are different between vehicles, so what might work well for one may not work so well for the other. trainman

We use a small folding table, but in most cases if we can park the trailer close to the picnic table at the park we use it for the grill. Thus we run the LP extension hose from the trailer to the grill, I like the sturdiness of the park table over the folding table. We carry two 25ft. LP extension hoses on board with us. trainman

I thought our trailer came with 2 male quick connect ends, but I could be wrong. I ordered several on Amazon when I ordered the extra 25ft. hoses for the grill and firepit. I would say that Home Depot and any hardware chain should have them, if you can take one with you to match it up, as there are different styles and lengths that won't interchange with each other. trainman

My wife just got her a chair that rocks, it is a camping chair that folds and stores well, I'm sticking with my camping chair that has the food and drink storage on it, it becomes a choice of rather to rock, or eat, so you can see which one I went with. trainman

One thing I can tell you is, you will probably never be able to use the links again as it is critical that the threads lineup to screw together. The added chain to make it longer is somewhat critical, that is I want my chain to be the correct length so I have no extra links hanging down. I will say here when I purchased my extra chain I did get enough to have it a little longer, say 2-3 lengths rather then be too short, then cutoff the extra. I can say that I'm very happy with the Anderson and it's operation. trainman

I have pulled my Elite II with our 4wd Ram 1500 with no problems when we first got it, but the weight factor is where you could have a problem. Most half ton pickups pretty much max out at 500 lbs. tongue weight, so for insurance and safety reasons you need the Anderson hitch to put you in the safe range. Yes, you could have an accident and if it went to court you could loose the case and your insurance could deny paying the claim because you over loaded your tow vehicle beyond the manufactures ratings. It takes a 3/4 ton pickup for an Oliver Elite II to be within the safety range for towing said vehicle. trainman

I ordered the trailer with the receiver option, personal it was a lot of money for something we don't use. We carry our E-Bikes in the bed of the truck, so the receiver sets in my shop over in the corner. I may someday change out the 1 1/4" receiver for a 2" receiver, actual pretty easily done. I might someday want an aluminum carrier basket, but for now we just don't need the extra carrying space. trainman

All those anti-theft devises work well for the honest thieves, but the actual thieves just backup to your trailer and throw a chain around the tongue of the trailer and the truck rear bumper and go. This is why we put insurance on our trailers, if it's stolen I don't want it back. trainman

Due read up on the self-lubricating axles, we were looking at the Airstream's which had them as standard equipment. There were pros and cons on these axles, don't know if this is a good selling point or not. It's worth looking into. For myself I prefer the old fashion way and that's looking at the wheel bearing every 12,000 of use. trainman

I took four brackets that I purchased at a hobby shop that sells model airplane stuff, although any strip brass or metal should work. I bent the ends at a 90 degree angle, one to the right and one to the left and drilled holes there the put the screws through. On the inner part of the bracket I just removed the factor screws and mounted the brackets, on the other end I used JB Weld and glued nuts to the brackets, then I had some 4-40 screws that were looped on the ends and I just hand tighten them through the screen to tighten up the screen grill. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I found it rather easy to do as I'm a hobby modeler and it was just another project. So far it has not come loose in the two years it has been on there. Here is a pic, it should show what I have done, any questions just ask. Other grills done with mesh wire I got from Amazon and cut to fit. trainman

Sleeping bags remind me of my boy scout days, I don't really care to sleep in them again. I guess since we don't Boondock only at Walmart when we have to, I hope to pass on those wonderful experiences back when I was a kid. But, if it works for you, go for it. trainman

Our camping buddies just left this morning and are heading to Holenwald to pickup there new trailer on Monday 2-22-2021. They were to get it last week, but something told them to wait till this week, I wonder what it was. trainman