Trainman

The wife and I survived one cold rainy day in a state park where we stayed inside all day, that was a good test for being comfortable in a small space. trainman

If I had to carry all that stuff with me I would just stay home. trainman

As you know we pull our Oliver with a 2019 Ram 1500 4x4 and I very happy with the way the truck handles both with and without the Oliver attached. The only advantage that I liked with the 2500 was that I wouldn't have to use the Anderson WDH. As of today if I had to replace the Ram I would probably still go with the 1500, as I have yet to see any drawbacks on the 1500 and towing the Oliver. One thing in today's world is the Big Four are building 1/2 ton pickups that can handle so much more today then they could just a few years back, five years ago I would have got a 2500 for sure. As far as tires go I will replace mine with a truck type tire when the time comes. trainman

To answer some of the questions that were asked, the Rad Mini's folded are 43"x22"x28" for the standard Mini and 42"x24"x29" for the Mini Step Thru, that should fit under most all camper tops I would think. The bikes weigh 68 lbs., I remove the batteries and that saves 8 lbs. less to lift. I find lifting to be easy, but do remember you have to lift it the height of the tailgate when open. There's plenty of room left in the pickup bed for our other camping needs that we carry in there. One person brought up the topic on riding off-road trails, etc., this has always been a problem with hikers and motorcycle/bicycle riders where ever you go, being a member of PAPA Public Access Preservation Association which is out of Colorado this is a never ending topic and many meeting have become very heated discussions on who can go where to ride. States will have to set areas for each, some will be dual and other setup for each. I will say here that at age 74 I'm not going to be riding these trails anymore, so you younger people will have to attend to this matter if feel strongly about riding areas. As John brought up, yes there is new regulations on riding on public lands and they do favor the bicycle and ebike riders. Also many cities have adopted much the same laws and rules, but each city has there own regulations and it is always best to find out what they are. I can tell you that cities are really working on bicycle lanes and trails, they seem they want to becoming bicycle friendly, this does mean that they are prompting both the pedal bicycle and the ebikes. In most cities you can not ride on city sidewalks, but I can tell you that if your out in the rural areas the police are no going to stop you, I hope they are doing other more important work. Remember riding a bicycle/ebike has a lot to do with commonsense and the police look at it pretty much the same way. For those of you who don't know, bicycles have to follow the same rules as other motor vehicles do, that is cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc. when riding on public streets, highways, etc., yes that includes giving hand signals, stopping at stop signs, and riding in your lane. Last, there are three classes of ebikes, probably would be good to know what they are, Class 1, is pedal assist only, that means no throttle on the bike, Class 2, can have both pedal assist and throttle, or just throttle, these Class 1 and 2 can only have a top speed of 20 MPH, and Class 3 ebikes can have pedal assist, throttles, and can go 28 MPH max speed, but Class 3 ebikes will require a driver license and insurance to ride on the street. Class 1 and 2 don't require a drivers license, or insurance, this makes these the most popular for the public to buy. Ebike sold here in the U.S. will have a sticker affixed to the frame and will have the Class marked on it and law officers are trained to look for that sticker. I will say here that in some U.S. cities only Class 1 bikes are allowed on city streets, New York City is one of them, doesn't make to much sense, but that's the law for now. Most sold ebikes here in the U.S. are Class 2 ebikes. I will answer any question that I can, remember I got most of my info from YouTube and a little from riding in the last three months. trainman

John, We have found the tires on the Rad Mini Step Thru (smooth ones like motorcycle street tires) to work just fine on packed dirt, do remember here I come from riding motorcycles off road as well as street riding for over 50 years, so a ebike is not going to be too much of a bike to handle for me, but for the wife I do have to keep here informed as to what, where, and how if the dirt becomes too soft, etc. Since 90% of our riding is on pavement, the smooth tires are much quieter them the so called knobby style tires. Most Fat Tire ebikes are going to come with knobby tires so your choices of ebikes that come with smooth style tires will be very few to choose from. Here is a video of campers riding the Rad Mini's, it will show the two bikes offered by Rad that fold for traveling. trainman

Ebikes come in all sizes and prices and it's true that many are priced way up there and many are the $1500 range. If you really look into what's out there and start to price these bikes you will find that the biggest number of sales are in the $1000 to $1800 dollar range, not the $5000 range. It's like most things, dealer Mom and Pop bicycle shops are going to carry top quality bikes and have expensive parts in them, but like other products the online bikes offered are proving to be very good quality and many are imported and sold by dealers that are giving top service and you can actually pic up the phone and talk to someone. I purchased ours from RAD a Seattle based company and with top quality sales and service, they have some 30 employee. You might just go to YouTube and watch some RAD POWER BIKE videos, I think you might just get a good idea why they are number one in sales and service. https://www.radpowerbikes.com/pages/ebikes We got two very nice ebikes with top ratings, there are other online sellers that may be the same, it's pretty easy to ask and find the answers for a model you might consider a purchase. I would say before you purchase any ebike you spend a month or two finding out about ebikes, you will draw your own conclusion from your findings. Here is a very informative fourm for ebikes, it's the EBR Forum, https://electricbikereview.com/forum/ trainman

We purchased these ebikes from RAD to add to our camping fun, plus ride them on the city trails where we live in Ft. Worth, Texas. Anyone else thinking about doing this, it sure adds being able to cover the entire camping ground and a ride to the store much more fun and not much peddling required. These Folding RAD models will go 20 miles without peddling and 30-50 miles with Peddle Assist turned on. Were 71 and 74 years old and they have increased our camping travels around the area to way more then we did in the past. trainman Pics of the Rad Mini Step Thru's

I understand you not knowing about or seeing Oliver travel trailers, as they are on the low production side of the fiberglass travel trailers. I live in Texas and I can say the same about the Scamp, just not too many of those here either, but Casita's everywhere. Nice to see you have found the Oliver, now you will be the envy at the camping ground, I can tell you that many campers know about the Oliver's, be prepared to show and answer question on your Oliver. Welcome to the group. trainman

Probably not a bad idea, I hope MaxxAir will just send you a new fan, as most things like that are just replaced and not repaired. Buy your fan from someone who offers and extended service policy, looks like you will probably need it. Walmart has a no questions asked return policy, I bet they have no problems getting their money back from MaxxAir. trainman

I talked with Jason (Oliver service mgr.) yesterday and he has spoken to Maxxfan on our fan that will not operate properly. They suggested that I check in 12v voltage to he fan and make sure it is receiving between 13.7 and 10.9 volts and that there is no voltage drop when the fan goes into lockup mode and can not be controlled again till I remove the 7.5 fuse and reinsert it. I preformed the test on the fan three times and all with the same results, 13.5 voltage and no voltage drop when the fan goes into lockup mode. Do note here that the fan will lockup as soon as it turn on with the remote and and only removing the fuse will clear the fan to start again and then it will only run to a few seconds and then lockup. MaxxAir has told Jason to send another fan board and remote a see if this will fix the problem, it will be the second set as the first set did not take care of the problem, fan still locks up as it did before. There is not much other to replace in the fan other then the motor and MaxxAir said this would probably not be the problem, so we will see if these new parts take care of the problem. I asked for a new fan kit, but Jason said that they couldn't do that, or MaxxAir would have to make the decision on that. I will say here that I'm pretty mechanical minded and this is about as simple as things can go as far as replacing parts, it's plug and play. Will see what happens when the new parts are replaced. trainman

We pickup our Elite II in the first week of July and our Max Fan has not worked properly since our first camping trip three week later. We took at trip back to Oliver and they checked out the fan and said it was ok now, I did not check out the fan mainly because the weather was cold and rainy, but 350 miles down the road it started acting up again. I talked with Jason and he sent me the module and new remote, I install it, but it did not fix the problem, still has a mind of its own and goes into lockup mode and the only way to get it out of lockup is to remove the fuse and then reinstall it. It will now works for a minute of two and goes into lockup mode again. One Wednesday of last week I talked with Jason on this matter after installing the new parts and he said he would check with Max Air and see what to do next, so far I have not heard for him. I'm going to suggest to him to just send a new fan kit in the box and I will install it myself, as this unit has a problem that can't be repaired with replacement parts. I'm pretty unhappy with this fan, I will say that we had the same fan in our Casita and it did work perfect for the two years we owned the Casita, so I expect this fan to do the same. If I don't hear from Jason by after Thanksgiving I will give him a call and see what he is going to do on this matter that is now 5 months old and still no properly working fan unit. trainman

I found two pics of the twin bed option with risers here, https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2004-twin-bed-riser/ I feel like Oliver probably still has the molds, but would they make them for you and at what cost. trainman

I can understand camping with a trailer like the UEV-490 and taking on the outback, but what I don't understand is doing it with a Touareg and making it an offroad vehicle. OK, I looked up the Touareg and from what I could find it can be a capable offroad vehicle if properly equipped, so looks like you are setting it up right. Have fun on your new adventure. trainman

I've been there the last three years, you don't have to worry about getting a camping spot, there must be 200-300 there. Nice place, a lot of old equipment, buildings, etc., to look at, setup like and old town with many out buildings. We had 4 Oliver's there this year, that's a record turnout for them. I was mainly started as a Casita Rally, but is growing with other makes of fiberglass trailers. Other makes of trailers are also welcome, there were even a Airstream, or two. trainman

I'm going to watch, just don't know who Chris and Cherie are as it was before my time on this forum. trainman

Hopefully we won't need it that much, our camping style is more on the full hookup type of camping, we just purchased it for those campgrounds that have no sewer hookups and we will be staying there 4 plus days or so. I've only had to break camp twice in the last 3 years for dumping needs, so our use will be very little. trainman

So just went to the Discovery Channel to check it out, all I really saw was clips of those who travel in the $200,000 RV range and not much if any in the what I would call the down to earth RVers like we would normally see in RV campgrounds. From what I saw watching YouTube videos would probably be more entertaining for me, but we will give the channel a chance and see what takes place. trainman

I went with the 21 gal. Rhino. Will probably dump our black water tank when it gets to 75-80 % full. One problem I have is I will add around 4 gals. of water to the black tank when I empty it, plus the orange pill, I've always done this as I think a solution in the black tank is needed for proper waste flow and waste management in the tank to start with. This now puts my 18.5 gal. black tank at 14.5 gals. reserve with the 4 gals. I have added to start with. I now can only get around 4 days use of the black tank before I have to dump it. All being said, it's just part of camping, this poses no problem for us. trainman

I wish I was a Quartzsite person, but I'm addicted to electricity, water, and sewer hookups. I did spend a night at a 24-hour Walmart once which has all those things inside. wasn't all that bad. For all those going, have fun and take pics for the rest of us to see, I enjoy looking at them. trainman

I consider myself pretty handy and can do most repairs if needed, or repair to the point where it will last till I get the correct parts to repair it back to proper working condition. I carry very few extra parts with me, but do carry things like fuses, hose champs, duct tape, nylon ties, things to make temporary repairs, not replacement parts. If I have to drive into a Walmart, or a hardware store for parts, etc. then it's just the way I would do things. I personally would rather carry the tools needed for repairs, as having the correct tool for the job is 95% of getting it done correctly. trainman

That's what I was thinking, 21 gal. Rhino. I took the trailer to the dump station when the gauge read 80%, I felt I was pushing it at that level. You never know when you might have a run on the black tank, right. trainman

Well like they say, don't buy it till you have missed it twice, we have missed it three times now, so we need to purchase one. From what I see on Amazon I like the Camco Rhino ones, mainly because they look like they can do the job and the wheels are larger, they should pull better to the dump station behind the truck. Just let me know what works for you and why, I'm not totally sold on any particular one at this time. trainman

We were at Bluebonnet Rally in Grapeland, Texas last week an there were 4 Oliver's there, about 10-12 Escape's, 1 Bigfoot, and 1 Scamp, and yes 60 plus Casita's. Of course you know which one everyone wanted to see, the Scamp. I think the reason for so many Escapes being there was because Escape sent there head guy there to talk about Escape wanting to move a sale site to Texas, somewhere in the DFW area. Reason was Escape sells more Escape's in Texas then any other area in the U.S. and Canada. They plan to stock new Escape's at this location as well as possibly in the future build Escape's here. The two year plan was for sale only and within five years build them here. This facility would be Escape owned and operated, they have no plans for dealers. If you didn't know Escape is no longer owned by the family that started the business and is now owned be a large financial company and the guy they sent here runs it, he is from Ireland and seems to know what he wants to do and how to get it done. This will no way influence me, or probably any other Oliver owners to purchase an Escape, but will probably give Casita buyers something to think about when purchasing new. trainman

It's Christmas everyday around our house, thanks, to Amazon and eBay. trainman

Without knowing the length on your chocks we would all be guessing, I have the Anderson and there is about 6" left between to tire and the Anderson when put into place. I have found that rolling off the Anderson's can be a problem, I always back down them the way I rolled upon them, they can hit the trailing wheel and cause problems upon exit. trainman