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cptdondo

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Everything posted by cptdondo

  1. I just test drove a Silverado 3500HD Duramax. What a beast!!! Total overkill, but you would never ever have to worry about anything Oliver sized back there. Reminds me of driving the original Humvees with all the armour. All it needs is a machine gun mount...... Now to find one I can actually afford. :)
  2. Unfortunately my Roadtrek is a 2x4. Long story, but let's say I was in a market for a 4x4 and this one was offered to me at a price I could not resist. I was going to tow a 4x4 with gear but surprise - the extended chassis can only tow 5K and my Silverado tips the scales at 5200#. (The standard chassis can tow 7,000#). And the small 4x4s that used to be all over the place have all but disappeared. Yes, we boondock a lot. It's not unusual for us to spend a week out in the woods. I looked at a small Class A with a toad; just doesn't do it for me in terms of logistics, cost, maintenance, etc. We managed to minimize a lot of our stuff to fit all the gear. Plus we've been towing an Airstream Basecamp behind the Silverado when we don't use the Roadtrek, and except for the cramped space (try fitting 200# of dogs into the floor space of a Basecamp!!!) and lack of true 4 season capability that seems to be working for us. And I figure if we can stuff most of our gear into a Basecamp and the bed of the Silverado the Oliver will be vast. :) The Silverado has been about as much 4x4 as we've ever needed. We're not too radical but sometimes we drive a ways into places where an RV would just rack or shake itself into pieces.
  3. Yeah, we've explored a Class C as well. I have a Roadtrek (extended Sprinter van) that can haul most of the gear and could manage it all with a small roof rack, but we've found that we just don't have floor space with the dogs. So we need something with a bit more floor space. And the Roadtrek just can't get us to some of the places we want to explore. Which is a shame - I work for Roadtrek, and my van has all sorts of upgrades - custom beds, auto-chains, extra large fresh tank, rear cargo box, custom fridge, and so on - but it just doesn't work when you have two people and two very large dogs. (Anyone want to buy a Roadtrek? :) ) Right now we're looking at an Oliver Elite II for the house, with a 4x4 TV with a pop top. That way we can get the gear we need into the truck, and any extra gear (summer gear in the winter and vice-versa) can be stashed in the truck. We can camp in the pop top even in the winter and have a nice place to return to when we get back to the Oliver. And we can get to the trailhead. I was hoping the Silverado 1500 would work but I just can't get the GVWR to work out in my favor. As this is my full-time home and not a weekend jaunter, I need something that actually works with capacity to spare.
  4. This will be my home. The Ollie will be the main house and the TV will be the cabin. So I have about 800#of cap, batteries, solar panels, stove, etc. That all have to go on there. Plus gear. Everything I own will be in the trailer or the TV. Rock climbing gear, ice axes, backpacks, snowshoes, bicycles, and all my clothes, summer and winter. Laptop, camera, you name, all on there. My small dog tips the scales at 75# and he's small compared to the Newfie. I just don't see any headroom in a half ton truck to do that. I'd go to a one ton but I'm trying to avoid the dualies. Got them now and it's a bit of a PITA.
  5. I'm doing some thinking. Always a risky endeavor. I am looking at an Elite II, and I have a Silverado 1500 with the tow package, so the max towing is 9,200#. All good there. I'm concerned about the total load on the truck. The cargo capacity is 1,700# so if you do the math - 700 hitch, 500 occupants and dogs, that leaves 500 for cargo. Add a cap or a cover, some options, and that truck is running overloaded or nearly so and almost certainly overloaded on one axle or the other. I see a lot of people towing with Ford F150s, Silverado 1500s, etc. Am I not seeing something or should I be looking at a 3/4 ton truck that has 2,500# CCC?
  6. Yeah. That is something I thought about too. Put a cap on the truck, put a couple of batteries under it. Charge the batteries off the engine alternator. Run a high-power connection from truck house to trailer house batteries so you can charge them at 70A or whatever rate the cables will take so you have a combined battery bank when camped. Skip the generator; add an inverter and a second alternator if you're so inclined, but unless you're running the AC while boondocking you don't need that. Now put a small fridge/freezer in the truck, maybe a heater of some sort (I'm leaning towards a woodburning stove) and storage for gear and a bunk and you have a comfy base camp and a mountain goat to take you to the trailhead. Thoughts thoughts thoughts... :D
  7. Anyone full time in their Oliver? I'm thinking about it, but I'm concerned about the fridge space as I do a lot of boondocking. Right now I have an Isotherm 190; a 4.3 CF fridge and 2.6 CF freezer. I've been looking at ways to fit those two into an Oliver but I'm coming up short. I'd appreciate any ideas on food storage for those who full time and spend a lot of time out in the boonies far from grocery stores.
  8. Totally OT, so excuse the thread hijack. I see you have an Isotherm fridge; this is the option I want. It looks like it was factory installed? If you went this way, is it the Cruise 130 or 160? Thanks, and let's start a new thread as I have lots of questions. :)
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