Ollie-Haus

I would use Autotrader.com and look nation wide. Only consider trucks that have the price listed. You shouldn't pay more than the sticker price. Some dealers are listing slightly below sticker occasionally. It'll take some work on your part but you can find a descent truck if you work at it. Here's an example of a nicely equipped F250 that would pull and LE2 with ease and no WD hitch required, and it's window sticker below with all included options on this truck. https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=664480564&listingTypes=NEW&driveGroup=AWD4WD&startYear=2022&endYear=2022&makeCodeList=FORD&modelCodeList=F250&city=Greenfield&state=IN&zip=46140&searchRadius=0&trimCodeList=F250|Lariat&marketExtension=include&isNewSearch=false&showAccelerateBanner=false&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&numRecords=25&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fnew-cars%2Fawd-4wd%2F2022%2Fford%2Ff250%2Fgreenfield-in-46140%3FsearchRadius%3D0%26trimCodeList%3DF250%7CLariat%26marketExtension%3Dinclude%26isNewSearch%3Dfalse%26showAccelerateBanner%3Dfalse%26sortBy%3DderivedpriceASC%26numRecords%3D25&clickType=listing https://www.windowsticker.forddirect.com/windowsticker.pdf?vin=1FT7W2BNXNEG40020

My gut said if the thief planned to use it they would get caught. Great news that it's been recovered. I'm sure it's unsettling that these people have abused it but anything can be fixed and made new again. Congratulations!!

X2 on the Collar Lock. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HL2NM0K/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=A2IFCPNR1UXA7P&psc=1

I've towed for years and wanted a heavy truck this time around. My former truck which we still own is an F150 with the 5.4 engine and tow package. You will love the 5.0. V8's are great engines and I've heard the 5.0 is really strong. You may like the tow experience better with a weight distribution hitch but I have no doubt you've got plenty of truck. Looks like you are set up for fun times down the road.

Hello Steve, nice to know you are going forward with your dreams. We too have an LE2 ordered, delivery in mid April. We will be traveling seasonally with our pooches as well. Exploring seems like a fun way to meet folks and see all the spectacular places around America. I'm sure we'll cross paths down the road and we're looking forward to every new friend we make in the process. Congratulations! PS - We bought our tow vehicle about 18 months ago, listed in our signature line below. What did you get?

Hi Melody, and welcome to the Oliver forum. Like the others have advised prudently, you will be considerably outside of a safety margin towing the LE2 with your current truck. It's age concerns me on top of it's lower capacities. A few things to help you get started. On driver's door post of every vehicle is a sticker that tells the load capacities for that specific vehicle as it was delivered from the factory. You never want to exceed any of those capacities. And in reality you should get a vehicle that leaves you a safety margin in each category. It's very easy to overload a vehicle's cargo capacity when loading up gear, people and pets on board. Add in misc. stuff in back and then add the tongue weight of the trailer on the back of the vehicle and surprise, you're over weight. Then you also have to determine how much the trailer weighs fully loaded. That falls under the Tow Capacity on the sticker. This is one you can't afford to be close or over on. The only way to get this number accurately is to weight the trailer loaded on a commercial scale at a truck stop. That's not how you want to discover you're 1200 pounds too heavy for the truck you're using. Lastly everything hooked together and loaded can't weigh in at more than the combined weight rating (GCWR) on that sticker. As you can see there's a lot to consider in a tow vehicle when considering a specific trailer to pull. If you are settled on an LE2 than that shortens the list considerably as to which tow vehicle you will want to buy. There are plenty of capable tow vehicles, but those capacities mentioned will rule your choices. There's lots of RV and Truck web sites and Youtube channels that can really get you up to speed on what those choices are today. I will say if not new the lower the mileage the better. Pulling a trailer is a lot of work on a tow vehicle, enough that it's considered "severe duty" by the manufacturers. With that term in mind it's always good to have more tow vehicle than you need. The farther you are from that vehicle's maximum capacities the less wear and tare you will be putting on the vehicle. One last thought. Getting the load going down the road with ease is a matter of comfort and enjoyment. Controlling the load during unexpected maneuvering, and getting that load stopped in an emergency situation depends on your trucks capacities compared to the load it's pulling. Better to have plenty of truck. Keep asking questions if you can't find answers and good luck finding a the right truck.

I've also got three to sell when I can get the time to advertise them and have them ready to sell. Downsizing and consolidating, it's what we do at this stage of life. 😁

Dennis, I know what you mean when it comes to trying to find information about specific vehicles' load and tow capacities. On line factory information is general at best and really doesn't help much with specific vehicles that are on the market. I for one always want to have more tow vehicle than I need. I have a general rule to never tow regularly on the ragged edge of a vehicle's capacities. And when it comes to leisure travel like camping in a travel trailer, leisure is the guiding principle. Having plenty of tow capacity and power makes the driving portion of your adventures comfortable and easy compared to running a light vehicle hard and just getting by. With that said I would say if you are looking at getting an LE2, I would highly recommend a 3/4 ton truck at the least. You won't have any need for a diesel, and even though they are powerful and efficient power plants, they come with a lot of complexity and additional cost of maintenance that you don't need to deal with if you aren't pulling maximum loads regularly. A larger gas engine is more than enough for pulling an LE2. You won't get the best mileage but again, you will travel with ease. For any tow vehicle, be it 1/2 or 3/4 ton, I would stick with trucks equipped with trailer tow packages with upgraded suspension packages. This will help to maximize your payload and eliminate the need to constantly calculate how much gear you can bring along. It's always good to be mindful of what you are loading into the truck, but with a substantial capacity you will quickly get a feel for what you can bring along safely. As others have mentioned, it's nice to not have to worry about needing a WD system to counter tongue weight. Most trailer equipped 3/4 ton trucks will not need a WD hitch. Here's Ford's web site with links to many of the towing guides for their various vehicles. This will provide a lot of research material for specific models. The guides also contain a lot of educational information about towing in general. https://www.fleet.ford.com/towing-guides/ Here is a web site with a tool for looking up the window stickers for available Ford vehicles. You can look up trucks on Autotrader and filter your search for Ford trucks. They list the VIN on each truck add. Copy and paste the VIN into the search box that's about half way down the page, hit enter and it will open another window with the Ford window sticker. You can quickly see if a truck has the payload packages to serve your needs. Also you can see if it's loaded with lots of accessories which will lower the payload capacity. https://lancelhoff.com/how-to-get-ford-window-sticker-from-vin/ I don't know if the other manufactures offer a way to look up window stickers for new trucks, but you may be able to find a web site that offers a similar tool for those brands as well. Good luck with your search.

Hi Brian and Sondra, Chris and Stacie Neuhaus here from Indiana. Exciting to know they are "breaking ground" on your new home away from home. I know you guys must be feeling the excitement build. The folks at Oliver are a joy to work with, almost like family. They make the whole experience a lot of fun. We are feverishly working on a total remodel of a very small retirement home we bought a couple years ago. The plan is to live in a very small house out in the country that will require minimal upkeep and free up time for travel and exploring seasonally. I'm getting to the end of the project just in time to move in and anticipate the arrival of our Oliver. We ordered our LE2 in November and have a start date in early March and delivery is scheduled for April 19. We struggled for a number of years ourselves with the type of travel trailer we wanted for retirement, but in our case we thought we needed room for toys. We've become more realistic in the last year and finally knew the LE2 was really perfect for the type of travel and camping we wanted to do during retirement. Thanks for sharing and we look forward to crossing paths and getting to know you and everyone in the Oliver family in the years ahead.

This seems pretty high risk for a thief. Probably don't realize how rare the LE1 is and that we are a well connected community. It has no scrap value, and using it regularly in public would be very risky. Maybe it will turn up and somehow you will get it back. Unfortunately if it does it will probably be way down the road.

Welcome to the Oliver Forum and thanks for introducing yourselves. We are still in a hold pattern waiting on production of hull #1373, due sometime in mid April. It builds excitement for us each time we hear of a new owner taking their Ollie home. There is a great group of folks here to get to know, learn from and share experiences with and the more the merrier. Congratulations!

@Geronimo Johnyour comments brings to mind what I've always thought about the unique designs of the Oliver Campers. I know folks tend to have a preconceived mindset regarding camper size and especially galley and bathroom requirements. Those of us that appreciate the design characteristics of the Oliver Campers probably recognize the amount of thought that went into every aspect of their campers. They seem to have focused on maximizing the function while maintaining a minimal envelope to attain those goals. Towing efficiency and ease of towing to the destination also seem to be primary goals, hence the overall size and shape. And of course durability is an overriding requirement in their priorities. I don't know if any other company has tried to marry all these requirements to the level that Oliver has succeeded in their trailers. Every aspect is challenged by the cost control piece of the puzzle, but unlike other companies, Oliver appears to try and control costs secondary to the quality component, and the feature component rides very high in that chain of priorities.

These are all great little fixes that I'm sure I'll utilize once Ollie-Haus arrives. I'm OCD about fixing the little things that can be improved for everyday use. BTW I recognized that Springfield Armory pistol lock you used on your tanks immediately!😆 I own more than one version of the XDm line they offer and each comes with the same lock. You've discovered a better use for it. 😉

We had a Jayco Eagle with a single super-slide. The room inside with slide out made it feel very home like as I remember and we really liked that. Conversely, the super-slide was our biggest headache and worry. It was quite finicky opening and closing, was a source of constant water leaks, needed constant attention regarding debris on top when camping in areas with overhead trees, and added a lot of weight to the camper for it's relative size. The camper pulled okay but you had to be very mindful of it going down the road, as in very reactive to side wind and passing trucks. At 34' it was a bear to get in and out of a lot of camp sites. And the last thing I remember was that it was built so flimsy. The walls and partitions of paper thin plywood and staples just felt like they could fall apart at any time with the next big bump. No insulation to speak of and the windows were just cheap. We got rid of it after a few years just to cut our losses before it was impossible to sell. It was a feeling of total relief when the buyer handed us the payment in full. Knowing the history and quality of the Oliver products and the customer service reputation has me very much at ease with this substantial purchase. Can't wait for delivery day! Oh and to answer your wife's interest in the ladies feelings, my wife pushed hard for us to go this route instead of the larger toy hauler. She is most excited to explore the "unknown" to us, in our quaint little camper. She chose the name Ollie-Haus because it will be our home much of the next several years. 😍

I guess at this stage I would recommend shoe cubby. That seems like an option with lots of uses, and you could always convert to a drawer in the future if you feel the space would be more useful.

We also toiled over this topic for several years. We struggled with the "need" of more room inside and also the "need" to bring toys along. We were seriously considering a 25' ATC toy hauler to serve all those needs. Well long story short we concluded with time that where we really wanted to camp was more important than both the need to bring too much stuff along and also the need for extra living space. I'm not necessarily concerned with the smallish interior because we are traveling to enjoy the outside that we are traveling to. We will mostly just sleep in the camper and clean up. But the rest is outside or away from the camper and that's our priority. I don't have to worry about if we'll fit or can we get their with the rig. So to boil it down, where do you want to spend your time camping? Make sure your choice serves that primary purpose first. For our plans the Ollie is by far the best choice.

How about the egress window in the back. Is it wide enough?

I know this doesn't solve your internet needs, but we've been using and aerial for television at home for over 10 years. At our new place we are about 35 miles east of Indianapolis and are able to get around 40 stations. Many of those are high def, but of course any older programming is in lower def. regardless. Programs like NFL, Nascar, PGA, local and national news come in with spectacular clarity. The Menards in Avon, OH has the antenna we use in stock if you are ever interested in making the jump. https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electronics/antennas/televes-dat-boss-attic-outdoor-tv-antenna/149884/p-1642874256695741-c-1454940301502.htm?tid=5189128745463378719&ipos=18

Love all this comparing old ways with the new. I love my digital media and resources as much as anyone else, but we have always carried pertinent hard copies of maps for all our destinations. My wife as copilot always pulls out the paper maps to gain a mental picture of the route and what's around. Funny that the land line came up as we just got a new fiber optic data service connected all the way to the house. Very fast to say the least, but it included a land line if we wanted it, and we did. But the crazy part is we connected it to a 1970's Slim Line wall mount Bell Telephone in the kitchen. Looks like walking into my childhood when we come in the back door. Oh, and we get our television service via the good old aerial antenna on the roof of the house. 😆

No problem. Here's the links: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eaton-White-15-Amp-Decorator-Tamper-Resistant-USB-Outlet-Residential-Commercial-USB-Outlet/1002943626 https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Outlet-Laptop-Charger-Motorcycle/dp/B09ZYWVHBM/ref=sr_1_13?crid=2I7TT5GZK7CM1&keywords=12v+usb+outlet&qid=1674438536&sprefix=12v+usb%2Caps%2C1312&sr=8-13

I'm not 100% sure where all the USB plugs are located in the Camper but one of my first projects when we get it will be to change out or add 12v and 115v USB plugs where needed. It's almost to the point with electronic devices to have these as standard items.

Hey all, on the topic of travel trailer accessories and campsite equipment, a couple years back we were referred by a friend that we should try Strongback ergonomically correct folding camp chairs. I have had lower back problems my entire adult life and the typical "bag chair" that is sold for camping and outdoor activity is the worst thing in the world for me to sit in. After a weekend of using these old style chairs at the camp site I could barely make it to work on a Monday. The Strongback chairs were designed with exactly my problem in mind and have actually been on the market for several years. I don't think you will find another camp chair anything like it and it even comes with a 2 year warranty which is extraordinary. We bought two of these a couple years ago and they have been our go to folding chairs when out and about since, but they also get used continuously around the house because of the level of comfort they provide. They are roomy in size and built very sturdy. If you're like me and struggle to use the typical sling style folding chair, I highly recommend you give these a try. If you buy them through Amazon you can try them for a month risk free and if you don't like them just return them through your local Kohls store no questions asked. I promise you will be amazed as soon as you sit in one. https://www.amazon.com/STRONGBACK-Folding-Camping-Portable-2-0/dp/B072PR6JNG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=339C62QRRDQVH&keywords=strongback%2Bchair&qid=1673659288&sprefix=strongba%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzMEUwQlVaWTVHVENRJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDg1MDYzMlNUNzRIWkJITjhMQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjE2NDIxMkY2OEVVM0NJTDVSVCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

We've tent camped and also had a travel trailer for several years back in the early 2000s but never boondocked. We can't wait to try all these new adventures. Thanks Jason!🍻

Our local TSC stores are all being remodeled. It may take a while until this happens nation wide, but the new format and product displays are much improved and more practical. I even noticed they are carrying food freeze driers. These aren't your grandmother's dehydrators. These are high end and rather expensive but are great for preparing foods for camping. Freeze dried food takes up about 1/10 the space, do not require refrigeration and can be prepared pretty quickly. I was pleased to see they had expanded their product lines in our stores.

What type of rail system did you use? That looks pretty interesting.