Voyager

Russell, Thanks for the update and no worries. Safe to say, the overall equation for a 2022 doesn't really change by much. Those same options, at today's pricing, on a 2022, would put me very near or over the $80k mark, and that just is, what it is. As for the options for 2022, their cost(s), and which if any might become "standard", I want to be clear here that the factory didn't indicate any of the options on their current list as becoming standard for 2022. You'll still pay for every one of them. The only real change mentioned was the sealed axle bearings (which will be standard), and the newly consolidated WiFi/4G cell booster unit (which will still have an added price). Anyway, thanks again.

Russell! Haaaa! You da man! That was a great one! Made my day! 😂😂😂 And thanks beyond words for your candor and honesty. It's been most refreshing.

"If you're serious about buying, you can put down a deposit for something like 2-3k to lock in the 2021 pricing. I'm guessing those 5 slots vanish before the weekend." Yup. No doubt. 😉

O.K., never mind my earlier post. My bad. I get it now! If you opt for the Solar Pro Package ($5k) you get the 340 watt solar panels, the controller, the four 6V AGM batteries, and the 2000 watt inverter included. Cool! However, I remain a bit confused about what a Lagun table is?

Its also become rather clear to me (although its completely unclear from their current Worksheet), just what costs are likely to be incurred in the way of solar, battery and inverter options? Excluding the outlandish and largely unnecessary Lithium Battery option, the other battery charges listed there are not insignificant by any means (i.e., $500-$2,500). "Lagun" table, etc.? More research is obviously necessary.

O.K., so, reviewing the pricing and the optional feature worksheet, it becomes rather apparent that the base price LE2 (entry level 2022 model), with no more than the Solar Pro Package (+$5,000), would come in at $67,500. And so, I stand by what I've repeatedly said here earlier . . . I may have been a bit high at $80,000, but in fairness, for a reasonably (or essentially minimally) equipped LE2, we're easily looking at $70-$75,000. Keeping in mind the following: #1) Base price (2022) = $62,500 #2) Solar Pro Package = $5,000+ #3) Twin bed floor plan = $1,600+ #4) Convection microwave = $500+ ------------------------------------------------------- Sum Total: $70,000 +/-

"I would think that most folks looking at an Oliver decide on options very carefully, depending on budget and camping style. I’m sure a few Oliver owners that are more financially set don’t worry about options and just order the full slate. When we discussed buying an Oliver we started with the base price, not the fully loaded price. We had financial constraints so starting low and adding those options we needed made the most sense. Starting at the upper limit would have been discouraging." Mike, thanks for your continued contributions here, and yes, this is exactly how we felt initially (i.e., very discouraged). We're most definitely on a budget up here, and as I've said earlier, $80-$85k is 'serious' bank for us, so it positively was discouraging. However, now, I'm starting to see more and more people realizing that yes, given their current (and future) pricing, and cost of available options, its absolutely (almost certainly!) possible, to get to get to $80,000, and like it or not, this is clearly into "new" Airstream territory. But thanks again for your most recent posting here. Its helped me a lot. I think I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing, and I think I'm pricing things as they are truly priced, but now, I no longer feel like I'm some sort of uninformed, inaccurate, raging, lunatic! 👍

Yes. Its obviously not been updated on their website yet, because they're still taking orders for 2021 models, but I spoke to the factory earlier today, and they said that the base price for 2022 models, is $5,000 more than the 2021, which puts it squarely at $62,500. In addition, they said that several "optional" features for 2021, will become "standard" (or standardized) features for 2022. To be frank, it was all a bit confusing, and please don't hold my feet to the fire on this, but if I understood them correctly, the WiFi and 4G cell boost will both become a single (merged) unit (still optional), and that the grease 'once-every-12,000 mile' wheel bearings of the 2021's and earlier, will become sealed, lifetime, never-needs-packing, axles (as standard). Also, the exterior graphics color and pattern options are going to be pared back from 25 (or whatever it is currently?), to about 5 options or less. There may be more as well, I'm just not sure at this point.

Yeah, I literally just got a copy of an actual Build Worksheet here 2-3 hours ago. Prior to that, I was operating on screenshots of worksheets seen on various YouTube videos. I know, I know, stupid! But it is what it is.

"Jokes aside, the base Oliver gets you 99% of the way there. Everything else is just nice to haves (or additional complications)." Yup, I fully agree, and thanks to you and some others here, that's the newer frequency I'm starting to tune into.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the phone, campers! Let's clarify something right here and now. The base price for the LE2 (2022 model) is $62,500, and I'm told that there's less than five builds left for 2021. So I seriously doubt that I'll make that cut. Therefore, respectfully, let's please start over, by someone here showing me how you get to $66-$67k from there? To be clear, I believe that it's technically "possible", and my hopes are definitely elevated by that prospect, but we must be talking a fully "stripped" (base) unit here, right? If not, then I obviously need to revisit my worksheet, which I just received for the first time, this morning.

Nope. No Canadian, no Euros, no Pounds, Shillings or Pence, and yet, it all makes perfect cents! 😉 $85k (USD) was "fully loaded", and there are multiple YouTube videos out there to show you that pathway. Just check all the boxes and add it up.

Thanks Mr. Neuman, and yes, I follow you completely. I too, am retired, I too can repair most anything (but hate doing so), and I too travel widely, so our goals and paths are quite similar. Personally, I don't see the Airstream happening for us here. I just don't. As impressive as the Globetrotter is, it's just too vulnerable, too foo-foo, and too spendy. For me, from day-one, it's been about that whopping $80-$85k price tag of the LE2. And the factory tells me that the 2022 is going up by another $5k (that's $90k fully loaded). So that said, I've just gotta figure a way out of as many of the up-front dollars (add-ons, etc.), as I possibly can. If I can do that, I'm signed, sealed and delivered.

"Would you be getting 2021 or 2022? The only package I want is solar pro. The upgrade to lithium just isn’t worth it to me. I am also passing on cushion upgrades and awning upgrades. I will look to aftermarket mattresses if i feel they are even needed. Otherwise a handful of smaller options I’d want but not big packages like electronics or outdoor pro packages. Also not getting truma or composting toilet which are higher dollar upgrades. Even if I splurged and got fibergranite I’d still be under 70k. Given speed of tech the Wi-Fi and cell booster weren’t things I wanted permanent mounted in roof. " If ordered now, I imagine it would be a 2022, but your other comments here, really have me thinking, and I thank you for that! It hadn't occurred to me that some of the optional features, particularly those that are attached externally, may well be functional from the inside, making them and some of the other intrinsic optional features, do-able post-purchase, and overall, that's a potential game-changer for sure! Time for more research and thought! Thanks again. 👊

Thanks, TexasGuy! You said . . . "As someone working to finish my build sheet I am under $70k for 2021 LEII. I actually think I will be under $66k but again all depends on must haves in the trailer." Say WHAT??? With a base price of $60k, I didn't think $66k was possible? However, I too have been thinking about how many of the various bonus features I might be able to forego upon ordering, in favor of adding them myself at a later date. Some of them could easily be done so, while others, not so much (sliding batteries, etc.).

Thanks, Mike! Yup. I've been thinking the very same thing. Slim chance of ever finding one to see here in Montana, and normally, I wouldn't consider a 1500 (correction, 2,000!) mile drive to simply 'view' something, but it may well be necessary in this particular instance. Back in 2005, we purchased a used 28-ft center console Grady-White boat, on trailer, sight unseen, from an owner in Naples, Florida, for about the same price ($80k), and had it shipped to us in Honolulu by a 2nd party, who did the sea trial there in Naples, and then drove it cross-country, from Naples to the Port of San Diego, California. And amazingly, it all worked out in the end. So, a simple trip to Tennessee is certainly do-able. Thanks again. 👍

Some great new postings overnight, and my continued thanks to all who have contributed here. It's been immensely informative and helpful, and I'm most grateful to all. Like many others here, I am deeply intrigued (nay, "impressed"!), by the LE2, and despite it's limitations, there remains a better than even chance that I'll eventually end-up with one. I'm confident of that. Will I pay $85k, wait-out the 10-month build time, and have it be brand new? Mmmm, unlikely. Would I consider buying a 2-5 year old used one in the $50-$65,000 range? Yes. In a blistering heartbeat! Anywhere nationwide. But given availability, that too is unlikely. So, where does that leave me? I wish it weren't so, but for me, personally, the risk of hail and other structural damage to the outer shell on a polished aluminum Airstream, is a far greater deal-breaker than a wet bath with low ceiling in an Oliver. With that, and the added ground clearance, the aluminum frame, the composite flooring and other great features of the Oliver, the needle points toward to the LE2, but then, sadly, the $85k price tag, brings it back to near neutral again. This is precisely why I decided to initiate this original thread. Not to troll or antagonize people, but because its far from a clear-cut, easy decision. For example, if hail were all that serious of a threat, then why are there thousands of Airstreams out on the highway? And what are the true insurance implications? Similarly, Gulf Stream makes a 26-ft ball-towable trailer with a dry bath, two twin beds, 80" ceilings throughout, and an 8 cubic foot fridge for under $25k!!! (The "Envision"). Junk in comparison, but I can buy almost FOUR of 'em for the cost of an LE2 or 23-ft Globetrotter. So no, it ain't real easy or straight-forward. In fact, this is proving to be more stressful than Covid-19 and national politics combined!! 😂😂😂

"Axis are bigger and stay out of neighborhoods. The white tail are more like roaming pets. Big deer can be found down around Big Bend and up around Guadeloupe Mountains." Yup. Visited an old friend last spring in Pontotoc, Texas, northwest of Llano. 265-acres of arid Hill Country that was filthy with pigs/hogs, deer, armadillos, scorpions, skunks, you name it! Deer were tiny and plenty skiddish. We took a lazy 6-day trip out west to Balmorhea, Ft. Davis, Marfa, Lajitas, Big Bend, Langtry, Del Rio, and eventually, San Antone, then back up through Fredericksburg and Llano to his place. Saw a number of Axis deer along the way, and it proved to be a cherished and most memorable trip for me. He and I go WAY back. I loves me some Tejas!

And, you can easily check 'em all out from the side windows of yer boondocked E2. But just to be clear to the city folk, we don't do the "cute" thing up here. Cute is dead and on the grill. Of course, there in Texas, what you folks call "deer" are the size of a goat. Imported (exotic) Axis deer not withstanding. Shoots, even yer pigs are bigger than yer deer! 😁

Thank you! Apology accepted, and the same courtesy is extended to you as well. As I said, no harm, no foul. But to be clear, you're not "breaking any news" to me here about deer numbers. Not sure where that's coming from? Let's see if I can clarify. Montana has three and a half times the land mass of Tennessee, with roughly a half million white-tailed deer, and barely a million people. Tennessee has somewhat more, but still less than a million deer, with 7-million people. So yes, statewide, you have slightly more white-tailed deer (and zero mule deer), but we have nearly four-times the space and have FIVE-times the deer, per capita, than you folks. And, I'm afraid I can't really speak to the relative 'riff-raff' numbers per state. 😉 There! Does that help square things? 👊

Thank you, Overland, and my apologies to you, Russell and the others. You may well be right about my having misinterpreted earlier comments, and I'll gladly accept responsibility for that. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. No harm, no foul intended. Suffice to say, I've got no preferences and no axe to grind here, and to be clear, I absolutely LOVE the quality and craftsmanship of the Oliver E2. I'm seriously impressed with it, and if it were priced where I feel it rightly belongs (at $65-$72,000 loaded), I'd be ALL over it! Go ahead and flame me, but I just have to decide whether I can live with it's obvious and relatively minor, yet largely indefensible shortcomings, given it's arguably exorbitant pricing. And lastly, North America is in-fact, a vastly expansive and diverse continent, so what one of us feels is remote "boondocking", may not necessarily be the reality of "boondocking" for others of us. Thanks to all, for having me this past few days, and for addressing my concerns, and best wishes to all, in your future travel adventures! Cheers!

"As for added windows to see the riff raff - it seems we don't camp in similar places. As Jim mentioned, the 4 legged bandits seem to be an issue at times." Riff raff?? Oh please! Gimme a break, Flatlander. That's because Tennessee, ain't Montana, period! This is the fourth largest state in the nation, with far more deer than people, more native Americans (and reservations) than any other state, and more vast, empty wilderness than Tennessee could ever hope for! We're not boondocking on the populated shores of the Chatahoochie up here, nor an hour outside of the functional dystopia known as 'Portland', vacationing in droves on the Columbia somewhere. For now, at least for now, we live in FAR different worlds, and thank GOD, for that!

"And it applies here. Thank you John..." Do you mean to tell me that you (Russell), a Tennessee resident, are a firm and avid supporter of Tennessee-built Oliver travel trailers??? No! Get out!! 😂😂

When they build a bike rack that'll hold my Harley, I'll bite, but at $85-$90k, I'll likely be ruminating on it for quite a while.

SeaDawg, Great point about having a watchdog. Sadly, "our" (the wife's!) dog, is a worthless little foo-foo, scared of it's own danged shadow!! I miss our dual-Akita days in 80s-90s Alaska. But then again, that wouldn't work either, as they'd occupy an entire E2 all by their lonesome! 😄 I should also add that in an upside-down, almost ironic twist, the bulk of our vandalism-while-camping incidents over the years, have occurred in the areas you'd least expect it - remote corners of Montana and Wyoming, often during hunting trips.