routlaw

There are number of brands in the market that refer to products as "extended season" campers. Lance is one of those but there are few others and this is where at most I would categorize the Oliver, although admittedly one can get by for a day or so in some rather cold temps if you can put up with the noisy furnace if not plugged into shore power with AC heat source which we have also done a few occasions.

Correct @BackofBeyond and just as importantly this thing is built like a tank ready to go anywhere. We have a local dealer nearby and they are the real deal. Their claims are not smoke and mirrors either based on the conversation I had with the dealer. While I don't doubt many have been sold to people with half ton trucks the reality is you need a much heavier duty vehicle to tow them safely and legally. Their frame, hitch and suspension does NOT allow for a WDH. Don't recall the specs on all of them but am fairly certain the tongue weight on all of their models exceeds 500lbs.

Living in Montana I do NOT think of the Oliver as a 4 season camper. Yes you can camp in moderately chilly weather as most of us have done at one time or the other but 4 season no way. If you want a true 4 season camper look at Imperial Outdoors and a few others built to similar standards. On our 2015 EII we have the suburban furnace installed which is only 16K BTU but runs at 40-50% efficiency cutting that value in half, and believe it is considerably undersized and noisy to boot. Not sure what they install on the newer models.

You'll probably get a lot of different opinions on this but here is my current take having used F150's for all the years I have towed an Oliver. I used to jack up the back tires about 5 psi more, then did the front tires also at the same psi. Over time it became obvious the center tread was wearing faster than the outside so I just went back to the what the door label stated. Unless you are really maxing out your load this is what I would recommend too. However this can change depending upon the tires you have installed. For instance if you were to install a set of LT Tires rather than the passenger tires that came on the vehicle PSI goes up substantially and ride quality plummets substantially too as well as fuel economy. I can attest to this having done it on my previous F150, big regret on that one. Stock half ton trucks/SUV's simply do not have the frame nor suspension to properly accommodate a set of LT tires IMHO. Aside from gas mileage you also need to take into account whether or not the full tread is planted equally on the payment not only for handling but also breaking. An over inflated tire might NOT be properly planted on the road. You could also use the chalk method of to determine the correct PSI, but would be willing to be dollars to donuts the result would be just about identical to the door label. Hope this helps

Sorry to hear of these issues. A couple of thoughts. Henrys Lake is more than any 20 miles from the West Yellowstone gate and it is west of there not east. Bakers Hole which is a USFS campground just a few miles north of the town of West Yellowstone is a decent campground. They have some electrical hookups but no full for sewage etc. There are also a few other USFS campgrounds in the general area, Beaver Creek and Fishing Creek but they are a ways out from the park. Figure at least 30-40 minutes drive to the west gate. Fishing Creek is very shady so if you need solar not an ideal choice, Beaver Creek and Bakers Hole are much better. Flagg Ranch on the Rockerfeller Road between YNP and GTNP also has RV sites but no experience there. There are book docking places around the West Yellowstone area but none of them are special by any means. Heading west out of town from WY there is a slew of USFS campgrounds on the Hebgen Lake, Lonesomehurst being the first one. Rainbow Point also on Hebgen Lake is a large USFS campground and not too far from the west gate of YNP. I haven't been out to Rainbow Point in a long time so not sure what the attributes are there in terms of hookups. FWIW in the conversation my wife and I toured the Fishing Bridge RV spot earlier this summer. Not our cup of tea, very tight crowded spaces and unappealing. I can't believe they charge that much money for such an abominable space. Much prefer the campground at Canyon by a huge margin. If you are not opposed to camping toward the north end of the park there are also a quite a few USFS campgrounds out from Cook City & Silvergate. Haven't been down to Cody in a long time so not familiar with that entrance but would imagine there are many USFS campgrounds and RV resorts along this route too. Cutting to the chase my top recommendations would be the YNP campground at Canyon or Bakers Hole just north of West. Canyon might be closing down soon though. Hope this helps

The campground at Colorado National Monument is really nice albeit without a lot of services. As best as I recall there are no full hookups but still a nice campground. We also camped in Rabbit Valley area but don't recall the name of the site however it was just off I-70. It's a good 25 or so miles out to that area from Grand Junction.

clear skies and no smoke, amazing. AQI here this morning is 136 and getting worse.

Just this past week while showing a friend around in YNP we saw a Cyber Truck no less towing one of those Pebble units. Looks like they have some competition now. Can't imagine what one of these things cost though.

It's been a full year for us now. Last fall cancelled some trips because we were considering selling our house and needed to finish several things before putting it on the market, then my knee finally went caput. Operation in late February for replacement, recovery is going well but can only walk or light hike for about 3-4 miles without straining things and making it worse. The good news is I can bike much better and have racked up about 240+ miles in the last few months of light to moderate mountain biking. So with this situation no solo trips or the two of us traveling to the SW and other places. Glacier is not an option currently but might head to YNP later in the summer or early autumn if things keep improving. Old age is not what it's cracked up to be. Not for sissy's.

The Apex X23: All hat and no cattle as the saying goes.

Agreed its the same old chick dressed up in a different skirt, nothing really of substance here that one couldn't implement themselves and many or most of us have already such as the Bulldog shocks, LT off road tires etc. It preposterous they are promoting this as an off grid off road travel trailer yet still using the basic old leaf spring dexter axles rather than an independent suspension. The least they could have done was adopt the Curt independent suspension as so many others have for a better off road experience. Then there is the same old (mostly) bulldog hitch rather than a full articulating hitch. The gravel road they test drove this thing on is joke. This might be off road for back east but it sure isn't out west. And what on earth is the point of going off grid just to set in your camper and run the air conditioner just because you can. People out in this neck of the woods who choose to go off grid and off road are certainly not setting around knitting, watching tv in an air-conditioned camper. What happens when that solar awning jams, or gets off center and will not retract properly. The 48 volt system seems a bit weird too. There are several dozen more ruggedly built campers than this for off road and over landing that do not use a 48 volt system and get by fine with a tried and true 12 volt system. What happens is you have issues with that system in the middle of nowhere? The interior is certainly nice and at least theoretically love the new windows and shades but thats about it. All the black isn't appealing to me, might be to others. Not sure who is in charge of marketing at Oliver but man oh man this is making much ado about nothing. By no stretch of the imagination is this an off grid/off road camper any more than my old 2015 model is with some modifications. They really need to rethink this before releasing it to the public in its current configuration. Not impressed.

I did look at those Brooklyn Bedding mattresses but ended up for now doing the ones at Costco. Like I told my wife if they don't work out after a trip or they will be easy to sale on craigslist. Agreed on the existing cushions. The foam in those are pretty bad. We need to at least replace that if nothing else. Your new cushions look great.

Exactly. The newer models, certainly not ours, have many of those electric controls out of the basement. Some Oliver owners have also installed remote valves for the water/plumbing side. Good idea I just hate fiddling with plumbing. It really is a far easier to deal with sheet changing with two twin mattresses and piece of cake to lift them for access below. We should've done this years ago. No regrets so far.

For years we used a Temperpedic 3 inch memory foam topper. It works, was heavy and also a pain to deal with while trying access the basement. So earlier in the year while doing some repairs and other mods we decided to eliminate the cushions altogether and replace with two twin mattress we bought at Costco. Since neither of us are tall sleeping in line with the trailer works just fine for us and we have never used the main dinette anyway. The smaller dinette at the kitchen works great for the two of us. This method is far easier to access the basement too with only one thing per side to lift. So far so good. I would recommend this method as a possibility.

Just local RV dealers service department rate charge. Has nothing to do with Oliver. No idea what Bretz in Missoula (official Oliver Service) charges but would guess it not too far off.