routlaw

I live in SW Montana and have been over the Beartooth Highway countless times. I have an F150 Super Crew and would not do it, period. Back when we had a T@b we crossed a couple of times with a Tundra TV (much shorter wheel base) and even that was pushing the envelope IMHO. During the summer months this road, as remote and extreme as it is can be very busy with a constant stream of traffic both directions including but not limited to lots of motorcycles. Aside from the fact there are very tight hairpin turns on the switchbacks and a lot of them at that, this road is extremely steep especially on the decent into Montana from the Wyoming side. This is a road that does not allow for mistakes. As for camping the Rock Creek area on the Montana side after cruising through Red Lodge all require RSVP's but there are some crude boon docking sites in the area if you know where to look. Back on the Wyoming side and between YNP and the ascent up to the passes there are several nice campgrounds albeit not very large ones that are all first come first serve. Mosquitos even at 9000 ft elevation and above are absolutely relentless up there so be forewarned and they are up at the crack of dawn, first light. Pray for wind. My preferred route is approaching from YNP and the west, then descend back into Montana. The Rock Creek campgrounds are nice but you'll need to RSVP way ahead of schedule they fill up constantly all summer. The drive in from the Montana side assuming you go through Roscoe is a gorgeous drive but again its very winding with lots of ups and downs and whoop-di-doos. This road is skinny with NO shoulder once you are passed Roscoe and the final leg to Red Lodge. There is another route from Billings/Laurel to Red Lodge but its boring as hell compared to the route south of Columbus. In all the years of crossing/driving over the highway and I cannot recall once seeing anyone towing a travel trailer even with modest size ones like the Oliver. I tend to er on the side of caution. One thing goes wrong on a route like this and you'll be into some very big trouble quickly taking others with you. Hopefully this helps.

Having read through this entire thread, clearly the term winter and cold weather is a relative term. Last night our temps dropped down to -7º F with wind chill of -35º F and most of February and so far the bulk of March has been like this or close to it. Under these circumstances the Oliver is NOT a 4 season camper IMHO. We have camped numerous times when temps were in the mid teens to mid 20's + or - a few degrees and the Oliver does reasonable well, but I have always felt the furnace is underrated at 16,000 BTU input and running at 40-50% efficiency this allows for only about 8,000 BTU's of actual useable heat which would be fine in a highly efficient well insulated enclosure. There have been some excellent suggestions in regards to remote sensors, portable propane heaters and such which I have owned a few of but sold due to lack of use. I'm thinking it would be wise to pick one up again in case of emergencies. Using electric heaters here in Montana winters is a mixed bag at best. Last winter I got caught unprepared and did not get the Oliver winterized before we were hit with an early winter storm in Sept or Oct (memory is a bit fuzzy on this) which lasted for days. I have 3 electric portable heaters and not a one of them could keep our Oliver warmer than the low 40's for days on end of running them non stop. So just a word of caution there are limits to Olivers claim of 4 season camper. Not trying to beat up on Oliver but from my perspective 4 season camper is relative. Thanks for the great suggestion.

We also have the rear view camera, however the factory installed one was stolen out of our truck a few years ago so I installed a different brand. Truthfully I really didn't like the factory installed one anyway, too gangly with all the wires and monitor was terrible. I installed a Fusion which was marginally better with the monitor and more importantly with a significantly smaller footprint. If I had it to do again would have bought another brand. Maybe Oliver has also changed the brand of rear view cameras by now compared to the original we had. They are very useful however, and wouldn't want to be without one.

My door sticker for tire inflation states 35 psi front and back for normal use, but there is a nebulous area in the manual hinting at raising tire pressure when towing but doesn't state anything specific in terms of PSI. Like others comments here I have mostly bought Michelins too and the ones I currently have are really nice and quiet and smooth riding, however probably not the best for running around in the backroads of Utah and other areas of the SW where we like to travel to as often as possible thus the interest in the highly rated Cooper AT3's. FWIW I have used Coopers on other vehicles with excellent results but not the AT3's. Thanks for the feedback.

Do you folks increase the tire pressure at least in the rear while towing and if so by how much? I have always done this albeit not scientifically and there seems to be no end to the amount of conflicting information about this on the internet. Some people swear the front tires need to be increased also, but this makes no logical sense to me. Thus far I have increased my rears from the recommended 35 psi to 40-45 psi but leave the fronts at their normal rating. Finally my current set of tires have been on my F150 for 9 years now and still not worn out and visually look fine, with probably another 10-15,000 miles left on them. I figure I should replace now before camping and touring season starts up. I currently have the Michelin LTX M/S on, but considering the Cooper Discover AT3 AS4's. Anyone have experience with either or have another suggestion. Thanks a bunch.

I also tow a Legacy Elite II with an F150 with 3.5 Eco Boost engine, and completely agree with the other comments you should get the 3.5 not the 2.7 L engine otherwise you're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. You'll be glad you did in the long run. However I do not nor ever have used the WDH for towing and still don't feel its necessary, at least for me, however this is a very personal decision. Good luck.

Here is my take on this issue. I truly believe a huge percentage of the RV market glut of the last couple of years will be short lived and as SeaDawg mentioned a good many of those campers will be setting in RV parking lots most of the time. Heck this was already the case long before the RV glut and from what I've seen a great deal of these new "camper people" are quite inexperienced at best. Yellowstone: Even this year there were a few of their campgrounds on a FCFS (first come first serve) basis, Indian Creek and about half of Pebble Creek. Regardless the only years I've ever seen empty campgrounds in YNP was during the housing bubble years of '08 and '09. My wife and I went down there on 4th of July weekend for a day hike or two only to be blown away that more than half of the campgrounds were still not full in early afternoon. Never saw that before nor sense. Glacier: Apgar, Avalanche and parts of Two Medicine and Swiftcurent are also FCFS or mixed with RSVP's. We were only able to get out once this summer season due to some family issues, (sister in law with Alzheimers) but on my scouting trips up in this neck of the woods I was able to find open campgrounds all over SW Montana and beyond quite easily. Excellent ones at that and if not the greatest campgrounds at least close to strategic places. Granted late Sunday-Thursdays are the best time to grab one but even on weekends empty campsites existed if you knew where to look. This brings up the next suggestion. Free Roam and the Ultimate Public Campground Apps. Wouldn't be without them. Free Roam specializes in free boon docking sites and while UPC app list free but also pay sites. Most importantly they list whether these public campgrounds are RSVP's or FCFS. Back in April we took off for TX to bring sister in law back to MT and had no problem what so ever traveling through UT and NM obtaining public campsites. It didn't hurt that we had traveled to these places numerous times and knew where to go for our favorites. Keep in mind this was smack dab in the middle of Spring break for many college students. However like others here, I am concerned about the future of easy camping the way most of us have known and loved for decades. The population of the US has at least tripled over the last 30-40 years and even if only a very small portion of this increase wants to camp one doesn't have to be a CPA to figure this will put additional burden on what existing wilderness and public lands we do have. Times have changed.

I was also thinking a cut to exact size piece of high density rigid insulation attached to the top of the solar panels would work to alleviate those sharp corners while also serving as a bit on protection from storms, hail and such.

@tallmandan are you saying this cover will not fit an Oliver that has solar panels mounted to the top? Its not clear to me from the photos but guessing it might not work with mounted panels.

You can buy 4 of these for the price of the CalMark and have money left over. The last time I checked the CalMark was over $1300 shipped. Thanks

While I've spent lots of time in NM I am not familiar with any of the CG's mentioned above other than the state park in Bernalillo. As stated its small, quiet and a bit tight but the worst part is getting in and out of the damn thing. Access is on a very busy highway often with some construction going on. More trouble than its worth unless its for just a night or two. Sounds like you need a full hook up site closer into ABQ. Best of luck.

I was forced into installing a Furrion a few years ago. The night before we were to leave on a trip someone broke into my truck and stole the monitor to the old Voyager that Oliver was installing at the time. FWIW while we used that device I also hated its gangly mess of wires and terrible picture quality and bulky size. The only available cameras locally were the Furriions so I bought that as a replacement and installed. Sorry I don't recall the model name or number so it may or may not be the Vision S. It is marginally better than the original Voyager but comes in a much smaller package which I appreciate.However the monitor itself is not very bright which is a problem when wearing shades while driving, its quite dim. The connection seems to be better however than the Voyager and can't recall too many times where the signal was lost but it can be jittery on occasions. Installation while not too difficult does take a bit of time, syncing was easy. Cutting to the chase if I had it to do over I would have purchased something different and may still do at some time in the future. There is another brand, sorry I don't recall the name that receives a much better review than either the Furrion or Voyager. My recommendation is do your homework before jumping in. Not sure this helps much.

Curious how heavy are these to flip out of the way to get into the basement areas? Memory foam as a rule tends to be heavy and gangly to deal with. Nice job on the cutting though.

Very familiar with his work, never met him but he is a very well respected landscape photographer. Understand too, its also possible in a smaller truck camper internal heat build up might be considerably higher than in our Olivers. For me I have never understood the allure and attraction to a truck camper though. Just don't get it but each to their own. Thanks

Interesting comments @Jim_Oker regarding hot weather and 3-way fridges. While I can't ever remember being in triple digits with our Oliver we have certainly been out in low to high 90's many times without issues or lack of cooling with our Dometic 3-way. Curious different peoples experience with these things.

Thats a lot of water! 😧

Likewise we don't drink water from the fresh water holding tank, for one it taste terrible with the plastic "infusion" and secondly the chances of bacterial growth are just not worth it. The fresh tank is used only for washing dishes and people. We do carry two BPA free 5 gallon jugs filled with our house water, then use a Brita water filter pitcher in conjunction with the 5 gallon jugs for drinking and cooking. 10 gallons of water will last nearly two weeks used strictly for drinking and cooking. Those containers are stored in the pick up truck bed while traveling. In my estimation anyone drinking regularly from a fresh water holding tank is asking for trouble, sooner or later.

A few additional thoughts. With our T@b and Dometic compressor fridge. I tried numerous things to dampen the noise, rumble and hum which helped but only a small amount. I applied dampening material to the actual compressor itself but don't recall the label/name that was on the actual compressor. Inside the cavity I also added quite a bit of insulation and dampening material to the cabinet sides. You could not sleep with the thing running, period. It went through battery power swiftly too. Granted those batteries in the T@b were small 12V, nothing like what we have in our Oliver, still it was a bitter experience. Regarding the 3-way currently available in the Oliver. I don't normally smell much in the way of exhaust but do feel the vented heat on occasion entering or existing though I'm not bothered by it. For anyone put off by the small amount of noise coming from the 3-way, they really aren't going to like a compressor fridge. We have the Dometic 3-way, can't help but wonder is the Norcold that much different with noise, smell and heat?

I would like to weigh in on this conversation having owned a compressor fridge back in the days we had our T@b before purchasing the Oliver. Let me just cut to the chase and say I hated that compressor fridge, it was a Dometic. I would never do another compressor fridge based upon that experience, and in fact it was so bad I ended up taking the darn thing out of camper and using the space for more storage. FWIW we have camped at high altitudes and never had an issue with our 3-way fridge in the Oliver and the freezer keeps my home made ice cream frozen solid. Just a few weeks ago we were camped at 8,000 feet for an entire week with no issues what so ever, and its dead quiet compared to an RV compressor fridge. In addition we have towed well over 20K miles using the auto setting on the 3-way and even with extremely steep, out of level ascents and descents out west the fridge has never cut off. While I always make an effort to have our Oliver level I also think people are making a mountain out of a mole hill regarding the leveling use of propane for the cooktop, furnace and fridge. On numerous occasions while stopped and way out of level all components worked just fine and again regardless of altitude. For anyone thinking they are going to obtain the home equivalent of a Bosch, LG, Samsung, GE compressor type fridge made for the RV industry is in for a rude surprise. They are noisy and very inefficient compared to the high quality versions made for the home. There really is no comparison in this regard. I certainly don't mean this as a diss on SeaDawg for their apparent success which seems to be very positive, but it certainly is not a route I would take or suggest. From my perspective there is a reason why 3-way fridge's are so prevalent in the RV industry. Hope this helps.

Good points John. My original shackles/bearings on the suspension also wore out very quickly and it was a notable difference with the EZ Flex upgrade.

One last thought on the subject, as to why the Olivers do track so well without swaying. During the factory tour with Robert Partee we got to talking about this and at that time seeing just the frame and large wheels naked without a cabin attached it occurred to me the reason for this stability unlike so many other travel trailers is the relative immense size of those wheels. Its not just the diameter of them which no doubt helps but also the distance from the center of each axel point which due to the size of the wheel tire combination has to be much further apart than a conventional trailers with their skimpy little 14" rims and crappy trailer tires. Modern day mountain bikes have almost all gone to 29" wheels. The reason is simple, better stability. While I haven't measured the relative difference in the diameter of Oliver wheel sets compared to conventional travel trailers my guess is there is at least a 25% increase in the size of the diameter, then spread those two pivot points further apart and you have a built in anti sway prevention system. Thats my two cents worth.

Likewise I also cannot ever remember anyone complaining of sway issues with an Oliver. These things are just amazing in this regard.

Its also worth pointing out that most newer trucks and SUVs equipped with a towing packaging have electronic computer controlled anti sway built into the system and they work very well based upon my experience. This isn't to say the Oliver doesn't track well, it certainly does, just pointing out there are built in transparent systems that help with safety in this area. I suspect adding a mechanical system to a vehicle already equipped with electronic computer controlled anti sway might confuse or hamper the effectiveness it. Just a thought.

I will concur with what Mike and ScubaRX stated albeit with far fewer miles. I'm at over 20K, never any sway even in extreme windy conditions such as 60-80+ mph winds. In addition have made a few emergency maneuvers without an issue. I also do not use anti-sway or WDH hitches with my F150 PU. Cheap stick built trailers are made to a much lower order than the Oliver.

Like Mike, same here with the backup camera assist in our truck its piece of cake really. I've also done many solo trips several hundred miles away with no issues so far and I am not alone in these type of endeavors. There are many RV'ers doing the same.