John Welte

"I'd carry an extra old one, from your grill, or a garage sale, in a milk crate to keep it upright, in the truck bed." We will be towing with a Ford Expedition, so no truck bed. Can an extra 20 pound tank be put into a milk crate and stored in the basement storage area? We're leaning towards the tongue storage box, but won't have to finalize options until August. I was figuring on using that box storage area for chocks, levelers and the things that push against both tires to stabilize the trailer, basically for things needed for set-up. I don't know if a tank would fit along with everything else.

We have had a tent trailer for 19 years that's 18 feet long. I found that backing that was much easier than our neighbor's 8 foot landscape trailer. I once rented a small trailer with a rototiller that was maybe 5 feet long that was very hard to back up. I am anticipating an easier time with the Ollie that we will get in November due to its size. Anyone else have similar experiences with shorter trailers and find them harder to back up?

I understand that used truck inventory is limited and the prices are higher. Not sure if this is still a problem, but it's been mentioned before that there's a shortage of trucks and vehicles in general.

I am also. Our delivery date is November 7 so we have until mid August to finalize options.

"If you plan on using one a bunch then something like the Viair is really good. But, a compressor that expensive is really not necessary for most applications." I saw lots of models of Viair compressors. It does seem like a good idea to have one. What model do you use? Can that also be used for any winterizing? When I take my tent trailer in for winterizing they blow out the lines to get rid of trapped water. Thanks

That was my thought after reading the forum. You all have been very helpful. Hopefully the weather will be OK then.

We're due to pick up on November 7. I am taking notes too. I think you're picking up in the summer if I recall. I am going to get a tire pressure monitoring system for the trailer. Someone advised that. Do you have a portable air compressor? Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that I must learn.

Good clarification. Thanks.

I haven't thought about that before. I typically arrive empty and hook up water at the campground and fill, but I can see more boondocking in the Oliver so it might be useful to carry those six gallons extra.

Hi all, you may remember that my wife was hesitant to buy an Oliver due to cost. We paid our deposit today! We chose November 7 as it's a Monday so if we encounter any issues we can high tail it back to the Oliver people before heading back to Oregon. Thanks for all your posts. It's been very helpful. You haven't heard the last from me. It's probably been the tip of the iceberg actually. Have a good weekend.

I paid my deposit today also. Estimated 🚚 day of November 7. When is yours?

I hope they prosecute him!

Very fool proof. It's what we have done for years too.

We're wrestling with the decision now. The 2023 will be higher. A guess when I talked to OTT was $4500 more. Part of the increased price will be offset by fewer months of paying for covered storage with electrical connection. The price for that here in our part of Oregon is about $250-350/month. My wife retires in December so with our weather, we figured we wouldn't really be able to use it much until April, 2023.

I was talking to Oliver yesterday as we don't need the trailer until March/April 2023 and asked the salesman (name withheld) about what he knew about the 2023 model. He is quite sure it will be a higher price. Maybe $4500 more. He doesn't know what changes are planned. 2022 had several changes. I have read here that many people don't like the present A/C due to noise. There was a mysterious A/C on a unit that someone determined was a Truma. I would guess that they are looking at changing the A/C. Just my guess. We're not sure if we want to order for this year and save $4500 or wait to get the 2023.

They accept absolutely no responsibility!

Thanks. I read the article also. I wonder how common this is. I definitely will stay away from that town. Maybe a database should be started to alert us all where we don't want to travel through. Just a thought.

Seems like a good idea. If the dump station is level (quite unlikely), what side of the rear of the truck should be raised with blocks and do you owners do that?

I thought the same thing. How is that done?

That is a good argument for getting the 20 lb bottles. My wife who is 69 can dead lift 205 pounds. She's trying for 245. Maybe she could take out the 30 lb without breaking a sweat.

How often do you need to take the 30 lb bottles out. Someone said that in some places (I think it was Vail) you can't pull the trailer up to the propane filling filling station and you need to remove the bottles for filling.

It's a very popular road to drive. I am not surprised that they have superchargers.

I wrestle with the idea that hauling a trailer around is bad for the environment, but I rationalize that over the years our average mpg has gone up as we get more fuel efficient vehicles. Is that a concern that's shared by others? We don't have any electric cars, only one ebike.

Sherry, usually just one other guy. No chase vehicle. We carry everything and camp mostly. Spring, 2019 was very wet from Missouri to New Brunswick so we moteled it there for the last half. I have met lots of other bike tourers from all over the world. A Dutch guy rode from Alaska to southern South America. Hearing his stories was a bit hair raising. With the Ollie I plan to bring bikes along and go on some Rails to Trails segments with my wife. Minnesota and New York have great ones. Missouri and Nebraska too.

"I have never dreamed of going across the US. I think I would wimp out after 2 weeks. 7-10 day rides are enough. Although I would like to start discovering some of the Rails to Trails as we we take our Oli across the nation." The first two weeks are the hardest unless you had time to train and get saddle time in. The first time from Seattle to Bar Harbor, Maine I did train for it. The Australian guy who planned our trip didn't have the chance. You just go shorter miles initially and get stronger. We started with 30 mile days but a month in were doing 70-90 miles on loaded bikes. Think of it as just a lot of daily bike rides and it's not so scary. Definitely, the Rails to Trails are great and I plan to explore more of those. We will order our Oli soon for March/April 2023 delivery.