Mike and Carol

I’ve been doing the same with good results.

Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion.

We store our trailer in a covered space but otherwise open to the elements. It gets pretty hot here in the San Antonio area during summer (April - September, 90’s to low 100’s). The other 6 months aren’t as extreme, but we still have some hot days. After 5+ years we’ve had no heat damage. I would not worry about the Louisiana heat.

I used an Andersen when towing my Elite II with a Tacoma and Ram 1500. When I got my Ram 2500, I removed the Andersen from my trailer. I’ve done several thousand miles now without the Andersen and have not had any issues at all. On the positive side, it is much easier to hitch up. Weight distribution is not necessary with the 2500, I only get an inch or so of drop when I hitch up. Sway has not been an issue either.

I had two Tacoma’s, a 2009 and 2012. Both were excellent. The 2012 was well north of 100K miles when I traded it for a Ram 1500. It just wasn’t cut out to tow an Elite II.

We saw Lyle Lovett at a George Strait concert in Las Vegas a couple years ago. He’s eccentric but good.

We don’t use any chemicals. After a dump, we drop in a detergent pod (usually Arm and Hammer, but whatever is cheap) and a capful of Calgon water softener. When we get home I use Happy Campers in addition while it is stored. Google “Geo Method”, it’s worked well for us for 5+ years. Sherry is right, we can usually find the liquid Calgon at Walmart, but when we can’t Amazon will get it to us in a couple of days.

I’ve been reading about some significant challenges getting through Canada over on AirForums. Hopefully that situation is resolved before your trip.

We picked up our Elite II with a Tacoma. It had the TRD Supercharger, so power was decent. The problem we ran into was two fold: first, the gas tank isn’t very big and gas mileage was poor. I was looking for a gas station every 150 to 200 miles. Second, payload weight was marginal and the bed was small, so we had to be selective on what we loaded. I upgraded to a Ram 1500 with the 5.7L V8 and got better gas mileage than the Tacoma. I recently upgraded to a Ram 2500 with the 6.7L Cummins and my gas mileage has improved even more, plus there are no issues with the amount of cargo I load.

Hey Swamp, welcome! Anxious to see photos and hear tales about your future Oliver travels! Mike

Ours is Dometic also.

Can you say “contrasting style”? Fun to watch.

I tried once to move my ball manually too, with a breaker bar. Nope, wouldn’t budge. Did some research and that is the anti-sway at work. You shouldn’t be able to move it, but a 5-6,000 lb trailer can.

I think the SMEV in our trailer is the same as yours. Works well for us.

We’ve been using ours for 5 years. Travel with it on the floor. No problem yet. It’s good to know their customer service is responsive. Mike

We have a small Vornado heater that’s now 5 years old. It is small, very quiet and has 3 settings, 750W, 1150W and 1500W. We rarely need to use the highest setting. Our’s isn’t digital, but they do make models with a digital readout. Check Amazon.

This is worth watching!

Raspy sold his Oliver a couple of years ago and is now in a Black Series HQ19. He’s not on the forum much, you could PM him and he’ll check out your post. Mike

We’re heading out in a few weeks for KY, TN, AL and AR. We’re going to do some Bourbon trail touring. We’ll be home a few weeks in June the will be in Colorado the month of July. Our COVID shots are done as well. As far as I’m concerned we’re back to normal. Mike

Hey Dewey, welcome! We’ve been able to fit our trailer into some pretty tight spots, so you will open up a bunch of camping as you know from your 18’ experience. Lots of question answerers and opinion givers here! Mike

His No Bo (Forest River No Boundaries) isn’t a toy hauler, it’s got a queen bed and two bunks (his kids are 5 and 8). It’s under 4K pounds so should be easy to tow with his PW. The picture is the trailer being delivered from Houston a few days ago. This is the only truck picture he’s sent me. He’s in Durango.

My son just bought a 2021 Ram 2500 Power Wagon with the trailer back up feature. He also just bought a 19’ No Bo travel trailer, first time owner, so I know he’ll be using that feature. He’s taking it out this weekend so I’ll be asking for a full report. Mike

It’s great to see all these ideas. For us, the black tank is our limiting factor when dry camping. The composting toilet wasn’t available when we ordered, I guess I could swap out. I just wish Oliver would use a larger capacity black tank.

When we were doing my lithium upgrade and rewiring we noticed the mounting board for my inverter had come lose at the bottom. Epoxied and braced, now all is well. Mike

at the non-rally