Mike and Carol

Buzzy, yes - my hat matches my trailer. Had some patches made from our trailer graphic. Am I going a little overboard?

Pete, I will take the Lone Star Oliver over to The Brake Company. My trailer brakes do feel a little anemic. Seems like with my brake controller at max boost I should feel some kind of abrupt braking. The water draining out of the tube at the back of the trailer was the same today as you saw when we were at Fair Oaks Automotive getting our inspection. If it's condensation from the AC, no problem. I need to look under the bed and see what's going on. We'll do Big Bend during the cool weather so we don't have to contend with thirsty boar!

Any RV park that has "Resort" in its name means it's going to be something other than rustic. This is actually a Class A resort park where folks own their site and often build permanent structures next to where they park. It's got almost everything - a store, workout facility two pools (one adult only), a small theater, putting green, party facilities, cabins to rent, and on and on. What's missing are trees. There are some, but for a Texas RV park many more are needed. Level concrete pads, full hook ups, picnic table and cable TV. Kerrville is a great little town to visit (home of Johnny Manziel, failed NFL QB). It's about 90 minutes north of San Antonio on I-10. There's a great city park and hiking trail along the Guadelupe River, a nice antique mall, lots of shops in the old downtown area and many seasonal events.

Dave, agree 100%. Normally I slow down as I reach the peak of a hill so I start the down hill slower and keep it slower. I know this particular stretch of I-10 and wanted to see what happened on this long downhill with the cruise control on. Based on what happened today, I think I will use a combination of the manual shifting and brakes with cruise control OFF to keep my speed down. Think I'll check with the factory on the AC. It's only and occasional drip, but a little worrisome. Thanks. Mike

We are just back from 4 days in Kerrville, TX. Hot weather, great time! We have some random questions and would be interested in everyone's thoughts and opinions. 1. Brake Controller - On my new Ram, the brake controller has settings for "light electric" and "heavy electric" trailers. I have tried both settings and on maximum boost on either one I'm not sure I'm getting enough. To test, I get up to about 20mph, take foot off the gas and manually engage the brake controller. The trailer brakes engage and slow the truck to a stop, but it takes a good distance, about the length of the truck and trailer. Is this what I should expect? 2. Water leak? - This morning when I raised the front jack to hook up some water drained out of the white tube at the back of the trailer on the drivers side. Not a lot, enough to make about a 12" puddle on the concrete. It did this once before when I was stopped on an incline with the front higher than the back. Is this normal? I haven't looked under the bed yet, if it is a leak what could it be? 3. Bathroom fan - I always pull it closed before we tow, when I stop it is always open. I can't see that there is any way to secure it other than friction. Am I missing something? 4. AC drip - We get an occasional drip from the AC that drips down between the twin beds. Not a lot, maybe a drip every 10 or 15 minutes. Just condensation? 5. Gray tank - We try to keep food particles out of the gray tank, wiping dishes before washing. We were talking about draining canned beans, doesn't seem like that liquid would be an issue. What kind of things does everyone keep out of the gray tank? Are we over thinking things? 6. Braking while going downhill - The Ram has a Tow/Haul mode. 65mph is what we usually do. Coming home today on I-10, I used cruise control set at 65 in Tow/Haul. On downhills the truck downshifted to maintain 65. I didn't need to brake. On one long 7% grade it downshifted a couple times and we still got up to 70 at which point I started to brake for short periods to stay under 70. Is it preferable to use brakes or the engine to maintain downhill speed? I assume the trailer brakes are not activated when the engine is used. Seems like a big load back there pushing. We learn something new every time we go out. We had a bunch of compliments this weekend. One guy said he had never heard of Oliver and was going back to his rig to do some googling! Mike

Like Pete I was towing with a Tacoma, but I have the larger Elite II. The Tacoma did a respectable job and I never had any issues towing in all kinds of conditions - strong winds, rain, interstates with trucks passing, ups and downs in the Ozarks. I would think a bigger F150 and the Elite would be a good combination. Bigger truck, smaller trailer. My big push....!

We are out camping so I just grabbed my tape measure and took a couple of pics. It is not adjustable. Looks likes about 38" from the center of the hitch to the jack.

This was on my desk when I got to work this morning from a thoughtful co-worker. Need to find a place for it in the Ollie!

Stan, great story and happy anniversary! Mike

Robert, the Andersen shouldn't be making any noise. Like Buzzy, mine is quiet. After a couple of months and about a dozen hook ups I've never had to get in the dirt or adjust the chains. Once you get it adjusted right it is pretty easy to use. Post some pictures and I'm sure one of our more experienced users can help. Mike

Sherry, as new Oliver owners we appreciate the willingness of the old timers to help and give advice/assistance online (and in person - thanks Steve/Tali and neighbor Pete). I hope as the "community of Oliver" grows it stays that way! Might need to have an Oliver Rally sometime....

Bill, great pictures. Looks like an interesting and economical place to camp! Mike

I have to agree. For its small size, Oliver has been very willing to incorporate new features into its production line. It wouldn't surprise me if their R&D folks are some of the same guys assembling these quality trailers.

Sherry, 150K miles is good news. I'm a firm believer in preventive and regular maintenance. Mike

Stan, I hope to get better mpg as we do some longer trips. 13+ would be good. 12-13 is what I was getting from my Tacoma, but was running premium due to the supercharger. My past trucks have all been Fords and Toyotas (and one International Harvester!) so this is my first experience with Ram. So far I'm really happy with it. Steve, your bed slide is something to be envious of. Once we get more experienced and know what we will be carrying in the truck bed it will be a consideration. After last weekend I've added a stand for my Weber gas grill and a small table.

We pulled in to our site last week and I started putting down the jacks. Front and road side jacks went down, curb side jack just went click, click, click. After a quick text to Steve (Scubarx) I lifted the bed and forced the jack down back on the track with the manual handle. I always try to stop before I hit the top when retracting the jacks, but not being able to see them requires a second set of eyes or constantly stopping and looking. Lesson learned, you might hear that click, click, click when trying to put the jack down if you heard the click, click, click when you raised it! Thanks to Steve for quick advice to help out a new owner.

Trying to attach a picture with the right aspect ratio....

Another picture...

Just back from our first trip with the new truck. We did a long weekend in Fredericksburg, TX. Lot's to do there, more to follow. We traded in our trusty 2012 Tacoma on a new Ram 1500, 4X4, 5.7L Hemi, Crew cab, short bed. It's the Lone Star trim level, a Texas thing, that's the same as the Big Horn everywhere else. Main reasons for the change were the small gas tank on the Tacoma and the weight limitation. I wanted some specific features on the new truck for towing but didn't want to go through the wait of ordering - big gas tank, brake controller, and 3.92 rear axle. We found one a few hours away in the right color with all the electronic gadgets and doo-dads. It certainly feels like a big truck compared to the Tacoma. Quiet and comfortable. Bottom line, towing was much less effort than with the Tacoma (surprise!). I put it in "Tow/Haul" mode and let it do it's thing. It's only about 50 miles from our house to Fredericksburg, half freeway and half state highway. All hills, not much level road. Gas mileage was about 12mpg. Heading north on I-10W I kept it at 65 and on the state highway between 60 and 65mph. Hope to get better mpg on level ground. It maintained steady speed up all the hills. If in cruise control, the transmission would downshift on some of the downhills so braking was minimal (it has the 8-speed automatic). Speaking of braking, the brake controller is much easier to set and adjust over the Prodigy P3 that I had hanging under the dash on the Toyota. I also appreciate being able to have what it's doing displayed on the dash. Also, being able to check truck tire pressure, temps for oil, coolant and transmission is nice. Lots of information and data. All in all I'm happy with the switch. The only drawbacks so far are that it won't fit in the garage (yet) and it's not as easy to reach things in the bed. I did have to drop the ball on my Andersen hitch one notch and tighten the chains a couple of turns.

We ordered one of these and put it on the door of the fridge like Stan did and it is staying put. Just back from a trip and no signs of it coming off. Might get a second one to put on the pantry door. The only downside is that, at first, I was reaching for it to open the door of the fridge! Mike

I think that without the supercharger it would still be adequate but there would be significant slowing on hills. The supercharger adds 30% to both HP and torque. There is still the upper limit of 6500lbs with or without it. The new model Tacoma has a smaller V6, 3.5L, but increased power over the old 4.0L. It was really two things that got me looking at a bigger truck - fuel tank size and weight. As I look at making some trips out west, I don't want to be constantly searching for gas stations and worrying about tanks that should be emptied and cargo that shouldn't be carried. This was our second Tacoma, good reliable trucks that fit in the garage! I'm having to do some rearranging of garage cabinets to get this new truck in. Right now it lives in the driveway. Mike

We picked up our trailer in May and took 10 days to meander back to San Antonio. We towed with a 2012 Tacoma, TRD Sport, 4.0L V6, 2 wheel drive with the TRD Supercharger. HP is 306 and torque 320. We left Hohenwald and drove north to Land Between the Lakes on the KY side. We then drove west to Branson, MO and stayed at Table Rock Lake State Park. From there we went south into Arkansas to Crater of Diamonds State Park. Then, we headed west to Mother Neff State Park just south of Waco. Then we drove south to Boerne/Fair Oaks Ranch/home. There was a good mix of mountains (Ozarks) and flat land. We also had heavy rain and a very windy day. Mostly 2 lane highways, but a 35 mile interstate stretch and then Waco to home was US281 which is mostly 4 lane and 75mph speed limit. I kept my speed between 60 and 65. In all cases the Tacoma performed well. A couple of the climbs in the Ozarks resulted in speed drops from 60-65 down to 50-55. We pulled up most hills with no drop in speed (supercharger helped). As far as stability, the really windy day (north winds while we were driving west) required effort to stay in my lane. Semi's passing us on the interstate caused no issues. I know part of that is due to the stability of the Oliver. Braking was fine. My gas mileage while towing was 12-13 mpg. One tank was 11.3, but the others were in the 12's or 13's. Negatives: the gas tank is too small. After 125-150 miles I was at half a tank or below and looking for a place to fuel up. Also, knowing that we were at 80% of our weight limit I was always concerned with water tank levels and cargo. Not much room for increasing weight. Verdict: I would say the Tacoma is an adequate tow vehicle for the big Oliver. It should be a very good tow vehicle for the small Oliver. That being said, I did trade in my trusty Tacoma last week for a bigger truck. The Tacoma was 5 years old with 100K miles. Plus, I got bit by the new truck bug! We're going further up into Texas Hill country this weekend to Fredericksburg with the new truck. Will post impressions on the difference in towing between the Tacoma V6 and a big V8/bigger truck.

I agree with John. There are several good videos on YouTube that explain how the hitch works. Also, Andersen has videos there that show how to correct misalignment and how to replace parts. I watched Tommy and crew install the hitch on my truck and I asked questions. I don't think there is enough information provided on the day of pick up. The videos I watched before delivery helped. I have found that once the hitch is installed and adjusted it is very easy to take on and off by simply removing the pin and dropping the triangle plate - it's just a matter of knowing how to introduce some slack in the chains by raising the trailer.

I have not looked at that part of the hitch since we left the factory. I'm going to add that to the checklist. A visual check to ensure there are the same number of threads showing and that nothing has loosened or changed. Mike

Leigh, I will be interested in what the experienced folks have to say. I'm hardly one of them, but this is what I do. When I'm unhitching all I do is raise the trailer off of the ball another inch or so after it comes loose. By then there is enough slack in the chains to drop the triangle without messing with the red bushings. When it is time to hitch back up, it's just the opposite - after I get the hitch lined up, I raise the trailer until there is enough slack in the chains to reconnect the triangle plate. Lowering the trailer onto the hitch tightens the chains so I don't have to do anything to the red bushings. I don't know what would have caused yours to come loose. Maybe some of the more experienced Andersen users will have better information. Mike