Mike and Carol

The TAB 400 is a nice trailer. The Oliver will be a different experience! Enjoy Wyoming, Grand Teton NP is one we plan on returning to since we enjoyed it so much the first time! Mike

We had a great visit to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. We stayed at Mazama campground, which is pretty large (6 loops), mostly no hook ups except for a dozen or so electric sites in loop F. It’s about 6,000 feet elevation, temps this week were low 40s at night and mid 70s during the day. Not bad for August. It’s been 100 degrees back home in Texas this week! There’s a nice camp store and lodge close by with a nice gift shop and restaurant (we didn’t utilize). The lake itself is pretty awesome. It’s the deepest lake in the US, almost 2,000 feet. No inlet or outlet, fed only by rain and snow melt (44’/year). The movie at the visitor center was interesting and explained in detail how the crater was formed. We did a hike part way around the crater, which is at 7,000’. Our campsite is a short pull through on a one way road that put us on the wrong side for this type of site. Our door opens to the street and we have everything else on the other side. All of the pull throughs on this side of the street have the same issue. Not a big deal, just a bit tight maneuvering in to the site.

Good info, John. Thanks! Mike

Congratulations and welcome to the group. We’re here to help! Mike

We usually stay at Durango Ranch RV Resort, it’s on highway 550 just south of town. We’ll be there the end of September on our way back from the PNW. We had friends who stayed at Alpen Rose RV park in Durango and were happy. There’s also a nice RV Park in Bayfield, a little bit of a drive but a nice park. We’ve stayed there a couple of times. It used to be named Bayfield RV park now it’s Outdoorsy Bayfield.

Do you have a trailer store (horse, farm, H-haul, etc) nearby that could do some checking? In the end it will probably be something simple, something someone with some automotive or trailer electrical experience could run down.

We had that experience at home while testing in the driveway. Once I got into the house the signal dropped, still had a bar but it was noticeable. I deployed the mini router and the situation was fixed. I guess it depends on the number of walls the signal has to go through. We’re now at Lassen National Park, the tree coverage is more dense but I found a small opening and the Starlink is doing its thing. Mike

We haven’t needed our router yet. With the dish on the box on the tongue we get a strong signal. I’ve now got it on the truck tonneau cover, we’re under a lot of trees (Lake Tahoe, CA). Even with a narrow view of the sky it’s working well. My sophisticated mount. Sky view. There’s a bunch of satellites racing through that blue patch.

Lower Lehman is closed. Lots of work going on there. I think Wheeler Peak is also closed.

I plug the SL into the Jackery for 110 power. Here I have the dish sitting on aluminum box on the tongue and Wi-Fi is plenty strong both inside the trailer and behind the trailer where we’re sitting. I have the mini router but haven’t needed it yet. Heading to Lake Tahoe today.

We’ve been camping in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada the last few days. Our campground (Upper Lehman) is at about 7,700 feet, small and no hookups. There are only a few sites large enough for our Oliver. We’re pretty happy with our site, #3. There are a few other campgrounds, also small. The Wheeler Peak campground is at 10,000 feet. We went up there and did a 3 mile hike to a couple of alpine lakes. The air can be a little thin up there when hiking uphill!

I’m okay with this change. It will be interesting to see how low “low-speed data” is. We’re currently camped at Great Basin National Park with very sketchy cell service and the Starlink mini is working great. No utilities here so I’m using a Jackery power supply that was 50% off on Amazon prime day. No complaints. Mike

We use the speakers quite a bit. I bought a small used SiriusXM receiver from Amazon 7 or 8 years ago. I wired it into the Furrion and we can listen to news, sports and any of the music stations wherever we are. Mike

Rob, going north on 550 keeps you mostly in the inside lane against the mountain. Going south you’re mostly on the outside lane which can seem more intimidating. This is all between Silverton and Ouray. The western route takes a little longer but we enjoy it too. Ditto on Durango, we love it here. Mike

We’re camping in Durango now, only at 6,400’ but it was 52 degrees this morning. Late sept through mid Oct will be cold, and expect Some snow. Some campgrounds between here and Telluride close at the end of September or sometime in October! Mike

We have done 550 several times each way with our previous Ram 1500’s. The grades up and down were not a big issue. Traffic moves at a leisurely pace and almost everyone drives cautiously and at a reasonable speed. You have to respect the road. We’ve also done the drive between Durango and Ridgway many times towing with our 2500, braking is mostly taken care of by the engine brake. We’ve also done the trip west through Delores and Rico on 160 and 145 that takes you by Telluride. It’s scenic in a different way, a little longer but a nice way to go. We’re currently camping in Durango visiting our son and family on our way to the PNW. He commuted up 550 weekly to Grand Junction for a year when he was working there. He said it was closed a few times due to heavy snow, but other than that he never had an issue. Mike

We’re very happy with the electronics in our 2020 Ram 2500. The CarPlay works everytime, the camera views are great and the other electronic gizmo’s are nice. The big center screen for media and maps makes the driving experience enjoyable. I bet the new Rams are even better. Mike

I recommend you leave your inverter off until you need to use 110, especially with AGM’s. As mentioned above, just having your inverter on and not being used draws down battery capacity. We rarely turn our inverter on.

Another Nevada owner that was very active on this forum was John Roemer @Raspy. He sold his Oliver for a Black Series, then moved on to other interesting travel trailers. He did a lot of mods, I forgot who bought his trailer, but it is still around.

Ralph, I tried replacing the sleeve on that hitch back in 2017 and couldn’t get it out. I contacted Andersen and they sent me a new assembly in exchange for the old one. The linked thread below is from a 2016 thread on the Andersen where I described trying to get the sleeve out. In those days Andersen was on this forum and answered questions. Mike My Andersen post in 2017

My brake issue was resolved after I posted my issue on this forum and another owner offered that he had the same issue and what he did to solve the problem. It turns out that it was a Dexter issue of excess wire wear due to how they ran/configured the brake wires. Several other owners have also had this issue. It will be interesting to see what your mobile tech finds out.

Agree. There should be some explanation/announcement/heads up from Oliver.

Oliver was quick to reimburse any warranty repairs at a local RV repair shop. I’m assuming that would continue if the dealers are going away. We had a couple of warranty things repaired locally years ago and Oliver sent us a check to cover the repairs. I’m always looking for an excuse to go to Tennessee, one of our favorite places to camp and visit. Mike

I know Princess Craft was an Oliver dealer, just checked their website and no Olivers. Not good. Mike

Here is a link to a thread on how to put the map in your signature. Mike Signature Map