Mike and Carol

Winter camping at Zion National Park. No crowds. It was about 60 degrees this afternoon, short sleeves in the sun. Scenery is spectacular. We’re at Watchman campground.

6 Olivers a week ago in Catalina State Park just north of Tucson. Met some new Oliver friends!

I went with Battle Born because they are assembled in the US, they have great customer service and I know several others that went with them and were satisfied customers. Mike

I used a local graphic designer and a local print shop. It sounds like Banana Banners does good work. Mike

I got the box on Amazon 4 or 5 years ago. It was about $100. It holds my chocks and blocks, gloves and locks. Not much overhang. If you do a search on aluminum box there’s a thread in there about the installation.

Sunrise at Dead Horse Ranch State Park just south of Sedona in the town of Cottonwood. Just 20 minutes from Sedona. This is Red Rock State Park a few miles north of Dead Horse Ranch State Park. No camping here but some nice hiking. We hiked to the top of the “hill” behind me for some great views. Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

Ours has looked like that for a while. I keep meaning to fix it…..

Don’t winterize. Pick up your trailer and camp in it as planned. You’ll be fine. We’ve been out a couple of weeks, it’s been below freezing almost every night. We just make sure our water hose is not attached when we go to bed. We’ll be in Zion National Park tomorrow for a week or so, night time temps will below freezing the whole time, 40s and low 50s daytime. Mike (Our first night in Catalina State Park, AZ the forecast said a low of 34. I left our water connected. Woke up to 29. Our hose was frozen solid! I didn’t move it and it thawed out by noon. Thankfully, no damage. Left the hose off the rest of the week and used the water tank. We did that last week at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, too)

Maybe Coy @hardrock will give us an update.

Pete’s Tacoma was the same model that I had and it had a towing capacity of 6,500 and a 650 lb tongue weight.

Our logo has been on for almost 6 years. There’s a small spot at the top where it separated, maybe 1/8”, it’s hard to see unless you’re on a ladder looking. I installed it at our first campsite, after pick up in Hohenwald, at Land Between the Lakes. I had a local graphic designer draw it up based on what we wanted (Texas star, compass points and Oliver winding road, in red and gray). A local print shop printed it on some kind of 3M material. I actually have two of the big ones (23.5” diameter) and 6 smaller 5” diameter.

Do a search for aluminum box. Maybe this will help? https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/3292-aluminum-tongue-tool-box/#comment-32114 Mike

I’ve never jackknifed either. We’ve had a couple of tight spots but maneuvered without any extreme trailer positioning.

Looks like you’re in the right spot for a spectacular sunset!

If you have any flexibility even AZ state parks will have some availability on short notice this time of year. If you aren’t flexible then you need to start making reservations about 12 months out!!

On both of my Ram 1500’s the lowered tailgate hit the top of the Andersen hitch. On my Ram 2500, with no Andersen, the tailgate doesn’t even come close to hitting the hitch. Mike

You can use your Blue Sky display to see what you’ve got going out and coming in. A low winter sun combined with a cloudy or rainy sky will limit your solar panels. We had to pull out the generator when camped at Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks a few years ago. Low sun angle and clouds prevented the solar from fully charging our batteries during the day. Your Blue Sky display should tell you what kind of phantom draw you have. Steve’s estimate of .4aH is a little lower than ours. If I turn everything off I still get .6 to .7aH draw. We store under cover so now I just turn the batteries off with a battery cut off switch that I installed. Mike

Here’s my feeble attempt, windsocks not flags.

The Outlaw Oliver has a nice flag pole setup. @ScubaRx

Sunset tonight at Catalina State Park!

Lance, it was great meeting and getting to know you. Ollie owners are the best! Mike

Agree with Bill. Oliver had us stay at Fall Hollow the night of our pick up. It needed work (that was 6 years ago). The owners are nice and we stayed in their B&B twice and enjoyed the hearty breakfast that was cooked for us. It’s convenient to the Oliver facility but I would check it out to see where they are now.

I agree that there are a bunch of nice state parks in the Tennessee system. We’ve stayed at those mentioned and recently a couple that are a little further from Hohenwald, Fall Creek Falls State Park and Panther Creek State Park. Both nice. Also near Nashville and closer to Hohenwald are Cedar Creek COE and Seven Points COE, both also very nice. Water and electric. Good luck! Mike

We’re camped in Catalina State Park just north of Tucson. It’s a popular park, so reservations need to be made well in advance. There are 4 other Olivers here, two of them that we’ve camped with many times before.

Everyone is different. It’s nice that you camp as you did in the 80’s. A lot of us like to explore our National Parks and Monuments. Most of the campgrounds in these areas have no hook ups. We’ve discovered the capabilities of our Oliver allow us to spend time in some very scenic areas without being concerned with power requirements. Like you, we do like FHU commercial campgrounds, occasionally. But, nothing beats being out in a National Park or some even more remote areas, with no other campers nearby, enjoying a quiet sunset with a nice glass of wine. Life is good! Mike