Overland

Logo time! Here are the final candidates. Oliver is letting me use their '4-seasons' logo as the frame for a snowflake design of some sort. I thought that was a nice tie-in. We've pretty much zeroed in on the top middle logo for the front and either the bottom left or right on the back. I'd love to hear some feedback on the design and other ideas. I'm trying to decide how big to do the front logo. If Oliver does it, the limit is 20", but I honestly have no reference as to how large or small that would look. Any guidance from those of you who have done your own, especially round ones, would be appreciated. I think the Lone Star Oliver's logo is about the perfect size. The spare tire logo, too, is a bit of a puzzle. Pete has his full size smiley, which looks fantastic, though I don't know how he worked around the center bolt. I'd planned to cover the whole thing, and had Oliver put the license plate to the side for that purpose, but now I'm having second thoughts on having that large of a logo on the back. I might have a small 4" version made to go by the door. At the moment, we've got nothing on the sides. I'd like to come up with something related to the logo, but so far nothing inspires me. Anyway, thoughts?

Just to follow up, I got a nice phone call from Scott yesterday. We mostly talked about some specific issues with our trailer delivery (solved), and chatted about Oliver in general, but we did talk briefly about the customer service issues. I know that they’re committed to solving all of these problems, it's just that those of us in the 200-club have had and will have our patience tried while Oliver finds a way through their growing pains.

Love the logo.

This is a timely conversation for me, given that just Friday I had a small dust up with Oliver's sales staff that stemmed entirely from poor communication and not following up on commitments. Emails not returned, phone calls not returned, promises to follow up that aren't kept - it's a surprise when I don't encounter any of that. Like Dave, a regular theme I've run into is that I'll ask three questions in an email but only one will be answered, and often so minimally that it requires an additional string of emails to try to tease out the information I need. It's bad enough and common enough that I often wearily decide it's not worth the effort. I also find I have difficulty on the phone with them. I was born and raised in the south but even so, I thought at first it was something oddly cultural that we almost just weren't using the same language. But I've decided that the problem is simply that when I talk with someone there I'm just not receiving their full attention. There's often a bit of a pause after I've said something that makes it seem like they're doing something else instead of listening to me. And often their replies seem like they weren't listening to the question. I have to say though that Anita is always the exception to this - she is invariably attentive, helpful and professional - and when I do get Jason the phone or face to face it's obvious that he's giving me his full attention. (Jason I think is just being pulled in too many directions to be as responsive as I'd like.) And I can say that 100% of any frustration that I've had with Oliver could have been prevented with decent communication and follow up, either between Oliver and me, or among themselves. There's a point in every small company's growth at which they're forced to transition from being small but accommodating, to being big but professional, and Oliver hasn't made it through that transition yet. And of course, despite the above, we are on the whole pleased with Oliver and remain thoroughly excited about receiving our trailer someday.

I'm curious if the CradlePoint WiFi is strong enough to reach the vehicle. Is the antenna that you had on the back of your Ollie part of the CradlePoint package or is that from a third party? I dig the umbrella stand. I'll have to look into the LevelMate - it sounds like a great solution especially when traveling solo..

There are pros and cons to the Zamp system, as pointed out. I think Oliver is in the right for the majority of their customers. The ultimate solution would be for them to offer the Zamp as the standard package and then the Blue Sky or similar as a 'pro' package. I'm a fan of Victron equipment and think that it would offer the best of both worlds, but I think it's unlikely that Oliver will switch from Zamp anytime in the near future. The real issue is that a group of owners were caught in the transition between the two systems and feel that they got a lesser system than what they paid for. I sympathize and agree. Oliver will sell you an 'off the menu' 420 watt system if you ask. I'm also working with them on a 640 watt system for my trailer which may or may not ever be offered, as there are some mounting issues to be overcome. My personal opinion is that 420w, plus an expansion port, is the sweet spot for most users, but 360w plus the expansion port is far from awful. After all, you can get a 200w solar suitcase system from Zamp that you can place anywhere; the drawbacks being storage of the panels (they ain't small nor lightweight), the trouble of deploying them, and the risk of theft if left unattended. Nonetheless, I think the pros of having a set of portable panels outweigh the cons. If you want a system that will apportion power demands from multiple power sources - shore, battery, and generator - it's possible, but you'd need to replace the standard inverter and charger with a hybrid inverter/charger like the aforementioned Victron. That's my plan, and hopefully will be a sweet solution, but it's neither cheap to buy nor simple to install. In the end though, you could tell it to only draw 15 amps from shore power, the rest from the batteries, and to automatically crank up the generator if the batteries get low. The system I've bought won't autostart a generator, but my great hope is to not ever need one. As for price, my opinion is if you think you will need a larger system, then go ahead and buy one now. This looks to be the final year that you can take the full tax credit on the equipment, which should make up for any price drops in the coming years. Plus panel and battery prices seem to have leveled out a bit now that demand is rising at a similar pace to supply, and we have the new fear that threatened higher import tariffs will be levied on Chinese made panels which some articles I've read say will almost double the current prices. So, place your bets, I guess.

If your Ollie is an early 2017 (or earlier), and the off-white color bothers you, you might check with Oliver on how much it would cost to get a set of their new, pure white ones. They do look 1000% better, imo.

I thought I'd read that in the past, Oliver would put you up for the night at the Commodore the night before. Did they stop doing that?

Not bad at all. Do you know what your tongue weight is and did you have any extra weight in the truck? Now that you've got it hooked up, we'll need a shot of you jumping the Ollie over a dune.

Your trailer looks great and I hope the shakedown is going well. Thanks for introducing yourself at the sales office - I'm sorry that neither of us had much time to chat, but please post up about your LTE router and keep us up to date on your efforts to get HomeKit integrated into your trailer. I'm sure that many more besides me would love to hear about your setup.

In quality, I agree. I'm not sure that it's any cheaper in terms of dollars. Zamp has a reputation of being a bit overpriced for what they offer.

Second what Dave said. Another bit of advice I'd add is for you and your spouse to have your cell phones on different carriers to maximize your coverage. We decided to opt out of Oliver's install and if we decide we need it, we'll install out own. It's not too difficult and there are better antennas you can get to avoid the problems Karen and Reed have.

Buzzy, I'm terribly sorry to hear about your loss. I wish that I had a wonderful piece of advice for you, but unfortunately I don't. Just know that you have friends here and elsewhere that you can lean on whenever you need.

Thanks for the video. Reed, if you get a chance can you tell me what the approximate thickness is of the steel 'saddle' where the hitch connects to the trailer? I'm having to get an adapter made for my hitch that mimics the bulldog attachment and the fabricator is asking me how thick the steel needs to be.

It's interesting that both of those trailers, red and black, were at the factory, parked together in the big parking lot, when my wife and I first visited in December of 2015. I don't know why they were there but I'm glad we got the opportunity to see them.

Well, we'll find out soon enough! On my wish list for the Ollie is the Centerpoint suspension, which replaces the equalizer with air bags. That might also be an option for you as it raises the trailer I believe an inch or two, and can be adjusted on the fly if you carry a compressor. There are free iPhone apps available that will collect and export accelerometer data, so after I get the trailer I plan to do some test runs on gravel. That way I can compare the truck to the trailer and at least have some idea of what's going on back there. It will also help evaluate different tire pressures and such.

7000lbs has to be the heaviest I've heard. I'm not surprised though with that weight that the compression travel is under 2". So the dents that you're seeing, are they limited to the steel subframe or are they in both the subframe and the aluminum frame? How large are they? I'd be interested to see a photo if you get the chance. At one point I was considering getting a local shop to reinforce our subframe at those points for just that reason, but the cost of doing so prevented me from following up on that. I believe that Oliver has also strengthened the subframe a bit over the years. I know that it now extends farther forward and back than it did a few years ago, and they may even use a deeper steel angle than they used to though that I'm not sure about. Relating this back to the original topic, I had a few conversations with Oliver about the fact that we're going to be towing with a Raptor, which has an extremely soft, long travel suspension and so has a fairly cushy ride offroad and on gravel. My fear was that it would lull us into driving too fast for the trailer's suspension on rough roads, not realizing the damage that we might be doing. I think those conversations are what ultimately convinced Oliver to try the over-under axle swap for us. Given what you guys are saying, I'm glad they did. BTW, after two attempts at ordering one, our truck is finally in the driveway. While I can't comment on the towing experience yet, I can say that we're completely thrilled with it in every other respect.

John, we'll have the 5200lb axles, but we're also doing the dexter over/under kit which will gain back that clearance plus some. So if you decide to swap axles & brakes, that's something else you might consider adding to the list. My only question/concern with having done that is if the suspension travel will now be limited by the shocks. I'd hate to hit a bump and destroy a shock or rip off its mount almost as much as I'd hate bending an axle.

The best price that I can find for their smallest one, the 400 peak/200 CCA model, is about $110. That would be fine for my wife car, but I'm not sure about the truck. The middle one, which is 600 peak/400 CCA is about $150, and the biggest one, which is 1600 peak, 800 CCA is $250. 1 year warranty. I like that they spec the CCA as well as peak amps - that number is impossible to find on other jump packs.

John, did you look at these when you were researching? Pricey, but they look like they're high quality.

Coincidentally, just this past weekend I grabbed my wife's jump pack out of her trunk to make sure it was fully charged and I opened the case to find the battery bulging. This was the Antigravity XP-10 which was so highly recommended over at ExPo when I bought it, and was less than 2 years old.

I'm really liking the videos. Thanks for the tip on the deflapper - are you worried that it will stretch the fabric at all?

I guess the bright side John is that if it wears enough, you'll have an extra element of sway control as the hitch settles into the groove. You won't be able to turn of course, but if you keep it straight it should at least be stable.

Just throwing a thought out there, but if the sway control feature of the Anderson isn't really needed, I wonder if people would have better luck with the friction sleeve if they just greased it, negating the sway control and only using the hitch for weight distribution. I assume that's possible, if I understand properly how their hitch works.

So not impossible, then; you just have to do a bit of surgery.