Steph and Dud B

She actually had a GPS distress beacon but left it with her husband at the previous resupply stop because it was too heavy to carry. Had a compass but didn't know how to use it. There's an interesting book called "When You Find My Body" that analyzes the whole incident. A quick and interesting read.

I always tell my students, "never depend on electronics as a life-safety device. Always carry a compass and know how to use it." Then I teach them about Gerry Largay: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/26/hiker-who-went-missing-on-appalachian-trail-survived-26-days-before-dying North Woods Law did an entire episode on the search and rescue attempt for her. Tragic and easily preventable.

Congratulations. It's beautiful.

Campground owners convention: https://www.rvtravel.com/rvers-can-look-forward-to-more-tech-and-less-touch-higher-prices/ Good news: more campsites/campgrounds coming. Bad news: more "dynamic pricing" and 50% non-refundable deposits. Planning a long trip moving from commercial campground to commercial campground could be risky now. A mechanical problem, or other unforeseen issue, could blow your itinerary and cost you a ton of money on lost deposits and "dynamically priced" new reservations. For your typical RVer these changes really favor short haul "stay and play" trips. If they wanted to travel any distance, they'd be better off hotelling it - where they can usually get their deposit back within 1-2 days of arrival date if plans change. For us, finding a last minute site to charge/dump/refill will probably cost a lot more. On the bright side, this should really cut down on those people who are booking a bunch of days and then cancelling last minute to go to their other choice. That should increase campsite availability somewhat. Less reserved sites sitting empty. And building more campsites is always good, too. The unknowns: How many new RVers will find all this just too inconvenient/expensive? Not exactly the travel flexibility and freedom promised in those RV ads. How will this affect state/national parks and their reservations/pricing? How many of these Millennial families will be willing to boondock instead of dealing with the commercial campgrounds? I still feel like/hope this is probably a bubble and the campgrounds could be overreaching with these new prices and policies. If they start pricing campsites like hotel rooms I think a lot of people will park the RV and head to a Hilton. Maybe even us.

Thanks for the heads up. Have been thinking about a Viair compressor. Just ordered one and saved $45 over Amazon.

Nice photo! Sounds like a great trip.

"Price-elastic." Love it. That's a great phrase. Wish we were more price-elastic!

I'll bet you're right. It'll settle down. But will the legislature reduce the out-of-state penalty once sites become plentiful again? I have my doubts about that. How often do you hear about states reducing fees? More likely, they'll be missing the money from out-of-staters and decide to raise the in-state fees to compensate. That's been a big problem here, too. People are reserving the state park sites for the maximum allowed stays then not showing up, so the sites sit empty. There's no rule that forfeits the reservation if they don't show, but there is a fee if they cancel, so they just leave it vacant. Frustrating.

Now I gotta find a way to move WA closer to CT, or at least flatten out those mountains in between. 🙂

Interesting thread. Back when we got our fifth wheel, I weighed every single thing we put in it and it came to about 700 pounds, not including clothes and food. The truck bed was mostly empty except for the hitch and generator when we dry-camped. Now we're considering what we will trim down in the Ollie and what will have to go in the truck. Galway Girl's spreadsheet is very helpful.

$48 a night for a basic site? Ouch. This is going to be painful in the short term, but I'll bet it helps move a lot of people back to their hotel stays. As it was, RVing was maybe a break-even with hoteling, after you figure in the cost of ownership of the RV and tow vehicle.

I posted initially because I like to do my due diligence. I try to identify as many potential issues as possible before committing to an action. In this case the question was: Are we foolish to drop a large amount of cash on a purchase we might not be able to fully enjoy? The feedback here has been helpful. In reality there were 2 questions that needed answering. 1. Do we want to keep camping, even if current conditions continue? The answer to that is yes. Even in the past year we were able to enjoy our current rig. We are looking forward to more camping after retirement. 2. Will the Oliver increase camping enjoyment, even if current conditions prevail? I believe the answer to that is also yes. Compared to our current fifth wheel, we will have more choices with our Oliver: more sites it will fit in, longer camping season, easier to haul long distances. Those things are even more important with the new influx of campers. Last night, just for fun (research?), I was putting random camping dates into the Disney World reservation system. (I figured Disney would be a good model for a hard-to-reserve camping destination.) What I found was multiple dates in 2022 where the only available sites were for campers under 25'. Tried the same thing with some state parks and got the same result. Bottom line, the Oliver will almost certainly get us to places we couldn't reserve with our current rig. And the solar package stretches that even further by opening up easier boondocking. Sure, we'll miss the good old days when things were easier, but the Ollie is still our best bet going forward. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Are those lights in the ground at the front of the site?

I read a recent analysis of RV production numbers vs. new RV vehicle registrations. At the start of the pandemic new registrations were matching new production: they were selling every unit they made. Then the manufacturers increased production dramatically (including Oliver). In the last several months production has consistently outstripped new registrations: the dealer lots are filling up again. (Fortunately, Oliver has a known buyer for every unit they make.) So, yes, the sales bubble appears to have burst. The big unknown is how long the new buyers will keep their RVs and use them. We're currently on our third stick built. They've all been stored outside in New England. If you get a decent one and do basic maintenance (especially roof caulking), you can expect to get about 10 years out of them. Here's my (totally non-data-based) prediction: 25% of the new buyers will tire of the lifestyle and return to their hotels within the next 3 years. An additional 15% will leave because of vehicle damage (mostly from leaks) in the next 5 years. 50% of the remainder will significantly reduce the number of days they camp per year over the next 4 years as the kids grow up and they mix in more fly/hotel trips. That leaves 30% who remain avid RVers 5 years from now. Still a decent number. If I'm right (or close), I'm hoping to see noticeably less crowded conditions in about 4 years, but there will still be more RVers than there used to be. That might end up with some advantages, too: increased short term revenues might prompt some campground expansions and improvements, some innovation in the design and manufacture of RVs and RV accessories, etc. Fingers crossed.

In the past, we were able to go cross-country with a lot of flexibility. Very few advance reservations, picking our next campground the day before, using the first-come-first-served sites at national parks, overnighting in a few Walmarts. Just free-wheeling it for the most part. It was great. Now with COVID and a billion new RVers everywhere, is it even possible to travel without a fixed itinerary and reservations any more? Walmarts are kicking RVs out, state and national parks are fully booked a year in advance, COE and BLM lands are more crowded than ever. Can you still just hit the road and travel day-to-day? If so, what are your tricks? And, if not, (just guesswork here) do you think the COVID campers will tire of camping and things might ease up in a few years? We've been waiting for retirement to enjoy that type of travel again. Hope we haven't lost the opportunity!

Sounds like another "couple's activity" challenge in the little Ollie......

Some of this is understandable considering the large degree to which they've ramped up production in the past couple of years. New employees to train, altered processes, etc. But it is somewhat concerning. My hope is that the "newbie-camper-due-to-COVID" surge will run down as my production date approaches and the factory will settle into a more comfortable pace and rhythm with a higher degree of QC. But, to be fair, look at all the reports of massive QC failures being reported in the mass-produced RVs of the past 18 months. Still better off buying an Ollie, as far as I can tell.

Good catch on the reviews. Did find the Scandvik at Boaters Plus. Thanks.

Has anyone retrofitted one of these: Trinidad Shower Combo Faucet to a newer Oliver? Apparently, they used to come as standard equipment? I like it because it has the on/off valve on the showerhead. Easier to conserve water and keep the temperature the same. You'd have to replace the entire bathroom faucet. How hard is it to get under the sink for that plumbing?

We have semi-rigid mud flaps on our dually, right behind the rear tires,approximately 9” above the ground. Adequate protection for the Ollie?

He says in the video, "Don't do it with something that's obviously an RV." Don't think the EV owners and charging station owner would take kindly to a truck and trailer backed up to their charging station.

This is what we hope to do as well and why we chose an Ollie. When retired, we want to do more extended trips.

How many days can you usually go before needing to dump the black tank?

Glad you're ok. You might want to report this to the NHTSA so they can follow up as well: https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index History shows you can't always rely on the manufacturers to promptly report vehicle defects and initiate a recall.

Wow. Great information. Thank you!