Steph and Dud B

I only mentioned our fifth wheel to talk our experience with the Rockwood brand. They make travel trailers, too. Agreed, fifth wheels are usually HD truck territory, no matter what the salesman tells you.

Yes, in a nutshell. Budget is a determining factor. The Elkhart, IN offerings are cheaper up front but will require considerable self-repair and diligent maintenance. Generally speaking, they're good for about 10 years and then you get a few thousand dollars back when you're done with them. Not an investment, but many young families find this workable, especially if they're handy. Some general advice for newbies: Rent a couple of trailers before buying. Make lists of what works and what doesn't for your family. For instance, we rented a trailer where the bathroom light switch was on the ceiling light itself. Fine for us, but our son couldn't reach it. We had to get up at night to turn the light on for him. Thus, "bathroom wall switch" went on the must-have list for our first trailer. We wouldn't have thought to look for that. Avoid the absolute entry-level trailers (lowest price, aluminum sliding, single pane sliding windows, no wall switches, exposed underbelly, cheap fixtures, steel rims, etc.). These might not make it to 10 years, even with maintenance. Pay more for a better unit, within your budget. I'd spend my money on quality over size, given the choice. That said, don't go too small if you have growing kids. We've all seen the family that goes popup, small travel trailer, large trailer/fifth wheel while losing money on every one. Better to get it right the first time. Slideouts have their place when you have a rainy day and a bunch of active children. We had multiple slides on our last 2 rigs. No leaks and one slide mechanism issue I fixed myself. That said, now that we don't need the space we're going with a slide-less Ollie. Different times, different needs, different priorities. Remember, the truck tow rating includes the weight of the contents of the truck too, including passengers. Factor that into your decision, along with an extra safety margin. If the new trailer comes with anything other than Goodyear Endurance trailer tires replace them immediately. Google "RV China bomb" and you'll see why. Been there, done that. Once purchased, get on the roof and check all the caulking multiple times a year. Can't stress this enough. There are lots of seams to leak and water absolutely destroys conventional RVs. Hope they find something that works for them.

Competent truck, so they can go bigger. Lance makes nice travel trailers, again by reputation, not my personal experience. One thing I like about them is they use stainless steel screws on the exterior body seams where most manufacturers use painted steel screws. That was a point of water intrusion on one of our previous trailers. The painted screws corroded behind the heads and let water into the seam. From personal experience, both ourselves and our friends have done OK with Rockwood fifth wheels. Ours did have a bad seal on a slide out, but the factory took good care of us with the repair and added some slide toppers at cost while we were there. So, I can tell you Rockwood customer service and factory repairs were good 5 years ago. All other issues have been minor and easily fixed by me. All Indiana mass produced trailers are really "some assembly required," unfortunately. It's rare to hear of one rolling off the dealer lot without any problems found, and dealer warrantee repairs can take a long time. They could look for a good used rig that has already had most of the bugs worked out and the depreciation eaten by the previous owner. Just make sure to have it inspected by someone competent and experienced before signing on the dotted line.

No personal experience with this one, but it's small, light, sleeps 5, dry bath, and has impressive solar and tank capacities for boondocking. It is a regular mass produced RV, with all the inherent issues that might entail. Not a lot of storage or elbow room since it's so small, but there is a slide and it's light enough for smaller tow vehicles. Winnebago Micro Minnie FLX

Hi. That's a tough one to answer. A lot of variables to consider and hard to speak to quality today since ramped up COVID production has reportedly led to serious QC issues in an industry that wasn't known for quality even before COVID. So, the first question: what is their tow vehicle?

Yes, it does, so that will help with turns. Our dually does sit a couple of inches lower than single axle 3500s. I think the tailgate will clear the coupler, but I suspect it won't clear the storage box.

Looking at how far forward the cargo/generator basket is mounted. Has anyone had a problem with the basket interfering with tight turns? It does stick out a bit from the A-frame. Or is it far enough back from the coupler to be a non-issue? Also, while on the topic, does anyone have a problem with their pickup tailgate clearing the basket? Thanks.

Apparently Winnebago is installing the Truma air conditioners on their Micro Minnie FLX trailers. Quote from a review: "Enter the German-engineered Truma Aventa air conditioner. The Aventa is an extremely quiet and very efficient air conditioner. Based on specs on the Truma site, that unit consumes just 4.2 amps in cooling mode. That is literally less than one-third the power consumption of a Coleman Mach 13,500 BTU air conditioner."

Saw this online. "Jason Epperson from RVMiles replaced the toilet in their new fifth wheel with a composting toilet but then plumbed the urine into the gray tank." What a great idea. Oliver could get rid of the urine bottle on the composting toilet and pipe the urine into the unused black tank. Then, just dump the urine when you dump your gray. (Might need an extra port near the toilet to add some tank chemicals to the urine tank to control odors.)

This is a great idea for saving water while boondocking. Would love to see Oliver add this to their trailers: "Several RVs feature a SHOWERMI$ER system. You can flip a lever and the water that would otherwise come into the shower gets diverted directly back into the fresh water tank while waiting for the hot water." https://aquaviewinc.com/rv/

Many states are decriminalizing calcium. I'm worried it will be a gateway mineral and lead our camper to harder stuff. 😁

Congratulations. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We have a locking aluminum toolbox below the bedrails at the front of the 8' bed with a TruXedo soft tonneau cover over the top. Gives us some locked storage but full use of the rest of the bed.

We've used Lynx Leveler blocks for all our RVs. I like them because you can use them for other things, too, if needed (sewer hose ramp, picnic table legs, etc.).

Those are really nice and their smallest travel trailer (model 2015) is about the same price point as an Ollie. Pluses: toy hauler/tons of storage, roof rack, drop down queen bed, couch, full dinette, big tanks, built in generator, more interior space, dry bath, local dealers. The big negative we can't get past: poor thermal performance. With the all aluminum construction they apparently get very hot/cold easily, especially radiating through the rear ramp door. Definitely not 4 season. However, if you plan to stay in moderate temperatures, or with full hookups/running the genny in the extremes, they look very nice and we consider them a close second to an Ollie. If you prioritize hauling gear/interior comforts over travel/4 seasons I'd consider the ATC the winner over Oliver.

Hitch extensions significantly lower the capacity rating of the ball and increase the propensity for sway by moving the pivot point farther from the truck's rear axle.

Several turns doesn't sound like they just wiggled loose. Hate to see sloppy work on 120v electrical systems. That, and propane, really need to be done right. Interesting that the front receptacle is not protected by the EMS. I suppose that's OK of you're only feeding it with a generator? Haven't people had trouble with the EMS balking at generator power, it was that just because there was no ground bonding plug installed?

We have a simple weather radio in our fifth wheel. Have found it to be effective in most areas we camp. It does have an old-fashioned extendable antenna, like the old TV "rabbit ears," that improves reception. It squawks when there's an alert and we push a button to hear what the alert is. It is NOT one of the fancy programmable ones where you can select only the single county where you want the alert. We found those are too cumbersome for campers on the move (although that is what we have at our house). Will have to figure out where to put the radio in our new Ollie...

John has some good points. Are you drinking the tank water and is it chlorinated? We fill with well water at home. We don't use it for drinking and I drain and replace the water after 1 week. I'd be more comfortable if it was filled with chlorinated city water.

Very nice looking rig. Congratulations and enjoy!

https://www.truckcamperadventure.com/tca-now-testing-new-truma-aventa-air-conditioner/ "Significant noise reduction, which has always been an issue with RV air conditioners, has been achieved in the Truma Aventa by using a thick, noise absorbing EPP foamcore, while the compressor is mounted on shock absorbers to avoid vibration." Be still my heart!

Is that a Penguin II?

Thanks for all the info. We ordered a red Clam Sport and side panels. Buying some new Ollie toys for Christmas as we impatiently await our summer delivery.

GM has a site here: https://www.onstar.com/us/en/support/3g-network-shutdown where you can enter your VIN to check the impact on your vehicle. Scroll down to Which GM vehicles are impacted by the 3G network sunset? and follow the link provided there.