Hello, Oliver owners (Ollies?, Oliverians?). My wife and I are pondering what will probably be our final RV purchase. We're approaching a somewhat early retirement in 2 years and thinking about what retirement RVing will look like for us. We're experienced campers, 22 years in a 26' stick and tin travel trailer, 30' Titanium 5th wheel, and currently 32' triple slide 5th wheel. Now considering the Elite 2. It would be the smallest RV we've ever owned. Anticipated usage would range from midweek jaunts to the local dry camping state park to cross-Rockies trips from our home in the Northeast to the Southwest. We're hoping a fiberglass RV will be superior quality to the typical stick builts we've seen.
Our retirement RV goals:
Best possible resale value, for when we're ready to settle down and buy a brick and mortar retirement house.
Less time on the roof caulking 100' of seams.
Comfortable for my wife to tow. (She did OK with our travel trailer, but wasn't comfortable with either 5th wheel.)
Better fit and finish than we've seen in our 5th wheels.
Good boondocking performance for 2-3 nights.
Good cold weather performance to extend our camping season.
Appropriately sturdy for long haul trips.
Better fuel economy/potentiality smaller future tow vehicle. (Current truck is a gas dually pickup.)
At least 10 year service life.
Would love to hear how well current owners would rate your Olivers on those points.
We do anticipate some challenges:
Far, far less storage space than we're used to, inside and out. Moving from a fifth wheel will open up the truck bed, but we'll be back to storing stuff in bins and loading them into the truck before each trip.
Our current rig has 2 big recliners we really enjoy. I'm 6' tall. Are the dinettes comfortable?
The wet bath seems like a pain.
Will miss the roof ladder. Although I don't enjoy being up there, the built in ladder does make repairs on the road easier.
What say the experienced on this?
Finally, a few specifics:
Rear dinette vs twin beds: does the rear dinette convert into a comfortable bed, or is it lumpy with all the separate cushions? What kind of sheets fit that?
Lithium batteries worth it, or AGM adequate?
Street side awning worth it? How do you use a ladder with awnings on both sides?
Does the winterizing inlet simply fill the fresh water tank with pink stuff, or does it feed antifreeze directly to the pump?
Any other thoughts/suggestions? The Bigfoot 25' rear queen is also in the running. A lot more living/storage space but the quality doesn't seem as good and the boondocking capabilites are less refined. Airstream Bambi has come up as well, but I'm not a big fan of single axle towables.
We're considering a factory tour next summer, with a possible purchase within the year after that. Nothing like hearing from those who've already been there, done that, though.
Thanks for any replies.
-Dudley
