Steph and Dud B

Congratulations! We're scheduled for late July. Aside from all the great info here, my wife has found some good stuff on an Ollie Facebook page and we've both been watching YouTube videos from other Ollie owners. One couple in particular goes through the whole process from purchasing, to upgrades, to going to the factory for service on their YouTube channel. Lots to learn from all these sources, and it helps pass the time while you wait for the big day. Have fun.

We wondered the same thing for our GMC dually. I was able to take careful measurements based on previously posted info that the top of the ball should be approximately 23.5" above the ground when hitched. Of course, that includes any sag from the weight of the trailer and truck cargo, so it's hard to know for sure before actually hooking up. I was able to connect another trailer of approximately the same weight as an LE2 and get a sense of the sag. We decided to go with an adjustable drop hitch and went with the Weigh Safe for 2 reasons: we wanted to see our loaded tongue weight before we left the factory campground, and I wanted an aluminum hitch for weight and rust resistance. One nice thing about Weigh Safe and some of the other drop hitch manufacturers is that they post detailed drawings of their hitches with all the measurements to help you select the correct one. In our case, I had to flip to drop hitch to a rise position. We needed a 4" drop hitch for our dually but your mileage may vary since duallies tend to sit lower and we also put 1" drop shackles on our truck for our fifth wheel.

Apologies if my comments were construed as a criticism of anyone's trailer, or of Olivers in general. Oliver makes two of the best RVs on the market, which is why we're selling our current fifth wheel and buying one. Likewise, the use of the word "cheap" in my final sentence was not intended as a criticism of the A/C quality, but of my theory that OTT may be able to source the Dometics for less money. But that air conditioner is loud. Louder than any of our previous RVs. That's not Oliver's fault, per se. The roof is lower, the space is smaller, and the A/C isn't ducted, so it's just... loud. It's a side effect of the overall design and construction. Still, it is a downside for those who will be camping in hot, humid climes. Is it a deal breaker? Not for us. Olivers have many other positives that outweigh the negatives. Even so, I can see where there might be potential customers who would consider it a deal breaker to not be able to watch TV at a comfortable volume with the A/C on. So, it would be nice if it could be addressed, even as an upcharge option.

I'm assuming they have a pricing deal with Dometic that involves bulk purchasing a certain number of Dometic products every year. Which is fine. However, they are marketing a top line product to a discriminating niche market that is willing to pay a premium to get upscale items. Since this keeps coming up as a customer complaint, it would seem reasonable to offer an optional upgrade. If they stray too far toward economies of scale they risk becoming just another RV manufacturer in a sea of competitors. Why risk losing sales over a cheap A/C unit?

New feature: weight distributing tires!

OTT says they're setting them at 55 for delivery now.

Us, too. July delivery. Just sayin'...

That is a gorgeous photo! Wow. Want to go to there.

I always carry a bag of breadcrumbs. Can't be too careful...

I've been wondering about that. The jacks look sturdy and are right near the marked jacking points on the frame but I've heard horror stories on SOB trailers about frame damage using the leveling jacks to actually lift the wheels. Seems like the jacks are a lot safer than a bottle jack on the side of the road, but I'd hate to bend the frame or fail a jack. The little tire change ramps look good, but wouldn't they overload the remaining tire (unless you added air to the other tire first to bring it up to its max load limit)?

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!