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I've used this RF (wireless) brake controller since picking up my Elite II in March 2016. My experience was a little different from David's. Oliver actually purchased the controller and installed it before I arrived to pick up my Ollie. I tow with VW Touareg TDI and the pairing process wasn't difficult. I've towed many miles using this brake controller and I'm completely satisfied. While I've had some issues with the hand-control unit that you plug into the 12 volt receptacle (I think that's what we used to call the cigarette lighter receptacle), Tekonsha's customer service has been outstanding. They've replaced that hand-held unit quickly and without fuss at no charge twice. Note that the brake control works even if the hand-held unit isn't plugged in or isn't working. The hand-held unit is necessary, however, to adjust the braking level and you can also use it to apply the trailer brakes independently of the TV brakes to tame sway. I've never had to use mine for that purpose. Don

Geoff, I tow with a Touareg TDI. Also a 3.0-liter V-6 diesel. 240 hp/406 ft-lbs torque. 7700 lbs. towing capacity--616 lbs. max. tongue weight. Curb weight of the Touareg is just under 5,000 lbs. I tow with the standard bulldog hitch. I've towed many miles over varied terrain including mountain passes. I've been very happy with my choice of a tow vehicle and have enjoyed taking the Touareg on jeep trails at Canyonlands National Park. You should be fine with your JGC. Do some more reading about the Andersen Weight Distribution hitch-you'll find lots of info on this forum. Lots of pros and cons. VW won't permit the use of a weight distribution hitch with the Touareg, so I didn't have to make a choice. I've had no sway issues and I don't think I would choose the Andersen hitch if I could use it and had the ability to choose to do so. Don

I wanted to make sure I had the ability to adjust the ball height to get the Oliver as level as possible. I think this is a key factor in towing safely. I started with a ball mount that I purchased in Tennessee when I picked up my Elite II but I switched to an adjustable ball mount pretty quickly. It was expensive, but it gives me great piece of mind to know that the ball height is just right to make the Ollie level when I'm towing. Here's what I use: https://www.etrailer.com/Ball-Mounts/Weigh-Safe/TB6-2.html I'm towing with a 2015 VW Touareg TDI. Don

Here's an added benefit to towing with my VW Touareg TDI. I drove from Iowa City to Cleveland yesterday to attend the Tri-C Jazz Festival. I averaged just under 70 mph (lots of construction in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) and averaged over 32 mpg. Filled with diesel fuel and drove 45 miles the day before on the full tank before leaving yesterday. I've now driven about 600 miles on that tank and still have almost a 1/4 tank of fuel. Of course, towing reduces the mileage but it's nice to have such a fuel efficient tow vehicle for every-day use. Now, if VW hadn't cheated on the emissions testing. . .

I tow with a 2015 VW Touareg TDI. I'm waiting for VW to engineer a fix to solve their problem with emissions testing that will satisfy the courts. I towed my Elite II 12,000 miles last year and 4,000 miles in January and February this year. The towing capacity is 7700 lbs. It has 240 h.p. and 406 lb.-ft. of torque. The 8-speed transmission is a plus. I have averaged up to 19 mpg towing in Iowa driving on 2-lane highways with rolling hills. I've averaged 14-15 mpg towing in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, etc. The Touareg is a great tow vehicle. I've driven Ford, Chevy and Dodge Ram pickups and prefer the Touareg because it is more stable, handles better, and is less affected by windy conditions. I wish VW hadn't done what it did with the emissions issue. If I have to part ways with the Touareg, I'll replace it with another SUV--an Audi Q7, another Touareg or a Mercedes GLE350 4Matic. The downside to towing with an SUV like these is the lack of cargo capacity compared to a full-size pickup. Others have commented on the forum about how difficult it would be to find someone to fix a German SUV in the sparsely populated parts of the West. I understand that concern, but there is no perfect tow vehicle. You have to decide on the pros/cons as they relate to what you want in a tow vehicle. I don't want to drive a pickup on a daily basis and I don't want a tow vehicle that sits in storage except when I'm traveling with my Ollie.

While the Elite II weighs under 4700 lbs. dry, it will weigh more when you're out exploring. Mine typically weighs between 5100 and 5500 lbs. depending on what's in the tanks (fresh water, grey and black). My tow vehicle is rated at 7700 lbs. and 660 lbs. tongue weight. I wouldn't be comfortable towing unless I had at least 1,000 lbs. more capacity than what I am towing. You also need to consider what your tow vehicle is rated for the weight of what you have in the vehicle plus the camper. Many Oliver owners who frequent the forum are very happy towing with heavy duty pickups--F250s and F350s for example. Others, like me, sought a tow vehicle with adequate capacity that has better handling characteristics. Mine is a VW Toureg TDI. It has the same towing capacity as the Audi A7 and the Porsche Cayenne (both of these vehicles also tow Ollies). I've been warned by members of the forum about the likelihood of breaking down in the middle of nowhere. Hasn't happened to me or anyone else I know who has chosen this type of tow vehicle. I guess time will tell. So, my advice is to pay attention to the numbers. Buy a tow vehicle that has more than adequate capacity to tow the Ollie. Second, chose something you are comfortable driving. Third, talk to people who tow with the vehicle you are considering. Fourth, don't assume all pickups have adequate towing capacity--some don't. Fifth, if you want to tow with an SUV, your options are very limited. Mercedes, Audi, VW and Porsche are the only manufacturers of SUV's that I'd consider. I've owned Suburbans, but the last time I checked, they didn't have the towing capacity to make me comfortable. I've towed my Elite II about 16,000 miles in my first year of ownership of my camper with my VW Touareg TDI and I have been very satisfied. I've towed in the mountains of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and I've yet to find a mountain pass that made my Touareg breathe hard and my descents have been comfortable and safe because of the excellent handling and braking characteristics of the Touareg.

Are you using a WD hitch? I've got a 2014 Touareg and the Oliver seems to be a good match. Just don't like that mention in the manual about WD hitches. Would be interested to hear what tongue weight you are seeing and if you have the front basket with anything in it. The basket seems ideal for a generator, but that just gets added to the tongue weight. So I agree with you on cargo space.

Hitch weight or the weight on the tongue of the hitch will vary depending on many factors including what's in your Oliver and how the load is distributed. Like many Oliver owners, I've spent time at the CAT scales. I determined that my hitch or tongue weight was 500 lbs. when my camper weighed in at 4,920 lbs. Fully loaded for a camping trip with the black, grey and fresh water tanks partially full, I weigh in at about 5,100 lbs. I have to keep the tongue or hitch weight at 660 lbs. or less to tow it with my Touareg. One thing to pay close attention to is how level your Oliver is when it's hitched to your tow vehicle and ready for travel. You want it as level as possible!

I tow with a 2015 VW Touareg TDI (you probably will never be able to purchase a new one because of the VW diesel scandal and VW's decision to exit the diesel market in the US). When I drove from Iowa City to the Oliver factory to look at Olivers, I averaged 29.5 mpg on the way down and 30.5 mpg on the way back. I drove around 75-80 mph on the interstates. My everyday mileage that includes city driving is usually between 26 and 27 mpg. I towed my Elite II between 7,500 and 8,000 miles this year. I towed in the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. No issues towing up mountain passes. The Touareg will tow faster uphill than is safe for me. My mileage varies with terrain. I've experienced 19 mpg towing in Iowa with rolling hills. On longer trips, I average 16.5 to 18 mpg. I tested the Dodge Ram with the small diesel. I liked the pickup, but I decided to buy the Touareg because it fit in my garage and was a better choice for me when not towing the Ollie. The Touareg is very comfortable for 4 people. The main drawback is the lack of cargo space.

John, Thanks for your post--lots of great information. For me, the first question I had to answer about a tow vehicle was whether I wanted a pickup. I didn't want to buy a dedicated tow vehicle--whatever I purchased would have to serve as my daily driver as well as my tow vehicle. I already had an old air-cooled Porsche 911 and I didn't want to fill our three-car garage without providing room for my wife's car! Since the early 1990's, I've driven Audi sedans with a couple of VW's thrown in. I drove a number of pickups while shopping for a tow vehicle and decided that I didn't want to drive a pickup every day. The Touareg is still big and unwieldy compared to the Audi I traded (and even more so than my '86 911), but it provides comfort and handling that is significantly better than a pickup, in my opinion. Having owned German cars for decades and having used an Audi/VW dealer for service, I agree that the cost of maintenance and repairs can be daunting. In my early years of Audi ownership, I traded when the warranty expired. However, the quality and reliability of the Audi's and VW's have improved significantly over the years. While I haven't driven any of these cars more than 100,000 miles, I haven't had any significant repairs on any of these cars for 10+ years. The link you provided in your post pointed to information from a buying guide for the second-generation Touareg--it was specifically related to a buying guide for the 2009-2010 Touareg. Here's some information from a Motor Trend review of the 2013 Touareg. http://www.motortrend.com/cars/volkswagen/ "While the first-generation Touareg (2004-2010) came with intriguing tech such as 4XMotion four-wheel drive (with low range!) and 4-Corner Air Suspension with Continuous Damping Control, the second-gen (2011-current) boasts items of interest such as VW’s first (but not only) production hybrid powertrain and an enormous panoramic sunroof (standard on Lux trim). Carried over from Gen 1 to Gen 2 is the optional 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 replete with a meaty 406 lb-ft of torque and 7716-pound tow rating. We recently hosted a 2013 Touareg TDI, now rated for 240 horsepower (up from the previous 225 hp) courtesy of exciting efficiency enhancements including friction reduction, lighter pistons and connecting rods, separate cooling cycles for the cylinder heads and block, an optimized timing chain cycle, and a water pump able to disengage itself to decrease engine drag. These lessons learned will likely trickle into other VW engines. And yes, selective catalytic reduction is used, so the diesel exhaust fluid (“AdBlue” to VW) level will need to be minded and topped off. (The filler location is in the spare-wheel well.)" VW has apparently had some issues with timing chain tensioners, but I don't think the problems apply to the diesel engine in my 2015 Touareg TDI. A class-action lawsuit was filed a couple of days ago in New Jersey relating to timing chain tensioners. The Touareg models involved are 2008-2013. I plan to visit with the service manager at my VW dealership after reading your post. I want to make sure that the timing chain tensioners are checked (assuming that this can be done during normal maintenance). Your comments about driving in the west are accurate. For me, it's a matter of assessing the risk and comparing the risk to the benefits of driving what I want to drive. I left home (Iowa City, Iowa area) in early October last year in my '86 Porsche 911. I left I-80 in Grand Island, NE and drove through the Sandhills of NE (where getting anything but a Big-3 pickup serviced or repaired would be a problem) and then drove into the Black Hills in SD. I knew that I was taking a risk if I experienced mechanical issues, but the joy of driving the 911 through the Sandhills and Black Hills was more than enough to allow me to accept the risk. I feel the same way about the experience of towing with the Touareg compared to towing with a pickup--but that's purely a personal preference.

Vector, I may be in the minority, but I don't believe it's necessary to have a heavy duty (3/4 ton) pickup to tow an Oliver Elite II. I tow with a 2015 VW Touareg TDI (turbo diesel). It has a 7700 lb. towing capacity and I tow without an equalizer hitch. The standard bulldog hitch works well. The diesel provides the grunt to pass with the Ollie on two-lane roads and gets me up to cruising speed very quickly. I checked my mileage yesterday after returning home from a campground in NE Iowa about 120 miles from home and I averaged 19.5 mpg towing the Ollie. I was on 2-lane roads most of the time driving between 55-58 mph and interstate for about 40 miles towing at 65 mph. The Touareg's only negative is that you don't have the cargo space available in a full-size pickup, but if you have or are buying an Ollie, you've already made the choice to go "small". When I'm not towing, I have a very comfortable, luxurious SUV as my primary vehicle that averages 26 mpg in my everyday driving and around 30-31 mpg when traveling long distances at sustained speeds of 75 to 80 mph. It really does double duty! Don

The Fronty with 4.0L has 261HP and torque @ 281 lb-ft. The Tundra 5.7L has 381HP and 401 lb-ft of torque. The Touareg has 406 lbs-ft of torque, very impressive! My guess is the Touareg diesel is running closer to max torque RPM (probably lower RPM) at tow cruise compared to the Tundra gas 5.7L at tow cruise. Just a guess.

Thanks, Don! Looked up the 2015 VW Touareg TDI online, and it looks like strong TV!!!!!! All I need now is some Gold Bullion?

Bill, The Toyota Tundra 5.7L V-8 should be able to tow the Oliver filled with gold bullion! My tow vehicle is a 2015 VW Touareg TDI (diesel). 7700 GVWR and a maximum of 660 lb. tongue weight. I weighed my Olliver Elite II on a Iowa Department of Transportation scale and it tipped the scales at 5,100 lbs. It's loaded with options and I had the galley fully supplied and gear and clothing for 1 person. The three tanks were all below 20%. My tow vehicle tipped the scales at 6,000 lbs--it was carrying 1,000 lbs. in gear and me. The Touareg diesel has 225 hp and 406 lbs-ft of torque. I towed the Olliver from the factory into Mississippi and then north to Iowa--about 1,000 miles. The Oliver tows really well--no sway or issues with the standard bulldog hitch. The high torque allowed me to get to 55-60 mph pretty quickly. I haven't been to the mountains yet, but I'm pretty confident that I won't have problems with mountain passes. Don

I have a 2015 VW Touareg TDI and I don’t want to drill holes and attach a controller like the Prodigy P2 or P3. My research led me to this unusual brake controller. I've worked with Oliver and Jason Essary (who replaced Robert Partee) is ordering one and a technician at Oliver will install it on my Oliver Elite II which is nearing completion. The RF has a trailer-mount power module unit. There’s a hand-held remote that plugs into the 12v receptacle in the vehicle. For those of us who tow with vehicles that don't have factory installed brake controllers, this is a nice option. It also has the advantage of allowing you to tow with more than one vehicle utilizing the trailer-mounted brake controller. As with everything else, the people at Oliver have been very accommodating and quoted a very fair price for ordering and installing this unit. My Oliver should be ready soon, but I'm delaying my trip from Iowa to pick it up until late March when I hope the weather will be better!

Hello, My tow vehicle is a 2016 VW Touareg TDI (diesel). 7700 GVWR and a maximum of 660 lb. tongue weight. The owner's manual says not to use a weight equalization hitch. I had originally planned to buy a new Airstream that would have been under the 7700 lb. limit, but I would have exceeded the maximum tongue weight by over 200 lbs. I spent a lot of time talking to Can Am, an Airstream dealer in Canada, and the head of the service department at my local VW dealer, and decided I would go ahead and tow the Airstream and use a weight equalization hitch. Then I found the Oliver. No Airstream for me! So, a couple of questions. First, who's towing the Elite II with the standard Bulldog hitch? I'm nervous about the lack of sway control. What have your experiences been? Second, I've read about some issues with Oliver's adjustment/setup of the optional Anderson No Sway hitch. Are you using this hitch? Any problems getting it set up properly? How has it performed? Would you recommend an alternative hitch for sway control and weight equalization? Thanks in advance--it's really great to have access to this knowledge base.

We owned one of the original Elites (2008 model). We started out towing with a 2009 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (4 door) that we bought for that purpose. It only had a 3500 pound towing capacity and was vastly under powered. We traded that for a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe 4x4 with the 5.3L engine. We got much better results with that vehicle. The older Elites weighed about 3900 pounds ready to camp with full water and everything you would need for an extended trip. I don't know the camping weight on the new models but I would not expect them to be significantly different one way or the other. I would want a vehicle rated NO LESS than a 5000 pound towing capacity. We bought a 2015 GMC Sierra with a 6.2L engine to pull our Elite II. We get about 2 mpg better than with the Tahoe. Since all 2015 models are tow rated with the SAE J2807 Standard you are now comparing Apples to Apples... 4 Runner: The Towing capacity is rated at 4700 pounds (not a good contender) Touareg: The Towing capacity is rated at 7,700 pounds with the available towing package - you will want to spring for this package, as the Touareg is rated for just 1,650 lbs. without it. Nissan Pathfinder: The towing capacity is rated at 5000 pounds.