4-season

[Skynyrd]

Looking for input and real owner feedback on your thoughts of the Oliver being able to handle 4-season climates. Appreciate all the information and perspective on this forum. 

[DanielBoondock]

Four season is a squishy topic as its not defined precisely. You can use a canvas tent four season (our boys did it in Korea in hard winters.) It just depends on how comfortable you want to be, and how much energy you have. I'll break it down 

Cabin heating.

Most people focus on this; it just depends on how efficient you want it to be. The Oliver design (double hull with radiant barrier) is more optimized for the heat (desert) than the snow (mountains). But it handles both excellently. My last trip went from the hot desert to the snowy mountains in March, it just took some propane. If you want a more efficient trailer in snow the Bigfoot is probably the only one better, but you're just saving some propane and personally I found it a cramped trailer. 

Now which do you want to optimize? Actually for heat is better because you need power to cool it down, which is scarcer than propane (unless you have an electric truck bwahahaha 🙂). So I think the Ollie is an awesome choice as it optimizes on the most energy scarce side of cooling. But any small trailer with decent insulation I think is fine in very cold or hot conditions (not Airstreams! There's a reason why they have two AC's and you'd better have full hookups)

Humidity 

This is the more important issue; humidity management is the critical issue. On the Bigfoot (for example), I think its merely OK. Just anecdotal but I followed a couple who had one on the East Coast and dealing with humidity was a big deal. 

The Oliver however deals with this extremely well. no wood, nothing that can get damaged for one thing. I took it to Lassen the first week it opened. We lived in a deep fog bank for a week. Thick - you couldn't see the rest of the campground at times and it was a cold humidity which is bad. But the condensation was absolutely not a problem. The windows watered up, but as they're the new flush mount its outside the gasket, I just opened in the morning and squeegeed off outside. In the cabinets all the clothes needed to be pulled off the walls - yes. But the condensation just dripped down into what must have been designed in on purpose which is a condensation trip 'tray'. Impressed the hell out of me, Oliver raises the cabinet bottoms with a (honeycomb probably) panel, with a channel along the sides. This means it just drips down and collects there, I would just go and soak it up once a day. Only other thing was keeping stuff off the closet walls. Anyhow when I got it back down it took a day to dry out 😅But there wasn't a single trace of humidity damage or anything inside. 

Conclusion

IMO it truly is four season. No trailer is perfect for all conditions or use cases. The Ollie optimizes somewhat more for hot than cold, but the advantage of is it's cheaper/easier to heat a trailer than cool a trailer. In roasting hot conditions the walls are cool to the touch due to an air gap, no heat channeling and radiant barriers. For condensation (hot or cold) its probably best in the business. 

[FloraFauna]

I live in Wisconsin and camp mostly in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.  We think of ourselves as 3-season campers and based on our experience consider the Oliver a 3-season camper.  So for us it works just fine because we value our plumbing and hot water while we are camping.  To be more technical, from our experience and what I have read, the Oliver is good down to about 20 degrees F.  If that is full winter for you, then it is 4-season.  It is not for us, and we don't want to be camping when it is less than 20 degrees F, so all is good!

Edited 8 hours ago by FloraFauna

[BackofBeyond]

Yes, for sure anything prolonged at 32 degrees is 4 season and I'm not interested. For us the 4th season is - go south young man, go south - a little farther, perhaps. Now to be clear, we have spent a few nights in freezing temps at elevation (10,000) and all was fine and toasty. As we are outdoors folks, and generally the really cold temps preclude outdoors - usually.  I'll take a south Fla beach, or the Texas gulf over the snow and cold any day. Waking up at 30 degrees, in a tent in Yellowstone was great. It's better in the Ollie, trust me.

[topgun2]

16 minutes ago, BackofBeyond said:

It's better in the Ollie, trust me.

Amen!

[Steph and Dud B]

@Skynyrd, there are several threads discussing this in the forum. Google "Oliver trailers forum Winter camping." There are weak spots in the plumbing that may or may not have been addressed with some of the changes in the more recent model years. Like @DanielBoondock says, any camper can be a winter camper if you want it to. I've seen Airstreams being used all winter here in CT. Full hookups, belly skirts, and lots and lots of propane. Not my cup of tea, though, and we also consider our Oliver a 3-season camper.

[Dennis and Melissa]

I have boondocked at the foot of the Athabasca glacier and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. I am NOT Bear Grylls. It’s that easy. 
 

I have also done weeklong stays in sub freezing weather, and triple digit heat with hookups. Even easier.

YMMV, but Ollie is easy to use, safe and durable IMHO. 

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, FloraFauna said:

I live in Wisconsin and camp mostly in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.  We think of ourselves as 3-season campers and based on our experience consider the Oliver a 3-season camper.

1 hour ago, BackofBeyond said:

For us the 4th season is - go south young man, go south

I fully agree with these comments but from where we live and travel, perhaps from an opposite point of view...

Our 3 seasons are Fall-Winter-Spring. Summers we'd rather stay up here at 5400 ft because as soon as we drive an hour in most directions it's going to be hot. But this is also true:

6 hours ago, DanielBoondock said:

The Oliver design (double hull with radiant barrier) is more optimized for the heat (desert) than the snow (mountains). But it handles both excellently.

Summers here, even at elevation, I've measured our Oliver rooftop temps to 110F (Ruuvi sensor placed under shade of the solar panels). Inside cabin temps without A/C (windows cracked, MaxxFan and bath vent open), will be 20F cooler. We often run the A/C for the month of August while it's parked at home.

Now that we have viable RV air conditioning, we're dabbling more into our 4th season, summer. Out west, elevation is a greater factor than being north or south. Summers we go up, like our July trip NW of Flagstaff at 7600 ft. We did use the A/C some afternoons. Winters we head down to The Valley, anywhere in SW AZ into CA is great winter travel, more than 1/4 million campers at Quartzsite!

I would love to camp with our friend Steve and family up the the north central Midwest. We'd go for fall colors or during the spring, certainly not for their winters. 20F at dawn, we see that often. -20F all day long is not happenin'!

1 hour ago, Steph and Dud B said:

there are several threads discussing this in the forum. Google "Oliver trailers forum Winter camping."

Yep, I've read a few in our 3 years here. I've seen where the outdoor shower plumbing is removed and both battery and basement exterior access panels are fully insulated. I read another where the Oliver was used as a remote working vehicle where it was used as a dry cabin, all water removed, plumbing not used in a sub-zero climate.

The double hull insulated, completely sealed underbelly, tanks within the hull, proper A/C and dual 30# LP tanks, if you want it to be 4-season it can be. But we're not camping in Phoenix summers or Minnesota winters.