Oliver Regrets?

[Dwainkitchens]

Just curious, is there anyone who purchased an Oliver, and regrets not purchasing a less expensive TT?  I would assume the answer is no, but just curious.  I have looked online at Escapes, but when I get ready, I am definitely leaning toward Ollie.

 

Dwain

See Oliver Owner's Reviews.

[rideandfly]

Dwain,

 

Welcome!

 

First time we saw an Ollie, we really liked the layout and exterior/interior finish. Ollie is our third camper. We purchased our Ollie used 2016 and paid the original owners close to what they paid new in 2015. We never dreamed our Ollie would gain value, but it has and what a pleasant surprise.

 

We always have folks interested to look at Ollie wherever we camp or stop. Ollie is pleasant to camp in and it's easy to clean inside/out.  It's a dream to tow, very stable and not too large for maneuvering.

 

There are many knowledgeable folks here willing to answer questions.

 

We're happy we purchased Ollie and would do it again, no regrets!!

 

Good luck in your search!!!!

[dbp05ret]

Dwain,

 

I just purchased mine last week and selected the upgrades. I had absolutely no buyers remorse the next morning which is unusual for me. I hope I can answer your question for a long time with an absolute "no regret". Do your due diligence and you will be confident in your decision. Welcome! Darryl

[Try2Relax]

From reading through various things, it seems the only usual regret from those that have left was that they upgraded to a larger trailer, not actually having been prepared for the realistic size of the fiberglass trailers after being overwhelmed with the quality. Most who ended up here, had been looking at Airstreams, as there is no denying their beauty, both to look at and to look out of (all the windows), they just fail in every other aspect.

 

In my personal opinion the quad hull design of the Oliver is what makes it a completely justified purchase, even at today's prices. I prefer the easy to clean "antiseptic" (as some have said to describe it) layout and feel of the Oliver, so many trailers still being built today give the feeling of a 70's apartment with shag carpeting and green, yellow and orange appliances.

[Mike and Carol]

No regrets here. Money well spent. We like the reliability and company support. We’ve come to really appreciate the capabilities and amenities our Oliver brings to our travels and camping. Mike

[roguebooks]

No regrets. But being a first-time travel trailer owner was a bit overwhelming to say the least. I am of the opinion that you cannot study, read, and learn enough of everything about travel trailers before making the plunge. But there is not enough time to do it all the way.  At some point you must pull the trigger and let the bird fly.  The forum here has been extremely helpful and important to me.  Oliver's service support (especially Jason Essary) has also been willing to handle any problem in a kind and fair manner.  I was warned before purchasing a trailer that there will always be problems. That nothing is perfect.  I have found that to be true. Oliver Travel Trailers factory is not exactly easy to get to or even a smart idea as a service center for probably most of us who own one. That makes learning how to do the maintenance and simple repairs even more important. I believe I can handle this.  Because we sold our home in Florida and our cabin in northern Michigan, all I have to take care of now is this trailer. We built a garage/base camp in the panhandle of Florida and are heading there now. I look forward to washing the Ollie, waxing it, and learning how to do the basic maintenance required to keep things running smoothly.  I also have to replace the water pump (I am not a plumber) due to a problem of my fresh water tank filling up when on city water connection.  I opted to just replace the entire pump instead of fooling around with check valves, cleaning, flushing, and whatever else is necessary.  I am hoping that afterwards I will be a water pump expert with pics to prove. We love our Oliver. It is our new cabin on wheels.

[Dwainkitchens]

Thank you everyone!

 

Dwain

[anybeck]

Hi,  We bought 007 or the 7th one made.  We saw it in Oregon over 10 years ago.  It was a demo driving around the country.  It wasn't really finished.  Lots of wires/etc not in finished places. The Oliver company paid to have it finished here in Seattle.  Now 10 years later it is still in mint condition despite living outside in 10 months of rain.  The Oliver Brothers started an excellent company and they make the best travel trailer on the road. NB and CJ  Seattle

[SeaDawg]

Ten and a half years with hull #12. Still very happy with our camper. It's still looking pretty fine, too.

 

Sherry

[Dwainkitchens]

Wow.  Your convincing me!

 

Thanks for all responses.

 

Dwain

[Overland]

My only regret is that had I made better choices when I was 18, maybe I could afford something like an Earth Cruiser today.

 

Our Ollie had an incredibly difficult birth, partly because we customized it so much, and party because Oliver was undergoing some difficult growing pains at the time.  Despite that, having lived with the trailer for almost a year now, I can't imagine anything better matched for the way we travel.  Except for that Earth Cruiser.

 

In fact it's hard to believe it hasn't even been a year.  Camping with the Ollie is so natural that it feels like we must have had it forever.

[RodgerS]

"I was warned before purchasing a trailer that there will always be problems."

 

Yes, however the quality of the trailer's materials, design, and build process does matter in a big way.

 

"Oliver Travel Trailers factory is not exactly easy to get to or even a smart idea as a service center for probably most of us who own one."

 

Access to factory repair and local service centers is an industry-wide problem. So yes, Oliver or Airstream or whatever, ones diy capabilities and attitude also mean a lot.

 

 

[Commanche]

We were looking at Airstream for over a year, then found the Oliver web site, drove from Kansas City to the plant for a tour, and placed our order. Now when we look at the inside of any other fiberglass trailer, we know we made the right decision to go with Oliver.

 

Stan

[donbob3]

I have owned stick-built trailers , Forest River popup, Trailmanor foldup, 2 x Casitas, and Oliver 23.  I have not loss any sleep after buying the Oliver.  It addresses all the deficiencies  of  the Casitas: larger beds, more storage, no rivets and more counter space.  It is the most stable trailer i have owned.  It will be the last RV I purchase.  I use to vacuum the casita after each trip.  Would find sawdust in floors from vibration.Tow with 2017 F250 gas.   Definition of RV: always in a perpetual state of repair (thanks Dometic )

[Dave and Cindy]

We have had our Oliver for 30 months and it has not been completely smooth as we have had issues with heat in two locations where heat was critical - it was in the low 30's several nights. However the Oliver folks were helpful, you could talk to them and, eventually, the elusive issue was resolved. Or at least we hope so as we leave for Maine in two weeks! Yet we are very happy with the choice made to buy an Oliver over other brands. It is easy to tow, easy to clean, easy to park, easy to live with and in - and we are at 27,000 miles in the little one. Last weekend I went to an RV show here in Raleigh. I went because I thought I might get a portable surge protector on sale, I did not. But I walked in and out of 50/60 RVs and, other than one for $425,000 (anyone find me on gofundme:) there were very few we would even sleep in. And I cannot imagine what they would look like at the end of three years and thousands of miles. Yes, we are very glad we bought the Oliver.

 

www.twolanetouring.com

[KarenLukens]

Yup, no regrets, living full time in ours since February of last year, 2017. We did all of the research, 2 years worth, then bought new after having never seen one in person. If you want the best then you have found it.

 

Reed

[BackofBeyond]

My only regret - not having the opportunity to use my Ollie  - MORE! . But that will come...…..

 

 

 

 

[Mainiac]

We have an early 200 range unit (211) and are extremely happy with it. They had growing pains and quality control issues, but seemed to do most everything right with mine. A few little things like drawer screws being to short, a phone call away was the solution. Things were sent right out. A component failed (stereo), and two days later it's replacement was in my mailbox. As I go in and 'do this and that' I seem to find a lot more that they have done right. We are extremely happy with unit. We used to work at a CG and used to see a lot more "horror" stories with SOB (some other brands)...

[Besjordan]

Yes, I do regret it. During our initial camp night we had problems with our water pump. They came & swamped it out. We’re now on our second trip & the refrigerator is not working. We have to call on it. And the AC doesn’t seem to be running correctly. It blowing cool air but not cold air. It also isn’t keeping the entire trailer cool just the part over the bed. I had heard so much about the high quality of these trailers. I feel we ended up with a lemon.

[KarenLukens]

Yes, I do regret it. During our initial camp night we had problems with our water pump. They came & swamped it out. We’re now on our second trip & the refrigerator is not working. We have to call on it. And the AC doesn’t seem to be running correctly. It blowing cool air but not cold air. It also isn’t keeping the entire trailer cool just the part over the bed. I had heard so much about the high quality of these trailers. I feel we ended up with a lemon.

 

 

Which refrigerator do you have and what's the temp outside? If your in over 90° weather, then you need to run it on propane if it's not keeping up. Also, you can crack open the outside upper refrigerator vent cover and that really allows the air to circulate. I have a quick wire that attaches on ours and keeps the door tilted open at the top around an inch and that helps a lot. There is a topic on this here in the forum. We were in 110°+ temps a few weeks ago and the freezer was working fine, but the fridge wasn't able to keep up. On our Dometic, there is a lever on the far right in the back that can be set to allow more cold air into the refer area. If you push the lever up, it makes the fridge colder, but at the 110°+ temps, we still needed to add frozen bottles of water to the fridge to keep it happy. The freezer maintained just fine.

 

Your air conditioner has adjustment vents all around it. If just your bed is staying cool, then be sure that the cold air return vent is full open and not blocked. Pull the filter and check it if needed. Then close the rear vent cover and make sure that the front vent cover is full open. We prefer it to be coldest over the bed, so we have the rear cover full open and the 2 sides at 45°. There is a learning curve to everything in this trailer and all in all, you will overcome ?

 

Another big plus is to join the Oliver Owners Facebook page for quick results and answers from other owners. It's monitored at all times.

 

Reed

[Mike and Carol]

Yes, I do regret it. During our initial camp night we had problems with our water pump. They came & swamped it out. We’re now on our second trip & the refrigerator is not working. We have to call on it. And the AC doesn’t seem to be running correctly. It blowing cool air but not cold air. It also isn’t keeping the entire trailer cool just the part over the bed. I had heard so much about the high quality of these trailers. I feel we ended up with a lemon.

Water pump, AC and Refrigerator are all components used in travel trailers of many brands. It’s good to hear the water pump was taken care of quickly.

 

The refrigerator can take a while to cool down if you are starting out in hot weather. As Reed points out, switch to propane until it gets cool. We leave ours running all the time, even when in storage (we have electrical power in storage). If you can’t do that, fire up the fridge a couple of days before your trip.

 

There are a number of things to check with the AC - temperature setting, fan on high/low/auto, which vents are open or closed. If it is cool around the bed it must be cooling. I’d check the vents on all four sides. We keep them mostly closed on the sides and back and fully open in the front. We were camped in 100+ weather in June and had the fan on low and we were plenty cool inside.

 

There are lots of folks here willing to help when you have issues and questions. Mike

[Overland]

I still fail to see the point of a Facebook group. All it does is siphon posts and solutions from this site to make both less useful.

[BackofBeyond]

And the AC doesn’t seem to be running correctly. It blowing cool air but not cold air.

I place a small test thermometer in the AC vents, that way I know what the air temp is, and you can mentally track what is happening over time. My unit performs well in 100 degree, high humidity, it just needs time to pull the humidity out of the trailer.

 

I do similar in the fridge. Its interesting to note what setting produces what level of cooling in the unit. I haven't compared different power sources. I never considered that to be a determinate, interesting.

 

I still fail to see the point of a Facebook group. All it does is siphon posts and solutions from this site to make both less useful.

Ha Ha, I am with you on the FB, I terminated my account awhile ago. Overall its just one big digital weekly ad flyer.

[KarenLukens]

Here's the fridge vent link

 

http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/refrigerator-boondocking-vent-mod/

[SeaDawg]

Sorry to hear about your problems. Which fridge do you have? We had various issues with our dometic early on, and all of them were corrected by Camping world under warranty, no charge, after we did the basic troubleshooting to rule out any operator errors.

 

Is your fridge running at all, or just not cooling properly? Any number of us would be happy to help, if we can.

 

Sherry