The Road Runner Oliver has taken flight !

[Roadrunner]

Were Sally and Mark from Washington State and picked up our Legacy II on 24 July Hull #364. Long trip back getting familiar with all the systems and operation of the Ollie. We ordered out trailer last October and selected the delivery date to coincide with Sally retiring and completing a house sale in Seattle before heading out East. We took several weeks to get home and like the trailer more each day. Since returning to the nest several modifications have been made. Thanks to all the Forum members that post their mods and advice. In the 9 months awaiting delivery we learned so much and had to chance to order the bits and pieces for the mods and that has made the experience even better. I've posted some pictures of a few things and I have done. Chime in if you recognize your intellectual property !

 

Thanks for all the great conversations on the forum and Sally and I hope to see on the road !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike and Carol]

Mark and Sally, glad to hear it’s going well. Your Roadrunner graphic is great! Mike

[John E Davies]

Looks great! Nice mudflaps......

 

Tell me about your 1-Up bike rack. Are they Super Duty rails? I was not aware you could buy them seperately, or did you already own the complete system? How heavy are your bikes? Can you post a pic with them mounted on the rack?

 

The complete 1-Up rack has angled rails, so you can stagger the bikes to clear handlebars. Is this a problem with your setup? Maybe you could start a new thread about your rack.

 

I am hoping to get a couple of ebikes, weighing 55 to 65 pounds and need very stout rails and a stout lower attach point.

 

Where in Seattle? I recognise the clouds in pic 1. My son lives in Redmond and we visit often, and we lived three places in Puget Sound over 23 years before fleeing to the Dry Side.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Overland]

Looks like a nice job on the table.  I'm also interested in your bike rack install.  We have the hitch mount 1up and love it.  I'd planned to add two to our Ollie but ended up putting a basket on our rack instead.  We wished we had bikes on tour last trip though.

 

John, I think the tray sections of the 1ups are all the same.  The heavy duty ones just have beefier hitch mounts. The super duty one they say has an extra rail beneath the tray, but I think that's only because the ends are cantilevered that it needs that.  The individual trays are simply their roof mount models.  Or, like you say, if you have the hitch mount version, you can unscrew the trays and use them separately - with some caveats, since the hitch versions are designed to fold and the joining piece isn't flat.  Hard to explain, but if you look at the pics on their website you can see that it's wedge shaped.

 

You should call and talk with them, and send them a pic of the Oliver rack so they know what you're mounting it to.  I bet they'd O.K. its use to 75lbs like the super duty racks.  Worst case, I think you could add a 2" tube lengthways under the racks for added support.

[BackofBeyond]

Oliver doesn't/didn't put much of a weight rating on the rack support system. (I don't blame them) I purchased the Oliver frame, and  mounted, with my own Thule racks. It is very sturdy. Engineering wise, I don't know what it would rate at, but 200 lbs doesn't phase it. I would think the real issue is when do you get an imbalance between front and rear balance. To much rear and the front gets a little lite.. I would not go much above 250lbs,  but then 500 may be just fine......

 

Roadrunner - nice, I'm envious , your ahead of me on the flaps... Looks good, Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

[Roadrunner]

I'll get some pictures out shortly but in the interim to answer a few of the questions above.

 

Home base for Sally and I is Normandy Park WA which is west of  the Seattle airport SEATAC. We spend a lot of time in Sunriver Oregon as well. We are not full timing in the Oliver but think we might be out in it 1/3 of the time. We were doing weekends and vacations in our 2009 Airstream basecamp before purchasing the Oliver. Now that we are both retired we wanted something more comfortable and of good quality. Well we found it !

 

The bike rack has a good story about Oliver coming through for a customer .

 

The bike rack was an option I ordered from Oliver back in October 2017 and had as part of my build until about February when I was on the phone with Anita making some changes to our order. She informed me that the bike rack was no longer offered and that there was no replacement as yet. When I had gone thru the initial option list in October I asked if I could get just the bike rack frame without the Yakima trays. I already had the One Up trays which attach to roof racks. Theses are very sturdy and attach with carriage 3/8 carriage bolts that are go in a T slot on the bottom of the tray. This makes the mounting width easily changed to the distance between your roof rack bars. I was told at the time that I could not get the frame only but had to order the whole thing and pay for the Yakima trays I did not need. Fast forward to February and now the rack is not offered. I inquired if I could get the parts and mount it myself. There was not a clear answer to this question so I waited a few weeks and asked again. Still no answer but a manger would be asked about it. No answer was forthcoming and I accepted I would have to work on a solution myself. When we got to Hoenwald the trailer was in the garage and ready to inspect and as I walked into the bay I noticed what looked like a bike rack frame leaning against the wall. I was then told that was my frame and if I still wanted it then I could purchase it on an invoice from the service dept. I got the frame and the four long 1/2 bolts. mounting blocks, quick disconnect pins and put it in the truck for later install. Turns out I got what I originally wanted and at 1/3 the cost of the full up bike rack.

 

I installed the mounting blocks and took the frame to a local welder along with some short pieces of square 2x2x.25  6061 extrusion and had him weld three additional cross pieces in the frame. Without the additional cross pieces I would have likely had to drill 3/8 inch holes in the frame to mount the One up trays. Having the additional supports also would be handy in the event I wanted to mount a box on the rack in the future. So far no holes in the frame just the One Up mounting clamps that hold the trays. The One Up trays and bicycle bars that clap the wheels are very robust and I would not hesitate to put 100 lbs on each on the rack or a 200 lbs box with the trays removed.. My mountain bikes weigh approximately 32 lbs.

 

I'll get you some pictures soon.

 

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kkmain]

HI,

 

We’re Kevin and Kathi Main for California and we are coinciding the delivery of our Oliver with our retirement in January.  We loved your modifications - especially the bike rack and table!

 

Happy Trails...

[BackofBeyond]

MARK,

 

My experience was almost the same. Oliver discontinued the rack, but offered me a solution similar to your experience . I mounted my Thule bike rack to the discontinued Ollie subframe, with a little additional 2" alum square tubing, and I'm very happy.

 

Your weight bearing estimates are also similar to mine. The rack is very - Robust.

 

I understand why the unit was discontinued, Oliver deserves its reputation for customer responsiveness, sometimes overly so, but what they come up with for future owners is a guess. It will be interesting. For someone that enjoys fabrication and has the equipment this is a great project - unfortunately I'm reducing my equipment footprint, so I'll just design in my head, and continue to get rid of all the stuff we won't need for our next 20 year journey. That is entirely another subject - minimalism -jettisoning a lifetime of stuff- seems hard, but once you take the first step, we, at least, feel liberated. I digress.

 

RB