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Anyone need us to look into anything during our upcoming factory tour?


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Greetings!  We will be traveling to Hohenwald in a week or so and wanted to offer our services to anyone who might need something while we are there...specific information, measurement, picture of something, etc.  We are looking forward to the factory tour and understanding options prior to our October delivery.

Just let us know if you need anything!

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SE Texas  | 2021 Elite II  Twin Bed # 927  "Lucy"  |  2019 F250 FX4 6.7

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Enjoy the tour! 

Take a camera and ask a bunch of questions.  If anything catches your eye - stop and ask about it, touch it, lift it.  Post pics here when you get back.

Bill

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2023 Ford F150 Lariat 3.5EB FX4 Max Towing, Max Payload, 2016 Oliver Elite II - Hull #117 "Twist"

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Interesting.   While I am confident in this instance the intentions are not nefarious, will Oliver allow photography on a factory tour?  I may be incorrect, I thought I understand Oliver is no longer publishing wiring diagrams for competitive reasons.  I may be totally off base here.  Asking Oliver in advance may be wise before taking photos.  I do know some YouTubers were given permission, I am guessing with supervision by Oliver?  Ok I am ready for the onslaught of opinions from those who know better than I.

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Oh my!  Didn't mean to whack on the wiring diagram hornet nest  💣   LOL

John Davies - Excellent suggestion.  We will take some goodies for potential bribes.

Additionally, we will deploy our super secret stealth camera should we happen upon any of the elusive wiring diagrams.  🙉

 

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SE Texas  | 2021 Elite II  Twin Bed # 927  "Lucy"  |  2019 F250 FX4 6.7

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  • 2 weeks later...

We had a great factory tour.    While I was fully committed to bringing up some boudain, as well as some doughnuts as was John E Davies' suggestion to assist in obtaining wiring diagrams, I failed on all counts!  I forgot the boudain at home and upon leaving Linden, TN after a night's rest,  the only doughnut shop Mr. Googles would suggest was an hour away.  I dared not come into the plant with doughnuts from Walmart.  And, of course, my super secret stealth spy camera's battery died.  So, sorry folks, no wiring diagrams  😄

Regardless, it was a great trip, great time, super meeting some of the folks that make up the Oliver team.

The clock ticks soooo slowly for our October delivery.

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SE Texas  | 2021 Elite II  Twin Bed # 927  "Lucy"  |  2019 F250 FX4 6.7

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I believe I am watching the same clock.  I have an October delivery as well!

What was the objective of your visit, other than to see the quality manufacturing?  I live in Oregon, and am trying to decide if I should go visit the factory before our delivery date in October.  It is quite a distance for me.  I would love to go but have not come up with the justification for the trip.  There will be a factory tour before you take delivery, right?  Is there any benefit on going early?  Did it help with some of your configuration decisions?

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Carl

2021 Legacy Elite I | "Lil' Tow" | Hull #924

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1 hour ago, Jim and Frances said:

I dared not come into the plant with doughnuts from Walmart. 

While I believe that the guys working for Oliver are a great bunch, I really don't think that there is anyone there that cares where the donuts come from.😃

Bill

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2023 Ford F150 Lariat 3.5EB FX4 Max Towing, Max Payload, 2016 Oliver Elite II - Hull #117 "Twist"

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7 minutes ago, Carl Hansen said:

There will be a factory tour before you take delivery, right?

Not unless you ask for one.  

While I strongly encourage a factory tour I would hesitate to recommend anyone spend the time and effort just to take a factory tour when coming from Oregon.  Adding it on to your delivery schedule would be a good idea though in that you can take pictures and generally become acquainted with how your Oliver was put together.  If I were doing this, I'd plan on doing the tour one day and then taking delivery the next day.  Trying to do both in one day is asking a bunch.

Bill

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2023 Ford F150 Lariat 3.5EB FX4 Max Towing, Max Payload, 2016 Oliver Elite II - Hull #117 "Twist"

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We will be taking the tour the second Monday in May. We already had a trip planned to the red river gorge in Kentucky in the works when we put our deposit down on our ollie. (We pick it up Feb 2022)  We just adjusted our reservations a bit. Now it seems the kayaking in the cave, red river gorge zip line  and possible via ferrata  as well as some hikes are taking second place to the ollie tour -   it's all we talk about! Really looking forward to it! Once we do the tour , Red river gorge here we come!!

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We had planned to spend the Memorial Day weekend in New Orleans with family and decided to fly into Nashville a few days early, take a factory tour, and head to New Orleans taking a section of the Natchez Trace Parkway on our way south. Wish we had planned to spend a day or two in Nashville but maybe when we pick up our Ollie. Looking forward to seeing the actual build and trying to make final decisions on options. Taking photos/videos during the tour sounds like a great idea. A February pick up seems so far away...

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On 4/30/2021 at 12:48 PM, Carl Hansen said:

I believe I am watching the same clock.  I have an October delivery as well!

What was the objective of your visit, other than to see the quality manufacturing?  I live in Oregon, and am trying to decide if I should go visit the factory before our delivery date in October.  It is quite a distance for me.  I would love to go but have not come up with the justification for the trip.  There will be a factory tour before you take delivery, right?  Is there any benefit on going early?  Did it help with some of your configuration decisions?

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Carl

Carl - We had several objectives. 

  • See the actual color options.  Computer displays are not always very accurate. 
    • They had a great set up in the new sales office/show room to mix and match all the color and fabric options.
  • Spend a bit of time actually sitting in the trailer.  I am not a small person, and just wanted to see how it felt after some time.
    • It was very comfortable, even for me.
  • Better understand some of the options and in talking with our sales person, additional questions came to mind that are in the process of being researched,
    • I respected that our sales person would tell us when he wasn't sure about something, but would look into it and let me know.  I don't like sales folks who blow smoke.  There was no smoke here!  
  • See the build quality that you can't see on the outside...like how are wiring harnesses affixed to the inner hulls so they don't come off and rattle, etc.
    • While I've watched just about every YouTube vid out there, I was able to see lots of little details and was very impressed.  (and no, I have not partaken of  the Oliver Kool-Aid).
  • See the actual production process.  Being an industrial engineer, I took in a lot of observations on actual production workers work methods and their attention to detail.
    • Out of everything I saw, I was most impressed with this aspect of Oliver.  I watched a worker in the final area working on a small imperfection - he had not seen us, and the level of effort to address this little flaw was very impressive.  There were multiple examples of this in addition to a really good "feel" on the floor.  Can't really describe this, but after dozens of years in manufacturing, you get a sense of the feel of a place.  (While I was getting close to taking a sip of the Kool-Aid, I had not yet ingested any at this point).
  • Taste the Kool-Aid - after the tour, I think I drank some of their Kool-Aid!

For us, it was much better to see it in person.  It is a huge investment for us, and we wanted to see things up close and personal.  I agree completely with topgun2 that a factory tour is very beneficial if you are close.

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SE Texas  | 2021 Elite II  Twin Bed # 927  "Lucy"  |  2019 F250 FX4 6.7

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On 4/30/2021 at 12:48 PM, Carl Hansen said:

Did it help with some of your configuration decisions?

It helped us to ask some additional questions to ensure we understood.  Could have likely don't this part verbally, but for me was comforting to see some of the options.

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SE Texas  | 2021 Elite II  Twin Bed # 927  "Lucy"  |  2019 F250 FX4 6.7

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