+1 for Utah

[mr.j]

Hi everyone, Mr.J here and happy to be so!

I'm one of the few, the proud, the future Oliver owners.  It's probably a bit early to do an introduction, but better now since I'm starting to be active searching through the forums and following interesting (to me) folks and conversations.

My family is probably a little younger than most, we're in our low thirties, but I've been drawn to RV adventures for a long time.  Growing up in urban California, having an RV was not something that was possible, and I was never exposed to it.  Let's just say that watching several of my Utah neighbors over the last years pull up their travel trailers load up from their house, and take off for fun and adventures really cemented my journey, which should begin here (anticipated delivery January 2022) in a few months.  I spent a year searching and browsing, looking for the right choice for us, but learned along the way of the generally horrible build quality and resale value.  I noticed that several popular RV enthusiasts were swapping trailers/rvs every 3/2 and sometimes every year.  They would say new features enticed them, new layouts seemed better, but putting it all together, I saw a confirmation that most were good for 3 years max before needing major repair/investment.  So a few years ago, my search stopped.  Fast forward, and now we have on the market several African/Australian style options, and a huge surge in popularity of teardrop/overland style trailers and travel.  Add the Wuhan flu. Then add, traveling out to explore in 1/2 day trips around Utah and in the middle of the disastrous pandemic I saw hundreds of families out and about, living their best possible life, living a normal kind of life.  Camping, biking, exploring, and all with their own little piece of privacy and convenience.  Expedition style trailers seemed to make the same kind of compromises on quality (at least the American market options) and for the price of a nice teardrop, I don't see the added value of the small usable space, I don't own a rock crawler.  And they are pricey too!

I don't know how exactly I found Oliver, it wasn't that long ago, but it  was definitely around 2 AM on the internet, so safe to say it was a blur. I'm hopeful that all will be well, that my small family, mom/dad/baby will enjoy our new travel home, and that it will enhance our lives to the fullest, and provide us with some amazing opportunities.  We have on order an Elite 2, standard floor plan.  Planning on sharing the king(-ish) bed with the little one, which is perfectly fine for us, and one day maybe adding a nice 4 season tent to our arsenal for when the extra sleeping space becomes important.

I am working on a design for a custom dinette table that will simplify the process of transforming from bed to dinette, and some strategies and custom work to simplify making up the bed in the morning.  If I stumble across anything great, I'll be happy to share along the way.

 

Special thanks to Jason (at) Oliver and @DavidSfor doing a walk through with us. David, you'll know us from our matching tow vehicles!

 

Best to all!

 

Mr.J

[SeaDawg]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Very nice to see another young family, too. 

Have you looked at a Springfield telescoping base for the small table? That's one thought. I'm sure others will have ideas. 

[mr.j]

I was looking at something like that @SeaDawg but didn't know it was commercially available.  Sometimes it seems everything has already been invented, 🙂

I was originally thinking either telescoping base or scissor lift, with a way to move the table around when it's in the dinette position (like some other trailers have).

Another option was repurposing the small dinette table and setting that space up as a bench/couch full-time.  All rough ideas for now, but the telescoping Springfield could work!

 

Thanks for the tip!

[Mike and Carol]

Welcome, Mr J.  You’ve got time to plan before January gets here.  We’ll be interested in your dinette mods!  Mike

[DavidS]

Welcome to the Oliver Family, Mr J! 

I loved your description of watching your neighbors get new trailers every few years, primarily because SOB trailers (Some Other Brand) are built poorly and don't last very long. You will be happy with your decision to go with an Oliver! 

[Carl Hansen]

Welcome to the family.  I too am awaiting a delivery in October.  Just in time for next year's ski season.  I highly recommend the Oliver University web page with all of its great content.  Of course the experience and expertise in this forum is second to none.  What an amazing Oliver family you will find here in these postings.

Starting camping with a young family is the way to go.  Some of our fondest family memories are our camping and skiing adventures together.  Several years ago we de-emphasized all the Christmas presents for a ski vacation.  The family was much happier with the ski vacations rather than a bunch of gifts they don't remember from one year to the next.  Discussing our skiing and camping adventures is always a fun time together. 

All of our children and now grandchildren (who are old enough to enjoy the sport [that's 6/10]) now also ski/snowboard.  This is one of our main motivations for a 4-season trailer.  Most of the Pacific Northwest ski resorts reserve a portion of their parking for motorhomes and trailers.  This makes it so convenient for Mom's with children to take hot chocolate breaks, lunches, and necessary naps.  Parents and grandparent can also take turns skiing with their children / grandchildren who ski while the other tends the non-skiers.  Spending the night there also ensures that we get an appropriate start to the next day with good night sleep and a good hot breakfast.  With our delivery, we will have three trailers in the family.

I took a long time researching trailers, and like yourself, found that Oliver trailers are of the highest quality and reputation.

We hope to meet you on the road!

Carl