Alaskan Ready to Join Ollie Family

[AKGreg]

Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska;

We have been searching for a "travel" vehicle for the past few years, camper, van, trailer, but not a tent.  (Been there done that.)  I stumbled upon the Oliver website, joined this forum and have read countless posts by current Ollie owners and I think we have found our dream traveler.  The only BIG problem is that living and owning an Oliver in Alaska is quite rare.  The only Ollie I have seen in Alaska is last week while my wife and I were driving between Savage River and Teklanika River campgrounds in Denali National Park. Imagine my surprise to see an older Oliver Elite being towed by a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck 30 miles into Denali National Park. We were not able to stop to chat, but it was pretty cool to actually see an Oliver in Alaska.

However, we want to experience areas in the Lower 48 where most Ollie owners live and travel.  This means a 4,000+ mile journey to and from the Pacific Northwest or Montana before and after our exploring with an Ollie.  (I have driven cars, trucks and a Born Free motorhome to Alaska  many times since 1974 and loved the journey each and every trip.)  Our kids and grandkids also live in Alaska and we would love to go camping with them durning our short, but intense Alaskan summers.  An Ollie should allow us to travel "The roads less traveled" here in Alaska and explore durning the fall and spring in the lower 48.

Sorry for the long post, but we are semi struggling with ordering an Oliver trailer that will spend a lot of time enduring the weather and Mother Nature events of Alaska.  Also concerned about the thousands of miles of wear and tear on an Ollie traveling the Alcan highway on a yearly basis.  Any thoughts, comments or alternative ideas from current Oliver owners?  We will be here in Anchorage until October 8, when we head to Maui for some R & R, so if any Ollie owners who make it to the Anchorage area in the next few months, we would love to meet you, (and your Ollie!)

Since this is my first post, I am not sure if someone can PM or contact us, but I'm sure someone will lead us in the right direction.  Thanks for reading our rather long post, and I look forward to any replies regarding owning an Ollie in Alaska.

AlaskaGreg

[John E Davies]

Welcome, Please add a signature with your tow vehicle and which Ollie you are interested in. The LE1 is better suited to your travel conditions, especially with a simple suspension upgrade. The LE2 not so much. Both would need rock protection for the gelcoat.

We were really hoping to leave on a five week trip to AK starting August 1, but I think that just isn’t going to happen this year… 😤

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Mike and Carol]

Hey Greg, welcome.  Lots of Ollies have made the trip to Alaska and back, some several times.  I’m sure they can tell you how they did.  The Oliver is a pretty durable unit, I know of several with over 100K miles on them.  Ours is a little over 5 years old and we’re over 60K miles with just standard maintenance. Suspension lube, brake adjustments and bearing repacks.  We replaced the original tires this year and replaced the original 4 AGM batteries with a couple of lithium’s.  Other than that, we just travel and camp!  Mike

[dewdev]

Greg:

I do not agree with John about which trailer is best for you. The Elite 1 is the smaller single axle trailer and is best suited for only 2 people. You mentioned camping with kid and grandkids. The Elite 2 the larger two axle trailer is a little bigger. 3 people might be comfortable in this two axle trailer and could accomodiated more people during meal times depending on the trailer layout you purchase. Check out the Oliver web site and look at both trailer sizes and choose for your self on which size trailer works for you.

John has a good point about rock protection of th efiberglass tailer (or using tow vehicle mud flaps) if traveling a lot on gravel roads.

I would suggest you contact Oliver as they could tell you the location and contact information of the closest Oliver owner who could show you their trailer. Maybe there is some owners in Alaska already.

Good luck in your search 

[SeaDawg]

There is at least one Oliver in Alaska, full time.

You might try private messaging @AW1985. He was based in Fairbanks in his last post, but camped often in Cantwell and Valdez, both a reasonable (by Alaska standards) drive from Anchorage. 

 

[John and Debbie]

On 7/12/2021 at 10:10 PM, AKGreg said:

Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska;

We have been searching for a "travel" vehicle for the past few years, camper, van, trailer, but not a tent.  (Been there done that.)  I stumbled upon the Oliver website, joined this forum and have read countless posts by current Ollie owners and I think we have found our dream traveler.  The only BIG problem is that living and owning an Oliver in Alaska is quite rare.  The only Ollie I have seen in Alaska is last week while my wife and I were driving between Savage River and Teklanika River campgrounds in Denali National Park. Imagine my surprise to see an older Oliver Elite being towed by a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck 30 miles into Denali National Park. We were not able to stop to chat, but it was pretty cool to actually see an Oliver in Alaska.

However, we want to experience areas in the Lower 48 where most Ollie owners live and travel.  This means a 4,000+ mile journey to and from the Pacific Northwest or Montana before and after our exploring with an Ollie.  (I have driven cars, trucks and a Born Free motorhome to Alaska  many times since 1974 and loved the journey each and every trip.)  Our kids and grandkids also live in Alaska and we would love to go camping with them durning our short, but intense Alaskan summers.  An Ollie should allow us to travel "The roads less traveled" here in Alaska and explore durning the fall and spring in the lower 48.

Sorry for the long post, but we are semi struggling with ordering an Oliver trailer that will spend a lot of time enduring the weather and Mother Nature events of Alaska.  Also concerned about the thousands of miles of wear and tear on an Ollie traveling the Alcan highway on a yearly basis.  Any thoughts, comments or alternative ideas from current Oliver owners?  We will be here in Anchorage until October 8, when we head to Maui for some R & R, so if any Ollie owners who make it to the Anchorage area in the next few months, we would love to meet you, (and your Ollie!)

Since this is my first post, I am not sure if someone can PM or contact us, but I'm sure someone will lead us in the right direction.  Thanks for reading our rather long post, and I look forward to any replies regarding owning an Ollie in Alaska.

AlaskaGreg

I saw an Ollie up close and personal here in Oregon at a campground.   We haven't ordered one yet,  but the quality is very good from what I could tell.   I have been busy getting opinions on different options.  I don't want to waste my time looking at cheap trailers.   I have been interested in Bigfoot trailers,  but the guy that I talked to had one of those and said the quality of the Oliiver is better.