I'm Waiting!

[topgun2]

This picture (taken on August 23, 2021) below shows a line of new Olivers that I was told are mainly patiently waiting for their new owners to pick the up.

WOW!  I remember that I simply could not wait to get my new Oliver.  Let's get camping!

Bill

[johnwen]

We saw that  on 16 Aug.  Could be waiting for the decals as most have none.  Earlier this year (April) only one was naked and all others had decals.  We ordered our naked as well.  And yes, I won't wait to pick up ours even though it be the middle of January 🙂

[ChrisMI]

IMO the Oliver needs something on the front. A custom logo or the factory one. Honestly, can’t believe that many are being ordered naked (maybe they haven’t gotten to that yet, although I see some in the distance). I also like the Oliver name and model number on the side.

[topgun2]

One of the "downsides" to having a logo on the front is that bugs are more difficult to remove from the decals as compared to removing them directly from the fiberglass.  This difficulty is slightly reduced by keeping a good coat of wax on that front logo.

I've heard that beginning next year all new Olivers will come without stripes of any kind on the sides.  The factory will make available the current graphics in the event a customer wishes to have the stripes produced by an outside vendor.  Only the front and rear logos plus the lettering on each side will be standard as will the "Oliver" on the "third brake light" at the rear.

Bill

[johnwen]

Bill,

That is true...no stripes according to my salesman as of 2 weeks ago.

John

[Fargoman]

Bill, regarding bug splats on the front logo, that's why we decided not to have one applied. I do like the choice of side stripes we had when ordering our 2021 LE2, but a mostly bare Ollie would still look great.

[SeaDawg]

We've never had a front logo. Florida love bugs..

[SeaDawg]

I know a lot of people don't like "swooshes." I get that .

I understand that Oliver is offering a referral to aftermarket graphics? Is that so? New folks?

[Mike and Carol]

Cleaning bugs off of the logo on the front of our trailer is no more difficult and sometimes easier than cleaning them off the fiberglass.  Mike

[BackofBeyond]

It will be no issue on my next Ollie - My front logo will be a montage of bug splatter...

[bugeyedriver]

10 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

Cleaning bugs off of the logo on the front of our trailer is no more difficult and sometimes easier than cleaning them off the fiberglass.  Mike

I find mine to be very easy to clean.  The photo of Bosker was put on by a car wrap business and it has a very strong, and slick, clear coating applied on top.

 

[Landrover]

14 hours ago, topgun2 said:

One of the "downsides" to having a logo on the front is that bugs are more difficult to remove from the decals as compared to removing them directly from the fiberglass.  This difficulty is slightly reduced by keeping a good coat of wax on that front logo.

I've heard that beginning next year all new Olivers will come without stripes of any kind on the sides.  The factory will make available the current graphics in the event a customer wishes to have the stripes produced by an outside vendor.  Only the front and rear logos plus the lettering on each side will be standard as will the "Oliver" on the "third brake light" at the rear.

Bill

A little discouraging a lot of items being deleted from the builds Stripes , electrical outlets fabric and counter choices.  I thought what most appealed to the customer was the flexibility to make a custom Oliver. I guess these changes need to be done to boost productivity and profit. 

Grant

[ScubaRx]

47 minutes ago, Landrover said:

A little discouraging a lot of items being deleted from the builds Stripes , electrical outlets fabric and counter choices.  I thought what most appealed to the customer was the flexibility to make a custom Oliver. I guess these changes need to be done to boost productivity and profit. 

Grant

Actually, it is a major effort to increase production and efficiency on the line. Without these changes they might be in the same boat as Escape TT, a 23 month waiting period. They are currently building six per week with plans to be at seven by year end. 

[Jim and Frances]

So funny....It's the other way around for us... We are patiently waiting for our delivery - our trailer is NOT waiting for us!  Trust me when I say ours will not be sitting lonely in the lot waiting for us.  Got a hull number this week...927...our excitement grows each day!    Just about burned out on planning  and watching YouTube videos - we are ready to start living our dream and joyously making all the mistakes for ourselves 😁

[topgun2]

Grant - 

53 minutes ago, Landrover said:

I guess these changes need to be done to boost productivity and profit.

I understand that just in the past 12 months the cost of producing an Oliver has increased over $7,500.  So, at least to some degree, your comment may be valid in regards to profit motive.  However, many changes over the years resulting in the reduction of choices has to do with the overwhelming number of Olivers that are ordered with the seemingly limited choices now offered.  Back when I ordered my Oliver I remember being simply bewildered with the number of choices available.

With regards to productivity there are a number of issues to consider.  Yes, Oliver has dramatically increased production over the past couple of years and yet the wait time for new units continues to increase.  At the same time, there have been on and off issues with quality control - not surprising with the increase in production.  In order to increase production and to make and/or improve quality control it is not surprising that the ability for customers to customize trailers during standard production has been curtailed.  However, any customer can still request customized options via the Service Department either after or before delivery.  Any customer can have any fabric they chose but instead of Oliver's sub-contractor doing this work, the customer will now have to have that done by someone on their own.  In some sense part of all this is the "fault" of all of us (the customers) for these trailers.  We wanted more of them, we wanted more and different customized things done to them, we wanted these relatively expensive campers to be free of defects, we didn't want to pay $100,000 for one of them AND we didn't want to wait to get one of them.

I would encourage you to attend an Oliver Rally.  I'm continually impressed with the variety and degree of customization that owners have done and continue to do to these campers.  Certainly not all owners have either the skill, tools, knowledge or even inclination to do many of these things.  But, if we can have a well engineered camper that is reasonably free of defects at a price that is commensurate with the market and quality then either we can do the customization ourselves or find a way to have it done in the future.

Bill