Trailer Length vs "pretty" campsite

[Steve Morris]

17 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

My wife is the one who insisted on an Oliver once we got inside one.

Same with Deb. Once we actually saw one, there were no other options!

[ADKCamper]

We come from a backpacking, canoe camping, car camping and pop-up trailer background, so our 18.5 ft LE feels like a palace 🙂

As others above have said, our intention is to be outdoors, experiencing the nature and scenery around us, so time inside the trailer is usually reserved for sleeping, inclement weather and some but not all of the cooking.

The short LE fits well in most commercial campgrounds/state parks and almost all BLM/COE/USFS sites we have enjoyed. The older national park campgrounds can be a problem, as indicated above. This year we had a difficult site in Zion's older South Campground... the campground loop road was quite narrow so there was minimal tow vehicle maneuvering room. The pad for our site was perpendicular to the road, not angled to ease the backing-in process. As the final challenge, there was a tree on one corner of the site's entrance and a big rock on the other! Fortunately... the site directly opposite ours was empty both when we arrived and when we departed, so there was a place to maneuver the front of the truck partway through the alignment process.

Our second night was in Zion's Watchman Campground (couldn't get 2 consecutive nights in the same site) which seems to be somewhat newer, and the loop road and sites were slightly wider and nicely angled.

Someday maybe we'll have tow vehicles with all-wheel or joystick steering 🙂

[SeaDawg]

4 hours ago, ADKCamper said:

Someday maybe we'll have tow vehicles with all-wheel or joystick steering 🙂

Like the early 2000s gm  quadrasteer? I don't think it ever got a lot of public traction, but a neat idea.

A forum member who camped with us way back in the day (2009?) had that feature, and it truly was interesting. 

I read that at least one of the ev trucks was reviving that idea. 

It's challenging sometimes in little awkward spots, like the one you described,  and others we've been assigned in Canada. But if we hold our breath, use spotters, and are patient,  omg, how sweet it is!

[rideandfly]

Dennis,

First time we saw an Oliver was during 2010 before the LE2 was available. We absolutely loved the Legacy Elite! We wanted to eventually buy one. When the LE2 became available, it checked all the boxes for us being the maximum sized camper we wanted for the two of us.
 

We prefer to tow with 1/2 ton pickup that’s also used as a daily driver. As far as the wet bath goes, we found wiping it down with an auto shami after showering works great.

The majority of our camping is at federal and state parks. Some of the federal campgrounds have smaller campsites, but our LE2’s  size works in most of those campsites. 
 

Ollie’s is very stable towing, and like previously mentioned the 7’ wide trailer is easy to handle compared to 8’ wide trailers. It’s also efficient towing, on round trips from NC to TN plateau area, we’re seeing +15mpg with a late model TV powered with a turbo V6 gas engine.

Our Ollie is equipped perfectly for us and we love the interior and exterior finish.  Best way to describe camping in an Ollie is very pleasant!!!! 🙂

Best Regards,

Bill and Debbie

[Geronimo John]

On 1/25/2023 at 5:57 AM, Mountainman198 said:

Don’t overlook the issue of maneuverability and width

Good point Mountainman!  To that I add that an LE2 when being towed pretty much is in the wind shadow of our full sized Tow Vehicles.  With Ollie's rounded shape the aerodynamic drag created is minimal compared to just about all "Stick Builts" and wider fiberglass trailers.      

On 1/25/2023 at 7:00 AM, Katjo said:

Try a wet and dry bath.

I have taken many showers in trailers over the years.  Not once have I not dried the shower stall for sanitation, mold/mildew prevention or just to make it look nice for my bride.  The time it takes to dry our Ollie bath after a shower is less than a minute or two to more than to dry a dry bath shower.  Yet as said above, having the square footage for other uses is huge in our well laid out LE2's. 

[Ollie-Haus]

@Geronimo Johnyour comments brings to mind what I've always thought about the unique designs of the Oliver Campers. I know folks tend to have a preconceived mindset regarding camper size and especially galley and bathroom requirements. Those of us that appreciate the design characteristics of the Oliver Campers probably recognize the amount of thought that went into every aspect of their campers. They seem to have focused on maximizing the function while maintaining a minimal envelope to attain those goals. Towing efficiency and ease of towing to the destination also seem to be primary goals, hence the overall size and shape. And of course durability is an overriding requirement in their priorities. I don't know if any other company has tried to marry all these requirements to the level that Oliver has succeeded in their trailers. Every aspect is challenged by the cost control piece of the puzzle, but unlike other companies, Oliver appears to try and control costs secondary to the quality component, and the feature component rides very high in that chain of priorities. 

[Dennis and Melissa]

I hope this doesn't sound too ridiculous to all you old hands, but....

We toured what we thought was a near-as-good competitor to see their offerings that were just a tad bigger, so we could get a dry bath.

INTECH has a couple of very pretty options, and they appear better than your typical stickie.

But many of the build-material issues immediately resurfaced (maybe we never should have toured the Oliver 🃏).

And the praise lavished here extolling the virtues of small started to sound more like us again.

Bottom line, my wife is voting for the LEII again. 😀

I'm gonna see if we can spend a weekend in a small Airstream somewhere close and experience a few wetbaths first hand.  Just in case that pendulum has one more swing left in it. 😕

[Mattnan]

We needed a small trailer specifically in Zion and Grand Canyon.  Also at Oscar Schearer state park and Fort Pickens National Park in Florida.  These were all great stops.  Smaller opens up lots of sites because you can fit almost anywhere.   The gas station maneuvering is an added benefit.  My wife actually really ended up likeing the wet bath and used it more than some of the shower rooms in many of the campgrounds.   We had the Oliver shower curtain set up.  Personally at 6'1" and too short for my height, I felt it was cramped but admit it worked well.  I thought I wanted a separate dry bath.  I am now fine with wet bath like Oliver all fiberglass.   It is easy to keep clean and dry. Consider a grate for the shower floor.  We liked our Ollie very much.  We sold it thinking we were done camping after 2 long trips and some shorter trips, kind of wish we kept it.   We purchased it when we retired.  We traveled in the winter and having the Oliver in the winter and cold in Utah and New  Mexico was great.  I would buy an Oliver EII again as a travel trailer.  We never felt cramped in our twin bed model. Great and fast resale too.  Hard to go wrong.   We did have a clam pop up room too but seldom used it.  We mostly had breakfast and dinner at the camper and were gone all day.  Good luck!!!

[Mike and Carol]

1 hour ago, dennis said:

INTECH has a couple of very pretty options, and they appear better than your typical stickie.

The Intech Terra Oasis is a nice trailer, welded aluminum frame and nice features.  We like the bigger holding tanks and large fridge.  They are not as easy to tow and will be less likely to fit into smaller camp sites.  I’ve read that even with a 3/4 ton truck or larger most owners are using a WDH.  I saw a picture this month of an Oasis overturned still attached to the 3/4 ton pickup that was upside down.  It was going downhill at 55mph and was passed by a semi going quite a bit faster.  Sway started and took over.  The good news, both occupants walked away and the trailer did not disintegrate and remained pretty much intact.  Mike

[Zodd]

8 hours ago, dennis said:

INTECH has a couple of very pretty options, and they appear better than your typical stickie.

But many of the build-material issues immediately resurfaced

The inTech Oasis has had our eye but there are a couple things that keep me a way. First, the towing experience. The story Mike mentioned above was a 1/2 ton truck I am pretty sure. But still an odd experience for sway and it seems many that own the trailer have WDH even with bigger trucks. But I have seen that with airstream as well. Having a safe and stable tow is very important to me. Second, are the below pictures. I was at an RV show and went inside an Oasis. Really loved it until I saw behind the tape on a seem. Someone else had pulled the tape off. The inTech rep had no explanation and no one on their forums has been able to explain what looks like a lot of missing screws. 
 

@dennis I am curious what build issues you had?

[Boonter Jeff]

Since we went from a 17 foot trailer to a 23 foot trailer, I’ve disconnected the trailer and parked our pickup on the side, a couple of times.  A bit of a nuisance but… 

[Dennis and Melissa]

3 hours ago, Zodd said:

 

@dennis I am curious what build issues you had?

I don't want to kick the dog when it's down, but....

the shower interior, the floor, the subfloor, the support structure for the couches, the undercarriage barrier, the door, the step...

It's not fair, really.  It's cheaper than the Oliver for a reason.

It's a VERY nice trailer, with some great attributes.  If I weren't drunk on Oliver KoolAid, I'd be VERY happy to have one.

[Zodd]

2 hours ago, dennis said:

It's not fair, really.  It's cheaper than the Oliver for a reason.

The Terra Oasis is not much cheaper though. But floor plan is pretty gorgeous IMHO.