I am not a patient man

[HDRider]

Next Monday is my last day to cancel my order without penalty.  I think we are committed.  It is a lot of money, but after studying RVs for over two years now, I simply do not see other brands being as well built and the culture there at Oliver in Tennessee seems to be all about building a good RV.  I am excited, and to be honest a little nervous.  My expected delivery date is early August.

 

More about us.

My wife and I have been married for a long time.  We have two grown kids who don't live close by.  I retired from corporate life about six years ago.  We spent that time decompressing from suburban life and the demands others placed on us.  We now enjoy the country life.  Over the last six years we stayed close to the farm with our cattle and sheep.  That really helped me come back to life  after sitting behind a desk for almost 40 years.  We sold the livestock last spring and are now anxious to hit the road and see this great country.

 

I am learning patience.  We are waiting to take delivery of a fully outfitted LE II.  I hope to see you Ollies out and about.  Stop by our camp and say hi!

 

 

[topgun2]

1 minute ago, HDRider said:

My expected delivery date is early August.

This time will go by fairly quickly AND will drag by all at the same time.

Use this time to learn all you can about your new baby.  Between this Forum and the Oliver University there is more than enough to keep you entertained over the summer.  Start planning all of those trips you've been wanting to take and things you've been wanting to see.

Get everything else in your life ready so that you can not feel guilty about neglecting anything while you spend time pampering that shiny new Oliver and/or while you're relaxing at your favorite camping spot.

5 minutes ago, HDRider said:

Stop by our camp and say hi!

Would love to do this - but - where might this camp be?

Bill

[HDRider]

6 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Oliver University

My wife and I will be looking to get our degree!

6 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Would love to do this - but - where might this camp be?

We plan to hit the wonderful state parks here in Arkansas first to get our RV legs.

 

My wife loves the beach, and I love my wife, so Florida is on the horizon. 

 

From there we will follow the seasons. 

[topgun2]

OK - but if you have to get a restraining order to keep me from following you around - it will be a problem!🥰

[Mike and Carol]

Welcome to the group.  Some of our favorite state parks are in Arkansas!  Mike

[MAX Burner]

3 hours ago, HDRider said:

My wife loves the beach, and I love my wife, so Florida is on the horizon. 

Awesome plan, @HDRider!  Happy wife - happy life, right?  

We cruised from our casa in NM to Key West several years ago with our rig - May timeframe.  Enjoyed the beaches along the panhandle from P-cola to Apalachicola.  KW was incredible.

Welcome aboard and enjoy your trip in your new Oliver!  

(PS, I'm thinking there's quite a few of us out there in Ollie world that also ride bikes...  just say'n.  Maybe a topic for the forum?)

[Guest]

Welcome @HDRider!  My wife and I picked up our LE2 just over two weeks ago.  Best decision we made since getting married and having kids 🙂  There are so many things you can spend your money on.  Heck, trucks prices are not all that far away from the price of an Oliver and I'll certaininly enjoy my Ollie more than my truck!  Congratulations and embrace the anticipation 🤣

[Steph and Dud B]

Welcome. Enjoy the new adventures to come.

[Guest]

Congratulations on your order! We ended up waiting a year for our E2. We have been greatly enjoying it. Definitely worth the wait! 
Kirk

[Ollie-Haus]

Hello @HDRider from another rider. We leave to pick our Ollie, God willing, in two days. It was a hard decision for us as well as we had to drastically downsize our home and lives to make this commitment possible. But in the realm of RV life, the Oliver is the only way to go that has any level of financial stability. I don't feel like we are throwing money down the drain. Ollie-Haus will be an investment that will get passed on to my son and his wife when we are done using it and the investment will reward them with great times down the road as well. 

There's much to be said about the recovery process from a lifetime of working, and there's no better way than reconnecting with your wife and the simple but valuable things in life. Traveling in your Oliver will be very simple and will teach you to enjoy the moments together again no matter where your front porch is sitting each day. Congratulation! 

Quote

 

 

[Rolind]

Welcome and good luck. We too are anxiously awaiting our delivery date, about four weeks away. I don’t drive an 18 wheeler, but my dozen roses are on order for Friday. Our Kathy Mattea moment is this Friday! We cannot wait to start our new adventure together.  Ollie-Haus, give a toot when your hit Louisville. We live just west of I65 and the ballpark. We will be on the lookout for your return. We have a clear view of the expressway from our place.  Assuming you are taking I 65.

[Rene]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:32 AM, HDRider said:

Next Monday is my last day to cancel my order without penalty.  I think we are committed.  It is a lot of money, but after studying RVs for over two years now, I simply do not see other brands being as well built and the culture there at Oliver in Tennessee seems to be all about building a good RV.  I am excited, and to be honest a little nervous.  My expected delivery date is early August.

 

More about us.

My wife and I have been married for a long time.  We have two grown kids who don't live close by.  I retired from corporate life about six years ago.  We spent that time decompressing from suburban life and the demands others placed on us.  We now enjoy the country life.  Over the last six years we stayed close to the farm with our cattle and sheep.  That really helped me come back to life  after sitting behind a desk for almost 40 years.  We sold the livestock last spring and are now anxious to hit the road and see this great country.

 

I am learning patience.  We are waiting to take delivery of a fully outfitted LE II.  I hope to see you Ollies out and about.  Stop by our camp and say hi!

 

 

I plan to place an order this year also, and I too have had moments where I am like, "That really is ssssoooo much money."  And I too cannot find another trailer that is as nice as an Oliver!  Excited for you and your wife! 

[HDRider]

14 minutes ago, Rene said:

I plan to place an order this year also, and I too have had moments where I am like, "That really is ssssoooo much money."  And I too cannot find another trailer that is as nice as an Oliver!  Excited for you and your wife! 

I love trip planning.  I hope I like tripping even more.

 

We looked at a lot of RVs.  We studied YT and websites.  NOTHING came close to the quality we witnessed during the factory tour.  

[Wayfinder]

Welcome @HDRider.

I took approximately 8 years to make my first RV purchase.  And even though I knew of and dreamt of owning an Oliver, I accidentally found one at a North Caroline RV dealer. They purchased two used Oliver E-IIs from Florida.  Mine, hull #110 was in the best shape and, from what @Anita Johnston said, was a demo model back in 2016. Anita is the one who helped the original owner get it all setup (via Oliver purchase).  She is a wealth of historic information.  I hope to meet her someday.

Anita and others at Oliver (service) have been good to work with when I had questions or inquiries.  And this forum, WITHOUT A DOUBT, is superb.  So many resources and experience here.

Next month I will be attending my first ever rally of any sorts, and it will be an Oliver rally to boot.  At first I was nervous, but after getting my "Wayfinder" out for the weekend last weekend, I'm really excited now. I even had to setup the Ollie on a 3.7 degree slope, first time ever.  That was scary.  But, it never moved, with lots of chocks and common sense, or luck.

It's been a very long 18 months in this family, and now hoping to get back on track with fun. I "hope" my first ever RV purchase is also the last, unless.... it's another Oliver?  Hmmmm.  Actually, I'm torn between new tech and keeping everything original on #110 as long as possible. We'll see which side of the brain wins that battle.  

Good luck. Take your time, create and USE your checklists every time.  

Cheers,

Chris

[SeaDawg]

On 4/22/2023 at 10:21 AM, HDRider said:

l  love trip planning.  I hope I like tripping even more.

They go hand in hand.

Enjoy the journey .

Our experience has been that not everything goes "as planned," and we make few reservations.  National parks are an exception.

 

 

[SeaDawg]

On 4/22/2023 at 10:21 AM, HDRider said:

l  love trip planning.  I hope I like tripping even more.

They go hand in hand.

Enjoy the journey .

Our experience has been that not everything goes "as planned," and we make few reservations.  National parks are an exception.

 

 

[HDRider]

We have our hull number.  It is 1423.

 

We pick up our Ollie next Wednesday, August 9.

 

It is about to get real!

[Katjo]

8 minutes ago, HDRider said:

We have our hull number.  It is 1423.

 

We pick up our Ollie next Wednesday, August 9.

 

It is about to get real!

So exciting!! 

[topgun2]

In 1423 during the Hundred Year's War, the English defeated the French!

I have no idea of what that means but it certainly is exciting.  Delivery day will go by soooooo quickly and you will be getting more information than you can possibly absorb.  However, relax, take in what you can, ask questions (the Oliver folks are very patient and understanding).  Get a good night's sleep both before and after delivery day.  If you've not taken the factory tour, see if you can arrange it to take the tour the day before delivery and take pictures of everything.  Enjoy yourself!  This IS FUN!

Bill

[HDRider]

23 hours ago, topgun2 said:

In 1423 during the Hundred Year's War, the English defeated the French!

I have no idea of what that means but it certainly is exciting.  Delivery day will go by soooooo quickly and you will be getting more information than you can possibly absorb.  However, relax, take in what you can, ask questions (the Oliver folks are very patient and understanding).  Get a good night's sleep both before and after delivery day.  If you've not taken the factory tour, see if you can arrange it to take the tour the day before delivery and take pictures of everything.  Enjoy yourself!  This IS FUN!

Bill

I was somewhat saddened it wasn't 1492, but I can now take comfort in the English victory.  Oh, wait, I do like France.

 

We did take the factory tour.  I'd say it was the final nudge to go with Oliver.  Honestly, and I looked hard and really studied RVs, I can't say anyone comes close to Oliver in many respects. 

[hgreen]

When you do the walk-through, have them really go over the inverter and demonstrate running AC, for example, off of the lithium batteries if you are getting that package.  Even with owning lots of campers, that part was all new to us.  Almost a year later,  the lithium package is still a learning curve, lol.   

[HDRider]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:15 PM, hgreen said:

When you do the walk-through, have them really go over the inverter and demonstrate running AC, for example, off of the lithium batteries if you are getting that package.  Even with owning lots of campers, that part was all new to us.  Almost a year later,  the lithium package is still a learning curve, lol.   

The young lady that did our walk-through was very knowledgeable and thorough.  It is an impossible task to retain enough to consider yourself informed.  The paper manuals they provide are dated.

I suggested Oliver use subject index cards and have the Oliver agent use the cards and let the customer do the button pushing.

I used to train people on fairly complex tasks and having STEP by STEP instructions are crucial if one expects the user to really learn.  Searching a bunch of soft file PDFs is not the answer.  Neither is a bunch of short videos.  I understand how keeping printed manuals updated would be onerous and expensive.

I know the idea of index cards will not gain traction, so I guess I will open a million tickets.   The people at Oliver are wonderful.  They truly do care, but how training is conducted and measured is a management decision. 

[topgun2]

1 hour ago, HDRider said:

It is an impossible task to retain enough to consider yourself informed.  The paper manuals they provide are dated.

Many of these manuals are not produced by Oliver but are supplied to Oliver along with the equipment that is installed.

Certainly to the degree that these manuals are dated doesn't make the learning process any easier.

Some of us learn by "doing", others by repetition, others by detailed explanation and others only by visual means, or by some various combinations of the multitude of learning methods.  In my experience, the best teachers constantly search for a way of presenting the information to the student in whatever way works for the student.

Yes, "how training is conducted and measured is a management decision" and at Oliver you get something other than the one hour "walk through" that seems to be the industry norm.  No matter - drinking from a fire hose usually doesn't result in quenching thirst.

[HDRider]

28 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Many of these manuals are not produced by Oliver but are supplied to Oliver along with the equipment that is installed.

Certainly to the degree that these manuals are dated doesn't make the learning process any easier.

Some of us learn by "doing", others by repetition, others by detailed explanation and others only by visual means, or by some various combinations of the multitude of learning methods.  In my experience, the best teachers constantly search for a way of presenting the information to the student in whatever way works for the student.

Yes, "how training is conducted and measured is a management decision" and at Oliver you get something other than the one hour "walk through" that seems to be the industry norm.  No matter - drinking from a fire hose usually doesn't result in quenching thirst.

The three (one thin, two thick) glossy manuals our closer gave us appeared to be Oliver produced manuals.  The manuals were "Standard Equipment", "Optional Equipment" and the "Owner's Manual". They were info rich manuals. The indexing could be improved (there is no index).

 

As time goes by the fact that the walk through was ineffective loses its sting. 

 

I do think Oliver should consider some method (kaizen, mission debrief, red team, etc.) of process improvement to improve the effectiveness of the walkthrough.

[Cameron]

Another option might be a series of trainings combined with a two day stay at the Oliver campground. The first walkthrough would happen at pick up time and take an hour or more. Then they could have smaller trainings at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on day one and day two of our campground stay. It would be easy for staff to walk over and easy to get the trailer into service if something needs a technician. I remember that no matter how much I tried to prepare with questions and checklists (and I was there for close to 3 hours with Hanna) it was just too much for my brain. It wasn't until I was at the Davy Crockett campground (and other campgrounds far away in the following days) that I really felt I could test out all the bells and whistles. That's when the questions and confusions really started piling up (and the calls to OTT for help).