New owners - 2016 Oliver Elite II Hull #113

[jd1923]

Thanks John and Art, Diane, & Magnus. I'm proud of our maiden voyage! Except that we had to leave a day earlier than planned due to my wife's allergic reaction to the burnt pine (this area has had major burns, 20 years ago and some more recent). The tall Ponderosa pines still standing in the area all had burnt bark 15-20 feet up their trunks, from years ago (see pic above).

We were prepared, had a tank of back-up water and everything needed. No-way the Bigfoot 29SL Class-C we just sold would have made it up the path to our beautiful campsite! RV manufacturers have no business building a Class-C greater than 24' on the Ford E-450 chassis, and the gas guzzling Ford V10 would get up to a good 30 MPH up our steep Arizona mountain grades. We were also always over GVWR with added leaf springs and more suspension upgrades.

For a short moment, after buying our Oliver TT, I thought our Lexus GX 4.7L truck could pull this. It did OK around town with the Anderson hitch, but is a half-ton truck really enough? Probably good if you travel flat lands at sea level, but NO not for up here. I sold an '03 Dodge RAM 2500 Cummins, that we had since new, just last year. Didn't think I needed the big truck anymore. Anyway, that one was needing repairs it was silver! So lucky us, just the week after we bought our Ollie this well-kept Ram was on our local Craigs in EC. The Cummins in '01 was not as strong as '03 and newer models have much more torque. But this older diesel is the perfect recipe for pulling an Olliver Elite II.

Nothing like a diesel to pull up a mountain. In '05 we pulled a 26' race car trailer, packed with all of our household belongings, moving from VA to AZ, and we only slowed down on I-17 heading out of the Verde Valley in AZ. I thought, this is why semitrucks are always in the right lane with flashers on! Truck and trailed combined weight were over 21K lbs, a bit over the stated GCWR! 

On the way home, we weighed this truck & trailer. Happy to see total combined weight of 13,220 lbs, and GCVR (with trailer) for this Ram is 16K lbs. Went by our local dump station again a day later and truck weighed 7,220 (adjusted for weight of wife, dog, water used, etc.). This nets the Ollie at 6K lbs. So, my TV weighed in at 1580 under 8800 lb. GVWR and the Ollie 1,000 lbs. under. Of course, when we go for a longer outing, some more weight will be added. I like that we have a little more truck than we need.