Oliver looking to partnership with RV dealerships.

[Mike and Carol]

4 hours ago, Mcb said:

what would an Oliver Certified Tech be certified to do that any reputable RV Repair guy can’t already do?… weld aluminum? Fiberglass work? 

My point, exactly.  A good RV repair guy can work on an Oliver.  The trick is finding a good RV repair guy!  We’re fortunate to have one close by.

I will say that after a lot of years and many miles we’ve learned to do a lot of repair work ourselves.  Mike

[Wandering Sagebrush]

1 minute ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Our closest non-fiberglass cousin is Airstream. They have dealers. They're more expensive than most of the competition. They seem to be doing well. How do they do it? That might be an appropriate model for OTT.

(Although I have heard some stories that Airstream quality has slipped since Thor bought them out. Can't personally say if that's true or not.)

Airforums has quite a number of discussions about this.  The consensus is that the push driven by us boomers to have our grandparent’s cool travel trailer has lowered the quality.  That said, an Airstream is far better than the typical box on wheels.

[Steph and Dud B]

I saw several Cortes campers on my local dealer's lot a couple of weeks ago. The only other double-shelled fiberglass travel trailers on the market. It would be interesting if OTT partnered with dealers who also sold other molded fiberglass trailers. That might seem counter-intuitive, but think about it. The price range would be more comparable so the Olivers wouldn't seem like such an outlier and the Olivers would have a chance to show off their advantages side-by-side with another fiberglass unit.

[ScubaRx]

9 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

(Although I have heard some stories that Airstream quality has slipped since Thor bought them out. Can't personally say if that's true or not.)

Through a family member, I’ve been well acquainted with all things Airstream for over 35 years. During his lifetime he owned dozens of their trailers in all sizes from the tiny Bambi to a giant three axle unit that had been custom built for one of the top Airstream Executives.

I don’t personally know if Airstream quality has suffered suffered since Thor Industries, Inc. came along. Thor was founded on August 29, 1980, when Wade Thompson and Peter Busch Orthwein acquired Airstream. I do know that Airstream had not fared well during the economic downturn of the late 1970s, losing $12 million the year before it was acquired.

So, if Airstream quality has slipped, it’s had over four decades to do it. 

[HDRider]

10 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Airstream quality has slipped since Thor bought them out. Can't personally say if that's true or not.)

It is very true

[MAX Burner]

11 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

I will say that after a lot of years and many miles we’ve learned to do a lot of repair work ourselves.

Same here, @Mike and Carol...  

We believe this DIY aspect is part of the fun of owning a travel trailer - and we enjoy it.  When there's a major fix needed, or a significant upgrade, we've always seemed to be able to research out and find a competent service provider.  But that said, we've also had some terrible experiences at RV dealerships in the early years (usually while on the road and there's few other choices) that make us never want to step foot on one again.

[rideandfly]

We have always had a great relationship with Oliver after buying a used 2015 LE2 Ollie during 2016. Oliver even took care of warranty work for us after Ollie was out of warranty during 2016. They told us it did not matter that we purchased Ollie used, they welcomed us into the Oliver family. Even though I perform most of the maintenance on our Ollie, still occasionally visit Oliver's service department for maintenance.  I really appreciate @PAndrews with Oliver previous post in this thread confirming Oliver's future plans.

Speaking of Thor Industries, they purchased Livin'Lite CampLite Camper from Scott Tuttle during August of 2013.

When we purchased our second camper a early model 2010 Livin'Lite CampLite travel trailer, we did not want a wood floor in our camper because our first camper developed wood floor rot. Ollie is our third camper.

In 2010 Scott developed Travel Trailers with aluminum plank floors, aluminum main & wall/roof frame, aluminum sheet cabinets, aluminum sheet covered interior and exterior walls including aluminum sheet roof. It was a sturdy and rugged camper, but to some folks had a sterile looking interior because of all of the  sheet metal. Starting later in 2010 Scott started using Azdel composite panels to soften the interior looks. Later, Livin'Lite even worked with Ford developing a Ford Truck Camper.

Here's a link to an article on August 2018 by TruckCamper:

"The Rise and Fall of Camplite and Ford Truck campers":

https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-camplite-and-ford-truck-campers/

[MAX Burner]

3 hours ago, rideandfly said:

"The Rise and Fall of Camplite and Ford Truck campers":

@rideandfly: Very interesting read.  Thanks for posting this!

[johnwen]

4 hours ago, rideandfly said:

I really appreciate @PAndrews with Oliver previous post in this thread confirming Oliver's future plans.

Ditto :)

[Bryan in NC]

22 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

Bigfoot uses dealer outlets. 

Right.  I only mentioned it because we had a hard time finding one when we were looking at truck campers.  There are probably more dealers out west that carry them, but it was hard to find one within a few states of us.  Bigfoot probably builds fewer campers than say Northern Lite does.

[Boudicca908]

On 9/1/2023 at 2:22 PM, Mike and Carol said:

my local family owned RV repair shop

Care to share the name and location? OTT is about 1,000 mile for me. I'd love to know another service center that is familiar with the Oliver! 

[Boudicca908]

My hope is that OTT can utilize the experience of existing Oliver owners to narrow down their selection -- if they choose to go this route. And I will say that it probably would have benefitted me to have an Oliver-allied service experience while I'm so far from OTT Mothership and from my home. 

Also (my last comment as well) -- not everyone has room for the tools to do all the maintenance. Nor the place. I live in a TINY condo, without a garage and very minimal storage space. (Makes it easy to live in my Oliver for months, because I'm used to the small spaces). So I hope to have my maintenance mostly done by Oliver, unless it's something that requires minimal tools (like the Zerk greasing -- easy peasy and minimal tools, plus needs to be done often when you are on the road for a long time). 

Thanks to all the great folks at Oliver, including moderators, who help us stay informed and better equipped. 

[Mike and Carol]

30 minutes ago, Boudicca908 said:

Care to share the name and location? OTT is about 1,000 mile for me. I'd love to know another service center that is familiar with the Oliver! 

Boerne RV.  Boerne TX is just north of San Antonio.  Ron is the owner and his wife runs the office.  He usually has a couple of techs working with him.  Mike

[Ralph Mawyer]

3 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

Boerne RV.  Boerne TX is just north of San Antonio.  Ron is the owner and his wife runs the office.  He usually has a couple of techs working with him.  Mike

He keeps talking about retiring. ;-(

[Mike and Carol]

9 hours ago, Ralph Mawyer said:

He keeps talking about retiring. ;-(

Let’s hope not!

[Ralph Mawyer]

He needs to be on Oliver's short list for service sites.