Steph and Dud B's RV Screed

On October 25, 2021 we talked to our Oliver sales rep and put a $2,500 deposit on an Oliver Legacy Elite 2 with the twin bed floorplan. Our estimated delivery date: late July, 2022 - 9 months away. What to do while we waited? Shop for stuff, of course! Weirdly, even though we've been camping for 20+ years, we had to buy more stuff to move to a smaller trailer. Some of the things we carried in our fifth wheel were too big for the Oliver and had to be replaced by smaller versions, or alternate devices. Others were things we never needed before, like a ball hitch for the pickup truck. We pored over the Oliver forums, looking for tips and tricks, and started making shopping lists on Amazon and other online retailers. When something went on sale, we grabbed it. When Christmas came, we asked for gift cards. Here are some of the things we've bought so far (we have no affiliation with any of these vendors and have not been compensated for any of these links): Weigh-Safe 4" Drop Hi...

Now that we were seriously considering buying an Oliver, the next step was to reach out to the company to learn more about them. There are no Oliver dealers, they are sold factory-direct, so if you don't live near the factory in Hohenwald, Tennessee you need to visit a privately-owned trailer if you want to see one. An email to Oliver was quickly answered and our sales rep helped us make arrangements to visit Jeff and Katie's brand-new Oliver Elite 2 at their house.  There were a couple of things in particular we wanted to look at: the beds and the bathroom. The Elite 2 comes in two floorplans, one with a dinette/king bed conversion in the back, the other with fixed twin beds. Steph was leaning towards the twin bed floor plan for easier access to overhead storage and not needing to convert the bed at night, but I had my doubts. I'm 6 feet tall and was worried the bed would be uncomfortably small for me. This is not a standard twin mattress. It is only 30" wide and tape...

With retirement in our sights, the Oliver trailers appealed to us because of their: Lower maintenance Durability High historical resale value But, an Oliver would be a huge departure from our established camping patterns. Our current fifth wheel fits our present camping mode perfectly: typically short hauls to regional full-hookup campgrounds for stays ranging from one weekend to two weeks at a time. It has three slides and provides plenty of living and storage space for extended stays. There are plenty of creature comforts inside like leather recliners and a fireplace. It's quite comfortable. There's room to entertain friends. Our gas-powered dually tows it comfortably in mild to medium terrain. And it's not too big at 32' long.  Oliver makes two trailers, the 23.5' Elite 2 and the smaller Elite. We immediately decided that the Elite would be too small for us, but the Elite 2 was a possibility. However, it's truly the polar opposite of our fifth whe...

Last summer I was on the roof of our fifth wheel doing routine maintenance on the roof seals. If you own an RV you know how important that is. Any water leak can lead to major damage: delamination of the walls and serious damage to the wooden cabinets, interior walls, and floors of the unit. As I crawled around 13 feet off the ground I started wondering how many more years I'd be able to do that.  When fall came, Steph and I worked hard hauling the winter cover up onto the roof and getting that secured. Again, I thought about the difficulty that task will entail as we age.  Then I saw an interesting article in my news feed, something about "America's answer to European RVs." It talked about a little RV manufacturer in Tennessee called Oliver Travel Trailers . They make molded fiberglass travel trailers. I'd seen little Casitas and Scamps in campgrounds before, tiny little white bubble campers, and I always assumed they were cheap little campers for people who coul...

By way of introduction: I'm Dudley and Steph is my wife. We've been RVing since 1999. Our son grew up camping with us. We did the usual: started with a small travel trailer, then got bigger and bigger rigs. Our first RV was a 27' Sunline. We took that trailer across the country and back, visiting most of the lower 48 states. Our next trailer was a fifth wheel, a small Titanium with an unusual over-the-truck-cab bedroom. That one didn't get around like the Sunline did, mostly hanging out in the Northeast. And now we have our largest RV (which is still pretty small), a 32' Rockwood fifth wheel. We've taken it on a few long-ish trips from Connecticut to the Midwest but our camping style has evolved into mostly weekends and one- or two-week trips to nearby commercial campgrounds. Now we're thinking it's time for a change. A big change (well, actually a little change). More about that in a bit.