Steph and Dud B's RV Screed

Well, we made it to the end of our camping season. Columbus Day is pretty much the end of camping here in the Northeast. Most campgrounds close for the winter after the Columbus Day weekend. We spent 39 nights in our new Oliver trailer. We had plans for more, but Steph was diagnosed with a serious illness that cut into our camping this year, and will probably have some effect on our camping plans going forward. This season's camping was a mix of dry camping at state park and Corps of Engineers campgrounds (25 nights) and full hookup camping at commercial campgrounds (14 nights). The Oliver is an excellent RV for the type of dry camping we did, where the campgrounds had bathhouses we could use during the day. When using the trailer's bathroom only at night and for emergencies, and being judicious with water and toilet paper use, we never had to use our portable waste tote tank. We can easily go 6 nights without using the dump station, probably several more.  As for electricity, ...

We've had the Oliver for more than a month now but, due to unforseen circumstances, we only have a couple of trips under our belt. We've done some dry-camping in Connecticut and some full-hookup camping in Cape Cod. The Oliver has had some issues. I already mentioned the problem with the axles. That wasn't Oliver's fault. Dexter was great to work with and it was fixed by a mobile tech who came to our house. Next, the flange ring for our toilet broke, probably due to incorrect installation at the factory. Oliver shipped us a new flange ring and I installed it myself without too much difficulty, but it did put us out of service for about a week. The electronic keypad lock failed and I discovered the cause was improper installation at the Oliver factory which led to water intrusion into the lock. Oliver shipped a new lock, which I installed myself and I added sealant to prevent a recurrence. There was an issue with the air conditioner running very short cycles. Oliver ship...

We picked up our new Oliver trailer, named Eggcelsior, in Hohenwald, TN on June 20. I posted details about that trip in the Oliver forums here:  https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/7054-hull-1150-is-home-and-marinating/ but I'll summarize by saying we had a few minor issues that were corrected at the factory before we left Tennessee, and a few that we addressed ourselves on the way home. Overall, it was a positive sales experience and a successful first trip. Since then, we've done one camping trip in Connecticut and found out we're subject to a recall on the Dexter axles - which has stopped our travels for now. (Not Oliver's fault, details here:  https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/7070-successful-dry-camping-but-grounded-by-axles/ ) The trailer has performed admirably, towing easily and working very well while dry-camping without hookups in a state park for 4 nights. We think we can plan 8+ night trips without hookups in the future if there are ba...

Our Oliver delivery date is approaching fast. We've sold our fifth wheel to a very nice couple (who named it Garfunkel) and we're just about ready to head to Tennessee to get our Legacy Elite 2. We've purchased a few more convenience items for the new trailer. First, we bought a pair of backpacking chairs. We wanted to have a couple of chairs for guests, but they had to be compact for storage. These Cascade Mountain high back camp chairs collapse to about 1/2 the size of a regular camp chair but seem sturdy and comfortable. There is some assembly required to set them up, though. We bought them on sale on Amazon but we've since seen them much cheaper (and a better color) at Costco. C'est la vie. Next, we bought a tiny little Keurig-type machine. We didn't want to give up the cabinet space for a regular Keurig. This little Chulux coffee maker also came from Amazon. As you can see, it's much smaller than the Keuirig, but it seems to work fine, if a bit slower t...

With our Oliver trailer delivery day approaching fast we officially put our fifth wheel up for sale today. The Rockwood 8289WS is listed on RV Trader here , if anyone's interested. It's a nice rig. We really enjoyed it. UPDATE 5/13: We now have a sale pending on our fifth wheel.

One of the traditions of the Oliver Travel Trailer company is that they refer to their trailer bodies as "hulls." I assume this has to do with the fiberglass construction, similar to many sailboats, and the fact that a Catamaran designer helped the company design their first trailer. Another tradition is that they assign each trailer its own "hull number," starting with Hull #1 for the first trailer they built in 2007. Owners are very proud of their trailer's hull number since it tells others a little about its history and lineage. We have just passed an important step on the road to getting our new Oliver Elite 2 in June: we've learned our hull number. Our trailer will be hull number 1150. We also followed another owners' tradition. We named our trailer. Hull number 1150 will be named Eggcelsior,  a play on excelsior, which means "ever upward" and is often used as an exclamation upon the completion of a major challenge or accomplishment. We th...

Last week we sent Oliver Travel Trailers our second deposit payment and our build sheet, which specifies our option choices for our new trailer. Some of the options we chose were a large lithium battery bank and rooftop solar panels, cellular signal booster, and an additional awning on the driver's side of the trailer. These are all to increase our boondocking/drycamping capabilities with an eye toward more varied and less expensive campsite options and future trips back to the Southwest. We still have a few more items to purchase before we take delivery. Other than that, we're basically in a holding pattern. Oliver will start making our trailer in early May. For now, we wait and anxiously watch the financial situation. It's going to be an expensive summer for RVing, but the trips we have booked are relatively close to home and we're hoping the Oliver's lighter weight and aerodynamic shape will give us better gas mileage than we currently get with our fifth wheel.