Decided to order the Oliver

[trumpetguy]

Darral T. The owners manual lists 600 and 8000. That was a good question. I had not thought about the truck having different values from the hitch. It looks like I am safe all the way around with the wdh.


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[Ron Merritt]

Originally Posted by trumpetguy

Ron. I guess you mean by bog down in the hills I would have trouble keeping the speed up. Most Silverados I see have the same 5.3 V8 engine as the Avalanche. Why would they tow better in the hills? Just asking.


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Mostly it's the rear drive ratio - you get a 3.73 gear in the Silverado or you can opt for a 4:10. That's some serious hill climbing torque, but you suffer in your gas mileage.

The newer trucks (2014-) - including the Suburban & Tahoe has a higher output 5.3 engine. The torque numbers on those are quite a bit higher. So a new one may tow ALOT better than those older ones.

My Suburban struggled also with quickly downshifting. It would slowly bog down, then when the speed dropped down to 50 or so, a hard downshift, and then the engine would roar trying to make up the speed. Very annoying and hard on the truck.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by trumpetguy

Darral T. I had not thought about the truck having different values from the hitch.

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Very common for the hitch to have a very different tow rating from the vehicle its attached to. Vehicle tow spec capacity is often less than the capacity of hitch but in some cases - often with vehicles that have a low towing capacity - it can actually be more its just that a lesser hitch was installed.

Having said that in recent years some of the vehicle manufactures have on their factory installed hitches taken-up up the European practise of labelling the factor installed hitch to the same spec as the what the vehicles manual states. They do not state the hitch to be of an particular class such as III or IV or V etc. I have that on my current truck - the weight spec label on the hitch doesnt match what one would expect to find on a generic Class IV or V hitch but it does match the trucks towing spec as stated in the manual.

[trumpetguy]

Hey Ron M. My Avi has a 3.42 gear ratio and I wish it was higher. The tow mode in the tranny does a great job of keeping the rpms up and I have not noticed any issues when towing the lighter Casita. We climb some steep hills in North Georgia getting to the top of Blackrock Mountain and even used our Saturn Outlook with V6 on some of those trips. It remains to be seen how my Avi will handle the Oliver but I don't anticipate any problems. I enjoy the comfort and ease of handling the Avalanche affords and the exceptionally cool factor of the looks and color of mine.

See you on the road. 17 days to delivery.


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[hellsbay]

It seems to me that this thread has evolved into a towing topic. With all the interest someone should just start a new thread under the topic of towing and TV's.

There is a new generation of trucks and SUV's on the horizon that will have diesel engines. Jeep already makes a diesel Grand Cherokee. Chrysler has the same diesel available in it's 1500 series pickups. This engine comes with an 8 speed tranny and from what I have researched, makes an excellent TV for the new Oliver or almost any other RV under 7000lbs. Next year Nissan will have a truck with a Cummins diesel that should get 30mpg on the highway. Toyota will have the same engine in it's 2016 line of Tundras. These vehicles will blow away all other(gas engine) TV's in every category.

[Donna D.]

Towing? Who cares? We all tow. I WANNA SEE PICTURES

[hellsbay]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Towing? Who cares? We all tow. I WANNA SEE PICTURES

OK Donna, I hear you. I don't take many pictures of people but I couldn't resist this little guy. He's my first grandchild and just a week old.

[Carol H]

Oh my Steve, wonderful photo of a beautiful child!!

[hellsbay]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Oh my Steve, wonderful photo of a beautiful child!!

Thanks Carol, he's a keeper!

[trumpetguy]

I can't top that but here are pics of my Ollie on the assembly line.



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[Carol H]

Its just as beautiful David!!

[hellsbay]

Wow, now those are some pictures! Setting Sail looks great!

[Donna D.]

Neato! Cool beans! Good for you! Lots of adjectives... Isn't it exciting

[trumpetguy]

Counting down to Nov. 25th


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[trumpetguy]

More pics at my blog www.emeraldcoastcamper.com

Click the Oliver tab.


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[Ron Merritt]

Well I had a nice little package waiting for me when I got home. Color selections for my new Oliver!

Here are the samples for the counters, cushions and flooring:


Here is the link for the exterior graphics colors:
ORACAL® 651 Intermediate Cal - Graphic Products

These are the awning colors:

I put a few combos togther. Here they are in order of preference:
#1

#2

#3

#4


I'm not really good at this kind of thing, so I'm going to my sister's tonite to get a ladie's input.

For the exterior graphics, I'm thinking a red and a gray. For the awning, I was hoping for a bright red, but there really isn't one, so maybe the gray.

[trumpetguy]

Ron,

We went with Azure Blue and Silver Gray for the striping. The awning is 651 on the Oracal card...Blue. Our floor is the Sea Grass. my wife is custom sewing our cushions in a fabric we bought from Miami Fabrics. I can't recall the name but it is blue. We negotiated a credit for all the cushions and have bought a medium density foam for the dinette. We are providing our own eight inch memory foam mattresses for the twin beds and said wife is also making upholstered covers to match the dinette. We will have the dual function of a mattress and a couch.

These memory foam mattresses can be bought from Amazon for about $200. We buy a king mattress and have our upholstery shop cut it to fit the trailer beds. We did this for our Casita and wow was that comfy.

When is you delivery date?

The pictures are of our Casita after the twin bed mod which was inspired by Tiny Camper.




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[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Ron Merritt

Well I had a nice little package waiting for me when I got home. Color selections for my new Oliver!

Here are the samples for the counters, cushions and flooring:


Here is the link for the exterior graphics colors:
ORACAL® 651 Intermediate Cal - Graphic Products

These are the awning colors:

I put a few combos togther. Here they are in order of preference:
#1

#2

#3

#4


I'm not really good at this kind of thing, so I'm going to my sister's tonite to get a ladie's input.

For the exterior graphics, I'm thinking a red and a gray. For the awning, I was hoping for a bright red, but there really isn't one, so maybe the gray.

What they will be using for the cabinet doors might influence me greatly as to which of the above I was to choose . If they are going to use the dark smoked glass (which I have seen on a couple of older olives) then #4 would give it a real modern clean look..... red pillows, red utensils, red throw rug etc would punch it up. Nice thing about black is you can change up the look using pretty well any colour for the extras without worrying much about a colour clash.

[trumpetguy]

The new model has a mirrored cabinet door. Very stylish.


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[trumpetguy]

Here is our new Oliver on delivery day. We spent most of the day with orientation which was very thourough. The finish on this trailer is overwhelming. So smooth and just perfect. We have spent two nights in her, one with electricity and water, last night at a Cracker Barrell. Both nights were comfortable and all systems green. The new remote control Maxair fan is much quieter than our older Fantastic fan. So nice to have the remote at hand durning the night.

The Oliver tows wonderfully. Rock solid and tracks like a train. Got to Tannehill State Park near Birmingham and how nice it was to raise the trailer completely off the springs using the electric jacks. It really makes a difference to this older guy not having to kneel and stoop so much.

As we get to know our new trailer we are discovering small attention to detail that one would expect in a trailer in this price range, but still surprise us to the upside. The Oliver crew is continually looking for ways to improve their product.

I will get some more photos posted when we get home next week. It is cloudy and wet here and the Ollie got dirty on the road so I need to do some cleaning.


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