A few weeks ago I shared in my weekly newsletter that Steve and I bought a travel trailer. You might remember that in July of 2017, we thought we were going to buy a Winnebago. A lot happened between July and November 2017, so that plan was put on hold. However, Steve continued to do research on travel trailers, hoping to get one made of fiberglass. Well, this past July we decided to purchase an Oliver Trailer.
RV Shopping. Why we chose the Oliver Trailer.
Have you heard of the Oliver Trailer? I hadn’t until Steve mentioned them as an option. My first response was that they were way over budget; however, they were undoubtedly beautiful. These trailers take about 8-10 weeks (approximately 800 man hours) to build and they are customized to the buyers options (countertops, flooring, seat covers, etc).
It’s a beauty from the inside-out. So, I thought it would be great to share specifically why we chose this travel trailer — and give you a tour when we pick it up at the end of October.
I’m going to hand the reins over to Steve for a bit since he was our official researcher (wink-wink).
When I was doing my initial research on RVs, I came across a website discussing the types of material they are made of: aluminum or fiberglass. Oliver was one of the fiberglass trailers that was mentioned.
A quick look at their website and the trailer’s clean and bright design made an impression on me, but I wasn’t too sure about paying the price point (they start at $53.9k). However, it was always in the back of my mind as I went about looking in the price range I was more comfortable with.
Sure, we could list all of the reasons we love this trailer — such as the heavy duty aluminum frame, it’s four seasons, the weight is under 5,000 pounds, shock absorbency, etc; however, it came down to two key factors. These trailers are built to last, which is a result of the build and the design.
Why we chose the Oliver Trailer:
1. The Build
Trip after trip to RV dealers across St. Louis and Springfield had me looking at trailers that simply felt cheap. I’ve seen trim coming loose, counter tops peeling, cabinets chipped, etc. and these were the ones on display in the dealer lot. That was the stuff you CAN see! What was it like behind it all?
A simple YouTube search will show nailed wood, plywood floors, mounted cabinets. How does this stuff stay together when rocking back and forth on a road.
We took a trip to Hohenwald, TN and took the Oliver plant tour. We were able to see up close and personal how the Oliver Trailer is made. There were a number of things I liked, but without question what I really liked was the molded fiberglass body.
There were no plywood floors, no nailed together wood framed walls, no mounted cabinets, and no cheap trim covering up all the joins. The seats, bed, and cabinets were all molded with the inner shell and to me that meant no structure rattling loose or rotting wood.
“The Oliver Travel Trailer
is a product built on high
quality, luxury and comfort.”
The build of an Oliver Trailer includes four fiberglass shells: a top and bottom outer shell and a top and bottom inner shell.
2. The Design
Two things I absolutely despise about most RVs: dark wood interiors and bunk beds with the latter symbolizing wasted space. And neither exist on the Oliver.
The white interior gives this trailer a clean and modern look. No 1970’s basement wood paneled look here. Enough said!
One bedroom trailers, slide outs, etc. all offered privacy and more floor space, but this is camping where most of your time should be spent outdoors exploring the area and not inside. So why haul a needlessly large trailer! This is a trailer designed for two with the option of having a guest spend the night.
Why did we opt for the twin bed floor plan?
1) the beds were always available (no setting up and tearing down a redundant dinette table)
2) it offered more floor space with the beds being available, and
3) one of us didn’t have to crawl over the other to get out of bed.
A harder sell for Kelly was the wet bath. Again, I saw a larger bathroom as wasted space, but for Kelly, the beauty of the trailer far outweighed the wet bath. So it was a willing compromise on her part.
Of course, the true test of quality is when we get it out on the road and living in it for a while. Time will tell.
It’s me, Kelly, again. So, as you can see there were really TWO key factors in our decision to buy the Legacy Elite II Oliver Trailer. If you’d like to see a virtual tour of an Oliver, this is a great video.
Stay tuned to see the inside of our trailer sometime in November — and let the adventures begin. We are so super excited to share them with you too!
Interested in other travel related articles?
Venice, Italy
When in Rome
Recollections of Florence, Italy
Birthday Cruise to Bermuda
Travel to St. Maarten | Things to Do and Place to Eat
Be sure to visit with me here too:
Jim Kronenberger says
We pick up our Oliver Legacy Elite 11 next week. What a trailer. We got the compost toilet option too. No more dump stations.
Kelly Rowe says
Congratulations, Jim!!! It’s such a BEAUTIFUL trailer. Enjoy all of your adventuring.
Amy B says
Kelly, i was wondering what ever happened with your plans to purchase the Oliver. I’ve skimmed through the
last 7-8 months of the blog & see no other reference to it.
Kelly Rowe says
Hi Amy! Thanks so much for checking in on this. We did purchase the Oliver and picked it up in November. I took some photos recently and hope to share them soon. I do have a video tour on Instagram in my featured stories as well. Soooo, stay tuned! Hugs.
Joe Adams says
You hand over the ~reins~ not reigns.
Kelly Rowe says
Oopsy! Good catch… It’s been corrected. Thanks!
Deanna says
how are you finding the shower to work for you? I understand there is no separate shower head, that you use the sink faucet
Kelly Rowe says
Hi Deanna. I was a little skeptical of the bathroom sink faucet serving two purposes; however, it works very well. It was a pleasant surprise.