Grand Design
ANYone own a Grand Design Solitude Fiver and if you do what problems did you encounter when you went camping first, second and third time? Quality of design, quality of build? Stucture etc. THANKS,...
Forum Discussion
kdgarrett wrote:
this was posted on the grand design owners
Has anyone else ever wondered why Grand Design doesn’t include a fiberglass rear cap on their fifth wheels like you see on other quality coaches? I did, because I think it looks much better with the cap, so I asked Bill Martin. Here is his response:
There are interior sq.ft. limits for our industry. Solitude uses a widebody chassis at 101" that is about 5" wider than many of our competitors. We are at/near the sq.ft. limits currently on several floorplans. Note that with a wider body chassis, we also have deeper sliderooms that also add to the square footage. Addition of a rear cap would further increase the measured square footage of the coach that we must include to meet code (even though it would not increase the usable space). This would put us over the allowable size on several floorplans. The short answer to your question is that we have opted to provide the most functional and livable floorplan over the aesthetics of a narrowbody fifth wheel with a rear cap
I would have to agree this is a BS answer.However, I'm not totally sure the rear gap is the deal breaker some claim it to be.
I prefer a rear cap myself. I think its one less joint to worry about and it simply looks better.
However if I liked everything else about the rig I'm not sure the cap would be the deciding factor
