New Grand Design solitude vs used DRV
We are newbies at this. We have triplet 6 y.o. boys. Being in California I've read that we can't get most trailers more than about 30 feet long won't fit into our state parks. We are going to be spend...
Forum Discussion
We had a new 2006 Elite Suites and trust me I'll never have another one. We had so many troubles with that they we traded in in a little over a year and bought a new Excel. At that time we were living in the units full time as we were on natural gas pipeline jobs. A $130,000 MSRP mistake.
I couldn't even begin to tell you all the troubles with it. When we first bought it and it was plumbed for a washer/dryer except the closet was to small for them to fit into. The RV dealer where we bought it had a good carpenter working there and he rebuilt the closet so they would fit in. We could never get it to stop leaking in the rear corner of the living room or over the vent in the kitchen. It had a fiberglass roof and when they brought the front and back together there was a gap of over 3/8" between the two sections and then the tried to put a trim piece on it and bend it around to try and follow the opening. Every tine it rained I had to pull out the rear sofa and start sopping up the water and use the wet/dry vac. We tried to have the unit Seal Tec tested were they force air into the unit via a overhead vent. The RV repair place couldn't believe it as they had preformed this test many times on other units and never had any problems. They could not get enough pressure inside to even test it. On most units they never ran the pressure fan higher than 4 as it would start to over pressure the rig. With ours they ran it at 10 and still could not get any pressure on the inside to use the spray test on the outside. Every where they walked around the rig air was leaking out of it. Through the pin box area, around all the storage doors and even around all of the clearance lights.
That's only a few of troubles compared to all the others we had. While living it it we spent at least a month at different times in a motel because our rig was in for repair and they still didn't get them all fixed before we traded it. Couldn't mess with it anymore.
What a nightmare, never have one again.
Over the years we had ordered 2 different Excels and never had any of the problems with them compared to the Elite.
This is in my opinion but I use to converse with another owner with the same year as our Elite and he had one also and he was having nothing but trouble with his. I was working 6 days a week and on call the 7th and many times 10 to 12 hours a day.
This rig 11 years later still leaves a terrible taste in my mouth in case you couldn't tell.
I'll get off my soap box now.
Butch
I couldn't even begin to tell you all the troubles with it. When we first bought it and it was plumbed for a washer/dryer except the closet was to small for them to fit into. The RV dealer where we bought it had a good carpenter working there and he rebuilt the closet so they would fit in. We could never get it to stop leaking in the rear corner of the living room or over the vent in the kitchen. It had a fiberglass roof and when they brought the front and back together there was a gap of over 3/8" between the two sections and then the tried to put a trim piece on it and bend it around to try and follow the opening. Every tine it rained I had to pull out the rear sofa and start sopping up the water and use the wet/dry vac. We tried to have the unit Seal Tec tested were they force air into the unit via a overhead vent. The RV repair place couldn't believe it as they had preformed this test many times on other units and never had any problems. They could not get enough pressure inside to even test it. On most units they never ran the pressure fan higher than 4 as it would start to over pressure the rig. With ours they ran it at 10 and still could not get any pressure on the inside to use the spray test on the outside. Every where they walked around the rig air was leaking out of it. Through the pin box area, around all the storage doors and even around all of the clearance lights.
That's only a few of troubles compared to all the others we had. While living it it we spent at least a month at different times in a motel because our rig was in for repair and they still didn't get them all fixed before we traded it. Couldn't mess with it anymore.
What a nightmare, never have one again.
Over the years we had ordered 2 different Excels and never had any of the problems with them compared to the Elite.
This is in my opinion but I use to converse with another owner with the same year as our Elite and he had one also and he was having nothing but trouble with his. I was working 6 days a week and on call the 7th and many times 10 to 12 hours a day.
This rig 11 years later still leaves a terrible taste in my mouth in case you couldn't tell.
I'll get off my soap box now.
Butch
