The better 5th wheeler?

lhenry8113 wrote:
One that stands out is Arctic Fox, by Northwood MFG, in Oregon. And it's a 4 season 5'vr, comes with a larger water heater than most 5'vrs They make their own trailer, which comes standard with shock absorbers. We have owned 2 A.F.-bought new. The last one-model 29 5T we probably put 50,000 miles on it-from So. Calif. we took it to the Yukon Terr.-to Florida and many points in between. https://northwoodmfg.com/

Does AF make a 5th wheel toy hauler now? I hadn't seen that. They have the desert fox toy haulers but those are tow behind trailers.

Durb wrote:
I hear some good things regarding the Grand Design Momentum toy haulers.

That was before they were taken over by Winnebago. Now the customer service is horrible. I cannot advise anyone to buy a Grand Design product.

Dave

dblr wrote:
W You also might want to look at the brand new line called Alliance, they really listen to the consumer and also have been very customer supportive so far, now there are not a lot of them out there just yet so time could tell a different story. Good luck on your search.

I was going to mention the same company. What I've seen is the new startups provide good customer service and build a name for themselves for the first 5 years. Once they build a good customer base, one of the large conglomerates offers them more money than they can walk away from. The founders retire and the new customers, buying on the recommendation of the early customers, start finding there are no corners in the new units. Why no corners? Because the bean counters at the conglomerates cut all the corners to save money.

EDIT: Shoot, just saw you mentioned you're after toy haulers. You may want to ask this question in the toy hauler forum as well. We were plenty happy with our Keystone Impact toy hauler... it was just big. Most toy haulers are unless you want your toys stored next to your kitchen (aka no separate garage). Keep in mind that your living space isn't that much bigger than a truck camper unless you buy a really big trailer, since most of it is taken up by garage.

We did a lot of research when we purchased our current rig. We downsized from a Keystone Impact toy hauler.

My first suggestion is to figure out a floor plan you like. I found that pretty much every manufacturer makes almost the same exact floor plan. Some are even the exact same, but different lengths, so just more space between "things". I narrowed ours down to Grand Design Reflection and the Keystone Montana High Country as both had a floor plan we liked along with the size we wanted (under 35') I really liked the Grand Designs but they did not offer a Gen Prep option which was a deal killer for us.

I did look at Arctic Fox at an RV show as their boondocking capabilities were appealing and it felt dated and had the exact same floor plan as my in laws 1998 5th wheel down to the shower opening directly next to the bed. No thanks.

I just sold my Coleman 247BH last week and started looking at Bunkhouse 5ths. Had a list of 9, narrowed it down to 4 models, then went and looked at them, several times. Narrowed down to two, a Keystone Sprinter, and an Arctic Wolf. The price difference between them is $4,000. The Keystone had massive quality issues, the cabinet doors were cheaper than Home Depot budget cabinets, parts were loose around the slide, about the only thing it did have was an upgraded suspension. It didn't even have auto level.

Next I looked at the Arctic Wolf, a 3660SUITE. Solid cabinets, well made doors, no rattles, about what you could expect for your kitchen. Includes auto level, and the command center that lets you run all the controls from your smart phone. Montana is one of those brands considered higher end, they run upwards of $100K, yet I had a cabinet door come off in my hand.

Pays to research and inspect them all, price of the unit doesn't mean it is quality, yet sometimes you can find higher quality in a lower cost one. The Arctic Wolf is $41,995. I know the OP is looking for a TH, so this post just as a reference of what to look for. IOW don't discard a lower priced one without first looking at it. A similar Montana was $74K.