thoughts on these 3 or 4 brands??

We were looking at the 2014 Rockwood 8289.
When our dealership got in a unit we found out that Rockwood had changed the floor plan from their brochure and had eliminated the pantry/closet which greatly reduced storage, so we decided not to purchase because of the change.

Like someone said earlier, go to the various mfgr forums and see what others are saying.

Good luck, I'm sure whatever unit you decide on will be great.

We are going into our 5th year with our Rockwood 8281 Signature Ultralite. We have had only one problem-and--main slide motor went out this past summer. Other than that, trouble-free. We've taken several long trips with no problems; most of our trips our local weekends. We have 3 kids and a dog and our unit has held up well. Before the fiver, we had a Rockwood Roo hybrid for 4 years with no problems. So our Rockwood experience is overwhelmingly good. But you may hear contrary experiences from others---pretty much true for the mainstream brands.

We don't own an Open Range but we've been inside them and they are all over our resort here in SE FL.

Seem like petty good units for the money. Most of the people here are very happy with them. They have some really good floor plans as well.

We also looked for nearly a year and decided on the Reflection.

Check out the owners forums for each of the units.

We researched and compared for over six month when we determined that the Crusader by Prime Time was the best buy based on floor plans, quality of workmanship, and support. When we went to make the actual purchase we saw a new brand, Reflection by Grand Design. We spent literally hours going back and forth between the two units and ended up purchasing the reflection. The company is founded by the same guys that started Keystone. We live in CA so we have already spent a fair amount of time in the trailer, I have a 2001 Chevy 3500 that is gas and it towed the trailer with just one slowdown at the Cuesta grade (7%). We have had no problems and the workmanship, fit and finish is great. I would like to suggest you also put this unit in your mix.

I have a 2011 Crossroads that has been a very good unit with only a couple very minor issues that were handled quickly. However, I know in the last couple of years they have had more than there fair shares of issues including an overhaul of their upper management I believe. Still many happy owners I'm sure, but, many complaints and issues to boot. But in the end its really which units features and floor plans that suit you best that matters. That hard part is finding all of that in a unit that is also quality constructed and in your budget that's the hard part.
Good luck with the search!

We bought an Open Range Roamer in 2012 are really happy with the quality of the unit. OpenRange has a 2 year warranty also and the company is known for good customer service also. Our first 5th wheel was a Rockwood 8283 that we had for 7 years. It served us well with very few problems; we needed more room and features and the Open Range fit our needs. They're usually lighter than other brands around the same size.