Happy Camper or Frustrated Owner?
This thread is a rerun of a thread I ran in 2004 and again in 2005 . I was surprised and pleased that most who posted to the 2004 thread were in the happy camper category when the second thread ran. ...
Forum Discussion
I'm a happy camper by doing my own research. I've always worked on all of my RV's and so I'm quick to look at how an RV is assembled, wiring ran and wood finished. Typically, there are only one or two chassis options so those choices come easy. Our first three RV's, two Lance Campers and a Fleetwood Class C came pretty much one way so there were not a lot of choices back then, other than length.
We did buy one coach, a 2004 Fleetwood Terra, that we hated. It was the only coach we bought used (one year old) and had nothing but problems, particularly the Bosch brake issue. We bought it as an interim coach to use for about four years before I retired and purchased a DP. We bought it on a whim and I didn't do any real research. For us, it was our first coach with a slide and was huge. We sold it a year later, after doing a years worth of DP investigation.
Our first DP was perfect and we had no complaints, keeping it for 10 years. I did the same research with our current coach and we love it. The only regret is the dark colored paint, which was all that was available in 2014. If I were to do it again, I would order one and pick my own colors.
I think people who are new to the RV world will make some mistakes. I work on a lot of RV's for friends and often get questioned about what to buy. I encourage them to think about what they need and how they will use it, find some models they like and then come here and another forum and do some research on that model. I tell them to take complaints with a grain of salt, but look for reoccurring complaints.
We did buy one coach, a 2004 Fleetwood Terra, that we hated. It was the only coach we bought used (one year old) and had nothing but problems, particularly the Bosch brake issue. We bought it as an interim coach to use for about four years before I retired and purchased a DP. We bought it on a whim and I didn't do any real research. For us, it was our first coach with a slide and was huge. We sold it a year later, after doing a years worth of DP investigation.
Our first DP was perfect and we had no complaints, keeping it for 10 years. I did the same research with our current coach and we love it. The only regret is the dark colored paint, which was all that was available in 2014. If I were to do it again, I would order one and pick my own colors.
I think people who are new to the RV world will make some mistakes. I work on a lot of RV's for friends and often get questioned about what to buy. I encourage them to think about what they need and how they will use it, find some models they like and then come here and another forum and do some research on that model. I tell them to take complaints with a grain of salt, but look for reoccurring complaints.
