Visited a Dealer Today

We're in the same boat as you now. We've started researching and looking and are getting ready to push harder on the search. Right now we're thinking gas if we buy new or DP if we go used. The Newmar Canyon Star and Tiffin Allegro are on the top of our new list, but that seems to change often.

Good luck with your search!

J-Rooster,
If you're buying a new gasser today it will be a Ford, no other choice.

As far as the plugs, I know it happened to a few but they were fairly rare. I'm sorry you got one. Having said that, that hasn't been an issue since 1999. That was 15 years ago.

I went to the Tacoma RV Show a few weeks back and looked at a new Bounder and Pace Arrow both looked to be very nice with a fair price around $80,000.00 only thing I didn't like is they were Ford Powered! I bought a new RV with a Ford V-10 in 1999 and all it did was spit out spark plugs. I refuse to spend any of my hard earned money on any Ford product that I can't trust going down the road. It is what it is!

PNW Wood wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
There is a reason there is such a price gap between Georetowns/Fleetwoods and, say, Tiffin or Newmar gassers.

I've been trying to get a picture of which were considered better fit and finish than others

I'll make sure to look at these two as well

Go even deeper, take a look at the construction methods.

Newmar uses a hung wall construction method - it's not laminated, it can't delaminate. They use studs on 16" centers, like your house is built. There are headers over every opening.

A few years back I found this picture on one manufacturers web site (I can't remember which one) touting the strength of their MH. Does this look strong to you???



Take a look at this video for a better look at how a Newmar is built.

Travel Supreme/Entegra and Holiday Rambler/Monaco also use this method on their Class A stuff.

PNW Wood wrote:
I've not settled on any brand or maker yet, and we are still in the figuring out what we want stage... Floor plans if you will.

Don't make the floorplan or glitz your starting point. Research the quality of manufacturers. Then get a few good ones and look at the floorplans they offer. Surely you could be happy with one of 20 plans. :)

A floorplan does no good if the RV falls apart around it.

Go to manufacturers' owner's sites and read about the pluses and minuses of the different companies. This forum has some good owner's sections.

http://www.irv2.com/forums/

Good luck!

azdryheat wrote:
There is a reason there is such a price gap between Georetowns/Fleetwoods and, say, Tiffin or Newmar gassers.

I've been trying to get a picture of which were considered better fit and finish than others

I'll make sure to look at these two as well

Thanks for the insights and comments

I've not settled on any brand or maker yet, and we are still in the figuring out what we want stage... Floor plans if you will

Big RV show in the area this weekend, but I'll be out of town. We Will go to the next :)

Frank,
You may want to check your slide seals too. An extended slide shouldn't leak, topper or no topper.

When our kitchen slide is our and our awning is not it use, there is no topper of any kind over it. Water intrusion has never been an issue.

My TT has no slide topper either, and there is no water intrusion when it rains either...any more. Having said that, it sure wasn't right from the factory. I bought it as a project and did a complete rebuild. Part of that rebuild was fixing how the factory had "sealed" the slide. Their "seal" acted more like a funnel. :B

We bought an '02 Georgetown in 2010 from its original owners. It had been very well looked after except for one detail I missed. They hadn't used it for a full season before they decided to sell and it had been parked with the living room slide extended the whole time so the topper was also extended and was facing south.

First trip with us, we were at an SP near Bellingham WA, with the slides out, when a rainstorm hit. The overhead cabinets in the slide filled with water! Luckily there was a full pack of table napkins in there that caught most of the deluge.

When we got home, I unrolled the topper to find that there was no vinyl left, just the netting!. The awning's long sun exposure had wiped out the vinyl skin. Unfortunately, the cabinets had to be replaced due to mold build up.

I did the job myself over a few weeks (advantage for a retiree!) and they looked good. I was disappointed in the poor workmanship I found with the cabinets removed. There were long wiring runs with no support, very crudely finished woodwork that was not visible with the cabinets installed and very flimsy attachments holding the cabinets in place. Despite there being two square steel tubes running the full length of the slide-out to form the ceiling structure, the cabinets were attached to the ceiling's Styrofoam insulation with sheet metal screws. I was surprised that the empty weight of the cabinets hadn't pulled them loose.

My rebuild attached the cabinets to the steel tubes!

There is a reason there is such a price gap between Georetowns/Fleetwoods and, say, Tiffin or Newmar gassers.