Which one to choose?!

HRDWRK wrote:
Thanks for all the inputs. Although this would be my first RV, but I now my way around cars and trucks fairly well.
Is there anything else that I need to be careful about beside the drive train? How can roof be inspected? For some reasons (may be not very smart reasons!) I am concern about roofs and leaks. Does anybody know on this model years if the roofs very one piece? Does any of these brand has better quality than the other?

Thanks again.

You are looking at only two brands, and in both cases, entry-priced model lines. They should be equivalent quality, but in the model years 2001-2007 I was looking at, the entry brands from FourWinds (FourWinds 5000, Chateau Sport, and Dutchmen Express) seemed to be better finished than Coachmen Freedom (and later Freelander) entry lines.

Both brands/model lines have a one-piece roofing fabric cover over the roof, which is constructed of a lot of pieces (framing or trusses and light plywood sheeting). Roof leaks have little to do with the covering material, whether fabric or fiberglass sheeting, or a whole fiberglass cap. Leaks happen at front, back and side seams where the roof attaches to walls, and at all the openings for vents, air conditioner, lighting, antennae. Leaks are prevented by maintaining the sealing materials at these seams and openings. Many owners like to tape over these seams with high quality tapes like Eternabond, so existence of tape might not mean a problem, rather an effort to prevent problems.

There are other mass-produced brands with similar construction, some with somewhat different construction (like Winnebago's use of a sandwich structure rather than trussed roof) and yet other low-production brands using radically different construction (including one-piece molded shells) but that's not what you've been looking at. You are comparing two similarly built entry-price mass production C motorhomes.