Manufactures & Subsidiaries.

for travel trailers and 5th wheel campers, there are only 3 MAJOR players left .... Thor, Forest River and Jayco .... yes, there are still a handful of smaller outfits but their number seems to be dwindling all too quickly .... if I was looking for a new camper today, I'd look at Jayco first .... only if Jayco didn't offer something that we wanted would we look at another manufacture

Jim

logsend wrote:
5th wheel.

The Reflection line by Grand Design RV is interesting...

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

I've never understood why Murphy beds don't get more use in RV's. It would seem a great way to have more living space in the day time.

Over the years, any bed which has to be made up is normally seen as an inconvenience for couples.

'Convertible' beds are great for grandkids - some times.

But if I want to take a nap on a rainy afternoon, I want to be able to go to the bed, without making it up, or re-arranging the living space.

Like everything - it is a tradeoff between space and convenience.

We made the tradeoff for a stand alone table and four chairs rather than a convertible dinette in our current TT. Better for our full-time lifestyle.

We took out the couch and put in storage space.

Our TT sleeps two. If some of the grandkids come over - they can sleep on a recliner, or the floor - or bring a tent.

The folks camped next to us have seven small grandchildren in a similar sized (35') trailer - but they give up 33% of their floor space for a bunkroom.

Different choices for different folks.

5th wheel.

You're going to have to look at all of them and then decide what meets your needs based on what you wrote.

logsend wrote:
I don't know if this is the right spot if not please do move my question. We are in the research phase of buying and have been trying to wade through the different manufactures. It seems to us like there are basically only a handful of floor plans being made by an awful lot of manufactures. So are they all owned or subsidiaries of just a couple of companies?

What kind of RV are you looking for? 5th Wheel, Truck Camper?

gbopp wrote:
Look at cars. Most have four doors, a front & back seat, and a steering wheel.
There's only so much you can do with the space available.

That is understood. What isn't is how to sort through the multitude of manufactures to find one that isn't making a floor plan that we like out of poor quality materials. We are new to this and don't know very much about the industry, it's not like buying a car where we are familiar with the makers. Oh, that we wish it were!

Look at cars. Most have four doors, a front & back seat, and a steering wheel.
There's only so much you can do with the space available.

We want to stay away from big mass production after what we've seen so far, it just seems cheaply made. So what small companies are still making quality products, if any? Never in our wildest dreams did we think this would be like trying to buy a mattress lol!

There are far more brands than companies, which might be part of this - especially if shopping at a single dealership. (Forest River and Thor both have quite a lot of brands ...) Many of these were independent companies before the recession but there's been a lot of consolidation.