RV Consumer Group

They can be, and are, useful. I've used their info, and the knowledge I learned from them to help buy several rigs now.

I've been a member (off and on, mostly off) over the years.

No they don't just collect sales flyers; they inspect rigs, visit factories, ask owners, etc

No they don't buy rigs, but they do talk to people that do.

One of the publications I bought from them was a book on how to inspect RVs your self. Knowing how to look for quality and how to tell what was "good" and what was "bad" is really useful.

Bottom line, they are a tool to help you make a wise choice.

They do help get thru all the hype and glitz and help you to narrow you choices down. Carrying capacity is one of the items they look at how many of us roll down the road over loaded?

They can certainly help you to sort through tons of data to narrow down your list. You could also do that on your own but not as easily. They have been in business a long time so they must be providing a service that enough people want to keep them in business. I have never used them so I would be to people that have actually used their service to find out if it was worth what they paid. Opinions from people that have not used their service are like ..., everyone has one.

We used their ratings when we were deciding on what RV to buy and considered it another source of information to help us choose along with visits to RV shows, dealers, and campground to talk to owners.

Not much!

You are better off visiting dealers and asking the salesman to just let you sit in a unit for a half hour or so. Try to picture how you would go about the main activities of daily use. Then move on to the next floor plan.

You will begin to see patterns of what features you like and what is worthless to you.

Time is your friend, Salesmen usually not so much.

The group doesn't test RVs. They get their information from the manufacturers just as you can. However, I guess it can be a guide of sorts. We made our choice by talking to RV owners of manufacturers we were interested in and reading the owner forums to see what kind of problems certain RVs have. We made the right decision on our own with no regrets.

It has no credibility with me. My opinion of current RV trailer manufacturing quality is that there is little to no quality control; the makers are pushing them out the door as quickly as possible. The buyer needs to do a thorough inspection prior to signing on the dotted line because nobody has done an inspection. The buyer also needs to be somewhat handy at home repairs so that he can fix a problem rather than having his trailer sit at the RV shop for a month waiting for repairs.