Who is the top RV manuf. in quality?

The industry standard costs for building a new home, runs from a minimum of 80 dollars a foot to 200 a foot for a custom built home. If you consider 135.00 as the normal for tract houses today, take the square footage of your rv and see what it relates to.
Then consider putting that tract house on a set of axles and pulling it down the road.

Ya think it might last 10 years or more?

"I think they build", pretty hard to dispute that!

noe-place wrote:
Interesting since it doesn't take that long to build a Class A. :h

Lance is usually building 3 Travel Trailers and something like 4 Truck Campers every 10 days. This was during their production slowdown in 2010, I think they build 3 TT and 4 TC's every 7 days now. If someone can provide any information to refute this claim, I wish they would post it.

That's after all the cabinets, etc have been routed out by the CNC router, the foam insulation has been routed out by CNC router, the sides have been assembled and pinch rolled, etc etc etc.

If you don't believe me, go take a tour of the Lance Factory. They offer tours every Wednesday by appointment (during production cycles):

Lance Camper
43120 Venture Street
Lancaster, California 93535-4510
(661) 949-3322

Lance Factory Tour Information

They aren't thrown together on some assembly line like Jayco, Forest River etc. Lance also keeps ALL of its raw materials inside, not sitting outside exposed to the elements.

So, someone making a blanket statement that all Travel Trailers are built the same - "crummy" is a falsehood!

If you want to see crummy construction of a Travel Trailer, watch this video:

Building A Jayco Trailer In Under 7 Hours

I wasn't aware that they were churning out Class A's at such an alarming rate! You mean to tell me that a Newell takes a week or less to build? HA!

Newell Coach

WoodGlue

WoodGlue wrote:

kakampers wrote:
Guarantee it did NOT take six weeks to build...that may be how long you waited for it, but the build time wasn't more than several days...

I'm not going to argue, but it takes Lance more than several days to build anything.

WoodGlue

Interesting since it doesn't take that long to build a Class A. :h

Really a loaded question. Just go to any manufacturers forum and you'll find they all have problems. IMO it's a******shoot when you buy. You can buy a brand X trailer and your neighbor can buy the same brand X and he has problems and you don't. There is no set quality control in the RV industry. It's all hype in brochures. Best thing to do is spend time looking all over the trailer. Under it, inside cabinets, at the drawers, etc. Open every door in it. See how it feels. It's amazing at some of the low quality in higher priced units. IMO just find the best floor plan and price and go for it. Keep up on maintenance with caulking and winterizing, cover it in the winter and check the tire PSI.

Bigfoot and Arctic Fox come to mind for trailers. There are other lesser northwood products that are ok as well. On the class A side I would lean towards American Coach.

kakampers wrote:
Guarantee it did NOT take six weeks to build...that may be how long you waited for it, but the build time wasn't more than several days...

I'm not going to argue, but it takes Lance more than several days to build anything.

WoodGlue

Guarantee it did NOT take six weeks to build...that may be how long you waited for it, but the build time wasn't more than several days...

jdog wrote:

WoodGlue wrote:

jdog wrote:
All the same. They are ALL poorly built! The more expensive ones are better. The cheaper ones are really bad because of budget and time restrictions while manufacturing and cheaper parts.

I disagree with this statement. You're saying that Airstream, Lance EvergreenRV and Northwood Mfg are putting out inferior products?

WoodGlue

You are saying that Airstream, Lance Evergreen, and Northwood are always perfect with no problems at all?

No, but I am saying they are superior products with great care taken to manufacture each trailer. It took Lance 6 weeks to build my new 2014 1685, when it takes Jayco 6 hours to knock out a JayFlight! Airstream has an incredibly high number of man hours involved in constructing their products.

WoodGlue

WoodGlue wrote:

jdog wrote:
All the same. They are ALL poorly built! The more expensive ones are better. The cheaper ones are really bad because of budget and time restrictions while manufacturing and cheaper parts.

I disagree with this statement. You're saying that Airstream, Lance EvergreenRV and Northwood Mfg are putting out inferior products?

WoodGlue

You are saying that Airstream, Lance Evergreen, and Northwood are always perfect with no problems at all?