COMPARING THREE DIFFERENT TT COMPANIES
My wife and I are seriously looking to buy either a Jayco WhiteHawk Ultra Lite, Rockwood Ultra Lite, or a KZ Connect. In terms of quality construction and durability, can you give me any advise--good...
Forum Discussion
"Quality" is extremely subject so basically you are going to get bunches of conflicting "opinions" based on the experience of owning one or several "brands".
Some folks also have very different ideas as to what makes up a "quality" brand like how many times they ended up at the dealer for warranty work.
Or how poor the warranty work was done.
To plain out and out "bashing" since the poster felt they were slighted by the manufacturer when there unit was declined under warranty due to the owner failing to do their part of routine maintenance..
Or my top #1 favorite peeve is folks bashing a brand since the manufacturer declined fixing it under warranty a few DAYS to a FEW YEARS AFTER the warranty "expired"!
Once the warranty expires the manufacture is under no obligation to further warrant the repairs. Sometimes manufacturers will step up to the plate and offer a "goodwill" gesture and partially "cover" some of the repairs out of warranty.. It is great if they do this but nobody should get upset if they don't..
Your best bet is to go to a dealer or a RV show and take a hands on approach.. You walk through the RV, check cabinets and drawers, see what the construction of them are like.. Are they cheap feeling or cheap materials. Hows the fit and finish? Do the doors and drawers close and fit correctly?
Look for poor workmanship all over, inside and out..
Only YOU can decide what is the best brand by visually looking.
Something you do need aware of.. Owning a RV DOES require some preventative maintenance which should be done at least once a year.
Basically water is the enemy of RVs and to keep the water out the roof seams will need inspected, old cracked caulking needs to be removed and replaced. This applies to anything which goes through the roof and the entire perimeter of the roof and extends down to all four corners where there is a trim piece covering the wall corner joints. All Door frames, windows, hatches need to be checked for leakage.
If you do this maintenance even the most badly assembled poor quality RV can be made to last 20 or more years.
RVs are not something you can just ignore the maintenance, if you do even the very best built and most expensive RV can be rendered a door stop in less than a year of water leakage.
I would recommend that you locate the door jamb tag on your truck, this will be on the drivers side door jamb. It will provide the vehicles capacity data which will include unladen weight, GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) and payload capacity (2010 or so they added a second sticker which lists the payload with the tires that are specified for your vehicle.
The payload is your most critical piece of data.
You will need to subtract your passengers weights and any personal gear along with any additional items you place in the back of the truck from the payload.
The result is how much tongue weight your vehicle will be able to safely handle (tongue weight becomes "payload" of your vehicle when the trailer is connected).
On a "bumper pull" trailer the tongue weight must be 10%-15% of the trailer weight with 12%-15% being better and at 15% is ideal. This is important since having too low of tongue weight will cause the trailer to be unstable and will cause sway.
To make this easier I will give a few examples..
5000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 500 lbs (10% of the trailer weight) upwards of 750 lbs (15%).
6000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 600 lbs to 900 lbs.
7000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 700 lbs to 1050 lbs.
You WILL run out of payload before ever getting close to the vehicles "tow ratings"..
Post your payload and other door sticker info and there will be a lot of help in determining what you will be able to tow..
Some folks also have very different ideas as to what makes up a "quality" brand like how many times they ended up at the dealer for warranty work.
Or how poor the warranty work was done.
To plain out and out "bashing" since the poster felt they were slighted by the manufacturer when there unit was declined under warranty due to the owner failing to do their part of routine maintenance..
Or my top #1 favorite peeve is folks bashing a brand since the manufacturer declined fixing it under warranty a few DAYS to a FEW YEARS AFTER the warranty "expired"!
Once the warranty expires the manufacture is under no obligation to further warrant the repairs. Sometimes manufacturers will step up to the plate and offer a "goodwill" gesture and partially "cover" some of the repairs out of warranty.. It is great if they do this but nobody should get upset if they don't..
Your best bet is to go to a dealer or a RV show and take a hands on approach.. You walk through the RV, check cabinets and drawers, see what the construction of them are like.. Are they cheap feeling or cheap materials. Hows the fit and finish? Do the doors and drawers close and fit correctly?
Look for poor workmanship all over, inside and out..
Only YOU can decide what is the best brand by visually looking.
Something you do need aware of.. Owning a RV DOES require some preventative maintenance which should be done at least once a year.
Basically water is the enemy of RVs and to keep the water out the roof seams will need inspected, old cracked caulking needs to be removed and replaced. This applies to anything which goes through the roof and the entire perimeter of the roof and extends down to all four corners where there is a trim piece covering the wall corner joints. All Door frames, windows, hatches need to be checked for leakage.
If you do this maintenance even the most badly assembled poor quality RV can be made to last 20 or more years.
RVs are not something you can just ignore the maintenance, if you do even the very best built and most expensive RV can be rendered a door stop in less than a year of water leakage.
I would recommend that you locate the door jamb tag on your truck, this will be on the drivers side door jamb. It will provide the vehicles capacity data which will include unladen weight, GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) and payload capacity (2010 or so they added a second sticker which lists the payload with the tires that are specified for your vehicle.
The payload is your most critical piece of data.
You will need to subtract your passengers weights and any personal gear along with any additional items you place in the back of the truck from the payload.
The result is how much tongue weight your vehicle will be able to safely handle (tongue weight becomes "payload" of your vehicle when the trailer is connected).
On a "bumper pull" trailer the tongue weight must be 10%-15% of the trailer weight with 12%-15% being better and at 15% is ideal. This is important since having too low of tongue weight will cause the trailer to be unstable and will cause sway.
To make this easier I will give a few examples..
5000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 500 lbs (10% of the trailer weight) upwards of 750 lbs (15%).
6000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 600 lbs to 900 lbs.
7000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 700 lbs to 1050 lbs.
You WILL run out of payload before ever getting close to the vehicles "tow ratings"..
Post your payload and other door sticker info and there will be a lot of help in determining what you will be able to tow..
