Higher end brands?

Good excuse for a cross country trip! :B

The issue is that I am on the east coast and all the higher end brands are west coast built.

Lance Factory Tour

You'd be happy with a Lance, built well and awesome on the inside too!

Take a look at them:

Lance Campers (Travel Trailers)

They've been around 51 years

The top tier quality brands Airstream, Bigfoot, Oliver and Escape don't have roof leaking issues because they don't use membrane roofs. If you have a thin piece of rubber or TPO with seams all the way around you're going to have leaks eventually.

Top tier brands also don't have slide issues because they don't have slides. None of them have wood roof decking and with the exception of airstream don't have wall studs. Some things are nice not to have like corner seams, delamination and additional caulk points. Sometimes less is better. Lack of a slide is the reason I don't still own my BigFoot. There are always trade offs.

ScottG wrote:
I *think* you can add Grand Design to the list. Not as nicely built as Arctic Fox (I found some sneaky places where GD saves mmoney) but still much better than the avg.

We were looking at a Grand Design this last week, and we were impressed by some of the things the designers came up with. I'd be very curious (as we consider the GD) what are the areas you found where they cheat and save money?

For reference, we are looking for a mid-length bunkhouse model, considering the Grand Design 2400BH and also the Camplite CL21BHS.

We are on our second Outdoors RV. The first one was great. We love the thicker sides and insulation. We took that trailer all over the states in all kind of weather and we were always a comfortable temperature. We outgrew it and bought the second larger one. Both were Creekside models. The second one has been less impressive from a quality control standpoint. A lot of problems with the dinette separating from the slide and the slide sagging. We are now going to be peplacing the tongue jack for the second time. We have owned several trailers and this is the first one we have needed to replace the tongue jack.I could go on. The second is a 2016, so it is not old and we bought it new. It has been disappointing. Not sure where I would go next, but am not sure we will do a Creekside again.

Bite N Hold wrote:
Airstreams are nice but we need a lot of room with slide outs. Going to check into Outdoors RV, Arctic Fox, and another Open Range. Are there any of the mid tier to high end brands that are less prone to roof and slide out leaks?

I would recommend the Outdoors RV too.. ours is solid, reasonably well made for an RV.. well insulated.

Bite N Hold wrote:
So we are in the market for a different TT. We currently own an Open Range and like the quality of it. Seems very well built and good quality. Having said that, this is our second TT after a smaller Forest River Hybrid. So what are are some brands that are of better build quality? Less issues with leaks, slideout issues, good resale value......Any info would be great!!!

I highly recommend that you check out Winnebago Minnies or Minnie Plus. They are very well made. Check out the Minnie Facebook page and ask questions. You will get a lot of responses wrt to the build quality.

donn0128 wrote:
Lance and,Arctic Fox are two that come to mind. Airstream of course. But who wants to pay their prices.

This.

There sure is a lot of speculation about quality, labor force, factory size and location.

When Detroit or the Japanese have a brisk upturn in sales does the car quality take a nose dive?

The fact is TTs are built to a market price point. The construction methods are unique to the industry. What might be shoddy or poor design in home construction may be acceptable in the RV world. But then, what might be acceptable in a Chevy might be shoddy in a Ferrari.

There are classic blunders for sure, and every time I have to delve into the inner workings of my 7 year old TT I am amazed at the short cuts I find.

But that is the nature of the beast. If you want better design and assembly practices, be prepared to pay more. The RV industry has figured out how to give the majority of the public what they want at a price they are willing to pay. I would not expect any significant changes any time soon.