Jayco vs Forest River Salem vs Open Range

I cannot speak for the other brands but we love our Jayflight. We have had the unit two years now and have and only minor issues but nothing I needed to to take back to the dealer. The Jayflight series is considered the "best bank for the buck" with the Jayco crowd. The 32RLDS is 7,300 lbs dry...seems a bit too much for an F150 but others may have more insight.

The Jayco Eagle is more in line with the OR Roamer. I have not heard of any reason to exclude any of those brands. They all have generally favorable feedback. Your receiver limit at about 1150 pounds is likely a limit so I'd stay under 7k dry for your truck.

If you are referring to the Roamer 292RLS, the DRY hitch weight is 1020lbs. We love our Roamer 288 FLR, but it is definitely not lightweight. Have you considered the Open Range Light line of trailers?
Open Range Light

One thing Open Range has over the other brands you mentioned is much better insulation. We looked at Jayco products and OR products at the same lot last summer in South Texas. The OR trailers were easily 15 degrees cooler in the summer sun. They have 50 amp capability, which is important for us in sun-drenched (i.e. brutally hot) Texas. But we have done two cold weather trips and were grateful for the extra insulation then, too.

I'd definitely put the Open Range and Jayco above the Salem. Of the mainstream brands Jayco seems to get the most positive feedback on these forums. I own a Salem and while nothing catastrophic has gone wrong I'm not exactly impressed with the overall quality and probably wouldn't buy another Forest River product. And I'm not just basing my overall recommendation on my experience. From hanging out on the Forest River owner's forum I'm not alone.

Open Range is somewhat new so there is not a lot of data out there. From what I've read they seem to be quality. I've really been impressed with some of their floor plans and offerings.

I also would put the Jayco and Open Range at the top. I have had a Forest River product and the quality is ok for the price but not in the same league as Jayco and Open Range. I spent over a year researching travel trailers and it came down to two brands, Jayco and Open Range. We chose Open Range because we liked the floor plan better. BTW, Jayco has bought Open Range (or merged or something) but Open Range is still being built the same. They both have two year warranties. We have had our Open Range for about two years and had only a couple of small problems that were not caused by Open Range and were fixed under warranty. I would definitely buy another one but plan to make this current one last as long as I do.

We debated between a Jayco and an Open Range (5ers)....Decided on the Open Range and have NEVER been as happy with a rig as we are with this. :) :) May never get rid of it!

Wife and I just went to an out of town RV show this Sunday. Went inside a Salem Hemisphere 282RK. One word. Cheap. I mentioned some things to my wife about it. She said that's why they call it a "Lite".

JMO after looking at enough trailers lately, is that of the ones on your list, and if I were buying it would be either Jayco or Open Range. Open Range is now owned buy Jayco FWIW.

IIRC Jayco recently purchased Open Range, mid 2014.

I have been very happy with both of the Jaycos I have owned.

I have never owned a Forest River product, but do own BRK stock and am a Berkshire Hathaway fan, so I am not biased to the whole idea that profits matter in a corp. A close friend bought a Forrest River TT in Aug and has been having little issues since day one. Most I attribute to the dealership not doing a very good inspection before selling, not making it a priority to get these things corrected 6 months later, and generally not have any post-sales customer service. FR has been compassionate in their correspondence but hasn't forced the dealer to prioritize the repairs, nor approved another service only shop to make the repairs and hasn't made any commitments to provide any warranty extension should this continue beyond the 1 year mark.

For me, Jayco on the other hand did approve a local repair only RV shop to swap out a defective DVD player and correct a couple cosmetic fixes that need to be addressed after the first couple uses. The standard warranty is 2 years and have heard of several cases where they covered items outside the 2 years.

Should I enter the market again, I would have ZERO concerns buying Jayco again.

I strongly suggest you put a bit more research into weights. Specifically loaded tongue weights, your F150 remaining cargo carrying capacity after occupants and stuff, take a trip to the CAT Scale and just ensure you are comfortable with the combination. Each of these trailers you identified would be pushing the capacity of a 1500/150 class pickup once you add a couple passengers and any load in the bed.

Thanks for all the replies. It's about how I figured it would be - Jayco and Open Range at the top and the Salem near the bottom. While at the show Saturday we say another FR brand, Shasta Liked the layout but it just seemed "meh".

With the Jayco and the Open Range I felt that "this is it" feeling when we walked in. Similar to when we bought our house.

I have been keeping a close eye on the weights. With my particular F150, according to the yellow sticker I've got 1800 lbs of payload. Figuring 600 or so lbs for me, the wife, and dog that should give me 1300 lbs. According to my spreadsheet, @ 10% of GVWR I'm under on these trailers by about 75 lbs and @ 15% GVWR I'm over by 500lbs. Since it's only the 2 of us, I doubt we'll ever be at GVWR. At least that's what the paper #'s are saying. At least that's what works in my mind and on paper.

itguy08 wrote:


I have been keeping a close eye on the weights. With my particular F150, according to the yellow sticker I've got 1800 lbs of payload. Figuring 600 or so lbs for me, the wife, and dog that should give me 1300 lbs. According to my spreadsheet, @ 10% of GVWR I'm under on these trailers by about 75 lbs and @ 15% GVWR I'm over by 500lbs. Since it's only the 2 of us, I doubt we'll ever be at GVWR. At least that's what the paper #'s are saying. At least that's what works in my mind and on paper.

Hi,

Just a friendly heads up. This very nice Jayco you listed is going to be too much for your truck once you start loading the camper and the truck to go camping.

Jayco 32RLDS

I have had both of my campers be a rear living layout like the Jayco and that is a really nice floor plan. We love it too. But it comes with a price. Loaded tongue weight. The majority of the storage is over the axles (a good thing) and up front. (also good but) it will need a truck that can handle the loaded tongue weight.

That 35' 6" long camper will end up with 1,200 to 1,300# loaded TW. It may even grow higher. And you really want it that heavy too trying to control a 35 1/2" camper. You cannot really balance a camper down to 10% loaded TW and with that length, and you don't want to. The storage is placed where the storage is. And "we" all seem to fill it over time.

Again, just a friendly heads up, if you get that camper you are going to fall in love with it. And then over time, a 3/4 ton truck will be in your future if you want to stay inside the limits of the truck.

Most of us like to haul "stuff" to camp. Hey we have these beautiful campers, why not use all of it? Sooner or later you are going to add extra camping gear in the truck bed and load the camper the way it can be. Then you will find out your nice F150 will be very far over it's limits. Both in weight carrying and most likley being able to control a camper that big, heavy and long.

I started out my camper hobby with a 1500 truck and a lot less trailer only to find out, that smaller rear living camper loaded tongue heavy. Soon enough a 2500 Suburban replaced the 1500 Tahoe. We loved the camper too much, the hoe had to go... Now I have one the size you are looking at and you see what we are towing with. And yes, we filled the camper to GVWR when hauling fresh water.

Good luck. Glad to point this out how your going to get there if wanted. Just trying to help a new camper find the right match that fits them, the first time.

John