Rating of Travel Trailers?

Bought an '06 Nash new and upgraded last year from 23 1/2' to 30' Arctic Fox Silver Fox Edition. Both are excellent TT's. The AF I bought last year was an '08 but had, obviously, not been used much. Looked brand new at about half the price of a new one.

Northwood builds quality trailers that are 4 season. They are heavy but, there is a reason for that. They also have large CCC, (cargo carrying capacities)which means with normal loading, you have lots of capacity left on springs, tires and suspension.

Like the Komfort, they have shocks, plywood floors instead of chip board, heavy frames and wood cabinets etc. They actually put wood inside the aluminum framing at attachment points so screws have more than just thin aluminum to bite into and hold. Both are built in Oregon. If you don't have a dealer nearby, Northwood will, often, make arrangements for any warranty work to be done at a repair facility close to you. Their follow up service is very good and well known.

I had a Sunline but made the mistake of trading it for a piece of junk. My suggestion is for you to keep the one you have or trade it for a Northwood's product. I visited the PA Arctic Fox dealer this summer and now know that I should have bought there. Contact them and ask about warranty repairs done near your home, that is a possibility.

I learned the hard way. From your photos, I see that you need a real trailer so drive to where they sell them.

From my point of view, it's also an issue of having a local dealer that will take care of warranty issues and/or repairs after the warranty has expired. Most RV dealers have pretty busy service/repair departments and may give their "paying" customers preferred treatment when it comes to scheduling warranty service.

So, in my search for a new trailer, I found a Nash trailer (Northwood MFG.) that was very comparable to the Minnie Winnie 2201 DS that we are interested in seeing. Unfortunately...there aren't any Nash dealers in Ohio and the nearest deaer is quite a distance away in the eastern half of Pennsylvania. So, I'm more inclined to purchase a Winnebago product because there's one dealer located 30 minutes away, and another dealer about 2 hours away.

I think it's worth it to try to find a better made RV and pay a few more bucks if you plan on keeping it for the long haul. My Sunline trailer has proven to be an example of that....well built and still in great shape after 10 years. Some of the cheaper made trailers that are on the market make me think that if you buy one, you might as well plan on trading it in after 4-5 years before problems arise. But...in today's market, it seems to be difficult to figure out which products are actually built better.....which brings me back to the need for a good local shop!!

Griz12 wrote:
Is there a web site that rates Travel Trailer like a consumer report? I know there are books out there and for $80 they'll give me their opinion, but I was hoping to find something Free :)

Thanks,

You can go to any of the brand specific forums and see what sort of problems/concerns owners have.

You will also get a sense of how warrenty work is dealt with.

It's all free, but you also have to take some it with a grain of salt.

handye9 wrote:
Two to three years, an expensive trailer, that has not been maintained, will be in worse condition than a cheap trailer, that has been taken care of.

All depends on when, where, and how it is used, and, how well it is maintained.

OH .... this is sooooooo true! I "second this motion!"

Two to three years, an expensive trailer, that has not been maintained, will be in worse condition than a cheap trailer, that has been taken care of.

All depends on when, where, and how it is used, and, how well it is maintained.

We looked for almost two years trying to find the right one. Lots of expensive TT...we didn't like the layout. Some low cost Tt...same thing. We settled on what we got and absolutely love it. It has everything we want including the layout. Of course we also had a budget but we just waited and waited and finally the one we wanted came along.

ScottG wrote:
I don't know of a good source for this info but keep in mind that real quality costs lots of money.
My friend who is very quality conscious, just bought a new trailer and without naming brands, was very disappointed in what he found (he wanted to spend somewhere in the low to mid $20K range). He finally settled on a Artic Fox but had to pay about $5000 more for it than the lesser brands were asking.
I noticed other models of AF were nearly 30% more than even some middle of the road grades of trailers.
Very much worth it though IMO.

"real" quality does not necessarily cost "more" nor does it mean "entry level" trailers (AKA the cheapest price) are complete junk.

It is more an issue of the wheel of fortune, sometimes when you build thousands of widgets you ARE bound to have some "widgets" make it out of the plant with some defects.

Typically in mass produced products not all products leaving are 100% inspected top to bottom. Most times a SAMPLE is pulled off the line and checked 100%. Sample size and rate is based on quantity of the builds.

Then you put these RVs through the rigors of bouncing, twisting and even 70 mph winds while towing and you have a recipe for some problems...

Griz12 wrote:
Is there a web site that rates Travel Trailer like a consumer report? I know there are books out there and for $80 they'll give me their opinion, but I was hoping to find something Free :)

Thanks,

Save your money, "quality" is subjective, what is deemed good by one person will be another persons "lemon". You can drive yourself nuts worrying about perceived quality of a supposed high quality brand.

EVERY RV manufacturer turns out some "lemons" it is bound to happen when you build THOUSANDS of "copies" every year, there is no exceptions to this rule.

Rather than torturing yourself pouring through thousands of pages of "opinions" (aka reviews) find the layout that suits you and buy that one. All with the understanding that there is a chance that something can or will go wrong that may need to be taken care of under warranty.

in addition to the artic fox / nash you should consider Komfort made in Milwaukie , Oregon. They are heavy , however .
They use a 6 inch tall basic frame , use welded aluminum house frame , come with many features standard .
Komforts have bigger windows , wider doors , taller headroom , and more skylights than most.
Large holding tanks , shock absorbers , bigger payload capacity ( Gross weight minus Empty weight ) than others .
Little features such as the spare is underneath , a built in black flusher , water pressure regulator , plywood instead of OSB and so forth .
A very good choice for camping without hookups .