What trailer manufacture is better or value for price

Hands down the Jayco. More livable floor plan. 2 yr warranty is a plus. Only draw back on the Jayco is the small bath counter, but it does have a two door entrance into the bath.

sask934 wrote:
Hi all, brand new and about to buy my first travel trailer.....looking for peoples opinions.
....

First up is a 2014 Palomino Puma 30-RKSS anniversary edition $25,000

Next is a Jayco 2013 flight 33RLDS $28900

Both have the dinette and not the booth. The Jayco has two sofa's and the Puma has one sofa and two rocker.

What would you buy? Why if you would be so inclined

sask934 - Fist of all, welcome to a fellow Canadian! :)

I note from your previous follow up replies you don't intend to tow the RV with the think you have, and that is probably a wise choice.

My choice between the two trailers you asked about is clearly the Jayco, and that is based on the floorplan. It is very similar to mine - see for yourself. We love this floor plan as it makes great use of the space in the trailer. There is a distinct living area, kitchen area, dining area, bedroom area, and the bathroom is easily accessible (on both) when the slides are in - important for bathroom stops while on the road. The rear end window on the Jayco was also a requirement for us for those campsites that back onto a lake or some other scenery - picture window!

Not only that, but Jaycos are well built, come with a 2 year warranty and are well regarded amongst RVers - important when time comes to sell. My previous RV was a Jayco hybrid that a couple drove 1200 miles to come to buy. 'Nuff said.

You mentioned your wife's preference for counter space etc - you would be very wise to try and assure your wife's satisfaction in buying what is essentially a home away from home. Check out the counter space on my RV - there is even an extension to that counter! My wife and l are most happy with that kitchen. Wardrobe space is also likely an important concern for her and the Jayco seems to have more.

So in conclusion, if the choice has to be one of the two the Jayco is the winner. But don't feel you have to buy at the show. Better to buy your second trailer first than to have buyer's remorse.

Jayco products are quite good and the two year warranty is a definite plus along with their reputation for customer service. When we were searching for a new trailer this past summer, we looked at a lot...I mean a lot of trailers, both at dealers and online.

We ended up purchasing our Winnebago 2201DS because the overall quality seems to be a bit higher than even comparable Jayco units (around 26' and 5,000 lbs before gear). In addition, the outside kitchen and amount of storage appealed to us. One major difference that I saw was that Jayco tended to use shorter awnings on many of their trailers. Our 26'9" trailer came with a 19' awning where as a couple of the Jayco trailers we were looking at only at 15 or 16' awnings. And with one Jayco model, the shower didn't have it's own enclosure i.e. the material that was on the walls served as the shower surround. BUT...that was only with one of their trailers, and I believe with the 2014 line they have changed that.

Since you are looking for a larger trailer, all you can do is carefully compare the models that have the floorplan and storage capabilities that meet your needs. And, even though you plan on parking it for now, if you plan to tow it, make sure you are within the limits of your tow vehicle. IMHO, it's best to stay at 80% or less of the maximum tow weight if you want to avoid undue stress and wear/tear on your tow vehicle, as well as have adequate power for towing in the mountains.

Good luck!

Welcolme to the forum. I would get the one you like the floor plan best. At the dealer pretend your using it, how does the layout work, do you have to turn your head to watch tv, enough counter space, bathroom big enough, easy to make/use bed. enough food storage, plug in's in the right place, you get the idea. Jayco and Forest River (Puma) are both good.

Dutchmen 318RKDS :)

I vote Jayco.

We are on out second Jayco.

Farm Camp wrote:
Well. I'll go pop some popcorn. Welcome! We don't say welcome to new folks often enough around here.

As for your question. I don't think we can or will actually give you the answer to the question you seem to be asking but what the heck, I'll take a shot at it! :-)

I can tell you that Jayco has a good reputation generally, has a two year warranty - which may be important to you, and when I was buying my camper Jayco narrowly lost out in the end to the camper in my signature. But not because I thought the one I got was a lot better. It was because it had the exact floorplan I wanted...

Never have owned the Puma so I will not venture an opinion on that brand.

I will say that none of them are perfect and judging by the reading I've done online - everybody can make a lemon from time to time.

Welcome again, others have said in the past that you should find the exact floorplan you want , visit. As many of them as you can in person, sit on the sofas and the toilet and move around as you might when camping to see what works for you. Then look a how they are constructed and the other features you may be interested in.

Best of luck on your adventure. The selection process can actually be a lot of fun (was for us anyway).

And welcome again!

Thanks....for the advice and the welcome!

waynec1957 wrote:
We’ve been camper shopping for quite a while and we saw the Jay Flight 33 RLDS last January at an RV show in Indianapolis. Ever since we’ve been looking for something we liked better and haven’t found anything.

The first thing that sold us on 33 RLDS is how wide open the living room and kitchen are. There’s probably 100 sq. ft. (or more) of open floor there. We don’t want the fireplace option because we want the large back window which, as someone on another thread said, will give it a feeling of even more openness. We’re going with recliners (actually rockers) on the door side and the free standing dinette. Probably do the hide-a-bed on the driver side.

We also like the bedroom—plenty of space to hang clothes and there’s a nice sized linen closet in the bedroom slide out. Plus, both of us get a “night stand” (seems trivial but a lot of units we looked at only had one).

One drawback is this unit doesn’t have as much outside storage space as some other units…all you’ve got is the pass through. But there’s a ton of storage inside. There’s not a lot of kitchen counter space in this layout, which for us isn’t a big deal. We do 99% of our cooking outside anyway.

One thing you might want to take a look at (not trying to sound like the weight police) is the dry weight of this unit. The factory lists it at about 7,800 lbs. but I’ve seen yellow stickers on these from 8,500 to over 9,000 lbs. dry. Depending on options, this thing could easily be loaded for camping to around 10,000 lbs. (I think the GVWR is 10,300 lbs.) You could also end up with a pretty heavy tongue weight.

It’s odd this thread should come up right now, because we’re going in the morning to do a thorough examination of one of these. It’s not the one we want, but it’s close enough to look at. The dealer was nice enough to offer to pull it inside so we could take our time looking at it. The next step will be to get the price we want to pay. I don’t know how the one you looked at is equipped, but from looking at these online I think you might be able to do a little better than $28,900. We have a pretty good price from a dealer about 4 hours away and we’re hoping this dealer that’s much closer will match it. If not…. We’ll make the drive. But this is the one we’ve pretty much settled on.

Yes I like the layout as well with all the storage, the lack of food prep area is a concern to my wife, but I told her we could make or buy a small island to use to do the food prep.

My wife likes the Puma as it has a larger kitchen with the hard surface counters....it is going to be a tough choice.

Just to be clear.....I will not pull either of these units with my truck, not even to the campground as the dealer will drop it off for me. I want this as a place to go on my days off in the months that the campground is open. (May to end of Sept) out here.

As for the prices I was quoted, I live in Canada and the units cost more here. The Puma is the best price the dealer would give me. The Jayco I may be able to do a little better as I have not tried to get the price down. They have this in a RV show here in town right now and it is one of their show specials.

Thanks for the replies so far keep the coming....The 2 year warranty is a valid point. The upgraded insulation in the Puma is another consideration as it can get real hot up here in the summer.

sask934 wrote:
Hi all, brand new and about to buy my first travel trailer.....looking for peoples opinions.

Not going to pull this unit right now, just going to park in campground.

First up is a 2014 Palomino Puma 30-RKSS anniversary edition $25,000

Next is a Jayco 2013 flight 33RLDS $28900

Both have the dinette and not the booth. The Jayco has two sofa's and the Puma has one sofa and two rocker.

What would you buy? Why if you would be so inclined

Thanks for your replies.

I do have a Ford F 150 2013 Screw EXL XTR 5.0 with the tow package.

You say you are just going to just take it to a campground but I assume you mean with your truck. I have pretty well the exact same truck and I wouldn't go heavier than what I have.