Grand Design Reflection 150 Series

[JAC1982]

I am trying to avoid calling a dealer to ask this question as I don't want to get sucked into a conversation 🙂

Does anybody know if the Grand Design Reflection 150 Series comes with built-in generator prep? Their website doesn't mention it.

[2012Coleman]

That's a nice layout - would consider that one over my current layout. I like the bedroom on that one - the front window is pretty cool.

[JAC1982]

2012Coleman wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:
I'm pretty sure you can open at least one of the doors on the fridge - that slide is against the island when in so make sure if that is important to you. It's not to me, so I don't pay much attention to it. The table is held down by screws - most likely easy to remove. We really enjoy the rear living layout in this model - lots of windows and plenty of storage. The TV is directly across from the recliners. The fireplace does a great job of warming things up. I got the bedroom AC as part of the deal. Every time I go into it after being closed up - it still smells new inside. A far cry from the formaldehyde off-gassing Coleman we previously had. I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have.

Thank you! After having two other trailers, we've really narrowed down what's important... and loading/unloading the fridge with the slide in is one of them, even if it's only one of the doors to grab a beer right when we get to our destination 🙂

Our current and previous rigs were both toyhaulers, so I'm really looking forward to having rear living with lots of windows. Toyhaulers by nature are dark inside and you don't get to take advantage of views from inside.

We are going to an RV show this weekend so we hope to be able to walk through some Grand Designs. They're at the top of our price point but they may be worth it!

The GD has a hitch receiver in back, so you may be able to use a cargo carrier to carry your Gen - I'm not sure how big it is or the weight rating on the receiver though. You mentioned you were going to be pulling something though - not sure what that was.

The Reflection fifth wheel series comes standard with the 4 point Lippert auto leveling system. I also use the big orange buckets on my landing gear from etrailer.

My biggest complaint about this camper is the fridge in the slide out. Stock, it has trouble in the summer keeping it's cool. Winter camping is great. It already comes with 4 fans to suck in air from the bottom over the fins, and out the top and does blow a lot of hot air - but I changed the sensor that turns the fans on at 170 to one that turns them on at 150 and had no issues on our annual 7 day (Florida) summer trip. I put 4 blue ice packs from Walmart in the bottom too. I'd like to upgrade to a residential, and maybe will in future. Just keep that in mind. The four door fridge is an option - make sure your getting what you want. I don't keep beer in the fridge - I always bring an RTIC cooler. The basement holds everything I used to put in my pickup bed besides bikes. Including my 42 gallon Thetford portable tank when not going to a full hookup site. Only other pet peeve is that the DVD player isn't blue ray. I had one from the previous camper so it's not a big deal to hook it up and change input.

You will also notice the heater vents on the sides of the island vs in the floor - this is wonderful. Also compare Island construction to other brands - on others, I could open the doors and see outside light. Also compare the lack of motion sensing lights in the pantry and bathroom - and maybe the best one of all - the toilet is made from porcelain instead of plastic.

I negotiated 30% off MSRP plus front bedroom AC when purchasing - the rumors of GD not allowing dealers to discount are false.

Good luck on your search.

Thank you for the information! I think we have switched gears to the Montana High Country 294rl. It's essentially the same floor plan as the GD 303, but comes with the elusive gen prep 🙂

We actually have a collection of Yeti coolers but always like to keep a few beers handy right in the fridge 🙂 We won't have a garage to store the coolers in anymore without a toyhauler so we'll have to lighten our load there.

Also, thankfully, the camp spot at our hot music festival is orientated so the fridge would be facing north, so in the shade all day. Otherwise it is rough to keep things cool.

One more thing my husband pointed out with this floor plan which is nice is that when the slide with the couch/table is in, we can still maneuver around inside. This is important because we park it in an outbuilding at home, and that side is a tight fit next to the wall. The other side has a whole other bay next to it so there's tons of room there. Current camper only has slides on that back side.

[2012Coleman]

JAC1982 wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:
I'm pretty sure you can open at least one of the doors on the fridge - that slide is against the island when in so make sure if that is important to you. It's not to me, so I don't pay much attention to it. The table is held down by screws - most likely easy to remove. We really enjoy the rear living layout in this model - lots of windows and plenty of storage. The TV is directly across from the recliners. The fireplace does a great job of warming things up. I got the bedroom AC as part of the deal. Every time I go into it after being closed up - it still smells new inside. A far cry from the formaldehyde off-gassing Coleman we previously had. I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have.

Thank you! After having two other trailers, we've really narrowed down what's important... and loading/unloading the fridge with the slide in is one of them, even if it's only one of the doors to grab a beer right when we get to our destination 🙂

Our current and previous rigs were both toyhaulers, so I'm really looking forward to having rear living with lots of windows. Toyhaulers by nature are dark inside and you don't get to take advantage of views from inside.

We are going to an RV show this weekend so we hope to be able to walk through some Grand Designs. They're at the top of our price point but they may be worth it!

The GD has a hitch receiver in back, so you may be able to use a cargo carrier to carry your Gen - I'm not sure how big it is or the weight rating on the receiver though. You mentioned you were going to be pulling something though - not sure what that was.

The Reflection fifth wheel series comes standard with the 4 point Lippert auto leveling system. I also use the big orange buckets on my landing gear from etrailer.

My biggest complaint about this camper is the fridge in the slide out. Stock, it has trouble in the summer keeping it's cool. Winter camping is great. It already comes with 4 fans to suck in air from the bottom over the fins, and out the top and does blow a lot of hot air - but I changed the sensor that turns the fans on at 170 to one that turns them on at 150 and had no issues on our annual 7 day (Florida) summer trip. I put 4 blue ice packs from Walmart in the bottom too. I'd like to upgrade to a residential, and maybe will in future. Just keep that in mind. The four door fridge is an option - make sure your getting what you want. I don't keep beer in the fridge - I always bring an RTIC cooler. The basement holds everything I used to put in my pickup bed besides bikes. Including my 42 gallon Thetford portable tank when not going to a full hookup site. Only other pet peeve is that the DVD player isn't blue ray. I had one from the previous camper so it's not a big deal to hook it up and change input.

You will also notice the heater vents on the sides of the island vs in the floor - this is wonderful. Also compare Island construction to other brands - on others, I could open the doors and see outside light. Also compare the lack of motion sensing lights in the pantry and bathroom - and maybe the best one of all - the toilet is made from porcelain instead of plastic.

I negotiated 30% off MSRP plus front bedroom AC when purchasing - the rumors of GD not allowing dealers to discount are false.

Good luck on your search.

[JAC1982]

2012Coleman wrote:
I'm pretty sure you can open at least one of the doors on the fridge - that slide is against the island when in so make sure if that is important to you. It's not to me, so I don't pay much attention to it. The table is held down by screws - most likely easy to remove. We really enjoy the rear living layout in this model - lots of windows and plenty of storage. The TV is directly across from the recliners. The fireplace does a great job of warming things up. I got the bedroom AC as part of the deal. Every time I go into it after being closed up - it still smells new inside. A far cry from the formaldehyde off-gassing Coleman we previously had. I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have.

Thank you! After having two other trailers, we've really narrowed down what's important... and loading/unloading the fridge with the slide in is one of them, even if it's only one of the doors to grab a beer right when we get to our destination 🙂

Our current and previous rigs were both toyhaulers, so I'm really looking forward to having rear living with lots of windows. Toyhaulers by nature are dark inside and you don't get to take advantage of views from inside.

We are going to an RV show this weekend so we hope to be able to walk through some Grand Designs. They're at the top of our price point but they may be worth it!

[JAC1982]

edbehnke wrote:
the thing i don't like about GD is that many of the models don't have the 6 point leveling system.

After having it on my Montana I'll never NOT have this system.

On a shorter trailer, is 6 point necessary or is 4 point sufficient? We have a 6 point on our current toyhauler, but we're also 38' long.

But yes, auto-leveling is one of our non-negotiable items 🙂

[JAC1982]

librty02 wrote:
JAC what would be the reason to have a on-board generator? What are your thoughts on your power supply needs?

I ask this as it would be about the same price for a nice lithium solar set up and a 2000 watt generator for those couple times you may want to run the AC unit as well. The solar and batteries could run the rest with no noise and no fuel needed.

An annual trip we do is to a music festival where we "boondock" in a field with 30,000 of our closest friends (LOL). It can frequently be 100 degrees during the middle part of the day, so we need plenty of power to be able to run two AC units for 8-10 hours a day. I don't think solar can do this. We've had a year in our old travel trailer where the AC didn't work properly out there, and we never want to do that ever again.... it ruined the trip. So anything we can do to prevent that from happening again, we will do.

If we were full timers I would look at a solar set up but since we need the generator anyway for this trip, adding the cost of solar doesn't make sense for us right now.

[edbehnke]

the thing i don't like about GD is that many of the models don't have the 6 point leveling system.

After having it on my Montana I'll never NOT have this system.

[2012Coleman]

JAC1982 wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
We have a "hookup" at Cummins so we get the Onan at very low cost. We have one in our current toyhauler and do not find it to be noisy. I can nap with it running and I'm a light sleeper.

Anyway though, weight is not an issue with us (tow vehicle is a F350 dually). It's just the shorter length of the Reflection 150's that was appealing. Many other manufacturers have shorter trailers but they're often their low-end models that don't have some of the other amenities we want. We basically want the features/finishes you find in a larger trailer, but shorter length. Proving harder to find. We are at 38' right now and want to go smaller so so 30' sounds like a dream. But it's looking like we'll be in the 32'-34' range in order to "check off the boxes" of everything we want.

I have the Reflection 303RLS - listed as 33 feet in length. I am very happy with it and the customer service I have received from the company and mostly my dealer.

That is actually the floor plan I liked the best 🙂 Can you remove the dinette altogether pretty easily? Since we are losing the garage space of the toyhauler, I'd like a little area for our dog beds when they are with us (although I'm sure they'd prefer to sleep on the sofa haha).

Edit to Add, Also, can you open the fridge when the slides are in?

I'm pretty sure you can open at least one of the doors on the fridge - that slide is against the island when in so make sure if that is important to you. It's not to me, so I don't pay much attention to it. The table is held down by screws - most likely easy to remove. We really enjoy the rear living layout in this model - lots of windows and plenty of storage. The TV is directly across from the recliners. The fireplace does a great job of warming things up. I got the bedroom AC as part of the deal. Every time I go into it after being closed up - it still smells new inside. A far cry from the formaldehyde off-gassing Coleman we previously had. I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have.

[librty02]

JAC what would be the reason to have a on-board generator? What are your thoughts on your power supply needs?

I ask this as it would be about the same price for a nice lithium solar set up and a 2000 watt generator for those couple times you may want to run the AC unit as well. The solar and batteries could run the rest with no noise and no fuel needed.

[ksbowman]

We can open our refrig door on our 303rls and then both sit down on the same side of the dinette to eat a sandwich. Also use the bathroom.

[JAC1982]

laknox wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
I am trying to avoid calling a dealer to ask this question as I don't want to get sucked into a conversation 🙂

Does anybody know if the Grand Design Reflection 150 Series comes with built-in generator prep? Their website doesn't mention it.

Add a gen box to a cargo rack on the rear. May have to have one built, but it can be done. Can make gas or propane, whichever floats your boat.

Lyle

The issue with that is sometimes, we will also be towing a utility trailer behind the 5er with our side by side on it. We really prefer to have the on-board generator since we've always had one.

[JAC1982]

2012Coleman wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
We have a "hookup" at Cummins so we get the Onan at very low cost. We have one in our current toyhauler and do not find it to be noisy. I can nap with it running and I'm a light sleeper.

Anyway though, weight is not an issue with us (tow vehicle is a F350 dually). It's just the shorter length of the Reflection 150's that was appealing. Many other manufacturers have shorter trailers but they're often their low-end models that don't have some of the other amenities we want. We basically want the features/finishes you find in a larger trailer, but shorter length. Proving harder to find. We are at 38' right now and want to go smaller so so 30' sounds like a dream. But it's looking like we'll be in the 32'-34' range in order to "check off the boxes" of everything we want.

I have the Reflection 303RLS - listed as 33 feet in length. I am very happy with it and the customer service I have received from the company and mostly my dealer.

That is actually the floor plan I liked the best 🙂 Can you remove the dinette altogether pretty easily? Since we are losing the garage space of the toyhauler, I'd like a little area for our dog beds when they are with us (although I'm sure they'd prefer to sleep on the sofa haha).

Edit to Add, Also, can you open the fridge when the slides are in?

[laknox]

JAC1982 wrote:
I am trying to avoid calling a dealer to ask this question as I don't want to get sucked into a conversation 🙂

Does anybody know if the Grand Design Reflection 150 Series comes with built-in generator prep? Their website doesn't mention it.

Add a gen box to a cargo rack on the rear. May have to have one built, but it can be done. Can make gas or propane, whichever floats your boat.

Lyle

[2012Coleman]

JAC1982 wrote:
We have a "hookup" at Cummins so we get the Onan at very low cost. We have one in our current toyhauler and do not find it to be noisy. I can nap with it running and I'm a light sleeper.

Anyway though, weight is not an issue with us (tow vehicle is a F350 dually). It's just the shorter length of the Reflection 150's that was appealing. Many other manufacturers have shorter trailers but they're often their low-end models that don't have some of the other amenities we want. We basically want the features/finishes you find in a larger trailer, but shorter length. Proving harder to find. We are at 38' right now and want to go smaller so so 30' sounds like a dream. But it's looking like we'll be in the 32'-34' range in order to "check off the boxes" of everything we want.

I have the Reflection 303RLS - listed as 33 feet in length. I am very happy with it and the customer service I have received from the company and mostly my dealer.