Lifestyle Fifth Wheel/ Steel Frame

anaroll123 wrote:
Any comments or knowledge would be appreciated! We are buying our first fifth wheel. We are full timing 5 to 8 years. Putting on approx. 7 thousand travel miles each year touring the country and the rest we will be parked. Using a one tone desiel to pull. My question is this. In searching for our rig, we have looked at Forest River Cedar Creek, Keystone Alpine, and yesterday we found a new breed called the Lifestyle. Lifestyle bought Carriage. I toured the manufacturing plant and they showed me that it is built on a SOLID steel frame and showed me how the other fifth wheels are built. How can it be that this is the only steel frame out there. We are talking head to toe steel frame. The man of course selling his product was quit biase however he made great points on the construction and durablity. The weight actually is not an issue either. So how is it that so many other companies can get buy with less? The man explained to me, if i am going full time for that long i need this base structure, Help, now i am really confused. thanks

I would take the time and do some more research. Take a few more plant tours, look at what some of these Mfg's you mentioned use and how they build their RV. Of course they're all going to be biased towards their product but the thing is look at how they're being built. Do the various Mfg's meet YOUR expectations? Asking questions on here is a great start but you really need to see for yourself.

I was pretty impressed with the tour we took a few years ago at the Montana plant, we already had a Montana but I just wanted to see how they went together. Early this spring my wife and I took a tour at the DRV plant, that was an eye opener. I can tell you from my our observation the build between the two wasn't even close, of course neither was the price! But I'm learning "you get what you pay for".

IMHO the best advice would be to go to several campgrounds/RV resorts and ask owners (face to face) what they like about their units and what they DON"T like about their units, you should be able to make an assessment after that sort of research.

Good luck and don't be in a rush, this purchase will be one of the your biggest , do it right the first time.

Dan