Mfg order of quality

[MN_Ben]

My wife and I recently went to the Minneapolis Convention Center to see the 2017 MSP RV and Camping Show. I was specifically interested in looking at 5th wheel rigs. One day I see ourselves moving from a truck camper to a 5th wheel to spend winters somewhere warm and away from the great state of MN.
We saw a few, but I did not recognise some of the manufacturers, except for Jayco. For some reason I had a bad taste in my mouth when it came to Jayco campers. Maybe it is because I saw a lower price line of one of their campers years ago and it stuck with me.
I looked at their 2017 36 FBTS Pinnacle and was quite impressed. For me it was the interior craftsmanship. The representative was also in their bragging up their 2 year warranty and strongest in the industry sub-structure as well as the strongest roof on the market.
So this put me in my place of not knowing a thing about which manufacturer has the best quality rig out there.
Do they all use the top of the line welded aluminum skeleton? Do they all use the best roof membrane? If so, does it all come down to the interior craftsmanship of residential equivalent doors, knobs, appliances, and the like?
I am probably going to start a brand war, but could some of you educate my on which manufactures, maybe year 2012 and later, puts out the the most quality rig in the industry?
Ben

[WolfFox]

Second Chance wrote:

ScottG wrote:

WolfFox wrote:
I'm not going to say anything negative about other brands. We've been looking at 5th wheels since 2004. We retired in 2011, and purchased a motor home from a friend, because it was a deal we couldn't pass up. After looking at every brand out there , some not even made any more we finally made our decision last November and ordered a Grand Design, Solitude 5th wheel with the Residential and Weather Tek Package. For the Money, Quality and probably the best Customer Service in the industry Grand Designs products are hard to beat. There are other good manufactures out there. I would suggest, you look, research, ask those that own the product, Google "Brand Name" "Reviews". There are some manufactures out there that truly have some horrible track records, with obviously no quality control and the owners have told some real horror stories. On our POI with our Solitude we didn't have one issue. The are really solid built units.

If I were going to buy a new trailer today, it would be a GD. I think they are about the best out there right now.

We've been full-time in our Grand Design Reflection since August, 2015, and really like it. I'm not a Lippert "fan boy" (chassis, suspension and other components), but GD does have tremendous customer service - and you'll find Lippert components underneath 85% of everything made these days. In terms of quality, though, none of the mid-range brands are in the same category as the high-end "residential" units such as DRV Mobile Suites, New Horizons, and others. But then again - you get what you pay for...

Rob

Well, as I said above, I went through our RV with a fine tooth comb. I looked underneath at the springs, axles, frame, all the welds I could get too. I even took a screw river and removed the cargo wall access to where the plumbing, electrical and and looked at the heater vents and everything was as I expected it. I would liked to have had the MORRyde suspension, but that wasn't an option. We towed it to 1,500 miles back in January to North AL, through the Smokey's to Charlotte, NC to Columbia, SC to Atlanta, GA and back to Pensacola, FL. We had items on the counter and in the slots above the desk and it was still sitting there. The Equa-Flex Suspension, with the never fail bushings, did a great job. I know disc breaks are better over drums, but with my trailer break on our 2017 F-350 set at 6 stops the rig without any problems. Unless the Equa-Flex proves unworthy, I not going to worry about it. If I do anything, I may change out the breaks to hydraulic disc breaks, when it's time to replace the shoes. Right before we made our final decision, we looked at a couple of 125K Mobile Suites and I even made an offer on one, to see if they would take it which they accepted. After sleeping on it and going back and taking 4 hours going between the Mobile Suites and the GD Solitude, we kept coming back to the Solitude. IMHO there wasn't a 34,000 difference in the two units. It wasn't about the money. I wanted to get what my wife wanted. We weren't buying it for full timing or living in it in -0 degree conditions. The MS was over 7K more in weight. My wife liked the GD Solitude better. We both liked the Solitude's floor plan better, Yes, you do get what you paid for, but we feel we got more than our moneys worth. If, we decide down the road that we want to full time and our Solitude will no longer cut it, than we can always trade for something else. We have the truck to pull it, if we need something heavier.

[RustyJC]

Many rear cap units have a hitch receiver that is a much more secure connection point than the typical bumper.


Rusty

[goducks10]

MN Ben wrote:
Rear cap? So if a unit did not have a rear cap, does that mean there would be windows in the rear?
Ben

Rear caps have nothing to do with windows. It's the layout that determines windows. Some RE trailers just have cabinets and a TV there. RL will have a couple recliners or sofa with a window behind them. RK units may or may not. Etc. Only draw back to a rear cap is sometimes having a bumper to mount something to is difficult. Most of the time with fiberglass rear caps the bumper is hidden behind the cap.
Fiberglass caps definitely add a nice finished look though.

[topjimmy]

Yes you still have the windows in the back with a rear cap or no Rear caps, 5er's without rear caps are called "flatbackers";) and have a Bumper like a pull behind trailer

[MN_Ben]

Rear cap? So if a unit did not have a rear cap, does that mean there would be windows in the rear?
Ben

[colliehauler]

If your looking for high end I would consider DRV, New Horizon, Continental, Spacecraft mfg that can be built to your taste. I don't know about a lot of the new brands, time will tell. It seems like a lot of the new upstarts don't survive. Lot of very good mfg are no longer in business Nu Way, Excel, Travel Supreme, Numar,Teton among lots of others that truly built a quality RV. Unfortunately price point is what sells not quality. Keystone and Forest River are the major players now, they own most brands.

[topjimmy]

For me it came down to A great dealer and a floorplan I like of course and in my price range I wanted At least a 12in Frame, good Suspension,(Mor-ryde 4100) good quality pin box (Mor-ryde), quality of electronics(Sony or Samsung),rear cap,Standard G rated tires Saliun or Goodyear GY's), standard Central Vac system,standard fantastic ceiling fans and that is why I considered EVERY brand in My 5th range and Montana just had those things I wanted but like was said before quality is all pretty much the same on these rigs Just buy from a good dealer like I did and hit the road and Enjoy!:)

[MN_Ben]

Good points. Thank you for your replies. One thing I did not consider is the different levels of rigs, for example - entry level, mid range and high end. I would buying be more in the high end spectrum.
I have a pretty good list of makes to take a look at now. Thank you.
Some quality differences I saw at the show were plain doors vs shaker looking. Tin round door knobs vs solid door handles. The fact that when an overhead cupboard door lifts up to open, it actually stays hinged open rather than me having to hold it up.
The kitchen counter backsplash of one model was actually painted on. This is not a bad thing, it probably defined its value level.
I saw Atwood stoves and ranges in sume models but then I saw a different brand in other models that seemed more residential. I forget the brand of appliance.
The insides are all pretty, but beauty is only skin deep. Long lasting quality goes a long way.
We also walked into a $500K Class A. I would take a upper class fiver any day over that Class A.
Did you know the slide outs slide out now??? I saw that for one of the queen beds.
One thing I was not fond of was an AC unit above the bedroom. I would think it would wake me when it kicked in at night.
Some had such a high ceiling, I felt it was a waste of space. I'm not really sure why they do that.
Just some of my observations.
Ben

[Aridon]

After owning a DRV I don't believe the extra cost is worth the investment over some other options.

To each their own though.

[goducks10]

mrkoje wrote:
Some folks will post that Northwood MFG (Artic Fox) is great. Been there done that and had the smae if not more issues than I do with my current Keystone. I think you need to go into this with the mindset that they all pretty much suck on quality.

Very true. It's exactly why Grand Design touts the best CS in the RV industry. While that may be true most of the time, there are others that you can get good service with too. The 3 CEO's from GD knew after being with Keystone for years that there's zero chance of making a better product given the current build conditions in the RV industry. Workers that can't pass drug tests or don't show up everyday, workers working in a dead end job on commission using poor quality parts and inadequate dealers that can't fix it or refuse for various reason. They figured the best way to set themselves apart was to go a different direction. They're basically saying we can't make it better so we will try and make your warranty work less inconvenient.

[mrkoje]

Some folks will post that Northwood MFG (Artic Fox) is great. Been there done that and had the smae if not more issues than I do with my current Keystone. I think you need to go into this with the mindset that they all pretty much suck on quality.

[RustyJC]

I'll just say that we bought a 2004 DRV Mobile Suites 36RE3 in August, 2004. After almost 10 years of use, we bought a 2014.5 DRV Mobile Suites 38RSSA for a retirement gift to ourselves in May, 2014. There's a reason we bought a 2nd Mobile Suites, and we've not been disappointed - the 2014.5 has never been back to the factory or an RV repair shop since delivery. The 2004 was purchased by an individual in Chattanooga, Tennessee and is still going strong.

Prior to the DRVs, we owned 3 Jaycos - a Cardinal pop-up and 2 Designer 5th wheels. They were all good, reliable RVs at their respective price points. If Jayco had offered something comparable to the DRV in 2004, we might still be towing one.

Rusty

[goducks10]

We just went to our local Podunk RV show in Salem Or. Hey, free parking and if you print out a coupon off the net it's free admission. Anyway they have a small variety of everything. For the most part I really didn't see anything that stood out as better than the rest. We looked at a Solitude, Montana, Ceder Creek, Silverback and Reflection. They all had their pros and cons. It really boiled down to interior comforts as, except for the Reflection, they all are built about the same. Reading on each brand forum they all have their own share of problems. I don't see any of those that we looked at as being superior to the other.
Not a 5th wheel but the best of show as far as quality build was Lance TT's. They just seem to be built tighter. No sloppy seams, or foo foo stapled all over the place.
Off topic a little, but we went into a few MH's as well. Some were absolutely horrible. I told my wife after we walked out of a $150,000 sale priced class A MH that it was nothing more than a $40,000 MSRP trailer on a $100,000 chassis. Very disappointing. Big closet doors going BOING when you open them, misaligned doors into bathrooms, etc.

[jnharley]

I would be more interested in the bones of the RV like the size of the tires, suspension, frame, brakes, etc. than I would the inside. They are all pretty inside. Find a brand that has good "bones" and then find a floor plan you like. That is more important to us.