Open Range 349RLS or 2014 OR RF 345 RLS Roamer

[Joss]

My wife and I are looking at upgrading from a truck camper to a 5th wheel and are looking at these two units. The Roamer is sitting on the lot but the OR 349RLS would have to be ordered. After talking with the dealer the 349RLS has a few different features and options we could obviously get than the Roamer currently has. There is about a 2' difference in length between the two. The OR 349RLS has 3" inch walls where the OR 345RLS has 2" inch walls. I am wondering if that makes much of a difference. Our camping consists more of Spring/Summer and some fall camping into early November. We don't go for weeks at a time. The heating/AC is duct. With only one AC unit is that enough? Another option is a the 12 cubic foot fridge in the OR 349 RLS rather than an 8 cubic foot fridge. Any thoughts or replies would be great. Thank you Jay.

[Joss]

Dandy Dan wrote:
Joss, you will find the factory is quite customer friendly. We have had ours since May 2008 and have not had any regrets getting an OR even though ours was the 162nd unit they built. I am taking it back to the factory to have new slide seals put in since our dealer disappeared in March or April. They are going to change out a couple of the decals that have curled but nothing major. You may have just one AC now but find out if it is wired and already framed in for the 2nd. Did you know that Open Range has been purchased by Jayco. The factory is now called Highland Ridge home of Open Range. Good luck in your choice and Happy Camping.

Thank you sir for your reply. My dealer that I am talking to told me they sold to Jayco which was something that made me feel comfortable with them. I was aware that they pre-wire for the second AC (per the dealer) and suspect that if we wanted to add we could. Highland Ridge I was not aware of so thanks for the info. I have been very impressed with the OR line. We were looking at a Jayco 37' but its just a bit to long for what we do plus the Roamer we are looking at is on the lot and a reasonable price. It's good to hear the dealer is helping you out. We bought our Host Camper in 09 and had some issues and tried to get with the dealer but they closed there doors shortly after. Now they are back in business. We love the camper but with four of us plus the animals it is getting a bit to small. An OR could be on the back of the truck before to long. We shall see.

[Dandy_Dan]

Joss, you will find the factory is quite customer friendly. We have had ours since May 2008 and have not had any regrets getting an OR even though ours was the 162nd unit they built. I am taking it back to the factory to have new slide seals put in since our dealer disappeared in March or April. They are going to change out a couple of the decals that have curled but nothing major. You may have just one AC now but find out if it is wired and already framed in for the 2nd. Did you know that Open Range has been purchased by Jayco. The factory is now called Highland Ridge home of Open Range. Good luck in your choice and Happy Camping.

[Joss]

RObin1953 I have an F450 dually that I carry a very large camper on and tow an boat with.

Penman: Thanks for the info that helped out a bunch. I think for what we do the ROamer would probably be just fine, plus it was a little shorter and cheaper.

[PenMan]

I think both of these trailers will come with a 50 amp service but you can use an adapter for a 30 amp supply. If you have two A/C units (which I would recommend) you can run one at a time with the 30 amp supply. Our Open Range is a TT instead of a 5er but we love it. We have the 8 cu. ft. frig and it suits us fine. We take longer trips of a month or more at times and it seems fine. I don't think we would need a larger frig if we were full timers. I have seen the new trailers with the 3 inch walls but have no experience with them but strictly my opinion, if you have a tow vehicle that can handle the weight, 3 inch walls would be nice but not really needed. We have used our trailer in cold and hot locations and have no problem keeping it comfortable with the heater or air conditioners (we have two A/C's). Since we don't have a built in generator, we use two Honda 2000's in parallel to run an A/C when we boondock. We have always been able to cool the trailer with one A/C but it does take longer than running both of them. I don't think you can go wrong with an Open Range so you are well on your way to a nice unit. Happy camping.

[Robin1953]

Joss wrote:
My wife and I are looking at upgrading from a truck camper to a 5th wheel and are looking at these two units. The Roamer is sitting on the lot but the OR 349RLS would have to be ordered. After talking with the dealer the 349RLS has a few different features and options we could obviously get than the Roamer currently has. There is about a 2' difference in length between the two. The OR 349RLS has 3" inch walls where the OR 345RLS has 2" inch walls. I am wondering if that makes much of a difference. Our camping consists more of Spring/Summer and some fall camping into early November. We don't go for weeks at a time. The heating/AC is duct. With only one AC unit is that enough? Another option is a the 12 cubic foot fridge in the OR 349 RLS rather than an 8 cubic foot fridge. Any thoughts or replies would be great. Thank you Jay.

I do not know what tow vehicle you have but if you go with the 3X349RLS you need to pay attention to the weight of that unit. The advertised UVW is 11395# and the advertised hitch weight is 2305#. This is close to 14K right out of the box without any options.

[Joss]

Thanks I was not aware of that

[darsben]

Then you are probably limited to running only 1 A/C at a time

[Joss]

Darsden, thanks for the reply. We are not planning on having it into retirement and suspect we will move to a motorhome at that time although things change and we might want to stay with a 5th wheel. Most places we go don't have 50 amp hook up. We go to a lot of state parks and such.

[darsben]

I have no idea how old you are but are you planing to take one of these rigs into retirement?
If not a smaller fridge is just fine. You can always go to the store or stop by Walmart, if you happen to be on an extended road trip they are everywhere. In fact if on a road trip you will probably spend a night in Walmart anyway. Living full time in the unit I MIGHT change my thinking.
As far as A/c if sized correctly one will be fine. You may want a small fan to move air around if there are obstructions to good flow in the rig. If 2 A/C you may be looking at needing 50 AMP service to function correctly. Do the place you normally go offer 50 amp service?