Open ranger roam 337 vs keystone cougar

[Pholman90]

We are looking at fifth wheels. Narrowed down two these two choices Pro and cons for each. Any opinions?

[pressure_welder]

have friends with a 2011 cougar, nothing but problems from day one. Frame actually supporting the king pin crumpled in on itself and in turn crushed their trucks bed rails. Being a welder I had a look at the structure and it was nothing short of embarrassing I am actually surprised their aren't more failures like this. I personally wouldn't waste my money on a cougar, however I may be a hipacrit as we own a 2013 Laredo fifth wheel..... hard to say weather or not its much better time will tell. So far its been great for us and we love it. All I would recommend is to plan on becoming good at fixing things yourself as it gets tiresome dragging the unit back and forth to the dealer, (had numerous things to fix on our Laredo durng break in) but as far as I am concerned almost every RV in the industry has no craftsmanship and extremely low end everything. I have heard good things about arctic fox, and Dutchmen. Its very unfortunate that triple e dosent make fivers anymore, now THOSE were quality built campers from the ground up

[goducks10]

Posts just like these about other brands just confirms the lack of QC in the RV industry. It's the same underlying construction habits that make it almost impossible for any one brand to stand out from the other. Even the best of the best have a lemon or two.

[caberto]

Same here with the Cougar, had it since 2010 and no issues either (knock on wood/brain) :-)... and continue to enjoy it.

[Okie_in_Wyoming]

We love our Cougar. Have had it since December 2010, no problems yet...(knock on wood)

[mudmaker]

Need to be a darn short pontoon, or short camper. Don't let the tail wag the dog.
Traded my Cougar last far after a little over a year ownership. Got tired of fixing everything. Replaced all the smaller gadgets that were installed from the factory. I figured I was gonna have to start replacing bigger stuff like fridge stove or the whole water heater and I didn't care for the frame flex at the hitch.

[Pholman90]

My husband wants topigy back our pontoon. I am not sure that is good idea. Any thoughts ?

[Dandy_Dan]

Pholman, We are going into our 6th year with our Open Range. We have had no trouble at all with the cable system on the slides. The cable system actually reduces the overall weight of the vehicle pushing over 800# per slide. I would not think twice about buying another one. Ours has been pulled over 25000 miles. Good Luck in your choice. Our contact with the factory has been excellent.

[topjimmy]

Do not be hesitant looking at the Cougar they are the #1 selling small 5th wheel for a good reason, Bang for the buck, good customer service, lots of floor plans,massive dealer network BUT nothing wrong with Open Range,Grand Designs Or anybody else either buy one that suites your needs and buy from a good dealer AND for the love of God I do not care what brand you buy get a Extended Warranty THEY ALL BREAK SOMETIMES

[2hams]

Definitely agree with the advice to check out the owner's forums. We searched for nearly a year and ended up with a Grand Design Reflection. Love it. It just felt much better than the Open Range we looked at. After owning a Laredo, we were very hesitant to even look at the Cougar. You might like the Reflection 337.

[fellowes03]

Don't buy the Cougar...I have a 2010 276rls and a stack of repairs bills not covered by the warranty. The tires on the rig were two years old when we bought it new. The list of issues goes on and on.

[JEBar]

between the two, I'd go with the Open Range .... while I don't like their cable slide system, the Open Range does come with a better warranty that is now backed by Jayco

Jim

[Robin1953]

Pholman90 wrote:
We are looking at fifth wheels. Narrowed down two these two choices Pro and cons for each. Any opinions?

You can go to Open Range RV Owners and read many comments about Open Range units. The major issue now appears to be the cable slides in the Open Range units. Keystone Owners forum is a good resource as well. I just traded a 2012 Keystone fiver that I owned for 10 months for a 2015 Open Range travel trailer. The reason for the short ownership period for the Keystone was due to all of the defects that were in the Keystone(32 items including bubbles in all five slide outer walls). This is my first Open Range and I have only had the unit for less than a month but so far everything is Ok. I had owned two Keystone products prior to the one that I traded. The Open Range seems to be well made but it uses most of the same components as everyone else...fridge, stove, water heater, etc.