Published Guides / Reviews

[Manwithnorv]

Anyone have an opinion on the RV Consumer Groups publication "RV Rating Guide" or the other book "Travel Trailer & Fifth Wheel Comparison Guide". Also, someone mentioned Trailer Life Magazine, but all I found was an online site. Any comments?

[goducks10]

ChuckV1 wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
Right now the only two MFG's that are building low to mid price range quality 5th wheels are Northwood NFG and Outdoor RV. In house frames, dual pane windows, larger tanks, high CCC, shocks, no OSB, no MDF. No they're not perfect but the foundation is very solid.
The rest of the Indiana stuff is all cookie cutter. You take your chances.
IMO there's no holy grail to read that will tell you what the perfect or even close to perfect RV is. Like donn said the Rv industry is stuck in a time warp and can't find the new technology button.
The problem is that there's no control over quality that they have to follow. You could literally see 3-4 of the same model on a dealers lot and each will have different set of problems. The guy saying his is great bought the one right next to the guy that says his is junk.
I find the Northwood and Outdoor to be the most consistent. Part of that reason is that they don't change much from year to year. Same flooring, interior, appliances, outside amenities, etc. They go by the KISS method.
With all that being said, they all make a decent RV. Chance are you won't have any big issues. The key is to find the ones with the least amount of possible problems. I.e cheaper materials or construction methods. You have no control (almost) over things like appliances, etc.

You might looked at the Kz brand of trailers, they are far from cookie cutter brand of trailers. They are a small company an work hard on quality instead of quantity, they are often overlooked because of the mega RV builders 🙂
https://www.kz-rv.com/

Yeah I shouldn't lump all Elkhart into one basket. We don't have any KZ dealers near me so I've never looked at them. From what I've seen on their web site they seem pretty solid.

[Second_Chance]

The people that publish the RV Rating Guide don't actually get their hands on the various RVs. They work from data/information that they get from the manufacturers and have set up their own algorithms for determining "quality." It's not like Consumer Reports with surveys, track tests, etc. When we were first shopping this time, I looked into the publication and was advised by old-timers in the Escapees RV Club to not waste my money.

Rob

[ChuckV1]

goducks10 wrote:
Right now the only two MFG's that are building low to mid price range quality 5th wheels are Northwood NFG and Outdoor RV. In house frames, dual pane windows, larger tanks, high CCC, shocks, no OSB, no MDF. No they're not perfect but the foundation is very solid.
The rest of the Indiana stuff is all cookie cutter. You take your chances.
IMO there's no holy grail to read that will tell you what the perfect or even close to perfect RV is. Like donn said the Rv industry is stuck in a time warp and can't find the new technology button.
The problem is that there's no control over quality that they have to follow. You could literally see 3-4 of the same model on a dealers lot and each will have different set of problems. The guy saying his is great bought the one right next to the guy that says his is junk.
I find the Northwood and Outdoor to be the most consistent. Part of that reason is that they don't change much from year to year. Same flooring, interior, appliances, outside amenities, etc. They go by the KISS method.
With all that being said, they all make a decent RV. Chance are you won't have any big issues. The key is to find the ones with the least amount of possible problems. I.e cheaper materials or construction methods. You have no control (almost) over things like appliances, etc.

You might looked at the Kz brand of trailers, they are far from cookie cutter brand of trailers. They are a small company an work hard on quality instead of quantity, they are often overlooked because of the mega RV builders 🙂
https://www.kz-rv.com/

[kerrlakeRoo]

I was trying to remember when I had ever seen a Car and Driver review that was negative. Even the old Renault Alliance was called their car of the year, and it was a horrid piece of junk.
So I guess I'm overly skeptical on reviews.

[DutchmenSport]

The definition of "Quality" in RV's is not based on any report. "Quality" is determined by the buyer's ability to fix stuff himself. When the "fix" is bigger than the buyer's ability, it then becomes inferior quality. This is the reason why there is no much difference of opinion with those types of consumer reports and complaints. Bottom line, every new camper will need something fixed! Something!

[goducks10]

Right now the only two MFG's that are building low to mid price range quality 5th wheels are Northwood NFG and Outdoor RV. In house frames, dual pane windows, larger tanks, high CCC, shocks, no OSB, no MDF. No they're not perfect but the foundation is very solid.
The rest of the Indiana stuff is all cookie cutter. You take your chances.
IMO there's no holy grail to read that will tell you what the perfect or even close to perfect RV is. Like donn said the Rv industry is stuck in a time warp and can't find the new technology button.
The problem is that there's no control over quality that they have to follow. You could literally see 3-4 of the same model on a dealers lot and each will have different set of problems. The guy saying his is great bought the one right next to the guy that says his is junk.
I find the Northwood and Outdoor to be the most consistent. Part of that reason is that they don't change much from year to year. Same flooring, interior, appliances, outside amenities, etc. They go by the KISS method.
With all that being said, they all make a decent RV. Chance are you won't have any big issues. The key is to find the ones with the least amount of possible problems. I.e cheaper materials or construction methods. You have no control (almost) over things like appliances, etc.

[attuco]

They at least give you an indication of quality. I didn't know much about brands and a camper is a large expenditure. I considered it worthwhile and would do it again if I didn't have a lot of experience.
That being said, a lot of companies went out of business and the brand names picked up by other companies which may or may not be of similar quality.

[donn0128]

Take any reviews you read with a grain of salt. Opinions are like poo holes, everyone has one. Most of those reviews are based on how much advertising a particular mfg spends. The RV industry is like the auto induatry in the early 70s, they juat dont have a clue how to build a decent product.