Hi folks,
I thought I would take a bit of time to describe our first trip out to Cape Cod with our new 2014 Prime Time Crusader 351 REQ (with four slides). This is a new floor plan for the Crusader line, so when we were shopping there wasn’t a lot of information out there with other people’s thoughts/experiences. Here’s a few from new owners and hope this will be of use to someone who may be looking at this floor plan.
Let me say this first – we really like the floor plan. It works for my wife and I. This is a step up from our old Coachman Catalina lite TT that we bought back in 2000 brand new. This model is also the first FW we have owned.
From front-to-back here’s what we found after a good shake down run that ran us from London Ontario, to Herchemer NY, then to Cape Cod where we stayed for 4 days. Then we headed back to London Ontario though Watkins-Glen NY. We pulled 2,500 km on this trip and spent a week camping.
The bedroom was roomy for us and worked well. It comes roughed in for a washer/dryer, but we did not buy one when we purchased the trailer. We found we could use camp ground facilities much more quickly – it just works for us (and was confirmed during this trip). There is a lot of storage in the bedroom between the closet, the dresser, and under the bed. The bathroom in this model is huge with lots of space. It comes with 2 sinks, and once again lots of storage space. There is a skylight over the shower as well.
The kitchen area is spacious and comes with a residential fridge. The kitchen has solid surface countertops. There is a wine rack over the fridge and is a nice touch. The microwave and oven are the standard trailer type. We did find lighting the pilot in the oven to be a bit of a pain as there isn’t much room to maneuver given the layout of the kitchen counter. This isn’t a deal breaker in our minds, but something we should point out. We were disappointed that the ceiling fan in the kitchen area is NOT remote controlled. You need a step ladder to open it and turn it on! We had a fantastic fan installed upon purchase as it’s a necessity – heads-up!!
The entertainment area is fantastic with no complaints. The couch and rockers are comfortable and the kitchen table is well placed.
This model comes with one 15,000 BTU AC. We experienced a couple of milder/humid evenings and found the bedroom would get mild in the early morning. Given the size of the bedroom and the location of the ceiling vent, we’ve decided to install a second fantastic fan as a second AC might be over-kill as opening the vent cooled the room down – we found better air circulation would make a world of difference.
This model comes with self-leveling and I couldn’t imagine not having this. We did install JT strong arms and this works very well with this model.
As for warranty issues we only had one: One propane gauge was faulty as it showed full instead of empty – yes we found this out the hard way. Not a big issue considering the size and options that this model has.
In the end we are very pleased with our purchase. The floor plan works for us, and we found the quality to be very good. The only thing I would caution anyone on is to have a fantastic fan installed in the kitchen. A second fantastic fan or AC (or nothing at all) in the bedroom is a personal choice, from what we determined.
I hope this has been helpful and if you have any questions, please let me know.
