Forest River motor homes

[waterboy502000]

I am looking to up grade to a newer class A motor home. I have been looking at some of the Forest River products like FR3, Georgetown, etc. I was at an RV show yesterday and a salesman (two of them) told me to stay away from Forest River because of poor quality. He started pointing out the thin cushions, wire cable on the slide outs, etc. I have noticed allot of 2014/2015/2016 traded in already. Anybody have experience with this?

[2gypsies1]

Never take a salesperson's word for quality of a competitor's brand or does it have enough power for towing my ...... car, etc. They want to sell you a RV and they'll say anything to make the sale. You really have to do your own research; go on the manufacturer's forums and read about experiences and problems then decide exactly what you want and go into a dealership knowing your prices. Good luck!

[frankdamp]

Based on our experience with an '02 Georgetown 325S, I'd be leery of buying another one.

We had a problem with a water leak into the overhead cabinets in the living room slide-out. It wasn't GT's fault - the original owners had it parked at their lake-front cottage for about 18 months with the slide extended. That side was facing south and the sun rotted out the topper. We weren't aware of the problem until our second trip when a typical Washington "deluge" hit. We got mold growing in the cabinets, so I took them out and built new ones.

What bothered me, once I got "under the skin" was how crudely things were built, particularly the electrical wiring and other stuff you wouldn't usually see. Also, those cabinets were held up by short wood-screws into the Styrofoam ceiling, even though there were two square steel structural members running the full length of the cabinets. My replacements were attached to those tubes.

Just my Georgetown experience. We gave up the lifestyle because of cost and it's unlikely we'll get back into it.

[nma33]

We looked at all the above mentioned coaches too, We did like the Georgetown's, but we got a great deal on a Jayco Precept, The floor plan of the model we chose works perfect for us, The big selling point for my wife was the kitchen, the Precept 35un had the largest kitchen out of all the coaches we looked at in our price range. Like everyone else said, You have to find a floor plan that works for you, then take it from there. Good luck on your search!

[bass_n_bob]

we have a 361 Sportscoach which is part of the FR group. It is a small diesel and entry level coach but we have been very happy with it. Every brand and price point will have issues. After the first year thing seem to settle down. I have no problem recommending FR.

[lostdog]

Just keep in mind this...how do you know when a salesman is lying? His lips are moving! Your smart to be doing your own research. We full time in our 2011 378TS and after the initial problems that were covered by Forest River we are very pleased with the product.

[waterboy502000]

Thank you everyone! FR is back in the running.

[RLHAMILTON]

We purchased a new 2011 FR Berkshire, and are very pleased with the FR coach. Had 2 Fleetwood products previously, and have had less problem with the FR than the Fleetwoods. However, you are going to have problems with every coach you purchase. Would definitely purchase another FR product. Good luck!

[jlud]

Believe they still are the number one gas selling coach, so I think they represent the value proposition well. I bought a new 364TS after comparing FR3, Georgetown, and Winnebago vista 35B. I got the 2 full bathrooms of the 364, full Fiberglass roof, king bed, lots of same components as others and it was 15k cheaper than lowest priced Winnebago 35B I could find. I didn't get full paint though, and no telling how long it will hold up but I was scared a bit of the schwintek slides. I had cable slides on my last toy hauler and they functioned issue free.

I wanted to stay under the 100k range so I was limited a bit by that. FR3 seemed more cheaply built than GT and I wasn't impressed by those, especially as close as the price point was on the 32 ds.

[dblr]

Check out the Forest River forums, I am sure you can get info there
http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/ also check out any other owner forums of brands you find interesting all tho some might be bias.

[db7512]

We have a Georgetown 2016, 328TS, so far it has been a very good coach. The main problem we had was a Ford chassis problem with rims that Ford took care of. I agree the important part is a good dealer which we have and has taken care of a couple of issues that we had.

[Ramair]

we have a 2012 FR Georgetown 378XL and yes we have had a couple minor issues that was fixed by our dealer. We have been very happy with our and we are full timers. Every company has its fair share of issues and no company can say they don't. You can spend a million dollars on a coach and still have issues. Find a floor plan that you like and most of all find a dealer that care about their customers. The dealer will make or break your experience and they are all friendly and nice till they get your money. Also FR does an Rally every year and if you do have any concerns, issues they fix the issues while you are at the rally, at no charge, don't know of any other company that does this for their customers. To me that says a lot about the company...

[TriumphGuy]

For me, the question is do these sales people represent FR or another brand? I've found that sales literature and sales people often will point out the lack of features of another brand or "build quality" as compared to theirs, but after looking at these things for over a decade IMHO everyone has their shortcuts, it just depends on who is looking and what they're looking for.

Before we decided on our rig, we were looking at newer FR motorhomes (FR3 and Georgetown) and comparing to similar Thor models. Each had their features and there were pros/cons. Usually, it boils down to finding the layout that you really like and then deciding if all the other stuff (loose wires, poor drawer and cabinet alignment etc) is a deal breaker.

If you like the FR3 or Georgetown and people really are trading them in because of particular issues, I would use that to my benefit to negotiate a great price from a dealer with all these issues repaired.