wtb sunseeker 2500ts, 4winds 22b,e or 27' mid lazy daze

[cbigham]

Hi, looking for general advice on the three brands above. We have now a large four winds fun mover 39c diesel for 12 years, hoods our off road gear great, and a small starflyte I use mostly for short dirt bike trips. Wife has not been interested in selling the fun mover but now i; health issues cutting into her riding. Also have an 8 yr old.

Got to say first off the new rvs *seem* considerably better made than our funmover, well thought out. We are very impressed with the 2500ts. The solid door rear makes for a bedroom of sorts and we could hear the quiet. I also like the 22e Thor and the lazy daze 27 mid model I saw at factory. Mostly questions about construction holding up and questions I haven't asked..


Slides vs no slides..
I understand slides weaken the box structure and can malfunction. In 12 years, 83k miles we've only had one malfunction but 1 leak . Stuff better now? If not, I like the short length of a 22e four winds type and we might get away with a 350 chassis for better mileage, but got mixed thoughts on that.

Construction. .
Appears delamination is a thing of the past with the new forest river sunseeker azdel walls, and I believe 4 winds also going that way? These two are made with aluminum framing, Styrofoam in between and walls mounted, similar to my 2004 39c.
. .is there still an advantage to the lazy daze construction? I looked at it and thought great layout, works without a slide for the length, rear bedroom. Very nice bathroom, counters but low tow capacity. I noticed in construction the wooden framing, a few spars of steel and the aluminum skin. They say if it's damaged or ever leaks is fixable easily. By the way the metal was crimped on, that would have to be by them as I don't know many who can do that. Is there an advantage to this I am missing o have new technologies surpassed this for strength and watertight integrity?

The rv will be used and abused on off road trips but we'd like to hold it a number of years. Possibly tow a trailer with off road gear and 6,7k lbs.

Thanks

[cbigham]

No,
I've spec'd it out. The sunseeker e450 chassis shows 22000 lbs gvcw with an unloaded about 11,500 lbs, similar to the lazy daze. The sunseeker comes with a 7,500 lbs hitch, the lazy daze a 4,000 lbs hitch. Highly doubt I will need to pull that much, can't see what I want to pull, and enclosed trailer with a bike or two in it and /or maybe a rzr. Also may on occasion flat tow a jeep. I don't want something rated to tow 4,000 lbs and have my load right at the limit.

Any construction, durability advice?

Thanks,

[fireflock]

You're moving from a diesel C and want to tow 6-7k of gear.

I think you're going to have a hard time doing that within specs on a gas E450 chassis.

The hitch on the Lazy Daze is going to be rated for 3500lbs. Some people upgrade the hitch to 5000lbs, but you're still going to be way off the charts with 6-7K of trailer.

Anything longer than 27' or with a slide is going to weigh more than the Lazy Daze. Again, way over what I would want to haul around on an E-450.

If you want to tow that amount of fun gear, I'd look for something smaller on a diesel chassis (not sprinter, obviously).