Buying New, Is there a Consumer Report Guide for RVs?

[matthewijenkins]

We love to camp and are finally in a good place to buy something new. Looking at travel trailers at Camping World and other lots. How can I go about making an informed decision as I focus in on specific brands and models? Is there a consumer reports guide to travel trailers?

Thx!

[StirCrazy]

couple generalities, all RVs are built with as much cheepness and shortcuts as they can get away with. anyone that says their unit isn't, either paid way over what they should of, or like all of us, just love the RV they ended up getting. the reason I say this is if you want to be competitive you have to keep manufacturing costs around where everyone else is, or you don't sell a lot. some times a company will come along and build something really nice, but they usaly are not in buisness for a long time because they end up being to expensive for the masses.

there are good units to get but it is up to what you will accept as the short cuts. one company might just nail particle board boxes togeather for a kitchen drawer and go with higher end light fixtures and sink, another might spend a bit more on insulation and less on the flooring material, and another may give you that nice hardwood cabnet faces and drawres, but skimp out in the shower and bedroom. its all a trade off and you need to decide which features are important to you, and the only way to do that is start looking and make a list of what you like and don't like. what you need and don't need . and so on. then start narrowing down the selections while you finish looking.

Steve

[pbeverly]

bucky wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if those that blast Camping World have had any experience actually dealing with them.
The experience with any company is with the people you deal with, not the sign.

My purchase experience was fine. Couple reasons for that was we paid cash and our sales rep was older, in his 70s I would guess. The day we came in to look we knew what we wanted and he pointed us in the right direction to look. It was so hot and humid he had to desire to to be walking in a bunch of campers. He would come check on us now and then. No hard sale at all. When we picked up the unit the walk-thru was great. The guy told us "YOU WILL HAVE ISSUES. Go on a couple trips, takes notes, bring it back". We did that, had 7 issues. Had our winter break from camping and it went for warranty work. It was getting close to out next trip and had heard nothing. Called and was told it had been ready for a month. This was a sign of things to come.

The service and parts departments are BAD. No one will EVER call yo back when you leave a message. Had a tire blowout that did 4K+ of damage June 2021. The #1 issue which was stated on the work order, slide will not open 100%. Camper was finally ready January 2022. They had never bothered to attempt to open the slide so the main issue still had not been addressed. My grey tank had a leak. They fixed the leak and created a new one by replacing the grey tank drain valve which was not leaking.

I had hopes that my CW was all not that bad compared to what I heard about others. I had faith. I lost that faith from June 2021 - January 2022.

[Cristian123]

bucky wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if those that blast Camping World have had any experience actually dealing with them.
The experience with any company is with the people you deal with, not the sign.

I agree with you. That's why people have different experiences when dealing with the same company. A lot depends on the manager you are talking about. For example, I heard some bad feedback about Thor Industries, but when I was looking for a new RV to buy, I addressed this company via the Thor Industries phone number (I found it here). To be honest, I don't have any complaints.

[GrandpaKip]

bucky wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if those that blast Camping World have had any experience actually dealing with them.
The experience with any company is with the people you deal with, not the sign.

Absolutely correct.

[bucky]

Sometimes I wonder if those that blast Camping World have had any experience actually dealing with them.
The experience with any company is with the people you deal with, not the sign.

[Vintage465]

Skibane wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Best to worst.
Airstream, Outdoors RV, Lance, Grand Design, Winnebago, K-Z, Jayco, Coachmen

I would rank Oliver, Escape, Bigfoot, Casita, and Arctic Fox above any of the brands you listed, except for Outdoors RV.

Notably, all 5 of these brands (along with Outdoors RV) are not owned by the big RV conglomerates (Thor Industries, Forest River, Winnebago Industries or REV Group). Most of them are sold directly from the factory, or rarely found at dealerships.

I'd run with this list. I'm an Outdoors RV Mfg.(ORV)fan. And I'd agreee with a previous poster that stated about the consumer reports being fine and still won't make a difference because many manufacturers don't have the same employees week to week. So it's pretty hard to nail it all down to one is best. There are a bunch of them that are better and a bunch of them that I don't even know they can sell their junk. I do think Airstream is prolly the best. But they're crazy expensive and really only fit the "RV Resort" lifestyle. Then prolly just up to you between ORV, Arctic Fox, Lance, Casita, Escape and Bigfoot.

[GrandpaKip]

philh wrote:
All RV's are POS. Some more so than others.

Mine isn’t. Sorry yours is.

[wanderingaimles]

Skibane wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Best to worst.
Airstream, Outdoors RV, Lance, Grand Design, Winnebago, K-Z, Jayco, Coachmen

I would rank Oliver, Escape, Bigfoot, Casita, and Arctic Fox above any of the brands you listed, except for Outdoors RV.

Notably, all 5 of these brands (along with Outdoors RV) are not owned by the big RV conglomerates (Thor Industries, Forest River, Winnebago Industries or REV Group). Most of them are sold directly from the factory, or rarely found at dealerships.

Skibane, thats why I said considering you are in Georgia those brands are hard to find and have very few dealers along the east coast.

[b17drvr]

New or used, have the RV inspected by a NRVIA Inspector prior to purchase. After you have your list of everything that needs to be fixed, have the dealer fix it before you take possession. Once you take it they will be in no hurry to fix it.

[Skibane]

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

Best to worst.
Airstream, Outdoors RV, Lance, Grand Design, Winnebago, K-Z, Jayco, Coachmen

I would rank Oliver, Escape, Bigfoot, Casita, and Arctic Fox above any of the brands you listed, except for Outdoors RV.

Notably, all 5 of these brands (along with Outdoors RV) are not owned by the big RV conglomerates (Thor Industries, Forest River, Winnebago Industries or REV Group). Most of them are sold directly from the factory, or rarely found at dealerships.

[wanderingaimles]

An extreme generalization, and I am taking into account that you are in Georgia so a couple of the better ones are very hard to find.
Best to worst.
Airstream, Outdoors RV, Lance, Grand Design, Winnebago, K-Z, Jayco, Coachmen, of the others, they make some good, some bad, as a general guide look at the warranties offered on the lines, while the manufacturers have sketchy reviews, length of warranty, whether it be of value or not, gives some idea of the manufacturers confidence in their product.
Happy hunting

[philh]

All RV's are POS. Some more so than others.

[delwhjr]

One section of the RV Travel Newsletter has reviews each week on RVs. You can look up old issues and see many report.
RV Travel

Be very careful when buying at any dealer as many are about the same as a used car salesman, especially Camping World. Read everything closely.

[Lwiddis]

In my experience two identical TTs, one built on a Monday and one on Wednesday, could be miles apart on quality. A complete inspection and running all systems is the only way, and even that isn’t foolproof - roof, tank and pipe leaks that don’t show for days etc - but the best you can do. Don’t sign anything until fixed.