COMPARING THREE DIFFERENT TT COMPANIES

[smsmith]

My wife and I are seriously looking to buy either a Jayco WhiteHawk Ultra Lite, Rockwood Ultra Lite, or a KZ Connect. In terms of quality construction and durability, can you give me any advise--good or bad--about any of the three. We will be pulling this with an F150. Thanks!

[atreis]

I'd go with the one that has the floorplan and other features you want most. All three companies are reputable and have the same range of quality.

[2112]

Rustycamperpants wrote:
... check out your dealer and don't under value having a reliable, helpful one (dealer).

This consideration should be very high on your list. I have dealt with both good and bad dealer/service centers and what happens after the sale makes the difference.

[Rustycamperpant]

We love our KZ. In my opinion finding the floor plan that fits your needs is the number one priority ... look at several brands. We are lucky that our local dealer is great and less than 10 minutes from our house, I store the TT there and get my service there as well. check out your dealer and don't under value of having a reliable, helpful one.

[2112]

The only objective comment I can provide is KZ has a two year warranty.

We owned a KZ Sportsmen for 8 years and were pleased with it. Went to a competitor for the next one and now we are back to KZ.

Bottom line is which one do YOU like the best and which one works the best for YOU?

[FLGup]

We have a KZ Connect. We love it. Built solid and no problems. We just spent all of Oct in it too.

I'm not up on the other two brands but one thing you should look at besides floor plan is weight and how much you can carry. Our KZ can hold 1200 lbs of cargo before reaching GVWR of the trailer. That sounds like plenty, but fills up quickly. I wish I had more for bikes and other junk, but that 1200 seems to be the norm for many RVs. Some brands have more load capacity, I wish ours did. . Something to think about.

This is different than the tow vehicles load capabilities. Our trailer maxes out at 6000 lbs and that is OK for our truck, but I have limited cargo I can carry in the truck with it that high.

[Gdetrailer]

"Quality" is extremely subject so basically you are going to get bunches of conflicting "opinions" based on the experience of owning one or several "brands".

Some folks also have very different ideas as to what makes up a "quality" brand like how many times they ended up at the dealer for warranty work.

Or how poor the warranty work was done.

To plain out and out "bashing" since the poster felt they were slighted by the manufacturer when there unit was declined under warranty due to the owner failing to do their part of routine maintenance..

Or my top #1 favorite peeve is folks bashing a brand since the manufacturer declined fixing it under warranty a few DAYS to a FEW YEARS AFTER the warranty "expired"!

Once the warranty expires the manufacture is under no obligation to further warrant the repairs. Sometimes manufacturers will step up to the plate and offer a "goodwill" gesture and partially "cover" some of the repairs out of warranty.. It is great if they do this but nobody should get upset if they don't..

Your best bet is to go to a dealer or a RV show and take a hands on approach.. You walk through the RV, check cabinets and drawers, see what the construction of them are like.. Are they cheap feeling or cheap materials. Hows the fit and finish? Do the doors and drawers close and fit correctly?

Look for poor workmanship all over, inside and out..

Only YOU can decide what is the best brand by visually looking.

Something you do need aware of.. Owning a RV DOES require some preventative maintenance which should be done at least once a year.

Basically water is the enemy of RVs and to keep the water out the roof seams will need inspected, old cracked caulking needs to be removed and replaced. This applies to anything which goes through the roof and the entire perimeter of the roof and extends down to all four corners where there is a trim piece covering the wall corner joints. All Door frames, windows, hatches need to be checked for leakage.

If you do this maintenance even the most badly assembled poor quality RV can be made to last 20 or more years.

RVs are not something you can just ignore the maintenance, if you do even the very best built and most expensive RV can be rendered a door stop in less than a year of water leakage.

I would recommend that you locate the door jamb tag on your truck, this will be on the drivers side door jamb. It will provide the vehicles capacity data which will include unladen weight, GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) and payload capacity (2010 or so they added a second sticker which lists the payload with the tires that are specified for your vehicle.

The payload is your most critical piece of data.

You will need to subtract your passengers weights and any personal gear along with any additional items you place in the back of the truck from the payload.

The result is how much tongue weight your vehicle will be able to safely handle (tongue weight becomes "payload" of your vehicle when the trailer is connected).

On a "bumper pull" trailer the tongue weight must be 10%-15% of the trailer weight with 12%-15% being better and at 15% is ideal. This is important since having too low of tongue weight will cause the trailer to be unstable and will cause sway.

To make this easier I will give a few examples..

5000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 500 lbs (10% of the trailer weight) upwards of 750 lbs (15%).

6000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 600 lbs to 900 lbs.

7000 lb trailer should have a tongue weight of 700 lbs to 1050 lbs.

You WILL run out of payload before ever getting close to the vehicles "tow ratings"..

Post your payload and other door sticker info and there will be a lot of help in determining what you will be able to tow..

[skipnchar]

I wouldn't attempt to comment on the Grayhawk or the KZ since I've not owned wither of those models but I CAN tell you that my Rockwood Ultralight now has well over 100,000 towing miles on it, traveling through 49 states (many of them multiple times) and it's been as close to problem free as any you can buy. I had only a single warranty issue come up during the second year of the factory warranty and that WOULD have cost me under $50.00 to replace the water flow valve on the Thetford Toilet, had it not been under warranty.

I believe that reliability is SOMEWHAT dependent on how it's cared for and how it's used. I keep up with maintenance before it becomes a problem but use my trailer hard with lots of disbursed camping in National Forest areas as well as disbursed camping in the way to and from Alaska. Otherwise it's campgrounds first (not RV parks) so everything MUST perform reliably.

We made our choice of the Rockwood based on features like 4 season capability for our winter time trips.

Good luck with your decision / Skip

[JIMNLIN]

Ford or a Dodge or a chevy comparo.

Get the TT with the color or floorplan you like at a price you can afford.

[Community Alumni]

I looked at Jayco when shopping for a TT and went with a Flagstaff Micro Lite, which is the same as the Ultra Lite sold under the Rockwood brand. Expect average construction and quality with minor issues that can be fixed during the warranty period.

Good luck!

[Ron3rd]

Don't know about the other 2 brands but we're extremely satisfied with our Rockwood Windjammer. Great fit and finish and no issues in a year and a half. Forest River has their own owner's group forum too with a lot of good info. I've heard good and bad about all major brands though, and they all turn out a clunker from time to time.

[newman_fulltime]

I personally would go with the kz the build quality is good great customer servive yea lkess eye candy than others but when you have a good base you can always add it