Forum Discussion

Addy15's avatar
Addy15
Explorer
Sep 05, 2018

Comparing Two Travel Trailers

Helping my sister choose a new travel trailer and we are considering two right now: A Coachmen Freedom Express 257BHS and a Grand Design Imagine 2400BH. This is the basic floor plan she is looking at right now because it meets the features she is looking for. You can assume we know what limitations we are working with in terms of towing/payload capacity and that these two trailers both meet those specifications, so we DO NOT need advice regarding that. Just looking for comments regarding anyone's experience with either of these two trailers. Thanks.
  • BarneyS's avatar
    BarneyS
    Explorer III
    Sep 05, 2018
    Of the two, I would choose the Grand Design model simply because of the the companys reputation.
    Barney
  • DutchmenSport's avatar
    DutchmenSport
    Explorer
    Sep 05, 2018
    Grand Design over Coachman any time considering they are almost identical floor plans, and the $$$ difference is not a problem.
  • anw7405's avatar
    anw7405
    Explorer
    Sep 05, 2018
    I like the azdel walls in the coachmen. It's one of the things that swayed me to coachman. I let someone borrow my trailer and when I got it back it had a little dent in the strip that holds the back wall to the side. If it had wood walls this would be a much bigger problem for water damage.
  • rbpru's avatar
    rbpru
    Explorer II
    Sep 05, 2018
    Floor plan stays when all else is forgotten or accepted.

    TTs are built to a price point. So more money often has better features.

    There is also an amount of annual maintenance and repairs to be considered. Which would be easiest to service.

    Good Luck
  • TurnThePage's avatar
    TurnThePage
    Explorer
    Sep 05, 2018
    One thing that I HATE about my current little trailer is that discarded shoes are always under foot. I love the shoe storage feature that's just inside the door in Imagine trailers. Though it could be there, I've not noticed it on others.

    I'm a fan of frameless windows too. It looks like that's an option on the Freedom Express, but not the Imagine. The Azdel is nice, but not enough to sway me.
  • shfd739's avatar
    shfd739
    Explorer
    Sep 07, 2018
    The Imagine looks like a better floor plan. More counter space in the kitchen, shower pan instead of a tub and I prefer the head on TV viewing position instead of the angled one.

    The Grand Design also has much bigger tanks. I’d love to have 76 gallons of grey water tank instead of my current 30.
  • 2012Coleman's avatar
    2012Coleman
    Explorer II
    Sep 07, 2018
    shfd739 wrote:
    The Imagine looks like a better floor plan. More counter space in the kitchen, shower pan instead of a tub and I prefer the head on TV viewing position instead of the angled one.

    The Grand Design also has much bigger tanks. I’d love to have 76 gallons of grey water tank instead of my current 30.
    The GD also has a bigger pantry, and as stated has a 30 X 36 shower - not to mention the pet dish which is a pretty cool feature. I'm a little biased - as our GD Reflection 303 RLS blew all others out of the water as to fit and finish and materials used - it doesn't look cheap.
  • Ralph_Cramden's avatar
    Ralph_Cramden
    Explorer II
    Sep 07, 2018
    Grand Designs proven communication and customer support more than offsets Coachmen and Forest River's mediocre hit and miss approach if warranty is your concern.

    As far as Azdel its nothing more than Coachmen marketing. If they replaced every piece of wood with it that would be one thing, but simply using it for the outer layer of susbstrate in the sidewalls gains you very little if anything.

    I would like to know how a small dent in a wall with Azdel substrate would be worse with a Luan substrate?

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