Gulf Stream Conquest/Innsbruck vs Forest River Cherokee

handye9 wrote:
Long term will depend on how you maintain them. When you drag these things down the road, at 60+ MPH, things are going to come apart. Doesn't matter who built it.

Either trailer will serve you well, as long as it has propper maintenance.

One area I would be conccerned with, is the tongue weights and what you're towing with. The manufacturers are advertising both trailers as 1/2 ton towable. However, both of these trailers have "dry" tongue weights at or above 1000 lbs. There are many 1/2 ton vehicles that don't have the payload to carry that kind of tongue weight.

I have to agree. I own two Cherokee's that have served me well and would buy another. I would buy the one that works best for you. Maintenance is the key to a long life.

Trailers in the same price point will use similar construction components and materials.

I have owned 2 Gulfstreams and 3 Cherokees. The only one I did not care for was the Gulfstream Streamlite with the foam core floors. I traded after one trip. The two Gulfstreams you are looking at have solid floors and should be fine.

Long term will depend on how you maintain them. When you drag these things down the road, at 60+ MPH, things are going to come apart. Doesn't matter who built it.

Either trailer will serve you well, as long as it has propper maintenance.

One area I would be conccerned with, is the tongue weights and what you're towing with. The manufacturers are advertising both trailers as 1/2 ton towable. However, both of these trailers have "dry" tongue weights at or above 1000 lbs. There are many 1/2 ton vehicles that don't have the payload to carry that kind of tongue weight.

We have an 07 Cherokee. Before that we had an 05 Cherokee lite. We love the Cherokee and would buy another one. Very good attention to detail and our model year came with a lot of standard features that were optional or not even available on other makes.

I have just recently bought a 2004 Gulfstream Innsbruck 30 footer.

Like you I too spent countless hours on lots looking at all sorts and makes of trailers and did untold hours of research.

In the end I decided to get a used trailer for many reasons and I am glad I did.

Even though I live in Minot ND I traveled to Chicago to get this trailer from a dealer. Together we spent a good 10 hour day going through every system, light, moving part, taking wheels off, inspecting and tidying up the underside and every other thing you can think of until I was satisfied that all was well and I handed over the cash.

This was a one-owner trailer (I have the documents)that was sold outright to the dealer. The people before me took excellent care of it and it shows inside and out. Everything works perfectly and is in good shape and it is clear that when things did fail they were fixed or replaced.

When I did the research on the manufacturing of the Gulfstream I was impressed that it was much better than many I had seen with real roof struts, a solid frame with long outlyers,good heavy axles and better than average overall construction. I discussed this model with the factory on a couple of occasions and got some insight into it's build.

In short I am impressed by the quality and how the trailer has held up over the years. The first owners used it pretty extensively by traveling to about 1/2 of the states and lucky me ALL of the original manuals and paperwork were with the trailer.

I towed it back from Chicago to ND and it pulled straight and smooth and I didnt have any issues at all. And this was during that big Storm that dumped so much snow on the upper midwest.

I am happy with it and plan to take it to Calif, AZ and back this April.

My conclusion is that if this 2004 has held up so well over the years that the Innsbruck should be a good investment. If properly taken care of and a thorough ground up inspection done on EVERYTHING whether new or used, you should come away happy.

Just for reference I pull it with a 20014 Dodge Ram 2500 CrewCab 4x4 HD 5.7L and it's hard to tell it;s there except in a fierce headwind.

I hope this perspective helps somewhat.