Looking for quality

[Daryl]

Anybody known for making a high-quality, no frills TT?

We don't want fancy. We want quality. It seems we can get fancy. It seems we can get quality and fancy. What we are having a hard time finding is quality without the fancy.

Sorry for such a vague, subjective question. We currently camp with a 15 year old Winnebago 32' Class A that we have found to be very well built. The RV before that was an old Fleetwood Jamboree Searcher bunkhouse that we loved, but outgrew.

We have been searching for just a short while and are really disappointed in what we've seen as far as quality. We see, what appears to us, to be a whole lot of lipstick on a pig. Low quality construction, fit and finish with a whole lot of fancy looking stuff. We have seen what we felt was a well built trailer but much fancier interior than we are needing.

Solid frame. Good quality windows and insulation. Quality roof. Good countertops and fixtures. No fireplace. No 50" TV. No outdoor kitchen. No outdoor TV.

Onan genset, Flexsteel Furniture would be plusses in our book.

Tag trailer, 23'-29' overall length. Weight not important. Would love rear dinette, mid bath, jack-knife couch. No appliances on any slide(s).

Thanks!

[Me_Again]

Last year we saw move Grand Design Imagines on the road last year to Arizona and back this spring than any other band. In Idaho we saw lots of Lance TTs.

http://www.granddesignrv.com/showroom/2020/travel-trailer/imagine/floorplans

Anytime I see Lite in the name I run the other direction. We parked our 5th wheel and roofed it for a summer home in the NW. We bought a Laredo 225MK. The little trailer came with a 8K GVWR, 2208 CC, 4400 axles, wet bolts, Lipperts Road Armor Trailair equalizer, 15" rims with LRD tires that I replace the first week with GY Endurance LRE tires, theater seats(looking straight at the 40" TV) and 50amp shore power. Only thing that is pretty cheap is the shower enclosure.

We use use the outside kitchen refer(3 or 3.5 cu ft) for soda pop and beer. We have never cooked out there but it makes nice extra storage.

We use this trailer to commute to our park model in Az and side trips.

[Blazing_Zippers]

I like my Outdoor RV. HOOHAW!! Maybe mine was built on a Wednesday, but so far, it's FAR better then the 2016 Keystone Cougar that I worked on for two years. That's just my opinion and understand others may think differently.

[trail-explorer]

Check out Nash.... they are also made by Northwood.

They are built on the same factory as the Arctic Fox. They are wood framed walls, unlike the AF which is aluminum.

[wing_zealot]

Bert Ackerman wrote:
Just returned from the Hershey show. Acres and acres of junk on display. Attendance seemed down from past years.

I do not buy in to the Northwood / ORV fanaticism. Dealers are few and far between here in the NE and I know a few folks who went out of their way to lay their hands on those based on RV forum hoohaw, they were ultimately sorry they did so in every case for what they spent. Same with Lance. Spending more does not always guarantee quality although not having a Lippert frame is highly desirable.

When did they move Palm Beach to the NE?

[Lynnmor]

Bert Ackerman wrote:
Just returned from the Hershey show. Acres and acres of junk on display. Attendance seemed down from past years.

I do not buy in to the Northwood / ORV fanaticism. Dealers are few and far between here in the NE and I know a few folks who went out of their way to lay their hands on those based on RV forum hoohaw, they were ultimately sorry they did so in every case for what they spent. Same with Lance. Spending more does not always guarantee quality although not having a Lippert frame is highly desirable.

While the trailers from Oregon have downgraded much of the electronics to the current junk, I do wish I would have bought one with a real frame. My flexible, cracking Lippert "frame" would be impossible to replace, but much of the other junk can be upgraded.

How were you able to navigate the Hershey minefield of all those steps extending out into the aisles?

[Hondavalk]

https://www.airstream.com/

Very pricey but high quality

[wanderingaimles]

Have not owned one, but have mat a couple that loved their Livin lite trailer, claimed well built and they are not as "frilly" as most others. Being in Ca. they should be relatively easy to locate some.
Look over the features, a lot of their plusses are not readily visible, windows etc.
CampLite

[Bert_Ackerman]

Just returned from the Hershey show. Acres and acres of junk on display. Attendance seemed down from past years.

I do not buy in to the Northwood / ORV fanaticism. Dealers are few and far between here in the NE and I know a few folks who went out of their way to lay their hands on those based on RV forum hoohaw, they were ultimately sorry they did so in every case for what they spent. Same with Lance. Spending more does not always guarantee quality although not having a Lippert frame is highly desirable.

[TurnThePage]

Daryl wrote:
Thoughts on BigFoot brand? Saw one of the truck campers several years back and was impressed. I've viewed a YouTube video or two on their TT's. Thoughts?

Looking at Lance as well.

I still dream of a Bigfoot. There is a member here that had a bad experience about 10 or 15 years ago with a Bigfoot trailer, but that's the only one I've heard of. And they do have your generator, though I think I'll stick with my portable gas unit.

It's at the tip top of my list, with Lance and a couple Outdoors RV models. But as already pointed out, there seems to be a serious lack of quality in virtually every box built RV out there.

You may also want to checkout Escape RVs. Their only downfall as far as I'm concerned is a wet bath and not very well laid out interiors for my taste.

[ScottG]

Daryl wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Much older Arctic Fox products are good. New stuff is pure junk.
I know, I have one.

One what? Older good one, or newer junk? 😉

Ha, ha that wasn't very clear was it?
Sadly it's the new junk.

[Daryl]

2oldman wrote:
Then you're looking at cheap construction.

Exactly my primary complaint. I've yet to see a tag TT with appliances on the slide, constructed the way your 5'er is. Not saying that it isn't done, just not that I've seen yet.

My refer gas line is completely enclosed in the slide, and when retracted protected by another piece of flooring above the tires.

It would take some huge explosion to cut through that.

[whjco]

We bought a Forest River Cherokee 274vfk back in November. I've been very impressed with the quality and fit and finish. It's well insulated and last winter we heated it with two electric heaters set on 750w heat setting and didn't even use the furnace. The floor is 5/8" marine glued plywood and is rock solid. We toured the factory this past July and much of the assembly is performed by Amish craftsmen in the Topeka, IN area. We're very pleased with this travel trailer.

[2oldman]

Daryl wrote:
The trailers I looked at with appliances on slides had all those lines in a cheap plastic raceway with cheap zip ties holding those lines right above the tires.

Then you're looking at cheap construction. My refer gas line is completely enclosed in the slide, and when retracted protected by another piece of static flooring above the tires.

Hard to imagine any blowout cutting through that. Catastrophic blowouts aren't very common anyway, not with proper inflation, watching your speed, replacing quality tires at regular intervals, and a good TPMS at your side.

I can't recall any posts on here about slide appliance lines breaking from wear. There could be some, I just haven't seen any.

[Daryl]

ScottG wrote:
Much older Arctic Fox products are good. New stuff is pure junk.
I know, I have one.

One what? Older good one, or newer junk? 😉

[Daryl]

Waunacamper wrote:
Try the Outdoors RV "Back Country series". Sister company to Northwood.

Thank you. Going to a large RV show here locally in a few weeks. Should be able to put eyes and hands on quite a few brands.