Looking for advice on Forest River products

Hello everyone,
New to the site s and looking for some advice.
We are looking into upgrading to a bigger camper and have looked at the Forest River Wildwood's and the Coleman. We really can't find any consumer reviews on any of these but have looked at them both. Any thoughts from anyone who owns 1 of these? Thanks!

I can't answer your question but I just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Great bunch of members here with lots of experience and they are all looking to help you.

Thanks for the welcome!

FR has several plants.  Wildwood is only one one of a dozen or so brands.  Are you looking at west or east coast models?  That model is run of the mill with average quality.  Same for the Coleman.  What you really need to do is go over the exact unit you intend to buy and spend an hour or so going over top to bottom.  And make a list of anything or everything you can find wrong.

unable to help with the insights you are seeking but do want to welcome you. Take your time, do your due diligence (which you are trying to do) and have fun!

Thanks for the info donn. When you find what's wrong what do you mean exactly...pros and cons of both?

First, Welcome to the Forum!

As mentioned above, FR produces about a dozen brand names of campers.  For all new campers, it is a very competitive market.  You do indeed get what you pay for.  If seemingly similar campers are compared, and one costs $1,000 more, it has "upgrades" you can not see, like thicker floor underlayment, better quality fabric on the furniture, etc.  All manufacturers produce a few perfect campers with no immediate problems noted.  They also all produce a few pure lemons.  Most production falls somewhere in between.  They expect the dealer to do the final QC inspection.  The dealer rarely fixes anything the customer does not raise as an issue.

In my opinion, you are much better off with a 2 or 3 year old used unit that was well cared for.  1.  All those initial quality issues are fixed and you do not need to male multiple trips - and phone calls - to the dealer to get them fixed.  YOU can go camping!  2.  You save some cash and let the original owner take that big depreciation bite.  3.  When (not if) you scratch the body or break a light, it does not turn nearly as bad. (Don't ask how I know!)  4.  If you choose to sell or upgrade in a year or two, the trade will be less painful.

Do lots of reading here and elsewhere and make sure YOU know more about the camper and what you need to tow it than the salesman BEFORE purchase.  Thankfully, this is not too hard. 

This may help understand how salesmen think.

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,90933.0.html

Quaz26 said:

Thanks for the info donn. When you find what's wrong what do you mean exactly...pros and cons of both?

Click to expand...

Basically ALL, well except mine, LOL but ALL new RVs will have issues.  There is really no such a thing as quality control.  They are assembled on a short time frame and pushed out to the dealer to fix.  Hopefully before but usually after delivery.
If you have sufficient tow vehicle and the money to spend I would look at Nash, Arctic Fox, or one of the offerings from OutdoorRV.  They and Northwood mfg are family owned smaller mfg that build a decent quality line of towables and truck campers.  They may not be as good as they used to be, but there still light years better than the mass produced stuff from the likes of Forest River and Thor.

You don't need to buy from them, but Haylett RV in Michigan has a broad stack of trailer reviews on their YouTube site that are very informative.  Very detailed walk arounds and discussion of various trailer's design features.  Not some minute or two things, but videos that are up to 18 minutes in length on particular models of TT and 5er's.  Kinda humorous at times also.

Try here:
http://forestriverfrog.com/

As mentioned, Forest River is just one of many brands that will offer the same/similar trailer layouts and features.  We have a 2008 Forest River Wildwood, a 32-foot bunkhouse trailer and we love it!  But what we love is the floorplan and design... that's what I bought, it just happened to be made by FR.  If you spend much time here, you'll see the advice often that year/make/model is not really the most important factor when RV shopping.  Budget, floorplan, features/options, and condition (when buying used, also highly recommended) are much more important.

Hey thanks for all the reply's on this! Will keep researching myself.

Even if you never plan to go to Texas and/or buy there, the consignment dealer www.PPLmotorhomes.com is a good site to research inventory and floorplans.  They have a large variety of rotating inventory, and include lots of photos and floorplan diagrams on their ads.  Their prices often seem reasonable than other dealers too, so you can get an idea of what a decent used unit (in the style that you want) should cost.

Welcome to the Forum,

I have three different Forest River products.  All of them came with some minor issues.  However, I don?t think you will find any brand with some issues.  Read in the different forums and you will see.  Wish you well.

We are on our second Wildwood.
The first was a new 2017 bought at the dealers. it was a complete Lemon and one thing after another was either defective or broke. We had seven different times where pipes broke and found that they were ran along the top of the frame and then the trailer installed on top of them.  I could fill a page with items that were not obvious at the walk through, but went bad after the trailer was in use.The dealer had bought this trailer from the show in Hershey.
Hurricane Irma saved the day for us when its five foot ocean surge totaled the trailer and we got our full purchase price from Progressive.
We then replaced it with a new 2018 Wildwood from the same dealer, but with custom options which came direct from the factory.( we waited to have it built)  We have been snow birding in this one for the past six months and it is absolutely perfect.

If and when I ever have to buy another trailer I'll order it with some custom items and know I'll be getting one that is not a "reject"

jack L

We said we wouldn't buy another Forest River product, or from the local dealer ever again. But we have been looking for a smaller toy hauler and finally found one last weekend at an RV show. It is a Forest River XLR boost, and we are buying from the same local dealer again. Never say never? LOL.
Our Sabre 34 REQS is ok, its mostly fit and finish that is lousy. The dealer, well they have shifty practices, like wanting us to pay for the trailer "to get it off of the books" before it ever arrived from the factory. Wouldn't fix a factory flaw that was only a couple of bucks  to do. Telling us to use a bungee cord to hold the bar doors closed when traveling. Little things.
So we are giving them both a second chance to come through for us. Time will tell.