Newbie looking for a RV dealer in Dallas area.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
T

Time

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2022
Posts
5
Location
Dallas
I'm new to the RV world and looking to buy a Class C motor home. I'm looking for a few recommendations on RV manufacturer and dealers.

I've rented RV's in the past but have been disappointed by the quality issues, but I assume that a rental RV takes a lot of abuse. Considering that I still want a reasonable quality product that I can used week long vacations for 3-4 years and then sell. I prefer to buy new but would consider a slightly used MH given the better price/usability trade-off.

Also looking for any recommendations (good or bad) on local dealers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The dealer needs to offer a fair price and have reliable service to back up their products.

Thanks for your help in trying to navigate this new venture.
 
If your looking for "quality" all I can say is good luck. Most all RVs are slapped together on an assembly line with little regard to anything resembling quality.
 
At least a recent used unit has a chance of the annoying initial problems haveing been addressed. Most dealers have awful service, especially warrantee. Usually many weeks in the shop for factory errors.
PPL will have lots of used units to see.
 
With very few exceptions build quality in class C's range from poor to awful, the issue is the underlying van chassis, and its weight carrying limitations. The result is the RV manufacturers end up putting the lightest, thinnest materials and components that they can find into them. This often means plastic sinks and showers, thin membrane roofs, and just generally cheap construction practices to keep the prices relatively down as there is an attitude in the RV industry that people are not willing to pay for quality in class C's, and are only mildly willing to pay for it in gas class A's, if you want relative quality you must be shopping for a diesel pusher, and even there the upper luxury models are almost always the biggest models.

p.s. note I am not saying anything bad about light weight components, carbon fiber is some amazing stuff, it also cost 5 times more than fiberglass, and that the RV makers are not looking for light and expensive, they are looking for light and cheap, so you get thin blow molded plastic and not even real fiberglass plumbing fixtures, ...
 
Isaac-1 said:
PPL does also have a branch location in the Dallas area
Click to expand...
And another great thing about PPL, you can look at their inventory at all 3 Texas locations online to see if there is anything you might be interested in before you even drive to the lot.
Vicki
 
Larry N. said:
Distance wise, it's like asking you to go to Hortense, GA from Orlando.
Click to expand...
I did not tell him to go there. It is a good link to compare floor plans on and get an idea of prices. I don't know why I bother to post anything here. Some expert is always telling me I am wrong. The last class A I bought I drove 700 miles to buy it. It is worthwhile to drive a few hundred miles to find the RV you like best. Mellow out.
 
Tom, you told him about PPL in Houston when he was asking about Dallas. I agree that PPL is a good website to get all manner of information, but it isn't a dealer in the Dallas area, which is the only reason I commented on your post. And it doesn't take an "expert" to note the distance and disparity with the question asked. Sorry you're so touchy...
 
Lots of people drive back and forth between Houston and Dallas, the fact sheet for the proposed Texas high speed rail project puts the number at just under 15,000 people each day.
 
SeilerBird said:
I did not tell him to go there. It is a good link to compare floor plans on and get an idea of prices. I don't know why I bother to post anything here. Some expert is always telling me I am wrong. The last class A I bought I drove 700 miles to buy it. It is worthwhile to drive a few hundred miles to find the RV you like best. Mellow out.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link to PPL. They seem to have a big selection. I think I'll find it useful to compare to units that I might locate in the DFW area. Personally I'd rather not drive the 240 miles to Houston, but for the right deal it might be worthwhile. In either case it helps in my selection process.
 
Isaac-1 said:
With very few exceptions build quality in class C's range from poor to awful, the issue is the underlying van chassis, and its weight carrying limitations. The result is the RV manufacturers end up putting the lightest, thinnest materials and components that they can find into them. This often means plastic sinks and showers, thin membrane roofs, and just generally cheap construction practices to keep the prices relatively down as there is an attitude in the RV industry that people are not willing to pay for quality in class C's, and are only mildly willing to pay for it in gas class A's, if you want relative quality you must be shopping for a diesel pusher, and even there the upper luxury models are almost always the biggest models.

p.s. note I am not saying anything bad about light weight components, carbon fiber is some amazing stuff, it also cost 5 times more than fiberglass, and that the RV makers are not looking for light and expensive, they are looking for light and cheap, so you get thin blow molded plastic and not even real fiberglass plumbing fixtures, ...
Click to expand...
Isaac-1, That's what I fear, and from what I've seen on the used market the quality is just not there and it shows after a few years of use. Personally I'd rather pay for quality, but then I'm a little picky.

Given that the quality is not great in any of the lines, there must be some ranking between the various manufactures and the different models. I've heard that Winnebago builds a slightly better product but I have no experience to judge that statement. Normally a higher price would convey a better quality product but not always. Can you offer any suggestions where a newbie should start the selection process assuming that the lowest price is not the main objective? I don't mind paying for quality but I don't want to waste money on accessories and frills that add little to the functionallity of the RV.
 
Winnebago is generally a step up, but each coach must be inspected individually, as the their class C's look carefully at the roof construction, they use a laminated foam roof, and there have been reports of adhesive failure in these roofs built over the last decade or so, which then allows the roof to sag, cause unknown.

p.s. if I were looking at a class C coach the brands I would consider are Born Free (company closed down in 2017 so used market only now), Lazydaze (not to be confused the Lazy Days RV dealership) (company sells factory direct only, well built, but styling looks dated, final option would be Coach House though this is more of a B+ though a they offer a relatively large one built on up to the E450 chassis.
 
Last edited:
Isaac-1 said:
Winnebago is generally a step up, but each coach must be inspected individually, as the their class C's look carefully at the roof construction, they use a laminated foam roof, and there have been reports of adhesive failure in these roofs built over the last decade or so, which then allows the roof to sag, cause unknown.

p.s. if I were looking at a class C coach the brands I would consider are Born Free (company closed down in 2017 so used market only now), Lazydaze (not to be confused the Lazy Days RV dealership) (company sells factory direct only, well built, but styling looks dated, final option would be Coach House though this is more of a B+ though a they offer a relatively large one built on up to the E450 chassis.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Very helpful. I'll look into these.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 824 (members: 24, guests: 800)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,129
Posts
1,390,780
Members
137,849
Latest member
Moore1947
Back
Top Bottom