Thanks a bunch Gary.....I'll visit some of those web sites and see how they compare.
In my case......I was looking for a small, quality built 5th wheel in a price range. I read and asked questions on all the RV forums that I was aware of at the time (I don't think I learned of this forum until after we purchased). I couldn't get any consistency two people would say a particular make or model was good....two others would say it was bad (kind of like what is said about RV Consumer) so nothing collective that would help me to pick the top five makes or models (I already knew that we wanted rear living area rather than rear kitchen) to further do research on. If anything, it just added to more confusion. It seemed like everybody was suggesting or recommending what ever they owned currently and we all know that's about 500 different makes/models......just more confusion. I was spending so much time doing research my wife was begining to think I was cheating on line.
Being new to this RV thing, it just didn't help much to go look at them because I was not sure what to look for, what questions to ask, etc. I would see something I liked but something else that I didn't care for. It seemed like the more we looked, the more questions we had and the more confused we got. Being in located in Nor Cal, we could see pretty much every make and model within an hours drive and we did that for awhile.
When we found RV Consumer we felt like "finally, we found some sort of rating that doesn't take any advertising and so their beholding to nobody". This is where I first learned about the Northwood Mfg. line of 5th wheels (Artic Fox and Fox Mountain). All seasons rated (heated holding tanks, thermal pane windows, plumbing ran throuh heated space, heavy insulation, etc. etc.), high scores for reliability and value and overall satisfaction. I posted questions about the brand, went to their owners forum and couldn't find anything negative and we bought. Coming from where we were coming from, do I feel like it was worth the $ I paid for the RV Consumer? Sure, absolutely and I'd do it again......for us, it was definately better than nothing. However, having said that, I was not aware of any of the web sites that you've mentioned and if they cover 5th wheels I may find one that I feel would have been a better option than RV Consumer.
Thanks again, Gary.