Full-time 5th wheel quality question

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harrisokie

New member
Joined
May 29, 2010
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2
Hello!
We've been full-timing for nearly 3 years, the last two of which have been spent in a 2011 Forest River Cedar Creek 36RE. 

It's a very nice RV and has served us well but we're wondering what the feeling is with respect to the best quality in a full-time 5th wheel model. 
Do any of you have any thoughts as to which makes are better suited to full-timing? 


Thank you!


Jerry, Lisa and Marley Hooper
2011 Forest River CC 36RE
2011 1/2 Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie Longhorn
 
I understand Heartland makes a couple of models suitable.  But for the money you probably cannot go wrong with a Mobile Suites
 
The higher end 5W will have better underlying quality as well as more amenities, but you pay for it too. The longer you spend in an RV, the more you appreciate design and build quality touches like  wiring harnesses that are labeled as to the purpose, central locations for water, electrical and hydraulic distribution, better grades of cabinetry, upholstery and flooring, etc.

Some other top, well made, brands include Excel, Airstream, Carriage, and Hitchhiker.
 
New Horizons, Royals International, Elite Suites, Select Suites, Excel, Kountry Aire, Hitchiker are all full time 5th wheels with high ratings.
 
This is exactly the thing we are looking at ourselves at the moment.  We have a Cedar Creek Silverback which we love, however we know that our next unit will HAVE to be an upgrade for various reasons.  We have been full time since April and bought this unit to accomodate our current needs.  We now know that we will have to spend a little bit more money to get some of the things that will be better for full time living.  Some of the units we are looking at are:  Columbus, Redwood, Landmark, Infinity, Cardinal and of course Mobile Suites.  We have learned a great deal about design and hardware alone that will make a difference.  We talk to folks in every campground we go to, visit tons of dealers wherever we happen to be and attend as many shows as we can.  My husband has started making spreadsheets comparing each models within a manufacture and beyond to help us narrow down our choices when the time comes to upgrade. 
 
You may want to consider joining RV Consumer.  It's kind of like the Consumer Reports of the RV industry.  They don't accept any advertising.
 
We're in the process of narrowing down the list of 5th whl Trls for full timing too. One item I won't comprimise on is the frame, we'll be doing a lot of traveling once we start. I've looked at a lot of units that are labeled as "Full Time Units', but only have a 10" "I" beam frame. IMO I will not accept anything less then a 12" "I" bean or a double stacked box frame as the DRV units have.
 
If you're buying a used unit, I can highly recommend a little known brand, Komfort. I'm not sure if they're making units like mine anymore, 2009 34foot 5er with high end features like king bed, fireplace, workstation, wrap around kitchen, maple trim, and with their weatherguard features. The unit was made in Oregon and meets most of the higer spec for Canadian units. We're very please with it and it's certainly an upgraded unit from others we saw when we bought it in 2009.

Bob
 
You may want to consider joining RV Consumer.  It's kind of like the Consumer Reports of the RV industry.  They don't accept any advertising.

They don't do any testing either. While they do a decent job of compiling available spec data, their opinions are just that: opinions. No better or worse than any you might get here.
 
I second Garys comment.  The RVConsumer group has opinions and not all seem very valid.  Many seem to be a brand centric bias, there was one in particular that had to do with wheelbase ratio.  It purported to be scientific, but really just opinions that seemed tpp favor one brand.  It was too long ago to state specifics, but turned my customer away from even test driving a coach.  He ws sticking by this groups statement. 

Like anything else, take in as much info as you can, drive them all, (or pull), and make your own opinion.

FWIW, if planning on fulltiming in a 5th wheel, look very carefully and realize a good fulltiming 5er will cost about 1/2 or more than a vacation level 5th wheel.

Look at Carriage, Peterson, and New Horizon.  Balance themto what you want to pull, these will be heavier.

 
Gary RV Roamer said:
They don't do any testing either. While they do a decent job of compiling available spec data, their opinions are just that: opinions. No better or worse than any you might get here.

I believe they also compile owner's opinions and use that info in their evaluation.  So more than just their opinion....it's their members opinions as well.  They recently (a couple of weeks ago) sent out the latest survey.

While it's not 100% perfect resource (what is?)......probably the greatest collective pile of info. in once place.
 
JCZ said:
You may want to consider joining RV Consumer.  It's kind of like the Consumer Reports of the RV industry.  They don't accept any advertising.

Consumer Reports of the RV industry, I bought this I felt like I wasted a 100 bucks.
It was like they had data, but didn't want to get sued for saying wrong thing.
My opinion I'd wish I could of gotten a refund..
How about a BIG Horn for full timing also..
 
Is there a better collective source of information/ratings out there that I'm not aware of?  I mean where does a newbie start if they don't have any experience with RVs? 

Like I said, it's not a prefect resource.......but it's better than anything else that I'm aware of.  But I'm certainly open to other resources for ratings if anybody's aware of them?
 
Actually, I don't think it is better than nothing.  The attitude I read into it is that it is the bible of choosing, and it isn't.  There is no bible of choosing.  Ask questions, weigh the answers.  Form your own opinions.
 
If it was free or even cheap info, I would say sure, better than nothing. But at the $100 most people feel they have to attach more value to it and I'm skeptical of that. I'll admit, though, that I haven't looked at an edition in the last few years - my experience with it is dated and limited price.

Besides, the alternative isn't "nothing". You can get other (and free) opinions in numerous places, starting here (and other major RVing communities), plus there are review/compare sites such as rvguide.com, motorhomeadvice.com, etc. Google 'motorhome review' and you will find lots of info sources. None of them gospel but all a source of information and "better than nothing".
 
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. :p

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.

 
A blind squirrel will occasionally find an acorn.  Arctic Fox is a good brand.  Depending on what you are looking for that place may have good info coincidentally.
 

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