New Motorhome, 3 Choices, please advise/opinion

[drewament]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking at buying our first RV. Found your site and it has alot of great information.

Shopped and looks like we have it narrowed down to 3 units we like. Any and all info/opinions would be HIGHLY appreciated. Looking at under 100k, entry level class A. 2 Adults, 2 young kids (1 and 3 years old)

1. 07 Fleetwood Fiesta 34N - Looks to have great storage space, very roomy, nice size bathroom. Plush interior.

2. 06 Gulfstream Independence 8357 - (able to get one at huge discount, so meets our price requirements) 3 sildes, LOTS of interior room, great storage. Has a separate toilet (I like). Seems like nothing but bad posts on this forum about this company.

3. 06 Georgetown 340TS (Forest River) - 3 slides. Nice room when open, but narrow when closed. Lots of storage space.

Any other brands/models we should look at? Opinions?

THANKS!

 

[KodiakRV]

...
2. 06 Gulfstream Independence 8357 - (able to get one at huge discount, so meets our price requirements) 3 sildes, LOTS of interior room, great storage. Has a separate toilet (I like). Seems like nothing but bad posts on this forum about this company.
...

Interesting you should say that.? I did a search of all forums here asking for every post mentioning Gulfstream in the past three years.? Then I read each and every post.

In all those posts, I only found one actual Gulfstream owner (Bob Maxwell) that was unhappy with his MH -- and that was a 16-year-old model.?

The vast majority of bad-mouthing about Gulfstream appears to come from Ron, whose biggest beef seems to be that he has some friends that have reached the point of suing over their Gulfstream MH.? The second highest number of complaints comes from Chet18013, also not a Gulfstream owner, who primarily bases his complaints on rusty tubing he saw in a tour of the Gulfsteam factory.? Other than those two, there were 5 others, none of which were owners, who gave second or third hand inferences of poor workmanship, at least one of which cited Chet18013's postings on rusty tubing as his evidence.?

[Added 8/27:  Please don't take the above as maligning anyone's posts in any way.  I'm just trying to document forum references to Gulfstream's quality.]

The only post I could find that specifically talked about some poor Gulfstream workmanship was a post about a low exhaust pipe -- and it was not clear if the installation was original or after-market.? The half-dozen or so other posts mentioning Gulfstream problems had to do with what I would call normal wear-and-tear issues common to any RV such as a 3-year-old refrigerator that was not cooling.

All this to say that when you make blanket statements like you did, I would hope you have done a decent search and not just read the same poster's complaint 15 times.

 

[drewament]

All this to say that when you make blanket statements like you did, I would hope you have done a decent search and not just read the same poster's complaint 15 times.

I do agree with you, and yes alot of posts seemed liked they were from a certain few. After reading, looking at website, and tryting to search this forum for a few hours -- all was a daze by the time I posted this. Thanks for also validating what I was thinking.

 

[Marsha/CA]

Drewament,

You are going to find differences of opinions on everything...that's the nature of life and what makes us all so different.  WE had a Fleetwood TRuck CAmper for 10 years then gave it to our son and his wife.  It's nearly 15 years old now and still looks great.  It's needed a little TLC, had to have a water pump replaced and a window gasket over the bed repaired; but all in all that was a great product.  Albeit it's not a motorhome; but we personally owned it; so have first hand knowledge.  Interesting now that I think about it that we didn't even look at a Fleetwood motorhome when we were researching.  I don't think I realized they made diesel pushers...guess I thought they only made gas engines so we didn't even check them out.

Marsha~

 

[rhmahoney]

MFA: In defence of Ron, HE is on staff here and feels it necessary to reply to all such msgs asking for help and opinion. His background includes a career as Boing engineer and has been a private plane pilot and instructor. You see so many of his replies because he does know something useful to the discussion.

 

[Jackliz]

I do agree with you, and yes alot of posts seemed liked they were from a certain few. After reading, looking at website, and tryting to search this forum for a few hours -- all was a daze by the time I posted this. Thanks for also validating what I was thinking.

Howdy, drewament.

When we decided to upgrade from a Serengeti motorhome to a Blue Bird Wanderlodge (a bus-type motorhome), we decided to talk, IN PERSON, to as many Blue Bird owners as possible. Since we were members of FMCA, we registered to attend a rally sponsored by an FMCA chapter named Vintage Birds. At that rally, we talked to a lot of owners and they were pretty candid in their remarks about their coaches. The OTHER THING that we did was to take a factory tour at Blue Bird in Fort Valley, GA. There we saw how the Wanderlodges were built and we had opportunity to talk to more owners.  When I(Liz) talked to the women, every one of them said, "I agreed to buying a Blue Bird because I knew that my family would be safe".  We were impressed by the construction of the Wanderlodge. We purchased a 1993 Blue Bird Wanderlodge in March 2004. We sold our Serengeti motorhome and that took a year.

Ah, one more thing. Consider the big amount of depreciation in the value of a brand new coach.(We didn't do this, ouch)  Perhaps a used coach might be a better buy. A used Blue Bird, Newmar's Dutch Star( very popular on this RV Forum), Foretravel or American Coach.

We are fulltimers and maybe our needs are different from your family's. But I hope that our experiences give you food for thought. Good luck in your search for the right motorhome for you.

Regards,
Jack and Liz Pearce