Recommendations/Suggestions for first 5th Wheel

[richclover]

Thank you very much for the response and the pic! Was that Ram the i6 cummins?

2018 Ram Tradesman 2500HD, 5.7 Cummins. Loved that truck!

 

[Laura & Charles]

Thanks for the response. Like what kinds of things could have been avoided, lol? That is what we need to know. We don't know what we don't know lol!

Often related to being misinformed by the salesperson
~They bought a bumper pull or 5th wheel with the sales person's assurance that their pickup or SUV would be fine towing it.
~Simply bought the wrong rig. Wasn’t big enough; Didn’t have adequately sized tanks (waste, fresh water, propane, fuel) for their intended style of camping; Simply hated the style rig (eg: a class A they were afraid to drive, a camper van they expected to full time in.)
Just any number of regretted yhings that could’ve been avoided had just they asked some questions here before they wrote the check.

 

[B-Lake]

2018 Ram Tradesman 2500HD, 5.7 Cummins. Loved that truck!

Often related to being misinformed by the salesperson
~They bought a bumper pull or 5th wheel with the sales person's assurance that their pickup or SUV would be fine towing it.
~Simply bought the wrong rig. Wasn’t big enough; Didn’t have adequately sized tanks (waste, fresh water, propane, fuel) for their intended style of camping; Simply hated the style rig (eg: a class A they were afraid to drive, a camper van they expected to full time in.)
Just any number of regretted yhings that could’ve been avoided had just they asked some questions here before they wrote the check.

Thanks for the detailed response

 

[Lou Schneider]

Greetings.

1st post and brand new to the RV world. We are a few years out from retirement and looking to get a 5th wheel to travel a bit and have a mode of transportation to go visit our kids, two of which are out of state.

We are not really sure where to start, we have looked at 3 models to this point: Brinkley, Keystone Montana, and Jayco Northpoint. We are open to other manufacturers, but this is all we have seen up to this point. As of this moment, the Brinkley is probably the favorite, to our untrained eye, it looked like it had the best build quality.

Welcome to The RV Forum!

If you're looking for build quality, check out the Northwood Mfg / Outdoors RV lines of trailers. They're a small manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest with a long reputation of making high quality, rugged RVs.

I'm a big fan. One of my first RVs was an Arctic Fox trailer that I bought from a wrecking yard - it survived being flipped onto it's side and after some minor repairs served me well for the next 10 years. My current travel rig is a 29 ft Arctic Fox 5th wheel and it's build quality is the same as that other trailer.

 

[B-Lake]

definitely will do!

thanks

 

[Kirk]

If you're looking for build quality, check out the Northwood Mfg / Outdoors RV lines of trailers. They're a small manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest with a long reputation of making high quality, rugged RVs.

While those are brands with a good reputation, they are also very seldom found in Texas, where I would assumer that you are shopping. If you are shopping for a used trailer, it is very important to remember that the most important part is the condition, as even the best built RV can be damaged by a lack of maintenance and/or neglect. If shopping used, get the one you like checked by a certified pre-purchase inspector or a mobile RV tech before you put any money on it. It is usually wise to buy a used RV first just to learn what you will want without spending so much money. On the other hand, if you are shopping new, I would suggest Alliance RV or the Grand Design if you don't find a Brinkley RV that you like. If you share where in TX you are, someone may have a dealership that they would recommend.

 

[DMW-5TH]

Hope everything works out for you.

 

[B-Lake]

While those are brands with a good reputation, they are also very seldom found in Texas, where I would assumer that you are shopping. If you are shopping for a used trailer, it is very important to remember that the most important part is the condition, as even the best built RV Tcan be damaged by a lack of maintenance and/or neglect. If shopping used, get the one you like checked by a certified pre-purchase inspector or a mobile RV tech before you put any money on it. It is usually wise to buy a used RV first just to learn what you will want without spending so much money. On the other hand, if you are shopping new, I would suggest Alliance RV or the Grand Design if you don't find a Brinkley RV that you like. If you share where in TX you are, someone may have a dealership that they would recommend.

Thanks for the response. We are in the Dallas area.
We went out today and made visits to a few dealers to get an in person look at some of these RV's. We looked at these manufacturers:

Brinkley
HIghland Ridge (Open Range 3x)
Grand Design
Keystone Montana High Country
Alliance (Wanted to see a few from this manufacturer, but the sales person said that he didn't have a unit on the lot that matched the specs we wanted. I was hoping he would show us a unit and tell us why Alliance would be the RV builder we wanted, but we got nothing)!

We ended day 1 with a split decision between the wife and I. She preferred a 2 bedroom option from Open Range, and I preferred a front living option from Grand Design. I feel like we just scratched the surface and we have alot to see before we pull the trigger. We went to four dealerships, and we did find one dealer that was hands down the best. There was definitely a huge difference between what we thought was the best dealer and what we thought was the worst!

Appreciate all the responses here!