Looking at fifth wheels. Will live in and travel for work next 5 years. Prices seem to be dropping. Eyeballing an Arctic Fox not far from me.

Thoughts and experiences good or bad! I know they all got their faults. Four seasons in 30ft range.

Thanks

Artic Fox is arguably one of the finest...........ATC is another, but their smallest is 36 I think.

I had a Grand Design for five years and really enjoyed it. Other than the tires, I had zero issues from day one.

Which, if you know RVing, that is rare.

Tag.

Currently, "quality" and an RV do NOT belong anywhere near each other. All products, ALL, are currently riddled with issues and the manufacturers are hell bent on not paying for as much warranty as possible. Their new thing is to defer all warranty issues to the original manufacturer of the part. Which in most cases is LCI. LCI will do whatever they can to get out of paying for a claim. Your absolute best plan of attack if you are willing to take a dive into this insane market, do research and find the rare dealer that will support you when the manufacturer wont and I promise you, there will be times they dont. Every manufacture is putting out complete over priced garbage and will refuse to warranty many issues. Do you research and do some more! I cant stress this enough

Grand desgin for trailer and 5th wheels and Newmar for motorized currently. They are your best chance at having a manufacturer that will try and help you and that will also take a dealer who is willing to bend over backwards to push them as well. Keystone, Forest River, Winnebago, Thor, ect etc etc and especially AIRSTREAM! They all suck to the highest degree. Stay clear

I currently have a 5 year old Montana 40 foot. It has not been really bad just not what it should have been at that price point.

I'm looking at new ones. Looking at Alligance and Cedar Creek.

Post covid is the stuff nightmares are made of. Still take a risk on pre-covid, but there was a much higher chance of getting something kind of decent

I have a couple of montana's and am very happy with them, they are the best selling and have been for 20 plus years in a row. I did my reasearch and found they were the best value for the money.

We bought a 2021 Arctic Fox in March. Heavy, but very well built and according to those retailers that don't sell them are the only trailer that comes close to a 4-season trailer.

If you get lucky and get a decent one, they are nice looking. Their problem is who builds them. Keystones customer service is awful and will leave you a very unhappy camper when dealing with their multitude of issues they are plagued with these days

I have a 42 ft that is about 16000# that I will tow with my 3/4 ton pickup the truck, it is maxed out at that weight so I only tow a few hundred miles at a time. I was going to buy a dually but they wanted 100 grand plus for them no way was I going to spend that. So what I did was buy a 35ft one that weighs 12000# and my truck has no problem towing that one, I also saved almost 50 grand since it was close to half the price of the dually, it is also a lot easyer to find campgrounds with a 35ft.

I have a 37 ft Keystone Outback that isn't too bad. Mine is a 2012 and we haven't had too many issues with it. Lost an A/C and a water pump and that's about all the issues we have had. I understand the new ones seem to have issues but my 2012 has been pretty good.

My SIL is a mechanic at an RV dealership and tells me just about anything built during and after Covid has issues. He says they just slap them together - crappy workmanship during assembly more so than problems with individual components. We bought a Keystone Cougar new in 2017 and had very few issues. We traded it in last spring on a new Montana High Country and it's been an ongoing nightmare. Everything my SIL told us is spot on. The dealer has been good at making things right but we've been waiting on some parts for over 6 months. We like the unit but have regrets and probably wouldn't buy another Keystone product.

That said, all issues have been mostly cosmetic - misaligned doors/hatches, trim pieces broken/falling off, etc. About half of the issues existed from the factory and we missed them on taking delivery. The rest seems to be schit breaking/coming apart everytime we use it. We haven't been laid up and not able to use it, but the purchase has left a bad taste. Basically, quality materials slapped together by folks that don't give a schit about the final product. Arctic Fox has a good reputation around here but don't see as many around as I used to. I've heard Grand Design is good - higher price bracket than our budget, but is what I'd like to be in.

tag

Learn to repair it yourself.

Anytime you drag an RV at seventy miles per hour over this country's roads, you're going to break something.

Learn how to fix it yourself.

That is what pushed me over they edge to get the second one the wear and tear from the conditions of the roads, we travel around Florida with one and around New England with they other. I can spot an RV that travels a lot at a glance.

Cardinal, Cedar Creek, Montana, Big Horn, Landmark, Mobile Suites, New Horizon, Jayco Designer, Riverstone all would be good to live in fulltime.

I'd like to see the 3/4 ton that can legally tow 16,000. Heck, there's 1 tons that cant do that. Yours at 12,00 is a lot more manageable eh?


I have a 2014 38 foot Montana and it has a great layout and I have not had any problems with the appliances etc. I'm just not impressed with how they are made. These days thats true of most all RV's.

Fix it yourself is good advise.

None are designed to live full time. Some factories will base covering a potential warranty issue on that exact thing. If they find out its your 24/7 home, they will deny certain claims.

This is the best advice right here. If you cant turn a wrench, you better have the coin to pay the dealer to fix your chit. There are rv dealers out there north of $250 an hour. Let that sink in a bit

Bought a new jayco eagle. Like it alot. I think grand design makes a great trailer as well.

Grand designs manufacturing plant is the cleanest, well oiled machine in the business. You can walk through at the end of their day and the place is spotless. Pretty impressive facility

Of those built today…..Arctic Fox is a good one, and does cool temperatures better than most. I haven’t been keeping up rv like I did for many years……but, last time that I studied, Arctic fox is only one of 2 or 3 that built their own “in house” frames.

Around 80% of the rv’s sold in America are produced by 2 cooperations. Most use the lowest quality components that they can get by with. Most of the rv’s produced by these two corporations use Lippert components from wheels to lighting. Lippert is a huge cooperation, which has bought out many small companies that built rv components and had built good reputations for quality. Lippert buys them out, then lowers the quality to satisfy the “bean counters”!

Most of the best quality rv’s folded during the market/economy crash of the late 2000’s….when the demand for cheap crap dominated the rv industry. These two huge cooperations were more than happy to comply!

I wouldn’t trade my 19 year old Teton Homes 5th wheel for anything built today with the exception of a New Horizons 5th wheel…… I’m about $200 K short of being able to buy one! memtb


Addendum: This describes much of the current rv’s produced, “ you can chrome plate a turd…..but, it’s still a turd”! memtb

Yup, lippert owns most of the industry and thats not a good thing. They make alot of poor quality chit and often do not back the product

If you're going to buy a new RV go to the dealer and sit in it - uninterrupted - for a least one hour. Because that's what you'll be doing after you buy it and you'll see, before you sign on the line, all the problems and misalignments of the coach that are missed in the excitement of buying something new.

Not all New Horizon in Junction City, KS is warranted for full time living factory direct sales the cost is $150-250k and most need a big truck to tow it. A few of the others I mentioned allow full time living also.

Another thing……DO NOT BUY NEW!!! Rv’s depreciate very rapidly……let the first “sucker” take the big financial hit! memtb

Fontaine. Always liked their jaw mechanism better than a Holland.

I respectfully disagree about the New Horizons for full time use! This from New Horizons home page! memtb


https://horizonsrv.com/about/

We have a Grand Design Solitude 5th wheel (bought new in Nov 2020, 21 model).

Minor issues so far that got resolved under warranty. Good manufacturer support. Dealers suck and in TX you are required to return them to the dealer where sold for warranty support.

GD has yearly rally’s where they support with field techs and some (Lippert, Morride to name some) to educate owners on how to maintain their unit.

Arctic Fox is a division of Northwood Manufacturing. You can not go wrong with any of their products: Arctic Fox, or Fox Mountain in 5'th wheel; Nash, Desert Fox, or Arctic Fox in bumper pull trailers; Wolf Creek or Arctic Fox in Campers.

Doesnt matter what they say. My point is some will not warranty if they find out the owner is a full timer. Any rv manufacturer states they are desgined for 4 seasons or full time use, its a selling point and a lie lol. Ive seen them all and none stand up to that abuse. None and i mean none can safely be used in the dead of winter in minus temps without a perm setup, skirting and torpedo heaters firing into the enclosed underside

Those rallies are pretty awesome. Gd has been known to fix many issues in their campers even out side of warranty at those rallies. Like i said, shop the manufacture, not so much the product. Gd is a great company

I sold RV's for 25 years here in Mass. Cougar and Montana were the most trouble free. Sold Arctic Fox in the early 2000's, but had lots of issues then, mostly roof leaks and delams, but they were put together strong. Visit some dealers and look at the used models 5,6,7 years old of the ones you are considering. That will tell you more of how they hold up. They all have the same furnaces, refers, water heaters, usually 6 or 10 gallon, stoves, microwaves, ect. An $80K Airstream has the same water pump as a$25K Springdale. Pick a dealer with a good service dept, they should be proud to show it to you. Don't drive to Michigan, or someplace to save a couple bucks and expect your local dealer to take care of you . At the dealership I worked at we had a couple hookups and would let first timers spend a night and get familiar, take care of any questions the next morning. Look up the dealers BBB score before you buy. Its been five years since I retired but the above is pretty basic.

You must be relatively new to rv’ing! While none could compare to a quality brick and mortar home……there were a few makes of yesteryear that did a pretty good job! memtb

I have a 2021 F250 with the 7.3 and 4.30 gears. It's rated for 18,500 on gooseneck or 5th wheel, 3k+ payload. Most 3/4 diesels will run out of payload being that the engine package weighs 600-800 lbs more than the gassers.

A lot of rvs are the same manufacturer. Different badging and a few changes. Arctic fox is decent. If you’re looking for four seasons quality I would at least take a look at outdoors rv. A little more but from everything I’ve looked at or owned (which has been several dozen) outdoors rv is a far superior product

last time i checked THOR ownes most of the RV manufactors,

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the similarities of various models.

The biggest difference I've found is price and the capabilities of the salesman you deal with.

There are far too many barely used RVs on the market to ever consider paying the price for a new one.

Prices on used RVs vary considerably in different parts of the county.

They stack up in Florida and sell cheap, old fu_ckers buy um new, drive to Florida and either die or buy a winter home and dump the RV.
I could shop Craigslist in Florida, buy RVs and haul them to Montana and easily turn a good profit.

If it is an option get the disc brake option, I use less gain on the 42ft then on the 35ft. I am going to convert it to disc this summer, Dexter who makes the axles for almost all of them has bolt on kits. also Toyo and Michelin make tires with 4100# load ratings for us who have single rear wheels. The pin weight on the 42ft is 3000# and on the 35ft is 2500# so that is one less thing to worry about.

Nope, been in this industry for almost 30 years

Talking 2 completely different things. Thor owns a bunch of actual rv brands. Lippert owns most frames and parts

Yup. New is just dumb right now. If financing and not much down, a new momentum would be $1300 a month for 20 years roughly. Just not a smart way to go. Like you said, let some other poor fool take the $40k hit thats coming when buying a new mid to higher end 5th wheel

And Dometic owns the rest.

Which ever makes you're hamster hump the hardest..

How much money can you justify loosing in a few years?




https://ocala.craigslist.org/rvs/d/bushnell-rv/7696635157.html



https://ocala.craigslist.org/rvs/d/silver-springs-forest-river-stone/7694406068.html

My son has had a Vanleigh, (sp) , 40 ft for about 3 years.
They travel about 5 months each summer ( he works remote), pulls with a 450 Ford.
They have been happy with it.
They just bought a new Brinkley 40 ft. toy hauler, will pick it up in Feb.

Stay away from anything made my keystone. My 2016 is falling appart. It is a 40’ fiver, that gets used 3-4 times a year.

Some get lucky and get a good one, but we were a dealer for Vanleigh for a few years and they were one of the worst 5th wheels we ever carried. We had more angry customers buying those than anything else at the time. Havent been in one of the newer ones, but I wouldnt expect they got better

Keystone has horrible customer service as well. You guys would be amazed if you knew how much a good dealer loses dealing with campers under warranty. A good dealer will try and take care of your issues, without passing the cost on to you. Warranty is a giant loss for a good customer oriented dealer who wants to keep their customer happy. This is the biggest reason why you will struggle to find a dealer that will work on your camper under warranty if it was purchased else where. Manufacturers are damn near criminal in the games they play

He had no major issues, but a few warranty upgrades on the control systems, guess he got lucky
The reason he shopped for another is because the factory is discontinuing support for that model.

With over 40 years of towing rv’s I put together a “bucket list” of must have (OK, highly desired) items on my final rig. #1 on the options list was Hydraulic Disc Brakes, other items would include hydraulic auto leveling (BigFoot not Lippert), 17.5” wheels, 3K watt inverter, multiple batteries (ours has 6), all LED lighting, and a host of other little things.

We also wanted an rv that could handle -30 F temperatures (no skirting) without freeze-ups. This was determined when owning our first Teton Homes 5th wheel (a 1990 model) which experienced several -30F morning during the two winters that we lived in it while building our home! This is when we discovered what a quality rv was as compared to some of the previous stuff we’d had!


You may (should) also consider a quality, heavy duty, shock absorbing hitch! Take a look at TrailerSaver!

Your truck and your 5th wheel will thank you! memtb


https://trailersaver.com/

LUXE for full-timers.. I doubt there's none better. Just bring yer wallet...

The nicest I have seen are the DRV's.

Again, back in yesteryear, before some of the better manufacturers’ closed -up……..Teton and Excel both had -20 F guarantees. Few, if any others offered that……not even New Horizons!

If you know rv’s, or have someone that is very knowledgeable……there are still a few of the old Teton’s and Excel’s are still available. Nickels on the dollar as compared to a much more expensive rv of lesser quality! Juss Say’n! memtb

No kidding!

I need to win the lottery.