partsman01
Poco British Columbia
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Joined: 07/22/2005
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Like I have mentioned I believe elsewhere, wife wants to go bigger than our current 1989 prowler 18.5 fifth wheel, she seems to want to go to 22 or 23 max, so have been perusing our local buy and sell and there seem to be quite a few out there, such as one called Thor/Tahoe, some Jayco's anyway any input on what to avoid as far as name or manufacturer?
I like ours now partly because the pin box and all steel structure are all exposed, so one can see if any problem develops, all the ones I have seen appear to be all enclosed except the pin box itself.
I have also seen Frontiers going privately for what appear to be not bad prices, I am looking mostly around 1995 or so, maybe newer, depends on price.
So hope this makes sense.
Below is one I found
It is a 95 prowler 21L5B they want 7600.00
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rwpor
mercer island wa
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Joined: 03/12/2007
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I would look at the Artic Fox
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wittmeba
Roanoke, Va
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Joined: 02/02/2001
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I think Gulfstream might have an offering - at least a 25'. Actually after further review, there doesnt seem to be many in that size range. Forest River has a couple offering you might take a look at.
Here is a link with most major mfgs.
http://www.rvbg.com/manufacturers.cfm
Arctic Fox might be your best bet.
http://www.northwoodmfg.com/Fox5thWheelFloorplansWest.htm
* This post was
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edited 08/06/08 03:16am by wittmeba *
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Bruce & Carolyn Wittmeier
Viet Nam Vet 1968-69
2001 Ford F250 4X4 OffRoad, Auto ESOF, KingCab, ShortBed, Airlift Airbags, DiPricol gauges, SCT-Tuner from DP-Tuners (40/80/120HP), Bilsteins, Reese Slider, Jordan, 2001 30RKFS SunnyBrook w/personal touches.
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Dick_B
Palos Heights, IL USA
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Joined: 07/10/2002
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I hope you don't buy a bigger rig based solely on price. Since you have been RVers previously you should have a better idea of what you want. If not go to www.rvknowhow.com and read the Kieva's suggestions for how to decide on a camper.
If the RV you buy doesn't work for your lifestyle it will not be a bargain no matter the price.
Dick_B
2003 SunnyBrook 27FKS
2003 3/4 T Chevrolet Suburban
Equal-i-zer Hitch
One wife, two bikes (both Electric Schwinn's with motor assist)
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TXiceman
(Near) Houston,TX
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Joined: 11/17/2000
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In the smaller sizes and good quality...Artic fox will be the ones to look at.
Ken
KE5DFR
Vintage 1979 Silver Streak Supreme Rocket toted by a 2002 F350, crewcab dually, 7.3L,4.10 axle,SCMT. Travel with two miniature Schnauzers and one African Gray parrot. Practicing for retirement!
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cdrcos
St. Paul, MN
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Joined: 12/13/2001
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partsman01 wrote:Like I have mentioned I believe elsewhere, wife wants to go bigger than our current 1989 prowler 18.5 fifth wheel, she seems to want to go to 22 or 23 max, so have been perusing our local buy and sell and there seem to be quite a few out there, such as one called Thor/Tahoe, some Jayco's anyway any input on what to avoid as far as name or manufacturer?...
partsman,
You're talking about "the good, the bad and the ugly". Seriously, there is a "consumer reports" for RV's. As I have in the past on this forum, I would urge you, or anyone else planning to buy an RV, to get a copy of the RV Consumer's Group ratings guide (CD). The will give you some objective information and ratings on the different models out there. Yes, the guide costs about $80, but that is pretty insignificant when you're going to spend $40,000+ on a fifth wheel. (You may be able to find the guide in some libraries). The RV Consumers Group website is: www.rv.org
We have used the guide to purchase our last 3 RV's and found the ratings to be pretty accurate. The RV we had before we discovered the ratings (a Thor product ) was a piece of junk and we wish we had known about the guide then. (The guide accurately predicted it was poor in quality.) There are models out there that are better rated for the same money with the same features. Unless you're an expert on RV's (which we are not), think about it.
Don't believe anything that RV salespeople tell you and only about half of what RV owners tell you about their rigs. They are not objective after having made a decision and sinking $35,000+ into their rigs. They want to believe they got the best.
Good Luck!
Joe & Barb
2002 F-350,PSD,Crew Cab
2003 HH II LS 32.5 UKTG
*finally retired! *
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campercajun
Central Texas Hill Country
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Joined: 08/09/2007
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As exceptions to the opinions of the RV Consumers Group rating guide, our entire extended RVing family (kids, brother/sister, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, and cousins) own Thor products at present and are pleased with them (Montanas, Mountaineers, Cougars, Dutchmen, Aerolite, and Tundra, and have owned Springdale, Sprinter, and Adirondack in the past). I have also read reports on the forum of Thor's Tahoe being "junk", and have never owned one, but one of the deacons of our church owns one, and being retired and members of a camping club, I can tell you they use it very frequently and love it. Each of these trailers had "glitches" that were satisfactorily taken care of by the dealers, but so did the Coachman, Fleetwood, Forest River, Jayco, Starcraft, and Northwood (Arctic Fox and Nash) brands that my wife and I or other family members have owned through the years.
Any manufacturer can make a lemon, but a respectable dealer can usually turn a lemon into lemonade, and none of us has any complaints about the way the dealers or Keystone's and Dutchmen's warranties took care of any items not up to par. Many of the glitches involved appliances that were installed, but not built, by the trailers' manufacturers.
Finding a dealer who will stand behind the products he sells and will work with you until you are completely satisfied with your RV is priceless, and after buying 5 new RVs in our camping lifetimes (plus several used ones), the dealer's reputation for dealing and service is more important to us than someone else's opinion of the brand of trailers we bought.
I'm not trying to dispute that some on this forum have bought Thor products and have considered it a big mistake. And I'm certainly not guaranteeing you that if you buy a Thor product that you will be completely satisfied with it. What I am saying is that our family members have had their own "horror stories" with Coachmen, Fleetwood, Forest River, Jayco, Starcraft, and Northwood products, and to our chagrin, the dealers that sold them were interested only in selling, and either weren't interested in, or didn't know how, to fix them or make them right. The main reason that we all own Thor products right now is that we all have found that the dealers in our area who handle mostly Thor brands are also the dealers who take pride in their reputations for service after the sale, and just as it has with us, this will earn them repeat business on the sales floor, too.
I was disappointed, when we found "our" Tundra, that in about 4 or 5 instances the factory didn't take the extra few minutes it would have taken to make a mediocre job a flawless one. But our trailer was manufactured during the period when every RV manufacturer was selling everything they could build as quickly as they could roll them out the doors, and I know the people on the assembly line were being pressured by management to get the trailers out the door as quickly as possible. But we went over the trailer with a fine tooth comb, crawling over, under, around, and through it before purchasing it. We made a list of everything we wanted fixed and left the trailer with the dealer until they were. The dealer fixed them all to our satisfaction, and we've used the trailer regularly for a year and a half now, pulled it down some very rough roads, and nothing has loosened or fallen off, and the trailer is very "tight".
Besides our original list of "glitches", we have had only had one more thing that needed attention, which was the furnace, which finally had to be completely replaced. The RV techs even contacted the manufacturer and tried everything the manufacturer suggested they do, and nothing made the thing run long enough to heat the trailer instead of the burner short cycling on and off every minute or so each time they installed it in the trailer. The manufacturer finally shipped a new one, and asked them to ship the original back to them so that they could have their engineers examine it to find out what the problem was. I watched most of the work being done on this unit, and it stumped me, too, although I was once a HVAC tech myself. Our dealer's service department won't quit until they fix the problem, one way or the other, unlike many others we've dealt with who might keep the trailer for weeks, not touch it, and then call and tell you it's "fixed".
I'm not on Thor's payroll, nor does it matter to me if you buy a Thor product or not. We've already got ours, and the warranty is about to expire, anyway, so if they went out of business, it wouldn't really matter to me. But if you dismiss all Thor products automatically without looking at them, you may miss your chance to find the trailer that was literally "built for you", with all your needs and desires in mind, like we did. The other manufacturers make good products, too, but if you happen to wind up with a trailer which was built on a Monday (hangovers), or a Friday (get-out-of-here-itis), no matter who built it you will thank yourself a thousand times if you bought it from a dealer who wants to make sure you're satisfied and wants a repeat customer.
I wish you luck in your search.
2003 GMC Sierra Crew HD; 6.0L; Prodigy
2006 Thor Tundra 30RL-DSL; Reese Strait-Line & Dual-cam HP
2001 Honda Elite Scooter
Jim & Gayle Bryant
Murphy's Law: "Anything that CAN happen, WILL."
Bryant's Law: "31 years of RVing? Probably already HAS."
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