I went to the B&P and put together my truck over again, and as is known, it was about 2500 more now than last August when I picked mine up.

Then I priced out a new XLT Lightning...

I ALMOST FELL OFF MY CHAIR LAUGHING!!! $77,000!!!

My online name has been Ltngdrvr (Lightning Driver) since way back in 2001 when I bought my first Lightning.
At $77K I won't be renewing that any time soon, not with a new one anyway!

 

now is not a good time to buy anything.

 

My XLT was about $2500 more than last summer when I ordered it also, both 2022s. Had to check the NADA guide price on my trade (thats what the dealer I used went by) and it's also up, but only by $900, so it was a good decision to buy when I did.

 

For sure. We have been looking for a 5th wheel and the prices are insane and the quality is lacking.

Bob

 

Travel trailer quality has been lacking for ages, not a recent development.

 

RV's are a complete joke. Outrageous pricing on pathetic quality.

 

Agreed, but as bad as it was it is even worse today. We are in between units and this will be our fourth unit.

We were in a brand new Forest River and there was molding hanging down from the ceiling and other pieces of molding on the floor. I could go on but you guys know.

Bob

 

we are in process of selling our Class A. we didnt use it last year but once, so it just sits in the rv garage .
thought about getting a small towable to use, but they suck for the money

heck if fuel keeps going like its 2008 we wont be taking long trips this year either
3.59 was fuel here this week so far. at QT, down 10 cents from last week i think they trying to get rid of the winter fuel

 

$3.57 @ QT, $3.26 @ Costco.....today.....

 

All the manufacturers build them so fast, and with such unskilled and uncaring labor, it's amazing that they stay in business with all the warranty repairs they have to do.
RV dealers do so much repair work, it's way worse trying to get your trailer in to their shop than it is trying to get your truck into the dealer for repairs.

 

Next will be stagflation, then recession.

 

We sold our 2000 29 foot RV about 2 years back when we decided to go the truck and trailer route. We too looked at a bunch of Forest River products and every single one of them brand new on the various dealers lots had blaring obvious defects. From small things like loose trip to one with a large crack in the kitchen sink. Reading the rv forums they seem to be the bottom of the bucked when it comes to quality control and repair issues, we would never consider that brand after what we saw.

We have been looking at something totally different, thinking about getting a Peak Mountain camp instead.

Edit: Part of the problem I have read is that with labor shortages they cant keep people long enough to get them properly trained on how to do the rv assembly job right, so they just keep rotating through sloppy untrained labor which explains a lot.

 

Interesting. We had a 2018 TT and it was terrific. Because of that we were strongly leaning to another Forest River.

The camping show is this weekend so we are going to hit the show and see what is available locally.

Bob

 

Just like the C8 corvette, you could probably buy that $77k lighting and sell it for more.

 

For sure. I bought a Coleman 274BH in 2016, used it 4 years, and decided we should upgrade to something larger in 2019, found a conventional we liked, but they sold quickly. This was before we bought the F350, so was looking at 7600 GVWR trailers that the F150 could tow. Since I didn't want to take a huge hit on trade, I listed the trailer for what I saw others listing for on RVtrader and bought a 1 year listing. Nothing from September through to May 2020. June I started getting hits and sold it for what I listed for, and because of what I found in early 2019, if we find something we like, Don't wait until next year. My wife wanted to wait a year, mainly because of Covid and unknown travel restrictions, but I said, remember that trailer we liked and cannot be found? She said, oh... yeah...

So we shopped for a 5th wheel that met the F350's capacity, found one, and put a deposit on. It was an Arctic Wolf 3660 SUITE. Got the whole family over looked at it and a couple others for comparison, and made the final decision and bought it. We got it for $42K. Today that same trailer is at least $60K. Timing was everything. We got it just before demand exceeded supply and production and price increases.

Quality, meh, but I saw worse on trailers that were twice the price. 3 slide cables were damaged, I blame the dealer for not catching this on PDI when it was delivered. The ring around the shower skylight was dirty and cracked, the radio faceplate was marred from a chemical used to wipe it off. The floor in the main part of the living area bounced and the 12v fridge failed. It took them from the day after the November elections to March 2021 to do the repairs. At least I didn't have to pay them storage. Aside from that the trailer has been great. I did my own suspension upgrades with a Moryde kit and shackles, and added a TPMS. Added a soft start to the rear AC and will add one to the front AC this year.

If I wanted to I could make money selling it, but then we would have no RV. A lot of Forest River stuff is hit and miss. I have a 12x6 enclosed from Forest River that has been rock solid, and Arctic Wolf line has been pretty good too. Keystone has been said to be good quality, but not from what I have seen. We looked at a Keystone and the trim for the slide was busted. We looked at a Montana, and my wife went to open a door to a closet in the front bedroom and the door fell OFF! That was an $86,000 trailer! All the cabinets in the 3660 are rock solid, well built. One piece of trim at the ceiling was cut a bit too long so it bowed out, but simple fix. The worst I have seen are Dutchman built trailers.