Hello,
Had a Toterhome I liked minus no slide out. Had an older Previous conversion that was built like a tank, the 2 stroke engine worried me.
Purchased a new F450 and have considered some type of 5th wheel camper mostly looking into toy haulers with a 13 to 15' garage.
However, seeing them go down the road and going and looking at some of the higher end price wise, (100k+) I left less than impressed. Just looked and felt cheaply built and even new sitting on the lot, several had doors that wouldn't even shut.

All I'd be hauling is a UTV most of the time. Speaking with a used dealer, they indicated the quality is just getting worse. So asking here, is anybody have any experience with a brand they've towed a lot of miles that they haven't had issues with them falling apart? No issues with walls, doors staying true etc. Roads around here can get fairly rough. Looking for brands, and years to possibly look at that are built sturdy enough to handle interstate travel for long trips.

I've about ruled them out but thought I would check here to see if I can get some honest feedback from individuals with a lot of towing miles one.

 

Recent quality is rather poor, but it depends on which manufacturer. I have a 2006 Fleetwood Gearbox bumper pull toy hauler. It's built like a tank and weighs like one too. The frame is beefy. The rest of the camper has required a few maintenance fixes that if I had a repair shop do it would have been very costly - more than the camper is worth. I did it all myself, so the cost wasn't too bad. I have around 30,000 towing miles with mine and I got it used in 2016.

Since you have an F-450, consider the ATC Toy Haulers. They're all aluminum and very light compared to the more traditional toy hauler. But you're going to pay big bucks for all that aluminum. ATC is in my top five list for my next trailer.

 

Thank you. That's what I'm coming to the conclusion too but if I start getting up in those price ranges, think I'd rather have a older Prevost with a Detroit 60 as you have a better chance of it holding it's value vs a trailer. I'm looking at some other race car trailer options as well with living quarters. I've been told on most of the RV lines, try to look pre 08 when the economy tanked but hoping to hear from some first hand.

 

I'm casually looking for my next trailer. Used or new? I got a decent deal on my current trailer, which was my first and it was a great learning experience (for me). But know that I know what I'm looking at, used trailers often mean starting over with all the maintenance that I've already gone through on my current trailer. Used prices have started to come down, but they're still high. Not that new prices are very good, but they're coming down too. The good thing about a used trailer is that I don't have a problem drilling a hole in it.

I keep my UTV in my trailer and I would like to continue to do that. I don't have a place to store the UTV outside of the trailer. So a non-toy hauler fifth wheel isn't ideal for me. I camp in cold weather so a non-four season trailer isn't ideal either. I get into some interesting boondocking spots. There are a lot of toy haulers with poor ground clearance. ATC doesn't have very good clearance and they even have an option to lower the trailer even more. If you're considering a motorhome then off-road clearance probably isn't a consideration.

Since my first camper is a toy hauler I got spoiled. 120 gallon fresh water tank and 55/40 gray/black tanks make it possible to stay out there a long time.

Fleetwood went into bankruptcy around 2008/2009. When they emerged they discarded the trailer division. I can't even call them to ask questions about mine. They're motorhome only now.

Delamination of older fiberglass sided trailers is an issue. I've had to repair that. It's no fun.

Anyhow, that's where I'm at in my thought process.

 

What model and pull type is yours? Fiberglass can't be stored outside uncovered or they all have that issue I hear. How has the integrity of the walls held up? Cabinents, doors, slides etc how bad have they got out of line or what issues have you had along those lines? How many miles have you towed it and types of roads? interstate, highways etc?

What about the smaller tires on these trailers, issues with heat and exploding on the interstate or does upgrading to a 14 or 16 ply tire resolve that?

Axles, any issues with bearings etc?
Thank you

 

I disagree that fiberglass can't be stored outside. The delamination issues is almost always due to water intrusion, often from the roof. Keeping the roof maintained goes a long way towards avoiding delamination. I fixed delamination on three sides of my trailer. Side repair and front. For all three sides, it was water coming in from the roof that doomed the fiberglass adhesion.

There were a lot of complaints about frame integrity of the Montana fifth wheel trailers (not a toy hauler). I think a lot of the blame for that goes to Lippert and I will do my best to avoid buying a trailer with a Lippert frame. The "wood" cabinets in my toy hauler suck. There are problems with all the catches on the cabinets and drawers that I've had to address. This issue alone is one reason that I'm looking at the ATC line because they have no wood in their trailers, not even the cabinets.

I have no slides in my camper and I'll avoid them if I can. They add weight and maintenance. Reliability is poor, but I'm saying that only because of the threads I read here. I helped my hunting partner fix the seal on his Arctic Fox fifth wheel trailer a few wheels ago. The trailer is less than two years old. Northwood Manufacturing makes a good quality trailer. Their fifth wheel trailers are not toy haulers, but they do make a travel trailer toy hauler. It's another mfg in my top five.

I have about 30,000 towing miles. My trailer has seen some really rough roads. But those are typically the last 10 to 30 miles of the trip. I'm almost always boondocking. I've been down some nasty roads where I was worried that the trailer was going to tip over. That was probably unfounded but I didn't like the angles I was seeing. I replaced the bearings, brakes, springs and shackles last year. Everything was OEM that I replaced, so it held up OK. I was being a bit proactive on the maintenance (the bearings looked OK. the brakes not so much, the leaf spring bushings were shot quite a few miles ago), but I also upgraded the components from 5200 to 6000 lbs rating.

 

Suppose it can depend on where you live but here in the summer, the sun is harsh on anything sitting outside.

 

How campers are maintained is a huge variable that is hard to factor in when considering owner reports. As a general rule box construction is correlated with price when comparing comparably sized units. Delam without water penetration is rare, but sunlight can really fade finishes. In my experience, roof leaks are due to lack of maintenance on caulk lines. The industry has the capability to build exactly what owners say they want, but no one could afford them or even consider buying them because price is the biggest consideration when buying. Go to an RV show and sit outside campers and listen to shopper comments. Count the number of questions you hear about construction versus color choices. My two cents

 

They don't make fifth wheel toyhaulers, but Northwood Desert Fox are pretty well made.
We had a 2014 24AS and the only issue I had was the grease seals leaked in 3 of the wheel assemblies and contaminated tge brakes.
Sold the Desert Fox this summer and bought a Grand Design Momentum 351M. The Momentum seems to be well made, but have not had it long enough to comment on it's reliability.

 

I've got a 2011 Forrest River WOrk and Play 30' camper. Its more of an enclosed trailer that has a living quater. Its been used to haul Harleys, dirt bikes and ranger UTV. THe ramp door is rugged and solid, nothing has fitment issues. Its myvote to go with a work and play style with a more rugged steel frame, composit walls and a 1 piece roof.

 

imo quality has always been fair to poor on RVs. There is simply very little to no guidelines on safety or quality. A buddy bought a (I think) Montana about 6/7 years ago. Top of the line 5er. Triple slides, fire place bla bla bla options, self leveling and slides open with remote. He had 125 things that needed to get fixed. I pointed out to him that some of the cabinets were installed upside down.
all the plastic edging and overlap trim was just absolutely chintzy. Just crap glued to crap. And he paid 85,000 for it. And the sticker was 125,000. So 4 k off and they still made a profit.
i have a 1989 34XB Avion aluminum trailer (basically a way overbuilt Airstream style trailer.). That thing is more solid than any on the road including a new airstream. You couldn’t offer me enough money to sell that.

I souks stay away from anything built in the last 2-2,5 years. Quality has always been mediocre. I can’t imagine how absolutely pitifully horrendous it is right now

 

I have a 2017 Stellar 28ILBG (made by Eclipse, same company that makes Attitude). I've owned it since new and probably tow between 2,500 and 3,000 miles per year. Mine has no slide outs and it has fiberglass sides vs. the corrugated plastic style. I have had minimal issues overall. Mostly little things like the baseboard trim coming loose and little things like that. Cabinets are holding up very well and I have not had any plumbing related problems. I am just starting to see the support structures leaving an imprint on the fiberglass from the outside which seems to be common. I assume it's from flexing while being towed.

When I bought mine my uncle was working at an RV place as a sales guy. He would only let me look at the Eclipse and Pacific Coach Works toy haulers as he said they are the ones they see the least issues with. So far he seems to have been right. In my research since I really like the Grand Designs Momentum M Class but they are quite pricey. I've seen them at RV shows and they all seem to have good build quality.

Like others have said the roof is the biggest worry. I have touched up the seals on my roof 3 times since I have owned it. I also did the windows once as I was getting water in through a couple of them. This year I had some crows tear into and take chunks out of the roof so I had to really pile on the sealant to keep water from getting under there.

 

Ok, I enjoyed reading through @HRTKD 's ToyHauler refurb. ! and !! versions linked above, _ _ _ I think. hahaha

So, I have a 2007 Mega-Lite 21 toy hauler which I purchased well used in Feb. of 2020 just prior to Covid Closures.
I purchased the trailer from a nephew who bought It new. The trailer was sold and used for deer hunting mostly and sat un-used most of the time.
The trailer had sprung a h2o leak of some sorts, which required replacement of some flooring. Well, folks, because of the toilet flange, the bathroom floor was replaced in two pieces and was un-supported in many places, so the OSB flooring came out, allowing me to study what I had to work with.

Prior to laying new flooring, my wife found a Flange Removing tool on the internet called "Flange-Off" and ordered one for me for $100.00.
See Below:


Above photo showing the Flange-Off tool and pieces of the collar of the pvc toilet flange.
Note - I had cut off the plastic flang before using Flange Off to cut off the collar portion of the toilet flange assembly from the pvc waste pipe.


The Flange Off tool is a holesaw contraption with a pilot similar to a rubber engine block freeze plug. The rubber inserts down into the existing pvc toilet drain pipe and tighten a nut clamping the rubber pilot and gasket inside the pipe. Next, with the holesaw portion of the Flange Off inserted into my 1/2-in drill, it only took a minute for the holesaw bit to cut the Toilet Flange off of the waste pipe attached to the blackwater holding tank.
Now I was set to install a one-piece new bathroom floor over new supports that I screwed in. Where the new OSB butted up against the existing OSB subfloor I pre-drelled and screwed support blocking under all perimeter joints for seam support. After I had the new OSB floor screwed in place I then used some Simpson Tie Straps and tied new to existing also in a few places. I should have used a router to countersink the strraps and torx screw heads.

I really don't know what has kept the body of the trailer from coming loose from the chassis other than weight and attatchment at the rear door frame.
At each chassis to body anchor location, the manufacturer simply ran a 1/2-in x 3-in long Lag Screw up into the 2x2 sill plate splitting the sill because of lack of pilot hole. Cheezy peezy construction techniques by Mega-Lite. Any sane white boy or mexican can do better with a bit of effort.

The worst anchor point was at the rear of the passenger side fender-well Body-to-Chassis anchor. I could spin the lab bolt with my fingers, and the sidewall of the trailer was pooching-out beyond where I should be. I wound up removing the bottom piece of aluminum lap siding to conjure up some sort of metal plate to srew to the trailer wooden framework 2x2's and also have a hole to accept a 1/2-in hex bolt to positively anchor the wall framing to the chassis.
Believe me, I spent hours makiing up the new anchor plate and getting it all pre-drilled and screwed in place.
See beloow:




Above photos showing my positive anchor plate I made up to bolt the side wall framing to the chassis. _ _ it's not coming loose. ( I hope ).


Above photo shows where I spliced the chassis rim 2x2 to the wall sill 2x2 where the awning lower brace bracket attaches.
Of course the manufacterrer, Extreme, just ran lag screws into the assembly with no pilot holes which separated the two ply 2x2's.
Now being glued and screwed with a Sympson Tie-Plate and new hole drilled, the awning lower bracket is hell for stout.


Remember: there is not much purchase into a 2x2 piece of hem fir, so to prrevent splitting, all locations were carefully pre-drilled and I used either no. 8 or no. 10 torx head screws generously. i just got burned out doing the one anchor point, and haven't modified any of the other locations of wall framing-to-chassis anchor points.
My wife and I finally did get to use the toy hauler in late July of 2022. We pulled the trailer with our '07 Chevy Suburban 2500 series w/ 6.0L V-8.
I believe the trailer weighs in empty at around 5.500 lbs and we probably added 1.500 lbs of cargo including fresh water.
We have 3 hard pulls climbing up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the suburban wound up in first gear at the top of the steep grades.

I remember 30-some years ago when we had a 26-foot pull trailer which leaked during a 3-day rainstorm on Memorial Weekend at the lake.
When I asked the guy at the RV shop for some caulking tape to re-seal the corner trim, the old guy said "why bother, most of the new trailers on the sales lot also leak." This goes to show us how Cheesey RV's are built. And I know, overall construction weight is foremost concern for manufacturers.

Overall, for a $4,000 original investment, I do like the Mega-Lite toy hauler, which sleeps under a 30-foot long modified Costco Carport with tarp cover.

 

Actual live in type trailers tend to have shoddy construction and it starts at the top and works it’s way to dismal as the quality of the brands become less popular. Same with boats.

my buddy bought a brand new 5th wheel. It was in the shop for the first 6 months of its life with 143 different issues m. And this was new.

 

I should put together a build thread that has links to all the big repairs on my toy hauler. I'll get right on that as soon as there are no more toy hauler projects.