So, I bought my first travel trailer and...... questions...

LOL. why is he brave lol. I have only had 2 brands of RV's a KZ and a Palomino (which is I think Forest River). I have to say quality in RV's is pretty shitty in general. The door in our current Palomino to the Restroom dropped. And by I mean dropped I mean just sagged down. It must have gotten moisture or something. The fridge also went out. Stopped cooling but I know thats not Forest river fault. Other than that everything that normally goes to shit has gone to shit from gettin brittle in the South Texas Sun. All the exterior plastics are cracking. Our Awning is brittle and tore, etc.

 

I'm not a fan of the Rpod. NoBos look great - I would have gotten a NoBo if it weren't for their ridiculous price tag.

My Forest River Wolf Pup has been great. Sure some of the welds on the chassis are garbage, but that's on Lippert not Forest River. The build quality is better than a lot of the others we looked at, which definitely isn't great, but is certainly usable.

We had no major issues from the factory - just a few minor nuisances that were easy DIY fixes. The only one that would have been major if I didn't repair was the shower pan leaking. That was fixed with a bead of caulk and a splash guard though. I've since changed a ton of stuff on our camper. They're really easy to work on.

 

Lol the reason I ask is I work with a bunch of idiots that don’t care. I question the quality of the units that go out the door. We would send some out to the yard and they’d have water leaks from rain right away. People just don’t care is what I’m saying. I weld the frames on sidewalls. The Nobo are pretty awesome, those are definitely our money makers.

 

By the way I’m not hating on you at all, wish I could afford one!

 

We bought a 2020 NOBO 19.5 in August. We’ve only been on one, 7 day trip from Houston to Utah but it it did good. No real problems other than the vacuum hose came off (5 minute fix) and a piece of the paneling below the bed is loose. I’ll hit it with a few staples this weekend and it’ll be good to go.

 

Manufacturers are in competition to build at the cheapest price they can and still stay in business. There's been many excellent travel trailer brands that have gone belly up and defunct with no parts support after going out of business.

Consolidation by conglomerates like Dutchmen, Forest River, Winnebago provides long-term parts and repair support but they also build them the cheapest way possible. They need volume sales instead of one guy that buys a $45,000 Opus or a ridiculously overpriced Airstream.

Trailers require maintenance, you can't leave them sitting in Texas sun without preventive maintenance.

 

Beautiful unit buddy. I hate building those 19.5 they are a bitch to weld.

 

Have you seen the 10.6 series? Those are pretty sweet.

 

Thanks, You probably welded mine. Pretty sure it’s not a west coast build.

I have and we almost bought one. It was the very first NOBO we looked at and almost bought it but the wife wanted a bathroom so we kept looking. We ended up paying less for our 19.5 than our local Camping World is selling a 10.5 for. The one we were looking at is still for sale and Camping World has actually raised the price on it since we looked at it. It’s a nice rig but doesn’t compare to our 19.5.

 

Ya I heard the 10.6 can be just as much as the 19 series. Have you seen IBEX? This is what happened. NOBO Sales were a little down about a year ago so they built the exact same trailer as NOBO but made it blue and white and put a ram on it and it says IBEX.

 

By the way, Oregon West Cost they have a major issue with employees smoking ganja all the time, we actually make most of there units and ship them. They don’t make crap for money over there. Like 15 bucks an hour. We make per unit rate which is actually pretty decent. Just very hard, fast paced work, no one cares about quality, just quantity, and a lot of people tweaked out of there mind.

 

I haven’t seen it but have heard of it. I know it’s a poor quality NOBO knockoff.

Makes sense about the west coast. You’d think they’d be paid more though.

I’m not a fan of a per unit pay structure. It creates exactly what you said, people worried about quantity vs quality.

 

I towed the following in my 2000 SR5 V6 Pre-runner 3.4 V6:

1997 - Sea Ray Bowrider 190 (19' Ft.) - From Lemoore, CA to Seattle , WA.....and all over locally
1999 - Procraft 205 Pro (21' Ft.) w/ Merc 225..no steep boat ramps and pray they don't have gravel.
2010 - Gulfstream Ameri-Lite (23' Ft.) - from Virginia Beach to: Middle TN, Shenandoah Mtns. and the Outer Banks several times

What made it possible: Transmission Cooler, Stiff AAL, overdrive button (in the O.F.F. position). Electronic brake controller, and for the trailer I had a Reese class 3 weight distribution hitch.

It will do it, but it's not the optimal set up.

@ 240,000 miles I bent an intake and exhaust valve. That was the only mechanical issue the truck ever experienced and I'm certain it was from towing more than the truck really should have been, at that stage of it's life.

 

Exactly. That’s why I was asking about the quality of your guys units. So many guys just run as fast as they can work 5 hour days and don’t give a shit about pride in they’re work.
Yep IBEX is a cheap knock off for sure.

Good thing about per unit rate is sometimes we only work 20/30 hour weeks gross almost 2000 bucks. Shitty thing about it is you don’t get overtime if your very busy doing hard units.

 

Didn’t realize the IBEX is Forest River also. I just looked it up and the IBEX 19QBS is the exact same thing as our NOBO 19.5.

 

(First off, glad to hear OP is enjoying the RV life and not letting the tacoma/RV combo get him down. You're a more patient man than me!)

Appreciate the honesty here! It is true, in both of my Forest River products (GeoPro and 1640 ESP) there has been very, VERY shoddy workmanship in a number of areas. However, none of the offending lacks of attention to detail (screws in wrong place or missing, sawdust and plastic shavings left anywhere the eye doesn't immediately see, Velcro staples entirely missing the velcro, etc) were so offending that I couldn't easily remedy them myself. Luckily I have not experienced any mechanical, electric, or appliance failure at all. But yeah, I completely see where @chad8mw is coming from.
These are RAPDILY made constructions and the companies that sell them are just like the vast majority of all companies in that they will do more or less as little as possible for the greatest amount of profit. I would not run a company like that but I can't blame them - I'm a capitalist!

I have seen and heard much better things about Jayco's, actually. Think it's that good old Amish know-how. Jayco's however, have their issues too, make no mistake.

All said, I really like my Rockwood 1640ESP. I removed the folding sink and the stupid interior bunk privacy curtains, as well as little things that add bits of weight here and there like the inside table and the included propane grill of which I already own two (but it's good to have a back up).

For those Tacoma drivers who already have a toilet and shower solution not connected to the RV, or for those who exclusively camp where electric/water/bathroom/showers are, you should seriously consider looking at pop-ups as opposed to travel trailers.

Towing 3000 lbs of low profile pop-up is VASTLY different than towing 3000 lbs of wind-blocking travel trailer and makes the driving part of the vacation actually enjoyable instead of frustrating.

(If I had the money, I would have definitely gone with the Somerset Utah by Aliner.)

Anyway, the pop-up setup isn't as quick and easy as my GeoPro but the drivability and 16mpg I get driving to and from campsites is well worth the slight inconvenience. Unfortunately, the first night I camped, a 30mph gust windstorm ripped the awning right off.

Because Texas is a veritable cauldron of HEAT, I as experimenting with a Lanmodo car tent on a makeshift platform that hooked to the sport rack and it was working very well to shade the entire roof from blaring direct sun. It very noticeably kept interior daytime temps down and let the A/C not have to work so hard in 100F.
However the windstorm jacked that up too. You can see the last ditch effort I made at securing it. Before the storm it sat up just barely above the A/C cover very nicely.

Had to make a drive to Walmart for a standalone canopy tent.

This is Inks Lake State Park (Texas) which is an epic swimming/fishing/geology lovers paradise.

 

We also love our pop-up! For us the purpose of getting a trailer was to still go camping but without sleeping on the ground and having a place to sit out of the sun/rain/bugs. We have no problem boondocking with it; ours has a 45gal fresh water tank, a propane furnace and hot water heater, a cassette toilet (that we don’t use), and indoor and outdoor showers. We’ve upgraded to a group 31 deep cycle battery and will add solar next year. We could realistically go close to a week in it.

 

3400 dry weight, so probably around 4400 loaded.

My truck is lifted on 33’s with a Dakar heavy leaf pack. It’s not regeared but it is tuned.

Once we found the sweet spot (approx 70-72mph) it pulled pretty good. Mountains were a bit rough and I could definitely feel the trailer behind me.

I have a Andersen WD/anti sway hitch. It does a really nice job.

 

You put that perfectly! I wasn’t trying to dis on anyone, I’ve just seen first hand how quickly we build and people don’t care. If I had the money I’d love to have one.

 

OP here......

I hear what you guys are saying about the quality of Forest River trailers and so far, can’t agree. Granted, I’ve only owned it a month and have only spent 4 nights in it, in 3 different RV parks, but I have been on top, underneath, inside, outside, up, down and all around it and I have only noticed a few minor fit and finish issues. And numerous people I’ve talked to, spoke highly of Forest River brands.

anyway, we will make our own discoveries, good and bad, as we go along trailering.

cheers,
Ron