New Member Needs Advice

[mtlakejim]

Originally Posted by kescue

Bought 381TH year ago. Agree with others, important to find good dealer. I live in Orlando and bought my unit in Jacksonville at Camping World because of price. While it is a little over 1.5 hour drive to dealer, I will take it back to them because of the service they have provided thus far. I have owned lots of toys and yes there is always something that needs to be worked on. Heck I seem to always be doing something on my house! But, I am extremely happy with my unit. I shopped around for about 2 years, went to dealers, RV shows, internet research..... before I finally decided to buy the 381TH. Loved the layout more than the typical TH and the garage length was important to me since I wanted to haul a Harley Ultra. Also, I am the type person that for most repairs I just do it myself if it is not major. (just bought welder last month and learning to weld!)

I took a big gamble the day I bought my unit. The day I bought it, found small stress crack on side of unit door side by front slide when hooking up to leave. We took picture of it with the sales team and they noted it at the dealership. Took unit out on first trip (Orlando to Chattanooga) found a few minor issues. I took pictures of everything I found, printed the pictures out, handed it to the dealer and they used it as a fix list! On the stress crack, the dealership worked with Keystone engineering. They sent pics and Keystone said that was not right and said they needed to get into wall and find out what caused the stress crack. Keystone approved the work, dealer ordered all required parts. Ended up being a bad weld on frame, pretty expensive repair job. The dealer did an awesome job on the repair. Cannot even tell where the they did the fix on the outside of the rig!

Also I believe important to get the right tow vehicle. I believe bigger is better. F350 Dually with 26K Reese hitch. Tows like a dream!

You and I have almost identical stories except I already have the welder and know how to weld. That and I didn’t have nearly as good experience with camping world here in Arkansas as you did with your location

Luckily I have the means and experience to fix ANYTHING on these trailers and I know I can do it far better than the 20 something year olds they call “Certified Technicians” at a lot of the sales dealerships. If I am ever in doubt there are two SERVICE ONLY businesses close by who have real qualified techs

Like you I chose the 381 because of the floor plan and because it had a full 10’ deep garage as opposed to the SOBs that are 9’6”. That extra 6” means we can haul our kayaks, side by side or jet ski. None of which would fit in the SOB garages