benn looking at class c for over a year and dont know what brand to buy. i like one with two slides. i like the four winds dorado 26 or the 29 foot. but dont know much about them.
I have a 28' Four Winds Majestic. It's a basic Class C that's a former rental unit. Even though it's very basic, I like some of the nice details: china toilet, stainless steel kitchen and bathroom sinks, sturdy cabinets. I go to a lot of RV shows and some vehicles have fixtures and cabinetry that just don't seem very sturdy.
DeWayne & Judy
04 3810 Dutch Star
ISL 370
Frank's autoformer
01 Sahara Jeep-toad
F 374382
It is hard to kiss the lips at night, that has chewed your butt all day long!
I am happy with my Four Winds. All brands have quality control problems, they seem to depend on the dealer to finish the manufacturing process and fix the little things that the factory didn't do. Make sure the floor plan suits you and make sure the dealer takes care of all the problems. Do a really through inspection before taking the MH off the lot.
I have the four winds 5000 29R with two slides. It has held up well for the couple of years I have had it. I would buy another, and the two opposing slides give a lot of room for my two golden retrievers.
We had a 2005 Winnebago Minnie 31-C and it was flawless! It only made one trip back to the dealer and that was for the tank guages reading incorrectly. We hated to part with it, but we needed BIGGER to winter down south for 4 to 5 months.
Four Winds is low on features (flooring, upgraded cabinets etc) and also may not have perfect fit and finish. But the major things are done well, and it is a good value.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, 230,000+ miles
Had: Weekend Warrior 41' FSW (still looking for its replacement)
I currently have 07 Dorado 29BG that I took delivery of in Sep. '07. See pix in my profile.
I would recomment ForestRiver products (Lexington, Sunseeker, Forester) better than FourWinds. I traded in my '04 Cedar Creek 37LBHS travel trailer to this Dorado. In my 4+years of ownership, I never had to return the Cedar Creek for a defect. In fact the only time I had to bring it in was for accidental damage (broken awning because of unexpected downpour).
On the Dorado, during the walkthru/pre-delivery inspection, there were quite a number of issues found (broken light covers, inoperable surround system, cracked fiberglass wall, inoperable awning, loose storage door locks, inoperable screen for backup camera, etc) that it took the dealer over a month to fix some and left others (mainly the awning motor, and cracked finish due to preauthorization) unresolved during our first trip on it.
After initial (shakedown) trip on the Dorado, I found more Quality Control issues that it took the dealer over 3 months to fix them. Luckily, those were during winter months. These items were inoperable furnace, water heater leak, bedslideout not seating properly, waterleak from front cab cover, inoperable portable radios, etc.)
Attention-to-detail is more obvious in Forest River products than FourWinds.
For example, my Cedar Creek has the following:
- access door for the water heater to turn the bypass valve
- Spice Rack between stove and its hood vent
- Knife Rack on the counter behind the stove
- Slide out in pantry next to the fridge
- Laudry hamper
- More easily accessible power outlets.
The main thing that I miss from my Cedar Creek and bugs me dearly in the Dorado are the light switches ergonomically mounted on the wall close to room entrances. For example, in the Cedar Creek, the Galley, bathroom, and bedroom light switches are on the wall within arm's reach of the entrances, in addition to having a switch on the lighting unit themselves, which stay in the on position. In the Dorado, my wife could not even turn on the lights without having to use steps because there are no switches other than on the lighting units themselves, mounted high on the ceiling.
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One thing to watch with multi slide C's and longer ones is the amount of CCC left. Make sure it has enough CCC left to suit your needs. As other posters have indicated, look at the dealer/service department as well. Also, many of the appliances are the same regardless of brand of MH, so I would look more at the floorplans you like and look at the fit/finish. For example, most have either a dometic or norcold refrigerator, atwood or suburban water heater. So generally I dont consider the appliances to be a deal breaker, as most of them work well.
Since you are considering a B+ styled RV, something spacious, yet slightly scaled down for improved handling & maneverability, aero-dynamic, and ease of over-all driving, then you may want to do a little research on your options. This One and This One, both are offered with two slides. But they are set apart by many of the other brands because of their quality construction method-to-price ratio. Take the Virtual Tour of a slide show with sound, so you have a good reference point of a decent construction method "for the money". If new is too expensive, then seek out a used one.
We special ordered a new one last year but it's one of the shorter models #2350. We are extremely pleased and impressed with the quality for the money paid new at $67,000. It's a smaller company that puts their heart into what they are building.
Click on my "View Profile" to see the inside of ours. Sorry the bed isn't made up.
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Bought new in June 2007, Phoenix Cruiser-2350
Fits inside our garage.
Dingy towing a red Toyota MR2 Spyder
See The Inside by clicking on "View Profile" and scroll down
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