To camper or not to camper... Hunting and married couple trips

[Fowl Play]

All the brands have pretty bad quality control in my opinion until you get up to the very expensive custom or semi custom campers. Being handy is a necessity with campers. You get higher quality wood and components moving up the line, but you still might have some knucklehead put it together wrong on a Friday while he’s trying to take off for the bar. My Grand Design is basically the top of the line they make. My solar panels were never connected to the rest of the system (bare hot wire laying unconnected in the pass thru). My roof ripped off in Kansas (the front cap was not installed correctly). I had a major water line break and cause a flood in the underbelly. And my electric over hydraulic brakes failed coming out of Breckenridge. This all happened in the first 2 months of ownership of a brand spanking “custom” ordered $140k unit from the factory. Even though you have a warranty, it’s a month to get into a dealer and a two to three month wait minimum to get your trailer back. Even with a brand new unit, I wound up performing all the above repairs myself, just so I could keep using the trailer. It was a major pain in the ass. Still having a blast in it, and no major issues in a long time (knock on wood). Just preparing you for the reality. The interior work (wood, counters, etc) are all very well done in mine. But looks like a meth head did the wiring and plumbing.

A friend with an almost identical unit purchased a month earlier has had literally zero issues in almost 2 years of full time use. It’s hit or miss on quality control.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

All the brands have pretty bad quality control in my opinion until you get up to the very expensive custom or semi custom campers. Being handy is a necessity with campers. You get higher quality wood and components moving up the line, but you still might have some knucklehead put it together wrong on a Friday while he’s trying to take off for the bar. My Grand Design is basically the top of the line they make. My solar panels were never connected to the rest of the system (bare hot wire laying unconnected in the pass thru). My roof ripped off in Kansas (the front cap was not installed correctly). I had a major water line break and cause a flood in the underbelly. And my electric over hydraulic brakes failed coming out of Breckenridge. This all happened in the first 2 months of ownership of a brand spanking “custom” ordered $140k unit from the factory. Even though you have a warranty, it’s a month to get into a dealer and a two to three month wait minimum to get your trailer back. Even with a brand new unit, I wound up performing all the above repairs myself, just so I could keep using the trailer. It was a major pain in the ass. Still having a blast in it, and no major issues in a long time (knock on wood). Just preparing you for the reality. The interior work (wood, counters, etc) are all very well done in mine. But looks like a meth head did the wiring and plumbing.

A friend with an almost identical unit purchased a month earlier has had literally zero issues in almost 2 years of full time use. It’s hit or miss on quality control.

but you still might have some knucklehead put it together wrong on a Friday while he’s trying to take off for the bar

LMAO! My wife worked on the line at Pella Windows for 17 years, and she used to always say the same thing.

Overall, this is EXACTLY the impression I've gathered after spending quite a bit of time reading reviews and watching YT videos. This is another reason why buying a camper that's a couple years old can be good, including depreciation advantage, because the "shake down" trips that identify issues have already been completed and any warranty work has "hopefully" been done. This is another reason why buying in the fall can be an advantage, because if you're not going to camp over winter, it's a good time to have the camper sitting at the dealer "waiting on parts" "waiting on prioritization" or one of the other myriad excuses, when you're not in camping season.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Yes as fowl play noted its hit / miss on quality and also they lack proper design in various aspects. For instance my GD 247BH I mentioned had 4" head ducted to the under belly, front bedroom, a 4" duct to the bathroom (at the bac) with a 2" take off into the main camper. So the area of the camper that comprised 60% of the volume had a 2" branch tee duct feeding it... that is the most moronic design choice with zero redeeming rationale imho. Needless to say I added a 4" vent into the main air, put louver vent on the bedroom (way to hot in there otherwise) and a slide valve on the line into the uninsulated underbelly (a layer of chloroplast plastic isn't insulation) so I'm not dumping energy out of the camper when I am already "dry" camping in terms of the camper plumbing.

 

[brca005]

All the brands have pretty bad quality control in my opinion until you get up to the very expensive custom or semi custom campers. Being handy is a necessity with campers. You get higher quality wood and components moving up the line, but you still might have some knucklehead put it together wrong on a Friday while he’s trying to take off for the bar. My Grand Design is basically the top of the line they make. My solar panels were never connected to the rest of the system (bare hot wire laying unconnected in the pass thru). My roof ripped off in Kansas (the front cap was not installed correctly). I had a major water line break and cause a flood in the underbelly. And my electric over hydraulic brakes failed coming out of Breckenridge. This all happened in the first 2 months of ownership of a brand spanking “custom” ordered $140k unit from the factory. Even though you have a warranty, it’s a month to get into a dealer and a two to three month wait minimum to get your trailer back. Even with a brand new unit, I wound up performing all the above repairs myself, just so I could keep using the trailer. It was a major pain in the ass. Still having a blast in it, and no major issues in a long time (knock on wood). Just preparing you for the reality. The interior work (wood, counters, etc) are all very well done in mine. But looks like a meth head did the wiring and plumbing.

A friend with an almost identical unit purchased a month earlier has had literally zero issues in almost 2 years of full time use. It’s hit or miss on quality control.

To piggy back off this some, a GOOD (gotta dig) mobile RV tech is worth their weight in gold, they can do almost everything a dealer can but are much faster and they come to you. Yes, they can be more expensive but you aren’t having the wait times like going through a dealer.

Also, GD specifically (personal experience) will allow mobile RV techs to come out, repair whatever, you pay the mobile RV tech and GD will reimburse you under a warranty claim minus I believe the trip charge and maybe something else. I called GD explained what was going on, I couldn’t get into the dealer for a couple months and they gave me a warranty claim number to reference and allowed a mobile RV tech to come out and do the repair, I submitted the invoice/receipt and had a check from GD in a few weeks.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

This is another reason why buying a camper that's a couple years old can be good

If your budget allows look for one that's structure doesn't reply on wood or laminated fiberglass for structure (that is different than a fiberglass shell) unless they have a very strong track record of zero delamination's.

The "stick and tin" wood campers if they are kept rot free can hold up and they are repairable if needed as the aluminum siding is stapled to the wood. (Older four wheel campers and also all terrain campers are aluminum siding stapled to aluminum framing). The campers than are fiberglass laminated to foam walls if they fail you're kinda screwed.

Or has been noted find a well built (structurally) cargo trailer and build your own.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

If your budget allows look for one that's structure doesn't reply on wood or laminated fiberglass for structure (that is different than a fiberglass shell) unless they have a very strong track record of zero delamination's.

The "stuck and tin" wood campers if they are kept rot free can hold up and they are repairable if needed as the aluminum siding is stapled to the wood. (Older four wheel campers and also all terrain campers are aluminum siding stapled to aluminum framing). The campers than are fiberglass laminated to foam walls if they fail you're kinda screwed.

Or has been noted find a well built (structurally) cargo trailer and build your own.

The wolf pups are supposed to have 12" on center wood studs underneath the fiberglass instead of 16" in traditional construction. I'm not sure if that is unique to other trailers or not. They also have aluminum ribs in the bottom, which I don't think is particularly unique either. Both are supposed to increase rigidity and add some weight, which isn't a bad thing in a shorter trailer. The ultralites have a bad reputation of bouncing themselves apart I guess, and I can handle extra weight back there with 500hp and 700+lb ft. of torque. LOL!

If this discovery process turns into reality, I'm also likely going to get my truck re-geared. Although I love the look of 35s, they significantly eat up your factory gear ratio. I had an awesome conversation with the owner of Kodiak Truck yesterday (highly recommend these guys if you're looking for trans, transfer case, and front/rear end work) and he said if you're running 35s on a stock truck with 3.73s, you're effectively reduced to 3.23s or less due to the extra effort to turn the larger tires. As a result, regearing to 4.10s essentially sets you back to factory capability ~3.73 overall. Not a cheap investment, but he also puts in helical lockers instead of the crappy factory eaton internals.

I like the idea of building my own camper from an enclosed trailer using those rail systems, but my wife wants more creature comforts and 'style' if she's going camping. LOL! That would be a great project for a dedicated hunting or fishing rig.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

My superduty has the 34" (20" wheels) all terrains on it with 3.73 rear axle however that is paired with a 10speed transmission so its not hard to find a good RPM for the situation.

 

[wyosam]

We have a 13’ Scamp. About as simple as can be and still be a camper. It’s still a pain in the butt maintenance wise. My wife said she wanted a bigger one, so we compromised and bought a big boat for the salt instead. Has all the stuff a camper does, but goes to way cooler places than campgrounds. Certainly not a cheaper less maintenance solution, but less depreciation (depending on what you buy) and far more interesting.


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[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

It’s still a pain in the butt maintenance wise.

What are you running into with it? Obiously still has axle bearings/brakes/tires to inspect and maintain but I'd think the fiberglass shell would reduce alot of other issues.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Learned last night that Forest River is one of the top 5 worst to buy in 2025. Complaints of sinking/sagging floors and leaks galore plague the brand. In order, the brands to avoid, according to RV insider are:

5. Gulfstream
4. Fleetwood
3. Forest River
2. Thor
1. Keystone

I've shifted my research into Grand Design models, and preliminary results include some affordable models, although most are larger than I was looking to get into (26'+).

EDIT: I just saw that GD has a 3.6 Google rating out of 700+ reviews. The bad reviews talk about the same issues that all the other brands have with the only difference being people paid a lot more. There is also a class action lawsuit against GD filed in April cover several of their models from 2020-2023 for having warped frames.

Is there an RV manufacturer that doesn't put out a POS? I see that GD is owned by Winnebago which I always thought was a good brand.

 

[LFC911]

Learned last night that Forest River is one of the top 5 worst to buy in 2025. Complaints of sinking/sagging floors and leaks galore plague the brand. In order, the brands to avoid, according to RV insider are:

My buddy and i both have brand new FR's and they both have their issues. His we were fixing a plumbing leaks in the shower and mine the slide stopped working and half the blinds surrounds are loose. We're rolling with punches and working through them. I normally don't get an extended warranties but i did with this. So did he. With all the bells and whistles these things have; solar, slides, inverters, HVAC, plumbing, etc...something is bound to go wrong.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

My buddy and i both have brand new FR's and they both have their issues. His we were fixing a plumbing leaks in the shower and mine the slide stopped working and half the blinds surrounds are loose. We're rolling with punches and working through them. I normally don't get an extended warranties but i did with this. So did he. With all the bells and whistles these things have; solar, slides, inverters, HVAC, plumbing, etc...something is bound to go wrong.

Thank you for sharing, and have you had any issues with getting warranty work completed at your dealer? Or have you resorted to having a mobile tech do the warranty work and submit claims to the warranty provider?

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I've shifted my research into Grand Design models, and preliminary results include some affordable models, although most are larger than I was looking to get into (26'+).

EDIT: I just saw that GD has a 3.6 Google rating out of 700+ reviews. The bad reviews talk about the same issues that all the other brands have with the only difference being people paid a lot more. There is also a class action lawsuit against GD filed in April cover several of their models from 2020-2023 for having warped frames.

Is there an RV manufacturer that doesn't put out a POS? I see that GD is owned by Winnebago which I always thought was a good brand.

Few things to keep in mind. Each brand has different product lines and sadly different quality within those lines. Then there is the unit/unit variability due to manual labor.

The frames is actually a Lippert issue, they build the frames (for GD and others) but yes certain models were having issues. One thing to keep in mind is looked at the weight of a camper and what axles they use and such. My 247BH for instance has the same axles on it as units that are 1000-2000lb heavier, those ones are stessed out imho.

Yes there are brands that put out better quality and they cost a lot more. Some have already been mentioned but sticker shock is a factor.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Thank you for sharing, and have you had any issues with getting warranty work completed at your dealer? Or have you resorted to having a mobile tech do the warranty work and submit claims to the warranty provider?

Dealers are HIGHLY variable, most are a joke, some folks report reasonable service but many don't. I had some siding staples pull on mine the first year owned (created a budge in the siding) in the spring, GD authorized warranty work for it. The dealer said they could look at it in October... did I mention dealers are a joke?

I found a local independent repair place, who's reputation is based on repair work and not trailer sales with minimal support after, to do it within a few weeks and yes GD covered it.

 

[LFC911]

Thank you for sharing, and have you had any issues with getting warranty work completed at your dealer? Or have you resorted to having a mobile tech do the warranty work and submit claims to the warranty provider?

Since I am on the mountain right now, working remotely in the mornings and hunting at night, i reached out to the dealer (Zoomers in Lamoni, IA) and they said i can drop it off on the way home. I can't answer your question at the moment but they have been very responsive via text. If i remember i will follow up with feedback after i pick up and head to NM in Oct for ML elk.

 

[KurtR]

When i was living and working on the road i bought a brand new 18' dutchman no slide out. I used it for a few hunting trips also. Had zero problems with it for 5 years heated and cooled good shower got hot no leaks and pulled easy. Then got a new job we used it a few times camping and best day of my life was selling it. Camping 2 miles from town and all the ass ache that goes into it sucked. Now we have a fire pit at the house and i can go sleep in my bed and its the same as camping with out the hassle .

 

[Fever Buck]

I have an Arctic Fox travel trailer and absolutely love it, I use it almost year round, except in the really cold months here. As a matter of fact, I'm "living in it" right now, I drew a moose tag here and took a month off of work to chase elk and moose and I'd never do that in a tent, as I like to have a nice shower and shitter. I have dragged this thing into places that most wouldn't, but it's nice to be able to wake up and just go hunting, or jump on the atv and go. Now, the only draw backs that these Arctic Fox's have, besides the price of them, is they are heavy, but they are very well built.

Which model do you have?

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Here's my perspective after more research. I'm just too big a tight ass, with too high expectations apparently, to buy from a brand known for consistent issues. Why would I spend money on a unit that people advise you to expect to have problems with and have a defeatist "they all have problems" attitude? I wouldn't spend this kind of money on anything with this mindset whether its a car, truck, rifle, etc...

At this point, after a sobering reality check from FB groups, YT videos, etc..., I'm planning to avoid the IN brands. Instead, I'm going to slow down and continue to research ORV as they seem to have the most consistent quality and positive customer experiences. Yes, they are more expensive, but people don't buy them expecting or acquiescing to the fact that they're going to have problems. I also don't care that they are heavier than most of the Lippert frame models, and it seems they put the additional weight into areas that are crucial to long term quality- walls, floors, and frames.

Thank you again for all the feedback, good and bad, this has been a really good thread and I'm hoping other folks considering a TT learned as much as I have.