Full Timing and RV Quality
Quality is an important issue – especially to a full time RV’er. Spending time fixing poorly designed aspects of your RV is both expensive and a waste of time. I’ve been a “full timer” for about 42 months now and I gotta say, I have identified a few things on the “most important to look for” list when searching for an RV. Long before I started living in mine (in late 2011), I was a “shopper” – you know, the guy who reads as much literature as he can and visits RV shows on a regular basis – since about 2008 – and I became focused on construction quality and engineering design over bells and whistles.
As a result of my initial research at that time, I found a deal on a Crossroads Seville fifth wheel – its a nice unit, but I have to be honest, when I started learning about a relatively new company, Outdoors RV (founded 2009 in Oregon), and I compare their design and engineering to my own fifth wheel, I see where they have “thought about it” even more and acted to build a trailer that is genuinely better. And mind you, my Crossroads Seville is regarded by “those in the know” as a pretty good fifth wheel.
Outdoors RV
The scene was Stalkup’s Spring “event” at the Casper event center. I was entering the world of RV sales by meeting 100+ prospective buyers in my first weekend. Among all that activity, I met Troy Johnson of Outdoors RV. Allow me to introduce Troy, a company rep and true insider who details a bit more…
Just to reflect – a few key design features in the Outdoors RV travel trailers and fifth wheels – features that make me want to make my next fifth wheel to be one of theirs include
- Custom built, off road chassis
- A-frame welded to the chassis
- Wall Construction (2″ aluminum bonded frame wall)
- Heated holding tanks (listen to how he details these!)
- 2″ Thick high density foam insulation
It goes without saying that I’m excited about this regional company and their products! As noted in the video, they’ve only been around since 2009, manufacture in Oregon, and have a distributor base that reaches no farther east than Denver. Perhaps my greatest frustration is the fact that their units are hard to come by – due to very strong demand. Currently at Stalkups, we have only 4 in stock, and units ordered today may not arrive until October!
I do plan, while we have a few left to do a video walk-through of a unit and show off some of the features that impress me most. Please do plan to return to this post in a few days for that walk-through if you’d like to see one of their travel trailers “up close and personal”!
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As with all my posts, I welcome your input and feedback… please use the space provided below to add your “two cents”
A Walk-Through an Outdoors RV Travel Trailer – The Creekside
As you can see, there are MANY design parameters and factors I looked at in the video (including a few I reported by text as I failed to note them in my narrative. After spending the past 3 winters in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the concept of a true “four seasons” travel trailer or fifth wheel rings near to my heart. The use of insulation throughout DOES make a difference – both in livability and in winter propane bills!
Some of the finer touches – the custom, off-road cambered chassis with shocks on the axles, over size water tanks, quality of cabinetry are all factors in my next choice of fifth wheel for myself and will weigh heavily in favor of Outdoors RV.
In the world of travel trailers, where $30,000. will buy you lots of space and many amenities, the Outdoors RV trailers DO cost more – but to a discriminating buyer, I believe they’re very much worth it.
That was a a very good video. Troy spoke true words at the very end in regards to picture yourself using the product before making a decision!
The ONE thing I missed when buying my Pleasure-way Lexor Van was that I would NOT be able to see much of the outside while just relaxing inside it. I passed on everything inside being usable and what I needed , but I had hardly any view of the outside , which is VERY important when living in a limited space RV like the Class B vans.
good point Marlon