Carrie & I went to the  Tampa RV show last weekend to shop for fifth wheelers and wow!, there sure are a lot of choices. I think that I've narrowed it down to ~4 manufacturers but am trying really hard not to make a bad choice. We plan to full time in the next 12 months & will select a truck after selecting the fifth wheel.

Does anyone have experience with RV Consumer Group Ratings? At $139 it seems a bit salty but if they are trustworthy, it would be worth it. Any & all feedback would be appreciated - thanks.



Bob & Carrie
Wannabe's / Gonnabe's

We invested when we were first looking and never regretted the expense. They are not without fault, but there's not much else out there to give you an independent look at the industry. Since I was looking at spending $70K plus, I thought the cost of $139, prudent insurance.
Good luck, there a lot of bargains out there.

I agree with Fred. It is worth the expense, but do not take their recomendations literally. Use the information they provide, and knowledge you gain from them to form your own opinions, based on YOUR needs and lifestyle. I do not agree with all of their assessments, but it is definately worth getting. If you expect a list of the best 5ers and you will just choose the one you want you will be dissapointed. COnsider the stuff you get from them another point of information in your assessment process and you will be far happier.

I would like to alos suggest reading the owner's forums of the make(s)  you are interested in buying. I have found them to be very informative. Good luck in your pursuit.

I bought and studied the pkg and was very glad I did.  I did try to steer away from RV's that were rated as for vacation use, and tried to look for those rated at least for snowbirding.  I think you can probably get by fulltiming in a vacation-rated rig, but I wouldn't take the chance, personally, in large part because I know I will be traveling coast to coast and back at least once each year, and some of that is going to be in colder weather.  I ended up with a Hitchhiker II and am constantly finding little things about it that are extra nice and indicate to me a well-designed and well-mfrd product.  The package is certainly worth the money, IMO.

gypsy

My wife and I were very serious about finding the best trailer that would fit our future lifestyle of fulltime RVing. We found that most people who purchase rvs sold or traded them within a few months or years because they didn't research before they bought. We thought that the price was high for the RV Consumers Group material but we felt that if it could keep us from making an expensive mistake then it would be worth the price. We were very pleased with what we found. We were able to eliminate many makes and models. We narrowed our search to 3 makes and searched dealers and the internet. We finally found a 2 year old trailer that was in excellent condition with more options and extras than we could have hoped for at about half of what a new one would have cost. We have lived and traveled for the last year and a half in it and have been well pleased. We plan to keep this trailer for many more years.

It is always interesting to me when people mention the high cost of the RV consumers group materials. I have spoken to probably dozens of people who did not buy the stuff because it was "too expensive". Yet those same people are buying rigs and spending from 100K-800K to do so......Whenever I spend any significant amount of money I try to research it fully. Sometimes that costs money to accomplish.....

What I found to be the most helpful with the RV Consumer's Guide, even better than the ratings themselves, was the book that tells you all the things to look for in a well built RV.  I realized that I was looking at the glitz and thinking because it looked so beautiful it was well made.  Nothing can be further from the truth, and you need to look beyond "pretty" to what is underneath - how and where caulking is applied, do the inside corners of the cabinets meet, and the construction that you can see from the storage bays.  There are literally hundreds of items that are covered and they are things you will never think of when you are looking at one RV after another.

As many have said, even though the Guide seems pricey, you will come out ahead in the money it can save you by showing you how to buy right the first time.

What about re-sale, has anyone run across buying or transferring the RV Consumer membership to a willing buyer?

I've seen someone offer their 2007 pkg for sale at something like $50.  I don't know that there is any "membership" involved - once you use it for research and buy your rig I wouldn't see any further use for it.  I have last year's pkg taking up weight in my RV. 

gypsy

Gypsy

I went back and re-read some things and you stated
"even better than the ratings themselves, was the book that tells you all the things to look for in a well built RV."

By that I take it you mean the book on How to Select, Inspect and Buy by Gallant?

Yes, that's the one.  While I was looking at the more obvious aspects of an RV, Gallant points out areas that could be defective that I would have never thought of.  I might add that there are some posters on this forum who would know where to look and what to look for in the most minute details, I was not one of them. 

gypsy

My advice:  BUY THE MATERIALS. 

However, the CD is not easy to use.  The RV consumer group needs to upgrade to a better format. 

You are not allowed to re-sell them.

Thanks everybody for the feedback - I did go ahead & buy them. I'm studying them now. I've already been suprised by some that are rated poorly that I had thought were OK, & also visa-versa. Very enlightening.

I couldn't say about the single reports because I didn't order any.  I believe the info given in the big pkg is sufficient, but it doesn't go into detailed  pros and cons for each make/model.  The book, however, tells you what to look for, so you still have to do a lot of looking and a ton of research and comparing, probably because we're all different and there is no one RV that will suit us all.  You can learn a lot by reading the forums and blogs of RVers - there are complaints as well as praise that you can pick up when they talk about their rigs, taking them in for service, the maintenance they perform, etc.  I think you can run into problems with even the highest rated, most expensive and fanciest of the rigs.   If you narrow your search down to a few RV's, just ask the person who owns a similar make/model - we usually list our RV description along with signature - and you will find that we all love to talk about our RV's and will give you the good and bad points.