Looking to buy newer Charleston bunk house tag

[SkrapMoney]

My wife and I are ready to buy a pusher for the longer road trips. The fifth wheel set up is just to hard having the kids couped up in the pickup truck all day driving. We've got it down to the Charleston Bunk house tag axle. We really need the bunks for the kids and the tag for hauling all the toys. There are times when we have all 5 kids with us and that makes for a full bus. Two of them being teenagers. There arent to many choices in the bunk versions especially with a tag. I just wanted to know if anybody had any info or experiences with a unit like this one. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Thanks for the help.

[greensalsa]

Just watching this thread--sorry I can't offer any advice, but we look like we are in the exact same position. We have a Cedar Creek Fifth wheel but really itching to upgrade to a MH.

Everywhere I go, I get "talked down" when ever I bring up the Charleston. People direct me to the Discovery 40G, or the Phaeton 40QKH--but the Charleston still looks better to me--STATs, size, and fit.

Have you gotten a chance to see one yet in person? The only place I can find is a dealer in TX. I even drove over 600 miles to the Tampa RV show only to be disappointed by a no-show there.

Again, just looking for the same feedback!

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by greensalsa

Just watching this thread--sorry I can't offer any advice, but we look like we are in the exact same position. We have a Cedar Creek Fifth wheel but really itching to upgrade to a MH.

Everywhere I go, I get "talked down" when ever I bring up the Charleston. People direct me to the Discovery 40G, or the Phaeton 40QKH--but the Charleston still looks better to me--STATs, size, and fit.

Have you gotten a chance to see one yet in person? The only place I can find is a dealer in TX. I even drove over 600 miles to the Tampa RV show only to be disappointed by a no-show there.

Again, just looking for the same feedback!

We've seen the Birkshier at a local dealer, which we really liked. Basically the same floorplan. But we would like to be able to pull more weight so the Charleston works for better us. There are quite a few other things that are a bonuses that goes along with the Charelston which are pluses. The Birkshire seems to have alot of problems on its forum. Hopefully the Chareston has better luck.

[greensalsa]

Thanks for the reply. I too am looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly with this rig.

[goscubadive]

My wife and I bought one last summer and absolutely love it. We had a bunkhouse class C before, which was a fine rig but struggled to pull our car amongst a number of other issues.
Good: The charlesston has plenty of power and good storage underneath. There are probably a thousand good things I could list.
So far, not a lot of bad. There are a couple of places sufficient paint was used and a little rust has shown up in the compartment with the tanks, as well as some screws that are rusting (I'm going to start replacing these). We drove home on a trip over thanksgiving within a very heavy rainstorm and pretty much soaked the floor of the entire bay underneath. After drying it out, I haven't crawled around to see where the water came from, but I suspect it was from where the frame passes through, big gaps and no seals there. The tile inside looks really nice, but any moisture on it makes it really slick. The size makes it tougher to get into places and navigating through campgrounds with a lot of trees/rocks. I don't like where they put the low point drain in the water tank, it is on the side, so you basically cannot drain it completely. FR doesn't produce a manual specific to the motorhome (I don't think they do for any of them) and that can be a pain.

Otherwise, it is a dream. Ride is nice. I did get it weighed, with probably 300lbs of extra cargo underneath we don't normally carry and it came in at 12,200 front, 22,300 rear. I couldn't get the split on the scale to line up in order to get weight for the rear dual vs tag. At 34,500, and gvwr or 42,350, you can put a lot of weight in (just need to figure out how to get most of that weight to the rear with front rated to 12,500). Anyhow, if you have any questions, happy to answer. It has been a really good rig so far.

[greensalsa]

I have a couple of questions:

How are the bunks? Is there dedicated air vents INSIDE the bunk area? Are there pocket doors between the bunks and the main bedroom so that they can be closed for privacy? Did you take off the bunk doors? Do you close them when kids are asleep? How easy can the bunk doors be opened from inside?

Space for kids clothing--where do you keep it since there is no dedicated bunk clothing storage? Do you just dedicate several draws / hanging space in the main closet?

How is the pantry issue? We haven't seen a dedicated pantry? Is that a problem?

Did you order it special in any way? What options SHOULD you get? What options were not worth it in your mind?

Oh yea, and where did you buy it from?

[goscubadive]

The kids like the bunks. If they want air they can open the windows. There aren't any heater vents in the bunk area, just in the hallway. We started using electric heaters a while back to reduce the amount of propane consumed by furnaces, seems to work ok. There is a solid door between bunks and bedroom. The first thing I did when I got home with it was remove the accordian doors. They make sense when used as a closet, not with the kids. There is not a ladder for the upper bunk, I'm going to build one. The doors can be open from the inside easily, just push in the middle.

Our last MH has drawers under the bottom bunk, this one unfortunately does not. They get a couple drawers in teh master. There is a lot of drawer/cabinet space in master so not a problem for us.

No dedicated pantry but plenty of drawers and overhead storage. We did get a booth dinette, it does have drawers underneath for more stuff. One disappointment about it is does not convert to a bed. We would have liked that, may look in the future to replace with one that does.

We did order one. One thing I really like about the FR CH was that almost everything was standard. Looking at some other models, you could get a lot of the same stuff but it was optional and would add up to a lot of $ for getting them. We got everything on the option sheet except the freezer that would be installed in one of the bays. We did not need it, I understand if you have it it draws a lot of power. I don't recall what all of the options were, I'll have to get a look at the option sheet when I get a moment.

We bought it at a dealer in Los Angeles, I would not recommend buying at this place. I was previously considering flying to Texas to check them out. We just happened to be in SoCal for a spring break and dropped by a dealer there, ended up ordering through them.

[greensalsa]

I am a former fulltimeer, 2 years in a fifth wheel. I have a wife, two daughters, 9 and 11, and and a dog.

I have a unique job opportunity. I am being strongly considered to work from early July to early December in California teaching at a university and then work from January to early June in North Carolina doing the same thing leaving me three weeks in June and December to drive back and forth.

I have a home in NC and my kids are going to school in NC. I am considering the Charleston for a Full-Time class A bunk DP to live in while we are in California. Essentially the rig would be used as a "home" for 6-7 months a year. In your opinion, would the Charleston hold up to that kind of wear?

[goscubadive]

I think the MH would hold up just fine. I think if I was going to take it somewhere and park for 6-7 months I might consider a travel trailer with a room for the kids separate from the master. If, however, I was going to travel on weekends in it while I was in CA, I'd be happy with the Charleston. Fleetwood's 43ft tag axle bunk model gives the kids an actual room. I think we would have considered this one but we weren't able to see any, and I definitely would have considered it more if we were going to full-time in it. In the charleston, when the slide-out are extended, definitely do not feel closed in. Washer/dryer in the MH is nice. People warn you cannot do a lot, and you certainly can't do as much in a load as you would at home, but we've found them to work well and handle plenty of clothes.

I think it will hold up well.

[greensalsa]

Thanks again for the input. Sorry if my post gave the impression we would use the Charleston as a "trailer".

When we full timed before (2+ years) we visited 35 national parks and pulled the 5er out of our site every three weeks while in California. We love to travel, hike, and explore. We expect to do the same with this POTENTIAL job.

We saw the Discovery 42A and had issues with the layout and our family. Our analysis still points to the Charleston but until I get a chance to SEE one, I am forced to study floorplans, youtube videos, and pictures. I am seriously considering a factory tour this summer to get a better perspective.

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by greensalsa

Thanks again for the input. Sorry if my post gave the impression we would use the Charleston as a "trailer".

When we full timed before (2+ years) we visited 35 national parks and pulled the 5er out of our site every three weeks while in California. We love to travel, hike, and explore. We expect to do the same with this POTENTIAL job.

We saw the Discovery 42A and had issues with the layout and our family. Our analysis still points to the Charleston but until I get a chance to SEE one, I am forced to study floorplans, youtube videos, and pictures. I am seriously considering a factory tour this summer to get a better perspective.

By this summer you'll probably see the 2014's being built. That would be cool either way.

[greensalsa]

goscubadive-one last question: Am I loosing my mind or is there ONLY cloth seats as an option for the booth dinette? I am surprised that leather isn't an option and all I see are cloth. The reason I ask, leather beats cloth any day of the week with regards to pet hair and dirt.

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by goscubadive

The kids like the bunks. If they want air they can open the windows. There aren't any heater vents in the bunk area, just in the hallway. We started using electric heaters a while back to reduce the amount of propane consumed by furnaces, seems to work ok. There is a solid door between bunks and bedroom. The first thing I did when I got home with it was remove the accordian doors. They make sense when used as a closet, not with the kids. There is not a ladder for the upper bunk, I'm going to build one. The doors can be open from the inside easily, just push in the middle.

Our last MH has drawers under the bottom bunk, this one unfortunately does not. They get a couple drawers in teh master. There is a lot of drawer/cabinet space in master so not a problem for us.

No dedicated pantry but plenty of drawers and overhead storage. We did get a booth dinette, it does have drawers underneath for more stuff. One disappointment about it is does not convert to a bed. We would have liked that, may look in the future to replace with one that does.

We did order one. One thing I really like about the FR CH was that almost everything was standard. Looking at some other models, you could get a lot of the same stuff but it was optional and would add up to a lot of $ for getting them. We got everything on the option sheet except the freezer that would be installed in one of the bays. We did not need it, I understand if you have it it draws a lot of power. I don't recall what all of the options were, I'll have to get a look at the option sheet when I get a moment.

We bought it at a dealer in Los Angeles, I would not recommend buying at this place. I was previously considering flying to Texas to check them out. We just happened to be in SoCal for a spring break and dropped by a dealer there, ended up ordering through them.

Thanks for the info. Yeah its not to hard to modify things if your handy or dont mind paying a shop to do it. Making the dinette into a bed should be farely easy to convert. Also changing the fabric and colors is easy also. It would be nice not have to if you were able to order straight from the factory in a timely manner. I talked to the salesman in Texas at MHS, he told me if I orded one it would be a 2014 model and about 3 to 6 months out. Were hoping to be in one in a couple weeks so ordering one is out of the question. We'll just have to live with whats available for now. I've looked at the other bunk house models out there and this floor plan with its included options seems to be the best bet. Especially for the $$. I hoping to get one down to $210k. My wife and I rented a bunkhouse a couple years ago to take a trip down south. It was a class A gas which drove very nice except for the porposing you get going down some roads. They say tags wont get that. But the kids having their own little space made a huge difference.
I think you mentioned it was hard to manuever around in smaller RV parks. Is that due to lack of turning radius the unit has or just the over all length? Their brochure brags about the excellent turning radius. How is the overall ride with the air ride system? Have you towed anything with it? You say there's plenty of storage. I have 5 kids although only the 3 younger ones will be with us more times than older ones. Thats been a big concern with us also is having enough closet space. Other than that sounds like its been a great buy for you guys. Thanks agian for the feedback.

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by greensalsa

goscubadive-one last question: Am I loosing my mind or is there ONLY cloth seats as an option for the booth dinette? I am surprised that leather isn't an option and all I see are cloth. The reason I ask, leather beats cloth any day of the week with regards to pet hair and dirt.

I've noticed the same thing. My wife and I both agree that none of the color scemes go good together. But we'll have to live with that for now. You can always use nice covers or reupholster. Which we may do later.

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by goscubadive

My wife and I bought one last summer and absolutely love it. We had a bunkhouse class C before, which was a fine rig but struggled to pull our car amongst a number of other issues.
Good: The charlesston has plenty of power and good storage underneath. There are probably a thousand good things I could list.
So far, not a lot of bad. There are a couple of places sufficient paint was used and a little rust has shown up in the compartment with the tanks, as well as some screws that are rusting (I'm going to start replacing these). We drove home on a trip over thanksgiving within a very heavy rainstorm and pretty much soaked the floor of the entire bay underneath. After drying it out, I haven't crawled around to see where the water came from, but I suspect it was from where the frame passes through, big gaps and no seals there. The tile inside looks really nice, but any moisture on it makes it really slick. The size makes it tougher to get into places and navigating through campgrounds with a lot of trees/rocks. I don't like where they put the low point drain in the water tank, it is on the side, so you basically cannot drain it completely. FR doesn't produce a manual specific to the motorhome (I don't think they do for any of them) and that can be a pain.

Otherwise, it is a dream. Ride is nice. I did get it weighed, with probably 300lbs of extra cargo underneath we don't normally carry and it came in at 12,200 front, 22,300 rear. I couldn't get the split on the scale to line up in order to get weight for the rear dual vs tag. At 34,500, and gvwr or 42,350, you can put a lot of weight in (just need to figure out how to get most of that weight to the rear with front rated to 12,500). Anyhow, if you have any questions, happy to answer. It has been a really good rig so far.

Did you ever find out where the water was leaking from? Was there any real damage done and did they fix it for you? Thats a pretty big deal to me. Sounds like personal cargo could of got ruined and even mechanical or electronics could of been compromised.

[goscubadive]

As far as the water, I haven't found it for sure. The water really soaked up the bottom of the bay, which is carpeted. No damage really, I put a heater in there to dry everything. We had bought 12 bicycles for a holiday community center donation, they were all in cardboard boxes and stacked in there, and the boxes on the bottom got pretty soggy. That was really all that took a hit. None of the stuff that was in the big tray got wet. I haven't had the chance to look into it yet, waitng for some better weather. I plan to see if I can find the issue(s), may address myself. We came home from our trip in a fairly epic rainstorm (imagine sailing through water on the road at 50mph) and I think water just went up through the fender well, got onto the frame rail, which is shaped like a sideways U, and just travelled down it. But, that is just my theory, yet to be determined. That was really the only thing. On the same trip, we also sat through a wind storm. I don't know how strong the gusts were for where we were, 7 miles away in Astoria the strongest was 106mph. Once the gusts started getting strong, the slide toppers began slapping pretty hard, so we pulled in the slides and got cozy, no issues from that episode.

As for the dinette, my guess in looking at the furniture: the leather couches are manufactured by a furniture company, the dinette is done in house with some plywood, foam and cloth. I thnk it would be pretty easy to cover, put a different material on or rebuild altogether.

It does turn well and drives really well, I love the ride. In our class C you could feel every expansion joint on the freeway. In this one, you don't even notice. As far as getting around, its not so much the turning radius as it is the wheelbase. There is a fair amount of distance from the front tires to the duals, you need a lot of space to wheel it around. We tow our Honda Pilot behind, 4500lb car, don't even notice it is there.

[goscubadive]

When we ordered ours, it took a little over 4 months. Mainly, as I understand it, because of a backorder on chassis's from Freightliner. We apparently got or order in shortly before MHSRV in Texas ordered something like 30 units. If you are going to order one, expect a good amount of time for them to get it to you.

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by goscubadive

As far as the water, I haven't found it for sure. The water really soaked up the bottom of the bay, which is carpeted. No damage really, I put a heater in there to dry everything. We had bought 12 bicycles for a holiday community center donation, they were all in cardboard boxes and stacked in there, and the boxes on the bottom got pretty soggy. That was really all that took a hit. None of the stuff that was in the big tray got wet. I haven't had the chance to look into it yet, waitng for some better weather. I plan to see if I can find the issue(s), may address myself. We came home from our trip in a fairly epic rainstorm (imagine sailing through water on the road at 50mph) and I think water just went up through the fender well, got onto the frame rail, which is shaped like a sideways U, and just travelled down it. But, that is just my theory, yet to be determined. That was really the only thing. On the same trip, we also sat through a wind storm. I don't know how strong the gusts were for where we were, 7 miles away in Astoria the strongest was 106mph. Once the gusts started getting strong, the slide toppers began slapping pretty hard, so we pulled in the slides and got cozy, no issues from that episode.

As for the dinette, my guess in looking at the furniture: the leather couches are manufactured by a furniture company, the dinette is done in house with some plywood, foam and cloth. I thnk it would be pretty easy to cover, put a different material on or rebuild altogether.

It does turn well and drives really well, I love the ride. In our class C you could feel every expansion joint on the freeway. In this one, you don't even notice. As far as getting around, its not so much the turning radius as it is the wheelbase. There is a fair amount of distance from the front tires to the duals, you need a lot of space to wheel it around. We tow our Honda Pilot behind, 4500lb car, don't even notice it is there.

Really, really appreciate all the feedback. Hoping to be in ours in a few weeks. Will follow up then. Thanks agian.

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by SkrapMoney

My wife and I are ready to buy a pusher for the longer road trips. The fifth wheel set up is just to hard having the kids couped up in the pickup truck all day driving. We've got it down to the Charleston Bunk house tag axle. We really need the bunks for the kids and the tag for hauling all the toys. There are times when we have all 5 kids with us and that makes for a full bus. Two of them being teenagers. There arent to many choices in the bunk versions especially with a tag. I just wanted to know if anybody had any info or experiences with a unit like this one. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Thanks for the help.

Look at terrytown rv in MI the have unit in stock

[SkrapMoney]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Look at terrytown rv in MI the have unit in stock

Thanks I will.