Need Owner Thoughts

[cekkk]

Our first camper was a FR product, a Wolf Pack, and for the last three years we've had a Jayco Eagle, which has been nearly flawless. But now we find we are spending four to five months in it in the winter and need a serious upgrade. A new dealer has offered me what appears to be an excellent price on a 3650 when they come in.

Of course, I have to confirm the price offered is as good as presented, but I have reason to believe it is. Do they list for well over 100k?

I've never heard of Dynamax or Trilogy, so I'm here looking for owner experience with the Trilogy as a full time rig. I consider 150 straight days plus summer campouts close enough to call it full time.

One mistake we made with the Eagle is it didn't offer a polar package in 2011 as far as I can tell. A thread in this forum indicates the Trilogy has no floor insulation, which I find totally unacceptable but confirming my suspicion that FR isn't building high end products.

I'm curious as to the frame mfr., slide mfr. and reliability. Fit and finish, inside and out. Water infiltration as a problem with one of the "great" ones. How about leaks? Any delam problems, floor and roof problems, etc. I expect all campers have the occasional lemon, but patterns soon become apparent.

I'll appreciate your responses. If we go with this 5er we'll save quite a bit of money over a Lifestyle or Mobile Suite, which we've been looking at.

[dblr]

Yes Trilogy do price out over a 100 grand, nice units but still kind of new with the 5th wheels. We are also interested in one so have been watching here to see how they are doing, like all there have been some problems but they do seem to be tending to them. We did tour the factory last year at the FROG rally and have a good feeling about them, we would be stepping up from our Cedar Creek. There are some good prices out there you just have to shop around for them. Good luck

[cekkk]

I hesitate to say the quoted price, but I consider 30% off MSRP as an often achieved target price that wouldn't excite me.

[Defiant530]

Anymore than 30% off the msrp would only be due to your negotiating ability , we got our 2014 3650 RL for the upper 70k range ( I can't remember the exact price at the moment) but we also had a trade in that we still owed a balance on also

[cekkk]

Defiant, my point is this new dealer, who still doesn't have units, made the offer as an inducement to buy, long before I was in a position to purchase, having never seen a Trilogy and only hearing the name a few minutes earlier.

Have you had yours long enough to comment on it?

[Freebirds]

We have had minor items that our dealer has had or will have to repair. Blut we still consider the Trilogy the best RV out there in this price range. The refrigerator is the best as is the 55" TV. Construction of the cabinets is so much better than high priced Class As. We really like the LG countertops. Overall the quality is fantastic.

[lgray]

We purchased a 2013 Columbus 320RS, taking ownership April 2012. While it had many upgrades and offerings at a very reasonable price ($65,000 to $75,000 MSRP), the overall quality of the early production was poor. The factory was impossible to deal with and could care less about customer service. They were selling more than they could manufacture. This will likely catch up with them some day. We traded it for a 2013 Trilogy 3650 RL, in October of 2013 and have camped in it about 25 nights. It has not been back to the dealer and to date there are no issues that will require us to take it in. My biggest complaint is that I have been waiting on a couple of minor parts since November, but nothing I can’t live without. It quickly became very evident that there are significant materials and component differences between the two. I can think of nothing that is not of better quality or construction with the Trilogy over the Columbus...“apples and oranges”.
You can still find left over 2013’s priced in the mid-60’s…like we did. On the 3650 models, beyond decoding the VIN numbers, you can tell the production dates by the lettering on the caps. Those that have been manufactured at about #1 to 199, have larger cursive letters. If you believe that the factory continued to make improvements as they were produced, you may wish to look for a later production number. Ours was manufactured in the low 200’s and again has no significant problems.
Trilogy has been in the high end motor coach business, specializing in class “C”, for a long time and was purchased by FR within the past few years. The technology from the class C is a perfect fit for fifth wheels…probably why they were purchased. Take a look on RV Trader at their coaches, Class C’s and you will see similarities to the fifth wheels…very high end rigs. To me it appears that Lifestyle is following Trilogy’s lead…straight raised ceilings, etc.
One of the big selling points for me is the fiberglass roof. No more treating soft rubber roofs. Not too many high end fifth wheels come standard with composite roof and full body paint.
Is the dealer making you an offer on a Trilogy 3650 RE or RL or the newer Touring models 36RL & 36RE? While the Touring model is still a very nice product, there are differences in quality of some of the materials and components. The tradeoff is they are less expensive. Myself, I would pay the difference to have the full body paint, Samsung TV’s, etc.
Long story – long, we love ours. We believe that a heavier rig is a better built rig and you get what you pay for. That being said, the Trilogy is still a very good value. I will be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

[Defiant530]

cekkk , I have to agree with freebird2831 and lgray on their points, we have had ours since July 2013 ,we have only 3 trips with it so far but it is going to be our fulltime rig as soon as our house sells , there are some videos we have made on the interior and exterior ,also a video on where things are located and some of the issues we have had and what steps I took to correct, just click the blog link at the bottom of the page. Also since you seem to be out west I seem to recall a few dealers out there that handled the Trilogy, unfortunately I deleted my list when we bought ours, also there are videos on youtube but most of all you have to see one in person as it will make a BIG difference!