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Old 12-16-2013, 03:18 AM   #1
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2011 Forest River Sierra 345 RET good unit or no

Hi I am a newbie and searching for our first fifth wheel. is this a good unit or not Anyone out there that can give me any feed back? Good or bad?
Thank you
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Old 12-16-2013, 03:47 AM   #2
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Stay away from forest river. Go with a keystone product. I have a 2013 Sierra 365saq an the insulation is horrible and underrated axles. It has been in the shop four times for hydraulic issues. Just trying to give some advice.
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Old 12-16-2013, 09:45 AM   #3
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I have to say maybe we where lucky but aside from the usual dealer nonsense and small sloppy assembly issues our 2013 has been a good unit. As I stated before the dealer is a major factor in the buying experience and the better customer and quality control oriented they are the better off the customer will be. We ordered our 2013 365 SAQ last September at Hershey and being an informed consumer I ordered it with the 7k axles upgraded pin box and hitch after looking into the overall size and weight of these rigs. All in all this unit has been trouble free all systems working fine and we absolutely LOVE the floor plan!!!!!!
As far as Forest River as a whole they are replacing axles free of charge with not much more than a few phone calls on units that are well pass warranty. This has to account for something.
Here's an example.
The couple we camp with 99% of the time purchased a Keystone Chaparral and had the rubber roof shrink and leak 1 month in most of the push on electrical connectors on the light switches were poorly crimped and over the first yr came off one by one inside the wall. The drivers side bedroom window leaked twice and had to finally be totally replaced. Now do not assume I'm trashing Keystone I'm just using them as an example that I directly know of. What made these issues bearable was having a Keystone dealer that gave a $#|? Who was Local and stood behind their work.
Our last last unit was a Holiday Rambler Alumiscape that had a laundry list of issues that the dealer made absolutely painful to get resolved. But all in all turned out to be a terrific unit. So do your homework and order don't just purchase and make sure the dealer is a good one that's the key the dealer the dealer the dealer.

Good Luck
Marc
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Old 12-16-2013, 10:23 AM   #4
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The Sierras are well built, quality, mid level units. Any RV you find, do a google search. You'll find, unfortunately, that they all have some unhappy owners. But realize people usually only post things on line when they have a problem. There are many more happy owners not posting their results.
I have two friends with sierra units that are very happy. One had a plumbing line leak in his underbelly, but the factory paid him to fix himself. They offered for him to take it to any dealer service, but he wanted to add insulation and other stuff anyways so they paid him for materials and his time to repair the leak.

good luck and happy Campin!
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:10 PM   #5
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As Marc hinted...you get good ones and bad ones in every brand. He hit the nail on the head in finding a good quality dealer. Start locally and get feedback from people who have bought from them if possible. The dealer will have a lot to do with the quality and ease of warranty work.

Monty
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Old 12-16-2013, 08:09 PM   #6
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I travel with work and so live in my camper year round. I searched and bought from a highly recommended dealer. I was told Sierra was a high quality trailer. I will admit I love the floor plan of the 365saq. I noticed once I moved into my trailer that Forrest river takes a lot of shortcuts and is very cheaply made for the price. I didn't need to order a trailer since the one the dealer had was exactly what I was looking for. I didn't know about the axles till after the fact. If these trailers are so well built then why did they put the wrong axles under them? It seems every time I turn around I am having more issues with my trailer. The insulation rating is the worse I have seen but was told when I bought it that it was a four season package. My 28' fleet wood bumper was better built then my trailer. My light fixture fell from the ceiling and trim is just falling off and I am only just over a year. All the guys I work with have Keystones or heartlands and they are not perfect but they are way better than Forrest rivers.
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Old 12-16-2013, 09:50 PM   #7
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Thank you for all the valuable information. We appreciate hearing from each and every one of you. Ole Bear & Sugar Bear.
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Old 12-23-2013, 11:31 PM   #8
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2011 345 ret

I have this unit and aside from a few problems we have enjoyed it so far. We went to a FROG rally in Indiana and talked to a representative from Sierra about a problem with a leaky shower that our dealer couldn't fix, within 1 day the factory supervisor came an looked at it told me to bring it to the factory and fixed my problem. They also took care of things that I didn't know about. I can't say enough about the service that I got from Forest River it really was above anything that I expected. We are in the process of buying another Forest River product because of this type of service.
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