Forester 3011DS

[Slinks]

Am thinking of this unit for my purchase. Any owners out there with suggestions of options? Kids want outside TV but is it worth it? Do a lot of dry camping, does this run on battery power? Also the 12 cu. ft. Refrigerator. Are they worth the extra money? Do the ice makers work OT are you still running to the camp store all day? Any information for a newbie is appreciated

[Brian217]

I have the 3010. To answer some of your questions:
We really like the outdoor tv. It does run on 12v. We liked watching a movie or even just tv shows at night when it's nice out. We try to stay outside as much as possible!
We love the large refrigerator. We packed for a 10 day trip last year and still had room in it. I think it makes ice cubes very slow, but we don't really use them at all. I was thinking of disconnecting mine completely.
Overall a great floor plan with many nice amenities! If you're not sure about levelers I would highly recommend them!

[ORvideoguy]

We have a 2015 3011DS and absolutely love it! The floor plan works great for our family of 6. Long kitchen counter and the hide-a-bed sofa gives us the sleeping room we need.

We ordered ours and We chose every available option except for the power driver seat because we chose rotating driver and passenger seats instead and we also didn't do the wood grain looking dashboard.

The swivel seats are great because it makes use of the cab and adds a few extra seats for hanging out inside.

We love the outdoor TV. We have used it to watch movies and football games and it's a ton of fun to have that option.

The 12 cu ft fridge is one thing we couldn't live without. It's great to have enough room for all the cold stuff we need to bring. I hook up at the house a few days prior and by the time we're ready to leave its full so we start with a full ice bin. Even on week long camping trips we have never run out of ice. When we dry camp I don't run the ice maker but just bring an extra bag of ice in the large freezer. We tend to get low on water by the end of a dry camping trip and I would rather shower than have ice.

I second the recommendation for the Bigfoot levelers. They make set-up very quick.

I'm not sure where you're shopping but we bought from RV Wholesalers and had a great experience and we got an incredible price.

[Slinks]

Thanks! I'm looking at RV Wholealers myself. Was everything just as you ordered? Have you had to have many repairs? Local dealerships saying they won't fix the campers, and the way they're behaving I think is be afraid to go to a dealership anyway!

[ORvideoguy]

Everything was just the way we ordered it. We had them deliver it and even that went great. They hired a driver to bring it to us and we met at the airport closest to our house.

I only had a few problems with my unit, some small stuff I took care of and a few other items I had fixed by a repair shop under warranty. The LP bleeder valve wasn't working so I had to have that replaced, one of the reading lights in the bedroom didn't work all the time and living room slide wouldn't close all the way on one side - it was off by maybe a half an inch. So in my mind nothing major.

At the end of our camping season I emailed RV Wholesalers and told them I had some warranty work I wanted done. They replied in a day and said that the local Camping World would do the work for me and all I had to do was call and schedule the appointment.

At the time of my purchase I had been given the name of an independent shop by RV Wholesalers and I was told they were part of their nationwide network of repair shops. It was actually one of the reasons I felt comfortable buying out of state because the repair shop is one of the good ones. So I emailed back and said I would prefer to go to the independent shop and asked if they were able to do warranty work and another day later I had an email from RV Wholesalers saying they would do warranty work so I took it there.

I think as long as you have some good independent RV shops nearby you'll be just fine. Most of them seem to do warranty work and if they don't Forest River will help you find one that will. My repairs were done pretty quickly and done well and it didn't matter where I bought it.

After the warranty is up then it really won't matter where you bought it as long as you have a good repair shop to work with.

[Slinks]

Thanks, makes me feel better. Don't really want to go to the big dealers who were threatening me that no one would repair my camper! Afraid they'd sabotage it! Haha