Roo or Surveyor

[gman22]

Hello first time post here hoping some Roo onwers can help. First let me say I don't want to start some sort of brand war amonst Forest River owners. DW are thinking of downsizing from a TT back into a HTT for various reasons.

I'm interested in both the noted brands from FR. At a glance the units don't appear too different with some minor things here and there. As owners of Roos, I assume many of you have done a fair bit of homework at one time or another before purchasing. What did you like about your Roo vs. other HTT from FR?

Any thoughts you have are appreciated. DW and I are not entirely sure yet, but we MAY end up the owner of a FR HTT in the near future.

Thanks.

[bikendan]

gman22, the first thing was floorplan. back in '06, no brand other than Roo/Shamrock had a floorplan like the 23SS.

Surveyor had the 233T but the DW didn't like that you had to walk past the kitchen to sit on the sofa or dinette.

the second was number of dealerships. there was only one Surveyor dealer that sold hybrids and they were 75 miles away. and they never had any in stock to look at.
and no Shamrock dealers anywhere.

whereas, we had three Roo dealers that were much closer.

we also felt that the Roo and Surveyor trailers were close enough in build quality.

so, in the end, it was the floorplan that sold us on the Roo.
now there are lots of other companies with similar floorplans to the 23SS. a couple are the Jayco 23J and Palomino 238.
if these had been around in '06, we might have bought one of them.

if you find the floorplan you like, find the brands that make a similar one, even if it's not a FR product. pick the one that seems better built to you. it's all subjective.
i've looked at the new Jayco/Starcraft hybrids and i think they are now the best ones made. i'd rate the Roo/Shamrock as a close second.

[gman22]

We're looking at a 3 bunk HTT at this point, something like the Roo 233 or Surveyor 224 (IIRC). Anyways the big driver for this research is storage. As much as we love our travel trailer, storing off site is becoming a real PITA for a family such as ours that camps so much. I miss having the trailer in the driveway, plugged in and ready to go at a moments notice. The 7 feet we'd save in storage length gets us back in the driveway.

Thanks for your comments.

[bikendan]

agreed about the storage issue. our pups easily fit in the driveway.
if we had bought a 21' or smaller, they would have fit in the driveway. but our 23' sticks out into the sidewalk by a few inches.
we've been lucky that we've been able to store it off-season at one of the dealers doing warranty work.
but now, it's done and we are debating finding someplace to store it.