I'm looking at the 2021 Georgetown GT5 model 34M5 with the new Ford V8 engine.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has a previous years version of the 34M5 model and to hear what you like and dislike about that model.
What I like about the 34M5
The extra bedroom closet space and the rear washer dryer.
I like the enclosed battery and hydraulic pump in a closed compartment.
Is the new room slide system troublesome or not?
Nice floorplan. I was under the impression that the 34M5 was introduced in 2020 so there may not be a lot of experience yet. I do not see any for sale on RV Trader earlier than 2020.
One thing about the 22,000 lb chassis with 22.5" wheels, though. It only has a 42-degree wheel cut instead of the usual 50 degrees. That means you need to start your turns sooner and the turning diameter is like 67 feet as well. I think that is the only chassis/wheel combination with a 42-degree wheel cut. You get used to it.
You will LOVE those heated, massaging recliners! I just added sliding shelves underneath the dinette on each side as others have done. You lose some width and height but the convenience makes up for it.
On the 2020.5's Forest River removed the two standalone thermostats and replaced them with touchscreen controls. I'm not a fan of that. When I'm lying in bed and need to turn the temp down or up I just grab my thermostat infrared remote control and do it by feel. With the 2020.5's I would need to grab my phone and get blinded by the screen to change the temperature because the thermostats themselves no longer exist.
We haven't had any problems with the Power Gear SlimRack slides yet. I think there was a motor design change a few years ago that changed the motor gear ratio from 300:1 to 500:1 and some other changes. Just keep the sides of the slides clean so the seals don't squeal.
It looks like the GT7, which replaced the XL, also replaced the hydraulic slides with the SlimRack.
My battery and pump compartment is not fully enclosed but does have a bottom and sides. The rear wall of the compartment (towards the driveshaft) is partial height, probably for battery fume reasons. There are only two 12 V batteries with no labels or markings whatsoever. The PD9270 multi-stage converter does a great job of keeping water usage low.
In case you're interested, here is why we selected the 34H5 and some options we added:
The TV is directly across from the recliners instead of at an angle.
The bath and a half.
The opposing front slides. The opposing slides gives us a full six feet of clear floor space, which was important to us because of the dogs lying on the floor.
We did get the combo washer/dryer, which reduces the amount of clothes we need to bring along. We can wash sheets and towels, just not heavy blankets or comforters.
We have 52 gallons of gray and black instead of 42 gallons each.
We have tan shades instead of black.
We also got the dual pane windows and they really seem to cut the noise and condensation.
And my favorite option is the sliding tray in the rearmost compartment. It comes out the driver's side and I keep all of my tools, cords, spare parts, etc. on it, saving the other compartments for other things.
HTH,
Ray
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2020 Georgetown GT5 34H5
2020 Equinox Premier AWD 2.0L/9-speed
Here is the floor plan of the 2021 GT5 34M5
I'm actually may be close in buying one.
The recliners are heated and massage recliners?
I like the closet space in the bedroom as well as the washer dryer back there.
I also like the full size king bed. 72" x 80"
Didn't see the sliding tray as an option. I need to check.
Can anyone answer if the side camera now all mounted inside the lower part of the mirror or mounted on the side like in the past?
Yup. I snagged a pic of the controls from their 360 virtual tour.
Heated, electric recline, and massaging. And lights at the bottom that we never use. The center armrest has USB ports and a 120 VAC outlet inside and ample room for the remotes. I wish I had those things in my house.
I looked at a few pictures on rvtrader and did not see the side cameras where they are on ours. I did not know that they were moving the cameras into the mirrors. If I ever knock a mirror off maybe I'll see if I can switch to one with the integral camera.
My new car has cameras not only on the rear, but also on the front and at the bottom of each mirror. The mirror cameras point down and are wide-angle. Their software "stitches" all of the camera images together and adjusts for parallax. That gives you a 360-view round the car. It would be nice to have that on a motorhome.
The tray is a Moryde so I'm sure they can stick one in. I think it was about $500. Way at the back are the Quality Plastics blocks with the yellow handles. My Viair air compressor is behind the blocks.
Ray
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2020 Georgetown GT5 34H5
2020 Equinox Premier AWD 2.0L/9-speed
13.5k and 15k?
Are the both can be ducted into the ceiling or just the front one 15k?
Sorry about all the questions but more I know the better I can decide.
As much as you've helped me and others I'm happy to reciprocate.
Both are Atwood (Dometic) AirCommand AC-1511's, so 15K A/C with heat pumps. The heat pumps function down to about 45 degrees. We've used the heat pums and they work well. The AC-1511's are somewhat loud so some people install the Wacko system. We like the "dump" feature, especially for the dogs when driving, so we just get used to the sound.
They are both ducted but into a shared duct system. So if just the bedroom A/C is on it pushes air all the way to the front and vice versa.There's good air flow through the ducts with both running, which is the usual case.
With both running in 90+ degree Florida heat and the main door closed they easily keep the inside in the low 70's where we like it. Even with the door open the heat is kept down unless the humidity is being oppressive. We'll actually keep the bedroom in the upper 60's because the dogs like it cold and they'll lay in the bedroom.
I don't know how much the dual pane windows help but we have no issues with cooling even in direct sun on the side with all the windows. People next to us had single pane windows in their fifth wheel and would crab about having to wipe up water. We've never had that happen. Sure, we've gotten some moisture on the inside but nothing we ever considered wiping off. The factory rep said the dual pane windows also reduce the wind noise when driving. We can easily hold a conversation in normal voices while driving unless going up a hill, of course. (We already had the unit ordered so he had no incentive to talk us into the additional expense.)
I don't particularly care for the frameless windows because they barely open but it seems just about every manufacturer is using them now.
The propane furnace has two ducts in the main living area pointed forward, one in the half-bath, one at the foot of the bed, and one in the base of the shower. That one is about as close to heated floors as we get.
I am not a big fan of the Solera awnings because they only extend straight out and there's no way to angle them down. You can angle one side down to drain water off but not angle the main edge to help keep the sun out. The awnings do run off the mobile app, which is nice because you can see them going out. Depending on where your touchscreen is located that may not be a big deal for you. Our touchscreen is in the middle of the main living area.
We ordered ours in mid or late March 2019 and it was delivered to the dealer at the end of May, so just two months back then.
Ray
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2020 Georgetown GT5 34H5
2020 Equinox Premier AWD 2.0L/9-speed
Ray this is all good information and I do appreciate your help.
The bottom line is I can get one ordered and probably have to wait until Oct to get it but the local dealer says he has had it in the FR system a while and if its not in production I may make a few changes like you suggested.
Tan pull down shades, pullout cargo slide in rear compartment.
Most everything else is already ordered.
Standard says it has a 2000 watt inverter. Is this for a few outlets or what being the refrigerator is propane or shore power AC.
The control panel is located left of the sink next to the entry door.
Are you satisfied with the panel controls? Some say they like the old school with a switch and LED lights.
The slides are by biggest concern as I have never seen nor used this type.
Bottom line if they don't give me good numbers for the new rig and/or my trade-in Georgetown we will just pass. Hopefully I can negotiate some good numbers.
I basically told him $122,999 is a good number for the rig as I have looked around the US and they for a 2021 34M5 it ranges from $119,999 to $139,999. That is for a similar rig with the washer dryer and full body paint.
The MSRP they say are like $189,999 is what I have seen max.
I made a career in repairing electronics down to the component level, then moved into IT so I have a pretty good handle on when basic is better.
The thing to remember is that even mechanical switch panels really aren't just a switch for many systems. The Power Gear slide mechanical switch panels have a circuit board on the back side that actually runs the slides. That's because the slides all have programmable stop points, not mechanical limit switches. There also is a control box for each slide and the box has some diagnostic lights on it. Those are easy to get to. Forest River mounts them in a basement compartment to the ceiling directly below the slide they control. I do know that Winnebago was removing Schwintek slides and installing SlimRack slides once upon a time. I think the free-floating rack allows a host of alignment problems to just not be an issue.
As long as a slide motor is even partially functional you can still run them. The system has an "emergency jog" feature where it will run the motors for six seconds (I think) so you can slowly move them in or out. But if a motor is dead you actually have to get to the motor and lift it out of the mechanism. Then you can put a particular-sized socket in place of the motor and manually run the system. Those motors are near the top on each side of each slide and are not easy to get to as far as I can tell.
The Precision Plex system has been almost faultless. We did have the touchscreen lockup one day and the PP people answered my distress email the same day, a Saturday. I just had to unplug it and reboot it, which they walked me through. The mobile app still worked fine. The problem has never occurred again. Power spike? Aliens? Who knows? This was the only issue we've had.
The Precision Plex system has a Master panel with some micro fuses, switches and an LCD display. The display will tell you if a fuse has blown on a system it controls. You also can use the Master panel switches to run the slides or awnings directly. I think the only functions the Master panel cannot control are the water pump, tank heaters, and the water propane heater, at least not on ours.
We have the 6-gallon Suburban SW6DE so the electric heater is on all the time unless you flip the rocker switch on the water heater or trip the breaker. The breakers and fuses are on two panels at the foot of our bed.
$123,000 with full body paint is a good price relative to what we paid without full body paint. I think that was an $8,000 option and I preferred to put that money into paying the sales tax. Well, not "preferred" but that's how it worked out...
A separate washer and dryer would be a very nice option to have but we've figured how to make the combo work for us.
Ray
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2020 Georgetown GT5 34H5
2020 Equinox Premier AWD 2.0L/9-speed
As much as you've helped me and others I'm happy to reciprocate.
With both running in 90+ degree Florida heat and the main door closed they easily keep the inside in the low 70's where we like it. Even with the door open the heat is kept down unless the humidity is being oppressive. We'll actually keep the bedroom in the upper 60's because the dogs like it cold and they'll lay in the bedroom.
I am not a big fan of the Solera awnings because they only extend straight out and there's no way to angle them down. You can angle one side down to drain water off but not angle the main edge to help keep the sun out. The awnings do run off the mobile app, which is nice because you can see them going out. Depending on where your touchscreen is located that may not be a big deal for you. Our touchscreen is in the middle of the main living area.
We ordered ours in mid or late March 2019 and it was delivered to the dealer at the end of May, so just two months back then.
Ray
I have the 2019 34H5. Everything Ray said except my awnings can be pulled down at an angle manually on both sides to angle them down. Mine are marked to indicate the location to pull. I believe that's called a manual pitch adjustment. You have to pull down on each side to adjust.
The 2 15K Dometic Atwood work very well. Today it was around 107 degrees in Vegas. With the slides out I got the interior down to 82 degrees in the front and 80 (which is where I set the t-stat) in the rear after turning it on the night before. I was loading things and getting ready for a trip so after pulling slides in I could go lower if I was going to let it sit with the power to the units. Now that's them running quite a bit but still that's in full sun. I am hooked up at home to a 50 amp service and the unit had been sitting out there with power turned off to it for a bit so it was still pretty hot inside when I powered it up. I don't leave them on all the time due to cost but usually turn them on a day or two before a trip to get it cooled down. Like Ray I prefer the A/C "dump" system due to the heat here in the Southwest.
As far as the inverter goes you'll need to find someone that has the model. My inverter works all the outlets in the unit but I hear the 31L5 just runs the fridge and one or two outlets. Not sure on the 36B or the 34M. I'm going from memory here but with only two batteries, I seldom use anything 120 but the TV on the inverter when boondocking and that's for the grandkids. When driving everything works if the inverter is on, as it does on the genny or shore power.
The control panel works fine. Like Ray mine does not work the A/C units but that works fine for me. We have the full body paint and are glad we do.
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Tom and Karen
Las Vegas, NV
2019 Forest River Georgetown 34H5
Duh. I never thought about pulling both ends of the awning down. I’m trying that tomorrow.
We have the Xantek (?) Freedom XI inverter as I recall. It runs a bunch of outlets and the three TVs. I’ve never really used it because the batteries are not the best there are and we're usually on shore power or running the generator. That inverter has a built-in transfer switch so it’s usually in bypass mode. I think the 2020.5 units may have a different inverter, though.
Ray
__________________
2020 Georgetown GT5 34H5
2020 Equinox Premier AWD 2.0L/9-speed
The 7 KW generator was an $800 option on mine. I didn't see a need for it unless I had three A/C's.
35% off of $190,000 is $123,500 so you were only $500 apart. Clearly he wants a minimal discount.
He didn't even counter, I suppose? The issue was the trade-in?
Ray
Yes the issue was the trade-in.
Don't tell my DW but this was only a test.
I had no real intentions on selling my full size Georgetown XL.
I still plan on driving the new Ford V8 probably on our trip to Texas soon.
is what I have seen max.
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