New Shamrock 21SS

[coachendo]

New 21SS Questions
Had our walk through today to check out the new camper. Very excited to bring it home - much nicer than I could have imagined. Couple of questions for the veterans.

1. They wanted to sell a WDH with sway bars. Is this something we should purchase and if so what kind of price should we expect? We are towing with a 2004 Chevy Avalanche with a V8 with a standard towing package.

2. Extended warranty - yes or no and if yes, how much. They were offering a 5 yr extended.

Thanks for your help!

Dave

[Triguy]

Congrats on your new trailer!

1) Yes- you should purchase a WD hitch with sway control. This TT can be more than 5,000lbs loaded so you will need it.

Do you know what WD hitch with sway that they are looking to sell you? My advice is to stick with Equal-i-zer or Reese. I've heard good things about Blue-Ox. There are others but I'm not really familiar with them.

As a price comparison, you can get the Equal-i-zer from RVW for $439 including free shipping.

2) Remember that Forest River will sell you a 2nd year for $150 within 10-days of purchase. This is a true extended warranty.

Everything else bought through the dealer is not a warranty as in an extended manufacturer's warranty, but is instead a service contract. Be careful about those as some are OK and some are not worth the paper they are written on.

Make sure to understand the contract's legalese, what it covers, what it doesn't and if other service centers will honor it. You can search on this board and find other posts about this, too.

[Triguy]

I was going to add that you will also need a brake controller. The Tekonsha P2 is a popular choice. About $100.

[baldy]

We have a Roo 21SS and the problems I had last season were a leaky (manufaturing defect) potable water tank and we would blow the fuse for the slide out everytime we used it. Very poor service from the dealer! Took the whole summer to get a new tank and then they wedged it in with chunks of 2x2 spruce. The slide was never resolved but they did find a cut wire. The slide tore the carpet up because the underpad was past the carpet and caught the bottom of the slide on the way in. I removed the underpad that was causing the problem and stapled the carpet back down and it was ok. I wonder if that was causing the blown fuse with too much load on the motor. Other than that we are satisfied. My experience with extended "whatever you want to call it" has never been positive so I don't purchase them anymore and will fix the problems that arise myself. Much less aggravation.

Goodluck and enjoy the trailer. You will love all the space!

I have an equalizer E2 and tow with an F150 and it is an ideal combo.

[bikendan]

not sure why you thought you wouldn't need a WDH. did someone advise you that you wouldn't need one?

i have an Avalanche and the owner's manual specifically calls for a WDH over a certain amount of tongue weight and the 21SS' will be over that.

have you towed a large trailer before? you should find out if you have a standard tow package or a HD tow package.

i bought an Equal-i-zer from RVW, along with my Prodigy brake controller. do you already have a brake controller?

the Equalizer and the Reese Dual-Cam are the top selling WDH units out there, partly because they have built-in sway control and are excellent products.
my Equalizer cost me around $400 with free shipping.

did the dealer tell you that you can get a second year of the FR factory warranty for about $150? some have said that it's free right now.
personally, i think 3rd party extended warranties are waste of money. most find out that they don't cover what they were told it would cover.

[coachendo]

Thanks for the info guys...I think I made all the wrong decisions a guy can make on his initial purchase. Was not advised to not get the WDH just felt like I was being hit with way too many "opportunities" to spend more money as we progressed through the day.

1. I will definitely get a WDH after reading more and researching more. Still have time to do that. I don't remember what brand they were selling but it was $500 + with installation. Are they difficult to install? I'm a mechanical novice in every way (my wife would say idiot) so keep that in mind.
2. I did buy a break controller and will get that installed next week.
3. We bought the "extended warranty" they offered-a Route 66 warranty for 5 years and regret that now. No mention was made of the Forest River 2nd yr. warranty and that is aggravating to say the least. A call may be made to cancel that other warranty if possible and ask about the FR 2nd yr.

We are definitely rookies at this having never towed this size of trailer, only pop-ups in the past. Thanks for your help - greatly appreciated.

Dave

[bikendan]

Dave, you can get an Equal-i-zer, with free shipping, for around $440. it's not hard to do but you might want to watch their installation video and decide if it's something you want to do. it's cheaper than the $500 and maybe the difference in price, will pay for the installation.
mine works great with my Avy.

IMHO, the 3rd party extended warranty is a waste of money. each major item(stove, oven, a/c, fridge/freezer and so on) have their own warranty.
and if you get the FR 2nd year factory warranty, if anything is wrong with the trailer, if should show up within the 2 years.

[shabby]

I have an EAZ-LIFT 1000lbs. WDH with a sway control arm. Was purchased from Tweety's RV on-line @ Tweety's.com as a whole package for about $300.00 and comes with everything you need to get going and is very easy to install.