Quote:
Originally Posted by mfen
We don't have a whole lotta very interesting and useful cool things in the USA, because our liability laws make it nearly impossible, let alone not cost effective to bring these units to the USA, let alone build them here. Besides, in the case of the pictured machine...where are you going to use it? Keep in mind it would suck down about 4 to 8 mpg of fuel. Imagine too those tires, on that machine, cruising down the highway in NY, LA, Miami or Chicago...with a cute little Four2 next to it, or a nice Honda Fit. Think Monster truck!
Hell, I can't even get coverage on a F-550 w/ a truck camper on it. Who's going to cover this thing?
Lawyers and Insurers....that's why we can't have rigs like this in the USA.
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That is an absolutely astonishing to say. I am an Australian (and living there) and I have visited the USA 3 times simply to see the amazing stuff (and scenery) you have there. I bought an imported American FR Wildwood Heritage Glen 28RLT because it was the only unit that satisfied our needs and wants and was the only one we could find that resembled quality and value. Of course as we all do we later learned that true quality in manufacture is a rare thing and will and probably always be a fantasy.
Until this year we had only one manufacturer of 5th wheels. He retired his business (Trulux) early this year, now we have none. There are a couple who import and modify 5'ers and many who import other RV's. Yes we have Avida & Jayco and quite a few other small time caravan makers (they don't think they are), and a couple of other MH makers. The MH guys really are just adding stuff to an imported chassis. The large and expensive end of the Avida range of MH's are really the only variety worth looking at because that's where the quality actually starts to surface. Anything under that the products are no better than yours.
The cost of importing it into the USA is no worse for you than us importing your stuff into Oz. We are in fact worse off because of the cash exchange rate and the 'extras' importers are able to add to the bill because we have few alternate options. As for storage, where do you park a 34 foot 5'er with its 15 foot TV? It's no worse than them.
The comment about the small wheels is valid and these are normal on MH's in Oz. I don't have any anecdotes about their reliability but I suspect they would eventually have issues especially on long hauls. Saying that, my u-beaut, upgraded HG 28RLT also had small-ish wheels, 15" 225/75's. They looked OK but as it turned out were in no possible way suitable for the vehicle above them, as I discovered to by horror one day when a tyre exploded, after just 5,000 kms. The springs also failed, they had flattened out after just 10,000 kms, at least that was when they were noticed.
So don't feel so bad about your 'lack of good stuff', we are no better off here, in fact probably worse because we don't have the variety and volume of stuff you do in the USA. We make do though.