Glad to be here from Wisconsin

WIAframers · 08-22-2021, 10:06 PM

We are new owners of a 2022 Flagstaff A-frame T21BHWOR, which is part of the story of how we got here as it is a discontinued floor plan.

My wife and I are experienced tent campers. We had gotten away from camping somewhat as our daughter and only child grew up, due to her extreme dislike of bugs and dirt, which are both hard to avoid while tent camping in Wisconsin. So we adapted most of our travel adventures to hotels and VRBOs. Empty nesters now, we got back to tent camping and spent 10 days in some of the hottest and most humid days in July and struggled to remember what was so great about tent camping. Walking through the campground, we ran into someone sitting outside of what happened to be a Rockwood A-frame pop up, and it quickly caught our interest. We asked to owner how they liked it and they were super helpful and even gave us the tour of the inside. It worked well for them (also an empty nest couple) and seemed to have everything we needed: a place to cook, a place to eat, and a place to sleep -- and most importantly, air conditioning!

Returning from our trip, we started researching A-frame campers and quickly found that, due high demand and supply chain issues, dealer stocks were wiped out from coast to coast and orders were taking 6+ months to be fulfilled. We figured if we wanted to have something for next summer, we had better get cracking. I looked up the nearest Rockwood and Flagstaff dealers and figured I would pay them a visit just as a first pass to get a feel for the dealer and see what it would take to get something on order. We had also found that manufacturers were cutting back their model offerings in order to streamline production. We are always in campgrounds with public restrooms, and did not want a floor plan that included a toilet, since it would be essentially wasted space. But the high-wall A-frames were only being built with toilets, so we figured we would have to compromise on the floor plan.

So at one of the dealers I asked the sales guy to get me a price and estimated delivery on the high-wall A frame with toilet. Then he's like, well if you can live without the toilet I have one coming in next week without one. And I'm like, well that's what I really wanted but didn't think it was even possible to get one. Turns out, a customer ordered this one in February before Forest River discontinued the model. The customer got tired of waiting and took a different model off the lot. But the dealer left the T21BHWOR on order, and because it had been ordered for a customer instead for dealer stock, Forest River honored the order and (eventually) built it. The dealer was quoting me what seemed like a fair price on it (i.e., not gouging like I had seen at another dealer) and said he could call me if I wanted to look at it when they got it on the lot. I made a quick call to my wife, who was thinking exactly what I was thinking, which was if we wanted this camper then we needed to buy it NOW, since it would surely sell in a flash. We had researched enough that we were confident it was what we wanted, so I put down a deposit on it then and there, sight unseen.

The dealer has it now and it is scheduled into their shop for setup and delivery on Sept. 1. We have been reading a lot in these forums for our pre-purchase research and even more now that we have made the purchase and getting our arms around what we need to know as first-time RV owners. So thanks everyone and looking forward to learning more as we go.