New from Seattle

[dol10th]

Hi to all! We’re retired military with two pre-teen kids and starting to look for our first RV. Our ultimate goal is to someday have a motor home but we would like to break in on a travel trailer for 5-10 years first. We’ve been looking at the Ultra Lite 8317RKSS (my choice) and the Ever-lite 35RBS-DS (her choice) when we found this site. There seems to be a wealth of information here on the Rockwood series and look forward to sifting through it to help make our decision and allay beginner fears. Our first order will be to find forums on reputable dealers here in the NW and to learn the "buying game" for RVs.

[LadyWindrider]

Hello and

You are correct, a wealth of info here, actual users, and their opinions.

Since you are looking at Rockwoods, stay on that section, and see what you can learn. Feel free to look at the others also, may find something different.

[flyrotor]

Welcome... Don't make a purchase before you look at the Salem and Wildwood lines, both are built here in the Northwest for the Northwest, in Dallas Oregon. I think the quality control from the factory is outstanding here in the Northwest.

I own a Wildwood and I have never had a maintainance issue, never had to return to the dealer, I have owned it new for the past 18 months.

Good luck with your purchase.



Good luck with your search.

[F and E Damp]

Welcome from an Anacortesian. What are you planning to use as your tow vehicle?

We're Class A owners and have never considered TTs. Our first rig was an '85 26' Class C to "see if we liked RVing". We love RVing but that thing was such a turkey, we dumped it after a season and a half, at a significant loss.

Six years on, we got our present rig. It's just DW and me and one 8-year-old Labrador. Our grandkids are in college (except for one 7 year-old and one due in November). The November arrival is a Chiba (Tokyo) resident, so RVing isn't likely with her.

We find the Class A suits us well. If we didn't have the dog, maybe we'd have a toad, a TT or a fiver, but the "A" without a toad is just fine.

Family members in the UK were avid TT owners and towed an 18' coachbuilt (pronounced "heavy") trailer all over Europe with a 1.5 liter, 55 HP on a good day, Austin sedan. Didn't win any stop-light races, but they used that combination (with a couple of similar follow-on cars) for over 20 years.

Since the US seems to frighten the car manufacturers into cutting their tow ratings so much, we'd have to get a full size truck to tow a reasonable sized TT, which neither of us want as our daily driver.

Our Kia Sedona minivan is rated here for a 3500 lb trailer. In Europe, it's rated for 3000 Kg! The British "Caravanning" magazine recently published their "Best tow cars" list for 2011. The Ford Focus won the nod for trailers up to 3200 lb, the VW Passat for trailers up to 3800 lb and the Land Rover Discovery for anything over 4000 lb.

Good luck with whatever you choose and welcome to the lifestyle.

[dol10th]

Thank you Flyrotor, I didn't know there was a manufacturer that close to us. We might try to get down on one of these weekends to look at the factory...if they allow visitors. I looked at the Wildwood and Salem series and like them a lot, couldn't find one with an outdoor kitchen though. That may be a non starter for the Mrs.
Thanks again.

[dol10th]

Thanks FandE, We will be towing with a 06 Ram1500Quadcab 5.7Hemi. We'd love to get a Class A but not sure we want to make such a large investment until we get to know our way around the RVing world. I've noticed a lot of RV dealers on the way up to your neck of the woods (we're down in Olympia). I think we are going to take a trip this weekend to see a few of them and get a feel for the negotiation process, if there is one in RVing.
Thank you again for the information.

[F and E Damp]

We bought our Class A, used, a year ago from the very careful and neat original owners. Apart from a little bit of wear and grubbiness on two upholstered items where people tend to get hold when they board, it looks almost new.

It had just under 11,000 miles when we bought it and the generator had 48 hours on the Hobbs meter.

We did find that what looked like minor fraying on the topper of the big slide was actually solar damage (really - in Lake Cavenaugh!) which had rotted out the entire topper. I've had to build a couple of replacement cabinets for the living room slide because water got through the topper and into the slide-out cabinets.

If you can find them, private sales can be a real bargain. ours was about $9K less than we'd seen a similar one at a dealers thatwas a year older, had 48,000 miles on the clock and wasn't in nearly as good condition.

Before you even hit Seattle, you might want to go off I-5 around the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. There are several dealers in that area, bot sides of the freeway.

There are several dealers along Evergreen Way just south of Airport Road in Everett. Take the I-5 exit just after the drive-in Movie Theater in south Everett (128th) and head west, then turn south when you get to the lights at Home Depot. Don't have direct experience with any of them.

North of Everett, at the Marysville exit is Roy Robinson RV. They have a good selection and have a good reputation. When you get up to Moutn Vernon, try Country Motors - you can see their lot just east of I-5 as you approach the Anderson Road exit, then cross over the freeway and head south on Old 99 and you'll see Poulsbo RV and Valley RV. between 99 and the freeway.

At the Burlington/SR11 exit there's Camping World and a couple of others just north of the roundabout where you come off the freeway (head briefly towards Burlington not on Chuckanut), again on Old highway 99.

There are also a couple of RV repair places that also sell used rigs out in Sedro-Wooley along highway 20. You can go north from Camping World, take Cook Rd to the traffic lights and turn right, back towards Burlington. JR's is just past MacDonalds and Action RV is about 2 miles further west.

Good luck in your search. My DW wouldn't have anything to do with an outside kitchen, but she'd sure like about 3x more counter-top.


Frank Damp