442MCMark&Doretta
Member
Hello everyone!
My wife and I sold our forever home in June of 2024 and embarked on a new RV journey that we didn't anticipate. The area where we lived in Vancouver, WA had changed over the last few years into something less desirable to us, and we decided to sell the home we had always planned to retire in. We are still a ways from retirement though. We had a 2008 Cameo, great trailer, and figured we would live in that unit until such time we found a new place to live further from town. We also downsized getting rid of just about everything. We reduce our belongings down to 1/3 of a 10x20 storage unit. Unbelievable! We were able to secure stays at the RV park here in Woodland on the Columbia River (Columbia Riverfront RV Park - absolutely beautiful!) for the summer, although we had to move from site to site quite a bit. After a couple of months, we both came to the same conclusion, that we really liked this lifestyle. We decided that if we were going to do this full time we had to do it right! So we started looking for a new fifth wheel. After a lot of review, we zeroed in on the Forest River Legacy. There is a lot to the story of how we finally got one but for now I will simply say we ended up purchasing a late production 2024 442MC with fiberglass roof. In order to pull this unit, my old truck was not enough, so we have ordered a 2025 Ford F450, of course still waiting for delivery.
We have been very pleased with the trailer so far. It was a little nerve racking buying a new unit. First, it was really the first time in our lives that we had spent so much on something new that was so nice. We've always been second hand buyers and very frugal. So this was a stretch for us. And buying a brand new truck was something I never thought I would do. But we did really well on the sale of our home so the funds were available. And second, we knew going in that no matter what warrantee the dealer offered, we were probably pretty much on our own to solve issues as it is impractical to pack up and take the unit to the dealer and leave it for who knows how long - since we live in it! So we were very careful in our search and have spent a lot of time really trying to understand the inner workings of the trailer.
The fit and finish of the unit is very good to excellent. A couple of little things have popped up but nothing major. The only real issue we have had, besides really learning and understanding how everything works, is there was a manufacturer error in the wiring at the electric fireplace. They had mistakenly switched connectors coming into the slide from the SO chords...one was from the main 120V panel from a breaker dedicated to the fireplace, and one was from the inverter supplied circuit that was supposed to be for a couple of outlets for the TV. By reversing these connections the fireplace was on the inverter. Eventually we popped something in the inverter and lost the inverter supplied outlets and the fireplace, including the refrigerator of course!. After tracing the wire from the main 120V panel to the fireplace (since the fireplace wouldn't work but still had power from the breaker) I discovered the problem and switched the connectors to put the fireplace on the proper dedicated 120V circuit. But the issue with the inverter remained. I discovered that turning the inverter "on" would power the circuits just fine. So something in the inverter that allows it to bypass the batteries doesn't work. A new one from e-trailer is coming. I tried resetting the inverter, tried a hard reset, etc, nothing. Maybe there is an internal breaker that needs reset. But we will have a spare inverter now if it is something simple, but the Go Power tech though it had probably fried a relay that does the switching. Planning to dig into it this weekend.
Anyway other than that the trailer has been rock solid. We have had it since September. I really like the full body paint (no fiberglass waxing) and the fiberglass roof seems to have been a nice bonus since that was supposed to come out on the 2025's. We thought we would join the forum to maybe make some new friends, share our experiences, and maybe glean some insight from others with a similar coach.
Mark & Doretta
My wife and I sold our forever home in June of 2024 and embarked on a new RV journey that we didn't anticipate. The area where we lived in Vancouver, WA had changed over the last few years into something less desirable to us, and we decided to sell the home we had always planned to retire in. We are still a ways from retirement though. We had a 2008 Cameo, great trailer, and figured we would live in that unit until such time we found a new place to live further from town. We also downsized getting rid of just about everything. We reduce our belongings down to 1/3 of a 10x20 storage unit. Unbelievable! We were able to secure stays at the RV park here in Woodland on the Columbia River (Columbia Riverfront RV Park - absolutely beautiful!) for the summer, although we had to move from site to site quite a bit. After a couple of months, we both came to the same conclusion, that we really liked this lifestyle. We decided that if we were going to do this full time we had to do it right! So we started looking for a new fifth wheel. After a lot of review, we zeroed in on the Forest River Legacy. There is a lot to the story of how we finally got one but for now I will simply say we ended up purchasing a late production 2024 442MC with fiberglass roof. In order to pull this unit, my old truck was not enough, so we have ordered a 2025 Ford F450, of course still waiting for delivery.
We have been very pleased with the trailer so far. It was a little nerve racking buying a new unit. First, it was really the first time in our lives that we had spent so much on something new that was so nice. We've always been second hand buyers and very frugal. So this was a stretch for us. And buying a brand new truck was something I never thought I would do. But we did really well on the sale of our home so the funds were available. And second, we knew going in that no matter what warrantee the dealer offered, we were probably pretty much on our own to solve issues as it is impractical to pack up and take the unit to the dealer and leave it for who knows how long - since we live in it! So we were very careful in our search and have spent a lot of time really trying to understand the inner workings of the trailer.
The fit and finish of the unit is very good to excellent. A couple of little things have popped up but nothing major. The only real issue we have had, besides really learning and understanding how everything works, is there was a manufacturer error in the wiring at the electric fireplace. They had mistakenly switched connectors coming into the slide from the SO chords...one was from the main 120V panel from a breaker dedicated to the fireplace, and one was from the inverter supplied circuit that was supposed to be for a couple of outlets for the TV. By reversing these connections the fireplace was on the inverter. Eventually we popped something in the inverter and lost the inverter supplied outlets and the fireplace, including the refrigerator of course!. After tracing the wire from the main 120V panel to the fireplace (since the fireplace wouldn't work but still had power from the breaker) I discovered the problem and switched the connectors to put the fireplace on the proper dedicated 120V circuit. But the issue with the inverter remained. I discovered that turning the inverter "on" would power the circuits just fine. So something in the inverter that allows it to bypass the batteries doesn't work. A new one from e-trailer is coming. I tried resetting the inverter, tried a hard reset, etc, nothing. Maybe there is an internal breaker that needs reset. But we will have a spare inverter now if it is something simple, but the Go Power tech though it had probably fried a relay that does the switching. Planning to dig into it this weekend.
Anyway other than that the trailer has been rock solid. We have had it since September. I really like the full body paint (no fiberglass waxing) and the fiberglass roof seems to have been a nice bonus since that was supposed to come out on the 2025's. We thought we would join the forum to maybe make some new friends, share our experiences, and maybe glean some insight from others with a similar coach.
Mark & Doretta
