Newbie needs advice

[DunnDeal82]

Hello all, my wife and I are new to the forum and are hoping you guys could give us some advice. I will give some background on where we are at and what we are thinking.

We will both retire in four years and will have a retirement income from the military and gov. We are in the process of selling the house and have looked at a bunch of FW's and have settled on two choices. One stretches our budget but I believe will be best for full-timing and the other is great on the budget but is not as sturdy. (IMO)

So, we love the DRV 39DBRS3 and believe it will be a great purchase but will take a couple of years to pay off and the other is a Grand Design Solitude 379FL. We could pay cash for it but I am not convinced it is build to last 10 years so I am hesitant to buy it.

We will live in it here in Oklahoma until we retire and then hit the road. We have a 2015 F-450 dually to pull it with so no worries there.

Any thoughts on these or anything else would be greatly appreciated. Confused in Oklahoma.

Thanks,
Dave

[wingnut60]

Not sure where in OK you are located, but you should check out the website of Rolling Retreats www.rollingretreats.com in Elk City. Talk to Alisha or Slade about your needs, they might have the exact on in stock, coming in, or in used inventory. They are excellent to work with and if you were to order new, you won't leave with anything not to your satisfaction.
A used unit can be a great starter, if you find one near what you want in options. Remember, the DRVs are very heavy trailers--a 39' should have a 350/3500/450 dually tow truck minimum.
Joe

[anijet]

BIL has a Solitude and we have the DRV. Both are nice to look at. Both use the same vendor items. The Solitude would probably be ok if mostly parked and not used to "travel" much. I have looked at it, especially the running gear (E tires on a 38') and don't believe it's built to take the abuse of our roads. In just over a year his has a large delamination on the front cap. Although I have rebuilt the running gear, (springs, shackles, 1 axle, bearings...) our DRV is 9 years old and still going strong after many longer cross country trips. If you plan to put cover miles with it, get the heaviest running gear available, or the cheapest and replace with MorRyde IS after you buy.

[Cummins12V98]

Not sure where in OK you are located, but you should check out the website of Rolling Retreats www.rollingretreats.com in Elk City. Talk to Alisha or Slade about your needs, they might have the exact on in stock, coming in, or in used inventory. They are excellent to work with and if you were to order new, you won't leave with anything not to your satisfaction.
A used unit can be a great starter, if you find one near what you want in options. Remember, the DRVs are very heavy trailers--a 39' should have a 350/3500/450 dually tow truck minimum.
Joe

Great advice!!!

[missourijan]

Well, you are posting on a Drv forum, so our opinions are biased. Most of us really like our units and would buy another. There are some that aren't so happy, they usually post on the forums so you can read all those. We have had a 2007 Select Suite and a 2012 Mobile Suite and we would buy another. They aren't perfect but for fulltime use they are pretty heavy duty. We lived in our Select for 5 1/2 years and now have lived in the MS for 4 3/4 years. They hold up well for fulltime use. I second the suggestion to buy a gently used one, it's hard to know what floorplan is suited to you unless you spend time in it. Our Select was a 36tke with the telescoping kitchen, we ended up hating that. We have a 36rssb3 and it's been great. We also like Rolling Retreats but bought our MS at Wheels RV in AR. Slade at Rolling Retreats is so knowledgeable, we've been going to him for everything since the warranty expired. He installed a residential frig, rebuilt our bedroom slide and anything else we needed.
Will the quality remain the same after the sale to Thor, that remains unknown. There have been changes but mostly personnel and building a new service building.

[DunnDeal82]

Thank you all for the advice. I expected to get good thoughts on DRV since it's a DRV forum but I wanted first person advice and what you have given is very helpful. We have visited Rolling Retreats and Slade and Alisha are so helpful we have decided that is where we want to purchase our new rig and the wife said after being in a new MS that the Solitude is out! LOL

My biggest concern is the axle and tires for weight and I love that the DRV's come with 8000lb axle and 17" tires. Big plus.

Thank you all,

Dave

[wingnut60]

Well, if you are going new--consider the MorRyde Independent Suspension upgrade for the axles/springs.
Joe