Hi Susan and Steve,
We looked at 5th wheels for a good two years before we purchased our 2010 Mobile Suites 38 TKSB3 #5334. Montana was one of our favorites until we came across the DRV line. Two major turning points for us that the Montana only had room for the combo washer and dryer and not the stackable or side by side (Important to my DW), and it did not have the leveling system (important to me). Our son has a Cardinal and I have watched him literally spend 45 minutes leveling it. At my age, I was not interested in doing that. Once we were able to put the two units side by side there just wasn’t a comparison. The build quality of the DRV, in our opinion, was far superior. We love the extra insulation in the 3 ½ inch walls, the double pane windows and the heavier frame. Right now we are doing 18 months of service for our church in Macon, Georgia and we are parked in a mobile home park ($200.00 per month) just off the freeway. We have neighbors, with other trailers, who complain about the freeway noise. We barely, if ever, hear it! We have been in our unit for almost a year now and have really enjoyed it and have had few problems. It is as comfortable as our former SB and it is really fun staying in our own place and not an apartment. We actually purchased this as a second home as we generally spend our winters in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where we have a condo. We also felt that our DRV would have a higher % resale than the Montana since there are fewer of them around.
We met Jerry and Joyce (rotaxman) just before we purchased our unit. They live just a short distance from our son’s home in Kansas City where our unit will be based once we finish our mission. They are a delightful couple and Jerry has done some remarkable and beautiful customizing on his 2009 TKSB3. It is really unfortunate what happened with the camber problem. I remember back in 1980 we purchased an Audi 5000. It was the car of my dreams and turned out to be the car of nightmares. I still cringe whenever I see anyone drive an Audi, and yet I know they are a great car.
We finally settled in on two manufacturers. DRV and Cameo. Both were quality built and both offered space for the Wash Dryer units and both had automatic levelers. We made appointments for a tour of each plant. When we arrived at the DRV plant we were greeted by a TV monitor that said “Welcome Hansen’s”. We were treated to an extensive tour of the plant by Dan Tauer, who unbeknownst to us was vice president. We spent a little over three hours with him that day and a couple more the next day. When we arrived for our tour of the Cameo plant, they had forgotten that we were coming and quickly arranged for a tour with a salesperson from the local Cameo dealer. Needles to say the DRV factory tour experience was the turning point in our decision. I highly recommend a tour of the factory if at all possible.
Our unit was towed to its present location (1000 Miles) with our sons 2003 Dodge 3500 Diesel. I am not going to get into the weight issue here, I only want to mention that there were no problems and his comment was that it towed much nicer than his Cardinal. He also tows a 26 foot Chaparral boat and sometimes both his trailer and his boat.
The bottom line is the DRV line of 5th wheels are great units. Not perfect, but very nice. Good luck in your research. Below are a couple of links. One is our photography link in Puerto Vallarta and the other is our Blog for our mission. On the blog there is a tab that says “Our Mobile Suites 5th wheel”. Here you will see a few pictures of the inside of our unit. We did make a few changes, one of which was to move the fire place from side of the desk to the end of the island so we could put in filing cabinets by the desk. This also directs the heat from the fire place directly onto my wife which she loves. This fire place is a little smaller than the one that goes to the side of the desk but puts out the same heat. We have really enjoyed the extra storage created by the filing cabinets.
www.apvallarta.com
grumpagladma.wordpress.com
Take Care: Dale and Marian Hansen