[stanleyz]

My unit is now 15 years old. I bought it when it was 3 years old. I would never buy a new RV. The prices are crazy and the depreciation curve looks like the slides we played on as kids. We use ours at least 5 months a year and have evey year since we bought it. I am a life time do it yourselfer and I maintain it with a keen eye for potential problems and an open check book. Since I have owned it there was one visit to a repair shop if you want to honor camping world with that discription. They kept it way longer than promised, screwed up the work and handed me a far too high bill which I beat down. I took it home unrepaired and did it myself. It has held up very well, Both ACs, the furnace, the refridgerator all the interior trim and panels and even the hot water are original equipment. There are no leaks. I had one 5 or 6 years ago but once I learned how to leak proff the trailer I had no more. Last spring we replaced the carpet with wood, much better. A few years back I finally got rid of the Goodyear tires which were 71.5 inch upgrades from stock and one still blew out after 4 years. These are heavy trailers and should have had either 3 axles or much better wheels and tires. The extra insulation in the unit make it much more comfortable in cold weather than the Cardinal I had before I got this. You can look for my post on here and find most of what broke and what I did to repair it. I look every now and then for a newer MS but I honestly would not trade this for a 5 year old Cardinal or Montana. Those units and most of the others being sold today are built to go to the lake on weekends and maybe a short summer vacation. They will not hold up to heavy use, I had a 3 year old Cardinal and it was junk at 5 years. Keep in mind that all the 5th wheels will have problems when new. That is just how the industry is, Read the entries on the five or so big RV forums and you will see what I mean. So, when you read people complaining about a MS consider what they might be comparing it to. Also, consider that DTV is now owned by Thor. I have no idea what the impact of that was but I'm pretty sure they didn't buy the company t lose money. So they may or may not be cutting cost or increasing price or both. Hope you find this helpful.