Rethinking Grand Design.

[PTParker]

I do not think you are correct with Eagle TTs... I distinctly recall reading in Jayco literature at the last RV show in Hershey that the sidewalls and floor are laminated.... I can speak with much experience on Forest Rivers having own multiple, and the answer is that it depends on what FR line you are buying from! They use different construction across them depending on price point, and also have different lamination configurations. I'm not trying to pick apart what you are saying, I am trying to get you looking at apples to apples across the mass producers because you're going to find little variation. I think Steve answered you with probably the most authority on the matter considering...

You may be right about the Eagle. I know the Jayhawk has a 5/8 tongue and groove floor not OSB but plywood. Just thought I had seen where Eagle had that also, you would have thought since it is their top of the line trailer! But, I did find a reference to a laminated floor on Eagle now. A few years ago I know they were plywood because a friend had one.

[MooManChu]

What’s your TV (tow vehicle)?

If weight isn’t an issue that helps with recommendations.

You’ve got to keep in mind all the TT makers with a few exceptions (Airstream comes to mind) focus on cutting weight to keep them “half ton towable” or whatever. They add a new feature , they cut weight somewhere else.

As an aside. The fact you’re emailing GD and they’re responding in the middle of a pandemic gives me comfort in the customer service.


Back to the topic.
I think you won’t be happy until you step up to a 5ver regardless of brand. Just my opinion. I walked this path over the past 15 years myself. I’ve lost axles on trips, slides that wouldn’t go back in the middle of Wyoming forest, leaking caps, Now I’m in a GD toyhauler.

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[PTParker]

What’s your TV (tow vehicle)?

If weight isn’t an issue that helps with recommendations.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 2016 GMC 2500 denali gas 6.0. rated at 13,000lbs. But I have to stay with a travel trailer under 34'9" because of my storage building. I wanted a fifthwheel, but we are in the south and I wanted 2 airs and can't find a fifthwheel with 2 airs under 12' tall. We found a Cougar that we liked, but not as well as the Grand Design. It is actually shorter, but everybody kept telling me the Grand Design was the better of the two. Including a regional rep for Open Range that I met camping two weeks ago.

[mchurch52]

I am surprised that GD said the Reflection uses a luan/foam laminate floor because our 2021 Imagine has OSB. Actually, all of the 2020 Imagines I looked at also had OSB.

[PTParker]

I am surprised that GD said the Reflection uses a luan/foam laminate floor because our 2021 Imagine has OSB. Actually, all of the 2020 Imagines I looked at also had OSB.

I am surprised also! Would look at an Imagine, but one thing we wanted was a slide out bedroom and none of the Imagines have them.

[PTParker]

What’s your TV (tow vehicle)?

If weight isn’t an issue that helps with recommendations.

You’ve got to keep in mind all the TT makers with a few exceptions (Airstream comes to mind) focus on cutting weight to keep them “half ton towable” or whatever. They add a new feature , they cut weight somewhere else.

As an aside. The fact you’re emailing GD and they’re responding in the middle of a pandemic gives me comfort in the customer service.


Back to the topic.
I think you won’t be happy until you step up to a 5ver regardless of brand. Just my opinion. I walked this path over the past 15 years myself. I’ve lost axles on trips, slides that wouldn’t go back in the middle of Wyoming forest, leaking caps, Now I’m in a GD toyhauler.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The cutting weight to keep them half ton towable is really a strange business plan. Many of the trailer towers have 3/4 ton vehicles, in fact most of my friends that tow have them. I have a neighbor that has had it all, Motor homes, travel trailers, now has a huge fifthwheel. I talked to them a few days ago and they are talking of going back to a travel trailer and selling the fifthwheel because of turning and parking issues. He also turned in a drive and dropped a wheel off and the fifthwheel hit the rails on his dually and did quite a bit of damage. So he will be towing travel trailer with dually. I would not tow a 35 plus foot travel trailer with a half ton no matter what it weighed!

[huntr70]

I am surprised that GD said the Reflection uses a luan/foam laminate floor because our 2021 Imagine has OSB. Actually, all of the 2020 Imagines I looked at also had OSB.

No, they don't. They use the same laminated floor that the Reflection travel trailers do.

Here is the cut away picture from the Grand Design website.

[huntr70]

I looked at Jayco Eagle, they don't, I looked at Cougar, they don't.

Wrong on both counts. Eagle does, and Cougar does.

Here is a picture of the laminated floor from the Keystone website. It is exactly the same floor as the Outback and Passport use that I have in stock.

[PTParker]

Wrong on both counts. Eagle does, and Cougar does.

Here is a picture of the laminated floor from the Keystone website. It is exactly the same floor as the Outback and Passport use that I have in stock.

Ok, I concede, I may have been wrong! I went back and looked at the Cougar video I had watched with the OSB floor and it was from 2009. So I guess they have cheapened their trailer over the years also!

Can you give me any information on a reason Grand Design floors may be better than the competitors? I ask a Grand Design rep but have not heard anything back? Looking at the construction method, it is hard for me to see where putting loose foam between the aluminum supports and gluing 2 , 1/8th luan layers over it creates a very strong floor. Unless the supports are about 6 inches apart a 1/4 inch floor is not very strong! If glue breaks loose so will the floor! Have you seen any trouble with floors on the Grand Design with this design.

I guess I have not traded trailers often enough. Each trailer I have bought was noticeably cheaper made than the last! The first trailer I had, had solid oak cabinets just like in a house, even the frames were solid oak!

[huntr70]

Yes, times have certainly changed.

It is all about being lighter than their predecessors, and they are trying to put more "bling" in than "build".

The only laminated floors that I have seen go bad are Keystones and Forest River (Rockwood/Flagstaff),. they both used a cardboard -like sheathing.

I won't ever say that A GD is built better, but they do things differently, like laminate all the walls, slide walls, etc, where Keystone does not, use solid wood trusses in the ceiling instead of stamped metal, and send every one through a PDI. You have to remember that even then, things happen, as they do travel for hundreds of miles to a dealer.

Easiest manufacturer to get warranty approved with also. This is the main reason I own one. I see it on a daily basis where other mfg delay warranty claims for weeks.