Considering a Solitude

[txloser]

Potentially moving on from an SOB FW to a Solitude for what seems like a very nice trailer. I do have a couple questions that I cannot seem to find recent info for anywhere. Go easy on the new guy.

Looking at a 24' 310GK.

1)Are the interior lights in the main living area dimmable? If not are they obnoxious in low light?
2)Coming from a residential Whirlpool AC fridge, 1200watt inverter with no solar and two 6v batts, how will I do on a 10hr drive with the 12v fridge and the two 330 watt panels?
3)The Furrion tankless water heater... I get that I'll use more water to get it going, but after that should it work fairly well. Wife won't deal well with running out of HW.

No RV is perfect I've found over the years but don't want to make a backwards step for just prettier paint scheme and wider body.

[Second Chance]

Thread moved to New To RV'ing, Purchase Questions & General Concerns.

A lot of things have changed on the newer models (our 2020 Solitude has a tank-style water heater and does not have the One Control system). Someone will come along who can answer your questions...

Rob

[Soundsailor]

Potentially moving on from an SOB FW to a Solitude for what seems like a very nice trailer. I do have a couple questions that I cannot seem to find recent info for anywhere. Go easy on the new guy.

Looking at a 24' 310GK.

1)Are the interior lights in the main living area dimmable? If not are they obnoxious in low light?
2)Coming from a residential Whirlpool AC fridge, 1200watt inverter with no solar and two 6v batts, how will I do on a 10hr drive with the 12v fridge and the two 330 watt panels?
3)The Furrion tankless water heater... I get that I'll use more water to get it going, but after that should it work fairly well. Wife won't deal well with running out of HW.

No RV is perfect I've found over the years but don't want to make a backwards step for just prettier paint scheme and wider body.

Welcome to the forum. Can't be specific to the 310GK, but the lights on my coach aren't dimmable. Quite a few forum members have modded their coach to add dimmers. The 12-volt frig in my coach works great, you'll need more than the stock lead-acid battery to make a 12-hour drive although the solar should help. We love our tankless water heater but not everyone here does. We never run out of hot water and propane usage is quite low.

[txloser]

Thanks for moving this and thanks for the replies. Good to know the tankless work you. I've also heard mixed reviews over the years, but was hoping since they're becoming more of a norm that they'd have some kinks worked out. Today I had a deal worked out and then took my wife down there to see it before I went and dumped a bunch of money into a depreciating asset. It was going great till she saw the bedroom sliding closet doors. Then, her overall opinion went downhill. She started noticing other "corners cut" as she described it. No LED reading lights over the bed, just incandescent bulbs that burned pretty hot. No backsplash in the bathroom, no shade on the entry door, light switches hidden behind a panel, no dimmable house lights, and a few other bits. I'll have to work on her. Our current trailer is a 2019 37' Jayco Eagle FW with a similar floor plan, and while its not one of the premium FW's it has all these things. In my eyes this is an upgrade. Wide body, hyd level, only Schwintek is a small slide, 8k axles, hinged door on basement wall for access, larger windows, 3 AC's for when heat soaked after a long day driving, Kitchen island is larger, No more dining chairs on wooden legs that come apart, no carpet, No more restringing accordion blinds. I could go on and on. We'll see. I post up in the interior section on my closet opinions and maybe get some insight there.

[ajg617]

It was going great till she saw the bedroom sliding closet doors. Then, her overall opinion went downhill. She started noticing other "corners cut" as she described it. No LED reading lights over the bed, just incandescent bulbs that burned pretty hot. No backsplash in the bathroom, no shade on the entry door, light switches hidden behind a panel, no dimmable house lights, and a few other bits. I'll have to work on her.

Surprised at no LED lights over the bed. Ours has two LED puck lights (push button which albeit is very inconvenient to reach when in bed). Are you sure they are incandescent? Our LEDs do get pretty warm. The shade on the entry door is an easy inexpensive self-install and multiple ways to do it. Ours LEDs are not dimmable. In the main living area, when we want softer light we use the drop downs over the island and turn off the pucks. I'm getting to like the central vac more and more. 8K axles, just for the disc brakes are definitely worth it. We have the Samsung residential fridge with 200Ah lithium and have gone 4 nights on solar only (one 300Watt panel) and recovered very nicely each day even in cloud. I would have ordered the 3rd AC but supply chain issues resulted in GD only installing them in larger Solitudes and Momentums when we purchased late 2021. That said, we've been good with two even after driving in triple digit heat for a day. The 15K BTU AC in the bedroom is really overkill for the square footage and helps the main living area a lot.

[Second Chance]

Thanks for moving this and thanks for the replies. Good to know the tankless work you. I've also heard mixed reviews over the years, but was hoping since they're becoming more of a norm that they'd have some kinks worked out. Today I had a deal worked out and then took my wife down there to see it before I went and dumped a bunch of money into a depreciating asset. It was going great till she saw the bedroom sliding closet doors. Then, her overall opinion went downhill. She started noticing other "corners cut" as she described it. No LED reading lights over the bed, just incandescent bulbs that burned pretty hot. No backsplash in the bathroom, no shade on the entry door, light switches hidden behind a panel, no dimmable house lights, and a few other bits. I'll have to work on her. Our current trailer is a 2019 37' Jayco Eagle FW with a similar floor plan, and while its not one of the premium FW's it has all these things. In my eyes this is an upgrade. Wide body, hyd level, only Schwintek is a small slide, 8k axles, hinged door on basement wall for access, larger windows, 3 AC's for when heat soaked after a long day driving, Kitchen island is larger, No more dining chairs on wooden legs that come apart, no carpet, No more restringing accordion blinds. I could go on and on. We'll see. I post up in the interior section on my closet opinions and maybe get some insight there.

There should be no incandescent bulbs anywhere in a Grand Design. Perhaps @huntr70 can clarify for us. I moved the house light switch out from behind the door to under the buffet overhead cabinet with the rest of the switches - not a big deal. We've also had zero issues with the sliding closet doors (I did put a door stop above them to stop the W/D doorknob from hitting the mirror when all the way open).

Rob

[txloser]

Surprised at no LED lights over the bed. Ours has two LED puck lights (push button which albeit is very inconvenient to reach when in bed). Are you sure they are incandescent? Our LEDs do get pretty warm. The shade on the entry door is an easy inexpensive self-install and multiple ways to do it. Ours LEDs are not dimmable. In the main living area, when we want softer light we use the drop downs over the island and turn off the pucks. I'm getting to like the central vac more and more. 8K axles, just for the disc brakes are definitely worth it. We have the Samsung residential fridge with 200Ah lithium and have gone 4 nights on solar only (one 300Watt panel) and recovered very nicely each day even in cloud. I would have ordered the 3rd AC but supply chain issues resulted in GD only installing them in larger Solitudes and Momentums when we purchased late 2021. That said, we've been good with two even after driving in triple digit heat for a day. The 15K BTU AC in the bedroom is really overkill for the square footage and helps the main living area a lot.

Maybe they are LED and just get hot. We don't really use them to read, just a little less offensive than the ceiling lights at night. Our current FW is similar to yours with a residential Whirlpool. No solar but 2 6v batts get the job done on a long drive. These 8k axles look to be drum brakes, but that includes heavier springs too. Mine are a little soft after 5 years and we travel light, so my hope is they'll hold up better and the stronger axles may be less prone to getting bent. Had one of those from the factory. Probably a curb on delivery. We have a 15k in the bedroom now, and wife, son, and dog pretty much hang there till the main room is livable after a a day drving in tripple digits. I do like that all three of these have ducts and old school cold dump. My main room AC completely ducted. This is great for noise as you can barely hear it running, but I think makes it take longer to cool. Trade offs. I'd rather turn up the TV volume than be hot.

[ajg617]

These 8k axles look to be drum brakes, but that includes heavier springs too. Mine are a little soft after 5 years and we travel light, so my hope is they'll hold up better and the stronger axles may be less prone to getting bent.

We have had major spring/wet bolt issues with the 8Ks as have others with Momentums. The 8K axles haven't been an issue but the springs, spring hangers, shackles, and wet bolts have been. At 14K miles we broke down and had to replace all 8k springs, wet bolts, shackles. A few threads on this topic. Disc brakes are worth the price which is why I ordered the 8K axles with discs.

[txloser]

I’ll look into that. Current unit has the CRE 3000 and wet bolts. No failures, but mounted on the wrong side and weight on or off wheels can’t get grease into some. As a result it’s a little creaky moving through the campground at times. Some zerks were even broken on delivery and I don’t think greased. This one I crawled under today and all the zerks had some grease on them so that was a good sign.

[Captcolour]

Likely the 3rd A/C is a heat pump too, so can take the chill off when temps are cool but not freezing. Saves from running the propane furnace.