Moving On To A Brinkley, But Very Grateful For My Time As A GD Owner

JeffD68

Senior Member
Site Sponsor
Joined
Feb 24, 2019
Messages
311
Location
Poway, CA
We still love our 303, but we are looking for something with room for guests...mostly our 3 1/2 year old grandson. It was narrowed down to the Solitude 378 MBS or the Brinkley Model Z 3610. I really thought we would go full profile with our next rig but the Brinkley is just so beautiful inside and so understated outside. Brinkley will push other manufacturers to raise their game. A friend needs to rid himself of the 3610 he just purchased in November and had towed five miles to a local campground where it still sits. I'm giving him my 303 and cash, and taking the Brinkley off his hands. We are both winners in the deal. Can't wait to hook the Brinkley up to my new to me F450 Platinum (2022, 6500 miles) and hit the road.

Five years in our 303 and we absolutely loved it. We had amazing adventures together. She was our home away from home while exploring the outdoors up and down the West Coast, all through the Mountain West, and throughout the Southwest.

I also really enjoyed this forum. I posted occasionally and kept an eye on it almost daily. I won't be surprised if I find my self back in a GD and on this forum sometime in the future.

Happy camping and safe travels.
 
We still love our 303, but we are looking for something with room for guests...mostly our 3 1/2 year old grandson. It was narrowed down to the Solitude 378 MBS or the Brinkley Model Z 3610. I really thought we would go full profile with our next rig but the Brinkley is just so beautiful inside and so understated outside. Brinkley will push other manufacturers to raise their game. A friend needs to rid himself of the 3610 he just purchased in November and had towed five miles to a local campground where it still sits. I'm giving him my 303 and cash, and taking the Brinkley off his hands. We are both winners in the deal. Can't wait to hook the Brinkley up to my new to me F450 Platinum (2022, 6500 miles) and hit the road.

Five years in our 303 and we absolutely loved it. We had amazing adventures together. She was our home away from home while exploring the outdoors up and down the West Coast, all through the Mountain West, and throughout the Southwest.

I also really enjoyed this forum. I posted occasionally and kept an eye on it almost daily. I won't be surprised if I find my self back in a GD and on this forum sometime in the future.

Happy camping and safe travels.

Sounds like a deal that will work out for both of you.

I would be interested to have you stick around here and give reports on how the Brinkley is working out for you.

I just need honest feedback to support the hype.
 
I hope you have great things with your Brinkley. Everything I have read and seen at the shows they piqued my interest as well. It would be great if you followed up here as Hunter said.


From what I have seen they have some of the same piddly production issues with trim falling off etc. If you follow closely they have a few issues as well and are just as controlling of what is put / said out there as GD is. After all it was all top GD people who are forming Brinkley. We were early on in the GD life and know the path it took. I am watching Brinkley with skepticism because it is all the same montra that GD started with and here we are today. It is nice to have 2 companies to pick from as far as CS standpoint and they took our favorite GD tech JD. I really see Brinkley as the 2nd coming of GD with a bit of a kick. In the end I see the Fenech bros selling their share off in 2 or 3 years and they sail off into the sunset with even more loaded pockets than they did with GD and Montana before that . All that said we came quite close to buying one last year in Tampa. They were dealing hard and made it difficult to walk away!! Their CCC was a bit dissapointing with their comparable to the 303 being almmos 1,000 lbs less than our 303 and Micha said it is under rated (I got the same response when he was with GD on our 303) . Id like to see real world numbers on the sticker.
I want to see what GD footprints they are following and which they aren't now that their getting out into the market.
 
We still love our 303, but we are looking for something with room for guests...mostly our 3 1/2 year old grandson. It was narrowed down to the Solitude 378 MBS or the Brinkley Model Z 3610. I really thought we would go full profile with our next rig but the Brinkley is just so beautiful inside and so understated outside. Brinkley will push other manufacturers to raise their game. A friend needs to rid himself of the 3610 he just purchased in November and had towed five miles to a local campground where it still sits. I'm giving him my 303 and cash, and taking the Brinkley off his hands. We are both winners in the deal. Can't wait to hook the Brinkley up to my new to me F450 Platinum (2022, 6500 miles) and hit the road.

Five years in our 303 and we absolutely loved it. We had amazing adventures together. She was our home away from home while exploring the outdoors up and down the West Coast, all through the Mountain West, and throughout the Southwest.

I also really enjoyed this forum. I posted occasionally and kept an eye on it almost daily. I won't be surprised if I find my self back in a GD and on this forum sometime in the future.

Happy camping and safe travels.

Congratulations on the Brinkley. My wife and I have been watching them for a while. I second that you keep us informed of likes and dislikes of the Brinkley. We are jealous. Happy trails.
 
I will stick around and report back. My wife and I have been to numerous dealers that carry Brinkley and other major brands. We have walked directly from Solitudes, Montanas, Pinnacles, etc., right into the Brinkley, and the reaction was always the same. No matter how nice the others are, the Brinkley always feels like a home. This is despite of the fact that we are comparing it to wide body, full profile units. I can't image trim falling off, because there really isn't any. You can't find a staple anywhere. Drawers are dovetailed and the boxes are smooth. The color palette, fixtures, and finishes are modern, if a bit cool. We will liven it up with accessories. I'm not saying they're flawless, but they appear to be discernably better than anything else. For 2024, GD added fully cased windows, soft close cabinet doors, standard solar, and 8000 lbs. axles to the Solitude line. I suspect that is 100% due to Brinkley. A luxury mid-profile brand is driving change on full profile competitors. That can only benefit all of us. Hopefully they continue to prioritize quality and innovation.
 
Probably the nice thing about buying used is some if not most of the bugs are worked out. It sure sounds like a win-win for all.

Safe travels. Stay in touch.
 
I will stick around and report back. My wife and I have been to numerous dealers that carry Brinkley and other major brands. We have walked directly from Solitudes, Montanas, Pinnacles, etc., right into the Brinkley, and the reaction was always the same. No matter how nice the others are, the Brinkley always feels like a home. This is despite of the fact that we are comparing it to wide body, full profile units. I can't image trim falling off, because there really isn't any. You can't find a staple anywhere. Drawers are dovetailed and the boxes are smooth. The color palette, fixtures, and finishes are modern, if a bit cool. We will liven it up with accessories. I'm not saying they're flawless, but they appear to be discernably better than anything else. For 2024, GD added fully cased windows, soft close cabinet doors, standard solar, and 8000 lbs. axles to the Solitude line. I suspect that is 100% due to Brinkley. A luxury mid-profile brand is driving change on full profile competitors. That can only benefit all of us. Hopefully they continue to prioritize quality and innovation.

I personally appreciate the honesty, and can only appreciate how everyone has their own interpretation of what they like and dislike.

I walked my wife into a Brinkley at a local show and she hated it, as I did. We simply do not like the sterile white/gray interior and non matching furniture. There certainly are a number of nice features also.

Being in this industry, it sure opens eyes to what is current and trendy decor.
 
I personally appreciate the honesty, and can only appreciate how everyone has their own interpretation of what they like and dislike.

I walked my wife into a Brinkley at a local show and she hated it, as I did. We simply do not like the sterile white/gray interior and non matching furniture. There certainly are a number of nice features also.

Being in this industry, it sure opens eyes to what is current and trendy decor.

I agree that the colors are a bit sterile. I used the term cool, but we're saying the same thing. To us, one of the worst aspect of RV interiors is the matching furniture! We have treated all of our trailers like homes. We decorate in a style that is pleasing to us. Most treat their trailers like their cars. You get the interior you get and that's how it stays until you get the next one. Here are a few pictures of our 303. These were taken in June of 2023 in Yellowstone. Not staged for a photo shoot, this is how we camp.

20230616_153149.jpg
20230616_160353.jpg
20230616_160828.jpg
20230616_161012.jpg

We will apply our personal style to the Brinkley as well, and it will feel warm and inviting.
 
Regardless of the terms used "cool or sterile" you have got to agree there has been a vast improvement both interior and exterior from the nineties. I remember when the interior colors and patterns would scare small children, and the exterior had to have a large picture of some kind of disturbed animal. I like the Brinkley designs.

I would bet they will continue to prioritize quality and innovation until they are ultimately bought by one of the major manuacturers.
 
Brinkley exterior looks like something out of the Jetsons! I find the interior utilitarian and unappealing but that is just me. Sounds like a win-win. Good luck.
 
We walked into a couple of Brinkleys at a dealership in Arizona a few weeks ago. Decor and color scheme aside, I do think they build tremendous functionality into their rigs. That is beyond the claimed, and from what I could tell on the outside, elevated craftsmanship. We are a few years away from slipping into a different rig, if we do at all, so like everyone else I’ll be paying attention to all things Brinkley. My hope is the hype is real, and we have a company that helps pick the rest of the industry up.
 
Yikes! Their travel trailers are quite... large. I don't really see the point when it basically requires a truck big enough to tow a fifth wheel. As soon as they get to 30' and 7000# UVW, I'll be investigating.

Oh, and no slide on the bed, to allow a desk in the bedroom.
 
Last edited:
For 2024, GD added fully cased windows, soft close cabinet doors, standard solar, and 8000 lbs. axles to the Solitude line.

Actually, they added all these for the 2023 model, though some owners report their early 2023 models don't have them. Ours was ordered in February 2023, delivered in June, and has all these new features (including IS "axles").
 
We have had the Brinkley at our house for about a week now. We have gone over the inside pretty well as we've cleaned and transferred much of our gear from the 303. We love it and have only found a couple minor issues. The pantry light stayed on all the time due to a stuck magnetic switch. Remedied that with a push button replacement. It looks like there may be a screw working its way up through the vinyl flooring. I will keep an eye on that one as it is probably not even noticeable to anyone else. I didn't see it initially. There is one cabinet door that is slightly warped. At some point, I will seek a replacement. That's really it. Hoping to book a few nights in April to get it out on a proper shakedown.
 
Awesome, I hope it works out for you, I try to get my wife and I to go see one but the one that was at the dealer it was taken and we couldn't go in, I do like the looks of the Blinkey.
 
Last edited:
We went out for a four night shakedown and everything functioned as it should. I expect to be very happy in this rig for years to come.

1000003056.jpg
1000003057.jpg
1000003051.jpg
1000003065.jpg
1000003067.jpg
 

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom