Grand Design Solitude floor construction

[Gemfire13]

Originally Posted by keymastr

Outdoors RV uses only marine grade plywood. It can get wet and the glue does not dissolve, nor does it swell and turn to mush. They use it in the floor and on the roof and other than the cabinets it is the only wood in them.

Yes, OSB is used in most houses for flooring and roofing but houses rarely leak and almost never hit potholes at 65 MPH. Your camper should not be compromised simply because a PEX fitting let go and flooded it while you were out for a walk.

keymastr, does Outdoors RV offer full-timing rated 5th wheels??

[consolenut]

id be looking at spacekraft, anderson mobile esates ( if won the powerball) or another Teton. Maybe a new horizons.

[Cumminsfan]

Originally Posted by Gemfire13

keymastr, does Outdoors RV offer full-timing rated 5th wheels??

ORV as well as Northwood don't have a clause for full timing. Use it like a rental as far as they're concerned.
with that being said, ORV only offers two smaller 5th wheels now. They discontinued their larger full profile models. Both are still full time livable if size doesn't matter.

ORV and Northwood don't use MDF in their cabinets like GD does.

[masdixdragon]

One of the you tube tour videos indicated a marine grade osb looking subfloor..
Engineered woods have construction variations the same as various grades of plywoods and certain classes of engineered woods can out perform certain classes and grades of plywoods even in moisture resistance so damning a product for being engineered wood could be short sighted...just saying
Just as an example: http://www.huberwood.com/advantech/performance/moisture

[smlranger]

Originally Posted by Gemfire13

Again, thank you. What you said about the plumbing connections is very good to know!! Pex piping has been one of our major "must-haves" on the future RV we buy. It's alarming and frustrating to know that GD is using vinyl piping and connecting to Pex instead of using all Pex!!!

Grand Design does also use Pex. Not sure why they mix it with the vinyl tubing.

[nuffsaid]

I have a 2018 Grand Design 3010GK, I looked at a lot of 5th wheel trailers and like many of you, I drank the coolaid and believed the advertising. I have extensive knowledge and experience in construction, welding and mechanics, but there are so many things that can't be seen in a 5th wheel until you start removing panels. Grand Design does use OSB, I can't remember for sure, but the main floor might be one piece without any joints, don't take my word for this, but this stuck in my head. Insulation is my biggest gripe with Grand Design. I live in Wyoming and like to use my 5er in cold weather. We had it parked in Belgrade, MT for two weeks around Christmas and quickly found out that keeping it warm in sub 20 degree temps was a challenge. I got foil bubble wrap and covered most of the insides of the windows. This was marginally effective. Cold transfer from the glass diminished, but since the bubble wrap wasn't sealed to the bottom of the windows, a strong cold draft could be felt at the bottom of the windows. The window frames also carried a lot of cold. It seems all of the rv manufacturers exaggerate their R values for insulation. The first exaggeration is claiming R-15 for all of the foil faced bubble wrap, total joke. The only insulation in the floors of the slide outs in the foil faced bubble wrap, the floors get very cold! The floor areas under the rear couch closest to the rear wall also get very cold. Closet in master bed room gets hot and cold as checked with infra red thermometer, most likely poor placement of fiberglass batting. Ceiling seemed to be pretty good as far as insulation goes. Too much glass and single pane windows allowed a lot of heat gain in the summer and cold intrusion in the winter. My furnace ran almost non stop in temps below 20 degrees and required running the electric fire place to keep up. I did do an experiment and spray foamed the frame rails of the trailer to help with keeping the underbelly heat in check. It seemed to help and I never froze up even down to -10. The slide outs have huge openings that allow heat to escape and allow cold in, all the while a dedicated furnace duct is blowing warm air to help keep the plumbing from freezing. I am not really picking on Grand Design, because all of the manufacturers are over stating their insulation. If you took their R value ratings and divided them by 3, you might be close!

The brakes on my Solitude were also pathetic. It started with two grease soaked linings when I picked the trailer up from the dealer outside of Denver. New brakes were sent and I installed them and braking was still pathetic. I bit the bullet and installed Kodiak disk brakes, problem solved. When I was checking things out for the brake upgrade, I found spring eyes that were out of round and bronze bushings with 500 miles on them were destroyed. I upgraded the shackles to hd more ryde units and added wet bolts to the locations that didn't have them.

I had issues with my water pump loosing prime when boon docking. Grand Design sent me a new pump, but that wasn't the issue. The complex manifold system for water and sewer control had fittings that weren't tightened proper at the factory allowing air leaks. I fixed it. Since my nearest dealer was over 160 miles away, I didn't get the warm and fuzzy feeling about driving and having a dealer make half ass repairs, so I just took care of everything myself. Grand Design was good about getting me parts under warranty.

All of this being said, I don't know if there are truly better choices out there in the same price range. So while Grand Design isn't perfect, most of the other brands aren't perfect either.

[Gemfire13]

Originally Posted by nuffsaid

I have a 2018 Grand Design 3010GK, I looked at a lot of 5th wheel trailers and like many of you, I drank the coolaid and believed the advertising. I have extensive knowledge and experience in construction, welding and mechanics, but there are so many things that can't be seen in a 5th wheel until you start removing panels. Grand Design does use OSB, I can't remember for sure, but the main floor might be one piece without any joints, don't take my word for this, but this stuck in my head. Insulation is my biggest gripe with Grand Design. I live in Wyoming and like to use my 5er in cold weather. We had it parked in Belgrade, MT for two weeks around Christmas and quickly found out that keeping it warm in sub 20 degree temps was a challenge. I got foil bubble wrap and covered most of the insides of the windows. This was marginally effective. Cold transfer from the glass diminished, but since the bubble wrap wasn't sealed to the bottom of the windows, a strong cold draft could be felt at the bottom of the windows. The window frames also carried a lot of cold. It seems all of the rv manufacturers exaggerate their R values for insulation. The first exaggeration is claiming R-15 for all of the foil faced bubble wrap, total joke. The only insulation in the floors of the slide outs in the foil faced bubble wrap, the floors get very cold! The floor areas under the rear couch closest to the rear wall also get very cold. Closet in master bed room gets hot and cold as checked with infra red thermometer, most likely poor placement of fiberglass batting. Ceiling seemed to be pretty good as far as insulation goes. Too much glass and single pane windows allowed a lot of heat gain in the summer and cold intrusion in the winter. My furnace ran almost non stop in temps below 20 degrees and required running the electric fire place to keep up. I did do an experiment and spray foamed the frame rails of the trailer to help with keeping the underbelly heat in check. It seemed to help and I never froze up even down to -10. The slide outs have huge openings that allow heat to escape and allow cold in, all the while a dedicated furnace duct is blowing warm air to help keep the plumbing from freezing. I am not really picking on Grand Design, because all of the manufacturers are over stating their insulation. If you took their R value ratings and divided them by 3, you might be close!

The brakes on my Solitude were also pathetic. It started with two grease soaked linings when I picked the trailer up from the dealer outside of Denver. New brakes were sent and I installed them and braking was still pathetic. I bit the bullet and installed Kodiak disk brakes, problem solved. When I was checking things out for the brake upgrade, I found spring eyes that were out of round and bronze bushings with 500 miles on them were destroyed. I upgraded the shackles to hd more ryde units and added wet bolts to the locations that didn't have them.

I had issues with my water pump loosing prime when boon docking. Grand Design sent me a new pump, but that wasn't the issue. The complex manifold system for water and sewer control had fittings that weren't tightened proper at the factory allowing air leaks. I fixed it. Since my nearest dealer was over 160 miles away, I didn't get the warm and fuzzy feeling about driving and having a dealer make half ass repairs, so I just took care of everything myself. Grand Design was good about getting me parts under warranty.

All of this being said, I don't know if there are truly better choices out there in the same price range. So while Grand Design isn't perfect, most of the other brands aren't perfect either.

Thank you, NuffSaid. I appreciate your candor and your information!

[gordofuchs]

Originally Posted by nuffsaid

I have a 2018 Grand Design 3010GK, I looked at a lot of 5th wheel trailers and like many of you, I drank the coolaid and believed the advertising. I have extensive knowledge and experience in construction, welding and mechanics, but there are so many things that can't be seen in a 5th wheel until you start removing panels. Grand Design does use OSB, I can't remember for sure, but the main floor might be one piece without any joints, don't take my word for this, but this stuck in my head. Insulation is my biggest gripe with Grand Design. I live in Wyoming and like to use my 5er in cold weather. We had it parked in Belgrade, MT for two weeks around Christmas and quickly found out that keeping it warm in sub 20 degree temps was a challenge. I got foil bubble wrap and covered most of the insides of the windows. This was marginally effective. Cold transfer from the glass diminished, but since the bubble wrap wasn't sealed to the bottom of the windows, a strong cold draft could be felt at the bottom of the windows. The window frames also carried a lot of cold. It seems all of the rv manufacturers exaggerate their R values for insulation. The first exaggeration is claiming R-15 for all of the foil faced bubble wrap, total joke. The only insulation in the floors of the slide outs in the foil faced bubble wrap, the floors get very cold! The floor areas under the rear couch closest to the rear wall also get very cold. Closet in master bed room gets hot and cold as checked with infra red thermometer, most likely poor placement of fiberglass batting. Ceiling seemed to be pretty good as far as insulation goes. Too much glass and single pane windows allowed a lot of heat gain in the summer and cold intrusion in the winter. My furnace ran almost non stop in temps below 20 degrees and required running the electric fire place to keep up. I did do an experiment and spray foamed the frame rails of the trailer to help with keeping the underbelly heat in check. It seemed to help and I never froze up even down to -10. The slide outs have huge openings that allow heat to escape and allow cold in, all the while a dedicated furnace duct is blowing warm air to help keep the plumbing from freezing. I am not really picking on Grand Design, because all of the manufacturers are over stating their insulation. If you took their R value ratings and divided them by 3, you might be close!

The brakes on my Solitude were also pathetic. It started with two grease soaked linings when I picked the trailer up from the dealer outside of Denver. New brakes were sent and I installed them and braking was still pathetic. I bit the bullet and installed Kodiak disk brakes, problem solved. When I was checking things out for the brake upgrade, I found spring eyes that were out of round and bronze bushings with 500 miles on them were destroyed. I upgraded the shackles to hd more ryde units and added wet bolts to the locations that didn't have them.

I had issues with my water pump loosing prime when boon docking. Grand Design sent me a new pump, but that wasn't the issue. The complex manifold system for water and sewer control had fittings that weren't tightened proper at the factory allowing air leaks. I fixed it. Since my nearest dealer was over 160 miles away, I didn't get the warm and fuzzy feeling about driving and having a dealer make half ass repairs, so I just took care of everything myself. Grand Design was good about getting me parts under warranty.

All of this being said, I don't know if there are truly better choices out there in the same price range. So while Grand Design isn't perfect, most of the other brands aren't perfect either.

I have owned a Grand Design Solitude 305RE, since fall of 2014. We have had many of the same issues listed above. On our maiden voyage from Cleveland, Ohio, south and west, it was obvious the brakes were not working correctly. We had to store the unit in Oregon, as I did not want to run it back home without brakes. We had the brakes repaired, and did a return loop in the fall of 2015. Every time I looked underneath the unit and observed the cheap looking spring and shackle hardware, I came away with more gray hair. When we returned to Cleveland in the spring of 2016, I made an appointment at the Mor Ryde shop in Elkhart, IN., to have I/S and disc brakes installed. That was one of the best additions made to the unit. Since that time, I have decided that if we ever buy another RV trailer, it will have the same upgrades. I believe that the quality of rv's, coupled with the fact that they are being towed and bounced around on the roadways, produces defects and breakdowns. You need to be able to control what you can, and fix what can't be controlled.

[2Yung2 Quit]

Originally Posted by gordofuchs

I have owned a Grand Design Solitude 305RE, since fall of 2014. We have had many of the same issues listed above. On our maiden voyage from Cleveland, Ohio, south and west, it was obvious the brakes were not working correctly. We had to store the unit in Oregon, as I did not want to run it back home without brakes. We had the brakes repaired, and did a return loop in the fall of 2015. Every time I looked underneath the unit and observed the cheap looking spring and shackle hardware, I came away with more gray hair. When we returned to Cleveland in the spring of 2016, I made an appointment at the Mor Ryde shop in Elkhart, IN., to have I/S and disc brakes installed. That was one of the best additions made to the unit. Since that time, I have decided that if we ever buy another RV trailer, it will have the same upgrades. I believe that the quality of rv's, coupled with the fact that they are being towed and bounced around on the roadways, produces defects and breakdowns. You need to be able to control what you can, and fix what can't be controlled.

I have owned (insert manufacturer here) since ____.

This could be any trailer. If you want those "upgrades" included, then you need to increase your budget.

Grand Design quality is as good as anything in that price point, and the CS is the best.

[redhooker]

Originally Posted by 2Yung2 Quit

I have owned (insert manufacturer here) since ____.

This could be any trailer. If you want those "upgrades" included, then you need to increase your budget.

Grand Design quality is as good as anything in that price point, and the CS is the best.

Where we live (FL) grand designs are going for about 20% more than comparable units by other brands new. What class do I put GD? Same as a middle of the road Keystone, Forest River, ect. A KZ Durango, Riverstone, or Cardinal I would consider a couple notches above GD. I rate coaches on components, construction method and materials. GD uses mid to low cost materials and hardware with the same frames as the other brands.

What GD does offer is different colors and fabrics. Cooler vinyl stickers as well. Much more aligned with younger buyers tastes. Almost all “customer service” issues are dealer related and we have no dedicated GD dealers here. My customer serve experience with manufacturers has been excellent from KZ, Forest River, Lance, and others. I have not seen any exceptional things from grand design. Particularly on major GD coach failures I have witnessed during our full-time years as they were working out the bugs.

Despite the price difference on new units here, in the used market GDs are generally priced right in line with the other mid to low mid level models which makes them a decent option. Just would suck to take the extra depreciation on a new coach.