Cougar 321 RES

[taken]

Originally Posted by cfwin

Hello,

We have just ordered our 2012 Cougar HC 321res and have a few questions for anyone out there that has this unit. We have traded in our 2007 Jayco Eagle 328rls...so the size of the trailer is comparable, other than it is about 700lbs dry weight heavier and has a full length Queen bed...which is actually one of the main reasons we were looking.

There are a few things that I will miss with the Eagle...my RVQ! It seemed ridiculous to us when we bought the Jayco that it had a BBQ that attached to the side of the trailer and connected to the propane with a quick connect. But...it has actually been very convenient and fast when travelling...and I don't want to give it up! Is there such a BBQ for the Cougar? I also saw on line that on a lot of the Keystone trailers there is a slide out utility/bike rack at the back bumper. Does anyone know if the 321 has this? It would be great to not have to attach our bike rack as well.

Now I can't wait for next May...so that we can try out our new unit.

Thanks!

For about $50 in parts I added a quick connect to the 321's propane system. Tapped it right where the rubber line from the tanks meets the black pipe that runs back to the rear connect. Took about an hour. Very easy. Don't let the dealer do it. Two different dealers wanted $600 for the job because they assume people are afraid to work on gas. Honestly, it's an hour or so and $50 in parts. Then I had from my previous trailer a Camco Olympian stainless grill. Bought it on Amazon for $185 with no tax and free shipping. Here's a link: Amazon.com: Camco 57305 Olympian RV 5500 Stainless Steel RV Grill: Automotive
The only other thing you need is a mounting rail to let the grill hang from the side of your rv. Link: Amazon.com: Camco 57268 RV Mounting Rail for RV Grill: Automotive

[cfwin]

Originally Posted by taken

Agreed. That would have canceled the deal for us too!

We actually just ordered the trailer and wanted the black! Here is a video link that shows the colour...

2012 Keystone Cougar High Country 321RES travel trailer RV ... www.newcampers.com - YouTube

[cfwin]

Originally Posted by taken

For about $50 in parts I added a quick connect to the 321's propane system. Tapped it right where the rubber line from the tanks meets the black pipe that runs back to the rear connect. Took about an hour. Very easy. Don't let the dealer do it. Two different dealers wanted $600 for the job because they assume people are afraid to work on gas. Honestly, it's an hour or so and $50 in parts. Then I had from my previous trailer a Camco Olympian stainless grill. Bought it on Amazon for $185 with no tax and free shipping. Here's a link: Amazon.com: Camco 57305 Olympian RV 5500 Stainless Steel RV Grill: Automotive
The only other thing you need is a mounting rail to let the grill hang from the side of your rv. Link: Amazon.com: Camco 57268 RV Mounting Rail for RV Grill: Automotive

Thanks! Our 321res has the quick connect already on it according to the paperwork we signed...I wanted the convenience of just clipping the BBQ right on the side. I will check out your links. We won't be 'camping' until May so I have quite a few months to figure something out!

[taken]

Originally Posted by cfwin

We actually just ordered the trailer and wanted the black! Here is a video link that shows the colour...

If you say so. It's going to be like sleeping in a toaster if the your site lets sun hit those black slides and in the really hot days during the summer all three slides will be heat collectors wherever the sun hits the black. I wonder how much Keystone saved by putting a cheaper material on the side of the slides and then do two price increases on top of it???

[BKBOATER]

My wife and I were not sure weather or not we cared for the black slide outs either but I was curious as to why Cougar changed so I e-mailed them and to my surprise I got an answer. It read as follows:

We have a number of lines that our trying different color slide-out end
walls. In the case of High Country it was done purely for aesthetics.
It was something we wanted to do with our first High Country's but did
not have the proper materials in stock or tested for slide-outs. Our
Keystone Fuzion line started using the black metal about six months ago
after testing for scratching, heat intake and insulation and had
exceptional feedback. After waiting six months to hear a fair amount of
retail customer feed back we made the switch to line up with our new
graphics that ended up going live about a month after we switched the
end walls to black.

Thanks for your questions,

Jeff Runels
Team Cougar

I have to give them credit for answering me. And at this time I still feel that I will be ordering a Cougar High Country 321 RES

[taken]

Originally Posted by BKBOATER

My wife and I were not sure weather or not we cared for the black slide outs either but I was curious as to why Cougar changed so I e-mailed them and to my surprise I got an answer. It read as follows:

We have a number of lines that our trying different color slide-out end
walls. In the case of High Country it was done purely for aesthetics.
It was something we wanted to do with our first High Country's but did
not have the proper materials in stock or tested for slide-outs. Our
Keystone Fuzion line started using the black metal about six months ago
after testing for scratching, heat intake and insulation and had
exceptional feedback. After waiting six months to hear a fair amount of
retail customer feed back we made the switch to line up with our new
graphics that ended up going live about a month after we switched the
end walls to black.

Thanks for your questions,

Jeff Runels
Team Cougar

I have to give them credit for answering me. And at this time I still feel that I will be ordering a Cougar High Country 321 RES

I too give them credit for answering. However, I don't believe for a second it is for esthetics. Everything is bottom line.

[cfwin]

Originally Posted by BKBOATER

My wife and I were not sure weather or not we cared for the black slide outs either but I was curious as to why Cougar changed so I e-mailed them and to my surprise I got an answer. It read as follows:

We have a number of lines that our trying different color slide-out end
walls. In the case of High Country it was done purely for aesthetics.
It was something we wanted to do with our first High Country's but did
not have the proper materials in stock or tested for slide-outs. Our
Keystone Fuzion line started using the black metal about six months ago
after testing for scratching, heat intake and insulation and had
exceptional feedback. After waiting six months to hear a fair amount of
retail customer feed back we made the switch to line up with our new
graphics that ended up going live about a month after we switched the
end walls to black.

Thanks for your questions,

Jeff Runels
Team Cougar

I have to give them credit for answering me. And at this time I still feel that I will be ordering a Cougar High Country 321 RES

I'm kind of impressed that they answered you as well! I sent an email earlier this week and have not received a reply as of yet. I did just leave a phone message for 'Team Cougar'...when I hear back I will let you know what they said.

[BKBOATER]

cfwin: I don't know if anyone answered you yet about the slide bumper / bike rack on the Cougar 321 res, but I too am interested in knowing if that model has one. I thought that was just an option on the fth wheel models.

[Jimmie2]

The current 321RES does not come with the slide out bike rack. Mine was built in July of this year and I too thought the bike rack was standard. When I was researching this model, there were pictures of the Cougar HC with the slide out bike rack though on various web sites. Oh well, I just used my old bike rack from a previous RV.

[Jimmie2]

Oh yea, not a fan of the black slide out walls either...glad mine came with the old style

[cfwin]

Originally Posted by BKBOATER

cfwin: I don't know if anyone answered you yet about the slide bumper / bike rack on the Cougar 321 res, but I too am interested in knowing if that model has one. I thought that was just an option on the fth wheel models.

So....I still never received a reply from the 'cougar team' which is a little disheartening. I did however get a reply back from the dealer that we ordered from. The slide out bike rack is on the regular cougar trailers...not the high country. Because they are trying to keep the weight of the high country trailer lower...the bike rack is not available.

[JimEli]

We put our 321RES into storage and removed the batteries. However, we've now decided to pull her out and head to AZ for the winter.

Silly me, when I pulled the batteries I wasn't paying attention. Do we have a negative ground?

[taken]

Originally Posted by JimEli

We put our 321RES into storage and removed the batteries. However, we've now decided to pull her out and head to AZ for the winter.

Silly me, when I pulled the batteries I wasn't paying attention. Do we have a negative ground?

Yep!

[JimEli]

We just completed over 1700 miles of the start of our winter sabbatical, pulling our 2011 321RES with a ½ ton Toyota Tundra. We pulled from Birch Bay, WA to Scottsdale, AZ, with stops in Cannon Beach, Medford, Stockton, Barstow and Kingman. We pulled through three 4000+ foot passes, and several 3000+ passes also. We pulled our TT dry, but it was loaded for a multi-month extended stay in Arizona. While I haven’t weighed the Tundra or TT, I estimate we were very near the GCWR for combined truck and trailer.

The Tundra is a 2007 5.7 crew-cab model with TRD off-road package still on the original tires. I installed Air Lift rear airbags, compressor and a Prodigy brake controller. I used a no-name basic 1000# weight bearing hitch, with no additional sway-control. I targeted 60 mph, but saw periods of 70 and as slow as 45 near the top of Mt. Shasta (note: the speed limit for 3+ axles/trailers in Cali is 55 mph). There was 6” of snow on the ground at the top of the pass near Medford. We suffered two periods of extended 30 mph crosswinds and never experienced a doubt about controllability. At one point, following a Bounder class-A pulling a small SUV through a particularly windy section, we watched nervously as he struggled to keep it on the road.

The ride ranged from fantastic to unbearable. Over the atrocious Cali roads around Stockton and Bakersfield we slowed to 50 mph several times to preserve the integrity of our TT. For the majority of the trip the ride was good (road conditions being the primary factor). We found 40 psi in the bags seemed to work best. Under-tow gas mileage averaged 11.1 for the trip, with the best leg (flat) at 11.8 and worst (mountainous) leg at 10.1 mpg.

I was somewhat apprehensive prior to starting this trip, especially after reading the horror stories and preaching’s of the ¾ & 1 ton owners posted here. While I have over 10K miles logged pulling trailers over 5000 pounds, this is our first TT. However, after completing this trip I am very pleased with the performance of our Tundra. While I can’t speak for any domestic brand ½ ton truck, the Tundra is more than adequate for a 35’, 10K pound class TT. I have no idea how much of a safety margin we had, but I never encountered a white-knuckle situation.

Our mattress is completely toast.

The bumper end caps will fall off.

Always, (always!) inspect the rear bulkhead before opening the slides, lots of stuff will get caught.

Our DVD player started to act up, and it turned out to be the AV cable. It took me awhile to figure this one out, but it appears the cable end was damaged when it caught while retracting the TV.

The upper rear cable on the kitchen slide has started to wear a slot in the side of TT. The small patch of rubber that covered the cable departed the TT somewhere in southern OR, and has exposed the cable exit hole. I wonder how the other cables/holes are holding up?

Can't they make a microwave with a battery backup clock?

Otherwise, we're really enjoying our 321RES.