Question. I gave a friend who is looking for a fifth wheel for full timing. Can not go for a DRV or Excel. Out of price range. Is the bay hill for full timing? I know a lot use various 5ers that we not approved by the manufacture. Is this one , neither he or I could fine anything on site
Not sure what you mean by full timing. My brother and his wife travels around the country in their 40ft diesel pusher 8 months out of the year. They usually stay in one place for 2 to 3 months. They prefer a motor home over a 5th wheel for the convenience of having the whole vehicle available while driving.
On the other hand, my Bay Hill 5th wheel is permanently set up at an RV Golf Resort which we use as our vacation home. We tried a motor home for 3 years at this resort with the idea of traveling once a month or every other month. My wife and I both work and usually make 3 or 4 day weekends taking our adult kids and grand children with us. When the motor home sat for over 8 months without ever being moved, we decided that we do not have the time to make the trips we thought we would. So we traded in the motor home for a 5th wheel and are enjoying our resort lifestyle so much more. The difference is that my brother and his wife have been retired more than 15 years and enjoy traveling with all their available time. I guess you might call my wife and I, weekend warriors.
As far as the Bay Hill good for full timing, I can only say that this is the best RV we have owned over the last 40 years and we had plenty of RV's. As a permanent home, we find it extremely comfortable. We have the 385BH model which gives us a second bedroom and an additional bathroom for our guests (kids, grand children and all their friends). The second bedroom gives us the privacy we like, especially because we get up earlier than our guests and don't have to climb around pull out beds and suit cases of clothes. The kitchen area really makes it easy to prepare meals while the 4 televisions make it possible for everyone to watch their favorite show. The outside kitchen makes it easier to serve meals outside while the extremely large storage areas make it easier to pack a lot of things. The tankless hot water heater, once mastered, make everyone happy while taking what seems to be endless showers. The 2 air conditioning units are the best we experienced from all of our RV's in the extreme South Florida heat. Our coach is cool, dry and comfortable. The 4 door refrigerator is the largest we ever had and handles the humid climate of South Florida much better than our past models. The second small refrigerator in the outside kitchen works great for keeping beverages cold and easily available. The coach is easy to keep clean and every part of it functions incredibly well. I really must say that we are extremely happy with our choice.
Now for towing. I will probably never tow this coach, however I am old enough to remind myself never to say never. What I noticed that I think make this coach an easy coach to tow are some of the major features designed for towing. One option is a cushioned tow hitch. If you look at the design you will notice that it is designed to cushion most of the bumps in the road while traveling. The 5 slide outs really are smooth. I added awnings over each slide to protect the slides from debris and heavy rain. The electric hookup, water and cable hookups are in perfect positions and very easy to utilize. The sewer is a little tricky on my model. It has 2 tanks up front, grey and black water and one tank for both grey and black in the back for the 2nd bathroom. The back tank has a separate hookup and pull handle. I put a tee in the main drain so that all tanks will drain at once. The underbelly of this coach is completely sealed with corrugated plastic panels. Every nook and cranny below is completely sealed with special foam. Because it has a 6 leg automatic hydraulic leveling system it's a breeze to set up. So even if you don't stay in one place for a very long time, hooking up and leveling are really easy.
I hope this helps
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Sounds great. What I was asking is does the manufacture grade it for full time living. If the RV is not rated by the manufacture for full time Some will disavow the warranty I have done the same as you did. Had a Motorhome at a RV resort where I own the site. Planned to travel but due the financial situation change could not afford to any longer. Traded to a fifth wheel. The difference is amazing We are now here almost full time. My friend is looking to do same thing trade his pusher for a fifth wheel They are done traveling and live here full time. Would u know if the Bay Hill is rated for full timing
I don't know if it is rated that way, but consider it only comes with a 1 year warranty, I'm not sure if that would come into the equation. If you were to put an extended warranty on any unit, I think they ask if you are full timing, however the Good Sam Club does not.
I understood that your friend is trading in a pusher. I don't know if you are familiar with the Continental 5th Wheels made by Forks RV, but they are a very high end unit. They were featured on Extreme Rv's on one of the cable networks and if you google them you will find their showroom. They have a vast array of floorplans and I'm sure these are rated full time.
We are looking at purchasing a B320RS 2014 model and would appreciate some advice from those of you who have gone through this process. We have seen quite a bit of variance in dealer prices. We live in Texas but are not opposed to traveling to a dealer that offers a significant price reduction. We have only purchased one prior RV and were able to get a substantial discount by purchasing our RV from a dealer in Ohio. Yes we had travel expenses but we turned it into a mini vacation and the bottom line is we saved thousands of dollars even after taking travel costs into consideration. I would appreciate any suggestions regarding this matter.
We also took delivery of our new Bay Hill 385BH two weeks ago from LaMesa RV
The salesman was great and very helpful but that was where it ended.
They have no clue how to correct problems and the delivery was awful the items that were to be done by the delivery day they didn't start until the day of delivery. Took 10 hours for the delivery, they were unprofessional.
I won't ever let them repair my rv so I have learned to do many of the repairs myself and find good repair facilities which I have.
We had problems with the tankless hot water heater, called LaMesa RV they didn't even what type it had or how to repair it. It was going hot to cold.
Did my own checking and here is the the things to do to fix the issue.
Remove the water limiter in the shower head.
Make sure your propane tanks have been properly purged.
Our problem was that the pressure on the propane regulator was set too low, increased it and problem fixed.
Pressure should be 10 to 11 at 50% usage.
I had never heard of Bay Hill until yesterday when someone on the Heartland forum made a reference to it. After a brief look at their website, I find it woefully lacking information and photos.
For example, I was not able to find the size of the iBeam's used in construction (8, 10, 12 inch). Frame manufacturer?
I certainly like the Bay Hill based on the limited photos they posted, but I would really appreciate any and all photos that some of you may have.
Also, if there is a link to a Bay Hill forum, I would really appreciate someone posting the link.
RichnAna, which La Mesa RV are you talking about? I was at the Pomona RV Show last month. La Mesa was there showing the Bay Hills, they were from San Diego.
Tm08, I agree, there is very little info on the Bay Hill as far as the frame. Also, no detailed cut away drawings that are typically shown.
The La Mesa RV in Phoenix and Yuma AZ
Pretty much useless they are un-professional and not very knowledgeable
As far as the Bay Hill itself a great coach we are very happy with it.
I had never heard of Bay Hill until yesterday when someone on the Heartland forum made a reference to it. After a brief look at their website, I find it woefully lacking information and photos.
For example, I was not able to find the size of the iBeam's used in construction (8, 10, 12 inch). Frame manufacturer?
I certainly like the Bay Hill based on the limited photos they posted, but I would really appreciate any and all photos that some of you may have.
Also, if there is a link to a Bay Hill forum, I would really appreciate someone posting the link.
Thanks in advance,
Bruce
I hope all works out well if you decide to buy a Bay Hill, Bruce. Quality control on my unit was lacking indeed, and the dealer in Turlock, California was very little help.
You mentioned framing. If my photo(s) have come through, you can see a dangling fresh water tank that fell out because the framing angle-iron was not of sufficient gauge, according to an RV technician sent out by CoachNet. In the other picture you can see the fender skirt about 1/16" away from the tire--a disaster just waiting to happen.
Ken,
Thanks for posting the pictures as they are pretty revealing re quality control. Falling tanks are just unacceptable. Makes a person wonder how many other owners are experiencing this issue and other issues and just don't post on the forum.
We are purchasing a new 2014 Bay Hill 320 RS this weekend. My wife has done due diligence with respect to making sure this particular unit fit our needs and we have been negotiating the purchase cost. We believe we are getting a good deal as opposed to a great deal but are otherwise fine with the pending transaction. I wanted to thank everyone who has responded with suggestions particularly those who provided us with items to watch during our walk through. While we are still looking at this unit with rose colored classes it definitely is a beautiful, spacious, and comfortable looking RV. We will be spending 6 weeks in it this winter so we should know shortly if we made the right decision.
One thing to be aware of if you're getting one that has washer/dryer connections in the closet. They may not be complete. We just bought a 2014 365RL model on 10/10/13 and found out that the water lines and drain pipe are not connected to anything, just cut off and capped in the front storage compartment. According to Evergreen that's how they come from the factory. It would've saved us a lot of time if they had informed the dealership s of this since ours was not aware of it either until we called to complain last Monday 200 miles away.
One thing to be aware of if you're getting one that has washer/dryer connections in the closet. They may not be complete. We just bought a 2014 365RL model on 10/10/13 and found out that the water lines and drain pipe are not connected to anything, just cut off and capped in the front storage compartment. According to Evergreen that's how they come from the factory. It would've saved us a lot of time if they had informed the dealership s of this since ours was not aware of it either until we called to complain last Monday 200 miles away.
Ours was completely connected. We picked it up the end of August. Was it Evergreen themselves that said this is the way they come or did the Dealer say they contacted Evergreen and that is what they said. I always go to the manufacturer first before speaking to the dealer.
I agree Bonabob I check with manufacturer first the dealers take no responsibility for anything and point the blame at everyone else.
I have been learning everything about whatever coach I have so I can do my own diagnosis and repairs when possible.
Being full time we can't afford to have our home in the repair shop while they try to guess what's wrong and in most cases it is something I can and have found and repaired myself.
I can also assist others in the campground if possible.
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