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Old 07-15-2020, 11:16 PM   #1
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Join Date: Jul 2020
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New Crossroads owner - sort of!?

Hello all!
I'm new to the Crossroads forum but have been on the RV Life forum for some years now under the Forest River forums. We've had our Forest River Wildwood
unit for 10 years, got a lot of miles and memories out of it and made all of (well, most of) the newbie mistakes.

We decided to upgrade from our current unit and today put a deposit down on a 2021 Crossroads Sunset Trail 253RB. I don't have a lot of specific questions, just some general questions.

1. Understanding that all manufacturers have their own quality issues to one degree or another, and understanding that no brand or unit is perfect, I'd like to know how Crossroads stack up in quality to some of the other brands? I also realize most of you are cross roads owners so I'm asking a fairly biased group a very broad question. But generally speaking, better than average, average, below?

2. Also, the tag on the unit says Keystone but when I look at the Keystone website they dont list crossroads as a brand? Were they part of Keystome at one point? Are they now?

3. When I we purchased our last unit I do not remember a PDI charge. The dealer is telling us that is standard now. Is $1200 about right?

4. One last question... I remember reading that my tongue weight should be 10-13% of the weight of the unit but I don't remember if thats a percentage of the dry weight or GVWR? My TV is a 2012 F-150, 3.73,crew cab, short bed 3:73 ratio. I will be very nearly at, if not over my CCC for my truck and have learned that CCC dictates everything. I may have to move my deposit to another rig. This unit is stickered at around 5500 dry. I'm looking into this more but any assistance from the guru's here would be greatly appreciated. Many people will say "oh your truck can tow that just fine" but whether it should or not is another question.

I notice our dealer (Poulsbo RV in Mt Vernon, WA) has not received great reviews for their service department. That is mildy concerning but I'm kind of leaning towards giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure at some point I'll need them but I try no to rely on dealers. I've had 10 years to learn how to fix, repair and maintain just about everything on my current rig. Plus I'm a contractor by trade so any structural work, plumbing, electrical, etc I'll take care of on my own. I just want to know if I'm investing in a relatively sound unit backed by a reputable manufacturer.

Would appreciate any input you all have. If you cant address all of my questions just hit as many as you can. Thank folks

Tony G
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Old 07-16-2020, 06:38 AM   #2
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Welcome to the forum -- new owner, sort of.
One thing to remember--Thor owns and manufactures most all of the RV's out there.
You are correct, they ALL have their problems. Including Crossroads.


PDI's I've never had to pay for one in my life, and I don't intend to ever pay for one either!
If you are getting bad vibes and reviews from/about the dealer, it might be a good sign to move on to a different one.
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Old 07-16-2020, 08:12 AM   #3
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New Crossroads owner - sort of!?

The tongue weight percentage is all the time. You can’t change it with a dry empty camper but you need to keep tabs on it when you load your camper. Mine dry is at 14.3% as per trailer specs. 884 lbs tongue and 6148 lbs dry.

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Old 07-16-2020, 09:49 AM   #4
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Hello and welcome!

There are 2 large manufactures of RV's - Thor and Forest River. Then there are some smaller "privet brands" Is one better then the other? That's a loaded question. They are all built about the same but if you ask 10 different people you will get 10 different answers. I have owned both Forest river and Thor manufactured campers and each has a few problems but nothing major.

The BIG factor is the dealer. With the mega dealerships service really suffers. Just a example: we bought a new Salem 5th wheel and within 2 days while packing for a trip the refrigerator quit cooling. We were leaving on a 2 week trip so called the dealer - a small mom and pop dealership - told him of the problem and he said to be there the next morning when they opened. We arrived a few minuets early and he was there waiting on us and went to work on the refrigerator immediately. After about a hour he came into the waiting area and told us they were going to try a new board and if that did not fix it they would replace the refrigerator.

The board did not fix it and they did not have a new refrigerator in stock so they took one from another new camper made sure it was cooling before we left. He said they would turn the other one under warranty but wanted us to not miss our trip. That dealer was approached by Camping World to sell. They would not so Camping World bought the ground on both sides of them and opened a mega store driving them to finally sell.

And like Lloyd said i have never heard of a dealer charging for a PDI and if they did $1200 is outrageous for a couple hours time.

I also agree if you are not comfortable with the dealer before he gets your money you will be very unhappy with them after the sale.

Good luck!
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Old 07-16-2020, 09:55 AM   #5
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Use the tongue weight percentage of the GVWR of that rv, you may never load it up to that (for a little while), but that's the max it should be. The dry weight means nothing to you, it weighed that as it rolled off the assembly line & will never weigh that again.
Look at the stickers on your trucks drivers door post, there it will list max axle weights, tire loads & 1 sentence that states "occupants & cargo must not exceed XXXX lbs" that's the payload of YOUR truck which includes everything in/on your truck that didn't come from the factory, people, pets, tools, firewood, the WDH & the rv tongue weight. The max tow rating of your truck also is a worthless number as you'll exceed the payload long before you'll reach max tow.
A few years ago Crossroads was a separate Thor company, due to cost cutting they combined CR & Keystone with Keystone as the managing member. Thor is the largest rv manufacturer with 85-90% of all RVs on the highway owned by them, from Airstream to Zingers.
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Old 07-17-2020, 08:31 AM   #6
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Welcome to the forum! Like stated above, I have never heard of a dealer charging for a PDI.
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Old 07-17-2020, 07:01 PM   #7
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Welcome to the forum from NC
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