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Old 02-23-2020, 09:00 AM   #61
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After two years of problems with the Micro Minnie ...

I have found the solution. Buying a Lance. They’re smaller and the quality is seemingly heads and tails above many of the other trailer manufacturers. They’re not cheap but they have a 2 year warranty in the coach and 12 year for the roof. We have owned a Forest River and Winnebago, both were non stop problems from the beginning. Hopefully this won’t be the case with Lance.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:50 AM   #62
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Many of you have been in the factory I'm sure, you've seen how much manual labor goes into making travel trailers & RV's. that's the problem right there. most workers earn a paycheck, pride of work is not always part of that. Often speed is all that matters, repeatability with manual labor is tuff.

Winnebago I think is better than average, Certain brand of trailers IMHO should not even be on the road as they're so poorly build. (YouTube anyone)

More money does buy you more attention to detail and better engineering. Loved the Lance trailers BTW, for us now we use the trailer 4 weeks/year on average so having a big depreciating investment "sit" no longer made sense, hence the Tiffin BR28 went, Winnebago came in, knock on wood, very few issues.
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Old 02-27-2020, 07:17 PM   #63
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skipnstone View Post
I have found the solution. Buying a Lance. They’re smaller and the quality is seemingly heads and tails above many of the other trailer manufacturers. They’re not cheap but they have a 2 year warranty in the coach and 12 year for the roof. We have owned a Forest River and Winnebago, both were non stop problems from the beginning. Hopefully this won’t be the case with Lance.
We looked at Lance when we bought our 2020 2108FBS. It came down to the Lance or the MM. However we ultimately went with the MM not just because it was more than $10k cheaper, but also because we couldn’t see what justified that much more money for the Lance.

We were limited to a 7’ wide trailer due to side yard storage limitations, so we were looking at a couple of the smaller Lances. We were disappointed in how the slide, when pulled in, blocked access to the bathroom and the fridge. But in our MM we can have the slide closed and still walk (not crawl over the dinette) to the bathroom and get in easily, and we can access the fridge no problem. There’s like one cabinet that we can’t quite access with the slide in on our MM. The Lance also had the cheapest and oddest medicine cabinet that was so flimsy it looked like it would pop open if you breathed on it. There was far less storage in the two Lance trailers we looked at than in our MM, and some of the storage the Lance had felt almost useless. The storage in our MM felt much more thoughtful by comparison. There wasn’t even a significant increase in quality. Maybe a bit better in the Lance, but certainly not at all questionable or disappointing in the MM.

Our good friends/neighbors have had a Lance for the last 6 years. It’s a fine trailer and I know they have enjoyed it, but it has certainly had its number of issues over the years, and they take good care of it so it wasn’t due to neglect. We had a Travel Lite Idea before getting out MM, and bought it right before our neighbors bought their Lance, and we didn’t have too many issues with that one either — certainly not any more than our friends did.

So, at least from our experience and inspection, we couldn’t see that Lance was worth 50% more than the MM, and we’ve been very pleased thus far with the quality of our MM.
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Old 02-28-2020, 07:02 AM   #64
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Dani, welcome to the group and congratulations on the new 2108FBS. I'm sure you will have a few small issues which can be corrected as we all have had. You are going to love the MM. We had a 2101DS for 4 years before we upgraded to the 2018 2250DS. We would have never bought the second Winnebago if we had not liked the first one. We are starting on our 3rd year with the 2250DS and it has been nearly trouble free. A couple of weeks ago I treated it to a set of MORryde steps. Wow, what an improvement.




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Old 02-28-2020, 10:30 AM   #65
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gregoryd73 - I generally agree with your assessment. We own and live full time in a 2005 Adventurer - and love it. Yes - a few small issues but overall the quality is pretty good. Since we bought this coach in 2016 we continue to go to many RV shows and study new Winnebago models as well as all the competition. Not that we are eager to trade out of our Adventurer, but we want so see new designs and floor plans and keep current with the industry.
Unfortunately we were dismayed to see the new Adventurer offerings last year. Felt that the floor plans were not original, and that many small features (most of which we already have on our RV) are missing. Some details were disturbing - such as the side entry door which only opened 90 degrees on the model we looked at (in order to clear the awning support arm) really narrowed down the entrance. Not good. Also noted that some switch placements were not always thought out as well. In the shower saw no shelves on which to store shampoo & soap- or if there were shelves in some models, there were no restraining straps. Our 2005 had both - very useful!
Overall - we find coming out of these shows that we are very appreciative of the model we already own for it's many small details and more logical design. We were REALLY hoping to find that the new Adventurer (a model which was discontinued for a few years) would show continued improvements as the Winnebago premier Gas model - but for the most part that was not the case.
Another brand which has gotten our attention over the years is Newmar. Know many owners who really like their Newmar coach, and now that Winnebago has bought them it appears that Newmar will become their premier line, and unfortunately Winnebago may be the "cheaper" brand. Time and new models will tell.
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Old 02-28-2020, 01:19 PM   #66
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It's hard to beat a 2005 Adventurer, especially if you have the GM Vortec 8.1L/Allison powertrain. I'm a happy owner of a Adventurer 38R that I found a year ago with just 12,000 miles on it in perfect condition and I now have it up tp 19,000 miles now with zero problems so far.
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Old 02-29-2020, 08:09 AM   #67
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skipnstone View Post
I have found the solution. Buying a Lance. They’re smaller and the quality is seemingly heads and tails above many of the other trailer manufacturers. They’re not cheap but they have a 2 year warranty in the coach and 12 year for the roof. We have owned a Forest River and Winnebago, both were non stop problems from the beginning. Hopefully this won’t be the case with Lance.
I really like the Lance also. Azdell in the wall and inside walls also is a real winner.
I really like the factory option now of Lithium. Not cheap but being done at the factory it should be a good system. The only downfall to it is I van't tell what Li battery they are using. I would have a Li otion from the factory but leave the batteries off so I could use Battleborn.
The one huge downfall I see to the Lance is that the AC is not ducted. Plus I would want a 2nd AC.
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Old 02-29-2020, 05:06 PM   #68
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When I shop RV for quality, I do a quick look at what features it has but for quality of build, I have to do a bit more snooping. Pull the cushions and look at the storage area and pull out some drawers to look at the unused spaces where they do the wiring and plumbing. Is it just a pile of wire, etc without even cutting off the excess or is it strapped and cut to fit as if they cared? The worst defects are not what you see first as that gets into personal choices but those that are hiding under things is where you may have to fix it when it breaks down.
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Old 03-01-2020, 03:53 AM   #69
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Originally Posted by Ret.LEO View Post
I really like the Lance also. Azdell in the wall and inside walls also is a real winner.
I really like the factory option now of Lithium. Not cheap but being done at the factory it should be a good system. The only downfall to it is I van't tell what Li battery they are using. I would have a Li otion from the factory but leave the batteries off so I could use Battleborn.
The one huge downfall I see to the Lance is that the AC is not ducted. Plus I would want a 2nd AC.
DO NOT assume that just because the mfg did the design and install, it is a very well designed system.
The components that make up the batteries, charging system and solar panels if you have them, MUST be installed close to each other and have large sized wire for the amount of DC current the components use and produce. Much or most of the time the wire size used is sized "just large enough" to do the job. Going up one or two sizes really improves the performance of the system. Placing the components within one to two feet of each other, rather than 3 or 4 feet (or possibly 20 feet) can make a world of difference in the performance of the system.
In a topic in this forum last year, there was a discussion of a Winnebago class C with solar (no lithium) where the mfg put the solar controller in a compartment above the fridge, which is about 15-20 feet of wire from the battery bank and used wire size too small for the length of wire. This significantly reduced the amount of power that reached the batteries.

All this matters little unless you are going to dry camp or boondock quite a bit. Just 1-3 nights to dry camp and then back on shore power then it doesn't matter that much. Of course then there is absolutely no need for the expensive lithium. Lead acid batteries whether or not AGM work just fine.
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Old 08-06-2020, 09:50 PM   #70
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I was thinking of buying a Winnebago Porto as my first RV. I can’t seem to find any info from experienced users about this model, quality and issues. Any help?
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Old 08-07-2020, 08:04 AM   #71
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Par for the course for the industry unfortunately. And has been this way for a while.

This is one of the reasons I buy "like-new". Tremendous savings and all the annoying issues are sorted out buy the original buyer.
"Ditto," Fasttimes is right on the money!
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Old 08-08-2020, 03:39 PM   #72
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Our second Micro Minnie, a 2108DS, was great in some ways, but falls short in others. Good: new bigger tires and higher clearance is great crawling back roads; tows well but stiff suspension not good on interstate bridge approaches; everything worked on our first winter; the insulation package was good. Bad: On highway, oven door ripped off and onboard battery inverter/charger shorted and died. In general, terrible documentation on everything, interior trim falling off, much less storage than our 2011 2106FB, NO DC POWER OUTLET (ie cigarette lighter outlet); stereo system does not play TV sound and no instructions to wire it; AC way too loud and fan does not shut down when cooling turns off. TV is incredibly cheap with remote that can barely be read. Not equipped with adjustable awning that will drain rain.
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