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  1. #1
    Left The Driveway
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    Half-timing in an Imagine? GD vs Lance

    Hi Grand Design owners!

    I've been reading this forum for a while now in doing research on rigs, and I know you're an extremely helpful group, so I'm hoping you can help with my question. We aren't full timers but will spend more than half of 2019 in our TT, so I'd love input from anyone going full time in an Imagine specifically.

    We're looking to buy our second RV very soon, and we've got it narrowed down to Grand Design or Lance. Our current rig is a 2003 Keystone Cabana that we bought used. It's about 20 feet long but really doesn't have a good layout for our needs. (We're a couple in our mid-30s with two 50+ lb dogs.)

    We live in Colorado and like to do some winter camping, so Lance and Arctic Fox were the first manufacturers that caught my eye. Lance has some great floor plans in shorter lengths under 24 feet (the 1685 and 1995) that I think could work very well for us, and I've found some good prices on used ones a few years old. My preference is to buy used based on the horror stories I've heard about new TTs being in the shop for most of their first year of life to get warranty work done. Arctic Fox would probably honestly be our first choice, but our TV is a Tundra with about a 1200lb payload and 10,000lb towing capacity, which means I really don't want to actually tow more than 7k lbs with it, and the Arctic Foxes are heavy. Based on our TV towing capacity, payload and wheelbase, I figure we're limited to about a max of 5500lbs dry and 28 feet long. The shortest AF has a floor plan I just don't like, so that leaves Lance.

    But then .... there's Grand Design. My parents bought a Reflection fifth wheel and got me looking at the brand, and despite the fact that it doesn't seem as good for 4 season use as the Lance, I love the look and feel of the trailers and the fact that they really seem to stand behind their product. The specific floorplan I'm looking at for us is the Imagine 2250RK, since another of our requirements is that we must be able to access the fridge, bathroom and bedroom with the slide IN. Their shortest Imagine doesn't quite work for us, but the 2250RK does. Unfortunately we'd have to buy it new, because that floorplan was new in 2018, so there aren't any used ones on the market.

    My main questions, if you've made it this far, are these:

    1. For those who spend lots of time in their TTs, how important is more/less space? We love national and state parks and want to keep our length short enough that we can get into almost anywhere, so 28 feet for the 2250RK feels long. However, we're looking at spending 3+ months at a time in this rig for extended travel, so the floor plan of the GD does look very tempting. With different sleep schedules (DH is up later than I am, and I'm the early bird with the dogs) I can also really see the benefit.

    2. For towing, same question as above - how important is length? I want to be able to tow this rig myself when I travel solo, and I don't have a ton of towing experience. How much scarier is it to maneuver a 24 foot or 28 foot TT over a 20 foot? I'm less concerned with towing on roads and more with getting around gas stations and around tight corners, etc.

    3. For those who have bought Grand Design Imagines new, what's the experience like? I've read a lot here about Momentum, Solitude and Reflection, but almost nothing about the Imagines. Has the QC held up in that line as well? I want to be reasonably sure that our new TT won't be in the shop for the first year that we own it. We have lots of travel planned! Understanding of course that all manufacturers will have some defects - just want to minimize as much as we can.

    4. Has anyone owned both a Lance and a GD who can weigh in on quality and also suitability for 4 season use? I LOVE all the windows in the GD we're looking at, but they aren't dual-paned, and I'm guessing that makes a pretty big difference with noise and with heat/cold. I've also seen lots about the low point drains freezing up in the GD. Not sure if this is also an issue for Lance but I don't think so. I'm not sure how much this will impact our decision, since we could make some mods to the GD or just deal with not having running water when we winter camp, but having a comfortable inside temperature and propane use are definite considerations.

    5. Has anyone spent extended periods of time in an Imagine? If so, how have they held up? I don't see anything about people full timing in them necessarily, but I'd love to know how they do with heavy use. Have people needed to replace brakes/axles/springs to be more heavy duty?

    Thanks SO much to anyone who can weigh in on even a small portion of the above! There's so much information out there but my questions about Lance vs GD are so specific that I haven't really been able to find the answers I'm looking for yet.

    Sarah

  2. #2
    King Pin
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    Feb 2014
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    Double Post - Thread closed. Please respond to Sarah in the duplicate thread "Winter/cold Weather Camping".

    The other thread

    Jim

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