Hi rrwayne
You have some really good replies to this thread. I enjoyed reading them. If you haven’t bought yet or even if you have I’ll add my experience for future readers.
We where in the Pop up world and then started looking into travel trailers. We where out growing the setup deal and wet canvas. Really didn’t know a lot about TT's at the start and I never even heard of Sunline. We toured thru 22 different brands before we found out about Sunline. One of those dealers along the way told me, if your looking for that high end quality look at Nash or Sunline. Then I found RV.net as Sunline Club did not exist back then. RV.net has changed a lot since back then, but I have a number of good camper friends from there. It has grown so big that there is a quantity of negatives you do not get on the smaller brand specific forums. In fact if it was not for RV.net I would not of known about SOC. Goodole Bob pointed me over here and well that was a few posts ago....
I used RV.net as sort of a search engine. There is one thing camper folks do and that is talk about their campers. The good and the bad. Just type in the brand name and read. You will get all kinds of hits on good and bad. Sunline constantly kept pop’ing up as positive. There was only 1 negative post, someone has issues with an axle and let out with it. But the good reviews where really good. It was like Sunlines rolled on water… So after reading over 80 posts of Sunline is great I had to find one and see. At the time Sunline was still in business and there was a stocking dealer 350 miles north in MI. They had just about 1 of every 7,000# GVWR Sunline on the lot. In fact they where trying to clear them as they had a number of 2004’s and had a lot of 2005’s already. So we went for a look.
We 1st walked into a 2004 T2499 and WOW!!!! The inside of the camper just jumped out at us. OMG this is different. Well we looked at all the 7,000# class units they had. The dealer was good enough to not pester us and we spent over 5 hours walking back and forth between the models. The dealer said, I just love selling these. Every one of them have the same quality just the floor plan is different so folks find what is right for them.
In my search this is what I found. I’m going to compare the 2004 Solaris line as that was the only one I knew of to the other brands. I’ll leave Nash out of this as I never was in one until after we owned the Sunline.
Look at the bench seats. Sunline had thicker, 5/8 or 3/4 I think bench seats. Others had 3/8 or some 1/4” .
Sunline boasted no partial board at all. Others have a qty of partial board.
Sunline had a 2-3 year warranty. 3 years on the Sunline parts and 2 years on the appliances. The others has 1 year warranty. In the RV world that means a lot...
The years we where looking at all had china toilet bowls. The others had the plastic.
Sunline put in a real wooden medicine cabinet, the others gave a plastic insert one.
Sunline had many windows all over and almost every one opened. The front window did not open. Many of the other brands only had a few windows and then not all even opened or where sliders. Sunline offered a mix of crank out and single hung and they all had screens.
The awning and AC unit where standard on the Solaris. These where options on the other brands.
Sunline offer ducted AC in the ceiling on the longer campers. Others did not. It makes a difference in a 25 foot or longer TT.
Sunline supplied ducted heat in the sides of the cabinets not floor ducts. I do not like the dirt catching floor ducts.
Sunline gave the auto-switch over tank LP system standard.
Sunline supplied a real heavy steel cradle to hold the fresh tank while towing while other brands have 2 pipe straps around them. Again Sunline provided heavy duty while the others provided cheap.
Sunline put light switches on the walls and inside lights everywhere.
Sunline provided a Shub shower screen over the standard curtain.
Sunline gave a hitch light, cargo hole inside lights on all ends and the non door side outside camper lights. Others do not.
Sunline had extras large cargo hole doors in the 2004 units over the others.
Sunline made wooden and steel towel racks and had cabinets everywhere.
The Sunline draws where made from furniture venire board not OSB board.
Sunline used the vinyl inserts around all the cabinets to the ceiling and the counter tops. This takes more time and covers up the slight cracks that come from rolling down the road between ft up.
Sunline gave 30# LP tanks on the 7,000# TT’s
In 2004 Sunline provide an onboard battery disconnect switch. It’s nice along with 60 amp power converters.
Sunline offered Krystal coat siding which helps with scratches.
Sunlines had bright and light interiors. The others where dark and not bright. The fit and finish was noticeable.
Sunline put axles, springs and tires on the hold the entire GVWR of the TT. Others cheeped out and down sized letting the truck hold part of the GVWR and as such many have had loading problems on the cheeped up brands. I will never buy a TT that the suspension will not support the entire weight of the camper.
Sunlines are built with good weight and balance to the tongue by design for stable towing. Some other brands do not do such a good job of this and expect you to load the camper right to create proper balance. The new camper person has no idea how to do this as most dealers never even talk about this.
We put a deposit down with the stipulation in 2 weeks we could get our check back. I wanted to see the other brands again to make sure and there was no comparison. So we came home 3 weeks later with a new 2004 T2499.
Time went on and we where after a larger unit. That’s a long story… but Sunline was out of business then. We still wanted the rear living floor plan but with a slide. We only started at the high end TT’s as there was no way I was going looking at the low end ones after being spoiled. Artic Fox came close but the wood was so dark, like deep mahogany and there was no WOW factor. So after 6 months or so of looking we gave up. Then from the forum here on SOC we got a tip on the used T310SR which was the dream floor plan. 500 miles away…. Now much more educated in TT’s I knew what to look for and watch out for. After a week of picture tag with the dealer we went and looked and I had an inspection list the dealer knew I was looking at. Well we walked in the and the WOW factor hit again and we pulled it home…
I have zero reservations buying a good used Sunline camper. Like any camper they can be abused and you have to watch out for certain things but they are built well enough that if they are kept up well, they will last.
I would not buy a new low end camper even with a 1 year warranty. I’m the type that is willing to pay a little more to get something that will last. And now just about every Sunline is used but still blows away most of the new ones out there. It is getting really hard to find a quality built TT now a days to compete with the Sunlines. A 5th wheel, yes there are many of them out there but TT’s there are not many brands of high end ones left.
Hope this helps and good luck on your Sunline search
John