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Cedar Creek |
The
Competition |
1.
Four Season |
 A lot of places will tell you it's four season but here's what you
really need to know. Heated Pads on ALL tanks (fresh, grey, &
black). Insulation under the tanks not just under the floor.
Enclosed underbelly. Hot air forced around the tanks to protect
lines, elbows, & fittings. Thermopane Windows (optional).
Insulation around all 5 sides of the slides. Insulation under the
bedroom. Enclosed outside shower. Enclosed dump valves. Ceiling and floor
have
2 layers of rolled out fiberglass. Foam core board insulation &
weather barrier. Cedar Creek is one of the few if not only brand
to be 0 degree tested. |
Heated pads usually means on the grey tank and black tank but not
the fresh water tank. If a coach has just block foam insulation
without dead air space (like rolled out fiber glass) then no matter what
the R-value is, it's difficult to keep it efficient. A lot of places
will not insulate on the sides of the slides. We noticed there are
some big brand names out there that don't insulate very well under the
front bedroom and they can't keep warm at night. Just because someone
encloses the underbelly doesn't mean it's 4 season - that's just a
plastic piece that keeps the mud from kicking up there. There is
usually no insulation around the tanks. An outside shower will freeze if
it's just on the outside wall even if the rest of the coach is four
season. |
2.
Stability |
 Cedar
Creek
is owned by Forest River Inc. - Berkshire Hathaway, (a Warren Buffett
company) and is debt free. They are the strongest RV manufacturer
out there because of their financial backing and are known for quality.
This is important for your warranty, for parts to be available and the
value of your coach. |
2009 Stats - Many manufactures are on the brink of closing or
have already failed.
Fleetwood - Recently filed Chapter 11.
Weekend Warrior - Bank assignee is selling corporate assets.
Pilgrim - Indefinitely closes plants.
Keystone - To layoff 15% of workforce.
Jayco - Released 20% of workforce.
Monaco Coach (R-Vision) - Recently filed Bankruptcy.
Country Coach - In Chapter 11
Sundowner Trailers - Closes Elkhart operations.
Travel Supreme - Ceases operations.
National RV - Files for chapter 11 bankruptcy |
3.
Sidewalls |
Non Laminated Walls (this is awesome)
Cedar Creek sprays on the exterior fiberglass in a liquid format that
chemically bonds to the wall. The benefit is there is no glue
involved to fail. It can't delaminate like all the other products
that rely on glue. On this big of a coach with walls that span up
to 40' it's well worth the extra money to go with a non laminated wall.
They are too heavy and costly to repair something that size. |
Laminated Walls
The problem with laminated walls is they can delaminate if the glue
fails. If this happens, most times the RV has to be taken back to
the factory where they have to fully separate the wall and then reapply
it. It's about an $8,000-$10,000 process. The other guys
don't care because this will usually happen 3-4 years down the road well
after the warranty expired. |
4.
Gloss finish |
 Cedar Creek has a true layer of Owens Cornings Gelcoat Exterior. The benefit
is you will keep that high gloss new look for a lot longer. Ten
years down the road it will still be hard to tell the difference on the
outside from a new one and your Cedar Creek because of that Gelcoat.
It won't fade like your used to seeing.
Cedar Creek also Gelcoats their entry and baggage doors so that you
don't have uneven fading. |
Some people will tell you there's has Gelcoat and what they mean is
Gelcoat is mixed in the paint. What happens is the sun beats on it
for a few years and starts to yellow. That's because the sun has eaten
through the paint and the yellow fibers are starting to show through the
paint. The other problem is if you ever have to repair a spot they
have to use gel coat so you will have a bright white spot while the rest
of the camper fades. |
5.
Z-Frame |
 Cedar
Creek uses a Z-Frame. The benefit is you have a much bigger
compartment below and no third step into the bed room. This is over 100
cubic foot of room. (n/a silverback) |
Other brands have a smaller compartment size and sometimes a 3rd
step into the bedroom making it so you can't stand up at the foot of the
bed or all the way around the bed which makes making the bed more
difficult than it should be. |
| 6. Construction |
 Aluminum 2x2
Wall Studs on 16" Center or less. 4" Truss
Roof. Every door and window has an additional frame around it.
Cedar Creek is put together with
L brackets that are screwed together and locked into place with Uniroyal
Silaprene. This gives the strength and flexibility as you're
moving down the road. This is a more time consuming process and
costly but well worth it to give you a quality unit. |
Other fifth wheels will use wood instead of aluminum which
make the unit heavier. The ones that do use aluminum are usually
welded together on one, maybe two sides. If you think of a paper
clip being bent back and forth, eventually it weakens and breaks.
As your pulling your fifth wheel down the road, it's a similar deal.
The vibration over time weakens the welds and can break. The other
problem is most campers out there go several feet between studs with
nothing but block foam. The windows are holes cut into that block
foam and held in place by plastic clips. |
7.
Air bed |
 This air bed sleeper is super comfortable.
Push
a button and it inflated - push another and it's deflated. The
other benefit is you have extra storage under the couch where you didn't
before. |
No one wants to sleep on that standard sofa sleeper because it has
that metal bar that goes right across your back. You also don't
get the extra storage like you do with the air bed. |
8.
Floors |
 5/8" Tongue & groove, marine grade, treated, plywood,
decking throughout the floor. This is the same kind of wood they
use to build a boat. |
OSB or chip board (which is held together by glue) is usually
installed in the floor to save money. This is a horrible idea
especially in a camper because you'll probably eventually bust a water
line, break the hot water heater, the shower overflow, spill water on
the floor or have your ceiling or slide leak. This can cause
the floor to cup and bow. It's difficult and expensive to replace
a subfloor in a camper because of how tightly placed everything is in
the first place. |
9.
Docking Station |
 The outside
shower is protected since it's not exposed to cold weather. Your
connections are protected and in one place. |
 The
outside shower lines can easily freeze when it's just on the exterior
wall
like this one. |
10.
Roof |
 The one piece rubber roof has a 12 year warranty.
3" Radius cornered
edges. The benefit to you is the roof wraps around the corners 3" inches so the seem isn't right on the edge where there it is
more likely to develop problems (leakers). |
 If
a leak develops on the edge of a roof it's expensive
because of not only fixing the corner where it leaked, but also water damage
to the interior/exterior wall,
cabinetry, subfloor, insulation, carpet, fabric, mold development,
ceiling, and electrical components. |
| 11. Cabinetry |
 Not
only is the cabinetry gorgeous. The cabinetry is pocket screwed together.
The
wood they screw into is solid wood as well. The door faces are
solid wood. All the drawer have very high end ball bearing metal
guides that allow you to open the drawer all way. |
Sometimes they use door faces that are made of pressed wood. Most
of the cabinetry it self is stapled together particle board.
Cabinetry built with particle board tends to fall apart a lot quicker.
The drawers sometimes have that weird catch that jams when you try to
open it. |
| 12. Fantastic fan |
The Create a breeze fantastic fan has been said to be one of the best
inventions for the RV ever. Wildcat uses this in all their RVs.
This 10 blade fan pushes over 900 cubic feet of air per minute.
The benefit is it can replace all the air in your RV in under 2 minutes
and it will save you from having to use your Air Conditioner as much. |
This fan is what you see in most coaches and can push about 25-30 cubic
feet of air per minute. If it gets a little stuffy, you need to be
plugged in at an RV site or crank on the generator to turn on the air
conditioner. |
13.
Toilet |
Cedar Creek's toilet is a porcelain bowl with a foot flush. |
Most RV toilets are plastic like this one. More likely to crack
and break. |
| 14. Bedroom |
The bed is a standard residential size queen (60x80). You also have 6'8"
(80")
standing height at the foot of the bed. |
 The
bed is a "RV queen" or "short queen" (60x74). To someone over 6'
tall this might feel cramped, small, or uncomfortable. |
15.
Rear Electric Jacks |
To get the rear stabilizer jacks down, you just push a button.
It's not the end of the world if you don't have electric jacks but it's
easier on the back, knees, and elbow. |
Manual jacks are more work and can take longer to hand crank them
down. Also, that hand crank is just one more thing to keep track
of. |
16.
Water Filtration |
Cedar Creek has a 10,000 gallon residential water filtration system
(filters down to .9 micron) that
filters all your water - both sinks, shower, outside shower, all your
water. This is great because that means you can fill up at the RV
site or maybe at a gas station when you get close to your destination.
That will save over 300 lbs of unneeded weight and you'll know your
drinking filtered water. |
Most campers don't have a water filter and if they do it's just a sink
filter. |
17.
Water Heater |
Hot water heater with a 16.2 gallon refresh rate per
hour. That means by the time someone get out the shower the tank
is already getting close to recovering. |
Most campers have a 7.4 gallon refresh rate per hour. That
goes for both the 6 gallon tanks and the 10 gallon tanks. That
means once you use up that 10 gallons, it will take over and hour to get
that 10 gallons back. |
| 18. Landing gear, pins |
The quick release front snap jacks
are really easy to use. |
The pin always has dirt and grease on it and it never goes in the first
time. You have to jiggle it just right to get the pin to go in.
Also keep in mind your not always doing this in the daytime. |
19.
Sewer - Black Tank Flush |
Cedar Creek has a built in black tank flush. All you have to do to
rinse your sewer system is plug the water hose on a port on the
side and there are built-in sprayers on the inside of the tank. |
If you don't have a black tank flush you need to drag
your hose into your bathroom, open the toilet and spray the tank out
after each camping trip. You can buy an adapter spray wand to
stick on the end of the hose to stick in the toilet but that's not much
more pleasant either. |
20.
Key
Fob remote |
Key Fob remote for front
and rear landing legs, slide-outs, electric awning and security entrance
lighting. Other than convenience the other benefit is you can
watch your slides go out to make sure they are clear of trees and other
campers. |
Usually the slide button is on the inside of the camper
and you aren't able to see how close your slides are getting to other
things in the area. |
21.
Central Vacuum & Electric Dust Pan |
 Dirt
Devil® CV950 central vac cleaning system
VacPan™ automatic dustpan at entry door.
This has a toe kick switch that sucks any debris that gets near it into
the vac. It make sweeping a breeze. |
Sometimes you'll see central vac in other campers but
usually not the VacPan. |
| 22. Suspension |
 The
E-Z Flex® System provides up to an 80% reduction in forces on the
trailer frame versus a standard equalizer. In addition, E-Z Flex®
significantly outperforms all other competitors in the same road test.
The result? A smoother, more protective ride for your trailer and its
cargo. |
 This
graph depicts the accelerations experienced by a trailer and axle while
going over railroad tracks at 30 mph. The Dexter E-Z Flex equalizer
provides an 80% reduction to trailer vertical acceleration when compared
to a standard equalizer. |
