Opinion on dealers in SE PA.

[Lowmiler]

I'd normally ask this in a regional forum, but I don't see that this site has such a section.

Currently negotiating on a 2018 377RLBH for spring delivery.

Going back and forth between Fretz in Souderton and Gayle Kline in Mountville.

Fretz is currently a couple grand higher than GK, but overall the communication experience has been a little less "aggressive" with Fretz so far. For example, they are less cagey about finance terms before I enter into a formal agreement and their deposit is refundable unlike GK.

Anyone have experience with either dealer?

Thanks in advance.

[Mopar_Earl]

Little further away but I highly recommend Rhone's. They are outside Williamsport, PA. If you call/go, ask for Guy.


Earl

[Jopopsy]

I've done business w/ Fretz before. They have always been up front and honest. The one time I needed service help they were very good. FWIW.

[JohnWedell]

Bought my current eagle from Fretz, would buy again.

[roughing it]

called Fretz for a price on 377rlbh when we were looking and wanted to trade our voltage sales man was very rude did not call us back with price we had to call back to get price ended up going to All Season RV in Michigan was about 12 hour drive but ended up saving $10,000 was worth the drive pays to look around there are some good deals out there just got to find them

[Dan-Phyllis]

We have bought two Jaycos from Whitehorse RV in Williamstown NJ. Never had a problem with sales or service. I know its not either of the dealers you asked about but they are only 15 minutes over the bridge from Philly.

[RAurand]

We got our 1st trailer a 2012 26BH and were happy with our salesman Bob at Gayle Kline. He really took the time to work with us.
Then in 2015, we decided the 26BH was just a little tight for our family and wanted to trade in the 26 BH for a 2015 28BHBE. Bob was still there so we delt with him. Gave us a great price on trading in the 26BH. As well as a goid price on the 28BHBE.
HOWEVER, I cant say much for the service department. I wasnt happy the first time I had to take my trailer there for warranty work. After the work was done and I went to pick it up, I found stuff they were supposed to fix and didnt. The service manager said they didnt have time to look st it again and to schedule a time to bring it back. I got nasty. They fixed it while I waited and watched.
Never went back for service at Gayle Kline.

[Lowmiler]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Are we allowed to talk pricing on this forum? Some manufacturer-run forums I participate in don't allow it.

[Crabman]

Originally Posted by Lowmiler

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Are we allowed to talk pricing on this forum? Some manufacturer-run forums I participate in don't allow it.

Talk prices all you want, lol. This forum is neither run nor owned by the manufacturer. You may also consider Keystone Rv center in Greencastle. I have no experience with them but their pricing looks attractive and I just love their service mission statement which is a breath of fresh air, see link below.


RV Repair, RV Service, RV Warranty Repair, Travel Trailer Repair, Motor Home Repair, Certified Technicians in Pennsylvania!

[Tg310]

I Know It's Far But We Got Ours From WES Trailer Sales On Long island. They are awesome

[Mopar_Earl]

Originally Posted by Crabman

Talk prices all you want, lol. This forum is neither run nor owned by the manufacturer. You may also consider Keystone Rv center in Greencastle. I have no experience with them but their pricing looks attractive and I just love their service mission statement which is a breath of fresh air, see link below.


RV Repair, RV Service, RV Warranty Repair, Travel Trailer Repair, Motor Home Repair, Certified Technicians in Pennsylvania!

I've bought new from Keystone and had warranty and service work done there. I also worked there at one time. I drove 3 hours to Rhone's cause I can't stand Keystone. Keystone is 20 minutes from me. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. I wouldn't recommend their sales, service or warranty departments. Part is ok but the people in the parts department aren't the greatest.


Earl

[Lowmiler]

Originally Posted by Crabman

Talk prices all you want, lol. This forum is neither run nor owned by the manufacturer. You may also consider Keystone Rv center in Greencastle. I have no experience with them but their pricing looks attractive and I just love their service mission statement which is a breath of fresh air, see link below.


RV Repair, RV Service, RV Warranty Repair, Travel Trailer Repair, Motor Home Repair, Certified Technicians in Pennsylvania!

Cool, I'll start a new thread about my build then, looking for feedback.

Bought my current rig from Keystone. Pricing was very fair, never had to use them for service, but am trying to find a dealer closer to home in case I do need service on the new one. Keystone is almost 3 hrs away from our house and almost that far from our seasonal site. The SE PA dealers are all within 1.5 hrs from house and seasonal site.

[Lowmiler]

Major plot twist!

The sales guy at the friendly dealer had one of their "specialists" set up a phone call with me to try to hammer out this deal further.

The specialist called this morning, and it turned out to be the owner of the dealership.

We get to talking, and it turns out he will be my NEIGHBOR when I move to my new seasonal site at the campground. Bear in mind that this campground is about an hour and half south of the dealership. so the coincidence is pretty bizarre, I had no idea he was at the campground, let alone will be my neighbor.

What a freaking small world.

Needless to say, we came to some favorable terms on the deal that is not tied to my trade in.

Working through some paperwork to keep moving forward.

Wow. Maybe I can count on him doing warranty work at the campsite? Hah!

[jamer]

Bought our first 2016 Jayco 27dsrl from Gayle Kline, sales and service superior. Traded that on a 2018 fifth wheel 28.5 Eagle HT. Again sales and service superior. Highly recommend.

[spoon059]

Originally Posted by Crabman

Talk prices all you want, lol. This forum is neither run nor owned by the manufacturer. You may also consider Keystone Rv center in Greencastle. I have no experience with them but their pricing looks attractive and I just love their service mission statement which is a breath of fresh air, see link below.


RV Repair, RV Service, RV Warranty Repair, Travel Trailer Repair, Motor Home Repair, Certified Technicians in Pennsylvania!

I bought mine at Keystone and loved it. They quoted me a great price, which we agreed upon. When we went in to order and leave a deposit, my wife made a comment that they came within $400 of the best price quote we received (which was an online wholesaler, closest pickup was in Albany, an 8 hour drive away). The comment wasn't intended to continue negotiations, and we didn't say anything else. Our salesman excused himself, went to the manager and came back to tell us that he would knock another $200 off the price we had previously agreed upon. I thought that was highly unusual... we drove an hour and a half to put a deposit on an agreed price and they dropped the price even further!!!

Then we figured that service would be non-existent after the fact. We had a couple of little issues that we had noted and were planning to drop off the trailer in the off season to get fixed. Then we had a minor flood... the bathtub drain leaked due to a poor design by Jayco, causing flooding of the enclosed underbelly.

We contacted Keystone and were advised to bring in the trailer as soon as we could. We took it to them mid-week, in the middle of the summer. I explained the list of issues that I had, but told them that all I really wanted was for Keystone to open the underbelly and take out the wet insulation, then put it back together so we could continue our planned trips for the year. The next trip was just over 2 weeks away.

They called me about 10 days later and said the camper was ready to be picked up. I was ecstatic... they had completed a temporary fix very quickly and allowed me to continue camping.

Then I went to go pick up the trailer... they had fixed EVERYTHING. They took the tub out and fixed the support underneath, which was poorly designed from the factory. They dried the underbelly and installed all new insulation. They fixed a leak in the fridge condensation line (it was pinched in the install by the factory). They replaced the cabinet under the fridge, which was damaged by condensation. They fixed a wobbly power tongue jack, another poor design, by welding a thicker bottom plate to reduce side to side motion. They did a complete inspection and found some other issues that we hadn't noticed and fixed those as well.

I was blown away, not only by the QUALITY of the work but by the amazing quickness with which it was performed. In the middle of the summer, they went above and beyond and took care of every issue that I had, and even a couple little ones that I didn't even know were problems!

As long as I am in the area, I will try my hardest to give my business to Keystone Mega RV. I truly could not be more pleased with this company!

[Racinforthefinish]

I also bought new from Keystone and couldn't be happier. I had a furnace motor go bad the first trip and they replaced it with no problems. I was actually trying to buy used in WV but I am so glad I drove on up the road. I bought new there for less money than a used one I had looked at.

[Lanced]

Also purchased from Gale Klein at Hershey show.We live in Western Pa. so service was an issue to consider.When picking up unit the orientation/ walk around was a joke,very uninformed service person and they were really put off when I started to ask about the what if’s like a slide or stabilizer failure,they vaguely gave some answers,got a rear camera with the unit had to get salesman to help hook that up,and although there was another party taking delivery at the same time we never had a visit or thank you or hey would you like a coffee/drink from the ownership namely Jeff Klein!, really made you feel welcome!
Upon getting the unit home I found one of the batteries had tipped over into the large hole in the compartment,had to install expanded metal screen to remedy that,the radio would not pick up any signal on air,found the antenna plugged into wrong port,ugh!! Called service and after sending pics, upon my request they sent me 2 battery trays to install ,they insisted they didn’t design the battery compartment but couldn’t explain why they didn’t notice the large cutouts under the batteries.Bottom line is I had all my other warranty work done at a dealer closer to home,and from my limited dealings with their service dept. I would never take anything to them for service,it’s an all sad but true story of the majority of RV dealers today.

[Chrisb-24]

Have you called Indiana RV Connection? I live in Oklahoma and I called them on a new 2017, Eagle HT 28.5 RSTS. They were around $37,500.00 on a loaded RV. That was about $6k under what I could one for around here. Even traveling to Indiana to get it I was saving over 4k. You being in Pa. I would sure give them a call at (888) 640-3110

[Lowmiler]

Originally Posted by Chrisb-24

Have you called Indiana RV Connection? I live in Oklahoma and I called them on a new 2017, Eagle HT 28.5 RSTS. They were around $37,500.00 on a loaded RV. That was about $6k under what I could one for around here. Even traveling to Indiana to get it I was saving over 4k. You being in Pa. I would sure give them a call at (888) 640-3110

Thanks for the tip, but given that I wanted to have priority at a local dealer for warranty work, I knew I had to also expect to do the purchase through them.

Order was placed last week with Fretz RV in Souderton, about 20 min from me. The fact that the owner will be my next door neighbor at the seasonal campground kind of sealed the deal for me.

Expected late Jan delivery.

I plan on doing a very thorough PDI when they call me, then, assuming all clear, coming back the next day with my trade and swapping all the stuff over.

Then I plan a two day shake down in a local campground, and going from there should issues be uncovered.

All of that would be tough to do with a long distance deal.

Camping season is too short to be risking long delays in service work, in my opinion. If you don't buy from the dealer you are seeking warranty work from, you tend to get kicked to the back of the line, which can be over a month for an appt in the height of the season. Been there, done that.

[Erren]

I bought our current Eagle HT from Gayle Kline. I was pretty happy with the sales process, but the walk through wasn't the most detailed - but they were at least patient. I had a question about winterizing, and they offered to put it in the wet bay when I picked it up off the lot a few days later. When I arrived to actually remove it from the lot, they had no idea what I was talking about, and I was on my own.

Once the sale was complete, you are out the door and become service's problem. I was working with Jeff Kline, one of the two owners on the sales side. A couple issues noted during the walk through were fixed.

Took it in mid-summer for warranty work, and they were way backed up, almost a month out. And to top it off, due to shipping problems with the part (service blamed Jayco/shipping company) it took an extra month to get a proper replacement part that didn't arrive damaged. Just because you buy from a dealer, doesn't always mean you get prompt service. I hear service departments across the board are understaffed right now.

I'm not sure I'd go back for my next RV, but I wouldn't avoid them either. The whole process seemed like a 1980's car dealership. I don't think I was taken serious as a buyer until I showed up with my own financing as I'm a bit younger.

I'd seriously consider looking at buying wholesale or something like https://www.rvdirect.com/. I had quotes from both GK and RVdirect. I had a pretty good deal from the Hershey RV show, and GK beat out the other Jayco dealers on site at the show. That said, RV direct was about $8k less than GK, but being this was my first 5th wheel, I didn't want to go to Buffalo or Albany, NY to pick up and get service. RVDirect was by far the easiest to deal with. All Email, no pushy tactics, and a great price.