2015 Forest River Forester LE Class A - Gas reviews

I recently bought a 2015 Forest River Forester 2251LE sitting on a 4500 Chevy frame. We’ve taken it out a couple of times now, one trip with full hookup and the other was dry camping. I have some experience pulling trailers in the past but this is my first RV so I’m definitely a rookie when it comes to RV’s. Interior – For the most part it is just my wife and I on the road in our RV and this Forester is perfect for us. I walked through several RV’s before I bought this one and for the most part they all have the same basic amenities of about the same sizes and function. The feature that made this RV standout from the rest was the slide out queen size bed. In this entry level class RV it seemed that you had to squeeze into the rear bed area in other RV models. The slide out on the Forester made it so you can walk around the foot and partially around the side of the bed. This is a great feature that makes the RV seem bigger than it is. We like the look of the interior and so far everything has worked well. Everything on the inside seems to be made to last but time will tell. Exterior – For RV rookies like me it will take a bit to get use to the width of the RV and the added width of the side mirrors. Driving home from the dealer on highways and side roads it felt like I was going to hit the telephone poles or other vehicles around me. I’m assuming this 8’5” width is normal for RV’s and something all RV’ers have to get used to. Functionally I’m happy with the outside components. I’ve used the dump system a couple of times and it was very simple and intuitive to use. The black and grey pull handles were easy to get to. They are on opposite sides which seems strange to me but maybe that is normal. The storage bins are ok but I ran out of space pretty quickly. I’m guessing this is normal for small RV’s like this one and the slide out may have taken away from some of the storage room outside. The bins are made of plastic and are screwed in from what I can tell as opposed to strapped in. I do worry a bit that these bins cannot hold up to much weight in them without pulling out the screws – time will tell. Engine – The v8 6 liter engine (I think that is it’s size) has proven to be plenty of engine for the size of the RV. One of our trips we drove up into some hills and on another we drove on some steady up hills inclines on a freeway and in both cases we had no problem with power. I pulled a small trailer of about 2,000 lb on one of the trips and pretty much could not tell it was there. I really appreciate the transmission that is in this RV. It is smooth and did some type of down shifting as we were going downhill so I did not have to manually down shift to save the brakes. The breaking system seems to be well sized for the RV and makes me feel pretty comfortable stopping this 10,000+ lb vehicle when I need to. Ride and feel – When testing different RV’s I got to sit in a Ford version and Chevy version of this RV. I felt like I could see over the hood better on the Chevy. In addition to that the Ford model cut into the passenger foot area so they have to sit at a bit of an angle. In the Chevy model we bought it is loud when on the road. Some of the noise is engine and some is exterior noise from the road. My biggest complaint and really my only complaint is the handling is terrible. When I hit small dips in the road the RV bobs back and forth like a rocking horse. When we turn into a driveway or when we were going up some moderately windy roads the RV leaned pretty heavily. This is a tall vehicle so I would expect some of this but as I watched other equivalent sized RV’s on the road they did not seem to bob and lean as much as this one. Show less