Forest River 279RBS Travel Trailer reviews

Bought at Portland RV show, was our first and will absolutely be our last. We loved the looks, floor plan for TWO, being supposedly 1/2 ton towable. The one we eventually got was the 3rd one off the local assembly line, and we had to wait for a while to get it. Ever hear the advice to never buy (any vehicle) in its first year of production?? Lordy, if only we had! First issue was picking it up at the dealership, Curtis Trailers. Turned into 4 hour ordeal. First, it was not actually ready to go, several items needed attention, two drawers had failed latches, the shower doors didn't line up, likely had been transported unlatched?, there was an electrical issue, and more. When the paperwork was done, so was the customer service. Finally we were given the "you are good to go, the Anderson Hitch (fantastic Hitch!) install and repairs/touch ups are done." So out to the truck we go, sales guy opens wife's door, and says best exit is down the lane and to the right and departs. As we buckle up and I'm checking the mirrors, I decided to do a quick walk around. So glad I did. The steps were not completely folded, and omg, the power cable had been disconnected from their end, but was still plugged into the trailer!! I was nearly "that guy"! The exit instructions were awful, we ended up on a narrow single lane street by a park with cars parked on both sides, my first time pulling the trailer. OK, the dealership sucked, but hey we had a really cool trailer, right? Wrong. Right out of the bag, the front stabilizer failed to operate, in the down position, the dealership had no clue where that fuse was, and where it is is insane. I finally find it, replace it, first trip out, it blew again. Back to dealer, I had to tell them where it was. They said they found nothing wrong with the wiring. But amazingly the problem stopped. After preparing for the next trip out, while closing the kitchen slide, the front bottom aluminum trim/guide piece failed pushing through the slide seal. Back to dealer. So far 120 miles of outings, 120 miles to and from dealer. The part had to be ordered, "not really important, head on out, well let you know when it's in", they never did. Called them after a couple months, "still not available, don't worry about it, we can't see why it was there anyway." 4 years later, still not there, guess they where right about one thing. I fixed the seal and wrote them off. Next, one of the sales pitches was it was pre-wired for solar, and had this decal on the wall where to cut to install your solar charge controller. So after installing three 100w solar panels on the roof, I proceeded with the charge controller install. Carefully cutting the wall paneling exactly where indicated, I find the bathroom plumbing air vent riser perfectly centered in the opening. Enter appropriate swearing here. But all this was only the beginning. We are not big time RV'ers, in the four years mostly due to personal issues, combined with the trailer's, we have only made 8 outings, mostly two or 3 days, couple hundred miles. Only two real trips over 500 miles. Point is, it has barely been used, and used carefully and appropriately. So the fact that we have had 34 issues, yes I have been counting, is insane, and the compilation ending to date with failed welds holding up the fresh water tank!! I found the framework holding up the tank totally inadequate, even without the faulty welds. Other issues of note have been: failed rear stabilizer switch, 120v outlet falling out of wall while energized, headliner pealing, fresh water inlet coupling won't turn, both grey and black water outlet latching coggs have failed, fresh water tank actually only holds 20 gallons (I measured), not 33, plus fresh water tank overflow tube somehow drains half of that if you travel any distance at all, not fun to arrive at a remote dry camp site with maybe 10 gallons. The very cheap, paper thin plastic bath sink failed when I had to replace the failed faucet, the 12v interior lighting was not LED as was indicated to us, the bed mattress was seriously awful and too short for stated size, two interior roof cents have fallen out and NO WE HAVE NOT TRAVELED CARELESSLY down rough roads, the darn thing barely has 2000 mostly freeway or good two lane miles on it! For the longest time I couldn't figure out how all the stink bugs were getting in, well the Coroplast underbelly covering had separated from the frame in many places, allowing insect and potentially rodent access. When you see those used trailer ads stating that it is "better than new", they likely are not lying. My ad won't be. Show less

After researching over 200 trailers, we found this Vibe V-Nose and it's so comfortable and roomy that we loved staying in it as much as our house. It tows easily, has tons of storage and is gorgeous. The bath is so large you can have three people in their and still plenty of room. Our family of 4 had plenty of drawers and closets for our clothing and plenty of sleeping room. When Mom and I wanted some privacy, we closed off the wood doors and it was our own secure space from the kids. The center island is so convenient. We put our Keurig coffee maker on there plus my wife's Vitamix and our toaster. There are plenty of plugs and counter space for a good sized family. We love the swivel TV that let's us put the kids in one room and we can play cards or a game, or visa/versa. The outside of the trailer is really nice looking and paired nicely with our Brown Metallic Denali. This is half-ton towable and at 33 feet pulls like nothing is there. We get so many compliments on our rig and we highly recommend it. Forest River had made an excellent product! Show less

Forest River gets it right with this luxury apartment on wheels. You won't believe you are in a trailer instead of a 4 Star Hotel Room. Luxury and space abound in this V Nose that is a dream to pull. Show less

Don't buy a Vibe! We bought this trailer because we fell in love with the floor plan. It is cheap because it's built cheap.. Trim isn't glued properly, screws fall out everywhere, couch comes unbolted, and there were pebbles under the vinyl floor (couldn't do anything about it) slide outs never completely closed/opened properly. The final straw was the axel breaking after the barrings caught fire. They did pay to fix axel (we were stranded for 5 days). The rest of the problems were never fixed adjusted differently but never fixed. Warranty was impossible to work with. We wanted to trade it in for another, they wouldn't. It spent as much time in the shop as it spent with us? Used it as a trade in on a better quality while it was less than 1 year old took a loss of nearly 1/2 cuz it was used. Show less

Drove to Cinncinati to buy it in June 16. Towed it home to Memphis 400 miles no issues. Towed it to Virgnia Beach stayed a week no problems, back to Memphis stayed at 3 RV parks no issues. AC turned on 24 hours a day. No issues.Refrigerator full of food turned on while driving using inverter no problems. Towed to Daytona stayed a week and back to Memphis. No issues. Have almost 4000 miles had to top off tires back to 65 psi. That was it. I like this Vibe. I did relocate the inverter from left side to the right side of the storage compartment for easy access. Show less