Forest River XLR Thunderbolt reviews

This a well built toy hauler. Everything is nice and neat without excess glue and Staples. Great craftsmanship. I highly recommend it especially for your toys and camping needs. The floor plan is large. The garage space is large. Very quiet especially at the dunes. Stays warm. Good insulation. Definitely ready for the action camper. Show less

My 2021 Hyperlite 2815 has a decent size garage but very little storage room, so living in it for more than a week at a time requires planning. The over all quality is better than expected. Mine is built like a tank. Towing it it's very steady (with a 2500HD, not so much with a 1/2 ton). Factory support is not the best. I had a blowout and damaged the fender. Emailed and called and left messages for XLR three days ago and still no response. Show less

The best camper I've ever owned! I love this thing. 1) It is HUGE. Lots of room - it sleeps 9, so for an empty-nest couple and a small dog, it is like a home away from home. 2) The garage is amazing. I put a home office in there and used the half bath like it was my own little place. I worked while my wife lived the carefree camping life - watching Netflix, walking around in the wilderness, etc. 3) A king bed was a must for us, and this one was fantastic. 4) A washer-dryer connection was a must for us, and this one has it. 5) New things in 2022 and around then: tankless water heater (amazing), solar panel for battery-powered fridge. Keeps food cold while driving. 6) Everything is designed to be off-grid; you can completely function in this thing without even powering up the generator. 7) The generator is built-in and there's a 30 gallon tank so you really can go anywhere. 8) We are not toy people, but the garage is huge, with plenty of tie down rings, and there's a fuel station outside so you can gas your toys up like you are a gas station! Show less

We have loved this 5th wheel. It has been completely reliable and we hauled it from north Idaho to central coast of California and then to Sw FL where we have been stationary. Nothing has fallen apart, no tire mishaps and we all fit comfortable with the extra half bath, 15ft garage, tons of storage and pantry! The only issue we had was our refrigerator not working which we promptly got swapped out. Maybe we got lucky but literally nothing fell apart, no leaks, nothing. It’s been great! Show less

Bought new. Was setting on the dealer lot for two months. We have had nothing but issue after issue from the decals coming off to tear in the floor to the refrigerator panel falling off in transport to the ac not cooling and even wiring. Yes went back to the factory but came back as bad as it was before. Never again will we buy a Forrest River product. Their warranty sucks and you are without the rv for a prolonged period of time while they still don't fix it right. Show less

We had purchased our 29qbx with the intention of going on a 6 month vacation. But after on having towed it 1200 miles every thing fell apart. And I mean everything the walls we collapsing the roof leaked the slides leaked there was mold growing under our mattress. The craftsmanship of these units is unacceptable and really sad. They should not be allowed to operate this way. Our trailer is currently at the manufacturer waiting to be “fixed” and I have lost all hope we only owned it for 4 months and have no idea when any thing will be done. The warranty team at xlr is about as good as the quality of their product after being pushed around for a month with little to no contact I asked to speak with a manager and have been stonewalled every time. Please save your money and your sanity and DONT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM XLR Show less

We like the layout. Do not like the workmanship. Had several issues over the first couple of years. Had some repaired by local dealer. Repaired most myself because could not wait for dealer schedule. Slide seals were replaced under factory warranty and again under extended warranty. Bedroom and kitchen slide leak water during rain storms. Did not discover until out of factory warranty. Currently living and working out of coach and unable to determine direct cause of leaks into the slides. Show less

We took delivery in June of 2021 and were only able to use it 2 weekends. It had numerous minor issues that I was able to correct. This past summer we were filling the water tanks and heard a very loud "pop" and thought it came from a next door loading dock. We started down the road and a driver honked and pulled us over. We were dragging a metal support underneath (the loud noise). I was able to remove the other end of the damaged support. When we got home I crawled under to discover one of the water tanks fell out and was riding on the top of one axle. Contacted Forest River and they said to get it into the local dealer. Called them and the soonest appt. was 2 months! I crawled under and took down the coroplast liner and had to drill a hole in the water tank to empty it to be able to handle it. What I discovered was the water tanks were set in a narrow channel and when full would elongate and fall out of the channel. A design flaw! Took pictures and sent to Forest River and had several conversations/emails. They would not compensate me for materials or time to fix this issue. I asked for another year warranty extension. They flatly refused! This is zero money out of their pocket. We have a very short camping season in CO. and I could not wait 2 mos. for an appmt (end of August and our season) I had to make the repairs to be able to use the RV the remainder of our summer. I REINFORCED BOTH WATER TANKS WITH HEAVY STEEL CROSS BRACES AND NO FURTHER ISSUES. I would never consider another Forest River product again. NO customer service or willingness to stand behind their product! They tout their new state of the art final inspection facility. What a joke. Show less

I owned the XLR Nitro 351 for one and a half years. Where do I start with all of the problems that I had with this thing. The dealership that i purchased it from is 150 miles from my home and I found out quickly that my local XLR dealerships won’t do warranty work on this rig. Rather than travel 150 miles I elected to repair the simple things myself and had a mobile RV repair guy do the hard stuff. Day one when I backed this thing into the driveway the slide seals fell out on the ground. One of the slides made a horrible banging noise when it was powered out. Within a couple of months one of the cables on the kitchen slide broke. Mobile repair guy fixed it. This spring I had another cable break. The lights in the loft have no wiring running to them. One of the window trim pieces fell out on the highway. The led lighting was falling off of the awnings. The control wires on the refrigerator were spliced together at the factory with cheesy crimp connectors. The wires weren’t long enough so they spliced them. The refrigerator ended up breaking down. The garage entry door had a 2 inch gap at the top and would not latch. The gates for the patio railings were starting to come loose and bend due to their weight. The mesh on the patio was damaged at the factory and it looked like someone walked on it at the factory as there were boot marks on it. The fireplace fell out going down the highway due to no bolts holding it in. The exterior panel on the underside of the overhang was falling out because it was cut too short. The list goes on and on. The quality of this rig was just atrocious. I am using the word “was” due to the fact that after a year and a half of chasing problems I traded it in. I have since purchased a new fifth wheel and when shopping I made sure I avoided looking at anything built by Forrest River. Show less

If it doesn’t break this is a great toy hauler. But they do break and not worth the price tag. Within the first year the fridge went out, generator needed serviced, and a bunch of other smaller issues. 2 years in and not eve 10 trips total and the slide motor is shot. Do not recommend. Show less