View the 2001 Presidential Photo Gallery

by Dave Bessmer
You know, it‘s not often one has the chance to get up close and personal with the biggest and best, so I was very pleased to have a chance to spend some time recently in a Holiday Rambler Presidential 36SKT fifth wheel. Holiday Rambler reintroduced the Presidential nameplate this model year for its premium line of fifth wheels. Their strategy was to hit the high end of the market with regard to luxury, glitz, performance, bells, whistles and quality materials – and then, after weakening your will power with all the goodies, sneak up behind you with a price that is shockingly, uh, low.

John Cunningham, national sales manager for Holiday Rambler towables, puts it another way: “This is the most competitively priced fifth wheel line in its class. Customers perceive a very high value.”

I wouldn‘t argue, and not only because John is a good deal bigger and younger than I am. The 36SKT is the second 2001 Presidential I‘ve reviewed for Holidays, and I‘m even more impressed with this largest-of-the-line coach.

A coach that grows on you

While the 36SKT makes a great first impression, I promise it will grow on you. Specifically, it has three slideouts, so it grows so big at the campsite that you‘ll have all the room you need to spend a long winter in a sunny southern clime, or to travel full time.

Two of these flush-floor slideouts expand the living room to epic dimensions. The door-side slide houses the sofa and dinette. Opposite is a slideout housing the entertainment center and a very cool computer work station. (More on that later.) There are two swivel chairs—my unit had the optional recliners—nestled in the rear of the coach in front of the large picture window.

The arrangement gives a great sense of spaciousness. It‘s comfortable and functional. The sight lines are great—including TV viewing from all quarters. There are plenty of large windows to let in light and optional day-night shades let you choose the right combination of light and privacy.

Full-time living room

I‘m not at a point in my life yet where full-time or seasonal travel is in the cards, so I sometimes have trouble imagining living for months at a time in an RV and the effects it might have on my generally wonderful marriage. (Sometimes our three-bedroom house with living room, family room and my finished basement office doesn‘t seem like enough space for the two of us.)

I can‘t speak for how the 36SKT will affect your marriage, but a close inspection reveals that it‘s certainly designed to support long-term occupancy with regard to storage, systems and livability. Let‘s start at the rear living room and move forward.

The computer station features a desk large enough to hold your monitor with room left over for writing or other tasks, and for a telephone. There‘s a slideout keyboard tray and two drawers deep enough to hold 14-inch file folders sideways. A double overhead cabinet supplies storage for manuals and other stuff. There are windows both on the left and in front of you as you sit in the nice padded chair provided.

Immediately to the right is the entertainment center. The optional TV is a 27-inch model. The standard stereo features AM/FM/CD/cassette media, and my unit had the optional surround sound system with ceiling-mounted speakers you can aim for maximum sound quality in the 36SKT environment. There‘s a big storage cabinet above the TV with decorative mirror doors. Two smaller cabinets flank the stereo with lots of room for CDs and cassettes. Below the TV are shelves for a VCR and DVD with room left over for tapes and discs. The door is smoked glass so your remote controls will work when it‘s closed.

The sofa-dinette slideout has four tall windows, including one at each end. The optional sofa-bed in my unit had a beautifully finished roll-out storage drawer. A dinette table with chairs is standard, but I like the booth dinette in my unit for this reason: Both the dinette seats have big roll-out drawers. The extra, easily accessible storage space will be a boon; some people will use it as pantry space.

In all, this is a very pleasant, functional space, with plenty of room to move around so you‘ll never feel that you‘re living elbow-to-elbow.

An L of a galley

Another advantage of the sofa-dinette slideout is that the kitchen doesn‘t have to be all lined up against the wall. The 36SKT has an L-shaped counter with the double sink in the L section and a large fold-up counter extension left of the sink. This arrangement supplies a great deal of extra work space, and allows whoever has cooking or scullery duty to join the party that‘s going on in the living room.

The kitchen counter is an extremely rich “solid surface” material that looks and feels like marble or granite. The same material is used for sink covers and a cover for the recessed range, which enhances both beauty and workspace. Below the counter are three drawers on roller guides and some very large cabinets for pots, pans and countertop appliances.

Just to the right of the sink, two tall pantry cabinets flank a tall window that brightens things up and gives the cook a nice view. There are four overhead cabinets, and to use them, you‘re either going to have to marry someone who‘s really tall or get yourself a step stool, something that‘s needed in most modern fifth wheels.

A microwave is standard and so is a gas oven beneath the range. The standard fridge is an eight-cubic foot model; my unit had an optional four-door Norcold with an icemaker.

A few words about décor

Tasteful, understated elegance. A mix of contemporary and traditional that won‘t soon become outdated.

Now a few more words. My test unit had the Mahogany interior décor scheme. Mahogany is used here to describe the earthy color scheme; it has nothing to do with the actual hardwoods used, which are western oak (standard), optional Colony Oak or the dark-stained Walnut that was in my test unit. All the cabinetry is solid hardwood with raised-panel doors and drawer fronts.

I thought the dark wood tones were very rich – and were offset by the near-excess of natural and artificial light Holiday Ramblers have provided. Each of the three “alcoves” in the living area has picture windows and end windows.

Lighting consists of white 12-volts RV lights, 120-volt fixtures, directional reading lights, recessed lighting under the kitchen cabinets and optional fluorescent lights. There‘s lighting to serve any purpose or set any mood.

Brass cabinet hardware, trim and bathroom fixtures also add a welcome touch of brightness.

The upholstery fabrics include a subtle pattern on the swivel chairs that looks almost solid at a distance – and bolder patterns on the other furniture and the bedspread with both used in the slim-line window treatments. The patterns have an earthy, outdoorsy feel.

Upstairs: the other living room

Upstairs is one of the great distinguishing features of the 36SKT floorplan: The bed and bath are one large, open area. Rather than wall off these areas into two small enclosures, Holiday Rambler has provided a long accordion partition for privacy – and lets you leave things open and airy otherwise.

(I should point out here that the commode is in a private enclosure, immediately on your left as you come upstairs.)

The result is that the upstairs of the 36SKT is a very pleasant place to spend time – whether you‘re enjoying a little solitude with a book on a rainy day, getting made up, coifed and dressed for a big night at the campground bingo hall, or settling in for the night.

The bath has a roomy, angled shower and an angled lavatory with a great deal of counter space. The counter is solid-surface material with a molded-in sink. There are two large mirrors and angles to each other, each with a bank of makeup lights. Behind one is a roomy, three-shelf medicine cabinet. Two lower cabinets and three drawers provide toiletry and cosmetic storage to satisfy possibly even my wife. And believe me, you have no idea what that means.

Across the way there is a large wardrobe, which most people give up in favor of the optional washer-dryer that goes there. This floor-to-ceiling cabinet combo also includes a laundry hamper, two narrow, deep drawers that would hold laundry products, and open floor-level space.

There‘s floor-level lighting to guide you way at night and registers strategically placed to warm your bare feet.

The slideout bedroom is well-outfitted for long-term living. There‘s a six-drawer bureau built into the wall across from the foot of the bed with a full-width countertop. Above that are two large cabinets and a third to house the optional 13-inch television. There are more cabinets over the bed and a good-sized nightstand next to it. Of course, there‘s a big storage area under the bed, nicely lined and sealed off from the slideout mechanism.

Along the front wall is a deep full-width closet with sliding mirror doors, a full-width shelf and lights.

Outside: making a statement

Holiday Rambler designers definitely gave the new Presidential line the look of a luxury coach – another way you can make your friends think you paid way more for your coach than you really did. The graphics are rich blue and gray and elegant rather than jazzy, something I think we could use more of in RV exteriors.

All the window, door and awning trim is white, like the coach‘s side walls and end caps, so the appearance is uncluttered and clean. The white roof is a material called RV 2000 that doesn‘t chalk and streak side walls like rubber and that‘s far more puncture-resistant.

This is a big trailer, and it has a big basement to store stuff in. Holiday Rambler has made good use of all the available space, including adding three trunk doors below the floor line. Two of these doors enclose storage trunks handy for tools and gear. Behind a third is a lighted water service center with valves for the three holding tanks (kitchen, bath and toilet), fresh-water hookup, low-point drain and a hand-held shower with hot and cold water controls.

Built for snowbirds

Full-timers and snowbirds are bound to run into extreme weather of both kinds, and a Presidential fifth wheel is a good thing to run into it with.

Holiday Rambler‘s legendary insulation package includes a 10-layer roof (including five layers of insulation and two vapor barriers) and a five-layer sidewall with two kinds of insulation and a vapor barrier. Presidential‘s fully enclosed, insulated underbelly houses heating ducts and a vent that keeps the holding-tank area warm.

Standard tinted windows add thermal efficiency, and you can opt for the extra insulation value of double pane glass.

Another advantage of Presidential‘s Alumaframe construction is its weight savings. This is a 36-foot coach with three slideouts. Yet, with its 14,250-pound gross vehicle weight rating, you can tow it with a properly equipped one-ton pickup, instead of a custom hauler. So you can save money not only on the coach, but on the tow vehicle.

Holiday Rambler‘s marketing people might not want me going on about saving money in relation to their most expensive luxury fifth wheel trailer. But I‘ve always thought that just because you‘re in the market for the ultimate doesn‘t mean you should pay through the nose to get it. The beauty of this rig is that it‘s a not only a great fifth wheel but a great value as well.

Check one out at your nearest dealer and let me know if I‘m wrong.

Dave Bessmer is a freelance writer living in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has spent 25 years in or around the RV business. He has authored several features for Holidays magazine.

For additional floorplans, specs, pictures and colors for the 2001 Presidential Fifth Wheel, please visit Holiday Rambler’s 2001 Presidential page.