Do you have any idea how hard it is to stay number one four years in a row?

Ask the New York Yankees. The Los Angeles Lakers. The New England Patriots. If memory serves me well — and it doesn’t always these days — you’d have to go back to the 1960s Boston Celtics dynasty to find a pro franchise that had won its championship more than three years in a row. (Hockey doesn’t count.)

And then there’s the Holiday Rambler Presidential. The pros at Holiday Rambler have kept this brand number one in retail sales of fifth wheels over $50,000 for four years in a row, and they’re not ready to give it up.

While the company hasn’t tampered too much with success in its 2006 line, National Sales Manager Brad McKinney said they aren’t sitting still, either. “We’ve strengthened our position with new floorplans and added a great deal of value to the product by making popular options standard,” adding that making the choices simpler reduces confusion for the consumer and ensures that units for sale at dealership have the most popular equipment.

SO LET’S START WITH THOSE NEW STANDARDS.

Home theater with surround sound and DVD player. This premium-quality entertainment system includes an AM/FM radio and CD player. The speaker system is attractively built-in and unobtrusive. TV is still optional, but for a 27-inch, except for the two smallest fifth wheels and the larger travel trailer, where it’s a 20-inch.

Fabric glider recliners. Very comfortable. Leather upholstery is available.

Carrier 15,000 BTU high-capacity rooftop air conditioner with remote control. This highly efficient Carrier uses a paddle wheel to throw condensed moisture back onto the condenser grid to help dissipate heat. I’m told it cools significantly better than a conventional 15,000 BTU model. The remote lets you adjust heating or cooling from anywhere in the coach, even during the night while you’re in bed. You can also set the thermostat to cut back on heating or cooling while you’re gone, but raise or lower the temperature to your desired level just before you get home — so as to save on power or LP gas.

If you order a second air conditioner for the bedroom, it’s mounted behind the bedroom and ducted, so as not to increase the exterior height of the trailer. This also allows for placement of a powerful fan in the bedroom roof vent.

King bed in bedroom slideout (fifth wheels only). I don’t know if Americans are getting heftier, friskier, or both, but demand for a king bed as an option led Holiday Rambler to make it standard.

Patio awning with Alumaguard cover. The best look and the best protection are now standard equipment.

Pleated, color-coordinated day/blackout shades in living area and bedroom. Given the close quarters in many campgrounds, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want the combination of convenience and comfort this feature affords. The shades are color-matched to each interior décor scheme.

Finally, Plexi-Stone is the new luxury material for the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Even permanent marker wipes from its surface with little effort.

New options include Newport Cherry cabinetry, a designer accessory package that gives you all the throw pillows you need, beautifully coordinated to your interior, and a new front-load washer-dryer.

NEW FLOORPLAN ALREADY A HIT

The one new floorplan introduced for 2006 — the quad-slide 36RLQ — isn’t completely new. A 35-foot version made its debut in the Alumascape line in 2005. It was a huge seller and many people asked for it in a Presidential model, McKinney said. So, here it is.

I saw one of the first 36RLQ models recently at the Holiday Rambler dealership near my home in Grand Rapids. The distinguishing feature of this model is that the rear living room can be closed off from the rest of the coach with beautiful hardwood-framed beveled-glass sliding doors. This design allows privacy for a variety of uses: sleeping two couples, quiet time at the computer station, watching TV while others are upstairs in bed, and so on.

The large room — there is a slideout on either side — featured two leather upholstered glider-recliner chairs, a beautiful sofa bed, a computer station, the entertainment center with all the goodies mentioned above and the optional gas fireplace. A huge rear picture window, four adjustable-arm lamps, recessed lighting and a ceiling fan add to the luxury. I didn’t want to leave. I might not have to; the refrigerator is just outside the sliding doors.

An important note: other manufacturers are offering floorplans similar to this one, but with the added feature of a sunken living room. The design is popular, but Holiday Rambler has shied away from it. McKinney pointed out that in order to build the sunken living room the frame has to be cut and dropped, which raises questions of structural integrity and ground clearance. Also, the novelty is likely to wear off after the three or four hundredth time you trip over the step on your way to the kitchen. Hence, the Presidential has a flat floor. Also, the Presidential’s heat duct runs all the way to the rear of the coach, improving heat distribution in an area with several windows.

The 36RLQ I saw had the gorgeous new optional Newport Cherry woodwork — cabinets, slideout surrounds, doors and trim. The new Seaspray fabrics will be a hit, too.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

In case you missed it last year, Holiday Rambler went to a new material for the roof exterior. It’s called Brite-Tek, and it is 350 percent stronger than rubber, adheres better to the substrate, requires no maintenance, and eliminates most streaking, according to the company. The Brite-Tek roof material is warranted for 12 years with five years of coverage on labor.

The Brite-Tek exterior is one of ten layers in Presidential’s roof construction. Five of those layers are various kinds of insulation, two are vapor barriers and the ceiling is sound-deadening padded vinyl

The sidewalls feature lightweight, Alumaframe® construction with interlocking C-channels. There are six layers of insulation and structural material, including two vapor barriers. The floor is also six layers, and the enclosed subfloor is heated to keep water and holding tanks from freezing as long as you keep your coach heated. A smooth, aerodynamic underbelly is made from a rugged synthetic material that resists road damage far better than metal.

The standard exterior is heavy-gauge aluminum, with fiberglass optional.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

For 2006 there are two models of Presidential travel trailers. The 32FKD is a roomy double slideout with a front kitchen and a big sliding-door wardrobe in the rear of the bedroom like the ones you see in fifth wheels or motorhomes. The 34SKD is a classic fifth wheel floorplan in a travel trailer: front bedroom with huge front closet, walkthrough bath amidships, and a rear living room.

The country’s best-selling luxury fifth wheel line enters 2006 with eight models:

• 30SCD — a double slideout that even offers a washer-dryer option in    a compact 30-foot package.

• 32SKQ — big-rig features in a 32-footer. Four slides, L-shaped    kitchen counter with barstools, entertainment center, computer    station, full living room, king bed, the works.

• 34RLT — a spacious, highly livable rear living room triple slideout.

• 36FKT — another inventive L-kitchen model with barstools, two    pullout pantries and the lavatory in the bedroom. Long slideouts give    this model quad-like living space.

• 36RLQ — the new quad-slide reviewed in detail above.

• 36RLT — an extremely open, spacious floorplan with three slideouts.

• 36SKT — yet another L-kitchen design, this one with four slides and    a great deal of open space.

• 37RLT — More space in the living room, kitchen and bedroom. A    guaranteed cure for cabin fever.

That’s the Presidential lineup at the beginning of 2006. I can’t promise you there won’t be a few surprises as the model year wears on, but I can promise you there has never been a better year to step up to a new, top-of-the-line Holiday Rambler Presidential travel trailer or fifth wheel.