I have seen RV manufacturers try this and fail.

A company spends decades, generations building a reputation for making high-quality luxury travel trailers and fifth wheels. Then they decide to offer their brand to more and more first-timers and other economy-minded buyers.

And sometimes that company overreaches.

They offer a towable that’s built like a rock and plain as a mud fence. Or, more often, they go the other way — overload on glitz, pizzazz, sizzle and all the other z-enriched adjectives in the thesaurus, while compromising the quality standards their brand stands for.

About 20 years ago I worked briefly for a company that took the former course. They wound up with a yard full of unsold little towables that were built like tanks, provided similarly Spartan living quarters, and were still overpriced for the entry-level market.

It takes special expertise to do ultra-low-priced travel trailers right. And it can be especially difficult for a company whose dealers and buyers expect luxury-coach quality. I have even seen Holiday Rambler fail at it, 30 years back. (I remember founder Dick Klingler telling his dealers that he was giving up his quest to become the biggest RV manufacturer in favor of being what Holiday Rambler really stood for — being the best.)

So when I was asked to review the 2008 Savoy LE travel trailer, which employs laminated body construction rather than the Alumaframe system that has been the company’s hallmark since stacked heels and leisure suits were the rage, I felt a vague unease.

Laminated construction? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Multitudes of RVers happily camp in such vehicles. But could it work for Holiday Rambler? Could the company meet its public’s high expectations while attaining the right ratio of low price to value?

Ultimately the market will be the judge, but my friends at Holiday Rambler tell me the early returns — the new-style LEs were first shown last winter — are more than promising.

So I put aside my prejudices — people my age often cling to tradition more than we should — and went to see the 2008 Savoy LE with an open mind.

Exceeding Expectations

What impressed me most was the lack of compromise in both construction and eye-appeal in this coach. The two-inch wall laminations include welded tubular aluminum framing for lightweight strength, with fiberglass skin on the outside. The arched roof has five-inch rafters on 16-inch centers with plywood decking and a low-maintenance one-piece outer membrane. The floor decking is 5/8-inch Sturdi-wood. And the subfloor is steel, not the wood framing that is the standard at this price.

In short, Holiday Rambler has engineered an exceptionally solid, well-insulated shell and foundation for this coach.

Yet, as national sales manager Brad McKinney put it, “This type of construction is lighter weight and more efficient, which allows us to be more competitive in today’s market.” That market is increasingly price-conscious and also concerned with fuel costs. Savoy LE’s construction not only sheds pounds, but the swept-back front end and fully enclosed underbelly add good aerodynamics into the value equation.

Holiday Rambler Regional Sales Manager Ryan Newcomer, whom I have known since the days of disco, elaborated thus: “This coach is truly entry-level in price — not just for Holiday Rambler buyers but for anyone looking for their first new coach. It lets us offer the benefits of Holiday Rambler ownership to more people than ever before.”

Newcomer was my host recently on a tour of a Savoy LE 29FLS. (My Holiday Rambler secret decoder ring tells me that’s a 29-footer with a front living room and a single slideout.)

He pointed out a number of standard features that add to the value of this coach. Like Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound system and TV antenna with an option for LCD television. Or the special “Advantage Package” included in the base price, which comprises:

• a Carrier 13,500 BTU air conditioner with dehumidifier and remote control;
• microwave oven with touch control;  
• two 30 lb. LP tanks with bottle cover;
• a quilted bedspread;
• wood fascia with decorative insert on the slideout room;
• a bathtub;
• a tinted skylight in the bathroom;
• water-heater bypass kit.

My review unit also had an optional Carefree patio awning and the LCD TV, which will be the case on standard-run coaches.

Newcomer explained that building all coaches with the most desired items standard and the most common options included helps create a pricing advantage. “When all the coaches are similar, and you don’t have too many floorplans, you can build them faster and maintain higher quality.”

Thinking Young

As I spent time in this coach looking it over closely, I noticed a number of things that are unusual in a Holiday Rambler, but which make perfect sense in a towable that will be used primarily by families on weekends and summer vacations.

For example, the entire coach was floored in vinyl (a convincing ceramic tile look-alike, laid at 45 degrees to the coach walls); carpeting is an option. That would seem cheap to a veteran snowbird, but represents optimal value to parents of creatures with frequently mud-caked or sand-encrusted feet.

On the other hand, décor was obviously a big deal to the coach’s designers. The cabinets are beautiful matte-finished cherry, and a wood insert is standard on the refrigerator door. The cabinet style is similar to craftsman, although the cabinet doors have a gentle arch across the top of the panel.

Savoy LE travel trailers come in a variety of floorplans from 26 to 29 feet — with bunkhouses, front and rear bedrooms, side and rear kitchens. My test unit, a 29FLS is a new floorplan that features a very roomy front living room, a long slideout and a nice private rear bedroom with a split bath.

It’s a terrific family-cottage design. As you walk in the front door, there are two comfortable swivel recliners on your right with a bank of large cabinets overhead. On the opposite wall, in the slideout is a sleeper sofa and aft of that the dinette, with a ton of storage under the seats and more overhead cabinets. The slideout is a flush-floor design, just as on the most expensive Holiday Ramblers — with large windows in the side and on the ends.

Just aft of the dinette is a cabinet unit that houses the flat-screen TV — it faces forward, so up to seven people can comfortably view it while seated. Below the TV is a large storage cabinet with two shelves, which contains the TV antenna jack and a 12-volt receptacle.

The curb-side galley has a reasonable amount of work space, big overhead cabinets and a very generous pantry.

Have I mentioned yet that this coach has a lot of storage space? If you are counting, this is the seventh reference in three paragraphs, and I am far from done. Just because you’re designing a coach primarily for weekending or shorter family vacations doesn’t mean you should ask customers to live out of boxes and duffel bags. I’ve seen snowbird coaches that couldn’t match the 29FLS for storage volume.

One of the unusual features, though, is that there isn’t a single drawer front in the coach. Instead, you open a large lower cabinet door in the kitchen and find a stack of pull-out bins. Yes, Holiday Rambler has spared a great deal of expense by providing these bins in lieu of the normal dovetailed drawers on roller guides. If you’re going to live in your coach six months a year, this might be a reason to consider a pricier model. But for weekending, these bins offer an advantage. You can load and unload them in the house and carry them out to the trailer, carry the silverware drawer out to the picnic table, and so on.

The use of bins and shelves throughout the coach, in lieu of drawers, is also a significant weight-saving feature, helping to reduce both fuel expenses and minimum tow-vehicle investment.

The well-lit kitchen also features a double aluminum sink, touch-control microwave, a range with oven and a convenient slotted cutlery holder behind the cooktop.

The bath shower enclosure includes a small tub, ideal for families with children too small to shower by themselves. There’s a mirrored medicine cabinet and three more huge storage spaces, a tall linen closet behind the commode, two deep shelves under the large lavatory, and a large closet just to the right.

Wait, there’s more. On either side of the queen bed is a full-height wardrobe with a shelf at the top and another of those slideout trays at nightstand level. In between — a bank of large overhead cabinets with a little shelf below it.

This model doesn’t have a bedroom slideout, so all the space under the hinged, strut-supported queen bed is usable as storage, too.

The bedroom has its own private outside entrance door, which leads us to…

…The Outside

And guess what? More storage. Pass-through storage. On a travel trailer. Access is at the rear of the coach on either side, through hatches that open into the area below the bedroom closets and the bed. This is perfect for items that are often tough to fit into a travel trailer, like fishing rods, ground covers, patio furniture or eight-foot totem poles.

Access to utilities is near waist height and well-labeled. While the coach doesn’t have the central water management bay found on more expensive Holiday Ramblers, it does have an outdoor shower and standard winterization and water-heater bypass kits.

Windows and doors are nicely radiused, and the graphics package is clean and upscale. Fifteen-inch radial tires are standard.

Bullseye

So has Holiday Rambler hit the mark with this coach? Yes, dead center. Eye appeal inside and out. Function. Practicality. Quality materials, fit and finish. The features you can’t do without. Room to live, even on rainy days. Enough storage so that nobody is left whining about not being able to bring his or her favorite whatsit. Insulation on all six sides for an extended camping season.

It’s all there, with the result that there are no longer any excuses left. If you can afford a new travel trailer, you can afford a Holiday Rambler and all the nationwide 24/7 customer support that comes with it.