Does anyone out there own and has owned an Alliance 5’er?

Wife and I are looking to possible change rigs from a 33’ TT to a ~33ft fifth wheel. Most brands are cheaply made but it appears Alliance may have a better group of meth addicts building theirs.

Thoughts?

Looking at Avenue 30RLS and maybe the 32rls.

Check out the RV group forums... like any brand, you will see a lot of negative because upset people are louder than happy ones.

RV review site from customers:

RV Insider Alliance

I recently discovered this name brand in my search fora 5er.

Walked in at least one of those models at a recent RV show and was impressed with them.

From what I gather, it is still a stand alone company and seems similar to Grand Design.

I think I still prefer the Grand Design, but for a reasonable $ difference, I believe I would be happy pulling one of those home.

Let us know more about what you find and if you get one, definitely pics!

I had both models saved on my phone to review.
I prefer the 32 due to the MBrm suite slide out
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I also prefer the 32RLS for that reason and the single entry bathroom.

I like the lower GVWR and size of the 30RLS, but it doesn’t have near the pass through storage space compared to the 32rls.

Will do, thanks.

I’ve sold Alliance products from their launch date until present, so even though I don’t own one I may be able to give a little more insight. I’ve met the owners on more than one occasion and they are very down to earth guys who do seem to want to both be there for their customers and continually improve the products as well as stand behind them. They grew up in the industry and they know what they’re doing. They’ve grown quickly and hopefully smartly.

Another brand you may be interested in taking a look at is Brinkley RV. New company but not new people. There has been a lot of buzz around them these last few months.

Was going to mention Brinkley. I was able to check one out at the Rv show in Little Rock. As a longtime rver my mind was blown. Between the quality and features it’s a brand I will be watching closely. The deal breaker for me was the frameless windows. It’s nice to be able to actually open windows to take advantage of a nice breeze. On that note I was happy to see the Alliance Avenue line doesn’t have frameless windows.

I forgot that you were our SME on RVs. It's good that you chimed in.

I really like the Grand Design 341RDS as well well as their model similar to the Alliance 32.

I know Alliance makes a higher end 5er, but most of those models were longer and heavier than I want. I know the nice stuff weighs more, but why not put it in a smaller model?

As far as the Alliance and the new maker you mentioned, how do they and Grand Design stack up in quality to each other?

It's not that I am dissatisfied with my Forest River TT, but I would like something nicer when I move up to a 5er. I would rather buy once/cry once.

I’ve noticed Alliance tends to make a lot of floor plans that are eerily similar to Grand Design, guess they aren’t trying to reinvent things.  

Have you looked at the 295MK Alliance Paradigm or the 280 Solitude?  You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned weight. The manufacturers usually want their mid profile rigs to be light enough that most 3/4 tons can pull them. They also put cheaper materials in them because if they didn’t the price would end up being so close to their full profile offerings that there’d be no model separation.

Brinkley has impressed so far, but we’ve only delivered half a dozen or so out of my store. We have a floor model here for people to check out and it’s not showing any signs of wear yet. I’d put GD and Alliance in the same category in terms of quality overall.

I would be coming from a Heartland product and I have been very disappointed in the build “quality.” Even though I have a 1T truck, weight and size are important factors but so are quality. I started to look at GD but I like the sounds of the PVC roof and dual Azdale (?) wall panels of the Alliance products. The few Brinkleys I have seen appear to be considerably higher priced than either GD or Alliance, but maybe that is a narrow sample size.

Expand on this please. I have not gotten deep enough into my search and am not familiar with these details

PVC roofing is more tear and puncture resistant and is claimed to have higher reflectivity than the TPO roofing material that companies like GD use. That being said, TPO has evolved into a better product than it was even a few years ago. AZDEL is a composite material that takes the place of the traditional wood that the fiberglass is bonded to. It’s lighter and is claimed to have higher insulation values, it also does not absorb water. The flip side (according to companies that still use wood) is that since it’s non porous the adhesive used to build walls cannot permeate and thus strengthen the wall.

Interesting point from both sides the issue.

I appreciate your insight into this.

I am sure myself and the OP can use this info in our search

I hadn’t heard of the negative you mentioned to Azdel, I’ll have to look into it. I did was a few Alliance Avenue manufacturing videos and they mentioned that the press the panels together and let the glue set for ~72 hours before they handle them. It looked pretty legit honestly. I have seen enough wood walled rigs with delaminating issues that I would like to explore my options.

Thanks for your industry perspective, it helps.

Industry wide the laminating process has gotten much better than it was even a few years ago. No matter what you go with, the importance of roof and seal maintenance cannot be overstated.

I’m happy to help, this is a fun industry to work in and I genuinely enjoy helping people find the right rig for them.

Going to look at a couple Alliance Paradigms tonight. I think it’s a 295 MK and 310RL. It will be the first time I’m actually inside the brand, so I’m interested to see the quality and finishes. Both are above my price range, but it’s hard to find and Alliances that are close enough to look at these days.

I’m curious to know your thoughts on what you saw. And I don’t know if I’m overstepping here, and I don’t know your budget, but if you know where to look there are some killer deals out there right now.

I think our trip confirmed that Alliance is a brand worth looking into for us. The materials and construction were obviously a higher standard. I prefer some of the design elements of the Avenue line from the pictures I’ve seen. It was good to see an Alliance and we also walked through a few Salem Hemispheres as well, which did not stack up.

We are comfortable between 55-65 and there are a few deals but not close to me.

I have a 2023 Alliance Valor 40V13 that I bought end of last year. Slightly annoyed as they made some changes this year and now have a 44V14 that I like the floor plan of more.

I didn’t start using it until June of this year, I had some problems but the Alliance warranty / customer service is really good.

Things I had problems with:

Left the lithium batteries connected during Montana winter. Alliance replaced all 3 under warranty (and I added another 3)
This also killed the charge controller which they replaced.

Everchill 12V fridge died, they sent a new one. Furrion makes these and they are known to have issues.

Onan 5500 would fault code 36 and shut down. This was again my fault for not running it a couple hours every month. Factory Cummins warranty is 36M. They gave sent me a new fuel pump and it’s good now.

The microwave had a top bolt that stripped out some and wouldn’t tighten, they sent a new microwave.

Had a small crack in one of the fenders over tire. They sent a new fender.

That’s stuff I did on my own, I had the option of taking it to the dealer but that would have been a 2 hour drive each way.

There’s also a bunch of stuff the dealer caught at the PDI that alliance replaced.

New tv from a scratch, replaced the patio doors because they weren’t shutting right, new window in bedroom, a couple other small things.

@turfengineer

Totally forgot about asking this after your update getting the 32RLS.

Have you weighed it to get an accurate pin weight?

Alliance shows that model having 2,000 lb pin and it would be nice to compare to actual.

Hope you are enjoying the 5’er

Thanks

I have not weighed the truck without the trailer yet to determine the pin weight but I will the next chance I get.

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Wow, it seems that it is much heavier than its advertised dry weight of 10,700 lbs, although I know that number is always low.

9500 on the trailer axles probably will end up being closer to 2,500 pin than 2,000, if not over considering the front/drive axle weights.

I will guess that the camper was loaded heavy for camping at this scale weight as well.

When you do get a truck only weight, please share as I am obviously interested in pin weight, but also how the weight is shared by the truck across the front and rear axles.

I've had my F250 for a year and never put it on a scale

The wife and I are seriously looking at the Alliance Paradigm 395DS I like the layout of the 'living room' and the kitchen/dining area. Each area feels more separate with a distinct transition to each space. The two full suites each with its own full bathroom, one in the front and one in the back separated by the kitchen/dining/living room feels closer to a house to me. We got to see model for sale a few weeks ago and I was impressed. You will need a 1 ton dually to pull it since it comes in at 16,000lbs.