When I emailed the owner of the Open Range 399BHS my Option to Purchase, I really expected that it would be returned to me, signed, within a couple of hours. Wrong! Tuesday ended without a reply, then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We were beginning to wonder if that 399BHS would be ours after all.
On Saturday of that week Jett and I were scheduled to visit her sister at her beautiful cottage on Lucas Pond in Northwood, NH. Jett had also arranged a visit to Saddleback Campground, a small RV park just over a mile from the pond. Our plans had evolved to include a summer in New Hampshire and Saddleback was the obvious place to put the RV for the season. We thought a summer near home had a lot of advantages:
- It would allow us to ease into the rhythm of RV living and to learn about the RV without the pressure of setting up/tearing down every couple of days.
- We could take our time figuring out what to take with us.
- It gave us the option of renting our house as early as June as Northwood would be close enough to commute to my job.
- It would give us a great home base for an extended visit from Jett’s grandkids.
- It would give Jett – who would be retiring at the end of June – an opportunity to spend a couple of months with her sisters before an extended separation from them.
And since we weren’t due at Saddleback until 1pm and Camper’s Inn wasn’t far out of the way, why not stop in and see what they had on their lot? They were having a big fall sale, so if nothing else we would get a free hot dog and soda. Besides, we just didn’t know if our Option to Purchase was going to be returned at all. Had the 399BHS owner found another buyer? Was he making us nervous in hopes of getting a better deal? We figured that keeping our eyes open for other RVs would be wise.
So we arrived at Camper’s Inn just before noon and were treated to the promised hot dog and soda. Chips, too. Then we wandered around the lot, looking at used fifth wheels. We saw some very nice units, but no Open Range 399BHS and nothing that convinced us that the 399BHS wasn’t the best choice for us. Then we sat down with Ron, the ever-helpful Camper’s Inn sales guy, who dutifully wrote down our revised criteria and said he would keep his eyes open. But then he suggested that we take a look at a new fifth wheel that had just arrived recently – a 2012 Dutchman Komfort 3050FBH. It had, he said, all of the things that were on our list and more. And at a list price of $49,000 it was not wildly out of our budget scope.
So we took a look.
And fell in love.
Dutchman Komfort 3050FBH
It did, indeed, have everything we were looking for: a spacious private bath, the half-bath in the bunk house, washer/dryer hookups, quality construction and ample storage.
And some things the 399BHS did not have: a walk-in closet (awesome!), a recessed shower floor that worked as a bathtub (very nice!) and that outdoor kitchen that still seemed like it could be a really nice feature. Of course, it helped that we were shown the unit by a representative of the Dutchman company who was justifiably proud of this new design and was able to show us details that a less knowledgeable sales person might have missed. And while the Komfort may have been slightly smaller than the Open Range due to having fewer slideouts, the living area struck me as being more comfortable.
Komfort 3050FBH Floor Plan
How much did we like it? Enough to sign a contract to purchase it for $49,000. Of course we knew that we had 3 days to cancel the contract, which gave us time to think.
So we drove to Northwood and our appointment at Saddleback with a purchase contract for a Dutchman in our pocket and an option to purchase an Open Range pending. We now had two very distinct options for two very nice coaches.
His-and-hers RVs?