What's the difference between East and West models?

[svanarts]

Keystone seems to make two flavors of trailer; East and West. In a few cases, the West Edition is lighter. Does anyone know what the key differences are? Why would the West Editions be lighter in some cases?

[hankaye]

svanarts, Howdy;

Originally Posted by svanarts

Keystone seems to make two flavors of trailer; East and West. In a few cases, the West Edition is lighter. Does anyone know what the key differences are? Why would the West Editions be lighter in some cases?

Altitude ??? Not as much leftover construction waste stuffed into belly,
roof, heat or air conditioner ducts ??? Just a few wild guesses.

hankaye

[bmach]

One is left handed for the west coast and the other is righted for the east coast?

[KSH]

Probably insulation

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[TandE]

By looking at their website one big difference is tank sizes. The western ones are usually bigger but not on all models. As to why the weights are different who knows.


Travis

[svanarts]

I have an email in to Keystone. I'll report back what they say.

Personally the theory that they leave less junk in the underbelly makes the most sense to me.

[Artizu]

West coast is normally made as a 4 season trailer. Heated under carriage to allow cold weather camping. At least this is what I was told when talking to a Keystone dealer.

[Festus2]

Originally Posted by Artizu

West coast is normally made as a 4 season trailer. Heated under carriage to allow cold weather camping. At least this is what I was told when talking to a Keystone dealer.

I have an '08 Cougar (278RKS West Coast edition) and I certainly wouldn't describe it as being "4 season". Both the East and West coast editions of this 5th wheel have "heated underbelly's" but that is a real stretch in both cases. The winter temperatures in the East are just as cold if not colder than many areas of the west coast during the winter so your dealer's explanation doesn't seem to make much sense. There is, BTW, no East Coast 278RKS for that year.

If you look at a 2015 Cougar 333MKS, the specs and floor plans for both the East and West Coast models are identical. However the 2015 Cougar 327RES have slightly different specs for: shipping weight, carrying capacity, hitch weight and length. Their floor plans appear to be identical.

I don't know what the differences are between East and West Coast units but there doesn't seem to be any pattern to them. In most cases the holding tank capacities are the same.

It will be interesting to hear what Keystone's answer is to svanarts' question when asked to explain the differences between the two.

[TandE]

I wouldn't be be surprised if the difference in weight is just how the two plants weigh and construct them. Keystone probably just says hey here's the new floor plan build it and each does it. When all said and done it could just be one uses less material to get by to make the trailer look like it's complete but isn't, could be the scales are not the same or how they weigh them is slightly different. There are so many variables it could be and I too am curious as to what they say but have a feeling you will get a generic answer to that question as they may not even know themselves. In their mind the same floor plan should be the same weight as construction methods are probably the same and the product is also usually the same.

If it's anything like my work once you get past the floor manager and then the senior manager the other higher ups do not have a clue as to what is going on they just want to see a product reach a certain stage at a certain timeframe.

Again my opinion but still curious to know what they say.


Travis

[Alpine]

I would venture to say if you ask three different Keystone reps...you would get three different answers!

Love our Alpine and have been pretty much problem free (knocks on wood)!

Speaking of insulation...I dropped the colorplast on the front part of the fiver to have a look see, and found a 8' x 8' two inch thick white insulation pad that was folded in half...too busy to unfold it at the factory I presume!

We have been in the teens tempature wise and have not frozen up! Keeping the furnace on it the key as there is duct-work from the furnace that was installed properly.

[svanarts]

TandE hit closest to the mark. Here is the answer from Keystone:

"Great question. There are many similarities between our E and W editions. We have a lot of the same floorplans between the two in the same brand and a lot of the same construction. That said, weight differences play a factor because we do switch up the amenities to keep material shipping costs down. For instance, we offer solid surface countertops in the E Cougar units, but not in the W. There are other instances like this such as leaving out the front cap in the W solely for shipping reasons. Other than that, the W plant does have the option to switch up floorplans and alter the units as they see fit. Having this plant in Pendleton, OR also allows a handful of our brands to keep shipping costs down to the west coast. That all said, you can order an Eastern edition unit through a dealer out west, they will just be harder to find on dealers lots. Please let me know if you have any questions."