Buying a 2013 COUGAR 244RLSWE tomorrow?

[Marty - Eureka]

It's time to retire our 89 27 foot Alpenlite fifth wheel, so have spent a couple of months of on-line shopping. We had hoped to drop down a couple of feet, as we have had trouble getting to some of the places we like to boondock. But found that most manufactures had dropped the short 5ths and we didn't care for the few that are left.

We are looking at a 2013 Cougar 244RLSWE tomorrow as the closest to what we want. It was a contest between the Cougar or Heartlands Sundance SD XLT 245RL. I had been leading toward the Heartland because of the positive reports in the Heartland forum of owners dealing directly with the company. Want to install solar panels, call Heartland and they would sent diagrams showing the ribs in the roof, order parts direct from the factory, etc. But the nearest ones we could look at were six hours north or south of us, as the dealer three hours away didn't have any in stock.

There were several features we preferred in the Cougar, though my wife claims it was the option of me having another remote control that finalized the deal. Actually it was the last $1400 they took off for being the last trailer of the model year.

Our TV is a 2013 Ford F350, 6.7 diesel 4X4, long bed with a B&W Companion hitch matched to the Ford fifth wheel/gooseneck prep. That should be able to handle the 10070# GVWR trailer.