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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
  
| Good & bad?? Looking at an 05 with a 10 ft sw. How are they made quality wise? I know they are heavier than some brands of the same size. I tried to find past threads, but nothing came up. |
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| My mother in law has a 2008 with full LQ, and it's pretty dang heavy. The trailer itself is nice; some cosmetic things but structural wise it seems fine....She's had no issues with it and we used it an entire summer and didn't have problems with it. You're not going to find them as nice as Platinum, Elite, 4 Star, etc. but I think their value is fair for what they are. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| I would like one of the better brands but i cant give up my arm, leg, and my big toe! lol
eta, I have found some ones that were in my price range but then they are 15 hours away from me and sold before i could even drive that far. :(
Edited by horsiace1025 2016-03-10 9:33 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
| horsiace1025 - 2016-03-10 9:31 AM I would like one of the better brands but i cant give up my arm, leg, and my big toe! lol eta, I have found some ones that were in my price range but then they are 15 hours away from me and sold before i could even drive that far. :(
You don't have to justify liking a Sundowner. I mean if it is sound and pulls nicely what's the problem? Not everyone can or wants to spend a house payment on a trailer every month. I know it seems a lot of the non platinum, bloomer, etc get talked down on here but c'mon a nice used Sundowner is a lot more than some people have.
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Expert
Posts: 1477
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | We couldn't afford anything in the Platinum and Elite catigories. We had a older Featherlight that we outgrew. We bought a 2013 Sundowner that a lady had to sell or the bank was about to get it. We got a $60,000 for $30,000. It's not the same quality at the bigger name brand trailers but it's not horrible either. We have had no problems with it what so ever. Our last package looks just as good as any of the others just doesn't have the name brand with it. We love ours. The older ones are heavy though because they have a steel frame so that's something to check. The newer ones like ours are all aluminum but I'm not sure the exact years they started the all aluminum. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| This one is all alluminum. To me Sundowners are nice trailers. I am not one of those "have to buy platinum, elite, or 4star" ppl but I do want good quality just because I intend to keep said trailer for a long time. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1479
Location: rabbit run | I bought a 2000 Sundowner 3 years ago and I love it. It replaced a '95 steel one that I had for 15 years. I have been totally satisfied with the quality of both of them and I have no payment so I can enjoy my horses and go where I want. Any trailer that has a 10 or 12 foot living quarters is going to be heavy.
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Duct Tape Bikini Girl
Posts: 2554
| I have an '04 I bought new that has met my needs. It is a loaded 3H, slant gooseneck that has everything on it. Nothing has fallen apart on it yet. Sundowner almost went out of business a few years back, but hung on by changing up quite a bit and lowering their prices. They are a much less expensive trailer now. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one of the older models, but I don't care for the changes made on the new ones. |
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Duct Tape Bikini Girl
Posts: 2554
| Oh, and I'd like to add, mine doesn't have a LQ, just a dressing room with an AC. As far as I'm concerned, the quality of a LQ trailer has just as much to do with WHO did the conversion as much as the brand of the trailer. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I had a 99/2000 Sundowner I bought new that was a good solid trailer. It held up well, was safe, pulled good, and I only had to do some minor repairs over the years. It wasn't as nice as what I have now, but there was nothing wrong with it. It was way better than the Featherlite I had before it. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | I have a 2015 Sundowner 4H w/slide and 20' short wall. It is aluminum. This is our second one after a Platinum in between. Very happy with this Sundowner cause we ordered it the way we wanted it.  |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | I have one, and I like it. No LQ on the one I have. It's an older trailer. During some of the year ranges, sundowner frames had a rust problem. I'm not sure if the year model trailer you're looking at was in that year range or not. If you live in an area where they salt the ice off of the roads, you need to crawl under it and take a look at the frame (should do that anyway, but especially since it was a problem with that manufacturer in the past). What you're looking for is the coating of paint coming off of the metal in big-ish flakes (hope that makes sense) and bad rust on the metal. |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
Location: Jersey Girl | I think they are overpriced. Never personally owned one but know a few friends that have because there is a Sundowner dealer in my area. Seems there are always things going wrong like switches and latches. One even had problems with the frame. |
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Member
Posts: 32
| Sundowner has been around a long time. I think they are a better trailer then like Bison or Lakota's. Before I bought mine I had looked at some but they did not have a LQ package that I liked. I wanted one that was ready and not have to order. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3534
Location: Stuck in a cubicle having tropical thoughts | I think you'll be happy with the Sundowner. We had a 2003, 3 horse with dressing room that I wish we'd never had sold. The horses rode great in it and we had zero problems with it.
My mom wanted a LQ sooooo bad but couldn't afford one so with my credit when I was still living at home, she insisted on trading the 3horse Sundowner for a 2006 4horse Exiss with weekender brand new (using my name and my credit to get it). I hated that Exiss and it only got camped in maybe 3 or 4 times in a 6 year period.
When I got married and we moved and had to get our own, I used the Exiss to trade in for a used 2007 Elite 3 horse with weekender and I bought my mom out of her share of the Exiss and we got her a 1992 Sooner. Her Sooner, even being that old is nicer quality than the Exiss was.
I think the Sundowner is right at the top of the mid grade trailers. My Elite is way nicer than the Sundowner and things are heavier duty in the Elite than the Sundowner, like the latches, the bars on the windows, the welds, the wiring and lights, etc, but the Sundower was way nicer than the Exiss. The Exiss dividers were thin and floppy and if a horse had a fit in there, pads were ripped and metal was dented. My dad was always fixing wiring problems on the Exiss. On the Exiss the windows were floppy and welds would break and the drop bars were light as a feather.
I don't remember having any problems with the Sundowner.
The one thing I liked about the Sundower was all the padding in the horse area. My Elite has a lot of padding also. I also love the saddle rack in the Sundowner and how they turn out.
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 A very grounded girl
Posts: 5052
Location: Moving soon..... | I sold my big LQ trailer and found a 2006 2-horse GN Warmblood. I really didn't need the height, but this is a good pulling trailer and I can get into places I never could before. Very handy. |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | I've had 2 sundowners, an Elite and now a Platinum. Sounds like it's not popular, but I really liked my 2004 4 horse Sundowner! I wish I had it back now as a run-around trailer; it was in mint condition and I sold it too cheap. The other sundowner I had was a 94 steel 3 horse BP, and that one was really nice, too. I found them to be very sound structurally; no problems with either and had a good, safe design. |
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