SOLITAIRE VS FLEETWOOD

[KAT]

I AM LOOKING AT TWO MOBILE HOMES A 1995 SOLITAIRE AND A 1996 FLEETWOOD. COULD SOMEONE TELL ME WHICH ON IS THE BETTER HOME. I HAVE TWO SMALL CHILDREN AND WORRY ABOUT SAFETY.

[Madeline]

Just from what I've been reading over the past several months on this website, I would say Go With The Schult. Fleetwood has a zillion floorplans that all look great, but I gather - just from the postings at this site - that Fleetwood standard construction is not all that great - that in order to get a really well-constructed home, you have to pay for a lot of upgrades. I think Schult has been around for decades and they have a good reputation, but maybe Mr. Murray could enlighten us. He's very knowledgeable.

Good luck!

[J. Snoop]

Kat,
Take a look at the Solitaire closely. Look under the floor, it's constructed with grid work 2x3 every 16" o.c. across the 2x6 floor joists 16" o.c. with plywood over the floor joists this gives it a very solid gridwork floor. Solitaire wraps their homes with plywood and hardboard siding over their homes,2X6 sidewalls and totally tape and textured thru out , real wood cabinets, blackfelt paper under the shingles not paper, one piece tub and shower stalls. Now could Fleetwood match that! Fleetwood is a junk in the Texas, and the midwestern states that make the Fleetwood homes. Stay away from them.

[Thornburg]

I agree, Fleetwood is junk. Six months after purchasing a brand new Fleetwood, the roof started leaking. It didn't just leak, it leaked into the kitchen light fixture, the light would FILL UP with water, then overflow into the floor everytime it rained. It made 3 electrical plug-ins in the kitchen quit working. Fleetwood claimed they couldn't understand why I thought this might be dangerous. They went on roof and put some "Bull" on it. It quit leaking there, but now is leaking in several other places, enough to cause the ceiling to start sagging. It's just a matter of time before it works its' way through and ceiling falls. I'm sure it's got rot and mold all through the basic structure, that you can't see. It's now been nearly 4 YEARS & still not fixed. Everytime someone comes to inspect or fix, they're real nice & say they're going to help us, but it's all empty promises.

[Wayne]

Check that - They USED to use tar paper on the roof. Not any more according a Solitaire sales manager in Albuquerque. But.... Solitaire still is one of the better mde homes that I found out there. The only one that I personally saw that uses 1/2 " plywood for flooring as a standard and with their "Platinum" pkg., you get a plywood wrap around the ext. walls (not standard, mind you).
Some of the things that Solitatire doesnt do that I found out of place -
They don't have separate turn offs under the sinks. They use "porcelain" sinks. They look like plastic, but their not. I'm not sure just how nice they are, but I guess they're better than plastic.(?)
They are also very, very restrictive on options/changes. I guess that's how they keep they're costs down on a quality MH. Compare to Karsten, which is probably slightly better built (except for flooring (part. bd.)) and the Solitaire is a better deal.

I get my home in September, so I'll update then on the service I receive.