National Tropi-Cal - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Merikay · RV-Dreams Family Member

National Tropi-Cal

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just keep in mind that National went out of business so you would be buying an "orphan" brand. That means no factory support or parts if something serious goes wrong with the portions of the RV that were manufactured by National. Other components like the chassis, appliances, furnace, A/C, etc. are made by a separate supplier so you'd have backup from them if that individual part went bad.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Older National Tropi-Cal's were gas rigs and were the upscale version of the Dolphin, then they changed their mind and called it a "Dolphin LX" instead. Around 2003 or 2004 National put out a Tropi-cal that was a diesel. The gas ones were good RVs with decent carrying capacity, the diesels often had only about 1,000lbs of carrying capacity.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
Older National Tropi-Cal's were gas rigs and were the upscale version of the Dolphin, then they changed their mind and called it a "Dolphin LX" instead. Around 2003 or 2004 National put out a Tropi-cal that was a diesel. The gas ones were good RVs with decent carrying capacity, the diesels often had only about 1,000lbs of carrying capacity.

Dang Bill... You sure know your RVs! Any insight on a 2007 Monaco Dynasty?

Merikay · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you for the input. I did a test drive and it drove like a dream! The turn radius was unbelievable, but as my husband pointed out it was the first diesel I have driven and compared to the gassers they do drive better.

But alas, there were some other things bout it that wern't up to snuff and we decided not to make an offer on it.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I used to own a National RV Dolphin and was in an owner's club so I know a fair amount about their products. The Tropi-cal diesel was not a favorite. Monaco Dynasty's are high end rigs and normally quite good. My in-laws have a 2001 they bought new and are still happy with.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Bill!

We've seen some Newmars we like as well. Now we just need to figure how to afford the transition from our 5th wheel.

Marikay, great that you got to drive it. Good to have something to compare to as you look at other ones.
Good luck in your search!