MIDDLEBURY, Ind. — At the two-day Sneak Peek event that concludes today, Forest River has unveiled the Teleos, a new line of highly-stylized premium travel trailers that officials said would fill a hole in Forest River’s overall lineup.
With northern Indiana locations in Elkhart, Middlebury and LaGrange, the Forest River Sneak Peek features some 200-plus 2027 model year units on display for registered dealers to review and order. While just several years old, the Sneak Peek event has grown every year.
Two Teleos prototypes are on display, one at the Sneak Peak location in Elkhart, and the other at Coachmen’s campus in Middlebury.
General Manager Mike Gaeddert said the Teleos came about after recognizing Forest River didn’t have an entry in the premium travel trailer market. With guidance from Todd Lozier, Forest River’s corporate engineer, Gaeddert and Coachmen Engineer Joey Gould set about designing something unlike anything else in the RV industry.
And, at first glance, it’s very apparent the Teleos is not like other travel trailers. Perhaps most noticeably are the front and rear caps of the 28-foot display units — the box measures 24 feet, 8 inches — which are more reminiscent of a high-end Class A motorhome, with the European-leaning rear cap even featuring reverse lights and a third brake light.
Many of the other defining aspects of the Teleos are found in its materials, construction and other things you don’t see.
For example, the all-composite roof, sidewalls and floor are 3-pound foam polyfiber composite construction that offers a superior insulation value compared to a standard travel trailer. In fact, the Teleos does not have any slideouts for that same insulation value.
The Teleos employs the Truma Saphir underbunk air conditioner/heating system to limit the roof cutouts to only the holding tank vents. Truma’s on-demand tankless Combi Plus water heater is another Teleos component worth mentioning, as are the suite of GE Profile appliances, contemporary five-ply cabinetry from Genesis Products featuring “twist-and-lock” construction, Triple M porcelain countertops with a hidden InvisaCook induction cooktop, and BAL RV Products for the chassis, independent suspension and leveling system.
Another Teleos differentiator is it does not use PEX for its plumbing system. Instead, all “water pipes” are expandable woven lines capable of freezing and expanding without cracking the fittings. Also, each piece is listed under its own part number, thus making troubleshooting and repair much easier.
In addition, the Teleos uses the EcoFlow Generation 2 for its power system, which provides full off-road capability supplying 800 amp-hours. Running strictly on DC power, the Teleos has over two days of battery power. On AC current, the air conditioner can run for a full 12 hours straight on a single charge.
“As we really got going on this project, the fundamental operating question was, ‘What does the best RV look like?” said Gaeddert, who oversees the Teleos line in addition to the Coachmen Catalina, Aurora, Clipper and Viking brands.
“And we’re not asking that in some generic way,” he continued. “It’s just generally a challenging question to engineering. I am 5% involved in this. I’m good for the colors and picking out some stuff that looks pretty. But really this is an engineering product and it has been driven by engineering. This has been driven by Joey Gould and Todd Lozier. And, really, Joey took the bull by the horns and has ran with it. I call him mad scientist, because on concept one he talked about the endoskeleton, the exoskeleton, I’d go pop in to see progress and I see him cutting angle iron with a chopped saw and he’s covered in stuff all over. This has been his baby from when that very first frame came in until it hits the production line.”
For his part, Gould told RVBusiness that the Teleos project was about as much fun as he’s had in a long while.
“Oh my gosh, yes,” he said. “Probably about a month ago, I stopped by to see Mike at the end of the day, probably about 4 o’clock in the afternoon just to thank him for the opportunity to get to do this.
The fact that the Teleos is a break from the industry norm is not lost on either Gaeddert or Gould.
“What if we do revolutionize the industry? What if we do?” Gould said. “I mean, nobody else does a composite unit this big. So, what if we do revolutionize the industry? I mean, how exciting is that right there? One thing I don’t want to do is I don’t ever want to copy anybody. So, what if we are the ones that blaze this path? How exciting could that be right there? I mean, to me, that’s unbelievable.”
The Teleos MSRP is expected to range between $75,000-$90,000, depending on options. As such, it will appeal to what Gaeddert described as a “very intentional buyer.”
“They’re somewhat experienced in the industry. They’re also very well researched,” Gaeddert told RVBusiness. “I do think there is a number of people out there that spend — especially on a purchase of this size — a considerable amount of time in research. And they’ll appreciate the depth of thought that we put into this product and the intentional decisions on every layer.
“It didn’t matter if it was, ‘Hey, linoleum is not acceptable. What else can we do?’ ‘The current plumbing system is not acceptable. What else can we do?’” he continued. “There are going to be buyers who appreciate that. And we don’t think it stops in the high-end market. We’ve got some future plans, should the proof-of-concept work, that this is a better RV than what’s built today.”
Teleos will make its consumer debut at America’s Largest RV Show, taking place Sept. 16-20 at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. Gaeddert said it will debut with four to six floorplans and production will begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
Dealer territories will be generous, he added, and production will be limited.
“This isn’t one our dealers are going to stock 20 of, and we don’t want them to stock 20 of them. We’re going to very much build to demand,” he said. “The last thing we want on this product is to get into an over-supply situation where there’s more out there than there is demand. So, I think it’s very important from our side to control production numbers relative to where demand is.”
Teleos is a Greek word that loosely translates as “fulfillment” — although Gaeddert and Gould both said to them Teleos will never be complete. They will always pursue that fulfillment, so Teleos will always be improving.
“This is an ever-evolving product,” Gaeddert said. “We’re going to learn and continue to improve upon it, but always with that goal of reaching that destination and that completion and answering that question. I see it almost as this living organism in my head where we’re in the pursuit of reaching that final destination and answering that question.”
