Moving to a 5th Wheel

[FootSoldier]

The wife and I are looking down the road a little at a time when neither of us will have to go to work. The thought is to buy a new/newer 3/4 ton diesel truck to pull a 5th wheel trailer.

We won't be full-timers, but there's a lot of this great country we want to go see. I'm thinking 33-34' max, with a budget of $60k max for the trailer. We don't need luxury, but we do want convenience.

We've been camping in a Rockwood Roo 23SS since 2013. We love the little trailer, but I am nearing 69 and don't want a workout just setting up camp.

Like everyone else, I want our $$ to go toward quality and am trying to figure out if there are brands we should head toward or brands we should head away from? Or, are they really all the same in our price range?

At the moment, based on pics and floor plans, I lean toward the Rockwood Ultra Lite 2881S at 33'. I prefer no slides on the door side and the biggest awning we can get.

What about buying something? Where's the best places to search? We bought our 23SS online and had it delivered from Ohio for $2-3k less than we could buy it locally.

Please chime in and help educate me?

Thanks for any help!

[StirCrazy]

cptqueeg wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:


snip....

to the original poster, I have a 1 ton single rear wheel and I have 4500Lbs of payload but that is a specal order payload package and hard to find. if you dont mined driving a dualy then just buy one and you can towany 5th you find, but at least get a 1 ton over a 3/4 ton. you might find somthing thats in the capacity of the 3/4 ton but the extra stifness in the 1 ton is worth its weight in gold. plus up here 1 ton trucks are cheeper than 3/4 when you buy new as they are exempt the luxery tax.

Steve

Steve,

What's the "special order payload package"? And which brand offers it? I'd like to order one, it would be $$$ cheaper than replacing DRW w super single.


Thanks,

Paul

for my year the f350 had a stangard 11000lbs GVR on it, with a package that would be upped to 11500lbs. I am not sure what else was in the package but you did have to go with the 20" wheels for it. just have to look at all the different GVW's for that year of truck and see which option had the highest. they might call it a camper special or camper package, or somthing else all togeather.

Steve

[FootSoldier]

przao wrote:
I'm pushing 67 this year and am always looking for something really new and revolutionary in the RV industry. Sadly I have not found anything that is a fit for me that is better what I have.

As far as my fiver, I'm in a Rockwood Signature Ultralight 8288SS, and it is simple to set up solo with no problem whatsoever. One of the biggest advantages of that particular unit for me is that it has dual opposing slides which makes the inside of the rig really large and spacious feeling. The opposing slides in a rear living arrangement is the most important thing for me these days - large windows for view in the parks I favor, which are mostly backing up to the water on the coastline.

As to truck, I'm using a 6.7L 3500 Cummins (not that truck brand matters), but I'm fond of having a large heavy powerful truck (way overkill for my 8k dry trailer). I barely feel the rig behind me and average a reasonable 12mpg.

I guess the take home lesson is that everyone will have their own idea of the "perfect" truck/rig combination. Ask yourself the important questions like internal trailer space including layout (many of the rigs we see have the television 90 degrees from the seats which makes for a sore neck at the end of the day), comfort towing without experiencing semi blow-by, etc.

Thanks for sharing!

We won't be full-timing and I need to be able to get the truck into the garage. I also don't want to drive a DRW rig all the time I'm not towing. The garage and personal preference is pushing me toward the SB. Hoping to get a little bit of fuel mileage with it, is making me lean to the 3/4 ton. This is all far from cut and dried. If I had more garage, I might consider more truck.

[przao]

I'm pushing 67 this year and am always looking for something really new and revolutionary in the RV industry. Sadly I have not found anything that is a fit for me that is better what I have.

As far as my fiver, I'm in a Rockwood Signature Ultralight 8288SS, and it is simple to set up solo with no problem whatsoever. One of the biggest advantages of that particular unit for me is that it has dual opposing slides which makes the inside of the rig really large and spacious feeling. The opposing slides in a rear living arrangement is the most important thing for me these days - large windows for view in the parks I favor, which are mostly backing up to the water on the coastline.

As to truck, I'm using a 6.7L 3500 Cummins (not that truck brand matters), but I'm fond of having a large heavy powerful truck (way overkill for my 8k dry trailer). I barely feel the rig behind me and average a reasonable 12mpg.

I guess the take home lesson is that everyone will have their own idea of the "perfect" truck/rig combination. Ask yourself the important questions like internal trailer space including layout (many of the rigs we see have the television 90 degrees from the seats which makes for a sore neck at the end of the day), comfort towing without experiencing semi blow-by, etc.

[Cummins12V98]

philh wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

You will really like it. I have a 30" front to back bed height tool box and still have room for "STUFF".

No reason to compromise unless you have a short garage. 😉

No garage, although my parking place is going to be tight with 8' bed

Tight is good.

[philh]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

You will really like it. I have a 30" front to back bed height tool box and still have room for "STUFF".

No reason to compromise unless you have a short garage. 😉

No garage, although my parking place is going to be tight with 8' bed

[philh]

cptqueeg wrote:
Steve,

What's the "special order payload package"? And which brand offers it? I'd like to order one, it would be $$$ cheaper than replacing DRW w super single.


Thanks,

Paul

F150 & F250 have the ability to upsize payload and tow capacity to higher levels.

[cptqueeg]

StirCrazy wrote:


snip....

to the original poster, I have a 1 ton single rear wheel and I have 4500Lbs of payload but that is a specal order payload package and hard to find. if you dont mined driving a dualy then just buy one and you can towany 5th you find, but at least get a 1 ton over a 3/4 ton. you might find somthing thats in the capacity of the 3/4 ton but the extra stifness in the 1 ton is worth its weight in gold. plus up here 1 ton trucks are cheeper than 3/4 when you buy new as they are exempt the luxery tax.

Steve

Steve,

What's the "special order payload package"? And which brand offers it? I'd like to order one, it would be $$$ cheaper than replacing DRW w super single.


Thanks,

Paul

[Cummins12V98]

I would park outside before owning a short bed truck.

[FootSoldier]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

philh wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

philh wrote:
Similar boat, sold our TT this spring. Ordered an Arctic Fox 27-5L and F350D crew cab, 8' bed

Good call on the 8' bed. 😉

I was looking at how far my 6.5 bed was sticking out into the aisle in a crowded parking lot, questioning 8' bed. Capacity isn't an issue, but that extra space will be good for loading more junk in the bed.

Lets just hope I get it some day 😞 5er is definitely coming sooner than the truck.

No reason to compromise unless you have a short garage. 😉

Bingo! My problem exactly. The short bed crew cab is going to be a squeeze, and I'd rather have the extra cab, than extra bed.

[Cummins12V98]

philh wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

philh wrote:
Similar boat, sold our TT this spring. Ordered an Arctic Fox 27-5L and F350D crew cab, 8' bed

Good call on the 8' bed. 😉

I was looking at how far my 6.5 bed was sticking out into the aisle in a crowded parking lot, questioning 8' bed. Capacity isn't an issue, but that extra space will be good for loading more junk in the bed.

Lets just hope I get it some day 😞 5er is definitely coming sooner than the truck.

You will really like it. I have a 30" front to back bed height tool box and still have room for "STUFF".

No reason to compromise unless you have a short garage. 😉

[philh]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

philh wrote:
Similar boat, sold our TT this spring. Ordered an Arctic Fox 27-5L and F350D crew cab, 8' bed

Good call on the 8' bed. 😉

I was looking at how far my 6.5 bed was sticking out into the aisle in a crowded parking lot, questioning 8' bed. Capacity isn't an issue, but that extra space will be good for loading more junk in the bed.

Lets just hope I get it some day 😞 5er is definitely coming sooner than the truck.

[Cummins12V98]

philh wrote:
Similar boat, sold our TT this spring. Ordered an Arctic Fox 27-5L and F350D crew cab, 8' bed

Good call on the 8' bed. 😉

[philh]

Similar boat, sold our TT this spring. Ordered an Arctic Fox 27-5L and F350D crew cab, 8' bed

[StirCrazy]

FootSoldier wrote:
I've been reading and trying to get on top of all the important aspects of our consideration, and I've been trying to keep my head because some of the 5th wheel trailers out there are so beautiful and easy to fall in love with. LOL!

Think we've solved the storage problem and will be able to keep the unit here at the house. We're going to build a covered parking spot out 30' or so feet from the house.

I really want to be able to garage park the truck and that is going to limit me to a crew cab/short bed truck. As to weight rating, that's what I need to know that I understand correctly?

Right now, my leading contenders for a truck/trailer combination is posted at 12,995 lbs GVWR for the trailer and the truck is listed at 11,300 lbs GVWR, with a GCWR capacity of 27,500. If I am correctly understanding, the total GCW of the rig would be 24,295 and be 3,205 lbs under the max rating of the truck.

My question; is running at 89% of GVCW rating too close to the safety line?

I would greatly prefer to own the 3/4 ton truck and have the trailer be under 35', both of the leading contenders meet those preferences.

As for love, the KZ Durango 301RLT has really caught my eye. Not too big, not too fancy, not too expensive, and just plain beautiful in my eyes. LOL! Maybe I'm already hooked?

Combined GVWR is kind of a useless rating, what will matter for you is the payload capacity which you wont know exactly untill you have the truck and can scale it with a full tank of gas and the people normaly in the truck when you go camping. then you subtract this from the truck GVRW and you have how much more weight you can add to the truck overall. but you still need to get the axel ratings and what they weight also.

for example my numbers for my truck are

GVWR 11500lbs
front axels max 5600LBS
rear axels max 7000lbs

emptry measurements with full gas and me are

front 5093lbs
rear 3483lbs

measured with 5th hooked up full fresh water and gas and the crew

front 5093lbs
rear 6117lbs
trailer 9326 lbs

so my hitch weight was listed as 2100lbs but in reality it came in at 2634lbs but the important thing is my rear axel can still handle 883 lbs so I have room if I decive to put firewood or somthing else in there.

Steve