Sue, if you do a search on here you will find previous discussions about layouts and what is important to have and look for.  I have spent the past year trying to narrow down what will work for us and I am glad to say I have finally found "it"!  My DH and I were also considering a front living room at one point in time.  But, while doing my research, someone on this board mentioned that they have been full-timing for a while and the view out their back window has always been so wonderful; HOWEVER, they did not want to have to sit on the edge of their bed to enjoy that view.  So, something to think about.

Also, something else to note... make sure you can get to the refrigerator, bathroom (especially), and then your bed (not quite as important as the former two) when your slides are in.  When traveling and you need to make a 'pit' stop, you need to get to your bathroom without having to pull out the slides.  Same for the fridge.

Good luck in your search.  Don't get in a hurry, whatever you do!  It's a process that can take a long, long time.  Again, it has taken me an entire year!

P.S.  Don't forget structure, structure, structure... especially if you will be FTing.

Best wishes!

-- Edited by Mary Sunshine on Wednesday 6th of March 2013 01:27:03 PM

Many manufacturers are now making front Living 5th Wheel Floor Plans.
Crossroads Rushmore, Jayco Pinnacle, Open Range, Keystone Montanna, KZ Durango, Redwood RV, just to name a few.

Crossroads new Rushmore and the Open Range Front Living 5th Wheels have a Front Cap Window, something different from the others.

-- Edited by Rob_Fla on Wednesday 6th of March 2013 05:16:08 PM

DW and I were impressed with the 3850 model. The front living room is very nice, but I wonder if I would be able to stand up and not hit my head on the ceiling. The kitchen & counter space looked small. We liked the 2nd door on the other side of the rig. I'm guessing that with the slides in you can't do much inside the rig, hence the 2nd door. But over-all we liked what we saw in the pictures and video. Thanks for sharing.

I have to agree with Racerguy.  I wanted a very specic floorplan based on the way we wanted to live in the unit.  I found the exact floorplan that I wanted & you can't get to the bathroom or the fridge when the slides are in.  But we spend a lot more time living in the unit than we do driving it, so it's a tradeoff we were willing to make.  For us, accessing the bathroom & fridge while travelling would have been nice to have but not absolutely necessary. 

DRV announced last year that their Traditions line would have a front living floor plan, so you might check them out as well.

We looked at a few with the front living area, felt like we lost a lot of basement storage, smaller kitchen and the kitchen was almost always a "walk thru" arrangement. Seems like they had less counterspace/cupboards than other floor plans in the kitchen area. When we were looking we didn't see any with the kitchen arrangement that had a big enough fridge for full timing, but that was just our experience.

However, the rear view window view is not something that would stop me from buying a front living area. While I understand there are some great camp sites with wonderful views out the rear window, I think that's a "it depends" on where you are. In western OR/WA, if it's a back in site, I generally find the view out the rear window is a bunch of trees. Not that I object to trees, but it seems like the view, if there is one, is out the side windows. There are also those campgrounds where the view out of the back is the back of another RV, not exactly the scenic view pictured in the brochures.

IMO one of the best options in this lifestyle is the view, if you don't like it, you can always move!! And of course, knowing where your windows are, helps you pick the best campsite from the ones available when you enter a campground.

Just as a thought on the Redwood.  Be sure and check to see what their frames are like now.  When I researched them some time back, the "main" frame was made of 12" I-beam metal, but the "drop frame" was only a 10" frame.  The drop frame is that section that sits under the basement area.  My concern, perhaps unjustified, is that I would be concerned with the forces applied to that section of frame with the normal "bounce" of a trailer going down the road.  After all, that is between the axles and the pin box.

As for the walk through area when the slides are in, we feel the same in that we spend more time in the trailer with the slides out instead of when traveling.  Our bathroom stops are usually made at truck stops or stores with large parking lots.  In fact, a while back when I had a stomach virus and had to get up every 30 minutes to use the bathroom both with diarrea and vomiting, I even got to a point of nearly passing out.  With our side bathroom, I had plenty of room to lie down to help avoid passing out.  Otherwise, I would have been blocking a "hallway."

Terry

Heartland has a Bighorn with a front living room/rear bedroom floorplan, the 3855FL.

The only problem I can see with a front living plan is painful knees. The fewer times I have to go up and down steps the better. I travel between the living, kitchen, and bath more than to the bedroom.

One of our most memorable experiences was sitting in our rear living room Cameo, hanging out over the water at Boyd's, in the Florida Keys. So we are really partial to the rear view arrangement. We also have enjoyed the glow of the sunrise from the bedroom windows. A lot of your viewing will be when you are outside anyway. Just get the floor plan that you feel most comfortable with. Also, we stand with the group that want to be able to access the bathroom with the slides in. Pat K

i'm afraid you're right about the truck and we know we may have to move into somehting bigger depending upon the rig we end up with. it's only money, right!?

Regardless of axle ratio, you will probably find that you have a GCWR (gross combined weight rating) of 20,000lb. That is Ford's recommended maximum total weight of truck and trailer.

Now I'm not here to say that you can't or shouldn't load up the truck more than that. You'll find that your truck probably weighs around 8,000 lb without a trailer, leaving about 12,000 lb for the trailer itself (if you stay within spec). We shopped and shopped for something in the 10K range for full-timing and came up really short (literally, as the only things we found we liked tended to be smaller/shorter fifth wheels).

So, here we are with a rig (truck and trailer) that weighs right at 23,000 lb. total fully loaded up and rolling down the road. The truck handles it fine. I just drive it a little more carefully. I wouldn't want to pull anything heavier with it, though.

-- Edited by MandV on Saturday 16th of March 2013 08:28:09 PM

We went with the Cedar Creek 38FL. We looked at the Heartland's and Keystone's, (which I really loved) but the ceilings were flat or lower than the CC's are. They have a nice arch to them. DH wanted the open kitchen, since he works from home or travels. (by plane)

suse1023 wrote:

---

i'm afraid you're right about the truck and we know we may have to move into somehting bigger depending upon the rig we end up with. it's only money, right!?

---

 Yes, right...it's only money if you have the cash to spend, otherwise it's the prison of debt! :>)

Yes, the tow capacity and max pin weight of your truck is going to be an issue, unfortunately. It is for us too. In fact, we are the poster children for insufficient tow vehicle research before buying. We have decided to make due with what we have, but we definitely know what we would buy if we would choose to upgrade.

See if you can dig through floor plans of the superlights and lights to find something suitable. Or you could consider upgrading to a 2005-2007 F-350 with the Tow Boss package to up your capacity from a base of 13,200 to around 15,500 lbs. +/-, other factors considered. Or go with an F-450+ or other MDT, but they consume more fuel, if that's of any concern.