Buying Again? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Old Snipe · RV-Dreams Family Member

Buying Again?

RickC · RV-Dreams Community Member

We are giving this some thought right now and are considering moving from a fifth wheel and into a motorhome. One reason is that we want to be able to drive a smaller car for our daily driver (rather than our F350). Also, for fulltime life (we plan to start next spring), we want more capacity for storage and need either a bigger 5er (and truck) or coach.

Anyway, these is some of our reasoning and would be delighted to hear what others have to say.

mikeway · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have had our current motor home for 3 and half years now. It is great except for STORAGE. It was excellent pre-full-time. We are now considering the same bat-time and same bat-channel but with more storage.

My wife says we would never go back to a 5er and I prefer motoring in the motor home and touring in the small pickup we tow.

Mike

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Right now we are very happy and they don't make our floorplan anymore. The new 2007's would a letdown for us because we prefer only having two slides and only on the driver side. Getting into our passenger side compartments is nice and easy with our 2004. The third and fourth slides did not make the rig feel much more roomy to us.

Tmcblane · RV-Dreams Family Member

We would stick with the 5er but would probably go with a small unit that we could stay in more state parks. We love the amount of space our 5th wheel allows while fulltiming. We just felt cramped in our motorhome with the low ceilings.

Old Snipe · RV-Dreams Family Member

We were thinking of a new, lower end DP, but with the intro of the FRED and UFO chassis, I think we want to wait to see what is introduced at the Louisville RV show. We like our Adventurer and another, slightly larger one is also on our radar screen. Our major want is another slide for more room and a washer dryer.

Our experience with the WB Adventurer has been top notch. I have the Workhorse W22 chassis and am very pleased with the performance. If we go for the Adventurer again, it will have the WH chassis under it, either the W-24 series or if they (WB) build it, the UFO chassis offers some neat potential.

Best Regards!

ahoweth · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi RickC:

I just couldn't resist throwing in my 2 cents worth. Remember you asked for it.

We have been RVing for 37 years now and have camped every way possible and we have been full timers for 2 years now. We now own a 40 ft diesel pusher motor coach and tow a Ford Explorer Sport Trac. For us, the motor coach is the only way to go. We grew tired of the hook up and un-hook hassles of trailers and 5ers. With the coach we just pull or back into the site and run down the leveling jacks, Thats it accept for hooking to electric, sewer and water if your site has them. of course you would have to do that with whatever you decide to RV in. The convenience is the thing for us. We also didn't like that the truck we towed with was the only the we had to drive when we were parked. Of course that is just us. Others have their own desires and opinions and that is okay! Storage space is always a concern regardless of how you decided to go. Many 5ers have lots of storage space. Having had a lot of experience RVing I developed one rule that has held us in good stead ove the years. If you haven't used it in a year, you don't need to be carrying it around with you. So take it out of the RV!

Whichever way you go we hope you have a wonderful time! Remember, it is up to you and you have to decide what is best for your lifestyle.

Tmcblane · RV-Dreams Family Member

We originally started out to Fulltime in a DP, after some issues with it we decided it was time to move to a 5th wheel. The motorcoach is certainly more convenient but the 5th wheel is roomier. There is more setup to a 5th wheel but you also have a toad normally with the motorhome so I consider that close to a toss up on work. The motorhome allows you the luxury of what type of vehicle you use as a toad and the 5th wheel leaves you no real choice, but then with the 5th wheel you only have 1 engine transmission and rearend to maintain compared to 2 of each. We would most certainly stick with the 5th wheel for our use.