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Looking to Fulltime, shopping for fifth wheel


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Hello friends! My wife and I are looking to go fulltime in a fifth wheel. We have little experience, just a couple weekends with a rental so far. We have a million questions, as you might imagine.

Right now we're looking at a 37' rig, wondering about pros and cons of something that big. I have an 02 F350 to pull it, but is it harder to find places to stay long-term? Any advice is appreciated.

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In fulltiming one size does not fit all, While a longer fifth wheel may limit you in some parks we feel that the added length adds to the livability especially when it is raining for 2 or 3 days straight. With a 350 you probably have the truck to pull it but make sure before you buy. If you feel comfortable with the length then go for it. Rarely will you say you want something smaller if you are going to live in it fulltime. This is just our opinion and I am sure you will hear differing opinions. We just posted a blog entry, http://bobandjotravelblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/happy-new-year-2016-was-year-for.html, with other tips on beginning the fulltime lifestyle which we have been doing for 7+ years now and love it.

Bob & Jo
Full-timing since 09/10/2009 - SKP 99512
2015 Lifestyle LS38RS

2010 Ford F-350
Our blog: http://bobandjotravelblog.blogspot.com/
Our travel photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/

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I have been full time in my 42 foot 5th wheel toy hauler for 5 years now. I pull it with a Ford F-350. I am in the process of upgrading to a class A. I am upgrading because I travel alone and it is getting difficult to unload my Harley. The class A will have a motorcycle lift on the back. My 5th wheel is for sale if you are interested send me a pm

2015 Itasca Ellipse 42QD

2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock Edition

2021 Harley Street Glide Special 

Fulltimer

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A 37' fifth wheel will be no problem in campgrounds unless you plan on staying in National Parks and

some state parks. These are often old and build when rigs were much smaller.

I strongly suggest you verify the fifth wheel towing AND pin weight capacity of your truck before you

purchase a fifth wheel to ensure the truck is rated for the trailer. The new F350 duallys have

excellent towing capacities but the older trucks are much more limited. Do not believe what the RV

or truck sales people tell you, check it yourself. Greg

Greg & Judy Bahnmiller
Class of 2007
2014 F350
2007 HitchHiker Champagne

Both sold 2/19, settled in Foley, AL after 12 years on the road

http://bahnmilleradventure.blogspot.com/

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There are national parks, national forest campgrounds, state parks, Corp of Engineers parks, county and city parks that you will be able to fit. We've done it successfully with our 40' motorhome. No, you will not fit in all of them but you'll have easy other choices.

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

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Welcome to the Escapee forums! We do our best to help so feel free to ask as much and as often as you wish.

 

I have not owned a fifth wheel but have been a fulltimer and RVer for a long time so have some familiarity with them. The size that you are considering should be no problem whatsoever as there are many that are much larger than that around. You might find it helpful to read a book or two on the subject of fulltime RV living as they are easily found at the library or on Amazon.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Our fiver is 36' without the bike rack on the back. We've not had any issues with getting into anything other than two state parks that were WPA projects (1930s) built in the days of Tin Lizzies and tents. Since my wife follows in a small car, we find that sometimes we have to park one vehicle - usually the truck - in overflow parking to get everything on the campsite. We meet and see lots of people full-timing in rigs MUCH larger than ours, too.

 

Rob

2012 F350 CC LB DRW 6.7
2020 Solitude 310GK-R, MORryde IS, disc brakes, solar, DP windows
Full-time since 8/2015

 

StatesVisited20210913_small.jpg

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What do you consider long term? We have stayed in campgrounds a week to seven months.

 

We have a 25 foot truck and a 35 foot trailer. Also a small car. Wife calls ahead to see if the owner/employee has a site big enough for us. Last summer only had one campground out of eighteen the truck had to be parked else where. Yes, some campgrounds are an adventure getting in and out of. Some sites even more. Have had to back out of a few pull thru site because of bushes, trees, cars in the way. But have been able to get into all sites except for one. Tree limb was to low the truck would have hit it.

 

We use this site http://www.rvparkreviews.com/ when traveling.

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Not sure what model your truck is, but the advice to check out towing capacities is right on. You can use this guide:http://www.rv.net/SharedCode/towrating/_results.cfm?action=search&yr=2002&make=Ford&model=F-350+SD+2WD+SuperCab+DRW%09&min_tlimit=&max_tlimit=

 

It will help you decide what weight trailer you should be looking for. Safety is very important when we share the road with others.

Marcel

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Third on the towing capacities. I pull a 39.5 foot fifth wheel with an f350. But it is a 2015 dually. It needed to be both a newer model and dually to pull what I have. Read, or ask here, about how to calculate towing capacities for fifth wheels with your specific truck model. People have made expensive mistakes right where you are in the process. Do NOT believe dealers. Not necessarily bad intentioned but often incorrect.

Dave and Lana Hasper

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would go to a scale and weigh your truck with you and a full tank of gas. Take that weight and subtract it from your trucks gvwr which should be on the door. Hopefully your sticker is still readable. That is your payload and then you subtract whatever else goes in the truck with you, wife, pets etc. Also whatever rig you are looking at, its loaded pin weight and the weight of the hitch itself in the bed. Ideally you want to have some capacity leftover for safety. There are other weights to consider as well. Rear axle weight, gross combined weight etc. There's plenty of resources out there for you online and thru the forums. The dealers are great at telling you what you want to hear. Very few will tell you what you need to hear. Good luck to you and happy trails.

Jim & Linda Kelly

2015 F-350 DRW 2WD 14k gvwr

2016 Outdoors Wind River 270cisw

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I would go to a scale and weigh your truck with you and a full tank of gas.

Just want to say, welcome to the Escapee forums! It is always a good thing to have folks join in the forums so please do take part on a frequent basis.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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You can never have too much truck

 

We full-timed with a 34.5 HitchHiker starting in 1997, and then a 36 foot Challenger that was not near the quality our HitchHiker was, for seven years. Then, like Kirk, we came off the road fulltime, in our case to care for elderly parents which obligations just ended. We also bought a smaller fiver, a very nice 28.5' Orphaned Sunnybrook fiver, not a travel trailer like Kirk. We have been fiver drivers the whole time.

 

for all of our fulltime travels we used our 2X2X2 rule. We did not keep a brix n stix either. I had a 92 1 ton Diesel dually Cummins 12 valve, with the 1993 under bed tranny cooler, 64 gallon transfer flow tank, Pac Brake, and tuned injector pumps. You are talking longer and heavier than we had, and I had to put a Pac Brake on ours. as has been said many folks have found they had too little truck and struggled with every day underway nerve wracking. The problem is not getting it going and going up hills, just about any truck, even some half tons could do that minimum in a straight level line. The problem is stopping when going downhill on 6° hills and stopping or controlling the rig without losing your brakes and possibly worse.

 

You can never have too much truck.

 

All trucks have gotten more horsepower and torque as my newer ones have, since that workhorse RAM. But all of them have the same four wheel brakes. Avoiding a deer or car suddenly in front of you is a completely different story, and fiver drivers learn how to drive a big rig defensively.

 

How many times in your life have you had to make a sudden or emergency stop and maneuver to avoid an accident coming your way from the fault of another?

 

If we decide to go fulltime again, I will have an HDT. Since I much prefer the ride and load capacity size wise in a full size pickup bed, I already went back to my current long bed Cummins Diesel SRW 3/4 ton, after my previous truck, a short bed RAM/Cummins diesel. I have had three other Ram/Cummins diesels, all long beds like our current one. We can use a motorcycle or small car with a shortened Heavy Duty Truck (HDT) and park it in the back like we do this truck just fine. But that is just me. Downsize the rig and try for at least a 10% - 15% safety margin between the capacity of the truck and the weight of your rig loaded. With the size rig you want I'd just skip the shopping time and join in with the HDT guys here and get a class 7 for about half what a new light duty 1 Ton would cost. If we go full time again, we could make do with another 30 foot fiver or perhaps even a motorhome conversion or full protective frame Bus.

 

Did I mention you can never have too much truck?

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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Welcome to the forums! The weight of the trailer is far more important than the length. Go look at the sticker on the coach to see what the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) is. The sticker should be either on the outside, front left, or on the inside, usually on the inside of a cabinet door. If the sticker is on the outside and too weathered to read you can usually go online and find the specs. Figure 25% of that gross weight for the pin weight, which is carried directly on the rear axle of the truck. On your test drive of the truck go by a CAT scale and weigh the truck (cost you $10 or so). Put each axle of the truck on a separate pad of the scale so you get the actual weigh on each. On the driver's door jamb is a sticker that gives you the truck's Gross Vehicle Weight Rating as well as front and rear axle weight ratings. Subtract the actual weight on the rear axle from the rear axle weight rating and that tells you how much more you can put on the rear axle. If that number is more than what you calculated for the coach you are okay as long as you don't exceed the Gross COMBINED Weight Rating (also on the sticker). Add the gross weight of the coach and the actual weight of the truck and if you are under that combined weight you are okay. This a a quick and dirty check, but if you fail any of these tests you need to either get a bigger truck or a smaller (lighter) trailer.

David Lininger, kb0zke
1993 Foretravel U300 40' (sold)
2022 Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS

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  • 2 months later...
On 1/7/2017 at 3:23 PM, 2gypsies said:

There are national parks, national forest campgrounds, state parks, Corp of Engineers parks, county and city parks that you will be able to fit. We've done it successfully with our 40' motorhome. No, you will not fit in all of them but you'll have easy other choices.

From what I've heard, and I'm not sure if this is true or not, the combined length of the tow vehicle plus the 5th wheel or travel trailer is what is counted.  Is that true?   We were set to get a travel trailer and then I heard that it's hard to get into national parks and that they count the full length and that has deterred me from that.  So we are now thinking of getting a 5th wheel.  But if it's only the length of the trailer that matters, this would open up a lot more possibilities.  

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I have not encountered any campground that counts both the vehicle and trailer or fifth wheel length. Always just the length of the trailer or fifth wheel without the vehicle so it makes no difference for length whether you have fifth wheel or trailer. Older campgrounds don't accommodate long fifth wheel or trailers as well because they were built  for  smaller rigs. We have a 40 foot fifth wheel and have not had problems although we tend to avoid the national parks now that we full time as you find nearby parks and recreational areas with the same to offer but without the crowds. You can get into many of the national parks however.

Dave and Lana Hasper

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We have yet to purchase our full time 5th wheel. After about three years research my wife and I came to a few conclusions as to what trailer we will most likely end up with.  We generally decided on a rear living room plan and have found none less that 35' where we really liked the floor plan in the weight class and price point we are considering.  After following a dozen or so blogs where others travel fulltime in a 40' fifth wheel I'm not concerned about finding spots to stay as others seem to get around just fine. A friend suggested the 38' length was a good spot for him and I trust that opinion.  All this considered we are looking at rear living rooms starting at 35' up to 40'. For us, the floor plan we end up liking the most between those length ranges will dictate the length we end up with. We have been able to eliminate a few trailers because they were over 40' and/or they did not have a decent cargo weight capacity. We have found a couple in the 35' to 37' range that look promising.

Wish I had experience towing so I could provide more specific advise. This is just how we are approaching it. Lots of folks in this forum with experience and they are always helpful.

 

Mark from Missouri

Our Future in an RV

2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Dually LB 6.7L HO Diesel Aisin Transmission 4x4 3.73 Gears

2019 Vanleigh Vilano 320GK 35’ fifth wheel 16,000-pound GVWR

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