missourijan

My 2 cents is that if you are new to 5th wheels then you might slow down on what you "think" you must have. You are going to get lots of opinions from others, what they do may not be right for you. As another mentioned there's the weight of the fuel to consider, it costs you fuel mileage the more weight you carry. Just like other issues like membership campgrounds, you may want to travel for awhile before you invest in an auxiliary tank. We've been fulltime for 12 years and never had auxiliary tank, gas stations are everywhere, even on the 2 lane highways. Sometimes we carry 5 gallons of extra diesel, most times we don't fill it. In the 12 years we've needed it once.

There are also many fishing access sites that are not too far off I 90 in Montana. You can look them up on their website (Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks), most you can camp in for a small fee. They have vault toilets but not much else.

There's a campground in Newport Beach, CA that is over $100 a night. We've never stayed there but my daughter goes there once a year. They will deliver "room service" to you by golf cart. It's right on the bay, I think.

We had carpet in the LR and the bedroom. We tore both out, also the bathroom tile so that it would be all the same. The carpet was easy to remove but the tile in the bathroom was hard. We had to use a hair dryer to soften it up and use putty knives. We bought 16 x 16 vinyl tiles from Home Depot. Luckily, we were able to use the previous lines in the bathroom so that the tile was laid straight. It was hard on the knees but easy to do. We have never done anything like that. This pic was taken before the trim edge was installed.

We have been fulltime for 12 years and have used Passport America most of those years. We usually volunteer as parks hosts 4 to 6 months of the year and travel the rest of the year. Yes, parks that participate change all the time, we just adjust. There are other ways to save $$ on camping, we use casinos, Cabela's, www.overnightrvparking.com, Don Wright's Free Campground books and Corps of Engineers parks. We have found some great city/county parks that don't offer all the amenities but are good experiences. Yes, some of the PA parks aren't in the greatest shape but from what I see on rv park reviews 4 star resorts get negative feedback. We are traveling this summer from April to December and will continue to use PA when we can. We just left Southern Hills RV park in Hermosa (south of Rapid City) that was a great park, centrally located to visit all the attractions and $18.50 a night.

You might check out the Facebook page Fulltime Families, they are living it. There are a lot of us retired people on this site

Try everything, as others suggested dryer sheets, moth balls, peppermint oil on cotton balls. Also, Fresh Cab is available on Amazon and from Tractor Supply, it repels rodents.

I would second what Kirk said, wait a while to see how or where you will be traveling. I didn't see anyone recommend buying a resale membership. Look at the website for Treasure Lake in Branson, MO. They post resale memberships on their site and the cost to transfer them. Their "home park" dues are reasonable and are affiliated with a lot of those memberships. Several years ago C2C offered a 1 year membership for about $75, we signed up and really liked it. We volunteer has camp hosts several months a year so it didn't make sense for us to get a permanent membership at the time. I would consider buying a resale membership when we stop volunteering

They are not owned by Tiffin, the company was started by a Tiffin, as Kirk said but it has no affiliation with Tiffin motorhomes.

We stayed there a couple of times, wonder why?

A 43 footer will certainly limit you in some ways. You can't get into a lot of forest service campgrounds. Not sure what exactly you are looking for but you will spend a lot of time making sure you can "fit". You might go a little shorter

My 2 cents would be an answer to "best rv that isn't prone to breakdowns". There is no such thing as a best rv. It depends on what your budget is and how you plan to use the rv. ALL rv's have issues, they ALL have breakdowns, or repairs. While one manufacturer may build a quality rv there are other things that break down, refrigerators, ac's, furnace, water pumps, etc, etc. Those are all made by different manufacturers. Our 5'r is a quality made unit, however, we have had repairs, the ac in the living room has been replaced twice, the rv frig cooling unit went out 3 times, the bedroom slide needed repair on a Lippert Scwintek channel slide system. None of those things were made by Drv, our manufacturer. So, sorry, but there's no right answer to your question. Other posters have given you good advice about the cost of rv living.

Excellent post. There are so many posts asking which rv or which park is best. None of us can answer that for anyone else. When we decided to buy an rv 13 years ago we thought we would use it to live in while we built 4 houses. We rented 2 class C's and a class A, then bought a 5th wheel because it was a good deal (we didn't have a truck to pull it). After we bought a truck and started taking it on vacation and for long weekends we decided we didn't want to go home. We quit our jobs, sold the house, gave up the option on the land and went full time. Our 12 year anniversary is March 9. When I see any post asking those questions, I always state in my post to buy a used rv and live in it for a year before you decide to buy new. You never know what the future holds. . . .

As others have said, theft is more common with pull trailers than 5th wheels but it does happen. A couple of years ago a brand new Drv 5th wheel was stolen off the lot at Wheels RV in Springdale, AR. As far as I know it was never recovered. It's probably back in the hills of AR or OK. A king pin lock is always a good idea, you never know . . . .

We purchased a 12" memory foam mattress from Sam's Club and really like it. After sleeping for 5 years on the original mattress with a 3" foam topper it's a world of difference, really comfy. It's slightly smaller than the stated size on the website so it fit fine. Highly recommend the Elite Night Therapy memory foam, several layers of different kinds of foam. We've had it almost a year, love it