Comparing a 5th Wheel and a Diesel Pusher Motorhome

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

I know this topic comes up fairly often and that there are fans of both, but I thought our perspective might be interesting to some.  After several years fulltiming in a 5th wheel we made the move to a motorhome last winter.  I just did a blog entry comparing our experiences with the two.  Honestly, the jury is still out for us.  Since we are comparing two specific rigs, our conclusions might be different than that of others, still, since the blog is a work in progress I'd be interested in how our experience compares with that of others. If you are interested you can read the article here.

Edited August 27, 2019 by GR "Scott" Cundiff

[DesertMiner]

Nice start.... could you touch on the “livability” of the two when setup for a stay?  What about setting up at your site? Heating and cooling of the different rigs? TIA

[SWharton]

We went from a MDT and 38' 5th to a 36' MH gasser. We also tow a toad. Our comments: cant back up with a toad, leveling is more difficult(not on a fulcrum) in MH, less outside storage in MH, less inside but we still have empty cabinets, a gasser can only tow 5000 lb diesel generally 10,000 lb., setting up in a cg we love the motor home, view driving in motor home best, like driving the toad vs the MDT as daily driver, any mechanic can work on a gasser, as you age the MH is easier to deal with, MH is on one level once inside.  Probably forgot something.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

1 hour ago, DesertMiner said:

Nice start.... could you touch on the “livability” of the two when setup for a stay?  What about setting up at your site? Heating and cooling of the different rigs? TIA

Thanks!  I do have a section on livability and one on setting up, but I added a sentence saying heating and cooling are pretty much the same with either one.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

7 minutes ago, SWharton said:

We went from a MDT and 38' 5th to a 36' MH gasser. We also tow a toad. Our comments: cant back up with a toad, leveling is more difficult(not on a fulcrum) in MH, less outside storage in MH, less inside but we still have empty cabinets, a gasser can only tow 5000 lb diesel generally 10,000 lb., setting up in a cg we love the motor home, view driving in motor home best, like driving the toad vs the MDT as daily driver, any mechanic can work on a gasser, as you age the MH is easier to deal with, MH is on one level once inside.  Probably forgot something.

Thanks for the response!  I borrowed your comment about not being able to back up and added it to my "one the road" assessment. 

[SWharton]

Your welcome to the comment.

Livability: Ours is great but I think that will depend on the floor plan. Our TV is in a console on the passenger side, goes into the console(motorized) for storage, and we removed the sofa and put in 2 recliners instead.  As part of the console the dining table pulls out(can be kept out). We like the idea but if someone needs to use the table the TV is partially blocked. No big deal for us.

I am a quilter and the MH home is better for my quilting. I am able to set up a sewing machine table between the 2 front seats and this gives me great light and I am out of the way.

Setting up is the same between the 5th and MH.

[Barbaraok]

21 minutes ago, SWharton said:

We went from a MDT and 38' 5th to a 36' MH gasser. We also tow a toad. Our comments: cant back up with a toad, leveling is more difficult(not on a fulcrum) in MH, less outside storage in MH, less inside but we still have empty cabinets, a gasser can only tow 5000 lb diesel generally 10,000 lb., setting up in a cg we love the motor home, view driving in motor home best, like driving the toad vs the MDT as daily driver, any mechanic can work on a gasser, as you age the MH is easier to deal with, MH is on one level once inside.  Probably forgot something.

You’re comparing apples and oranges.  The comparison should be to a DP, not a gasser.  Then you’d find MUCH more outside (underneath) storage, etc.   and most DPs are easy to set up and level, just push appropriate buttons.    BTW, we have a 10K hutch on our DP, some even come with a 15K hitch.   The daily driver was the big thing for us, no way did ai want a truck as a daily driver.  Also never having to move the cats, and always being at a comfortable temperature as we set up.  

[SWharton]

No, we are comparing MH to 5th. Whether gasser or not. We just push a button to level but we don't have the flexibility of leveling like you do with a 5th which is on a fulcrum. The OP I believe in his article commented on the difference in storage available between a 5th and his diesel MH.

[sandsys]

You made lots of good points but I take exception to the one about access to the bays. Your need to kneel is a factor of slides not motorhome.

One of my favorite things about a motorhome is never having to go outside in bad weather. When stopping for lunch along the way, just walk down the aisle. When setting up camp, live off the batteries and tanks until the weather improves.

Also having the unit already be at perfect temperature when arriving in a campground counts for me.

Linda

[Barbaraok]

SWharton,  you were comparing your 5th wheel which required an MDT to pull it,  so it would be comparable to a DP not a gasser. DPs usually have pass through bays unlike gassers, means more storage space.  

Not sure what your problem with leveling is all about.  

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

You made lots of good points but I take exception to the one about access to the bays. Your need to kneel is a factor of slides not motorhome.

One of my favorite things about a motorhome is never having to go outside in bad weather. When stopping for lunch along the way, just walk down the aisle. When setting up camp, live off the batteries and tanks until the weather improves.

Also having the unit already be at perfect temperature when arriving in a campground counts for me.

Linda

No doubt the issue is rig specific, as I said: " Since we are comparing two specific rigs, our conclusions might be different than that of others "

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

1 hour ago, SWharton said:

No, we are comparing MH to 5th. Whether gasser or not. We just push a button to level but we don't have the flexibility of leveling like you do with a 5th which is on a fulcrum. The OP I believe in his article commented on the difference in storage available between a 5th and his diesel MH.

I agree on leveling.  Again, this is rig specific - we had added Big Foot levelers to the 5th wheel.  Leveling was about as simple as you can imagine.  The MH has a three point system and has proven to be a challenge for the reasons I described in the article.

[SWharton]

1 hour ago, Barbaraok said:

SWharton,  you were comparing your 5th wheel which required an MDT to pull it,  so it would be comparable to a DP not a gasser. DPs usually have pass through bays unlike gassers, means more storage space.  

Not sure what your problem with leveling is all about.  

If a 5th wheel is out of level by 8" it is no big deal since its tires are in the center like a see-saw.If a MH is out of level there are 2 problems: 1) rear tire must stay on ground so you can't be out of level toward the rear and 2) lifting the front end with blocks 10" or so is a major challenge(we don't carry enough blocks to do that) nor would we be comfortable(safety) in that position.

We actually were in a campsite in Jasper where we were out of level by about 6" after doing everything we could, we were able to move the next day but we had an uncomfortable evening.

[Kirk W]

I have heard the debates over which is better for many years and doubt that anyone will ever convince very many people who priefer one over the other that they are wrong. Each one has it's good poiints and it's weaknesses. It mostly comes down to what features are most important to the people that live in the RV, no matter what type it happens to be. 

[2gypsies]

We full-timed in a 33' 5th wheel and 40' motorhome - 8 years each.  Here is our take (in red) on your title headings:

"Liveability: 5th Wheel
On the road: tie
The motorhome is more comfortable and the big window up front offers the best view. However, it is also wider than the pickup making it feel like it is filling up the lane and requiring more attention on the road, especially in traffic or on narrower, rural roads.

A 5th wheel and Class A can be the same width. Yes, your truck is narrower. That's more difficult to judge  when the 5th is wider. You can't go by the truck.

When towing the car the motorhome can’t be backed up. In 8 yr. we never had a need to back up with the car attached. . Some people said that the ride would be much smoother, but we haven’t found that to be true with this motorhome, even with new shocks. I think that's a "depends". Our Dodge diesel truck was rougher than our motorhome. 

Landing in a campground: tie
 With the motorhome, you can easily end up with the front wheels off the ground.  We never had the motorhome off the ground - even on public lands boondocking.

Local Transportation: Motorhome
With the 5th wheel, the daily driver is a big pickup – poor mileage and challenging to park in tighter spaces. We now pull a small car with the motorhome. A much better daily driver.  Agreed.

Maintenance – Repairs (engine/chassis side): 5th Wheel
We had very good luck with the motorhome.... just maintenance which was finished in the day since we made appointments while traveling to the place.  If it was finished late afternoon many times we just spent the night on their lot; sometimes with electric.  Never a refusal to do so.

Maintenance – Repairs (camper side): tie
We replaced a microwave by ourselves. That's it.

Cost of routine operation: motorhome
The motorhome gets about the same mileage as did the pickup when towing the camper. However, once in the campground, we drive a small car that gets much better mileage. Oil changes, etc. cost a lot more on the motorhome, but only have to be done yearly, making the annual cost about the same. Also, remember, the motorhome is only run when actually changing campsites, keeping mileage low compared to the pickup which is also a daily driver. Agreed.

Storage accessibility: 5th wheel
I’ve already touched on this, but looking at it only from ease of access, the 5th wheel bay is much easier to use. All the bays of the motorhome are under the 4 slide outs. I wear knee pads and have to get down on my knees to reach into the bays. It is harder to get things in and out of the motorhome bays.  The more slides you have  the harder it is to get into the bays.  We specifically only wanted 2 slides - on the driver's side.  Everything was accessible from the passenger side via rolling trays.

Propane: tie
The 5th wheel had two big removable propane tanks. A bit heavy, but taking them out and getting them filled was a reasonable amount of effort. On the motorhome the tank is built in. You either have to take the rig to a station and have it filled or you have to see if anyone is delivering (not all that uncommon in larger parks with long term residents).  Really no issue finding propane while driving - truck stops or small town propane companies.

Dry camping: motorhome
This is only about our specific rigs but I have the idea is it more common than not. The motorhome has a big diesel generator, an inverter, and 4 6-volt house batteries. It has larger holding tanks too. There are ways to do all the above with a 5th wheel, but the motorhome is pretty much ready to go without any special add-ons (neither had solar of any kind). Boondocking was our way of RVing (with solar). Could last 2 weeks on the tanks then we wanted to move along anyway.

In-motion convenience: motorhome (but not as much as you might think)
Prior to getting the motorhome we were told how great it would be for the passenger to be able to get up and move around while in motion. We haven’t found that to be the case. It is downright dangerous for anyone to be up and moving around while on the road. Sometimes we take advantage of a stoplight or a nice straight stretch of open interstate to get up and do something, but most of the time the passenger needs to stay strapped in. Agreed. Only get up on a straight-away with no traffic.

Getting in and out: 5th wheel (but not as much as you might think) We really like having a level floor in the motorhome because that's where you'll do the most walking.  Yes, getting into a truck takes more effort when you're older than getting into a car.
 

Cost: 5th Wheel  Going used for a high quality unit really saves $$.... and yes, trucks are expensive.
 

Prestige: Motorhome  We don't care about it!
 

So the jury is still out
We were happy with the 5th wheel but absolutely hated driving the big truck for siteseeing.  We found the Jeep gave us a lot of pleasure in the boonies and latched us on to more friends to play with!

Edited August 27, 2019 by 2gypsies

[SWharton]

11 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

I have heard the debates over which is better for many years and doubt that anyone will ever convince very many people who priefer one over the other that they are wrong. Each one has it's good poiints and it's weaknesses. It mostly comes down to what features are most important to the people that live in the RV, no matter what type it happens to be. 

Kirk, This as a discussion not over which is better but a discussion of the pluses and minuses of each from those of us who have had both. Some of the replies muddy the waters but that is normal.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

45 minutes ago, 2gypsies said:

We full-timed in a 33' 5th wheel and 40' motorhome - 8 years each.  Here is our take (in red) on your title headings:

When towing the car the motorhome can’t be backed up. In 8 yr. we never had a need to back up with the car attached. . Some people said that the ride would be much smoother, but we haven’t found that to be true with this motorhome, even with new shocks. I think that's a "depends". Our Dodge diesel truck was rougher than our motorhome. 

Thanks for all the replies - generally our experiences are the same, but I envy you on not having any big mechanical problems - this first year has been a challenge for us.

I didn't quote all your excellent responses, but thought I'd tell a story on myself.

The day we picked the car up from the shop where they set it and the MH up for flat towing I went to pull out of their parking lot and didn't turn soon enough.  Mind you, the MH was still new to me and I was watching the car behind me to be sure I didn't turn too short.

Instead, I managed to get too far and couldn't complete the turn without putting the MH front wheels in the ditch.

So, I'm now cross ways in the road and trying to unhook the car for the first time.  It is in mid turn so I can't get it disconnected.  People are waiting for me to move.  Finally, my wife ran back to the shop and got some help.  We disconnected the car, backed up the MH so the traffic could clear and then, I pulled up onto the road and up to a wider spot to pull over and hook up again with help from the guys from the shop.

All this, and I hadn't even had the MH/towed on the road yet.

Edited August 28, 2019 by GR "Scott" Cundiff

[SWharton]

Something similar happened to us also. We were new to the MH and toad, went to make a u turn, mis-judged our turn width and couldn't turn due to a 2' tree being in the way. We blocked 2 lanes of a busy road, car at a bad angle and we struggled our way through unhooking. Now that we know how to unhook when the car is at a bad angle we are much faster. Try not to get into that situation but sometimes no choice(one ended rest areas).

FYI-We found we were more challenged mechanically with the diesel MDT than the gasser(4 years old now).

[whj469]

For me it is how they are used. I was once told that you buy a motor home to drive and a trailer to park. I go to the UP of MI for the summers, about four months, we have two RV lots there and my fiver stays parked for the four months. I do have an F350, CC, long bed as transportation when there and yes they are a little harder to maneuver then a small auto but not much. It would seem that the fiver and truck would cost less? My 2019 F350, CC, diesel, long bed was $64,000 and my 2018 Cardinal 3825 was $68,200.

[Barbaraok]

3 hours ago, GR "Scott" Cundiff said:

I agree on leveling.  Again, this is rig specific - we had added Big Foot levelers to the 5th wheel.  Leveling was about as simple as you can imagine.  The MH has a three point system and has proven to be a challenge for the reasons I described in the article.

Most DP use 4-pt leveling.  That was non-negotiable for us, which ruled out a lot of the Safaris at the time.

we closed Highway 101 just north of Eureka when Dave ran out of room for our U turn because we missed the park entrance.  No one honked, they all just sat watching us.  4 minutes had us separated and I backed across, Dave backed up maybe a foot and completed the turn.  This was the first year out - our ‘learning year! 😱

Caught in a rain storm this spring, pulled into a church parking lot only to see they had barricaded the far end.  Luckily no traffic stopped, but moved quickly as it was POURING!  And this year we have a new tow bar that isn’t as easy to work with, should have stayed with Road Master! 

We are lucky in that we have good air bags so have a very smooth ride.  And the exhaust brake made mountain passes much easier.  The air bags also mean that when we park, we dump the air, so the stairs up are very easy to navigate, unlike our friends with  5ers or gassers that are much higher off the ground.     

Scott, part of the problem is that there are different types of MH,  just as there are also travel trailers used by a lot of full timers instead of 5ers.  So it is comparing apples, oranges, pineapples and grapes. 😎

 

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

8 minutes ago, Barbaraok said:

 

Caught in a rain storm this spring, pulled into a church parking lot only to see they had barricaded the far end.  Luckily no traffic stopped, but moved quickly as it was POURING!  And this year we have a new tow bar that isn’t as easy to work with, should have stayed with Road Master! 

 

 

 

 

I have another similar one - went to pull out of Circle M in Lancaster, PA last month.  Exiting the place is really unhandy of you are turning right.  It is nearly a U-turn onto the highway, which is on a hill - nearly blind to your left.  I knew I would need the entire highway to make the turn which would expose me to fast moving traffic coming from both directions - and neither would be able to see me till they were too close.

So, I opted to turn left and find a place to turn around.  After driving a mile and a half I came to a volunteer fire department.  I knew I would have to unhook to turn around, but no one was around so I pulled in, disconnected, turned around, reconnected and drove on.

In that case it was more or less planned, but had I been on top of things I would have had my wife follow me till we came to a decent spot to hook up.  The only problem there is that roads are tight and there is always a lot of traffic - it might have been a ways before we found a good spot.

[Ray,IN]

We made this transition in 2013, from a 40' 5er to a 40' MH. We bought the MH, brought it home to move "stuff" from the 5er to the MH, but wound up just piling everything from the 5er in the garage floor. After we loaded everything into the MH we had empty cabinets inside, and a couple of empty bays underneath; although the 5er was fully-loaded.

Conclusion: MH has more storage space than that 40' 5er. We are both older now, and the ease of leveling and setup of the MH is much quicker and easier. That is not my opinion, it is fact, as timed by my wife. Now if the 5er would have had  automatic leveling, they would have required virtually the same amount of time and energy.

With time and experience, a MH owner/driver learns to avoid driving into places blindly. I only re-fuel at truck stops for this reason. One time I pulled into a small station for lower cost fuel, I had to unhook the car, back it out, park it, back out MH, turn it around, find a place to re-attach the car, then continue trip. That one incident cost me over an hour extra time, besides the cheaper fuel being 4-5 miles off my route, in a MH that gets 7 MPG. I learned if I can't afford truck stop fuel prices, I can't afford to own a MH.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Ray,IN

[noteven]

Lack of trained/qualified service locations for MH’s vs motor trucks ( pickups on up to class 8’s) plus the versatility of a motor truck has me in the truck n trailer of some kind camp at the moment.

can I say “camp” on rvnetwork?

Edited August 28, 2019 by noteven
Can’t spell

[Bill Joyce]

As others have said, it depends on the particular motorhome or 5th wheel for storage.  Friends moved from a 35/36' National RV Triopical gas motorhome to a 40' Alfa See Ya diesel pusher and lost storage due to the Alfa having such short bays.  I also know someone who moved from a small 5th wheel to a truck camper and gained storage,.  I also know that when we moved from a 35' National RV Dolphin gas motorhome to our 40' Newmar Dutch Star diesel pusher,, we only gained a small amount in basement storage.  We did get a bit more upstairs storage even adding a washer/dryer combo.  Particulars matter.  

Our Dutch Star also has a side radiator and many a mechanic has told us that makes it much easier to work on than a diesel with a rear radiator.  A couple times we were told a job would take a couple days, but once they learned it was a side radiator the job was done in a few hours.  

[folivier]

Last night while traveling down the Cassiar highway in northern BC Canada we pulled into a rest area in the heavy rain.  Parked, got out of my seat, took a shower while my DW was preparing dinner.  Read some then went to sleep in a nice warm motorhome.  All this without having to exit the motorhome.  The next morning I did my normal walk around and we drove off.

That is one of the reasons why I enjoy traveling in a motorhome!