Question Single or Dually

[Boondoggle]

Thanks Lenny, Yup, that's what I'm hearing and is the main reason I'm not going with a motorhome.

 

[Boondoggle]

I'm a little "late to the party", but Gizmo is correct on payload. For the fiver you are looking at any SRW will come up short by the time your truck is actually loaded for travel/towing.

I can tell you that towing a heavy fiver with a 1-ton dually is very similar to driving down the interstate in a 43' tag axle diesel pusher. The wind doesn't push you around and it is very stable indeed.

Thanks Joe, that's really good to know about the wind affecting the 5er. About 40 years ago I was following a 5er in Navada with some pretty strong side winds when all of a sudden it just blew over. I've been leery of them ever since, but I imagine that the truck and hitch technology has improved enough since then to help with that. On the other hand of course, there's the nasty physics of side forces and I'm sure that at some point, mother nature can prevail, even if you're not moving.

 

[Gizmo]

I have had several trailers and several 5th wheels and the least of my concerns is not being able to back up. While traveling I call ahead for pull thru the site. When I arrive I pull in and put the sides out and hit the jacks and if raining I delay plugging in if not raining I plug in power and since I have large tanks and don't have to worry about the weight I don't hook up sewer unless I travel for more than few days. If there is not a good campground option I pull into a rest stop put one slide, hit the levers, push a button, and the generator on. Flip on the air and throw something in the microwave and watch some TV. All the time I have been in Class A I have never got in a position where I had to disconnect to backup. At that age I don't have to deal with trailers or 5er. Been there and done that.

 

[Boondoggle]

I see your point, and maybe finding pull throughs are not a problem in your area. In the Northwest, we have to make reservations as soon as they open to get the right site in the campgrounds we like. For us, we need more flexibility, so I don't have the luxury of early reservations and pull throughs are pretty nonexistent by that time. You seem to have a good process and are happy with it but winding up in a rest stop is not our idea of a relaxing vacation.

 

[Gizmo]

I was born and raised in Longview Washington and spent a lot of time up there and haven't found that to be the case unless you going to state campgrounds and with the RV you looking at there are not many you will fit in and are very limited. My experience is you need to be around 30 feet or less and there are longer sites than normally only a few if any. Most of the state campgrounds have zero or just few 50 amp sites.
I personnel would rather do than just spend a quick overnight stop in rest stops, Cracker Barrel and etc than spend the money and time to check into an RV park just to spend a few hours and leave the next morning.
Going someplace like Washington, Oregon, and Colorado and driving a big DRW truck is not fun. I pull a Jeep Rubicon and can see the high country and go see some beautiful sites in the mountains that DRW truck wouldn't dare go to. Class A and Jeep combo are perfect for us.

 

[Boondoggle]

Well, you're out of my league in terms of RV experience as I've only had my 24' Outdoors RV for a year. We prefer going to a campground that has more room and privacy and staying for a while which is why we avoid rest areas. As you will remember, the Northwest is full of forested campgrounds, both private and State Parks and many are on the ocean or on rivers. So our feeling is with all that beauty, why stay at a rest area? You make a good point though about the length of the 5er we're considering, and frankly I wasn't aware of the difficulty of finding campgrounds that accommodate that, let alone pull throughs. So maybe I should scale back to a 30' fifth wheeler. I just haven't found one that size with the layout and quality we prefer. Any ideas?

 

[Boondoggle]

Sorry for the late reply Gizmo, we just got back from a trip. The difference for us is that we like to spend 3 to 5 days at a nice campground before moving on, so staying at rest stops would not work for us. While making reservations at various campgrounds for our current 24' trailer, just for curiosity, I've been checking for 40' sites with 50 amp and have found that "up to 40 foot" sites don't seem to be a problem. But yes, you're right about the 50 amp. So if I don't need aircon, I can either just watch my amp usage (next biggest user is the microwave) or occasionally run my generator. I do that quite often on my boat.