Motor Home Vs Travel Trailer/5th Wheel

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Dar had a good list.. I'll add a few things I quickl found out on the "Advantage motor home" side (And one on the advantage trailer)

Trailer: if you do not mind setting things outside our trailer when camped you can pack an increadable amount of "Stiff" in what is normally an isle.. Not so the motor home.

Advantage Motor Home.  On one of my first trips out I found that some idiot had decided to park his car under a semi trailer... at 70 mph.. with fatal results.. The result. ROAD CLOSED.. and.. Well.. I'm going to be sitting there a while

I had Television,  Food,, Water/Coffee... "Facilities" all without opening the door and setting foot outside.  Very nice.

In my travels I"ve occasionally had to pull off the road and run back to the ham shack. ur,  Well the room where I put the main radio and Damon put.... some plumbing.

Now, nice weather, no problem.. Pouring down rain.. Very nice having it and the driver's seat all under one roof.

I love my Intruder

I can pull in to a park with a pouring rain, push a few buttons and be basically set up.. HOok up power and such when the storm lets up... Can not do that with a trailer.
 
John From Detroit said:
Trailer: if you do not mind setting things outside our trailer when camped you can pack an increadable amount of "Stiff" in what is normally an isle.. Not so the motor home.

Not necessarily. When we go to our Coca-Cola Collectors Club conventions, we often have the aisle full of "stuff" that we're taking to sell. We've also been known to carry a large cooler, dog crate, folding chairs, inflatable kayak (not inflated) and more in the aisle. We prefer not traveling with the aisle full but it sure can be done with a motorhome.
 
Another factor,in addition to the many already mentioned... what do your friends use, where are you going to go,  are you going to use RV parks, are you going to visit family, will you travel when it is cold, how  much experience do you have with large vehicles,  are you going to do most of the maintenance yourself, do you want loads of electronic goodies and finally, what does your wife/partner/traveling companion prefer?  That last one can be the most important of all.  FWIW.
 
After Chet Parks switched from a 5th wheel to a moterhome he described the difference as "Park, hit the levelers, pop a top, we're home".

 
We have a motor home and wouldn't consider a trailer. We have friends with a trailer and wouldn't consider a motor home (in fact they just picked up their new 5th wheel yesterday). We have other friends with a tongue pull trailer. Half of the couple wants a motor home and the other half (note I didn't define better) wants a motor home.

We vacillated between a trailer and a motor home. At the time we got our first one, we were thinking trailer, but the price for the motor home was less than the price for a trailer (another long story about acquisition vs. maintenance costs).

There is no right or wrong answer to this. I suggest you rent a trailer or motor home that is close to what you think your ideal is. Get some practical experience and decide for yourself what is important and what isn't.

Plus, it's a whole lot of fun doing research this way! Good luck.
 
We've had both and could imagine having a fifth wheel once again, though we love the convenience of the motorhome for travel.  A trailer is less expensive and more convenient to maintain, so if you don't travel 100+ days a year, it is probably a smarter choice. "Smarter" does not always mean "better", though. It depends on what your priorities are.
 
We just bought a Motor Home about 4 months ago. We had a travel trailer for 10 years. We went back and forth on what we would like better. My husband wanted the Motor Home and I wanted to buy a new Travel Trailer. We asked a lot of questions here,got a lot of answers. My husband loves that we went with the Motor Home says it is easer on him,dose not have to hook up. My thought is how hard is it to bend down a hook up ??? Well I don't do any of that so I guess I will never know. I know this dose not help you but I think I still would have liked the travel trailer because I like the fact that I would have my truck there to drive around town. Thats just my thought. My husband would disagree with me. Good Luck. Oh what ever you go with you will love! They are both great! just being outdoors with nature and being with family and friends is what is all about!
 
Throwing this out to get your respond and thoghts:

We've enjoyed our fifth wheel but it's starting to get to be less fun.  Especially sitting beside the road waiting for road service to replace the blowout.

We're thinking about a small (25ft max) motor home, small enough that we won't want/need a TOAD.

The smaller footprint would be great for long trips.  For week long musters and rallys, no toad would be a little cumbersome.  For months at Key West we would convoy down, the small space and tanks would be a challenge.

Advantages (percieved anyway)
- This would allow for a more spontaneous mode of travel. We could stop for lunch at a larger variety of places, at the antique store, and the along the way attractions.  Less rigid plannig, we could do the stop when tired bit and perhaps WalMarts, Cracker Barrel etc.

-Joel would have all facilities and toys available while Camille shops at antique stores

-We wouldn't be sitting beside the road waiting for road service so often.  Motorhomes don't have blowouts, do they?

-Easier, more fun to drive than a one-ton Dodge with 5th wheel behind?

Disadvantages
-You have to pack up & unhook to go to the grocery store.

-Can we get all our stuff in one of those things?

-Only one living area.  Both have to watch TV, or not.  One person can't go to bed early while the other reads or watches tv.

-Acquisition cost.  We own the truck and are upside down on the trailer after 5 years.  We're thinking that we'll paiy off the trailer so we have a clean title to sell or trade it.  That's going to hurt.


Maintenance costs:  The diesel truck costs more than a car for routine maintenance , but isn't bad, and has been trouble free.  The trailer has had a new refrigerator, two rounds of tires and a roof repair.  Not bad in retrospect.

We're thinking used, circa 2004 motorhome.  This equates to the E450, V10 that Gary mentioned earlier.

Milage is likely a warsh, the truck gets 11.7mpg @ 61.8 mph,a couple of mpg better @ 55 mph.

Whatta think?

Anybody want a 5 year old Dodge one ton and 28ft fifth wheel?

Keep your eyes open for a nice 25 ft motor home circa 2004 in the southeast.

Joel
 
joelmyer said:
-Only one living area.  Both have to watch TV, or not.  One person can't go to bed early while the other reads or watches tv.

FWIW, our last RV was a 24-foot Class C with a rear corner bed. Mike's a night owl, I'm not. I would go to bed around 11 and he'd stay up watching TV and messing around on the computer. It didn't take long for me to get used to falling asleep with the background TV noise (although it did take awhile for him to find the right noise level that he could hear and I could ignore). When we bought our Sightseer, we also looked at Treks with the Magic Bed - now there you do have to go to bed at the same time because once the bed is down, the living room is gone.

The search is so much fun.
Wendy
 
Wendy said:
FWIW, our last RV was a 24-foot Class C with a rear corner bed....
The search is so much fun.
Wendy

Thank you Wendy

With the Class C, did you tow?  How did that work for you?

Your Sightseer is 28 feet?  Do you tow?

It seems to me that 25 ft is the upper limit for not towing.

Last year in Key West there was a couple next to us with a ~30 footish Airstream Class A.  Every morning she left the area on her bicycle and he drove the motorhome over to the Truman Annex and they spent the day in that area and biking.  They came back in about suppertime.  Seemed cool.

There were a couple of neighbors with smallish Class C's.  One was by himself, actually both guys were, their wives came down for visits.  Anyway Derr left everyday and went to various places to enjoy his coffee and newspaper with different scenery.

We're looking for two couches or couch & dinette that converts to bed.  We both get up several times a night and climbing over would be a problem.  Plus making up that corner bed?

Love the Trek but that bed wouldn't work for us.

There don't seem to be any short A's except the Trek.

Joel
 
Wendy said:
Not necessarily. When we go to our Coca-Cola Collectors Club conventions, we often have the aisle full of "stuff" that we're taking to sell. We've also been known to carry a large cooler, dog crate, folding chairs, inflatable kayak (not inflated) and more in the aisle. We prefer not traveling with the aisle full but it sure can be done with a motorhome.

We've come back from trips with every nook & cranny of both truck & trailer full.  Camille has evolved from "shopping" to "buying".

Joel
 
We only towed twice with the C. First time was when we moved from San Antonio to Hovenweep and we towed the Toyota PU on a dolly. The other was when we bought a VW Thing in Oklahoma and towed it home on a dolly. Seemed to tow ok both times although it was very slow going up over Wolf Creek Pass (who am I kidding, we were slow over Wolf Creek in the C even when we weren't towing anything - we used to get passed by Volkswagons).

The corner bed on the C could be a real pain. I learned how to make it while still in the bed. Whenever someone got up in the middle of the night, the person who stayed in bed moved over and the one who got up climbed in on the side. So we played musical chairs during the night. Hardest part was getting the 95-pound lab to move over  ;D When we started looking for a new MH, I said the only thing I HAD to have was a bed that wasn't in a corner.

Our Sightseer is the 27, which actually measures 27'11", so, yeah, it's 28-foot. We traveled the first two years with no toad. The SS was small enough to take just about anywhere but you did have to pull in the slide and stow a bunch of stuff so that was a pain sometimes. We also carry bicycles with us and those are handy for zipping to the grocery store if it's not far and you're not buying much. The first year we went to Quartzsite, the bikes were our only toad (turned out it was easier riding the bikes to the show out the back road then driving out on the highway - kept us from buying too much, too). Two years ago when we decided to travel for the winter, we towed our Ford Explorer on a dolly which was a PITA and was probably too heavy for the SS. Bought a VW beetle last year and now we tow that and it works real good.

 
Hi Joel
joelmyer said:
It seems to me that 25 ft is the upper limit for not towing.
We saw a couple Views towing cars on our journey to MD and seemed to have no trouble at all, the cars looked as big as the rv's.

joelmyer said:
We're looking for two couches or couch & dinette that converts to bed.  We both get up several times a night and climbing over would be a problem.  Plus making up that corner bed?
How about the Via or others like it. The Via has the floor plan with twin beds in the back, that would be perfect for what you are describing.

joelmyer said:
There don't seem to be any short A's except the Trek.
link for the via mentioned above.
http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/winnebago/2010/via/floorplans.php

Have fun!
 
Thanks Dar,

Yes I saw the Via and the Fleetwood version.  Very nice.  Very nice price.  We'd have to really fall in love with it.  We're going to look at the Via & a Aspect next week.  There's a 2x price difference at least between the '04 C's and the new Sprinter whatevers.

Towing.  I don't want to tow.  I want to travel without a toad.  I was trying to ask how life without a toad is.  Obviously I was speaking encrypted again.

Joel
 
joelmyer said:
Thanks Dar,
Towing.  I don't want to tow.  I want to travel without a toad.  I was trying to ask how life without a toad is.  Obviously I was speaking encrypted again.
Joel

Sorry Joel, I was reading encrypted. If it helps we went a year before towing our car. We still have only taken it with us once but there were times when it would have been nice to have that additional vehicle to run into town or haul firewood back from the front office w/o having to break camp to do it. That's where I still feel that is the major advantage to towing your rv as opposed to driving it. Just one of lifes little inconveniences, no biggy. It makes one wonder though, why were those smaller nimble Views pulling a car, don't like breaking camp to go somewhere? Enjoy whatever you buy and have fun shopping for it!
 
Towing.  I don't want to tow.  I want to travel without a toad.  I was trying to ask how life without a toad is.

It certainly can be done, but most people who try it end up getting a toad within a year.  Not all, but most.  Me, I'm not even willing to try! YMMV.
 
RV Roamer said:
It certainly can be done, but most people who try it end up getting a toad within a year.  Not all, but most.  Me, I'm not even willing to try! YMMV.


<s>  Let me count the number of Bs or little Cs I've seen towing.  But I could be different.

Joel
 
I don't know why or how, but this topic surfaced on my 'puter.

So I thought I'd add an update.

We looked at the Winni Vue - not sure that I've got the name right but the little Sprinter Chassis 24 footer.  And some 24 footish Class Cs.

Our 5th Wheel has a eating/sitting/tv area AND a sleeping area.  The little Bs & Cs have an area that can can be used for either function but both occupants have to agree.  We're spoiled.

Plus, most nearly everybody winds up towing so you lose the en route flexibility that we were after.

So we have decided that for us our 5th wheel ain't broke.

Joel
 

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