5'er vs. motorhome

Are new 5th wheels prone to as many problems as new motorhomes? Just wondering if it's an industry-wide lack of QA, or if some styles are more problematic. 

Yes.

RV and Quality don't belong in the same sentence unless the word "poor" precedes the second word....

Fivers don't have a powerplant / drivetrain to contend with.  Beyond that, six of one half dozen of another.

I would say yes. My unit was manufactured by a motorhome maker which entered into the fifth wheel market. Other than no drive train the inside and outside workmanship and equipment is pretty much the same. So issues with one would probably mean issues with the other.

Trailers (5th wheel or travel trailer) have only 4 things to replace. 1. Tires 2. Brakes 3. Bearings 4. Batteries. Where trailers already have the tow vehicle so a toad isn't required.

Motorhome has the entire power plant and transmission to maintain. Then most have to drag around a toad so if you have a toad now there is double registration, double insurance, double maintanance, etc.

There is many other things I've learn about motorhomes and trailers I can rumble off...

Who needs two powertrains to worry about? 

Frizlefrak said:

Who needs two powertrains to worry about?

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Me...  .

Like myself I had a 1976 Dodge Jamboree Motorhome 20 foot. Not a bad little RV. But it seems like huge under taking to get it ready for a trip. Then once you got to where you are going then you had to setup up to use the living quarters. Then in a couple of days if you ran out of anything then you had to clean and pack up everything to drive to town or a store. This little RV was too small to tow a toad. Now with the travel trailer where I drop it is home. I can drive around at 23-25 MPG in my Dodge diesel and leave the RV parked. Even towing my RV on the truck I'm still 11-14 MPG. Most motorhome rarely even get out of the single digits. Funny part is my current setup Dodge & Jayco (~17,000#) is twice as heavy as my old Jamboree (~8,200#). The other part I did like about that little motorhome was the cab was all steel (van head) and man did the cold roll in from there you had to drape a blanket off the front bunk to keep the cold out. The cab turned into storage space at that point.

Are new 5th wheels prone to as many problems as new motorhomes?

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Ok to be fair about it... All depends on the 5th wheel what kind of quality and then your tow vehicle and it quality. Then as for the motorhome the quality of the vehicle and RV have to good period since all combined.

Yep, my big ol' Cummins is equally happy lugging my living quarters down the highway and puttering down main street in some quaint NM village.....

so let's say if my wife and I are headed down the road with our brand new towable R/V, ...and the dear wife informs me she needs to use the restroom,

There's three things I could do.....

1.      tell her she'll have to hold it the 'til next rest stop.
2.      hand her an empty Gatorade bottle and a paper towel.

3.      trade the trailer in on a motorhome.

      happy R/V wife = happy R/V  life.

    I choose motorhome

TonyDtorch said:

so let's say if my wife and I are headed down the road with our brand new towable R/V, ...and the dear wife informs me she needs to use the restroom,

There's three things I could do.....

1.      tell her she'll have to hold it the 'til next rest stop.
2.      hand her an empty Gatorade bottle and a paper towel.

3.      trade the trailer in on a motorhome.

      happy R/V wife = happy R/V  life.

    I choose motorhome

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Or just pull off the road and she can use the bathroom in the trailer...we have done this bunches of time for all in the family.  Frankly, I wouldn't want to be aiming while in motion....yuck !

grassy said:

Or just pull off the road and she can use the bathroom in the trailer...we have done this bunches of time for all in the family.  Frankly, I wouldn't want to be aiming while in motion....yuck !

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Amen.

Done it many, many, many times.....except it's usually me not her needing the facilities.  Moving again in under 5 minutes.  Then when I get to the campground, I untether my living room from the truck and I can go running around town all I want.

Last thing I'd want is someone sitting on the can while we're in motion and something bad happens....so you have to pull over either way.

Frizlefrak said:

Amen.



Last thing I'd want is someone sitting on the can while we're in motion and something bad happens....so you have to pull over either way.

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so I'm guessing  those longer airline flights are kinda hard on you ?

and as for that roadside pullover pit stop....
many of the 5th wheels are not so easy to get around inside until you pull the slides out, getting a snack ain't so easy.

I guess with a bumper pull, you just need to get off the highway, find a semi level place long enough to pull over in, get out go back and get inside, then when you're all done just find the onramp and get back up to speed again.....sounds pretty easy. :

I agree the 5er's have wonderful layouts inside once you park them and get the slides all out, any stay for extended times at a park and they are perfect.

however most trailers really suffer for storage area compared to a class A motorhome

the reality is, there is no one right R/V for everyone,
some people like to tow their house somewhere and set it up,
other people like to drive their home down the road.

I would say absolutely. Long story short, I traded in my last MH on a new 5ver. Thought I would save some cash in the long run, since I already had the truck. After 6 months I had so many problems with it, I traded it in on my current MH.  Took the financial hit too. 

I also discovered that even though I used to be a 5ver owner for 4 years, it didn't fit our life style any more. Expensive lesson for sure. But I can tell you without hesitation, just because a rig doesn't have a drive train does not make it any less prone for problems.

Oh, and I 3rd that "bathroom" issue with the DW..........

TonyDtorch said:

so I'm guessing  those longer airline flights are kinda hard on you ?

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Nope.  We go to Europe ever couple of years and do just fine.  The odds of a mishap on a commercial aircraft are so small as to be non-existent.  The odds of a mishap on a major highway are exponentially higher. 

One of the criteria we had when selecting a trailer is that it had to be fully functional with the slide in.  And given that we avoid interstates like the plague, we just find a wide spot, pull off, jettison whatever needs to be offloaded, and get back on the road.  Would it be easier in a motorhome?  Of course.  Enough to make me want to drop a hundred grand for something that depreciates like the Liberian dollar and has to tow a second set of mechanicals around or be stuck at my campsite?  Nope. 

Frizlefrak said:

Nope.  We go to Europe ever couple of years and do just fine.  The odds of a mishap on a commercial aircraft are so small as to be non-existent.  The odds of a mishap on a major highway are exponentially higher. 

One of the criteria we had when selecting a trailer is that it had to be fully functional with the slide in.  And given that we avoid interstates like the plague, we just find a wide spot, pull off, jettison whatever needs to be offloaded, and get back on the road.  Would it be easier in a motorhome?  Of course.  Enough to make me want to drop a hundred grand for something that depreciates like the Liberian dollar and has to tow a second set of mechanicals around or be stuck at my campsite?  Nope.

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X2...although the sound in an airplane bathroom is too loud for me.

My experience has only been with TTs.... and we are having serious decisions whether a 5th wheel is worth moving up to even though we will be spending a significant time on the road. After saying that, if we go 5th, bathroom access with the slides in is a must.

Even though mt heart wants a MH, the restrictions are to great for what we want to do..

Ian

Frizlefrak said:

Nope.  We go to Europe ever couple of years and do just fine.  The odds of a mishap on a commercial aircraft are so small as to be non-existent.  The odds of a mishap on a major highway are exponentially higher. 

One of the criteria we had when selecting a trailer is that it had to be fully functional with the slide in.  And given that we avoid interstates like the plague, we just find a wide spot, pull off, jettison whatever needs to be offloaded, and get back on the road.  Would it be easier in a motorhome?  Of course.  Enough to make me want to drop a hundred grand for something that depreciates like the Liberian dollar and has to tow a second set of mechanicals around or be stuck at my campsite?  Nope.

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I enjoy the advantages of  having a bed, a bathroom, a kitchen all there for a person to use while you are going down the road and don't want any fears of what "could" happen remove my enjoyments in life.

an analogy would be....I know of people that have been injured and even killed on motorcycles, but I still enjoy riding motorcycles.

Some people let the fear of death... end up being the fear of life.

as for the money issue, I choose to enjoy my money while I'm alive....your money really loses it's value after you die.

Wow! How did this straightforward inquiry about the quality of a 5W vs a MH turn first into a bathroom debate and then progress (?) to the risk of death on the highways! Talk about thread drift!  By now, Donna (Doodle) must thing we are all at bit warped.

Gary RV Roamer said:

Wow! How did this straightforward inquiry about the quality of a 5W vs a MH turn first into a bathroom debate and then progress (?) to the risk of death on the highways! Talk about thread drift!  By now, Donna (Doodle) must thing we are all at bit warped.

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Got quite the chuckle out of me this morning, thanks Gary.

ah, but it has been a fun read 

OK Gary ....getting back on subject....

the "rental car" concept sure has got me thinking.
get rid of the toad and look at some of the advantages.

no cost of the car.
no car maintenance.
no cost of the tow bar, brake buddy, rock guard etc...
nothing being towed by the motorhome, problems backing up no speed and lane restrictions.
no disconnects and re-connect hassels.

many rentals are down to $29.00 a day, so after a 10 day stay you owe $290 and you're done with towing anything all over the country.

I kinda like the idea