Better Fifth WHeel?

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Dougie

New member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Posts
4
I have narrowed mychoice of a 30-35' fifth wheel to EXCEL, ALFA, NU WA OR CARRIAGE.  Please do pros and cons of your experiences with these.  My ideal  is a 32' with double LR slides, CK, double axle, fibreglass roof.  I am not sure about the BR slide, but would probably take it, if offered.  Am I off base on anything and am I mistaken in the choice of roof?  I eliminated Teton from consideration due to weight, so will be interested to know who likes pulling a Teton behind an F-350 Diesel.

Doug 
 
Those are all rigs with good reputations, so any of them should do you well. I know we have at least one Carriage owner here, so maybe they will offer an opinion.

Fiberglass is a good roof but I would not turn down a rig if it had a Bri-tek or Bri-ply hard finish EDPM roof.  Both are superior to the plain "rubber" in that they clean easily and do not generate lots of black streaks down the sides from dirt.  And they are all durable.
 
Dougie said:
I have narrowed mychoice of a 30-35' fifth wheel to EXCEL, ALFA, NU WA OR CARRIAGE.  Please do pros and cons of your experiences with these.  My ideal  is a 32' with double LR slides, CK, double axle, fibreglass roof.  I am not sure about the BR slide, but would probably take it, if offered.  Am I off base on anything and am I mistaken in the choice of roof?  I eliminated Teton from consideration due to weight, so will be interested to know who likes pulling a Teton behind an F-350 Diesel.

Doug 

We are on our 2nd Alfa 5W.  We also had a NuWa which we liked.  We bought all 3 of them new and had problems with all of them, which the dealers (mostly) fixed.  They all have bedroom slides, and I don't think any of them have a fiberglass roof.

One of the things we like most about the Alfa is the large capacity fresh water and holding tanks.  We boondock a lot.  The Alfa also has better storage and cargo carrying capacity (CCC) than most 5Ws.  The CCC will vary a lot on models from the same manufacturer.

Jeannine
 
We just purchased an 05 Excel.  It has the fiberglass roof and it is sturdy.  We have 3 slides, sofa/livingroom, dinette/kitchen and the bedroom.  We like the floorplan with the enclosed bathroom, it gives you plenty room to move around. 

Some of the models you are looking at do not have a fiberglass roof.  Don't know if that's a big factor for you or not.  It was for me.  I hate cleaning the rubber roofs and the black streaks they leave.

Something else you may want to consider is what do you want to be able to access when the slides are in.  In some units we couldn't open the fridge.  That is a problem when traveling and stopping for a bite to eat.  Make sure you can get to everything you need to access.

Bill
 
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