Class A or fifth wheel?

[GaryB]

Gary,
I pull an Alpenlite 29RK (31 ft) with my F350 SRW and get around 12-13 mpg. Drive at 65 mph on the highway.

Bruce - that is pretty good towing mileage.  Is your truck a 4x4 or 4x2?

 

[dsolberg]

We recently completed an RV Driving Safety Course for The Recreation Vehicle Safety & Education Foundation and a hot topic was seat belts, especially child safety seats.  Motorhomes, as big as they are, seem to fall between several "legal" cracks.  By law, automobiles are required to have three point seat belts in all positions.  Some motorhomes still only have lap belts!  During the development of this program, we enlisted the services of the Iowa Highway Patrol, State Safety Educator and you are correct, there are very few motorhomes that have a safe place for a child seat as it needs to be a forward facing, "SECURED" seat.  Most of the TT chairs or lounge chairs are rockers or recliners and don't qualify.  Therefore, the forward facing part of a full dinette (booth) is the only place, IF it has seatbelts, which many do not.  I know of one family that actually bolted a seat belt mechanism to the floor and installed the child seat there during travel.  While camping, they tucked the belts under the sofa and the chair, although they did not have a slide out, which would make it difficult to hide one side.

 

[Kenneth]

Fifthwheels have far more room in them, for livability purposes, the ceilings are higher in the living area the slides are usually much deeper, and as far as cabinet space ,I've not seen a class A that even comes close. The overall concensus is they both equal out except for the price difference. Upper-end 5'vers are in the $100K range ,and a comparable built Class A is about 2 1/2 to 3 times that.

 

[cougar3514v]

With the high price of diesel, which of the following combinations will get the better mileage:

1) F350 SRW diesel truck while towing 33 foot fifth wheel
2) Diesel motorhome while towing a small toad

Since I have not yet committed to a truck or RV, I am interested in this.  From what I've read, I can expect 10-12 mpg towing with a F350 diesel 3.73 rear end.  But I don't have a clue about diesel motorhomes/toads.

Thanks
Gary

I just returned from a 800 mile round trip from Johnson City, TN to Savannah, GA and back.  About half of this trip is through the Appalachian Mountains, which is not the Rockies, but it ain't flat either.  The MPG on my truck's computer said I was making 11.2 MPG.  I was doing 65 to 70 MPH most all of the way.  I have a 2005 F-350 Crew Cab, long bed, diesel, pulling a 10,000 5'er.

-Dave

 

[Shayne]

?Again  when I tow my trailer and get to my destination I have a nice quiet comfortable Lincoln Town Car to relax in for getting around but I can also tow the 4X4 Jeep and have some fun  when stopped withthe MH  All a matter of choice and I like the comfort.  If we pull into a Wally world and don't want to get out  we don't have too.  In a Trailer you do to sleep and Potty.  Just our perference.

 

[BruceinFL]

Bruce - that is pretty good towing mileage.  Is your truck a 4x4 or 4x2?

2005 F350 4x2. Checked it today and was getting 13.4 mpg.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

With the high price of diesel, which of the following combinations will get the better mileage:

1) F350 SRW diesel truck while towing 33 foot fifth wheel
2) Diesel motorhome while towing a small toad

The F350, no question in my mind. Should be in the 11-13 range, most likely closer to 13.  There are many different motorhome configurations, but the range is probably 7-11 mpg. However, in a diesel that offers equivalent space to that 33 foot trailer, I would expect 10-11 rather than 7-9.

 

[scottydl]

With the high price of diesel, which of the following combinations will get the better mileage:

1) F350 SRW diesel truck while towing 33 foot fifth wheel
2) Diesel motorhome while towing a small toad

The F350, no question in my mind. Should be in the 11-13 range, most likely closer to 13.  There are many different motorhome configurations, but the range is probably 7-11 mpg.

However, make sure take the entire equation into account if mpg is a decision maker.  Sure while CAMPING you'll do better with a pickup + 5'er (as opposed to a DP + toad), but how about daily driving?  That accounts for many more miles than camping, unless you're a full timer.  The diesel pickup will probably only increase to 18 mpg as a daily driver.  Whereas a typical toad (usually a compact or fairly economical car or small SUV) could get you 25-30mpg daily.

So overall I think the fuel economy would be a wash in the end.  Plus where I'm at right now (in reference to your "high price of diesel" comment), diesel fuel is about 35 cents cheaper per gallon than regular unleaded.