Just wanted to share our very first experience with any kind of RV. We recently bought a 25ft 2000 Terry Lite 5th wheel and 1997 F250 Powerstroke to pull it. The truck and trailer is definitely not the newest or biggest thing on the road but an inexpensive combo to get us going. It took a few weeks to get them to the point we were ready to do a test run with them. I can now say that I do not recommend installing the 5th wheel rails yourself. It seemed like I would never get done drilling holes and drilling into the frame is a major time killer.
We didn't want to go too far from home so we chose the KOA in St. George, UT which is a 3 hour drive for us. The drive out there was uneventful even with the wind. I was a little surprised that the truck was working a bit to maintain 65 going uphill with a light trailer (GVWR of 6400lbs but was roughly around 5000lbs on our trip). We would love to upgrade the trailer in the future but will probably stick to one with a max GVWR of right about 10,000lbs. Fuel mileage was as to be expected, low at 11mpg.
Once at the campground set up was uneventful and everything seemed to work ok. Even our two Labs approved.
For the ride home the wind was worse lowering our fuel mileage to 9mpg. To add some excitement the upper idler pully decided to explode while on the interstate. Luckily a local shop in St George ( Brackens) was able to tow us and the trailer to their shop and had us back on the road in a few hours. Hopefully this is the first trip of many.
We didn't want to go too far from home so we chose the KOA in St. George, UT which is a 3 hour drive for us. The drive out there was uneventful even with the wind. I was a little surprised that the truck was working a bit to maintain 65 going uphill with a light trailer (GVWR of 6400lbs but was roughly around 5000lbs on our trip). We would love to upgrade the trailer in the future but will probably stick to one with a max GVWR of right about 10,000lbs. Fuel mileage was as to be expected, low at 11mpg.
Once at the campground set up was uneventful and everything seemed to work ok. Even our two Labs approved.
For the ride home the wind was worse lowering our fuel mileage to 9mpg. To add some excitement the upper idler pully decided to explode while on the interstate. Luckily a local shop in St George ( Brackens) was able to tow us and the trailer to their shop and had us back on the road in a few hours. Hopefully this is the first trip of many.
