Jayco vs. Winnebago small fifth wheels.

[FBO Cookie Monster]

So, due to circumstances with life, I?ve been eyeing rv?s for much longer than I thought I would. I already have the truck (actually, twice- Ford bought my first one back - long story) and want a loaded pin weight of less than 2000 lbs.
The two contenders at this point are the Jayco 25.5 reok, and a Winnebago 27 rlts. They both have ?advertised? empty pin weights of around 1350. Winne also has one with an empty pin weight of less than 900, but that may be a little tight. (25rks is advertised at 820 lbs!). Tow vehicle has 2500lb payload, and 11,400 max trailer weight. Both the 25.5 Jayco and the Winnie come in under 10k fully loaded. I need less than 30? overall length. I like both of these because both have plywood floors, and I have seen laminated floors that made a trailer die an early death. (I also know that any floor can be problematic if a leak goes a while undetected.)

All that said, I like the dual opposed slides on the Winnie, but the light weight NXT/BAL Norco whatever frame concerns me a little.

i have no idea if the Jayco Lippert frame is any better. Judging just by internet traffic, either Winnebago sells very few fifth wheels, or people seem happy with them, because I just do not see much talk about them. One thing I like about the minnie is that it can be ordered with a 12 volt DC compressor fridge, and I plan on a Tesla battery and between 400 and 600 watts of solar on down the line.

Is the quality about the same between the two? (can be read as: ?Meh. They all suck equally) Is one substantially better?

 

[steveblonde]

both Jayco and Winibago use Lippert Components (so does everyone else lol) and all trailers are made on an assembly line by hand so if bob is having a bad day you may get a bad trailer but if bob is having a good day well you get the idea - price point is often more of a determining factor all things being equal - so pick the one you like or btter still pick the one the wife likes best

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Forget the advertised pin weights, especially the "dry" ones.  You must carry 20%-25% of the actual loaded weight on the pin to have satisfactory road handling. Since you can't  know in advance what the loaded weight will be, use 20% of the GVWR as an estimate. If the truck can handle that (plus passengers and gear in the truck), you will be good to go. If you have already determined that 2000# is your upper limit, then you want a trailer whose GVWR is no more than 10,000 lbs (20% x 10,000 = 2,000).

As for the quality difference, I'm kind of in the "sucks equally" camp but don't have any real data to back it up. Lippert frames seem to garner a lot of complaints about cracks, perhaps because they are often used on low-end models that are at their design limits the day they leave the factory.  Don't see/hear much about the BAL NXG chassis, which is maybe a good sign.  Forest River uses it in some models - I hear they repalced the Lippert 5W chassis with the NXG in the Wildcat line.

 

[FBO Cookie Monster]

Forget the advertised pin weights, especially the "dry" ones.  You must carry 20%-25% of the actual loaded weight on the pin to have satisfactory road handling. Since you can't  know in advance what the loaded weight will be, use 20% of the GVWR as an estimate. If the truck can handle that (plus passengers and gear in the truck), you will be good to go. If you have already determined that 2000# is your upper limit, then you want a trailer whose GVWR is no more than 10,000 lbs (20% x 10,000 = 2,000).

As for the quality difference, I'm kind of in the "sucks equally" camp but don't have any real data to back it up. Lippert frames seem to garner a lot of complaints about cracks, perhaps because they are often used on low-end models that are at their design limits the day they leave the factory.  Don't see/hear much about the BAL NXG chassis, which is maybe a good sign.  Forest River uses it in some models - I hear they repalced the Lippert 5W chassis with the NXG in the Wildcat line.

Thanks, all three trailers max out below 10k.
Interesting that the NXG frame is so low volume. Scary interesting.