Towing an Award 26 footer

[rlittle]

I am thinking about buying an Award 26 foot trailer as a replacement for my old 25 foot fifth wheel. Anyone have any experience with this type of trailer?

I have an 03 SO and it has worked well for the small Alpenlite fifth wheel, but the fifth wheel is getting a little long in the tooth and the wife is getting tired of climbing up to go to bed so the replacement will be a trailer rather than a fifth wheel.

Rollie

 

[Ramtough]

Compared to a fifth wheel, I doubt that your truck will know that it's doing anything. I switched from a 31' Wilderness Bunkhouse to a 31' double slide Wilderness high profile 5th wheel. I can tell you that although I have read that the Award is nearly as easy towing as an Airstream, I think that you will miss the stability and storage that the fifth wheel provided. I think that the Award is out of production so you can forget factory assistance should you need it.

 

[RTuvell]

Award doesn't make a 26 foot trailer. They make 23', 27' and 30'. At one time they also made a 5th wheel but no more. Assembly line production of Awards ended in 1996. Since then they only make Awards on a custom order basis. Slideouts are a recent option on the newest Awards. The best years for used Awards is 1995 and up because of major changes made in that year.



Award has a web site:



http://www.awardrv.com/



There is a loyal group forum of Award owners on Yahoo:



http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/award2/

 

[Casey Balvert]

We owned a 23 foot Award for six years. It was a 1991. Fit and finish was very good but we found that it was built too light for heavy use. I think it is more suited to annual vacations and such. We used ours every weekend during the summer and went south for a month in the spring. It just started to come apart towards the end. Considering the price of the things we expected better durability. There is a price to pay for a light weight trailer. Towed pretty well but not as well as our fivers. FWIW.



Casey

 

[rlittle]

Thanks for the replys to my questions about the Award. I understand that they have not made any production units in a while but you can still get one if you are willing to pay the price. They are very hard to find on the used market I am finding out and when you do find one the price is pretty high so I will keep looking for a while longer.

My old 83 Alpenlite 22 has been a good rig but it is starting to show its age and the wife is getting pretty tired of the climb up into the bed and crawling over each other to get into it.

The Award seemed like a good alternative but there may be others out there that will do a good job with out the weight and air resistance. Any suggestions on other rigs would be appreciated.

Rollie

 

[Ramtough]

I am very partial to Fleetwood products. I have owned two Wilderness trailers and I have been VERY favorably impressed by the company's willingness to stand behind their products, even if they are out of warranty in many cases. I guess this is one of the reasons that Fleetwood has become the largest company in the RV business. Their trailer brands include Terry, Prowler, Wilderness which are all essentially the same. They have a lower price point product branded Savannah. There are probably others. Of course, I have seen on this forum that asking people about their favorite trailer will yield as many opinions as answers. Sort of like asking someone what kind of car to buy. At least when you make an inquiry here about the best truck on the market, there will be little if any difference of opinion. Good luck Rollie and happy camping.

 

[RTuvell]

Every TT made has owners with complaints and owners with praise. If you are in the used TT market then warranty and factory support is not important. Focuss on the factors that are most important to you such as weight, towability, floorplan, length, etc. Do your research and narrow it down. Learn how to inspect TTs and become confident in your ability to identify problems. If you are patient your TT will showup in the used market which tends to be more active at the beginning and end of the travel season.