Trailers vs RV

[mfburns]

I am preparing to retire and looking into alternatives. I rented an RV for a few weeks and it was OK. Trying to decide if I should go that way or get a trailer. I have a stock 94 auto 2500. Looking for experiences and comments as to which way to go and why. I think I would like to go to Alaska and travel the western states for a while and do some sightseeing. I understand the disadvantages of not having a daily driver if we go the RV route, so how bad can towing a trailer be. Just my wife and I. No kids. Also, comments of a 5er vice a tagalong.



Thanks in advance.

 

[CajunDieselMan]

I tow a 30 ft 5th wheel and have no problems--it tags right along with the truck. You didn't say if you were going to keep your current truck or what size trailer you were looking for, but if you keep your truck and go with a 25-26 foot 5th wheel (which is big enough for 2 people), you should have no problem. One major consideration are your mirrors. I have towing mirrors on my new truck and wouldn't suggest towing without them--standard mirrors force you to guess a lot, making for dangerous situations. Also, you will get about 11-13 mpg towing; a gas motorhome will get about 7-8 mpg.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

JEEZE - that's like asking which brand of oil is best!



We tried a small motorhome, 22' Winnebago, for a year or so - wasn't for us, needed something to get around in once we reached our destination - and if we gotta TOW a toad, might as well tow a trailer or 5th wheel. Never have regretted the switch to our current 24' Kit fiver, and it been all over the USA with us - we are not full-timers, but have been out for months at a time, like the last trip across the US to NC, Florida and back home to California - 3 months on the road - no problems or complaints. If we were full-timing, might simply get a somewhat larger fiver...



Here's a shot of ours up along the N. California coast near Orick:



#ad

 

[dewdo]

I pulled a 35' 15,000 lb fiver around the US for a couple of years with a stock 2500 diesel with automatic and went through two transmissions. We have been retired 10 years and have sold the fiver and settled for the slide in so we can pull the boat. With your stock 2500 I wouldn't pull anything over 9,000 lbs. The transmission is going to be your weak link. The 94 had that plastic connector on the transmission cooler that would melt on the steep uphill pulls and drop all the fluid. I guess if you beefed up the transmission with a heavy duty torque converter and valve body you could do ok with a heavier trailer. Your rear end ratio will figure in how much you can tow.



Dewdo in the other Washington

 

[CROW]

I have a fiver and have towed it quite a bit. Did not even consider a bumper pull trailer since the hook up is harder and based on comments of several folks I have spoken to, the road manners of a bumper pull are not as good as the fiver. Maybe someone who has owned both will chime in. After you have towed a fiver awhile, it is as easy, in my view, as driving a motorhome. Some of the gas motothomes really suck fuel-which may be OK if you won't use it a lot or go too far or have a lot of money. Spoke with three people this summer who have the GM 8. 3 L motor in a gasser motorhome and they were getting 7 mpg. I get about 11 at 19,500 gross combined weight which is probably several thousand pounds more than the gasser motorhomes. To get into a diesel motorhome, so you can get a little better fuel economy, you're talking a lot of bucks. Fifth wheels have more interior room than motorhomes. When you buy a motorhome, you buy the drivetrain and the living quarters. In a fifth wheel, you buy them separately and can upgrade one at a time. I do not know how much you can tow with your current truck (someone on this site does-betcha) but it appears as though there are any number of fifth wheels that you could safely tow. Good luck.

 

[RMcCulloch]

A lot will depend upon (1) how you plan [want] to travel and (2) the level of ameneties that you desire.



(1). If you plan to be on the move daily (or nearly so) and, primarily, want to visit major tourist attractions then a motorhome might be right for you.



If, on the other hand, you plan to stay in an area for a week or more with day trips to attractions, relatives, etc. , then a towable would offer advantages.



If you'd prefer staying in motels most of the time with occasional overnight stays at campgrounds, then you might want to investigate the van conversions and/or slide-in campers.



(2). If it's important that a member of your party be able to lie prone while another drives then a motor home (whether a Class A or C) or a van conversion (Class B) would be your best bet.



A towable [travel trailer or fifth-wheel] lets you use the RV as a "base camp" and use the tow vehicle as transportation. They also offer a wide range of ameneties and interior arrangements.



A slide-in offers many of the advantages of a MH in an extremely compact package. Unfortunately, many of the newer slide-ins are heavy enough that they need the higher GVWRs of the 3500s.



For our travels, we selected the items in my sig.



We like to travel to places where we spend time exploring the area. Once set up, our fifth-wheel is our home for as long as we stay and provides us with plenty of room to entertain when we feel so inclined.



We have friends who spend most of their time driving their Class A and rarely spend more than 2 days in any given area: for them, the trip, itself, is the goal.



My BIL enjoys his van conversion as a way to avoid motels while enroute to a destination.



As you can see, the type of travelling has a great deal to do with the type of RV best suited.

 

[BCook1]

Infinite items to consider.

Congrats on your travel decision. I have full timed on and off over the last 10 years with both a motor home and a bumper trailer. Rule 1: Buy the smallest unit that will accommodate your needs. This will be much smaller than you suspect. (Two adults can co-exist in a trailer as small as my Arctic Fox 22 GQ. ) Why? Because the larger the unit the less fun it is to pull/drive down the highway, Units over 25 feet won't fit in a lot of the remote campsites, More unit means more expense, more to clean, maintain, heat, etc. and part of the fun of travel is that you leave all your junk behind. You will find that you only need half of what you bring no matter how little you take with and if you don't have something you need you will improvise. Now, what kind of unit? In my opinion, the easiest unit to use on the highway is a 5th wheel (unless you can afford a bus conversion). 5th wheels are more stable and more maneuverable than a motorhome with a tow-car or a bumper trailer. Using a motorhome without a tow car is a pain. Every time you want a quart of milk or want a RELAXING drive up a side canyon, you have to uproot your entire house. This means water, electric, leveling, cabinet doors blah blah blah. Pulling a tow car means YOU CAN'T BACK UP! Yes people will tell you that you can - just try it sometime. My bumper trailer tows beautifully but that is because I am using an extended cab 4x4 Cummins - it weighs as much as the trailer and is not easy to push around. If you chose a tow vehicle make sure it has close to or greater than a 150 inch wheelbase. An extended cab is MUCH more stable than a standard cab when using a bumper trailer. With 5th wheels it is not as critical. You will need power also. My 160 horse pulling 15,000 is just barely enough. On really steep grades like west out of Denver I am down to 3rd gear at 45. Oh yeah, don't believe any of the mileage claims people make. I get 8 to 10 towing and maybe 17 empty.



Once you decide on a type of unit, which one??? RV buyers guide is a great resource. I think they are at www.gorv.com but I am not sure. Sometimes the library has old copies of their assessments. They look at everything - trust them not the dealers. Yes the well built units are more but the idea is to have fun and not hate your purchase. You will need a better than average unit if you are going to travel with it rather than just set it up in a park. Look at water capacity. This is the first thing you will run out of other than battery power if you decide to stay in a no hook ups camp ground. Again, trust the RV buyers guide for tips. If you can't find them, I will try to find their website.



One thing you should MOST DEFINITELY do is rent a unit and try out RV living before you buy. Take a test trip of a couple weeks with a rented unit and see if you really like full timing.



If I were to do it again, I would buy a 25 or less foot Arctic Fox or comparable 5th wheel trailer and a newer truck than my 92. I am overflowing with more information and opinions if you want them (big surprise huh?). Happy shopping.



PS: My Arctic Fox is for sale in the classifieds if you are interested. Nice unit but I need to shed some debt.

 

[BCook1]

More Info.

OK, sorry about suggesting the test rental - you already did that - just reread you post. The organization I was thinking of is not at gorv.com and it is not rv buyers guide. It is at www.rv.org and is called RV Consumer Group. They are an incredible wealth of info and well worth the money to join. I think they have their complete info on CD now so you can search by various criteria - it costs a little but will save you thousands and much frustration later. The only thing I am not sure of is whether they have the trailer info on CD - when I ordered the paper copy it was Motorhomes only. Please look at their site.

 

[Deezul1]

I like having my truck as an RV hauler as it gets used a lot even when its not RVing and does double duty as a second car saving expenses like insurance and so on. We have a bumper pull and like it a lot and it tows like a 5th wheel due to the Hensley Arrow hitch we use but they are real expensive. I would prefer a 5th wheel for all of the above mentioned reasons but the Airstream we have was used and like brand new and very reasonable and we just couldnt pass it up. One other nice thing about a trailer vs motorhome is if you have a major mechanical problem it will be cheaper in a truck and you can put the trailer in a RV park and rent a car while its being fixed.

Its a hard thing to decide, good luck and have fun.

 

[boonsur]

A 5th wheel gives you a lot more head room, feels more spacious. Also, a lot easier to get either your pickup or the camping unit serviced, vs a motorhome.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

A lot of good advice above. I would like to add a few things:

a tall 5th wheel gives a lot of wind resistance. My 21' tag along Airstream trailers beautifully with its independent suspension, and small size and weight. I think of it as a storage pod, bath, and hard shell tent. My purpose for traveling is to enjoy where I am going, not to stay cooped up in a box. Yet, it is big enough for rainy days, etc. The Airstream is also aerodynamic and I get pretty decent mileage (13-15) with either my 1997 or 2004 Ram. Motorhomes give rotten mileage, are too big to go anywhere remote, and mean that you are wearing out your house and drivetrain together. Especially if you put a lot of miles on it, using a trailer means replacing the tow vehicle several times while using the same trailer. You might have to go beyond new tires to brakes and repacking the axle bearings on the trailer, but otherwise it is virtually immune to mileage towed. Also, getting any mechanical work done on a motorhome is difficult. (1) hard to find someone willing and able to do it (and a hoist big enough) and (2) very hard on your wallet, as they tend to charge a lot more, and parts may cost a lot and be hard to find.



Overall you can tell I find a trailer and truck combo to be the most flexible vs. owner types of usage, cost, etc. If it matters, you can write off a trailer or motorhome mortgage as a second home, but not a slide in camper.

 

[klenger]

Here's my philosophy on the issue. Take it for what it's worth, which isn't much.



Motor homes are for traveling and towables (travel trailer or 5th wheel) are for camping. What do you plan to do more of?



Joseph's comments about motor home maintenance is good information. Also, I think some one else mentioned this, if you are living in your motor home and it needs to be serviced (whether brake-down or scheduled maintenance), you no longer have a home to live in. If you are on the road, and the motor home is in the shop for a week, you are living in a motel while your motor home is parked in the back lot of the shop.

 

[Glen]

I have a 24 foot travel trailer; it is the smallest size that had a queen size bed. I also carry a boat on top of my canopy, thus no 5th wheel. As already said, I set up camp, stay at one place for awhile and use the truck for transportation.



My truck doesn't know the trailer is there. I get so used to it that I find myself looking in the mirrors to see if I still have it with me. I get 21 mpg empty and 14 mpg towing.



A final comment: I much prefer the trailer to motels even when a motel is near my destination. It is cheaper of course but the main reason is that I like my bed and the convenience of having what I need with me. Sometimes that saves the trip. Once, on a 4th of July trip to Montana, the weather turned very cold. I keep my wool hunting clothes in the trailer but we would not have had them if we were living out of a suitcase.

 

[Buffalo]

Motorhome of Trailer?

I've had both motorhomes and trailers. The big advantage to the motorhome that I saw was having a large generator on-board to run the A/C. Often, You don't have a generator on a travel trailer. I know some of the newer trailers have generators that run on propane, but they use alot of propane, which, is sometimes hard to find. I have a '98, 25'-Nash, bumper-pull trailer that I really like. I put a Turbo-Maxx, roof vent, 3-sp. fan that is reversible, over my bed. It works surprisingly well on hot nights when you have the fan blowing on you. Not as good as A/C, but alot better than nothing. It also, has a cover on it so that you can run it in the rain. Someone here mentioned that a longer wheelbase truck tows better (less swaying) than a shorter wheelbase. I have found that to be true. Also, a good load equalizing hitch with an anti-sway mechanism, works well too. Try to find a trailer with shock absorbers on the axles. If not, Monroe makes a shock absorber kit. Hope this helps. Joe.

 

[RMcCulloch]

Re: Motorhome of Trailer?

Originally posted by Buffalo

I've had both motorhomes and trailers. The big advantage to the motorhome that I saw was having a large generator on-board to run the A/C. Often, You don't have a generator on a travel trailer. I know some of the newer trailers have generators that run on propane, but they use alot of propane, which, is sometimes hard to find.

You're right in that the propane-fuelled generators are fuel hogs - precisely why my 7KW Onan is fed from a 30 Gallon gasoline tank.



It took a bit of doing to have it installed, but it was definitely worth it.



Being able to run the A/Cs in hot weather [+ 90F and warmer] and electric heaters (for extra warmth) in cold [-10F and cooler] weather makes our "outings" far more enjoyable.



A simple [but usually noisy] alternative to the on-board genset is to use a portable unit. While there are a lot of them on the market, the Honda EU series is generally considered to be the quietest of the bunch.

 

[midlife crisis]

We have a 22' Nash (bumper pull) and it tows fine. We have a wd hitch with 1 friction style anti-sway, and I have never had a white knuckle situation. The only item I could add to all the good info above is... the truck bed itself. My prioritys are. . the quad, bicycles, firewood, misc gear. While there may be some other answers to one or more of these things, only the truck bed will accomodate them all easily. Good Luck...

 

[klenger]

I have an Onan 3600 LP generator and have been pleased with the fuel economy, plus I don't have to worry about fuel varnishing when it is not in use. I have two 80# LP tanks and can go on several weekend trips before refilling. If I remember correctly, the no-load fuel burn is 1. 5 lbs / hr. and 3 lbs/hr at full load.

 

[HBarlow]

mfburns:



You asked for pro and cons so here are several.



Motorhomes, while beautiful and luxurious, are very expensive to own and operate and present the obvious additional cost and challenge of the need to tow transportation behind. Motorhome owners typically spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars after every trip for repairs and maintenance not to mention their huge fuel bills.



Fifth wheels are enjoying a wave of popularity. Most new trailers sold are fifth wheels. They are larger, more spacious inside, and have large storage capacity in a storage compartment under the bathroom. They feel much more spacious and comfortable than a traditional trailer due to the high ceilings and slide out compartments. They tend to be more expensive to buy, are usually heavier, and require more powerful trucks to pull the larger ones compared to conventional trailers. They use more fuel because of the large frontal area pushing wind. The pin weight is directly over the drive wheels of the puller which enhances traction and control. There is less space left for truck storage and shell campers cannot be installed on the truck. Fifth wheel trailers are also more difficult to heat and cool for the simple reason that they contain more cubic feet of space. Many have two furnaces and two roof ac units. They also tend to have very large side and rear windows which are not well insulated. At a destination, with slide outs extended, they are very comfortable for extended stays. When the slide outs are in for travel, they are less convenient for lunch stops and it is harder to use a fifth wheel with slideouts to overnight in a Wal-Mart or truck stop without attracting unwanted attention.



Conventional travel trailers have been around since the 1930s and are extremely practical and safe to tow with a good weight distributing hitch and sway control device. They don't feel as spacious as fifth wheels but are comfortable for two. They are easier to heat or cool in extreme weather due their smaller interior volume. They are more aerodynamic than fifth wheels, particularly the Airstream and Avion brands with rounded shapes so they require less fuel to tow. Traditional trailers are more practical to stop at at a rest stop for lunch. It is easier to prepare lunch and take a nap because most do not have slide outs blocking inside passageways. They are generally less expensive to buy and are lighter than most fifth wheels. The tow truck can have a camper shell installed for additional storage convenience.



There are other considerations but this hits the high spots so to speak. Ultimately, the choice is a matter of budget, intended usage, and personal preference.



Harvey

 

[hmickelson]

Mr. Burns. Wish we could start over again would not change a thing. Even towedasmall 5th Wheel with an Elcamino(72) beefed a bit of course. 87 we bought a 25 +2 Alpenlite now have over 125,000 miles on it and almost through replacing all the appliances. Have traveled to every stat and most of Canada. Once we wnet ot Corpus Chriti Texas and followed the Coast line to Nova Scotia. Aver long but interesting trip stayed in military retiree camps like Penscola, Andrews AFB, West Point, Hanscom AFB Near Boston etc. Went to Alaska 2 years ago whould take more than two weeks each way to really appreciate the trip. .



to the point finally, we have lived in one place for several months or moved almost every day. It's just the right size and have been able to occupy space in any and every campground. You get much larger may be too large to get in small but terrific campground space. It has 50 Gal fresh water, 30 Gal black Water and 40 gal grey water never empty unless the trash tanks are over half full. Good web site is PhredTinseth.com=-lots of information. best regars and above all have a good time Oh! the Queen size bed is terrific you have to be agile to make Bride and I do it together. Hugh

 

[mfburns]

I want to say thanks for all the good comments, advice and experiences. I have an RV show this weekend and can get a first hand look at some of the choices.



Again a very large THANKS to all the responders



Mike