[VAL] Re: VAL Digest V2 #113

["Robert. H. Flentke" <rjflentke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mary and Indiana

There is another way to look at the choice between fifth wheel and 
conventional trailers.

How are you going to use your trailer?  Will you move it only as few 
times a year?  Or will you move it often? Do you like to park in state 
and national parks where space is confined?  Or do you stick to large 
private parks?

My point is this:  The technology of fifth wheels has been applied to 
large units with multi-slide-outs.  Remember that each slide adds 
appreciably to weight.  Fifth wheels are perforce big units.  It takes 
more to pull them.  It may take more space to park them.

We have full-timed for 10 years.  We travel across the country and back 
at least once a year.  We like to caravan.  We like to park in public 
facilities at times.  We also like to park in our kids' driveways. We 
often park at Elks Lodges.   Our present unit, our longest yet is a 
31-foot Airstream, a 2001 model.  Before that we used a 29-footer.  
With a Hensley hitch, which we've used for the last 120,000 miles, we 
do not experience sway.  Often is the time we have pulled into a rest 
stop and found a stronger wind than we had sensed.  Previously, we used 
Reese hitching equipment and believe there is no comparison.

My real point is to suggest that you figure how and where you will use 
your trailer and how big a trailer you want to tow.  We have met a lot 
of folks who went for the biggest, most comfortable fifth-wheel they 
could find.  Then, they didn't travel all that much because they felt 
the trailer oppressive to pull.

We camped for 30 years or more before we retired and started 
full-timing. The last family rig was a mini-motor home.  To test how we 
would like trailering, we bought an older Airstream a few years before 
retirement and that contributed importantly to our learning curve.

Hope this is helpful to you.  Good luck on your full-timing.

Bob
#3117