I think the first consideration should be "can you afford a Class A diesel motor home?" They cost more to purchase and a lot more to maintain! They are much more complex and harder to fix. In most cases it takes a trained tech to fix things like a diesel boiler etc.
After you are past that issue, it is generally thought that a Motor Home is better if you are moving a lot and a 5th wheel is better if you stay put.
We have a smaller 29' two slide 5th wheel. For boom docking we ave an old Freedom 10 1000 watt inverter that will run the micro wave or hair dryer which our Honda eu1000i generator will not run.
I have it set up so the Honda can charge the two group 27 batteries with the OEM converter when off grid. On the other side of the batteries I can run the sat receiver and TV etc via the inverter. The little Honda will run for many hours on its little tank keeping the batteries charged. When it runs dry the inverter keeps things going until the Honda cools for refueling.
Only down side is no AC cooling!!!
I would like a nice big 40' DP and a small SUV to run around with, however I know I can not afford one, based on talking with fellow snowbirders over the last 5 winters in Arizona.
So it really comes down to personal choice, as you see a lot of both in snowbird parks and out in the desert dry camping. Foot for foot the 5th wheel has more usable space. Then there are issue like if you rig has to go in for service your home is gone for a while with a motor home.
Chris
