Fiver with Bed slide

Thanks for all the input.
We have pretty well narrowed the search down to the silverback 29RE.
becuz of price, quality features etc.
Don't much care for the weight (our current fw weighs 7400) but most say with the duramax 2500 hd shouldnt be a problem.
Now its only a matter of when we complete the deal.

Jayco

Do you also need a triple slide?

Winnebago has their Voyage series which have dry weights closer to 8000lbs with a bed slide. Their triple slide is 8800lbs.

We love our Winnebago Lite Five which is similar to the Voyage series. Very well built. Many of the Lite Five floorplans are available under the Voyage name for 2015 model year but their website does not list them.

http://winnebagotowables.com/voyage-floorplans

PaulCW wrote:
So what is the towing experience going to be like with the 29RE silverback.
Trailer-9790 lbs Altho with options its 10400lb UVW
Hitch wt is 1615 lb as stated plus options

http://www.forestriverinc.com/FifthWheels/Silverback/default.aspx?model=silverback&page=floorplandetails&floorplanid=3199&RVType=fifthwheels

Truck has 2500 lb payload capacity and is a 05 gmc duramax 2500

You have posted earlier that your truck weighed 6,700# and had a 9,200# GVWR, if the truck weight is with it loaded as it would be towing you might come in under your GVWR.
You need to weigh again and get separate front and rear axle readings. Then you you will really know what you can carry within the GVWR. If you are more concerned with staying within axle rating and GVWR as a guide line, you should be fine.
I tow a very similar 5er with a 9,860# "dry" weight and a 12,320# GVWR. It tows great be it a narrow, twisty two lane state highway to the freeway.
I feel very comfortable towing on roads like these at the 55 mph speed limit or a bit better 60 mph or so to stay with traffic.

I feel safe and in control driving roads like this at those speeds. Yes, likely doing 60 in both pictures.
Yes the 5er is in tow in these pictures, taken by my lovely DW!

We have your same truck, and tow a Cougar 324rlb that weighs just under 12000 lbs loaded. The loaded pin is +/- 2000 lbs give or take 200 lbs depending on how/what we load. We have larger tires that have a capacity of 3750 lbs each at 80psi. The original tires have a capacity of 3042 lbs, which is how you get your RAWR of 6084 lbs, since the actual rear axle itself is rated at well over 10,000 lbs on these trucks.

We are a little over the truck's GVWR, but effectively under our RAWR with the higher capacity tires. Your truck at 6700 lbs weighs about 400 lbs less than ours so you have even more payload available.

For four years, our truck has pulled and stopped our fiver with nice handling and no issues whatsoever. If you still have the stock shocks on your truck, I would recommend replacing them with Bilstein shocks. They will make a big difference on dips and such.

So what is the towing experience going to be like with the 29RE silverback.
Trailer-9790 lbs Altho with options its 10400lb UVW
Hitch wt is 1615 lb as stated plus options

http://www.forestriverinc.com/FifthWheels/Silverback/default.aspx?model=silverback&page=floorplandetails&floorplanid=3199&RVType=fifthwheels

Truck has 2500 lb payload capacity and is a 05 gmc duramax 2500

PaulCW,

You purchase through a dealer. See the Purchase Local statement on the Grand Design website. I also suggest you take a look at the Grand Design Owners Forum. It will give you a good feel for what owners think about their units, and customer support (excellent).

The GVWR is 1500 more on the Silverback. We eliminated it because we could not get to the refrigerator with the slides in. It also didn't give us any good large storage spot (think 20# bag of dog food), a spot for the dog water bowl without kicking it over, or large enough spot for a clock radio and glasses by the bed. There are other differences too, like the hydraulic slides on the Silverback.

We didn't find a small enough Laredo (any better than the one we had), and just didn't like the feel of the Cougar. The Mountaineer was too heavy. We considered a Montana High Country, but one floor plan had very heavy recliners to move to put in the slide and the other had a walk through bathroom with a clearance about 3" shorter than the DH. With our trade, we were quoted within $100 difference between the High Country and Reflection (3 different quotes) - all at different dealers.

Pick and choose from here...

Cougar floor plans
Laredo
Mountaineer
Montana High Country

Or other higher end Keystone 5ers.

If you don't like Keystone there are other brands...just search the interwebz till you find a floor plan you like with the weight you can pull.

2hams wrote:
At first I thought we would not like not having more windows in the bedroom, but after more than 100 nights on the road it doesn't bother us. I do regret not getting a Fantastic fan for the bedroom and kitchen. We changed to 16" wheels and LT tires. I believe that 16" wheels are now a factory option.

We don't have dual pane windows. We did get some condensation when nighttime temps were in the low 50s, but nothing really bad. There are some folks with dual pane windows who are active on the Grand Design owners forum, so you might get some more info there. Also lots of other 303 owners.

We found that everything was pretty comparable in price for the rigs we considered. Our must haves included 16" wheels, access to fridge with slides in, standard queen bed, and layout where my 6'4" DH could walk around without scraping his head. We also wanted to stay under 35' and under 12000 GVWR. I researched for over a year and looked at every mfg.

So is there a direct method of ordering or did you go thru a dealer. I have been overall impressed with these trailers, but I am thinking also of this one which has more bells and whistles. Its roughly in the same weight range about 500lb more but same hitch weight. I know the profile is a little higher as well

http://www.forestriverinc.com/FifthWheels/Silverback/default.aspx?page=floorplandetails&floorplanid=3199

At first I thought we would not like not having more windows in the bedroom, but after more than 100 nights on the road it doesn't bother us. I do regret not getting a Fantastic fan for the bedroom and kitchen. We changed to 16" wheels and LT tires. I believe that 16" wheels are now a factory option.

We don't have dual pane windows. We did get some condensation when nighttime temps were in the low 50s, but nothing really bad. There are some folks with dual pane windows who are active on the Grand Design owners forum, so you might get some more info there. Also lots of other 303 owners.

We found that everything was pretty comparable in price for the rigs we considered. Our must haves included 16" wheels, access to fridge with slides in, standard queen bed, and layout where my 6'4" DH could walk around without scraping his head. We also wanted to stay under 35' and under 12000 GVWR. I researched for over a year and looked at every mfg.