Floor plan question

2112 wrote:
We had the same concern when deciding on our current FW. We have access to the bath and bed but not the fridge. We love the floorplan so we bought it. It turned out to be no big deal. Pop out the slide a few inches to get to the fridge.

memilanuk wrote:
So... the wife and I are starting to entertain the notion of a short 5th wheel. In looking through various floor plans and reviews, something came to mind, something that we actually really like about our current TT. Specifically, ease of access to certain key areas - bathroom, kitchen, dining area, bedroom - without having to run the slide out when stopping at a truck stop for fuel / lunch, or at a rest area for the night.

A lot of the floor plans we've been looking at (again, short 5th wheels in the <30' class) tend to have setups where it looks like there'd be no access to the 'upstairs' with the slide in. Others appear to have limited/no access to the kitchen/dining area with the slide in.

To be frank, we kind of stumbled upon the layout we have in our TT - the thing we were looking for in the TT was a walk-thru bathroom that had more space. But once we started traveling with the new trailer, the ability to enter the 'front' door and still have access to 80+% of the coach immediately became one of our favorite 'features'.

Given that there doesn't seem to be a lot of short 5th wheels with two doors ;) it appears that feature set may be tough to come by. Not impossible, but I'm concerned that I might be putting too much emphasis on something that is not really that important.

So I guess my question (particularly for those of you with short 5vers) is how you feel about your current (or past) setup with regards to making quick stops while traveling. Is it a hassle, where you have to put the slide out every time you want to do anything, or not?

4x4ord wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
I'm with you memilanuk.

A couple months ago we fell in love with a front living room 5er that had awesome floor plans. We loved that open feeling between the upper level living room and the lower level kitchen-dining area. We were ready to pull the cord on one model until we seriously considered what happens with slides IN.

That started us on a new search and we found only 1 model that actually had access to everything with all slides in. I don't remember which one it is now, but the stairs to upper level were in the middle and the bathroom to the master bed room in the back had access in the middle, not the sides, creating a hall. And it had no center island, making the kitchen 100 percent accessible.

But, as I recall, that specific model was simply not around where I live for us to even look at it. So, we decided to just keep our travel trailer that IS completely accessible with all 3 slides IN.

Coming from someone who's been down the same road you are traveling, only you can made up your mind if you need full access or are OK with having stuff blocked if/and/when you MUST have the slides in and cannot extract them.

I don't know about others, but we use ours with slides in a lot. Especially during the winter months, more than the summer months. Slides in reduce the space to heat and air condition.

If you do decide to go with a unit that blocks access to different areas, YOU have to ask yourself which is most important and which is not? Kitchen and bathroom when traveling on the road? Or Bedroom and no bath for overnight sleeping? And what happens if you end up in a horrid storm and you feel the need to pull the slides in to reduce your foot print. (which we've done on many occasions).

There are reasons why you will want to use the camper with slides in and extracting will NOT be an option. What is most important.

For us, our decision to keep our current camper a bit longer was our answer.

So, I went out and gave it a good bath!

I doubt that you can measure a difference in the energy required to heat or cool your trailer with slides in vs out. It takes energy to warm or cool mass. The mass that needs cooling or heating stays virtually unchanged slides out vs in. The empty space contains very ltitle mass.

So I guess my question (particularly for those of you with short 5vers) is how you feel about your current (or past) setup with regards to making quick stops while traveling. Is it a hassle, where you have to put the slide out every time you want to do anything, or not?

4x4ord wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
I'm with you memilanuk.

A couple months ago we fell in love with a front living room 5er that had awesome floor plans. We loved that open feeling between the upper level living room and the lower level kitchen-dining area. We were ready to pull the cord on one model until we seriously considered what happens with slides IN.

That started us on a new search and we found only 1 model that actually had access to everything with all slides in. I don't remember which one it is now, but the stairs to upper level were in the middle and the bathroom to the master bed room in the back had access in the middle, not the sides, creating a hall. And it had no center island, making the kitchen 100 percent accessible.

But, as I recall, that specific model was simply not around where I live for us to even look at it. So, we decided to just keep our travel trailer that IS completely accessible with all 3 slides IN.

Coming from someone who's been down the same road you are traveling, only you can made up your mind if you need full access or are OK with having stuff blocked if/and/when you MUST have the slides in and cannot extract them.

I don't know about others, but we use ours with slides in a lot. Especially during the winter months, more than the summer months. Slides in reduce the space to heat and air condition.

If you do decide to go with a unit that blocks access to different areas, YOU have to ask yourself which is most important and which is not? Kitchen and bathroom when traveling on the road? Or Bedroom and no bath for overnight sleeping? And what happens if you end up in a horrid storm and you feel the need to pull the slides in to reduce your foot print. (which we've done on many occasions).

There are reasons why you will want to use the camper with slides in and extracting will NOT be an option. What is most important.

For us, our decision to keep our current camper a bit longer was our answer.

So, I went out and gave it a good bath!

I doubt that you can measure a difference in the energy required to heat or cool your trailer with slides in vs out. It takes energy to warm or cool mass. The mass that needs cooling or heating stays virtually unchanged slides out vs in. The empty space contains very ltitle mass.

DutchmenSport wrote:
I'm with you memilanuk.

A couple months ago we fell in love with a front living room 5er that had awesome floor plans. We loved that open feeling between the upper level living room and the lower level kitchen-dining area. We were ready to pull the cord on one model until we seriously considered what happens with slides IN.

That started us on a new search and we found only 1 model that actually had access to everything with all slides in. I don't remember which one it is now, but the stairs to upper level were in the middle and the bathroom to the master bed room in the back had access in the middle, not the sides, creating a hall. And it had no center island, making the kitchen 100 percent accessible.

But, as I recall, that specific model was simply not around where I live for us to even look at it. So, we decided to just keep our travel trailer that IS completely accessible with all 3 slides IN.

Coming from someone who's been down the same road you are traveling, only you can made up your mind if you need full access or are OK with having stuff blocked if/and/when you MUST have the slides in and cannot extract them.

I don't know about others, but we use ours with slides in a lot. Especially during the winter months, more than the summer months. Slides in reduce the space to heat and air condition.

If you do decide to go with a unit that blocks access to different areas, YOU have to ask yourself which is most important and which is not? Kitchen and bathroom when traveling on the road? Or Bedroom and no bath for overnight sleeping? And what happens if you end up in a horrid storm and you feel the need to pull the slides in to reduce your foot print. (which we've done on many occasions).

There are reasons why you will want to use the camper with slides in and extracting will NOT be an option. What is most important.

For us, our decision to keep our current camper a bit longer was our answer.

So, I went out and gave it a good bath!

4x4ord wrote:
My last trailer allowed access to the bedroom; bathroom and fridge without opening a slide. We really appreciated that feature. The trailer we have now requires the kitchen slide to be moved some to access the fridge; bedroom and bathroom are still accessible. We still like the floor plan of our current trailer better.