Floor plan question

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?

I was in the same boat, with bathroom access being =much= more important than the rest. My #1 choice when looking over the last 3 years, would have had full access to most of the coach without having to move slides, but it had no island/peninsula. I never was able to look at that model and, when we actually saw the one we have now, DW fell in love with it. It =does= have a peninsula, so the street slide has to go out 8-10" to give us access to the fridge, but forward is fully accessible. If there =were= any issues, I suppose I could carry the remote in the truck and open a slide a bit as we pull off. :B

On edit: When we travel, we've always carried a small cooler and bag of snacks in the truck with us, so fridge access has never been important to us. Bathroom is another story...

Lyle