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

I found it, but it's not "little".

Link, click here.

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!

Earlier this year, we transitioned to a shorter 5th wheel from a smaller travel trailer. We now have a Winnebago Minnie Plus 27RLTS which is just under 30 ft. There are two opposing slides in the living area -- one for the kitchen and one for the sofa. The door is mid-coach and, like was mentioned above, allows full access to bathroom/bedroom. The living/kitchen area is less accessible than I would like with the slides closed (but obviously not a deal breaker since we now own it). The floor plan includes a kitchen island which blocks the refrigerator door when the kitchen slide is retracted in. If they had made that island only about 3 inches shorter, we would be able to fully open the fridge door. If we really needed to, we can partially open the slide to open the fridge and even scoot ourselves back to the dinette if we wanted to sit there.

So far, we have found this trailer/floorplan to be very functional for our needs.

Always insist to see a rig with the slides out and IN!

Chris

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.

It's no hassle for us to put the slide out a bit if needed to get by. It's a matter of pushing a button for 10~15 seconds. How much bother is that?

With our Chaparral 30RLS, we have access to the bedroom, bathroom, frig without extending the slides. Works for us.

There has never, in 20 plus years of owning a TT, been a time were I could not open a slide if I needed to for any reason.

A mid coach entry door will generally give you access to the forward area. Then layout of the rear floorplan may or may not provide the access you want. If you can at least open the frig and use the galley sink, that may be OK. Sometimes just opening a slide just a few inches can provide short term access.

While having unlimited access with the slides in would be great, sometimes that dictates a floorplan or length that is less desirable for general use. Make sure you like the unit with the slides open, then verify that you can also live with any limitations when they are closed.