Good mid priced fifth wheel

laknox wrote:

Texas Roadrunner wrote:
Our son is looking to buy a new (to him) fifth wheel, 2011 or newer. He has a GMC 2500 Duramax truck, short bed. He wants a 30-32 ft. fiver. What brand or brands would you recommend? Open Range interests him, told him you guys are the experts, so would love to hear your opinions. As always, thanks in advance for your help.

Susan

Susan, his limiting factor is going to be his truck, in that size-range. If he's got an older truck, there may not be many FW's he can carry due to lower payloads. He may want to keep his search to the Lite/Light/"1/2 ton" FWs with a GVW < 10k lbs. If he's got newer truck, like 2011-13, he could get away with some of the heavier FWs, but payload is, again, going to be the issue.

Lyle

Come on Lyle. I do not care what year the GMC 2500HD Duramax is, it will tow just about any 30-32 foot 5th wheel made. It might be a little over the manufacturers warranty number(GVWR) on early ones with the 9200 rating, it will not however be over the rear axle(GAWR). If you are going to park this one on the side of the road, there will be thousands of them parked cost to cost with it.

Chris

All I can say I am very pleased with my Open Range now in 3rd year of ownership and been full timing in it for the last year. Manufacturer stands behind the product and has a 2 year warranty. The truck should be weighed to see what payload is left but I will disagree with Lyle's statement about older trucks because I have 2800lbs of payload in my 97 3/4 ton which is better then many new ones depending on how they are equipped. So to be sure weight the Duramax and you will know how much weight it can handle.

Texas Roadrunner wrote:
Our son is looking to buy a new (to him) fifth wheel, 2011 or newer. He has a GMC 2500 Duramax truck, short bed. He wants a 30-32 ft. fiver. What brand or brands would you recommend? Open Range interests him, told him you guys are the experts, so would love to hear your opinions. As always, thanks in advance for your help.

Susan

Susan, his limiting factor is going to be his truck, in that size-range. If he's got an older truck, there may not be many FW's he can carry due to lower payloads. He may want to keep his search to the Lite/Light/"1/2 ton" FWs with a GVW < 10k lbs. If he's got newer truck, like 2011-13, he could get away with some of the heavier FWs, but payload is, again, going to be the issue.

Lyle

Seems like the term 'mid-priced' is somewhat subjective. I agree that Northwoods makes a great well built trailer and I would have loved to have one but they are out of my price range. The trailer I opted for was quite a bit cheaper than a similar sized Arctic Fox but still much higher than the low priced models we looked at. We didn't want the low end super/ultra lite models. They tended to have rather poor build quality thats easy to spot such as lighter weight flimsy interior cabinets, drawer slides, seams and overall fit and finish inside and out.

I found Arctic Fox to be priced at the upper end of what I'd consider mid-priced. Worth the expense if you can afford it but we couldn't... :-(

We love our new Winnebago. Fit and finish is excellent. Customer support has been great as well.

The problem with a trailer that is only 2 years old is that most people selling them have paid virtually nothing off the principal they borrowed. So they basically need to get close to new price to get out of their loan. Have him do his research. Check out what is available locally on craigslist and other classifieds and what they are asking. Then go to a few dealers lots and find out what the lowest prices are for new trailers. Don't be afraid to make some calls to competing dealerships and let them know you are looking for the best price. Odds are you can get new with a warrantee for the same price as a fairly new used trailer.

Several Heartland brands would be good choices. Nobody has better customer service than Heartland!

B.O.

Ours isn't a 5er, but we love our Open Range TT! Have him check us out at openrangeowners.com for owner feedback!

We have a 2014 crusader 295rst and Love the bang for buck. Feature wise it was far more than others we looked at for less money. We have the champagne touring edition with 50 amp pre wired for 2nd air, 3 slides, fireplace, dual pane windows, auto levellers, central vac, 15k ac, 8ft fridge, Center sink island, king shower, full queen bed, theater seating lane leather, 90 amp charger with charge wizARd, 16 inch alum rims with E rated radials and ez flex suspension, power awning and lots more. All under 40k. Tows very easy with our 2500 short bed crew dmax. 8900 dry 1250 pin.

Another vote for Arctic Fox. We outgrew our fist one after 3 years and 16,000 miles of trouble-free traveling over some of the roughest back roads we could find. They are not exactly fancy, just solid. They are manufactured in Oregon.

Mid priced, best bang-for-the-buck. My vote would be for Arctic Fox by Northwoods. The problem is they are rare, rare, rare in Texas. Some friends had to drive from Texas to Florida to get theirs.

It's just about the only "mid" priced rig that is not built on a Lippert frame.