New Fifth Wheel
Me and my family have decided to live in an RV full time. We travel a lot and are rarely home due to work and visiting family and friends. We just have never RV before. It has always been something m...
Forum Discussion
Starting out as snowbirds I took advice from people on here and bought a used FW because I had never owned one. I also heard others on here sometimes saying that many of these rigs are not for full time use. I didn't give that point a lot of consideration and figured that a water heater or a propane stove or refrigerator are going to work just fine no matter how much I'm using it. That's not where the problem or issue happened for us. The issue is that we have gone beyond the cycle life of our slide as it was designed. The previous owner used the FW a little each summer to camp with their kids. When I inspected it the plastic covering on the bottom side of the slide looked nearly new with very little witness marks. After three years of us being in it for about 24 months and traveling all over the country the slide rollers are literally eating a path into the underside of the slide which is osb.
When you consider the price range of my rv and how minimally many of them are constructed I'm not surprised that this happened. I'm not worried about fixing it and will probably install thin aluminum for the rollers to travel on. With this particular issue I dont consider it a big deal and as I said, I'll fix it and carry on. If I was to do it again I probably would have been better off buying the $17,000 older Hitch hiker over this $10,000 Coachmen.
For the $10,000 I spent on this rig I have nothing to complain about and can scrap it in a year or to with no regrets. If I were in your shoes I would be very concerned with getting an upper level rig that has a good frame and slide mechanisms etc. I also have the flexibility of having a summer home base and two kids with properties and facilities to deal with my issues vs being in it all the time.
Edit: I'm not saying you should buy used.
When you consider the price range of my rv and how minimally many of them are constructed I'm not surprised that this happened. I'm not worried about fixing it and will probably install thin aluminum for the rollers to travel on. With this particular issue I dont consider it a big deal and as I said, I'll fix it and carry on. If I was to do it again I probably would have been better off buying the $17,000 older Hitch hiker over this $10,000 Coachmen.
For the $10,000 I spent on this rig I have nothing to complain about and can scrap it in a year or to with no regrets. If I were in your shoes I would be very concerned with getting an upper level rig that has a good frame and slide mechanisms etc. I also have the flexibility of having a summer home base and two kids with properties and facilities to deal with my issues vs being in it all the time.
Edit: I'm not saying you should buy used.
