Rear kitchen tow pros cons

rear kitchen for us. never wanted anything different. 2nd fifth with the RK. Also the last as we are close to being non rv er's.

chevman

One of the big reason for choosing our Alpenlite 34RlR was the galley space. Specifically the amount of counter space to work on. The 100gal freshwater capacity was a big plus too.

Didn't like the rear kitchens because of the bouncing issues & sometimes there are some fantastic views out of that big back window. We spin the chairs around & enjoy. Our galley is the 'J' or 'U' arrangement. Counter space on both sides of the double sink. We have a whopping huge pantry created by using what was intended to be the washer/dryer closet.


Click For Full-Size Image.

I see absolutely no difference mid kitchen to rear kitchen. Have had no issues with movement in items in cabinets and refrigerator.

My opinion only....a little rougher in rear, but not excessively so. With the multitudes of rv’ers that had a lot of “freeze - up issues this winter....frozen lines would be my primary concern. The lines to a rear kitchen are much longer, raising the possibility of frozen lines. Also, critical if boondocking, the longer line would require longer flush time to get hot water to sink....though a non-issue if you heat your water on the stove. These are small concerns, but something to consider.

This floor plan is identical to our North Shore by Dutchman, the only difference is the sink in bedroom is on the opposite side but the kitchen and interior are almost exactly the same.

Yes you'll have a few things bounce around if not packed well, DW uses plastic bins for the food stuff and plastics for dinnerware so not much of an issue for us...

rhagfo wrote:
Our current 5er is RK mid living room with lots of windows. DW LOVES to cook, and a kitchen with more than 18" of counter top was requirement #1!
Table and chairs, not a dinette was #2, so this is what she got!

It is a bit over 11,000# at a GVWR of 12,360 and 32' in length.

Only issue was a road buckle like a speed bump we hit at 45 mph, I thought the 5er left the ground! We broke the door shelves in the refer, with soda and beer on them.

We always avoided looking at rear kitchens because we liked the big rear windows. After buying the AF with rear kitchen, I'm not sure we'll ever have anything else. Way more cabinet storage and countertop than our last mid kitchen trailer. We haven't really had any problems with things falling during travel - but we have shocks on the trailer.

Looking at a 30.5MLOK Jayco

sk734 wrote:
Looking at rear kitchen 5ver with rear kitchen about 11K gvwr. I have always had a rear living unit. Any difference in towing? They seem to have more cabinets. Any other problems?
Thanks

So as mentioned before, traffic pattern is something to watch.
I posted our floor plan before, and floor plans are a personal decision, but things to think about.

We like our mid entry, rear kitchen for several reasons.
Traffic pattern, no passing through the kitchen, it is a destination.
No looking through Kitchen to watch TV.
Direct access to outside door from bedroom.
Our design has large counter surface.

One other nice feature is that I can easily watch TV while washing dishes! :B

One safety feature is that all gas appliances are located behind the entrance, if one were to start a fire, our path to the door is between us and the fire, not beyond! The furnace is located under the sink peninsula.

Do you have a particular Make and Model that you are looking at?

sk734 wrote:
Looking at rear kitchen 5ver with rear kitchen about 11K gvwr. I have always had a rear living unit. Any difference in towing? They seem to have more cabinets. Any other problems?
Thanks

We've owned both and pulled both with the same truck for a while. No difference.
Having owned two RK models (11200 lbs and 9880 lbs) we have never had issues with anything bouncing around in the cabinets. Both trailers had shocks.
Now our first 5th wheel was a new '84 rear bath 8800 gvwr with no shocks on the suspension. Every trip things in the rear bath cabinets were rearanged.
The wife will not give up her old '97 rear kitchen with two slides with all the counter space/cabinets across the back wall and down one side wall.

We just switched (prefer the rear kitchen but got a good deal on a layout we are OK with).

A lot depends on how you use the rig. We spend months at a time, so we do cook and we do watch TV. With a lot of the center kitchens, the cook is constantly getting out of the way as people come in and out and in many cases, the TV view was blocked by the cook.

We found a layout that had the TV on the back wall, so this wasn't an issue but we did lose counter space. During the week, it's mostly us so traffic thru the kitchen isn't a big deal but weekend when we have friends and family visit, it's a bit of a nuisance.

Never had an issue towing the rear kitchen.