Small Fiver

Thanks all. The specs for this one is listed in the LINK on my reply dated 04/09/15.

We have looked at the Prowler P22. It may be 29' so it could be a bit too long. It did not seem that long when we did our checkout. The weights for us are beautiful. ADVERTISED weights are 7800# dry and hitch weight of 1185# which may or may not be correct. If you go by the 20% it should be 1400# +-.....
Right now we are waiting for the Heartland forum to answer our question regarding quality.

Congrats! I hope you will love the new 5er. Looks like a lot more room than a truck camper. Enjoy.

I pulled the trigger today and sent Idle Time a deposit. It should be ready within a month.

We drove up to the Allen Factory in Oklahoma Tuesday and got the "nickle" tour. Their plant was very impressive as was the quality of their product. They are probably the only builder still making shorter FW's; a 19' and a 23' with a slide.

We spec'ed out a 23' with our options and we will make the final decision this weekend on whether to order or not.

23' FW with slide

magic43 wrote:
Wow Guys, thank you for the responses, and they will help with our search.

To answer a couple of questions, there are times when we will want to also pull a 12' utility trailer that hauls an ATV, Ice chests, and spike camping gear. This is easily done with the truck camper and is allowed with a FW, but not with a TT.

I know, Toy Hauler, which I have had in the past, (an 18' Forest River) but it really was not satisfactory.

That was part of our reasoning behind our purchase of our Heartland Sundance XLT. It is lightweight, 26.5' long and an all around very nice camper.
With the 16' long ATV trailer, we are 60' long bumper to bumper. Legal in all states that allow pulling doubles. As I have no desire to ever take the ATV's back east, for lack of any decent riding, double towing is legal anywhere I would ever want to take them.

We plan to drive to Allen, OK this week and take a look at the Idle Time 5th wheels. They have a 19' (199RB) just completed and are ready to begin building a 23' (219RKS).

amandasgramma wrote:
Are you wanting new? We had a 21 foot 5th wheel....a Wilderness. It was built in 1990 and had fewer problems than most new rigs nowadays.

Jayco in Australia, makes a 21ft model, their smallest size but they are not related to the U.S. Company, so not available in US unfortunately
Jayco Exterior
Jayco Interior
Jayco Interior 2

magic43 wrote:
Wow Guys, thank you for the responses, and they will help with our search.

To answer a couple of questions, there are times when we will want to also pull a 12' utility trailer that hauls an ATV, Ice chests, and spike camping gear. This is easily done with the truck camper and is allowed with a FW, but not with a TT.

I know, Toy Hauler, which I have had in the past, (an 18' Forest River) but it really was not satisfactory.

With the size unit you're looking at, finding one that will safely tow another trailer is going to be a real challenge. Add to that the fact that this is not legal to double-town in many areas and you're going to have issues if you like to travel through those areas.

Lyle

My wife and I searched for a small 5'ver and even went to the Scamp factory to look at theirs. The Scamp new is about $21,000. So in looking for a used 5'ers we found listings for 18-20 ft but none in our area. So we moved up and looked at several 22 ft models that were from 1995-2002 in age and $4-5000 in price. But the stumbling block is that all the small ones have bedrooms not much higher than a PU camper bed so you still have to crawl in and out. To get a stand up bed room required a much bigger 5'er which in turn requires a bigger truck. So since both of us are in our mid 60's and middle of the night bathroom breaks are not an option. We decided that being able to stand up and walk to the bathroom instead of crawling out and down the steps out weighed the better towing of a 5th wheel.