Sold Class A for a 5'ver

My neighbor went from a totally ratty MCI conversion to a new Alpine Avalanche 40' DP ISL Allison about 5 yrs ago. He waited til the price dropped from 228k to 168k. It looked really nice but I have learned about all the (mostly hidden) things that can go wrong with such a complex RV. Coach computer problems, coach mountings that sag/bend and mess up slides, door alignment etc. The radiator is in the back so it's a bear getting to the engine. NO THANKS, I haven't spent 168k on all my P/Us and RVs, put together, in my 18 yrs of RVing or had so many problems. Craig

Went back and forth for a few years between DP's and fivers, then decided on the fiver's. Just our opinion but the fivers feel more like a home to us. We full time.

I think the more you are going to be sitting, the more the fiver makes sense. And the more you are going to be traveling, the more the MH makes sense. That's really my bottom line on it. We like to travel more than sit, so our fiver is going up for sale next spring.

We had three 5er's before going to our MH. After six years we have been discussing going back. We went to a RV show last weekend looking for a 27-30 ft 5er and had to run for our lives. Almost bought a 38ft Monaco dp instead. lol. It would have been nice but glad we didn't. The search is still on.

We moved from a MH to a fiver about 5 years ago. Do I miss the MH, sure but for the money you can’t beat a good quality fiver. Disadvantage for us: For shopping or exploring the tow car is easier to get around in than the pick up. Backing up the trailer takes some getting use to. My wife could move around in the MH, but as we got older she was afraid of falling. At our age we stop every few hours anyways. Advantage: You get far more living space, our 34 fiver has more room than our 40’ pusher, but not the storage space. With the new self-leveling systems setting up is about the same as the pusher. Now if it’s raining you do need to get out and level, but you still need to hook up water, sewer and electricity outside the same as a MH. Depending on what you get for a fiver and truck, a MH pusher will usually cost more, but not always. They also cost more to take care of, like oil changes, cost of new tires. I was surprised that driving the pick-up and fiver was easier than all three of our MH’s. The pick-up going down the road drives like a car, our MH’s you were always driving them. Wind doesn’t seen to push a fiver around like it did the MH’s even our last 40’ pusher.

We like to move around a lot and setting up or moving on is about the same. If you consider hooking up your tow car. We travel about 6 months a year and only stay in one spot on average a week or two.

No matter what we have we just love RVing.

Nice thread. Much appreciate the input from my perspective. We've been fifth wheel people (30' New Horizons) and I love it, but I've been sorta day dreaming about a bigger Class A. I made the mistake during out two week stop over in Portland of taking my wife to look at 40' Class A's. Needless to say, she would have given the OK on any one of them we looked at, and a double ok on the one's that were double my price range.

But the fact remains, I'm a cheap skate, which is the only way we can afford to travel. I'll stick with the rig I can afford to travel with. Long live the fifth wheel.

I started this thread last September 2013. I've put 8000 miles on my fiver now and so much enjoying it along with the reduced cost of the MH I had. I don't worry about what may go wrong anymore as I can probably fix it if it does. It's all about peace of mind, and we have that now. Just wanted to come back and give my feelings as to date.

We are happy.

I am also a Former class A owner and now have a 30 ft 5th wheel. I wanted to get away from all the automatic stuff that can and does go wrong. I don't even want automatic levelers. My leveling boards cannot malfunction. I stayed with a small enough trailer so I would not need a dually truck. Easier to get around with. Jusy as happy as can be now, at least for the time being.

how are you liking the 331 iam looking at one right now. Have you used it and how do things work so far

Lee, you can't get to the fridg when all closed up, but all we do is open one side or the other about a foot when we need to get to it. But I have a nice box in the back of the truck for the easy things. I have not had any major issues that I couldn't handle myself. I did replace the converter but that was not really Keystone, I dealt right with the manufacture and was very happy.