Trying to figure out best 5th wheel? Advice appreciated

Here we go. Five 5th wheels over a 25 year period. All longbed trucks, last three have the same HighWay Products bed height tool box that's 30" front to back. Been full timing since 11/11 and YES it's nice to have what you need with you to take care of anything that may go wrong along your travels. Paying someone to do what you can sucks as most are incompetent.

I have owned one RBW hitch I thought was AWESOME cuz I didn't know any better. It would make you cringe at every stop and take off with the horrible clunking. A friend suggest a B&W hitch as I was still working and hated the rails being in my way for work. Holy Cow, what an incredible difference. Simple to hitch and unhitch on uneven ground (RBW was not nor are many slider hitches) ZERO noise as the jaws wrap tightly around the kingpin unlike the slide bar of the RBW.

ANDERSEN owners with short beds have to place the pivot point behind the rear axles center unloading weight from the front axle.

Funny awareness and paying attention are good things to do but WHY add more things to think about when you are tired from a long days ride and simply want to setup camp.

Most people that want a short bed because it will "fit in the garage". Just another compromise. FACT a longer wheelbase will be more stable.

Like I said you are spending a LOT of $$$ so do it right.

way2roll wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Jim Irish wrote:
We liked the new Montana High Country 281ck look and feel for our needs. Thanks for the you tube link.
3 questions :
1. Best way to get the new 281ck? Email a number of local dealers here in Atlanta?
2. Everything I have been told is a Ram 2500 4X4,diesel (max payload 2,170lbs and max towing 17170lbs) should not be an issue?
3. Can we go with a 6.4’ bed vs 8’?
Thanks for all the solid responses.

Jim

Sure you can compromise with the short bed but WHY??? Nice to have room for a large toolbox. There is not a single slider on the market that does not have issues.

At 14,300# the pin at only 20% will be 2,860#, you tell me a 2500 will be just fine! MOST people that use their RV's have over 20% pin and 25% is very common.

You are spending a lot of money do it right the first time.

This is good advice. Even with our smaller FW we chose to go with a long bed F350. Glad we did. The F250 would have been really pushing the limit and left no room for anything extra or an upgrade to a larger FW in the future. We also went with the long bed. I simply did not want to have to mess with a slider. No offense to those that have sliders.

No offense taken, but talking from experience ,been towing four different fifth wheels , with two different trucks ,both short bed 1 tons. The fifth wheels have been from 32' -38 ' long. Time period of nearly 15 years.

We are not full time ,nor ever plan to be. We use our fifth wheel 4-5 months a year. I have learned after 15 years ,you don't need large toolboxes in the bed, you don't need to haul everything ,but the kitchen sink :) etc etc. Full timing may be another story, but finding being away from home for 2 months or more, I can't see where we would need anything more if we were full timing.

Short bed a compromise , not hardly, but having the proper truck as far as weight rating ,yes thats the important thing. I have never wanted ,nor needed a long bed truck.

Hitches , I have towed with two different manual sliding hitches ,and the rail mount Andersen. If within the weight rating the four point attached steel rail mount Andersen is the only way to go. Short bed or long bed. I have the fifth wheel puck system on my Ram 3500, with the frame adapter , and I use the Andersen on that, as well as an 18K Reese manual slider. The only thing better would be an Andersen with the four point system attached directly to the puck systems on these newer trucks , without using a frame adapter. Unfortunately Andersen does not make one "YET" .The simplicity of the andersen far outways any other hitch , hands down.

This sliding hitch issue has been beaten to death on the forums. I can speak from experience , I don't need a slider towing with a short bed, many others do not either. There are some it would not matter slider or not they will have problems, its just a fact. Towing a fifth wheel takes a lot of awareness , and paying attention .

Bought it yesterday. 10 week wait. We are very excited.
Now onto figuring out hitch and best way to learn how to drive it.

Ok- I am talking to a couple dealers. My understanding is 25-30% off list is a good buy pre-COVID.
We will see what happens.
Learning a lot in these posts.
Thank you everyone.

Jim Irish wrote:
We liked the new Montana High Country 281ck look and feel for our needs. Thanks for the you tube link.
3 questions :
1. Best way to get the new 281ck? Email a number of local dealers here in Atlanta?
2. Everything I have been told is a Ram 2500 4X4,diesel (max payload 2,170lbs and max towing 17170lbs) should not be an issue?
3. Can we go with a 6.4’ bed vs 8’?
Thanks for all the solid responses.

Jim

I would maybe start with calling Keystone direct to see when it will be available. Since it's not on their website yet, it may not be available at dealers yet either. I do know all manufacturers are having issues right now with sourcing parts, both due to high demand and because of border restrictions (ie a lot of parts come from China). So it's release date may be pushed out.

And yes, I was a little annoyed it came out after we already bought our 294 :) I wanted to go as short as possible like you and I liked all the counterspace in the kitchen. We don't use the dinette in ours except to set stuff on it. Trying to get the husband to agree to take it out to put a dog crate there instead. We have 3 bigger dogs so I'm grateful for the extra couch space in the 294 though.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Jim Irish wrote:
We liked the new Montana High Country 281ck look and feel for our needs. Thanks for the you tube link.
3 questions :
1. Best way to get the new 281ck? Email a number of local dealers here in Atlanta?
2. Everything I have been told is a Ram 2500 4X4,diesel (max payload 2,170lbs and max towing 17170lbs) should not be an issue?
3. Can we go with a 6.4’ bed vs 8’?
Thanks for all the solid responses.

Jim

Sure you can compromise with the short bed but WHY??? Nice to have room for a large toolbox. There is not a single slider on the market that does not have issues.

At 14,300# the pin at only 20% will be 2,860#, you tell me a 2500 will be just fine! MOST people that use their RV's have over 20% pin and 25% is very common.

You are spending a lot of money do it right the first time.

This is good advice. Even with our smaller FW we chose to go with a long bed F350. Glad we did. The F250 would have been really pushing the limit and left no room for anything extra or an upgrade to a larger FW in the future. We also went with the long bed. I simply did not want to have to mess with a slider. No offense to those that have sliders.

Jim Irish wrote:
We liked the new Montana High Country 281ck look and feel for our needs. Thanks for the you tube link.
3 questions :
1. Best way to get the new 281ck? Email a number of local dealers here in Atlanta?
2. Everything I have been told is a Ram 2500 4X4,diesel (max payload 2,170lbs and max towing 17170lbs) should not be an issue?
3. Can we go with a 6.4’ bed vs 8’?
Thanks for all the solid responses.

Jim

Sure you can compromise with the short bed but WHY??? Nice to have room for a large toolbox. There is not a single slider on the market that does not have issues.

At 14,300# the pin at only 20% will be 2,860#, you tell me a 2500 will be just fine! MOST people that use their RV's have over 20% pin and 25% is very common.

You are spending a lot of money do it right the first time.

New Horizons is excellent, but you need a truck greater than a 350 or 3500 to tow it.

what a question. all your going to get is "mine is the best" with this one haha.

every company can make your perfect rv, and every company has issues. the major issue I find is they operate backwards of car dealers. when a car dealer gets a new car in they go through it and make sure evrything is perfect and the add the PDI to the bill, a rv dealer for some reason wont touch a darn thing on a new rv that comes in umtill after there is a sales contract and only if you pick up the issue. I have a cougar 5th wheel and I can tell you I had to do 3 rounds with them getting stuff fixed up but I am very happy with it now. it is a true winter package good to 0 f or somthing like that and I have camped in it close to that and was fine.

the best 5th is the one that you like, just make sure it hits you boxes with a true 4 season package, ask them to close it up if you are unsure if you can access what you want and so on.

Steve

I suggest you get a 3500 vice 2500. I have a 350 with a short bed, and after a very sharp turn on an incline where a front corner kissed the back of the truck cab, I got an auto slider hitch. My dealer had told me he couldn't determine whether or not each FW/truck combo could get to 90 degrees, and he was right.