I'm looking at toy haulers and would like comments on TT vs 5'ver.I see pluses and minuses on both, want to stay under 35' if possible. My TV is 2500 Dodge cummins.I've read through this forum almost completely and appreciate the 'old timers' willing to impart their knowledge to us newbies. I'm going to haul a Ultra Classic and a Soft Tail for the load. Some dry camping but majority with hook ups. Thanks in advance for your replies.TRFD

I just got done going back and forth with this decision. Big questions are do you want a seperate garage? With just one bike and a trailer that big I would think yes. If thats the case the TTs like that are about 32-35 ft in length to the tounge and usually have a very small from bedroom. If you get a Fiver that length it will have a nice large bedroom. Also the trailer is about 4+feet forward of your bumper instead of a foot behind it which makes your overall length alot shorter. With just one bike you might check out some of the side loading garage units like the Outback. They have a large bedroom and living space with a smaller garage, sometimes in front.The next issue is the pin weight. Most of the fifth wheels with a seperate garage have pin weights north of 2600lbs..... Peope will argue all day if thats too much for your truck or not one other cargo is involved.

Generally speaking 5ers tend to be taller, and have greater ground clearance, but their ramps also tend to be steeper. There is a plus to the TT with a bike, many have issues with steeper ramps and backing down (or at least a fear of backing down). 5ers tend to have larger tanks, so do compare - but as you note you won't be doing a lot of dry camping so this may not be a big issue for you.If you get the right hitch, like a Hensley, you really won't find any towing difference between a TT with good hitch and a 5er. The big plus to a TT is it's all one level, no step up to the bedroom, but you also lose the storage that comes with that step up too. Personally I found towing my 39' Raptor so much easier then with our 28' TT. But if I'd found a comparable 5er and TT I'd be hard pressed to decide.

I went with the TT TH by Northwood because 1. they don't make a FW version and in my opinion they are about the best trailers made. 2. The king pin weights of similar length FW TH are pushing high 2500 - 3000lbs+ dry. That is too much weight for my little 2500 and I wouldn't feel safe I don't think. Those are the biggest reasons. I do like the fact that I have my entire bed available now for other things. What you really need to be concerned with on a TT TH is the tongue weight. I didn't even think I would have an issue with mine until I dived deep into the specs. The dry tongue weight is around 1600lbs. On mine, the holding tanks are all in front of the axles so if I'm hauling water then there will be more tongue weight to deal with. I had to get a heavier duty WD hitch setup just to handle the additional weight. Now when you add your toys to the back behind the rear axle then it will reduce some of the tongue weight but not a lot. Towing seems to be about the same as my previous trailer. This trailer (13k GTWR) and the Cummins knows it's there unlike the previous TT I had that maxed out about 8k. Other than that though I couldn't be happier with all the features they pack into these units.

toytacoma8 wrote:...With just one bike you might check out some of the side loading garage units like the Outback. They have a large bedroom and living space with a smaller garage, sometimes in front....Good point but I believe the Outback sideloading units are still only 8 feet wide on the outside. Most likely not enough room on the inside of the garage for the big bikes he plans on hauling. Another thing with the side loaders is they generally don't have beaver tails to prevent bottoming out on the top of the ramp.I think the OP would be better served by a rear loading beaver tailed setup.

Prior to our current setup, we had a bumper pull toy hauler. This allowed me to keep all the dirty things, tools and spare parts in the back of the truck bed under a contractor canopy instead of storing them in the garage. A SRW truck will have limitations on how much pin weight it can handle and fifth wheel TH setups are typically biased too much to the front to compensate for your garage load. You will be limited to a FW around 15K lbs GWR due to payload limits. There are some nice aluminum chassis FW TH's, but you will pay a premium over steel. Even the longer BP TH's can have 2k lbs of tongue weight, so expect to upgrade your receiver to a Class V and possibly add suspension aids to level out your truck.

TT toy hauler vs 5th wheel toy hauler | Good Sam Community

Dwight45
Explorer
Aug 15, 2013
I looked the MVP Envy up on the Net. It looks like something that would work for us. The wife kinda likes the fancier toy haulers so she might go for something like this. There are a few for sale. Still looking at the Attitude and Desert Fox but it's hard to make up our minds.

Dwight
lamopar
Explorer
Aug 15, 2013
Y-Guy wrote:
lamopar wrote:
I have an MVP Envy 32WSA. This company folded in 2012. The parent company owned both MVP and Weekend Warrior.

I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard that WW was involved with MVP. MVP bought the old Thor California from Thor Industries back in 2008. I've never seen Mark Warmoth's (WW) name as part of the MVP agreements or management. It's not a big deal but both MVP and WW have had enough issues, I can't imagine what type of RV would have come from a combined company LOL.

My mistake. I knew it was Thor and mixed it up with WW. No problems yet with over a year and everything is fine but~~~~~you never know. Thanks for pointing it out.
Al_s_R_T
Explorer
Aug 13, 2013
We were asking ourselves the same question last March, ended up buying a 2014 Coachmen 301blds liberty Edition tt, mainly because of our tv, 2011 Ram 1500 Longhorn with the hemi;
tt has a 10 ft separate garage with a bevel floor so ramp isn't to steep with a patio door in between main area, the only problem is the bed, queen size but left to right in the front instead of front to back. we also took the Happy Jack bed in the garage that double as 2 bench seats with a folding table so it can be use as a 2nd room as well.
We use the tt for 5 weeks vacation, 3 in September and 2 in February, plus a couple of week ends in the summer and I did not want to have a bigger truck and harsher suspension since it is my daily driver.
Might be worth a look ?

Alain & Joanne in Montreal
Y-Guy
Moderator
Aug 13, 2013
lamopar wrote:
I have an MVP Envy 32WSA. This company folded in 2012. The parent company owned both MVP and Weekend Warrior.

I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard that WW was involved with MVP. MVP bought the old Thor California from Thor Industries back in 2008. I've never seen Mark Warmoth's (WW) name as part of the MVP agreements or management. It's not a big deal but both MVP and WW have had enough issues, I can't imagine what type of RV would have come from a combined company LOL.
lamopar
Explorer
Aug 13, 2013
Dwight45 wrote:
Lamopar,
What toy hauler do you have? I'm considering downsizeing from my Raptor to a bumper pull. Right now I've got 2 on the short list, the Attitude, and the Desert Fox. I'm pulling with a Duramax dually so I've got plenty of truck. My motorcycle is a trike and my off road vehicle is a SXS. We're considering a 6 to 8 week stay and I want to have both toys with us. I can load one in the truck.

Dwight

I have an MVP Envy 32WSA. This company folded in 2012. The parent company owned both MVP and Weekend Warrior. They made both the bumper pull and 5th wheel versions of the toy hauler. The company was funded by a mogul from China who lost but in the real estate business. They were working on an all electric RV as well. We have not had a problem with our unit. It came with features I can not find anywhere else in a toy hauler like a king bed, wine rack, and huge tanks. All tanks are heated with the unit fully insulated. 104 in Salt Lake City in July and our unit was 74 degrees inside with one AC unit. I think there is one picture of it posted in my profile.
Dwight45
Explorer
Aug 12, 2013
Lamopar,
What toy hauler do you have? I'm considering downsizeing from my Raptor to a bumper pull. Right now I've got 2 on the short list, the Attitude, and the Desert Fox. I'm pulling with a Duramax dually so I've got plenty of truck. My motorcycle is a trike and my off road vehicle is a SXS. We're considering a 6 to 8 week stay and I want to have both toys with us. I can load one in the truck.

Dwight
viper48
Explorer
Aug 12, 2013
That is a tough decision. The wife and I looked at both until we got tired of looking until we found the unit that we have know. We wanted the seperate garage to make it feel more like a camper and it also serves as another room when the toys are out. Ours is a Forest River Work & Play Model WPT30WR. I will try to post some photos below. It is 35 ft long as has a dry weight of 9100 lbs. with a 4000lb carrying capacity.
lamopar
Explorer
Aug 11, 2013
tinner12002 wrote:
lamopar wrote:
I looked at the 5th wheel when we purchased our unit and the price difference was substantial. The bumper pull unit was much cheaper and when I considered the shear number of days I would be using it per year the math did not work out. I do not have a separate garage but my bedroom is in the front with a king bed and plenty of room with full door so any fumes do not bother me if I keep the back two windows open. I have actually never had a fume problem in the main area doing this. My tongue weight is 1,950 so I have a class V hitch with the Reese Dual cam and it works fine. I just pulled from Oregon to St Louis and back with 4 ATVs in the back, 2500 Ram, with no problem. I love having the back of the truck open to put our peddle bikes in and fire wood. I also have the back of the truck when not using the toy hauler. As far as the tanks mine has 150 gallons fresh water so I can camp for long time on that dry. One other key point with the 2500 is the wind resistance of the 5th wheel height. When we were in Utah with a 35 mile per hour head wind the truck would not run in OD. I would bet with the additional height that wind factor would be greater. I get 11 mpg in OD and 6 out. You also have to watch the tires on the truck. I found a set a Michelon D rated wore pretty quickly. I am back to running Toyo AT E rated and they perform much better with the weight. That has been my experience with the unit and my truck. My wife just took it with the boys on a 600 mile trip to the Oregon coast with no problems. First time driving the truck and trailer. I was pretty sure there would be tree scars on the trailer when she returned but no problems.

I've not have any issues with my ram pulling in OD, Most of the time with it in tow/haul mode it will pull uphill without downshifting.
If yours won't pull in OD you must have a gasser and not a diesel or your geared extremely high.

Mine is a diesel and I guess just the gearing is the issue. Mine works fine on flat or down hill but not up grades or high winds. Truck and trailer together weigh just under 20,000 and that is the max weight gross for the truck. Full Banks Stinger kit with other extras so it seems to work just fine. I am sure it is the gearing which I believe is 355:1.
tinner12002
Explorer
Aug 11, 2013
lamopar wrote:
I looked at the 5th wheel when we purchased our unit and the price difference was substantial. The bumper pull unit was much cheaper and when I considered the shear number of days I would be using it per year the math did not work out. I do not have a separate garage but my bedroom is in the front with a king bed and plenty of room with full door so any fumes do not bother me if I keep the back two windows open. I have actually never had a fume problem in the main area doing this. My tongue weight is 1,950 so I have a class V hitch with the Reese Dual cam and it works fine. I just pulled from Oregon to St Louis and back with 4 ATVs in the back, 2500 Ram, with no problem. I love having the back of the truck open to put our peddle bikes in and fire wood. I also have the back of the truck when not using the toy hauler. As far as the tanks mine has 150 gallons fresh water so I can camp for long time on that dry. One other key point with the 2500 is the wind resistance of the 5th wheel height. When we were in Utah with a 35 mile per hour head wind the truck would not run in OD. I would bet with the additional height that wind factor would be greater. I get 11 mpg in OD and 6 out. You also have to watch the tires on the truck. I found a set a Michelon D rated wore pretty quickly. I am back to running Toyo AT E rated and they perform much better with the weight. That has been my experience with the unit and my truck. My wife just took it with the boys on a 600 mile trip to the Oregon coast with no problems. First time driving the truck and trailer. I was pretty sure there would be tree scars on the trailer when she returned but no problems.

I've not have any issues with my ram pulling in OD, Most of the time with it in tow/haul mode it will pull uphill without downshifting.
If yours won't pull in OD you must have a gasser and not a diesel or your geared extremely high.
lamopar
Explorer
Aug 10, 2013
I looked at the 5th wheel when we purchased our unit and the price difference was substantial. The bumper pull unit was much cheaper and when I considered the shear number of days I would be using it per year the math did not work out. I do not have a separate garage but my bedroom is in the front with a king bed and plenty of room with full door so any fumes do not bother me if I keep the back two windows open. I have actually never had a fume problem in the main area doing this. My tongue weight is 1,950 so I have a class V hitch with the Reese Dual cam and it works fine. I just pulled from Oregon to St Louis and back with 4 ATVs in the back, 2500 Ram, with no problem. I love having the back of the truck open to put our peddle bikes in and fire wood. I also have the back of the truck when not using the toy hauler. As far as the tanks mine has 150 gallons fresh water so I can camp for long time on that dry. One other key point with the 2500 is the wind resistance of the 5th wheel height. When we were in Utah with a 35 mile per hour head wind the truck would not run in OD. I would bet with the additional height that wind factor would be greater. I get 11 mpg in OD and 6 out. You also have to watch the tires on the truck. I found a set a Michelon D rated wore pretty quickly. I am back to running Toyo AT E rated and they perform much better with the weight. That has been my experience with the unit and my truck. My wife just took it with the boys on a 600 mile trip to the Oregon coast with no problems. First time driving the truck and trailer. I was pretty sure there would be tree scars on the trailer when she returned but no problems.