What truck to fit 6 people and fifth wheel?

cbshoestring wrote:

Question about these "HDT" converts. A bit of FYI for the crowd...And because I, ME, MYSELF wants to know.

I have spent my years sleeping in a freightshaker, so I am well aware that a 72" sleeper has plenty of room for additional seating should the bed, storage cabinets,etc... be removed. Is this what normally happens with these converts? Are people adding two rows of seating? The way I see it, without more doors, you would be looking at 2 seats in 2nd row, 3 seating bench along back. Moving seating capacity to seven people. Obviously, the towing/payload would exceed most RVer's wildest dreams.

Am I thinking correctly with these conversion????

OR

Are people basically using them as two seater over grown pick-ups with plenty of storage...with the payload/towing thingy too..????

OR

Maybe adding just a single rear seat????

I guess what I am asking....short of towing/payload capacity and durability, what are people gaining by using an HDT over a pickup.

I ask this in context to the fact that the O.P.'s intitial concern is seating capacity in conjunction with towing.

I don't think extra seating capacity would be an item in most typical HDT conversions.

I have a couple of friends that are doing this and they are basically doing it due to overkill and storage....

Used HDT = $30-40K(?)
towing capacity 60,000 lbs,
life expectancy - 1,000,000 miles and then some,
average fuel econ = 9-10'ish mpg (probably never better, never worse).
Add a deck/conversion for hauling a car/motorbike = $10K.

You have a $50k tow vehicle that you can pull your RV to the moon and back, you carry a smart car or otherwise that is easy to park/drive and awesome MPG when exploring and you can pull any RV ever made.

The logistics make perfect sense but it's not a popular choice due to ????? Drivers License requirement? Being the 'odd man' with the HDT at the campground?? Dunno...