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chuckster66's avatar
chuckster66
Explorer
Jul 05, 2015

Advice for green newbies

Hello all,
My wife and I are selling our home and going to live full time in a fifth wheel. I have disabilities and my wife had open heart surgery a year ago at age 46. The upkeep of a house and yard and the heat in Texas is really hard on us. Plus we are on a limited budget and the monthly house payment/upkeep does not fit a disabled income (no pun intended)
We have looked and read "a bunch" and still feel we haven't begun to reach the base camp.:h
We will be putting our home on the market in August and have looked at the Grand Design Reflections units. We should be able to pay cash and do not want to take out a loan. I own a 2005 F250 King Ranch (117,000 miles) and it will pull anything in the Reflections line. I have received a lot of good advice from my in-laws as they full timed for several years in a 2006 Mobile Suites.
The first 6 months to a year we will primarily be stationary while my disability is processed. I have adrenal issues along with POTS and some other autonomic issues.

Question: Thoughts on the Grand Design company (service, quality, etc..)
Thoughts on brands of Slider hitches as my truck has a 6.5 ft bed
General advice from salty veterans given the information I have listed above.

Thanks in advance and please be honest. If the USMC could not offend me you won't:)

Chuckster
  • donn0128's avatar
    donn0128
    Explorer II
    Jul 05, 2015
    First off, welcome.
    Next, you do not have enough truck to carry the load of any full time fiver. Pulling is never the issue, any modern diesel can pull.
    Next, the 6.0L has less than a steller reputation, and unless you have done a lot of work on it, sell it!
    Fifth wheels have approx 20% of its total weight will be pin weight. So if you look at the trailers GVWR, lets say 15,000 pounds as an example, 20% of 15K equals 3000 pounds of pin weight. Can your Ford handle 3000 more pounds without exceeding its mfg GVWR?
    Next, can you and your wife handle living in 350SQFT without killing each other? Takes special people to do it.
    Last and not least, full time RVing is not cheap. Add up fuel, maintenance, park rent and you could end up paying more a month RVing than living in a small home. Just add 25 to 50 dollars a day in site rental for a 30 day month. You can get cheaper rates if your paying a monthly rate, but the idea of RVing is the ability to move on when you tire of a place.
    With both of you disabled, I think you will find it difficult to properly maintain an RV if you cannot handle a house. I think you would be far better off finding a place to move to that would be more friendly to your health.

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