Fulltime 5er to MH - Help?

TheTripp wrote:
We want to travel, see the country with the kids, we realize that we are blessed to have the kind of flexibility that we enjoy and would like to take advantage of it. Traveling with 3 smaller kids in the truck pulling the 5er does not come with long endurance, after about 3-4hrs it starts to go downhill with our max being around 6-8hrs before potential meltdown it seems. Then of course there is the need to connect to a power source when we get where we are going. With a MH we could comfortably travel long distances much much more easily and conveniently, and if we get tired we can stop in a rest area or a truck stop and still be able to do what we need to without hooking up to power.

Our 5er you can see light through some of the slide out seams sometimes if the that rubber seal doesnt fold out right or what have you. We are at an RV resort in Houston and where here through the whole Antarctic power outage experience last week. It sucked with the 5er. Went to a hotel for a night, they lost power too, went to my work office for 2 nights, lost power there too, thank you Jesus we stayed warm. Had we had a MH we could have just made sure to keep diesel in it. One of our neighbors has a nice Newmar Essex and he was fine.

In the Texas summer our 2 AC's cant hardly keep up either...

Have you traveled much so far? I'm guessing by your comments you haven't.
- If you are traveling full time, there is rarely a need for long travel days. We usually shoot for 100-200 miles. It's not like having a 2 week vacation and trying to visit a site 2000 miles away so you have to make 400-500miles on travel days to have any time at your destination.
- 5th Wheels particularly large toy haulers often have built in generators, so if you pull into a truck stop for the night, no real difference (also once you learn you don't have to make 500 mile days, you realize you don't have to camp at truck stops or walmarts because you are off the road by 2pm having fun with the little ones). They also have auto leveling and the other fancy add ons same as MHs.
- The slide mechanisms aren't substantially different, so if you are seeing light get it fixed. We've never seen light on our slides.
- A 2 AC motorhome is going to suck in Texas. That's the beauty of being full time. You don't spend summer in south Texas. No RV is going to be happy in direct sun at 110F.

We also were in Texas last week. We have a portable generator so a slight hassle but not a big deal once I pulled it out and got it going. If you had a 5er with built in generator, it's basically the same as a MH. You push the button and you have power (if it's fancy, it starts up automatically if the power goes out).

4 young kids would be a bit of a hassle in a pickup if you insist on 8-10hr drive days but as suggested above, there isn't a need to travel for so long in a day. But to balance it out, where do you plan to put the kids in the MH? Are you going to just let them roam about as you cruise down the road? You may have to retrofit belts and car seats, which will then be in the way when parked...and there will still be meltdowns with them strapped in for 8hrs.

If you really want a MH, by all means get one but the issues you bring up are red herrings.