Compare and Contrast TT's and 5er's

beelbill wrote:
I have towed Travel Trailers for over 40 years and just switched to a 5th wheel for the first time. Everyone Camping World kept telling me that I will love the 5th wheel because it is so much easier to handle than a Travel Trailer. So far, it has been a rocky start. In the beginning, I had to learn how to do things with the Travel Trailer but over the years they have become second nature and I did them without even thinking about why. Now with the 5th Wheel, things are similar but not the same and I have to stop and think about why I did the things I did and how they will be different now.

So, I thought it would be good to start a thread to compare and contrast Travel Trailers to 5th Wheels. For those people who recently switch from a 5th wheel to a travel trailer or switched from a travel trailer to a 5th wheel, what problems did you have adjusting? How are things different or the same?

For example, when you go to unhitch a trailer, you often have to rock the hitch a little to get the latch on the trailer to lift up before you can crank the trailer up away from the ball. I did that without thinking. But when I went to unhitch the 5er, I pulled on the handle to release the trailer and it wouldn't release. The 5er is much heavier than the TT and you don't just rock it a little. You have to set the 5er in position and then shift the tow vehicle a little to release the latch.

Fifth Wheels tow better than Travel Trailers, but they don't back worth crap. I had to learn how to back a trailer but it was so long ago, I forgot how hard it was at first. I did it without thinking. But, 5ers back differently because they have a different pivot point. As soon as you start to jack the rig, to the left, the front of the 5er swings out to the right and totally blocks your view. You can not see what you are doing on the passenger side of the rig. Things are much closer than they appeared in your mirror when you lost sight of them.

Those are the two biggest differences I have found so far. Please share your experiences in switching rigs. What is better? What is worse? What mistakes did you make and how did you adjust to prevent them from happening again?

Hmmmmmmm....the automatic forum features let you post the word "crap".

Usually the forum auto correcting "censor" changes that to the appropriate number of asterisks.

Backing ability - or lack thereof:
Tractor trailer drivers have been successfully backing 40' (and longer) 5th wheel trailers into narrow loading docks more years than you (or I) have been on this earth!

Ability to do so, is *NOT* a problem of/with the trailer...:S

BTW - see you are a newbie. Nothing wrong with that.
However, no replies to your thread are necessary...;)

Besides "how to" back a trailer (TT or 5th)..;).., numerous threads comparing one to the other over *LOTS* of years can be found on the TT and 5th wheel forums - by folks who are considering switching from a TT to 5th or vice-versa.

A search of the last 12 months and the archives (over one year old) will yield the info.



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