Looking for 5th wheel bunkhouse - First Purchase

[diesel_power]

went to the local RV show today. was rather disappointed there weren't many of these. we have a child and love the idea of her having her own bedroom/play area so she can sleep a little less disturbed.

jayco had a couple units there, but most other brands didn't. i've got plenty of truck to pull it, but the Mrs. is convinced if we get a big trailer it won't fit anywhere she wants to go so i'm hovering around the 30' mark. probably will end up a couple feet longer but that will be it.

prefer used as this will be our first trailer and i'm sure we'll learn a lot and want to change to something else as our family grows. any suggestions?

i do prefer a good amount of fresh water (80-90 gal) and good sized grey/black tanks. don't need genset as i have a couple.

thank you

[time2roll]

With one child and plans to move up I suggest a 2 bunk trailer over the bunk house.



This is the new version of my floor plan

249FWBH Springdale entry level model

[05Biasca06]

In the same boat with ya!!!

We are going to look at the Palomino Sabre 34TBOK tomorrow, both new and used!!! Getting excited!!

It is longer, than I had originally wanted, it's 38'. I wanted to stay 35' and under, but the need for storage space won out!! We only have one pre-teen child. So we weren't looking for too many more beds, just another closed bedroom for privacy.

We have looked/researched and poured over countless bunkhouses.

Ultimately only you will know what you think will work best for you and your family!!

I'm learning this first hand. Been researching for about 2-3months now. I hope the one I pick will work for us!!!

Happy hunting!!!

[Bighorns]

We have the Cougar 330RBK and love it. The rear bunk room will sleep 4 people and has a TV and 1 slide

[x96mnn]

Check out he sandpiper 30IOK

[abc40kids]

I have a bunkhouse now, a Cardinal 2006 40' but have been looking at new ones for awhile now. I think I've narrowed my search to the Keystone Mountaineer 356TBF... There are many bunkhouses to choose from, I've kept my search to 38' and up.

The second bedroom is great for the kids or if you bring guest. Ours has the second bathroom which is a great bonus. What I'm after in a new one is bath and a half, 2 ac's, double frig, king bed, and 6 point leveling...... is that asking too much?

Good luck with your search!

[Sturgeon-Phish]

Our Wildcat BH has 4 bunks arranged at right angles to each other and has a wardrobe in their "room" with a hard door. That makes it easier when I get up earlier and fix breakfast without waking everybody. We're at 31' and we fit in most state and national park campground spots.
Our kids had an extra friend with them this weekend.

Jim

[caberto]

Aside from the master bedroom, our Cougar 324RLB has a rear room with its own slide, 1/2 bath, large sofa bed, table, TV and loft. Very roomy back there for kids. Overall been very happy with our unit.

[CurtisFamily]

We had pretty much the same shopping list. The only brand we could find with the 90+ gallon fresh water tanks was Jayco, and ended up with a 30.5 BHLT. Picked it up the first of June, and our shake down trip was over 1200 miles. Have had it out several times since and it pulls great. What I really like is the "U-shaped" dinette. Too bad more manufactures don't offer that. Good luck in your search.

[anaro]

Check out the sabres and the sabre silhouette models. Sabre silhouette makes a 33' bunk model. The sabre 34tbok is very very popular but longer than you want. Sabre is made palomino who is owned by forest river. Also come on over to the Forest river forums. Lots of satisfied sabre owners there. I have had a bunch of issues with mine but forest river is going to take it back to the factory and make it right after one conversation with the factory warranty rep. Forest river also does something no other manufacturer does. They have a factory rally in Goshen IN every summer for several years now. At the rally they bring tech crews to the campground and fix anything that is wrong with your rig for free. It does not matter if you are under warranty or not. I'm not talking just small repairs, they do large repairs too. They will also do upgrades for discounted prices there. Tell me any other manufacturer that stands behind their product like that?

[gtsum]

it is going to be tough to find a bunkhouse with under 35ft. There are shorter ones, but the bunks are tiny. with not much room in between them.

[fatman71]

This is what we bought and it works great for us

http://www.independencerv.com/Gallery/348/2013_Winnebago_SunnyBrook_Raven_Express_5th_Wheel_3350DB/Exterior_Drivers_Side_Front_Quarter_Slides_In

[jevanb]

Our 344QB is only 34 with out the trailer overhang, lots of 30ft tt out their this long when you add the tongue length. You will be surprised how tight you can back a 5er in compared to a same length TT

[Gypsy_Soul1]

We were in the same exact position you are. Took about a year to find one everyone liked that fit our budget. We bought a Cougar 328QBS back in 2011. I think it's now called 322QBS. My girls love "their space" and plenty of room for them to have a sleepover.

[kohai]

diesel power wrote:
went to the local RV show today. was rather disappointed there weren't many of these. we have a child and love the idea of her having her own bedroom/play area so she can sleep a little less disturbed.

jayco had a couple units there, but most other brands didn't. i've got plenty of truck to pull it, but the Mrs. is convinced if we get a big trailer it won't fit anywhere she wants to go so i'm hovering around the 30' mark. probably will end up a couple feet longer but that will be it.

prefer used as this will be our first trailer and i'm sure we'll learn a lot and want to change to something else as our family grows. any suggestions?

i do prefer a good amount of fresh water (80-90 gal) and good sized grey/black tanks. don't need genset as i have a couple.

thank you

I was in a similar situation -- 2 young kids, needed a bunk house, but didn't want length. I ended up going longer than I wanted -- to 35' on the Prime Time Crusader 296BHS. It was the best floor plan I found with decent sized bunks and with a max length of 35' (many bunks want to be 40'). Many of the bunks are very narrow -- like 28" wide.

Sometimes I wish it was shorter. Other times, like when the grandparents take their rv and we go somewhere, it is nice that we can all sit inside our rv.

There were some 30'-31' units that had bunks with a curtain. We liked those floor plans but did not like the build quality. We wanted a separate master area that could be closed off as well.

We drove through a small state park the other day in our car to scout it out and in the entire campground we could probably fit our trailer in 3-4 only spots. So, 35' is big for smaller/older campgrounds. For commercial RV parks like KOA, we find places easily and pull-throughs are common.

As for recommending my unit... Prime Time is typical on build quality -- nothing special. They do offer a good value of features to price. They are good about warranty repairs during the warranty period. I'm still having issues under warranty.

If I were shopping today, I would look further trying to find nice build quality somewhere in this industry. There were a couple of companies with good reputations that did not have dealers in our area, so we didn't look at them -- like airstream and Arctic Fox.