Moving up in the RV world

[fishkiller]

Moving from a 11" lance camper to a 5th wheel some time this year. The camper has been great since I can tow the boat, but the wife {not me of course} need a little more capacity and storage for 5-6 days plus without hook ups. Looking at 5th wheels since I have the 2008 dodge DRW to haul a 5th wheel that is already loaded except for the hitch.

Is 33-35 feet to long for state and some national parks. I am going to assume with the DRW 4 door truck a 35" fiver will be about it.

Looking at Arctic fox 30-33??

Thanks for any replies and thoughts

[transamz9]

fishkiller wrote:

Oasisbob wrote:
22 foot max trailer length is often the norm here in Oregon at USFS sites. You gonna miss your boat?

Yep I will. Don't really want to be one of those guys in a tube. I have to think of it as expanding my fishing knowledge from shore....Maybe get some power bait and a shore stick..Noooo :{

Put a hitch on the back of the 5th wheel. Both are happy. That's what I did.

[fishkiller]

Oasisbob wrote:
22 foot max trailer length is often the norm here in Oregon at USFS sites. You gonna miss your boat?

Yep I will. Don't really want to be one of those guys in a tube. I have to think of it as expanding my fishing knowledge from shore....Maybe get some power bait and a shore stick..Noooo :{

[fishkiller]

Johndanielscpa wrote:
I have an Arctic Fox 27-5L which is just under 30'. I stay in campgrounds, mainly, but also tend to get into some tighter spots here and there. If you are completely in RV parks, you could go bigger; AF 29-5T or 29-5K to get into the 33' to 35' range. If you want to do somewhat smaller campgrounds and you don't plan to spend more than a month or two at a time out and about, the 27-5L is really a very comfortable rig, tows well with a dually and everything is assessable while on the road. I also came from a camper (AF 990) and I have been very pleased with the transition. If your wife cooks, she will fall in love with the kitchen! I will say it does not have the storage space that the larger rigs have but, again, if you use it the way we do, it will be enough. So far, I have no complaints. Arctic Foxes are built solid and built to last.

was looking at the 27-5L and as we all do "maybe just a little bit bigger!!" maybe 33"...I don't plan on living full time in a 5th wheel maybe 2 weeks here and there mostly west coast/north west and for me the larger the boat and rv you don't seem to use them as much. Keep it simple camper works great for those bend over the sisters down the coast week or less trips. Just need more storage and carrying capacity bikes, chairs, bbq and such. Good to hear that you are happy with AF quality. My Lance 1181 did not impress me with build/quality when I had to do some mods

[lhenry8113]

We have the A.F. 29 5T 5'vr which is 33-34 ft. length and have been able to park it about anywhere--pull thru, back in, etc. with the exception of U.S. state or county parks. Most park campgrounds assign a site--but, you do have the option of parking your rig by the office(entrance) and walking out to the site and see if you can actually fit length or width(slides)and height(trees) in that site. The other problem is when you get the 5'vr parked--than is there enough room to park your truck. State and County campgrounds or generally older and don't have the width for slides. We have traveled all over the U.S. including Alaska and through British Columbia to the Yukon Terr. and very seldom have trouble getting a site. But, we always call in advance to reserve the site. We are members of K.O.A. and Good Sam and that helps a lot in getting a site that fits your rig. Lars

[Johndanielscpa]

I have an Arctic Fox 27-5L which is just under 30'. I stay in campgrounds, mainly, but also tend to get into some tighter spots here and there. If you are completely in RV parks, you could go bigger; AF 29-5T or 29-5K to get into the 33' to 35' range. If you want to do somewhat smaller campgrounds and you don't plan to spend more than a month or two at a time out and about, the 27-5L is really a very comfortable rig, tows well with a dually and everything is assessable while on the road. I also came from a camper (AF 990) and I have been very pleased with the transition. If your wife cooks, she will fall in love with the kitchen! I will say it does not have the storage space that the larger rigs have but, again, if you use it the way we do, it will be enough. So far, I have no complaints. Arctic Foxes are built solid and built to last.

[Oasisbob]

22 foot max trailer length is often the norm here in Oregon at USFS sites. You gonna miss your boat?

[agesilaus]

Before we bought our fiver I looked at a lot of western national park sites and it seemed as tho there was a cutoff around 35 ft. That is by no means a firm rule, Chiricahua NM for example limits RV's to the 20 so odd ft length and Yosemite only has a few sites for 35 ft RVs. A lot of National Forest CG only take shorter RVs often because of the access roads. State parks will vary all over the place.

A lot of this depends on the age of the CG, if they were built back in the 40's or 50's then they were not designed with long RVs in mind.