Rear kitchen.

[rickeoni]

We are looking at rear kitchen fifth wheels, as are coming from an 8 foot truck camper we are used to a rear kitchen and do not want to track dirt all over our newly discovered acreage. One salesman we talked to said read kitchens are not good on a fifth wheel. I know it is because they didn't have any in stock but DW is worried as we have never towed anything this big before. Those of you who have a rear kitchen, any regrets ?

[markmontana]

We have a Montana with an RK. Real Kitchen. Tons of space and never any issues. Just like home- we spend a lot of time in and around the kitchen.

[Cuffs054]

I've got a rear kitchen in my first TT. I will have another, I really like it and lots more "kitchen cabinet" space.

[tartan_camper]

We've had a rear kitchen now for 7 years and we never have had a problem - no broken dishes, no open cabinets and we've been on some fairly rough roads. Sounds like some 5th wheels have problems with rear kitchens and others do not. We're lucky that we have one that doesn't.

[JTrac]

Our first two years with our rear kitchen we would have just as much movement of things in the bath as we did the kitchen, which wasn't all that much. This spring we changed trucks and I installed a Trailer Saver air ride hitch, put a Center Point air suspension on the trailer and balanced the tires. Now we have virtually no movement of anything, anywhere. With the money spent I would hope not. Actually, the air ride stuff was added to reduce stress on the fifth wheel when we hit some of the really rough roads we encounter on occasion.

[larry_barnhart]

We have never had a problem because of our rear kitchen. It gives us a nicer living room area and the best windows for good light. BUT we have an air hitch and trailair center point suspension on the alpenlite.

chevman

[rmcspeterson]

We have a 2013 Cougar 331 MKS which has a rear kitchen. We have driven over 7500 miles and have had no problem at all. I think it is all in the suspension. We like the rear kitchen because it is not the first thing you see when entering the 5th wheel. We think entering into the living room area makes it feel more like home.

[GON2SKI]

Traveling in our 2001 Cougar 281EFS with bunks and mid kitchen would empty cabinets and you would end up with lots of stuff on the aisle floor. No shocks, tires unbalanced, and it was so light I did not feel the rig as your towing. Blew through 5 tires in 2000 miles! (Carlisle's). I admit I drove too fast for those 15" ST tires. With the current rig over the past year…..all short trips and slowing down my speed to 65mph ……nothing on the floor with a nice rear kitchen so far. Learned lessons the expensive hard way.

[bpounds]

Duke-44 wrote:

We never left anything on the counters. Dishes would be on the floor mostly broken or canned goods from lower cabinets, broken bottles in frig. And as I stated earlier, one time the frig door came open and broke off and was on the floor. This was on a day's leg, from Dillon, MT. to Fernie, BC. Canada (freeway and other paved roads). Luckily the RV park we stayed at in Fernie, Snowy Peaks RV, was also a RV repair. They were really nice folks. Our unit was only 2 months old. That was 6 years ago. We really loved the floor plan. But, we just couldn't handle the mess every time we stopped. My wife still blames me for breaking her new camping dishes. We have one dinner plate left.

WOW! That's a rough ride. It just goes to show that the rumors about rear kitchens are true for at least some models. I guess we will consider ourselves lucky that ours doesn't do that.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

Bumpyroad wrote:
I have read here that the kitchens in the rear of a trailer have the dishes/etc. tossed around a bit since that doesn't ride as smoothly as over the wheels?
bumpy

Jayco 31RKS (Rear Kitchen) since 2006.

*NO* problems that Bumpy noted.

Never a problem as Duke-44 indicates above - never broke a dish, cup, glass, etc. - but we don't camp with "fine china" either......except maybe some products mfg there, LOL!

Might be a problem in trlrs *without* shocks and/or on extremely rough roads.(?)

Get the/a floor plan *you* prefer - whatever it might be..:C

~

[Duke-44]

rhagfo wrote:

robrose1 wrote:
We had a Jayco 26 ft with a rear kitchen. Put about 10K on the rig with no major issues. Wife learned not to leave certain things on counter or they would end up in sink. Only problem we had was the kitchen drawers would pop out of their tracks after a long bumpy day. Wife actually wanted another rear kitchen when when moved up to larger five but there just were not many on dealer lots.

Just what do you leave on the counters???
When we are traveling, there is nothing on the counters, the oregon Coast roads are a bit on the rough side!

We never left anything on the counters. Dishes would be on the floor mostly broken or canned goods from lower cabinets, broken bottles in frig. And as I stated earlier, one time the frig door came open and broke off and was on the floor. This was on a day's leg, from Dillon, MT. to Fernie, BC. Canada (freeway and other paved roads). Luckily the RV park we stayed at in Fernie, Snowy Peaks RV, was also a RV repair. They were really nice folks. Our unit was only 2 months old. That was 6 years ago. We really loved the floor plan. But, we just couldn't handle the mess every time we stopped. My wife still blames me for breaking her new camping dishes. We have one dinner plate left.

[AZ_T_T]

Our coffee maker sits in the sink with a little foam wrapped around it and it never moves.

[rhagfo]

robrose1 wrote:
We had a Jayco 26 ft with a rear kitchen. Put about 10K on the rig with no major issues. Wife learned not to leave certain things on counter or they would end up in sink. Only problem we had was the kitchen drawers would pop out of their tracks after a long bumpy day. Wife actually wanted another rear kitchen when when moved up to larger five but there just were not many on dealer lots.

Just what do you leave on the counters???
When we are traveling, there is nothing on the counters, the oregon Coast roads are a bit on the rough side!

[Duke-44]

bpounds wrote:

Duke-44 wrote:
I am just curious of those who have the rear kitchen... does your rig have 10 inch I-beams or 8 inch I-beams? When I told an RV salesman about the problems of our RK, he said that the units with 10 inch I-beams do not have the problems of launching stuff from the cupboards and frig all over.

Would depend on length and weight of the fiver. Also how the rig rides in general on the springs. Some definitely bounce more than others.

Our RK was about 8700 lbs. dry weight and 32 ft. long. Since we don't have it anymore, I am assuming it had 8" I-beams.

[bpounds]

Duke-44 wrote:
I am just curious of those who have the rear kitchen... does your rig have 10 inch I-beams or 8 inch I-beams? When I told an RV salesman about the problems of our RK, he said that the units with 10 inch I-beams do not have the problems of launching stuff from the cupboards and frig all over.

Would depend on length and weight of the fiver. Also how the rig rides in general on the springs. Some definitely bounce more than others.