TrailerLife HT towable fifth wheel article

agesilaus wrote:
Light means flimsy in my book so super lite means....

That extra weight goes into making a stiffer frame and structure. It's not something you can just do away with without giving up a lot. Maybe they could make a stiff aluminum frame but that would be much more expensive and I haven't heard of one being made.

BK

That may've been true years ago, but with todays technologies and light weight materials going lighter is the new thing.
I saw a video about a new 5'er (wish I could remember which one) and they were inside talking about how they used different technics and materials to lighten it up.

One item was the solid surface counter top. It was made out of a honeycomb type material that looked the same, had the same durability but only lighter.
Another item was the cable slide, instead of the hydraulic or gear driven. They saved several hundred pounds by using the Schwintek cable slide.
Of course you have aluminum framing.

I do agree though that some companies cut corners in the wrong places to save weight. And a buyer needs to look over the whole unit.

I look at it like this way, cars used to be built with all metal and weighed way more than today. Were rough riding, and noisy. Today there's lots of carbon fiber, plastic and aluminum used. But cars made today are way better than the old iron clunkers. When that stuff was 1st introduced everyone flipped out. I suspect that RV's will be moving in that direction, albeit at a slower pace.