Which 5th Wheel Camper? - Recommendations?

[dslc6487]

My wife and I are looking at getting a 5th wheel camper sometimes in the not too distant future. I am 69 years old and retired and she is 59 and will be retiring in January. Earlier in our lives when our daughters were younger, we had a nice pop up by coleman and we really enjoyed camping a lot. The girls finally wanted to spend more time "primping and smelling good" than they did camping, so we sold the pop up. Got busy with our careers, but the thought of camping has always been with us. We have some friends that have motorhomes, but I don't think I really want to go that route. Don't want to have to keep up the engine, transmission and drive train of two vehicles, as I would have to tow a rider vehicle. So, we are looking at a 5th wheel. Just looking for some comments and advice. What brands to stay away from, which are a good deal? Any advice on floor plans and size? Also, I doubt we will be buying a new one. Will probably be looking at later model used ones. Will probably pull with Chevy Duramax or Ford F250. Any advice that you can share with me will be greatly appreciated.

Frank Gibbs
Gordon, Ga.
Retired Engineer
Highly decorated, disabled, combat veteran of Vietnam War

[azdryheat]

Getting a trailer a few years old is a great idea as most of the bugs will have been worked out by then. Seems most all the trailers made these days lack a quality control section at the factory so we end up doing the QC duties.

[LOFAT36]

We have a 2012 Crossroads Cruiser 33'-0 which weighs just under 9800 lbs. dry. It has 3 slides & kitchen island (lots of counter space), tons of cupboards and a fireplace and we both love it. Pulls great with our 2010 Silverado 2500 HD Duramax.

[donn0128]

OP asked about used. Since older trucks had far lower numbers I am making an assumption OP could be asking about trucks as far back as 2000. Hense the low numbers.

[kohai]

donn0128 wrote:
Greetings.
For a 2500 series truck depending on age and drive train your really limiting yourself to fivers 10,000 pounds and under. In other words around 30 feet long max. What you really need to do is go RV shopping. Find what you like and dont like. Once you find your ideal fiver then match a truck to comfortably tow the fivers GVWR.
As for brands? In the used market it makes little difference. More important will be overall condition and how well it has been maintained.
Personally used or new there is probably only two brands I would look at. Arctic Fox or Cedar Creek. I have owned both in the past and was happy with both.

Under 30' and less than 10k pounds for a 2500 truck? That seems a bit stingy. I'm at 35' and 11.5K pounds and still within specs on my GMC 2500HD.

I hear good things as well about Arctic Fox and Cedar Creek. I tried to get the forum to help build a quality vs price chart but didn't get too far. This is as far as I got...

http://vps1.tincreek.com/5th%20wheel%20quality%20chart.png

[avvidclif1]

Good Luck, that's like asking what brand of car to buy. Too many choices on no information.

[donn0128]

Greetings.
For a 2500 series truck depending on age and drive train your really limiting yourself to fivers 10,000 pounds and under. In other words around 30 feet long max. What you really need to do is go RV shopping. Find what you like and dont like. Once you find your ideal fiver then match a truck to comfortably tow the fivers GVWR.
As for brands? In the used market it makes little difference. More important will be overall condition and how well it has been maintained.
Personally used or new there is probably only two brands I would look at. Arctic Fox or Cedar Creek. I have owned both in the past and was happy with both.