Motor home vs 5th wheel

[lowfly]

Can anyone that moved from a 5th wheel to a motor home tell me if hook up or tear down is any easier with a motor home or about the same?

[badbob1]

Guess I am a bit strange as I enjoy the set up and tear down. If all that bothered me I would stay home. As far as getting in and out of my vehicle I like to stop and do that also and should probably do it more often. If it is raining I slip on my raincoat in fact wife and I love walking in the rain. I have owned most all types of rv's and really like the fiver best. Never wanted the kids and wife walking around inside the A when going down the road. When we all get tired of sitting in the truck we stop and take a walk. Took a few years to slow down but now have that luxury. We also loved our Jayco tent trailer but maybe just remember it as fun as I was younger. GK love helping with the set up and in a few years they will be fully trained and I will sit and watch them from my easy chair. Get whatever and just have fun.
Happy Happy Happy
BadBob

[northmeck0255]

Let's not overlook the fact that you can't drop the DP onto the bed of your pickup! 😉

[cjalphonso]

Something no-one mentioned is the great advantage of a toad.
Think about it, you always have 2 vehicles.
What happens if your truck breaks down, your SOL and so is everyone with you.
With a toad, you can get everyone off the highway to the nearest mall etc. till you get the issue fixed.
Sometimes I leave early in the MH, the wife can go pick up the kids from school and catch up to me on the road, hook up the toad and we're gone.

Lets say we go to Disney. I drop the wife and car off at the grocery and head to the campground to setup. The wife then pulls into a completely setup site and I help unload the groceries.

Can't do any of this with a 5ver...

[aarondeere]

Motorhome to fifth wheel

Not everyone graduates up to a motorhome from other rv's.

[tropical36]

Another advantage with a motorhome that may have been already mentioned is the fact that you can go with or without a toad and we did a lot of traveling before we began towing the Jeep. Size doesn't matter with most anyplace you need to go. It's just the setup and tear down that we don't like, so we used to make most all our stops before settling in for the night and sometimes rented a car for longer stays.

[et2]

Bird Freak wrote:

John S. wrote:
Simply put if you are going to travel more than sit for the winter then a motorhome is the best. IF you just go and sit for months at a time or go and sit a month and move and sit a month a with wheel shows it value there. If you love to travel there is no better way to travel than a motorhome. THe singers use busses for that reason too but they put on up to 20K miles or more a month. I put on 30K plus miles a year and would not have anything but a motor home. In fact I am thinking of getting a Class B for short trips. I am getting spoiled and love the benefits of a motorhome. WIll have to sell the born free though.

I used to believe this when I had the MH but its just not true anymore. With the new 5ers having about all the same features as MH's now I can set up and break camp as fast as I did with the mh. Other than set up and break down there is no difference whether you sit over night or months at a time other than your mh running gear just sitting there. I loved my mh but I love the 5er as well. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Most high end mh's depreciate about what a 5er cost in the first 2 years if that's a factor for you. Almost everyone here likes the MH but you are in the A class section. Now try the 5er section and see what the outcome is. I'm just saying everybody loves what they have now and a lot will make comments on something they have never owned.

True somewhat. I'd bet many here were once a fiver & travel trailer & pop up and tenters at one time. So a lot of the comments come from many years of enjoying the camping lifestyle one way or another. This would be our experience.

Now that we own a DP motorhome I can say to tear down and set up the MH has a very slight advantage being all the controls are inside the coach. All others have to exit the vehicle and unhook from the truck to use the auto levelers if you had them. MH's would be a lot faster than any fiver or trailer that did not have automatic leveling, which mostly are found on high end fivers. But, I have seen many fivers and travel trailers not leveled or chocked while setting up so that could reduce some time for them.

But for me it wasn't the time. It was the climbing over the dually fender and parking and the fact the truck just sat in the drive otherwise. The gas mileage in our MH is every bit as good as my dually was if not slightly better. The view is better and it's way more comfortable on the rear end. As I commented in a earlier post, our MH has tons more storage than any of our fivers did and its way more roomier inside with the floor plan we have.

No one is bashing fivers, we owned 4 of them and enjoyed everyone of them. Our last one was equipped with auto leveling. I think most people as they move through their RVing lifestyle and continue in there old age end up getting a motorhome just for the simplicity of it.

[gone2dadesert]

Bird Freak wrote:

Most high end mh's depreciate about what a 5er cost in the first 2 years if that's a factor for you.

Don't forget about depreciation of the tow vehicle and the fact that most people cannot write off the interest of a car loan. My 2007 F-350 Lariat CC PSD FX4 was over $50k new and it's only purpose was to tow my toyhauler (Fleetwood GearBox).

[Bird_Freak]

John S. wrote:
Simply put if you are going to travel more than sit for the winter then a motorhome is the best. IF you just go and sit for months at a time or go and sit a month and move and sit a month a with wheel shows it value there. If you love to travel there is no better way to travel than a motorhome. THe singers use busses for that reason too but they put on up to 20K miles or more a month. I put on 30K plus miles a year and would not have anything but a motor home. In fact I am thinking of getting a Class B for short trips. I am getting spoiled and love the benefits of a motorhome. WIll have to sell the born free though.

I used to believe this when I had the MH but its just not true anymore. With the new 5ers having about all the same features as MH's now I can set up and break camp as fast as I did with the mh. Other than set up and break down there is no difference whether you sit over night or months at a time other than your mh running gear just sitting there. I loved my mh but I love the 5er as well. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Most high end mh's depreciate about what a 5er cost in the first 2 years if that's a factor for you. Almost everyone here likes the MH but you are in the A class section. Now try the 5er section and see what the outcome is. I'm just saying everybody loves what they have now and a lot will make comments on something they have never owned.

[aarondeere]

No denying mh's are a nice way to travel but was just showing to the posters asking why even consider a fifth wheel that there are many good reasons for a fiver. Heck I could even argue the advantages of a tent other forms of camping or should I say rving. 🙂

[Trap]

After having had a 5'er and now a MH, I vote for the class A, while parked not that much different, but for travelling and overnighting the class A wins hands down.
Easier to set up (especially when just overnighting), the temp inside the class A is warm or cool depending on the weather when you stop.

The biggest plus to us is we tend to enjoy the journey more with stops to make lunch and just enjoy the scenery on the way to our stop.
Pull into a rest stop, hit the air level open a slide and enjoy the break. The journey is a lot more fun than just wanting to get to the next destination than it was with a 5'er.

Also as many have said we much prefer the Jeep Liberty vs a dually truck as a daily driver for getting around sight seeing and shopping.

We we're happy with our 5'er and are happy with our Class A. Both worked we just think the Class A is more enjoyable and fun way to travel with.

[John_S_]

Simply put if you are going to travel more than sit for the winter then a motorhome is the best. IF you just go and sit for months at a time or go and sit a month and move and sit a month a with wheel shows it value there. If you love to travel there is no better way to travel than a motorhome. THe singers use busses for that reason too but they put on up to 20K miles or more a month. I put on 30K plus miles a year and would not have anything but a motor home. In fact I am thinking of getting a Class B for short trips. I am getting spoiled and love the benefits of a motorhome. WIll have to sell the born free though.

[aarondeere]

These comparisons come up every so often and over here they are towards the class a. Go over to the 5th wheel forum and the comparison is towards the fiver. Here are other thoughts on why some people prefer fivers. Some on here say setup is so much more on a fiver. Maybe older ones but many of the new ones have all the auto stuff. Mine has self leveling, auto awning and even has a touch screen remote that controls all that. So setup time is about the same. On the nice interior comfort when getting to a campground well....we have a generator on our 5th wheel. If its really hot out I'll run it with the ac running and its nice and cold when we get there. Likewise if its cold out I can run the furnace if I want. On fuel capacity. I have a transfer tank in the bed of the truck with a total 70 gal fuel capacity. Not quite the 100+gal tanks of a mh but close. I can unhook and get fuel with just the truck vs trying to find a place that can handle a large mh. Tires....mine are much cheaper than that of mh. I know I have a semi with 22.5's and a truck with 19.5's. Both high $ Comfort...yeah a mh is very nice but many comparisons here have been about 5yr old and older trucks. Take a look at the new ones. They have come a long way in the last few yrs with Ram soon to offer air ride on their 1 tons. Weight ratings on the new ones are getting very high and now all but the largest of fifth wheels need a medium duty to pull them. Power wise, these new trucks are powerhouses and power/weight ratio are better than most mh. Safety, well just read the current topic about that. You can get 4x4 on a p/u. Makes for getting into that grass site not near as worrisome. If I want a new floorplan I'm only trading in one part not everything so not quite as big $'s at one time. Vise versa I want the latest/greatest engine just trade in the truck. Floorplans especially for kids really favors fivers. Many more options with bunk models,front living rooms,toyhaulers. The slides tend to be deeper on fivers so more room when setup. Not saying one is superior to the other just showing that there is no perfect setup and options for everyone.

[drillking]

Had a couple of MH's over the last 40 yrs of our married lives. Had TT'S also. Last MH was a 2003 Tiffin. Went to fiver's in 2006 and couldn't be happier! Our new one has one button leveling and all the bells and whistles are MH had. I've driven a pickup ever since I got my first drivers license, never owned a car, so I'm used to them.Money wasn't a consideration, have a nice business. More out of preference for us. We still drive the Rubicon and run around on side by sides, we just rent them. RV'ng is all about choice, they can all be fun! We're fulltimers for the last 3 yrs and love our fiver!

[tropical36]

Even with some pros (mostly cons) that you might find in a fiver, you seldom see a post whereas someone has moved from a Coach to a Fifth Wheel trailer and liked it better. Do like that forward upper bedroom however. As for setting up, we pull in, setup and then watch out the window at the 5th wheel's setting up that have came in before us. Still, and a surprise to me, is how many there are on the road, in campgrounds and on sales lots. As one mentioned, living in them might be better over traveling and especially if you have other uses for the truck. Otherwise, this monster truck driving gets old after awhile, when used for just a toad.