Hi all,

I've been shopping for a new Jayco 5th wheel for my family (wife, 3 children, myself, and sometimes the dog...a golden retriever). This will be our first RV and we're hoping it will last us 10+ years. Primary use will be weekend camping trips (1-2 every other month) and 2-3 weeklong vacations 1000-1500 miles away from home.

Specs on current TV and 5th wheels we're considering:

Tow Vehicle
Ford F350 Lariat CCLB 4x4 SRW 6.2L 4.30 gears
Payload (from sticker): 3518#
GVWR (from sticker): 11000#
GAWR (rear): 6730#
Max Trailer Weight (5th wheel): 15000#
GCWR: 22,200#


Eagle HT 29.5BHOK
UVW: 8590#
Dry Hitch Weight: 1695#
GVWR: 11000#
CCC: 2410#
Exterior Length: 35' 3"

Pros: shorter length, more safety margin, easy tow, cheaper, good match to TV?
Cons: no extra bathroom, not available locally (have to order), might ride nose high?


Eagle 360QBOK
UVW: 11390#
Dry Hitch Weight: 2065#
GVWR: 13750#
CCC: 2360#
Exterior Length: 40' 6"

Pros: has everything we want, available now, bigger tanks
Cons: much heavier, has a lot we don't want (extra tvs, ceiling fan, etc), price is $8k more, length might not be ideal with SRW, close to max payload capacity with family, hitch, & loaded rig.


I want a 5th wheel that is a good match for our F350, will tow great with a good safety margin, and will suit our family for many years to come. We like both models above...the Eagle is a bit overkill for what we need/want but is available now while the HT seems like a better fit overall but we'd have to order it.

Appreciate your feedback. Thanks!!

 

We just picked up our 2016 Jayco 29.5BHDS and love it! I feel Jayco makes a decent product and the two year warranty is nice too.
You will obviously be within your trucks ratings with both trailers but your truck will be much happier towing the HT model..
Good luck,
Kevin

 

First you have the right gears on your truck, with 3 kids and two adults I would go with the bigger unit, your kids will get bigger over the next 10 years. You are just starting out so you are a little green but the bigger tanks would be a must along with the extra room, there will be rainy days. You are just weekending it most of the time so you want have to worry about the carrying CCC like we do unless you get real crazy with the stuff you carry. You will find that the ceiling fans are a nice option to have along with the extra TV with the kids.

I'm a DRW man but we travel most of the year in our rig and with that trailer and put a lot of miles on and our trailer scales at 16K, the SRW we handle it but you you will have to use some caution when traveling in high cross winds but that will be true even with the shorter trailer, the longer truck wheel base will also help with the way the trailer effects the truck.

We travel with a few friends that will only have a SRW F350 and with a long heavy trailer and they get along just fine, one of them are also fulltimers. The one thing you may want to do to your truck is install air bags not for weight carrying but to level it and stop the dreaded bounce the 5th wheel will give your truck, I even run them on my DRW to control it.

Denny

 

The one thing I've learned about RV's and young families is it can't be too big. Five years from now when the kids aren't kiddies anymore that extra 8 thousand will seem like a drop in the bucket when you decide you need something bigger. My only concern would be the gasser if doing very much mountain driving.

 

Nice rig Kevin! That BHDS model seems to be really popular.

Since I'm a first timer, I'm a bit nervous about towing, crosswinds, backing-up, etc, and feel the HT would be a more pleasant experience. The eagle is significantly heavier and 5' longer which is definitely a concern and so its really helpful to hear from people on this board.

Do you have the 15" or 16" wheels on the trailer?

Thanks!

 

Thanks in part to you I did a lot of research on these boards and read a lot of post from you and others about the importance of the 4.30 gears with the 6.2L. I did NOT want a diesel so the gears were a non-negotiable item for me. I absolutely love the truck and can't wait to tow with it.


Thanks, I wasn't sure how important the tanks would be but definitely noticed the size difference between the two units. This is our first RV so I honestly don't know how we will end up using it most. We've always tent camped so I imagine we will start by going a lot of the same places which are usually state parks in California and Oregon. But we'll be trying some KOA and RV resorts too and see how we like those. I'm also curious about boondocking but not sure we'll actually do that much, if at all.

This is good to know. We were actually thinking about pulling the extra TVs out if we got the bigger unit. My thinking is that we wouldn't use them unless it was raining for days on end and we were stuck in the trailer. Our vision is to be outside as much as possible enjoying wherever we're at.

I've done a lot of research and probably one mistake I made so far is buying the truck before the trailer. I had looked at various trailer options prior and picked the truck I thought would be plenty to handle just about anything we would want (trailers and 5th wheels less than 15k GVWR). I didn't want diesel and preferred not to have a dually for various reasons but likely would have opted for it had I known we would consider a 40 footer. I'm definitely concerned about crosswinds and big trucks on the interstate. I've driven a lot of things so I feel confident in my abilities but I've never done a lot of towing, especially anything this big.

-Chad

 

Thanks Mike, I did a lot of research on the 6.2L with 4.30 gears and I think it will do fine with the HT. Its a little more of a concern with the heavier unit but there are a lot of people pulling much heavier with the 6.2L/4.30 combo and are very happy even in the mountains.

Whichever unit I end up with, I will definitely post my first tow experience to help others weigh out their decision as well. We will do most of our camping in California and Oregon and will be traversing many mountain roads so it'll be a good test for the motor/gear combo.

Appreciate your input!

-Chad

 

I would go ahead and get the 360. 3 kids, and a golden retriever? Oh yeah, bigger will be better.

We're pulling a little shorter 5er, with a lighter dry weight, and a heavier gross weight than that 360. But we're not loading it to near gross weight limit with our packing. I don't think we have 2k of loaded gear/food/clothes/water onboard when we head out for a weekend. It's just the 2 of us (kid is in college now, and we're no longer "cool" to hang out with, lol). But we have 4 labrador retrievers we take with, which take up a lot of floor space.

Agree that as your kids get older, you'll appreciate the extra room, especially if you're sticking to your plan on keeping it 10 years (sounds reasonable to me). The tank capacity will be a bonus if you do a lot of dry camping, or boondocking. But if you're mostly just going out over a weekend here and there, and hitting camp grounds for your summer vacations, you probably won't run out of water or waste water storage. I just wouldn't let the kids take showers on the overnight camp outs, unless maybe they "find" a skunk or a nice mud hole to play in.

I think your target truck will have plenty of capacity to pull the larger 40' unit without any problems.

 

Bigger the better and leave the TV's in there. You'd be surprised.

Especially if you do some winter camping.

Also, if it does not have two bathrooms you can cross it off my list.

 

Thanks so much for the input and your recommendation. The tank capacity is one of those things I really just know nothing about other than bigger is usually better. But I have no clue how much my family will actually need or use. Maybe this is a case of 'better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it'?

Not too sure about skunks, but I guarantee all three kids will be covered head to toe in dirt and mud daily :-)

-Chad

 

I would probably recommend renting one a few times unless you are sure that the family will like the outdoors.

I see a lot of rental ones out there.

 

I've seen that mentioned before in my research but I'm not too worried about that. My wife and I both grew up tent camping with our families and want our kids to have much the same experiences. We've done a fair amount of camping with our kids in tents and yurts and absolutely love it other than how much hard work it is to tent camp with littles. Been considering an RV for years and finally decided to pull the trigger to hopefully allow us to get out camping more often ('cause its going to be LOTS easier, right?? )

 

We would like to camp year round which is possible here in So Cal but not sure it would qualify as 'winter camping' Would prefer to camp when the campgrounds are not packed to the gills anyway.

Good to know about the bathrooms. Others we know have said that's either important to them or wish they had it. I expect if we go with the smaller unit, we'll likely always miss the bathroom and especially the separate entrance door to it.

-Chad

 

I'll add one more thing when just cruising down the road it's not the weight it's the frontal area of the truck and trailer, the weight only comes into play when climbing grades.

I understand not wanting a DRW for a truck that you only pull on weekends and vacations, even before I retired my DRW spent most of the time in the garage because I always had a work truck to use. I now have a older F150 to use when we are at our home base, more to keep the miles off the DRW, just to expense to replace.

Denny

 

We will be climbing mountains quite a bit. We plan to visit our local mountains often for weekend excursions but also have the So Cal grapevine and other grades in northern california/Oregon to contend with on our longer trips. Almost every trip except the occasional beach trip will involve some sort of grades or mountains.

How much will that extra 2800 pounds affect us for the grades? I don't mind going up slow but also don't want to feel like I'm beating the truck to death (I don't mind the high rpms ... I actually like the sound of that big V8). Also wondering if I'm going to be sorry when it comes time to go down the big grades and mountain roads with an extra 2800 pounds and only SRW.

We really like the big one but it'll be out of the running if I feel its unsafe in any way with our current TV.

-Chad