i bought mine in ohio.. rvwholesalers.com my brother bought his texas, both of them were left over from the year before so we got great deals.. we found them both on ebay and then price compared to the local dealers and both times the local dealers could not even come close so we drove out of state to get them..both of us got fifth wheels and although they were probably not exactly what we would have purchased if paying full price , we both saved around 10 grand over the local price ..

 

I tow a 28' TT, (mind too from rvwholesalers.com, saved $6000) My Dad is a full time RVer and tows a 35' 5er. with the Same Trailer he had a 02 f250 cc short box, and had a Super-Glide Hitch, never had an issue, then they upgraded to an 08 F250 CC Long Bed, I toad his 5ther a couple of times when he broke his leg, 1st Time I ever pulled it, it was very intimidating with the height, by the 3rd time, I wanted one.

Make sure you do research on line before buying a trailer, (learn how to buy a camper), those dealers have a 100 percent mark up, sometimes you can walk away with all the extras, plus a warranty, lower then the original price, if you dont like what the dealer says walk away, They will find a way to make a deal.

 

When i picked mine up at rvwholesalers I was telling the guy there how much my local dealer wanted for basically the same camper.. he laughed and said I am still making money at this price.. they must have a huge mark up and most dealers depend on making lots of money on each camper... when I picked mine up I had to make an appointment to get it.. there were that many people buying campers there..they had them lined up and I watched one go about every hour or so... the guy in front of me was from a lot farther away than me and rolled in with a silverado 1500 and got a fifth wheel bigger than mine.. mine is 34' and weighs over 10k..

 

I tell all my friends to go to the local RV show, do the walk thru's, find what you like and compare at rvwholesalers, they cant believe the difference, nice little place in the middle of no where, very nice people, they set my van & hitch up at the time, filled my propane tanks and off we went in about 2 hrs. I took my invoice down to our local dealer and showed them what i paid vs them trying NOT to work with me, they told me to get off the lot.

hd1937 make sure you do re-search, I always say try to be more educated then the people you deal with, between my TT & my Dads 5er, I would go with the 5ther, and research the Super-Glide Hitch its about $1500 but worth it, my Dads is in my shed for when I upgrade to one....Good Luck, Let us know how it goes.

 

when i told the local dealer what i could get it for in ohio he said ..I guess you better go get it" so I did....lol

 

If you go over to the towing section there is a lot of information there on both.

 

Another veiwpoint: We are delighted with our modest (22') bumper pull for our needs. We haul a lot of toys to having the bed free is a major desire for us.

Big trailers can really restrict where you can go. If just using big asphalt slab RV "parks", the big units are fine. And if living in the unit, big is much more comfortable. But we prefer to boondock out in the woods. Tall, wide, and long is a real problem. We are rarely out for more than a week or two at a time and spend most of our time outside, so the small trailer is not too cozy.
Also, the nicer, more isolated sites in many campgrounds are the older ones - ones that are frequently limited to 25' or shorter trailers. Some National Parks also limit to 25'.
Properly designed and set up, bumper pulls are very stable and safe.

Other consideration: Those that have experienced both say a bumper pull will return 2-3 mpg more than a full height 5th wheel due to the greatly reduced frontal area and resulting aerodynamic drag.
Big units require a LOT more energy to heat or cool. If boondocking, that matters.
Big units are much less maneuverable than small. Making U-turns is pretty much out the window.... Driving through and parking in quaint little towns can be intimidating if not impossible.

The moral: Think about how YOU will use it and where you want to camp and factor that in.

 

That's awesome!

 

I've found the exact opposite to be true.

With a bumper pull, the air hits both the front of the truck and then the front of the trailer. Maybe it is different on a short bed...

With a 5th wheel, the front of the truck and the front of the trailer are close enough together, that the air flows over them as one, which reduces drag.

 

I'm a big proponent of buying used for the first round. Just over a year ago we bought a 2005 Forest River Wildcat 31qbh 5th wheel. I found it on craigslist. They guy just wanted to get rid of it because it was sitting. He was asking 15k for it and said he would take 13k over the phone. I drove out and looked at it, picked at it...needs tires, stairs, cleaning, etc. I offered him 10k. He took it after I showed him how serious I was.

My camping needs may be different than yours. We are active campers, that like a nice shower and some AC at the end of the day. We kayak, bike, fish, hike, etc. We get the camper dirty. When we bought it, I honestly didn't even know how many days we would camp in a year. It turned out to be 30 nights we spent in the camper last year. Not bad for weekenders. There are things I would like to have done differently, but for the price I paid I am satisfied and I have been able to see what we will do differently.

I also have a slider hitch. I have the Pullrite Superglide (automatic slider). Another craigslist find. Bought it for $600. I love it! I use it all the time due to the angle that we have to hit backing in our driveway. I recommend the superglide to anyone looking for a slider hitch.

We looked for nearly 6 months before we found our camper. We hit the RV show and decided we wanted a 5th wheel with a bunk room for the kids. That is exactly what we got. Bottom line...don't stress about it. Plenty of people have great towing experiences with travel trailers as well as 5th wheels. Just get out there and have fun camping.

 

With a travel trailer you can get it for about 10 grand cheaper then a 5th wheel. Which might be better if you decide after the first year or 2 you don't like camping (doubt that will happen). Or maybe you just don't have the time any more. That would be a lot of extra money to spend and find out you don't like it.

I do like the idea of buying new. You know everything will work or get fixed for free. New ones out there are only a couple of thousand dollars more then used ones. And who knows how they took care of it. Anyone can have a pro go and clean it up so it looks good. It's not a house so they don't have to tell you if anything is wrong with it and if there is you have to fix it. You can always get the dealer to come down on the price if you work hard enough. Good luck and happy camping.

 

This is very sound advice. Until you've done it for a while, you never really know what your desires will end up being. Buying used the first time can really make that learning curve easier on the wallet.

 

That's the first I've heard of that happening. What were the rigs you compared?

 

2007 Prowler 280RLDS 9,200 GVWR

2005 Jayco Designer... ~14,000# GVWR ... Don't know the model number as I just pulled it across town for my neighbor.

I actually got better mileage with the heavier trailer... the wind profile is about the only thing I could attribute that to.

With 8 feet of empty space between the rear of the cab and the front of the trailer, you're pushing air around the pickup cab, then allowing it to collect between the cab and trailer before pushing turbulent air around the trailer. With the 5th wheel, the air doesn't collect behind the cab in the same manner before it is pushed around the trailer. It'd be very apparent if a pickup & travel trailer combination were put into a wind tunnel smoke test.