Teton went out of business years ago. It was a high-end manufacturer.

 

The only real way to know pin weight is to weigh it. If you do a brochure search for a higher-end fifth wheel and compare it to that of a lower end product, you quickly see why they weigh more. You also immediately feel it if you walk on the roof of each. Moving a few pounds to the rear will do little to reduce pin weight. Really heavy is going to be really heavy no matter what you do.

Steve

 

Teton stopped building trailers a few years ago.

Denny

 

I agree with moving weight to the back unless you have a toy hauler, on our trailer we have a 100 gal fresh water tank that sets over and a little aft of the rear axle and from empty to full I can vary the pin 200 lbs, from 3200 to 3400 lbs. I can see no way of moving that much weight by just shifting things to the rear of the trailer.

Denny

 

I lived in a 25' Wilderness bumper pull from Sep 2014 until just recently, in western Oregon. Fairly mild winters, a few 4-5 day periods with temps in the mid 20's, but mostly doesn't freeze here. Not too hot in the summer either. It only rains once too, from the last week in October to about mid-June.

First winter wasn't too bad. Second winter got a little claustrophobic. I just upgraded to a 29' Collins 5th wheel. A lot more room and storage.

So you don't need the biggest rig to live in comfortable. You just have to learn to be frugal with space, what you need to have on hand, etc. I get by pretty well with the minimum. I grilled outdoors all winter, that helped with the cooking. You have to be organized too. Dishes done every day, cause there isn't much sink room for them to pile up in. Keep things picked up and put away, etc. I live in a park with 8 full time spots. Of the 8, I have one of the bigger RV's and at least 3 of the others are couples.

It can be done. I plan on living here until something else comes a long. I have no idea what that might be or how long it might take. This is pretty much the only way I can afford to live in western Oregon. Otherwise I'd have to move back to Eastern.

 

Yes.. 4 years now..first TH was a Voltage and had many issues with hot or cold weather...the last year has been in our DRV Fullhouse and has been very enjoyable.. dual pane windows and insulation are very important.

 

Thanks for the info. DRV is one of the brands I am looking in to, not as much right now as Grand Design.

If you can share any other insight you have I'm all ears (or, eyes...). Anything you can share from the lifestyle would be helpful. Were there any challenges you didn't see coming in going full time? Anything you wish someone made a point, or more of a point to drill in, before you hit the road?

I started another thread here more specific to problems that you have dealt with (not necessarily related to "full time" living, but any quality/durability issue of a 5th wheel regardless). So if you have any information on that subject perhaps drop it in the other thread.

 

The best advice I can give is that the frame is the foundation to an RV and determines how well it will survive traveling. The wall and roof construction method will determine how easy or difficult maintaining or modifying will be. Insulation and the design of heating and cooling systems will determine how comfortable living in it will be. Having real wood cabinets is not a design decision but rather a durability issue, particle board with a plastic picture of wood glued to it is not very durable...Try to buy the best built RV that fits in your budget rather than the prettiest. Trading RV's is not a fun activity so be sure when you lay your money down exactly what you are getting. Grand Design has resisted installing residential refrigerators in their units, I find they are more reliable and useful.
Good luck in your quest, we love living anywhere we wish and exploring this beautiful country.

 

Thanks for the info. That helps a bunch.

You are exactly right about not looking at the prettiest rigs. I've started my search with the mindset of what is most important is what I can't "see". That also is leaving me with a ton of questions.

The salesmen I worked with on Friday mentioned touring the manufacturing facilities. I would be very interested to see those as that may be the only way to see deep inside these 5th wheels to see what is underneath everything.

From the frame and mechanics standpoint I am pretty much sold on what Grand Design puts out. From what I have seen in some other brands the hydraulics they use (slides, leveling) are very well designed. Thing is, though, mechanics only has very little to do with the "livability" of the rigs - more so transportation and transitioning from set up to transporting, and back the other way.

 

We are full timing in our rig:

30 foot - but with 3 pretty monster slides. its right at 360sq foot. My biggest complaint is I had to pull out the lazy boys for my desk (I work full time from it). A slighly bigger trailer with room for both would have been awesome.

We are young - not retired, and so did this on the cheap, cash - must admit I do have some rig envy from those on the road and on this forum:





Anyway - for us (and our budget) it came down to the trailer with the island kitchen being the winner...which of course meant I didn't get the one with the tow hitch and built in generator - but what do you do. Happy (not quite wife), happy life right? That said - When your shopping, I HIGHLY recommend a tow hitch and generator. its not easy to just "add a hitch" to a 5th wheel, or to add a generator later if you want one.

Also a trailer with big tanks is nice - this one has 100 gallon fresh, 110 gallon grey (2 tanks), and 55 gallon black. We've been off water for 2 weeks before without too much issue - Navy showers though. Anyway - a few items to consider as you look at this more!

We also have a blog - www.seeyasuburbia.com where there is a lot more info on our Journey and our RV shopping journey!

 

If you have the time definitely tour the factories, it is very enlightening. Wall construction is important, press wall construction does not allow for flexible wiring and is a limited insulation solution. Dual pane windows are a must have, Try to stay away from Schwintec slides...they are light and cheap but not dependable on larger slides.
Be careful of salespeople, most do not camp and have limited understanding of how these function.

 

We live in a Heartland 2012 Travel Trailer. After getting tired of paying skyrocketing mortgage and rent, we took the plunge and never looked back. The freedom is great. It isn't perfect, but nothing is. It's perfect for us though. Living in a house has its challenges as does RV living, but it's TOTALLY doable and people have been doing it for awhile.

 

My wife and I are full timers with our first child due in weeks, two 120+lbs dogs and would not have it any other way. Being in the military moving had always been a concern, now we can just drop the house on the truck and go where we need. Currently we are in northern Illinois and will be experiencing our first winter in our new fifth wheel. Being that we do not have a great budget we purchased a Crossroads Rezerve 36db, it is roughly 40ft and weighs around 12K dry and over 14 with all of our stuff loaded up. So i mentioned the brand because it is not the most expensive model and is no where near a $100k unit, But that doesn't mean we cannot survive the winters. First our plan is to drop the underbelly and wrap all of the piping in heat tape and the foam pipe wrap. As well, we are going to get tank heaters for all of the holding tanks(FIVE tanks total..$$$$) and follow the heaters up with foam board insulation to sort of enclose the tanks themselves. The bottom perimeter will be skirted with foam board (R-10 value, right at 2" thick) then as the snow falls i will pack it around the bottom of the foam board to help seal the bottom.
There has been some mention of Slides in this post, again being we are in Illinois and they hardly get any snow (all of the sarcasm) i am going to fabricate a "Slide Cover" to avoid snow falling on the roof of the slides. There are already "Slide awnings" on the market but are just a awing and do really have the rigidity that i am looking for and they can be pricey.

It has also been mentioned that condensation is an issue and i absolutely agree. Too much condensation leads to Mold. The best way to cut down on this is a Dehumidifier.

Do not use a normal propane heater inside of a RV either, it puts off a gas and that gas is deadly, if you must use a propane set up do the research and find the RV friendly one, the brand is escaping me right now.

You mentioned have it placed on a parcel of land, if you already have city utilities at the parcel getting hooked up shouldn't be a super big deal. If your parcel doesn't have anything there are ways of getting water to and waste away from the RV. Look at "Portable waste tanks" its basically a S^&* cart. you dump the tanks into the cart, take the cart to a dump station and that is it. As for fresh water you can get a hold of 55 gallon drums and a 12volt water pump. If you get the drums make sure they are food safe, an even better solution is sold at tractor supply they have various sized water tanks with a pump already attached.

That is mostly what i can think of off the top of my head but certainly do your research and when you go to buy NEGOTIATE NEGOTIATE NEGOTIATE! Rv manufactures stick an extremely high MSRP on their products. they are worst than cars. Also, RV shows are a fancy way of saying "We are selling stuff at a super low rate". And dealers get into the "I'm going to sell more than you" another good way to get a deal close to the end of the show.

There are numerous Full timers out there just do some looking and youll come across a blog of folks that do it.
My wife and i run our full time blog so if you have questions feel free to message me.

 

It is extremely difficult to wrap the all the dump pipes in heat tape. Been there, tried that, would not do it again. Just not necessary. If you have a heated belly, you do not need tank heaters, at least in my experience. We have camped when the ambient hovered near zero with no problem. The RV furnace is an excellent source of heat and also should provide heat to the tanks. The worse freeze ups I have worked on occurred when owners did not use the furnace and attempted to save on propane by heating only the living area with electric or radiant heaters.

You can get a fresh water hose with heater cable wired in. Your dump hose will freeze up so disconnect it in freezing weather when not in use. If it freeze all the way up to the bayonet (the attachment point on the camper) the bayonet can split.

Just based on our experience.

Steve

 

I hadn't planned on wrapping the dump pipes with heat tape, just the pipes up in the under belly. Unfortunately we do not have a heated underbelly or an insulated one at that, its just enclosed. for the dump station pipes i had planned on building a heated foam board surround that can be accessed for dumb trips, something that is enough to keep it above slushy cold but not hot enough to boil it.
I can only imagine the mess a frozen up system can cause.
We will be running the furnace along with smaller inside heaters. I have found a large external propane tank that i want to splice into the current propane system to help extend the time between propane fills.