Thinking of Downsizing
 

Well the wife and I have been kicking around selling the 38' toy hauler and switching to a 30' fifth wheel and double towing. Some of the reason being we have a hard time getting spots big enough in national Forest Campgrounds and the clearance keeps us out an area of East Glacier that we would love to go too but there is a 12'6" bridge and the TH is 13'5". She would also like a larger living area, I would love to have an outdoor kitchen again, and the kids are getting older and with one driving/working by next summer he probably won't be camping with us near as much so we won't need as much room. Just seeing if anyone has done the same or if you are double towing already what brand/model are you running? We are out west as well so I don't need to worry about the Communist states that don't allow doubles so if we can stay away from all the legal arguments that always come up on doubles threads I would appreciate it. Thanks!

I certainly don't have experience, but I remember a nice blog about it, making me ponder (but my better half is strictly against it) https://roadslesstraveled.us/triple-...me-with-a-rzr/ I take it they are still pondering a toy hauler though.

Just to throw in that piece of information.

That is a good article, thanks for the info. The wife and I learned that a toy hauler is like a multi-tool, it does a bunch of different jobs but none of them as well as the right tool made to do the job.

As there is just the 2 of us and a small dog we recently downsized. We went from a 43' Montana to 41'. We are often on the road 1 - 3 months. If only trips of 7 - 10 days I would have kept our 35' 5er.

Yeah I was thinking to stay under 32' but looks like we might end up with a 34' Jayco. I like that they come with a rear hitch with trailer wiring and still have an actual rear bumper for a rack and the sewer hose.

I wish I could put a small boat trailer on the back of mine, but not in MD. What do you plan to use for your double?

I have a 14' tandem axle flatbed that fits our side by side nicely. We have also talked about a boat or a pair of jet skis in the future.

Are you really going to find a 5th wheel that fits under a 12.5' bridge? I find that unlikely - no matter how short it is.

A Travel trailer, sure.

Honestly we have a 31' 5th and now that we aren't full timers find it way to big for short trips....

I agree with mrgrayaz about the height. I don't remember seeing 5th wheels that are much, if any, below 13ft.
I also agree with the downsizing. Our Coachman is 40' and is nice when the whole clan goes along but soon I'm going to retire and for just me and the wife we figure we can easily get a 30'ish 5er that will fit our needs better.

The smaller GD Reflections are nominal 12'3" and 12'6" respectively. But I think it's wise to measure actual height.

We have a Arctic Fox 27.5L which is 30’ and I double tow with atv, with little issues. I like how the smaller 5ver gives more manuerving room . We spend more time outside having a fire etc,

30'ish could be right or very wrong. The key word "retire". If you plan on longer trips, becoming a snowbird you may regret downsizing. We had a 35' 5er and it was great. Then we had the time and trips extended to 1 - 3 months very often. Now 41' with 5 slides works best for more than a couple weeks.

As a full timer for the past 6 years our 1st 5th wheel was 32' 11" with 2 slides (3 years in it), present 5th wheel is 34' 11" 3 slides. Not much difference in length but having the extra slide really opened up the floor plan.
I think that this is a good compromise for where like to live off the beaten trail.

It's the slides that open up the area more than the length, if we would of bought the other Cameo that was on the lot with the same length as our 1st one (32' 11") but had 3 slides we would probably still have it.
Living in a rv is made up of compromises all depending on where you want to drag it. :)