Greetings everyone! I'm shopping for a fifth wheel and looking for some advice. Our trips will be mostly short, weekenders to the lake, etc. I decided on a fifth because I will want to pull the boat also occasionally. Crew consists of Sweet Creature, myself, our 3 kids, and most of the time a couple of someone elses kids as well (boat = "Cool Parents&quot. So, sleeping and storage are important. I'm looking at a '96 25' Prowler which has a slide for the sofa/dinette and looks to have adequate room but is a little shy on storage. Dealer wants 13.9k for this one. I also looked at a brand new 28' Springdale by Keystone (bunkhouse) at another dealer for about 20k. I really liked the storage, room, etc. on this one, but OY, I'm already paying for the new truck, and don't know if I want any more payment action right now. I read some very helpful posts in Wheels's thread, and the scary posts in Glenns 2 ed...YIKES! So....1. Is prowler made by Fleetwood? and 2. Anybody have any additional advice/experiences I should consider? Thanks folks

Old School sick and tired of tents in Wyoming.

 

OldSchool,
My wife and I have a Keystone Sprinter and are very satisfied with its room and performance, however, I understand your concern on the payments thing. We have shopped around for a later downsize replacement and are lloking at the 25' class. Our current 27' has the dining area slide-out, giving plenty of room, but it is now more than we need since our oldest has his own trailer and he and the grandkids don't stay in our trailer any more. I have seen some very reasonably priced used 5ers in the 27' class as people have been trading up around here, mostly into the 32'+ for retirement traveling. If the same is true in your area, I suggest you look at some not-to-old used 27 footers for the number of people you mentioned - I don't think a 25' get do for that many people unless they like stepping over each other during the night. Good luck.

 

Old School- Like Gary said it is a personal choice. Wife and I have a 26' Sportsmen and like it alot. It has a 14' slide out and it seems to have enough room for us and two kids (10yr old boy, 14yr old girl). Take your time and talk to people that own or have owned differant models you are thinking about. You may also want to check with your local state patrol office for legalities if you want to pull two trailers. I did and the officer made coppies of the laws for me right from his book that he carries with him. Look at the interior closely if you are looking at a used one. That SHOULD tell you what kind of life it had. For me buying our fiver was about the best thing we ever did!
Tom

 

You are obviously a smart shopper by asking questions and reading the forums. Go to http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm?site=TLM and search the forums on 5ers. I believe you will find all the information you need.

 

I can only echo what the other folks have brought up so far. We had a real nice 26' 1985 Nomad 5er with no slides that we had bought used. We routinely camped with 3 adults and an infant, but storage was a little limited. A couple of those big plastic storage tote boxes worked well and could be slid under the camper once you got set up.
We took the plunge and bought the 30' Cougar, with the double slides and it makes so much difference. We've got plenty of storage space and the slides make for so much more room. As Gary stated, it's a personal preference, and our floor-plan does not allow access to the stove when the slides are pulled in, however we actually put out the slides even when we stop at rest areas for lunch,,,,,,,,,, it only takes the push of a button! ;D (the parking lanes in the trailer areas are wide enough and in the pic below,,, the kitchen slide is out and does not stick out any further than the steps)
Click on the picure to show Cougar 286EFS floor-plan

HERE is another good RV forum for info also.

 

Wow,

Thanks for all the input, those were some great links...which of course led to more great links ;D...man it's getting overwhelming. I'm ready to stop reading and start camping...going to look again tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again,

Old School

 

[quote author=Old School link=board=11;threadid=17732;start=0#msg166756 date=1059710279]
Wow,

Thanks for all the input, those were some great links...which of course led to more great links ;D...man it's getting overwhelming. I'm ready to stop reading and start camping...going to look again tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again,

Old School
[/quote]

Good luck, and happy camping. ;D

 

Hello again folks,

Well, I went ahead and jumped in. Yesterday we bought a '98 25' Sportsmen 5th wheel. We bought it from a private party. It has no slides, but does have bunks in back and tons of storage spaces, and plenty of "sleeping" room. The thing that sold it for us though, is the fact that it had hardly been used. In fact, only one of the beds had ever been slept in, and the shower/tub had not been used either. A guy had it to do a remote job for his company in 1998,and he was going to house 5 workers in it, but when he got to the job, other arrangements had been made, so he spent two months sleeping in it himself, so he wouldn't feel like he wasted his money by buying it. It has been in storage since that summer. I mean, the microwave still has the protective plastic film attached! I feel like I made a pretty good buy at $10,500.
Perhaps we settled by giving up a little room, but we employed Garys logic, that we really won't be in it much exept to sleep and perhaps eat, and we were somewhat concerned about getting a bigger one around. That combined with the fact that we are first-timers, and considering what we paid for it (cash) we still retain the option of seeing how this size works out, and if it does not, we can sell it and go get the Couger without taking too much of a hit.
Speaking of the Cougar.....Man oh man what a beauty! We sat in one at the dealers' for over two hours. It is definately a dream machine with the perfect combo of storage, versatility, room..etc. They definately had folks like me in mind when they drew that dude up. The wife and I were doing the old 'self rationalization' thing...you know how it goes: "Well it is a little more, but look at it, and only 215.00 for 180 months with nothing down... : heck that's cheap for what you get." But then we looked at each other, busted out laughing and decided to go get the Sportsman. If indeed we do fall in love with RVing, and all of our prophesies come true, and the trips are a blast, and we find ourselves needing more room, I'll bet the dealer would be happy to show us another Cougar. For now though, we think we did good with the Sportsmen.

Thanks again for all the input.

Oh.... I'll try to post some pics as soon as I get my digital camera back.

 

Old School,
Sounds like you got yourself a good deal! ;D Believe me,,,, I would have much rather taken the time to shop around and found a previously owned unit and I had always said that's what we were going to do. However, my folks had just traded their 26' Coachman in on a 2001 Cougar 276EFS and we had the chance to really look it over and about 3 weeks before we were about to go on a 2 week vacation to Nashville, it seemed like everything went wrong with the 85 Nomad. On a weekend get-away,,,,, the fridge went south and filled the camper with ammonia smell, the plumbing sprung a leak and soaked the floor before we found it and stopped it. It was just a bunch of other little things also. The fridge would have been a big cost repair, but the rest of the stuff would just have taken a little time to fix. Long story - short,,,,,, It was just enough to make us go and buy a new unit. It also made the vacation trip to Nashville that year, most memorable. I don't regret buying the Cougar,,,,,,,, it would have been nice to have found a pre-owned at a lower price, but sometimes things don't work out like you had planned.
The funny thing is,,,,,,,,,, until we actually owned something a little nicer than what we had at the time,,,,,, we were just as happy as the folks that did have the nicer ones. I remember towing a little old 1974 tag-along that we had to almost totally rebuild to make road-worthy,,,,,,, and we were just as happy as the guy in the $250,000 motorhome,,,,,,,,, and I always said "We got everything that they have without the payments!" ;D