Should We Buy A Tent Trailer Or A 5th Wheel Trailer?

by Tom
(Montreal Canada)

You probably have heard this 1000 times!

I own an F150 pick up. My family of 4 (kids under 10) go camping from the start of the season to the end; usually on weekends and maybe for a week in the summer.

On occasion (once a year) we would like to do longer trips, e.g. from Montreal to British Columbia or Montreal to Myrtle Beach SC.

Either way I would like to know if I am sacrificing the quality of the camping site (no privacy) by using a fifth wheel because of its size.

Yes it would be nice to stop and take a pee in the middle of road but is that worth the extra gas/mileage?

Loads of questions!!!! Price is about the same for me as I am willing to spend 15k-20k on a tent trailer and about 30k for a fifth wheel.

ANSWER: Greetings Tom thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

Let me start off by saying the one thing I can never do is tell a person what type of RV is best for them. Choosing an RV is like buying a house. Different people look for different things when buying a house; the same holds true for people who are buying an RV. What I can do however is to make suggestions on what you should look at.

You talked about two different types of RVs Tent Trailers and 5th Wheel Trailers. You did not mention that you looked at any Travel Trailers. The travel trailer category includes a couple of sub-categories that you should look at; Hybrid Travel Trailers and Pop Up Travel Trailers. These categories are sort of more glamorous versions of tent trailers. They are very lightweight and economical to tow. When they are expanded at

a campground they become very roomy on the inside.

As they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Recently we attended an RV show and met Bill Durkee from CustomRVinc. He had a TrailManor 2720 Travel Trailer on display. When the trailer is in the closed position for towing it is only 20 feet in length. When it is setup at the campground it expands to 27 feet. When it is expanded all of the walls are solid; unlike the canvas walls on a tent trailer.

In the video below Bill Durkee was kind enough to show us how easy it is to setup the trailer for camping. As you will see it takes just a little over 2 minutes to setup.




By the way TrailManor has several floor plans available for these expandable trailers with expanded lengths from 26 to 33 feet. This is just an example of some of the other types of RVs you should be looking at. Although I cannot really tell you which RV is right for you, I can direct you to some information we have on our website that can help you with the decision making process. You might want to visit the pages of our website listed below.

What types of RVs are the right fit for you?

Rent An RV To Try Before You Buy

Buying A RV? Information You Need To Know.

Just for the fun of it you should read my article titled: Choosing An RV - How Easy Will It Be For You?

I wish you the best of luck on your RV hunt.

Do you have any suggestions or comments on this topic? You can add them to this page by clicking on the "Click Here To Post Comments" link located near the bottom of this page.

Happy RVing

RVing Al

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