What to Know Before Buying a TT or 5er

[raising4daughters]

My wife and I went to an RV show this weekend and have since decided to hang onto our Jayco 1007 PUP for the foreseeable future and then go right to our "retirement" RV rather than an interim upgrade. We've toyed with the idea of going to larger PUP or hybrid but have decided to save our money. Short run, we're limited to one full week per year, maybe two, and 2-3 weekends. This year was limited to one week and one weekend, hardly enough to justify an upgrade.

Our oldest 3 girls are 22, 21, and 17 and don't camp with us. If/when they start having kids, we'll let them have the PUP. So, we're not looking at a bunkhouse layout.

Our plan is to buy a TT or 5er no sooner than 5 years from now. So, no urgency to these questions but we're starting to plan early.

1. How can we educate ourselves about the pro's and con's of a TT vs. 5er? We're looking at sizes that would require a 3/4T truck, so it's not like we could get away with a 1/2T for the TT.

2. How about driving with one of these big suckers behind us? We've only ever towed a 10' PUP with a minivan and now a trailblazer. I hear constantly that PUPs are harder to navigate, but I wonder if we should take some sort of truck driving lessons before buying.

3. PUPs seem to have a lot of moving parts that require maintenance and break/fix. Will it get better or worse as we upgrade? Any cautionary tales from those that have moved up from a PUP? Should we plan on more maintenance work or costs?

Any other input from experience would be appreciated.

[etex211]

Fifth wheels pull much better than travel trailers.

You also get a lot more trailer, especially storage, with a fifth wheel.

[Murff]

etex has a good point but with a fiver, you lose your pick up bed for cargo.

Once you have a few miles pulling a TT or 5er, you just get used to it.

A TT or 5er takes longer to wash that your pop up. More systems to maintain but not horrible cost wise.

Murff

[sailor]

If you are buying a truck seriously consider a 1T truck rather than 3/4T. The price difference is small, the increase in payload is significant, especially if you want a 5th wheel.