Quality and Equipment to look for in 5'er

[glennwest]

We have never owned a generator. Not saying you won't need one. Depends on your needs. We have 4 batteries and a 2500 watt inverter. That will keep fridge and such going while traveling. We always stay in rv parks.

[Gadfly]

thanks again for all the good info. Any preferences out there solar vs generator? or both?

[glennwest]

One downside to solar. You have to park in sunshine. this don't get brought up much on solar discussion. If you are avid boon dockers get solar. The more batteries you have the less generator time needed. You can charge lots of batteries or one in about same run time. This works for many people.

[tuffr2]

The min. is what I have. Ugh.

I stay in the north in the summer and Florida in the late fall winter and early spring.

The min. is 10" I beam frame, 6,000lb lb axles, single pane windows. Kinda the run of the mill rigs. My rig is a 2011 and we spend 10 out of 12 months in it. Everything works. I fixed a few things, shower leaks because rig flexes going down the highway. The fridge door panel needed trimmed, I put Michelin XPS Rib tires on it, I rewired the lites, and slide main panel. All the fixes were easy looking back after I understood the real issues.

We like the interior still, and the storage is larger than more expensive units we looked at.

The air leaks in my rig keeps fresh air coming in...as the silver lining.

About 15 days in 10 months we are too cold and run fireplace and two electric heaters to stay warm. If we remove any source of heat the rigs cools down fast.

Two A/C units can keep you cool. We use it as lot while in Florida in spring.

Rigs that are a min. to me now are the Trilogy, Landmark, Presidential.

The custom rigs are overkill.

[leeway]

Westwind, I see you have a short bed PU. Pro's and con's of shortbed over full size one if you can. We are in the market and most seem to be short-bed's. Does it hurt your turning radius?
Thanks for any ideas.