Shopping advice

[thrifty bill]

To me, the fifth wheel style make for the "best" floorplan as it creates basically a separate bedroom, away from the rest of the trailer. And I loved, loved, loved, towing the fifth wheel I owned years ago.

In the new market, for molded FG you have two choices, the Escape and the Scamp.

Back to the subject at hand, a couple of key decisions up front: will you need AC and will you need a bathroom and shower? Realize if you boondock or dry camp, to get AC, you need shore power, which means a generator. But certain parts of the USA are miserable without AC!

If you buy a used unit that does not have AC, do not ass-u-me that adding AC will be easy. Many of the molded FG trailers were not designed to support roof air (like my Trillium for example). AC after the fact is either a lot of work to do right, or is pretty marginal. Best to get a unit that has AC AND was designed for it (some people add roof AC to the old trailers that were never designed for it and as a result, they have a lot of roof sag).

In the case of vintage Trilliums, maybe 1 in 100 have the factory raised roof section that was designed for roof air. I have only seen ONE of those in person, maybe closer to 1 in 500.

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by jwcolby123

May I assume you are one of the anal ones?

We all know what assuming does, but in this case, it is you who are doing the assuming. And I can say that you are also one of the “anal ones” in in insisting that your description of the Scamp 19 is an actual 5th wheel connection rather than a coupler which connects to a ball and feel you have to defend your terminology. Anal goes both ways, you know. And again for the record, you can refer to your trailer any way you please. You can also claim the world is flat if that makes you happy. I could care less. That doesn’t imply any personality disorder.

[David Tilston]

To me, a fifth wheel uses a plate that supports the weight of the trailer and a king pin that does the pulling.

If a ball is used on something resembling a fifth wheel design, it is a goose neck.

Just my $0.02.

[Darwin Maring]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

To me, a fifth wheel uses a plate that supports the weight of the trailer and a king pin that does the pulling.

If a ball is used on something resembling a fifth wheel design, it is a goose neck.

Just my $0.02.

Its a goose neck hitch on a 5th wheel camper.

[Jon Vermilye]

Originally Posted by loombisaurus

Hi. Thanks for reading and/or giving advice!
I’m shopping for a trailer to live in full time. For a long time- at least five years, probably longer. (Which is one reason I’m not interested in vans. They’ll all be obsolete by then.)

For a while, I was looking at lighter FG models- scamp 13’s and Burros- because I was assuming I was stuck with my TV, a 2017 VW Tiguan with a 2200 capacity. (Stuck because I assumed I was underwater on my car loan, purchased when I was still married. Anyway!) Used car market being what it is right now, it turns out I’m *not* stuck, and can offload the VW for something capable of towing a bigger trailer. Which I’d much prefer for long term living. So now, once I swap TV’s and have a decent pickup, I’m interested in fifth wheels for their larger size and overall efficiency.

And so naturally I’m mostly looking at 5th wheel Scamps. But of course, they’re very hard to find if I don’t want to wait 2 years four a factory order. So, in the meantime, I keep noticing other 5th wheel trailers. Most I assume are aluminum, though that info can be tricky to track down based on internet ads from dealerships. And my rough understanding is that aluminum is inferior to fiberglass, but can someone explain to me why? Furthermore, there are (comparatively) a gazillion ads for the more mass market ones, vs Scamps, which have the long waiting list- indicating that Scamps are preferable in I’m sure many ways, but it would be very helpful if someone had the knowledge to explain what those ways are.

Explainer articles I’ve read aren’t terribly helpful, since they mostly just discuss fiberglass trailers generally, rather than Scamps specifically.

Thank you!

If you are planning to buy new, be sure to have the truck you want "purchased" before you plan on making the change. My son started looking for a vehicle today and found exactly 1 available at three dealers.

[loombisaurus]

Schrodingers Scamp 19 both is and is not a fifth wheel. We shall never know. Anyway thanks for the advice everyone!

[David Tilston]

Originally Posted by loombisaurus

Schrodingers Scamp 19 both is and is not a fifth wheel. We shall never know. Anyway thanks for the advice everyone!

A physics joke! I love it! The superposition Scamp.

[Darwin Maring]

I have a possible solution that includes trading his vehicle for a truck and camper but could not send a private message to him.

[loombisaurus]

Updated shopping interest:

-Escape 5.0TA: roomier than Scamp, only runs a little more $, boat construction sounds very durable. Hard to find.

-Bigfoot truck camper: also a little pricier than Scamp but not by much, easier to find than Escape, 4 season (including their truck campers? Can anyone confirm?) surprisingly roomy.

Both, I’m pretty sure, would limit me to bigger trucks. No more shopping for Tacomas.

[Defenestrator]

I think officially the 2500 Bigfoots are 4-season and the 1500 are not, but even the 1500 has 1" of EPS foam insulation.

[thrifty bill]

A Bigfoot truck camper is going to take a big pickup, 3/4 ton to 1 ton, depending on the camper model. The “challenge” with pick up campers is all the weight is on the truck itself, and come out of payload, whereas a pull behind trailer, most of the weight is on the trailer’s axle. Most 1/2 tons should be capable of towing the Escape 5.0 TA. Tacoma’s are well known for really low payloads, so I don’t recommend them. Fifth wheels have more weight on the truck in the form of pin weight compared to traditional pull behind trailers.

I watched a YouTube interview with the head truck designer for Toyota. I loved the question: “why the drum rear brakes and low payloads?” His answer was “we recommend the Tundra if you want to tow.” Revealing IMO.

[Jon in AZ]

Just to clarify… I was NOT talking about truck campers when I recommended Bigfoot. They also make a line of molded fiberglass travel trailers. Like the truck campers, models designated 2500 have four season upgrades.

[Raz]

FWIW, the host at the Green Mountain National Forrest near by is living in a 17' Casita. Summers here, winters down south, Alabama as I recall. Hosting might be an option.