What to know about a 5th wheel toy hauler.

I am looking to purchase a new toy hauler this year. Looking to get a 5th wheel with total length of 30’ with a enclosed garage.

what brands should I be looking at? I tried searching a few sites and most of the info is vague at best between models.

I will be towing with a f250 diesel.

Master with bath up front and bunks on lifts in the garage.

I am sure the sizing varies so if I have to go a few feet bigger it’s not a big deal. I am just looking to keep it smaller than bigger.

budget is 30-40k.

Yes, I know they are junk. I am not looking to do the modified trailer deal.

 

You're not gonna find one at 30' with a separate garage, they're going to be open floor plan. And most start at 32', with the most common being 35-36'.

 

That price point will be tough for a new one.

 

I have a Puma Unleashed by Forest River. It’s 36 feet. But it’s in your price range.

I got it at Wana RV in Shipshewana Indiana.

https://www.wanarv.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImIyu8aOO9QIVqP_ICh3-rgALEAAYASAAEgK3svD_BwE

You’ll want a bigger fuel tank in your 250. And B&W hitches are the cats pajamas.

 

+100!

 

Tolls will ruin your wallet by the axle if you hit any.

 

We have a 36' Fuzion. Great trailer and tows good also but it is heavy. I tow with a 3500 diesel SRW and it is all I would want to pull with this truck.
This is our 4th toy hauler and I know what we have learned over the years creates a list of "must haves" and we just got this trailer about a year ago so these are the ones I can remember:
Built in generator with auto switching
Hydraulic auto leveling jacks
Dual A/C.
Ramp door turns into a patio
Tie downs are in the floor and hooked to frame members
Garage has a door that seals it off from the living area because of transporting gas etc
A real must for us is the 4 season package, gives better insulation and windows, works for heat as well as cold
Watch the sizing on the fresh water tanks as well as the gray and black tanks. Some units need to be dumped every 3-4 days with just two people
A comfortable couch with recliners to relax in, we never use the table. Just sit on the couch with tv tables
Ducted A/C and heat
10 gallon water heater minimum, our new one has 12 gallon and it is nice
There are only the two of us so it is not a big concern but if you are going to use the beds in the garage double entry doors on the bathroom is needed, that way you can shut the master off from the bath and everyone has privacy.

I changed our one door lock over to keyless after we got it. Great for being at the track and not worrying if we both have our keys if we are doing different things.

I know there are others but the best advice I can give is do not settle thinking that "we can get by with this but would like that". You will kick yourself every time for not getting what you wanted and settling.

 

They are all garbage.
John I see some of the previous work you run into when you are renovating houses when you post on Facebook. Imagine that and the entire 5th wheel being put together like that. That’s what you should expect.
Every single RV or Toyhauler/5th wheel is put together by asssholes I’m convinced of it.
Get a sprinter van and tie a trailer or set it up to haul in.
Get hotels.
My advice from dealing with Rv’s/ Toyhaulers /5th wheels etc.

 

while its a known fact that it is much cheaper to get a hotel & a smaller tow rig... there is a certain comfort of setting up at the track once and staying for the weekend.
I hate getting up early and having to deal with the commute back & forth... and Ive never missed any sleep at the track even with midnight schenanigans. I have been woken up at
a hotel 5 times by fire alarms...
Im with you on the assholes & garbage RV industry... I was looking at one of those inflatable tent type enclosures but none really showed any "set it & forget it" durability.

 

Our only regret is not having done the RV thing sooner.

 

You’re going to want to put air bags on your truck. 5th wheel toy haulers tend to have a lot of pin weight. You’ll technically be maxing out your trucks payload capacity, so get some bags.

 

I’ve towed a 32’ foot hitch trailer at 13k with no probs.
I think my tank is 30 gallons. No way the lady and boy are making it past that mileage without having to stop anyway.

If I have to go larger to get the garage I’m fine with that as well. I just don’t want a monstrous trailer.

If I can get 5 years out of it I’ll be happy.

If I have to do airbags I will.

 

I had a 35 gallon in my 11 F350.

Part of the reason I got a 17 was for the 50 gallon tank it came with.

Even if you have food and potty stops. More fuel on board is always nice because you never know where your next diesel stop is and if you can maneuver to the pump.

 

I remember seeing that at Grattan three years ago.

FWIW, an rv on a tractor trailer chassis is worth the money. I looked at a Kenworth unit years ago and it was built like a tank.

 

Mines a 17’ as well. I think I was getting 200-250 on a tank.

 

Yes. They were meant to run more miles in a week than most of do in a season of racing. Easy to drive and super stable rolling down the highway, not being pushed around by other large vehicles or winds. We quickly realized we needed to add tires sensors to the trailer, because we could have dragged the thing on its axles and not noticed the trailer back there.

Ps we sold it to a circle track car racer over near Luddington.

 

The pin weight of 5th wheel with an enclosed garage will most likely exceed the payload of your F250. Do you even know what your payload is? It's the yellow sticker inside the driver's door frame. I bought a 2015 GMC HD2500 earlier this year to upgrade from a small travel trailer to a toyhauler. I have the largest bumper pull toyhauler we could find. It's a Coachmen Adernaline 34GM...13.5K lbs GVWR and 1250lb tongue weight. You won't find one just like mine though as it is a pre-production run that for some reason they decided not to produce. The 2021 brochure has it as a grayed out floorplan that says TBD, but they never went into full production.

Heartland has two similar models that we looked at also. The Torque T322 and T333. Other brands have similar but those are the ones I know about off hand because we actually looked at and considered them before buying the Adrenaline.

They are all basically the same layout as most small to medium size 5th wheel toyhaulers without a bedroom slide and sligthly smaller bathroom. Mine does have the 2nd 1/2 bath off the garage. A 5th wheel like you are talking about is going to be 14K-16K lbs with a 2500lb or more pin weight.

Might want to look at something similar to mine if you are insistent on towing with your F250. Look into the propride 3P hitch if you go the bumper pull route also. It projects the pivot point of the trailer up to near the rear axle of the tow vehicle so it handles just like a 5th wheel (i.e. completely eliminates trailer sway).

 

Get the airbags. Skip the pump. They make it ride better, even if you don't really need it. They're only $350 ish. They work off such small volume of air ( less than a MTB tire), I've done mine with a bicycle pump.

Separate garage is the best option, but you can put short things like 5gal fuel cans in the bed of the truck.

The bigger you get, the less fuel options you have. When we had out 46' trailer, we could only stop at truck stops. We had lots of counter pizza in our travels.

5th wheels do pull much better than bumper pull.

 

I just went through the same process for pretty much all of 2021, and I finally got a new fifth wheel toyhauler last week. There's a thread on here about what I learned: http://forums.13x.com/index.php?threads/post-covid-fifth-wheel-toyhauler-prices.373585/

As mentioned, you're going to have a hard time finding a separate garage that doesn't have a higher pin weight than your F250 can handle.

In my ignorance when I purchased a truck in 2017 (2500HD), I figured it would pull whatever I wanted to tow with it. I see a ton of 250 / 2500HD trucks pulling 5th wheels, and I never thought about pin weight until I started looking for an upgrade to my bumper pull and shopping for a 5th wheel. Long story short: I couldn't find one. The separate garage units were 35' and up and all had significantly higher pin weights than my truck can handle (800+lbs in a lot of cases).

I ended up with a 38' Forest River Sandstorm 326G SLR. It has an open floorplan.

Funny note about trailer lengths: Forest River's website lists 36'7" on their website for the unit I purchased. The brochure for the same unit lists 37'10". When I got the trailer home, it just seemed a tad longer than I had figured when I got it in its space. Sure enough, the label on the kingpin says it was manufactured at 38'7", and I confirmed this exact value with a tape measure. So, I ended up with 2' bigger than I had thought, and surprisingly, that makes a big difference.

 

ATC / Pla all aluminum trailers look to be built better.