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Old 06-14-2015, 08:56 AM   #1
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Question Trading up?

How long did you wait until you upgraded? We purchased our first TT ever, last summer. We discovered that we absolutely love camping. We didn't get the TT until the end of June and still managed to get in 13 trips before the season ended.

Since we like it so much, we are now discussing getting a fifth wheel. We didn't want to spend the money last year, in case it ended up just not being our thing. Now the concern is trading up and taking a bath on the value of our TT. Is it silly of us to be looking at 5er's with only a year of camping under our collective belts? Are we screwed with trade in values? Or should we just hang on to the TT for a couple more years before dive into the world of fifth wheels?
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Old 06-14-2015, 09:32 AM   #2
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We have had three 5er's in the last 9 years since we have started camping again. We bought our first 5er used and tried it out to see if this is what we wanted to do. We bought this in late summer of 2007 and took it out twice. We keep that unit until the spring of 2010 and bought a new 318SAB Cougar; at an RV show in the Chicago land area. We than traded that in on a new 2016 Cedar Creek 34RL; we hope this will be our last unit for the next 10 years or so. This unit has almost every thing that the DW and I wanted now in a 5er.


If you want a fiver and can afford the unit than by all means go ahead and buy what you want. Life is too short to worry about what if's. I know of two people very close to us who have suffered strokes and they are now bedridden. They are not even in their late 50's yet.
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Old 06-14-2015, 09:39 AM   #3
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If you hang around here any, seems very normal. If you want and can afford, go ahead. You now have a better idea what you want and need.

After a decade of camping, if you find yourself buying a new camper each year, that might be a little much.
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Old 06-14-2015, 10:32 AM   #4
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Trading up?

We had a 19' Coachman (bumper pull) for two yrs. after the first year we spent time looking for a bigger TT. Bought a 27' FR Rockwood and had it for two Yrs. spending a year of that time looking at Fifth wheels. We now have a 40ft. FR Salem Hemispere. Love our fiver and seriously doubt we'll get a Class A or C. We're retired and use the fiver A LOT. Good thing my nephew lives with us, we just hook up and go - leaving him with the house and animals. Lol. We stopped at 40' because it seemed that a lot of place were limited in size. You may also want to consider whether you want to go 50 AMP. I noticed quite a few place only have 30 AMP.


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Old 06-14-2015, 09:35 PM   #5
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We started out in 2010 with a 2001 Kodiak K215 hybrid, we kept that for 2 years before we upgraded to a 2012 Grey Wolf 26BH in the spring of 2012. Now after 3 years with the Grey Wolf we upgraded again just yesterday to a 2013 Passport 3220BH. We were not planning on the upgrade but it had everything that was on our wish list (outside kitchen, 2 slide outs, outside door into the bathroom), plus we only had to pay $10K plus our Grey Wolf.

My parents had 3 campers in a 3 month period 2 years ago. They sold their 35' Jayco Designer series 5er and bought a Lexington class B, they hated the class B and only kept it for about 2.5 months. They traded the Lexington in on a 2013 Open Range 5er and still have it.

I think "most" probably tend to keep their campers for somewhere in the 4-7 year range before moving on to another model.
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Old 06-14-2015, 09:48 PM   #6
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We started in 2011 with a new TT. Upgraded the truck before the year was out. This led to many discussions about fivers. We kept talking about it and finally decided we really wanted a different floor plan. We upgraded last year with 3 yrs in our old TT. We sold it on craigslist for $3000 less than we paid for it. Not a bad hit. If we had traded it in to a dealership we would have been given about $3-4000 less than we got for it on craigslist. Do what you can afford and makes you and your DW happy.
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Old 06-14-2015, 09:52 PM   #7
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We started in Summer 2012 with a TT 2703 Rockwood. The following summer we traded after having some issues on our Current 8289 WS Fiver. We lost 5k on he trade but took 8 k off an unstuck unit. A wash in reality and have a new trailer we should have bought in the first place.
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Old 06-14-2015, 10:05 PM   #8
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I am probably the exception around here. See my comment below.....started out in a tent, then moved up to a pop up camper in '87, made the huge jump to a fifth wheel just last August, now my kids, out of the house are insanely jealous!
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Old 06-14-2015, 10:05 PM   #9
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Trading up?

We started with a 1995 Dutchmen 33ft fiver with one slide alum siding

Kept it for 16 yrs - in 2011 found a great steal of a deal on a 2007 Keystone Laredo fifth wheel with two slides fiberglass exterior on used car lot at $10k less than any on dealer lot at the time

Kept that one for two seasons before trading in 2013 (got $1500 less than what we paid for it when trading it in ) on our first brand new fifth wheel - 2014 Crusader 325RES with all the options Touring Edition, added slide toppers

Hope to keep this one a LONG time - have had ZERO issues on this one!!

PS - that old Dutchmen is STILL going strong for the guy we sold it to - guess they knew how to make them back then 😉
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Old 06-15-2015, 12:24 AM   #10
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If you are satisfied with your unit and don t tow long distance, keep on camping and collect data of what the different folks use and what each type of unit has in it...do the homework and you will come up with answers ..... we researched and found thru time spent talking with campers just what is doable and practical.....
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Old 06-15-2015, 01:20 PM   #11
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Thank you so much for all of the great feedback. We greatly appreciate it. Ya'll are the best!

I can definitely tell you one thing, we absolutely love camping! Living in Connecticut, we can only camp 6 months out of the year. But in those 6 months, we camp alot. The furthest we have gone is about 4.5 hours away. I don't see any long distance trips in our future. We still have 3 kids at home and because of hubby's job, we pretty much only do weekend camping.
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Old 06-15-2015, 01:28 PM   #12
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4 years. in 2011 we bought at a small 16' toy hauler. after a couple years we kept talking about getting a larger one. It was actually 4 years from that first time we purchased until we upgraded. Went up a 37' 5th wheel toy hauler
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Old 06-15-2015, 01:36 PM   #13
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Never considered trading up when we went from a tent to pop up to travel trailer to 5er, we just considered it trading to a different style. Some folks just enjoy tents, pop ups, etc. We just decided we wanted something different to match our changing wants and needs besides getting older and a lot lazier.
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Old 06-15-2015, 01:38 PM   #14
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We still had a couple of years left to pay on our TT when we upgraded to a 5th wheel. When we first started talking with the dealer, they came up a little short on the trade-in value. We said we wouldn't buy unless they paid off the TT in full. They eventually agreed.

I check their website periodically and so far they have never gotten another 5th wheel in the make/model that we bought. So we are glad we jumped on it when we did.
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Old 06-15-2015, 04:27 PM   #15
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Well... You're gonna take a bath on it when you upgrade. You'll get a very cold bath and a shower if you trade. If you sell what you have you'll come out some better. I always look for units for sale by dealers in the area that are the same make/model... or at least comparable, and price what I have a touch lower. I always make sure it's showroom clean when others are looking at it. I am also ready to do a full PDI with the perspective buyer. It doesn't matter what it is... car, RV, airplane, boat... it needs to be really, REALLY clean and user ready if you want to sell it and get a decent price. I'll be going through this next year...
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