We've been full-time in a 42' fifth wheel for four years now, we've been coast to coast working, seeing National Parks and hunting.
It's hard to beat the convenience of having all of your stuff with you in your own space. When hunting I've found sometimes we end up staying further than I'd like from our spots, but when I build out a new rig I'll have solar and enough water capacity to boondock longer.
As for saving money, It definitely pays off when I'm working as compared to what I hear the other guys spending on hotels and VRBO's and I can almost always find a campground within 15 minutes of a job. I've heard others at work with dogs struggling to find VRBO's because of their dog and my wife recently took an overnight trip with our dog, and the hotel charged an extra $40.
My plan after we get back into a house is sell this camper(Columbus by Forest River) and build out a high ceiling goose neck cargo trailer into the camper I want. I'll use better materials and make things accessible and easy to change when they do break.
For those that have campers around that size or smaller, what are your thoughts on single vs. dual axles, other than the added stability and extra maintenance 2 extra tires, brakes, bearings, and axles require?
EDIT: for those that considered campers and decided the math didn't make sense, would you mind sharing some of the ongoing expenses re: insurance, maintenance, registration, etc...?
I would definitely go double axle for the redundancy. Even with good tires you could suffer a blowout, or bad hub and with a second axle you can limp to a park. We just had our first blowout after four years even with good tires, followed by the spare blowing out 45 minutes later.
The insurance and reg. cost isn't anything crazy. The maintenance can get quite expensive, but I find it is relative to how many miles we put on it and time. If you can't do things yourself, I'd have a real big emergency fund. The only time I've paid for work was for an AC repair and a welder to fix the spring hanger and add supports cause I didn't have a machine on the road.
EDIT: I just saw that GD has a 3.6 Google rating out of 700+ reviews. The bad reviews talk about the same issues that all the other brands have with the only difference being people paid a lot more. There is also a class action lawsuit against GD filed in April cover several of their models from 2020-2023 for having warped frames.
Is there an RV manufacturer that doesn't put out a POS? I see that GD is owned by Winnebago which I always thought was a good brand.
They are all POS. I asked a GD owner about them being better and he said his was a POS, lol.
The more you pull a camper around, the more stuff breaks. We bought our 2017 model in 2021. I'll give you just some of the things we've replaced in 4 years.
(The camper is at 13400 on the two 7k axles)
5 broken leaf springs
4 cracked equalizers(CRE-3000)
3 cracked aluminum rims
4 tires that wore uneven after broke leaf springs
bent spring hanger
Eventually fixed my suspension by welding more plate on the frame, cross braces and all new spring hangers underneath.
Sheared the lugs off and lost tire and wheel, replaced hub.
Tire and spare after blowouts
Just replaced the microwave for a second time
Refridgerator(full size residential, that was a btch to get in and out)
converter and inverter
1 of the Ac's
tank valves
recliners and mattresses
slide motors and gear
Door latches, twice
Lots of small stuff, like screws falling out of fans and door hinges, window latches breaking, trim coming loose, GFI receptacles, etc.
I'm certain that I'm forgetting some things, lol.
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