Double shot of 5th ?

Once we had decided that we wanted to do this, we started talking about what type of vehicle we wanted to use.  As a child I had grown up with my family "going camping" in everything from a tent to a travel trailer.  Then when my kids were little,  I continued with tent camping, a converted van and even a trailer.  But Bonnie and I had only been camping on bike rides and that was in a tent.  We knew that wasn't in the cards.  So we started looking at Class A's ("no don't want to drive a bus" - Bonnie.  Class C's were out too).  That left us with travel trailers and 5th wheels.  I took the challenge and started researching what were the advantages and disadvantages of living in either one.  Some of the pro's of the 5th wheel were:  storage (it has a basement), more floor designs with more space and they pulled much better than a 36' travel trailer on the back of a pick up. 

We also knew that we would have to come up with a vehicle to tow with.  This meant getting rid of our beloved Subaru Outback we had purchased new in 2004.  We absolutely loved this car.  It did everything we asked of it, hauling our bikes, carrying hundreds of pounds of mulch in the back, giving us great gas mileage when you got it revved up (yea it got better mileage at 75 than it did at any lower speed).

But what vehicle do we get to replace it?  That all depended on the RV we would choose.  We finally decided on a large 5th wheel after looking at twenty or so manufacturers offerings.  We were set on the Carriage's model Cameo.  But Bonnie said that maybe we might want to stay in the north until after Thanksgiving, which meant we would need a 5th that would withstand the cold.  I did some more research and found that for a little more money we could get a DRV's model Mobile Suite (see it at: http://www.doubletreervsuites.com/products.php?suites_id=2)  that had much better insulation.  We went to the Hershey show and looked at all the models we liked but still we were convinced that our original choice, the MS, was the one.  Now we knew what we would be pulling so we could make a decision on what vehicle we would need to pull it.

I started looking for a F-350 or F-450 truck.  We found a 350 in the town next to us and went to look at it.  We really liked it but the dealer would not make us a good deal on the Subaru.  We had the top of the line LL Bean model and they wanted to buy it for a Legacy price.  We decided we would sell the Ru on our own. Two days after we listed it, it sold BUT the 350 was gone.  Looking around I found a beautifully kept F-450 near by in Maryland.  We went to look at it and found out the young man had OCD when it came to taking care of the truck.  It looked like it was on a show room floor, even the engine was clean enough to eat off of.  We purchased it but couldn't get it until a couple of weeks later due to bank mess up on our funds.










We had a truck but no RV!  We talked with our local dealer, looked at their offerings and asked about price.  Sure they gave us some discount off of MSRP but only about 10%, not enough for me since I knew what we would pay at other dealers on the internet.  I sent out request for pricing to several dealers in Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and Florida.   Since we would be on the road full time we didn't need a local dealer.  RV's for Less in Tennessee stepped up with a price that was a full 25% off of MSRP.  Butch and Karen are also a good Christian couple to deal with, they treat you like they would want to be treated.  In January, 2011 we ordered our unit.  We will not however pick it up until July. 

Our double shot of 5th then was our mid thought change from a Cameo to a Mobile Suite.  It is a fantastically built unit that will fulfill our needs for the next few years.