Can you help me make a decision about this 5th wheel? To buy or not to buy?

I personally don’t like fifth wheels because you lose the entire truck bed. You also need a helluva tow vehicle.

They do have a lot of storage and perks though.

That’s a good point about losing the truck bed.
We have a helluva tow vehicle. I hate it but we have it.

Thanks for taking the time to respond @ARE_you_kidding_me.

I think we’ve talked ourselves into it. Dude said if we were serious he could hook the electric up so we can be sure everything works, fridge, AC, heat etc.
Jesus. It even has washer / dryer hookups.

I don’t know much about campers, but I know when people trade in their cars, they often lose money. Might it be better if you had two totally separate transactions, not necessarily with the same guy? So you sell the camper, and you buy the fifth wheel? That way, you can be assured of getting the maximum from the camper you sell, and you pay whatever the fifth wheel is worth.

I wouldn’t. The 5th wheel is 10 years older. Also, the Jayco is a better brand in my opinion.

It sounds a little suspicious, to me. Make sure, that the other camper, is in the shape the owner claims…

What’s the blue book on each? Can you have someone from an RV repair place go over it thoroughly and tell you what the 5th wheel is worth?

Why does the guy want to trade in the first place?

it seems like you two like wheeling and dealing to get new things rather than having them but if it gives you pleasure go for it. I had the impression that the camper you have is relatively new to you.

What makes me leery is the seller is very eager to have you take his vehicle and he will even hook up the electric, etc. That makes me wonder why he’s jumping through hoops to get rid of his older vehicle in exchange for your newer one. That’s why I’d do the two transactions separate.

Also, it will cost around 1,000 to have the 5th wheel hitch to be installed in your truck.

@janbb, our camper IS relatively new to us. It’s not that we don’t like the camper. It’s just that with a thousand grandkids we really could use the extra room. You get more than 5 people in there you almost can’t move. It feels like a good deal for both of us. I have some more research to do yet, though.

It’s his son’s camper. We met with Dad, and I don’t get any kind of sly vibes from him.
He’s a hard working mid westerner who is moving into retirement. The fact that he’s willing to turn everything on to show that it all works is a good sign. A BAD sign would be is if he promised it all worked, but came up with excuses not to prove it.
They are asking $12,500. Rick came up with the trade because I don’t think we could get $12,500 for our camper. His son wanted a smaller camper because they only have 1 child. They don’t need that much room.

Turning on the electricity doesn’t take much more than flipping a light switch in a house.

The hitch is included @chyna. Rick and the guy are both mechanics, they’ve both installed. 5th wheel hitches in the past, and he said Rick could use his shop and tools to install it.

Here are all the pictures he included in his Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook:
Picture window ♥
Bathroom and shower.. The toilet is in it’s own tiny room with a door, yay.
Another pic of the side
Cooking area. It’s quite small, but I can make do. Another view
Entertainment cabinet
Upstairs bedroom..

Couch is currently under the picture window. It folds out into a bed. If we decide to get it we’ll swap places with the easy chairs. That way we can swivel around to look out the window at the grandkids playing or look out over the lake.
Hitch.
The living room is big enough that we can bring in camp chairs for extra seating and still be very comfortable.

A couple actually could live in it pretty comfortably.

We’re just sitting on it at the moment, to see if the feeling is growing or fading.

Thanks for all of your input…..

Here is a 2000 Montana.. $18,000.

It is harder than hell to find pricing on these things. They try to force you to call them so they can sell you on them. Feel free to help me search!

The ten year age difference is the only thing that bothers me in a straight across deal like that. I’d have it checked out first.

I may get frustrated with Rick, but when it comes to mechanical stuff, he really knows his stuff.
We looked for any signs of leaking, either currently or in the past, but didn’t see any.
He didn’t take as many pictures as I would have. For example, he’s not showing the washer and dryer hook ups, or all of the external storage, or the outside shower.

Here is an interesting article I came across in my research.

We’ve been lookin’. We’ve been thinkin’. I asked Rick if he and Chris could make more counter space in the kitchen. He hit on the idea of making a hinge counter off the end of this counter.. It will have a leg on it, just swing it up when I need it, and drop it back down when I don’t.
We paid $10,000 for our Jayco, and yes. I do like the Jayco. But Rockwood doesn’t make a shabby camper, either.
Does anyone know why the slide are always on carpet? Because the carpet in the camper is butt ugly green. We’d like to pull it out and put fake plastic wood flooring down. Rick thinks it may be to seal it? I think it may be to protect the floor? Can’t we modify it in some way?

Anyway, I told Rick to call the guy, tell him to fire it up and we’ll go out and look again tomorrow.

Ok. The slides can run with any flooring. We’ll pull the carpet out and put in faux wood flooring. Then we just pick up a large, finished remnant from Lowes for $60 to just lay down. It’s what we did in the living room of our house.

We went and took another look today. I’m feeling better and better about it. The guy is so nice…and the most hilarious thing happened. My research on the thing resulted me watching a few videos of that brand, and one showed the couch reclined on the ends. Today I asked if they recline and he said “No. It’s just a hide a bed.”
I nodded my head and sat down in the middle of the couch. I glanced to my left and saw this. I tugged on it and BAM! this happened! It was pretty loud too.Oh, the look on his face was simply priceless! He said, “I’ll be damned! I never even knew!” I have never laughed so hard!

I got a couple of pictures for you @jca2. To fire up the electricity you run this from the camper to your electrical source, in this case his shop. I looked around in there…oh, I LOVE the smell of shops like that! It smells like work, warm oil and ingenuity. The smell should, actually, trigger a mild PTSD in me, but it doesn’t.

He also turned it on just this morning and put a cup of water in the freezer just to test it….we went at 2:30, and the water was frozen solid. When we had the motor home it took 2 days for the freezer to get to freezing, so that was a good sign.

Here is a panoramic view for you folks.

@Dutchess_III haha, you taught HIM something, I love that!

The pic looks nice, I hope you enjoy it!

I really, really believe we’d be getting a great deal with a straight trade. Except for the butt ugly carpet.

Well, it’s a deal. All we have to do is swap campers and swap titles and we’re good. The kids will be SO excited!