First 5th wheel

[Gr8bawana]

Hello to all.
This is our first 5th wheel but we have owned travel trailers since the mid 80's.
We got a great deal on a "used" 2021 Keystone Cougar 368MBI.
I say used but we bought it in Oct. of 2021 and looks like new.
Looking forward to lots of camping in the near future in this most luxurious trailer we've had to date.

[Roper46]

Welcome from south Georgia and congrats on your Cougar. Lots of helpful and knowledgeable people here.

[bsmith0404]

Congrats. Enjoy the “new” Cougar. You’re gonna love the 5th wheel!

[Canonman]

Welcome!! Are you from Alamo, NV?
We've have family there. Well, actually Hiko
You'll really like camping in the Cougar... We sure do!

[RVGator]

Welcome to the club. Made the jump to a 5th wheel myself last year and couldn’t be happier. Enjoy!

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.

[dutchmensport]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your new Cougar.

Being a life-long bumper-pull-trailer user, I got my first ever fifth wheel 3 years ago. Everyone always says how much easier the fifth wheel is to hitch up and tow, and everything. For what it's worth, I did not find that true at all. There were lots of obstacles I had to figure out how to over come. For example:

With a dually, you just can't reach over the truck bed to pull the jaws release. It's too high and to far from the edge of the fat fenders. Climbing on the truck wheel and hanging on was not an option with a knee replacement and being older now. The solution was to carry a 4 foot step ladder so I could climb over the truck bed rail to reach the jaws release and to hook up the break-away cable.

Backing up into parking spaces took a lot of practice, trail and error, and much time spent in empty parking lots. It took over a year before I finally figured it out. It IS different than a bumper-pull. And with a long bed, crew cab dually, they don't turn the sharpest and fasted you know.

Side ways tilt between the truck and trailer, when one goes one direction and the other goes the other direction. After making contact with the overhang and the bed rail and cracking the fiber glass under the over hang, I realized this was NEVER an issue with a bumper pull. It's now something to always be concerned about. It's not trouble free towing at all.

So, my fifth wheel has auto level. All of my previous trailers had manual scissor stabilizers. I thought.... how sweet. Just hit the button and it's done...... wrong! The first time I tried this, the jacks stroked out because the camper was on an unlevel camp site. It took several months to figure all this out. I now go ahead and use lumber under the tires to level left-right, JUST like I did with my previous travel trailers. Then I have to make sure I have enough blocks under the jacks so they don't stroke out. Sometimes, depending on the campsite, that's a lot of lumber.

Propane: That was another very, very hard learning curve for me. My Montana is rated to zero degrees. But in order to keep the lines from freezing, the furnace has to be running, because there are air ducts open in the underbelly of the camper. That means, about 50% of the heat blowing from the furnace is going under the trailer. There's a lot of space under there. And the interior of the camper has high ceilings. Add all that extra space, and when running the furnace, it burns an incredible amount of propane.

All these items made original ownership extremely difficult for me and a really hard adjustment to this camper. It took a good year for me to figure out these things and get really comfortable with the fifth wheel.

Other learning curves, this was the first 50 amp RV I'd ever owned. Everything else prior was 30 amp. Residential refrigerator, not an RV refrigerator. It took time to figure out the limitations of battery life and keeping the refrigerator running when not plugged into shore power. Non-gravity fill fresh water tank. It took some time to figure out how to work with this.

So, if you are experiencing some of these same challenges, don't get discouraged. In time, you will figure everything out and then it will become second nature to you, and you'll just know how to do things.

Again, everyone says fifth wheels are so much better than travel trailers. I highly disagree with that statement. If the truck and trailer are a good match and with the appropriate hitch for each, they both are the same. The fifth wheel has it's own set of rules that has to be followed to hitch, as does the travel trailer. Easier? No. Better, No. They are JUST different. AND an inferior truck towing either will STILL make for a horrible towing experience, with both.

[SandyBurg]

Welcome to the forum from south of StL.

We have the Avalanche version of your camper (365mb). Love the mid bunk!! You will love the extra overhead room in a fifth wheel camper. We love the fan, really helps maintain the temp we want.

Any questions, this is the place for them. Enjoy!!

[wiredgeorge]

That camper the OP mentioned is 40' and 14K lbs gross. Wonder if he has the appropriate tow vehicle? That is a lot of camper....

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

That camper the OP mentioned is 40' and 14K lbs gross. Wonder if he has the appropriate tow vehicle? That is a lot of camper....

According to the profile a diesel 2500.

[SandyBurg]

I agree. We have a 3500 dually to pull ours. It handles it well, so far.

But we definitely knew it was back there when we went to Cheaha State Park in Alabama last fall. Highest point in Alabama. The roads in and out, are very hilly; with lots of curves. Low speed limit (understandable) so no way to get a run at them. It knew that trailer was there. We definitely have enough truck, but agree. That camper needs a minimum of a one ton truck.

Hopefully he will edit his signature with his tow vehicle.

[bsmith0404]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your new Cougar.

Being a life-long bumper-pull-trailer user, I got my first ever fifth wheel 3 years ago. Everyone always says how much easier the fifth wheel is to hitch up and tow, and everything. For what it's worth, I did not find that true at all. There were lots of obstacles I had to figure out how to over come. For example:

With a dually, you just can't reach over the truck bed to pull the jaws release. It's too high and to far from the edge of the fat fenders. Climbing on the truck wheel and hanging on was not an option with a knee replacement and being older now. The solution was to carry a 4 foot step ladder so I could climb over the truck bed rail to reach the jaws release and to hook up the break-away cable.

Get a Pullrite 2600 or 2400 (depends on rail or ball connection). It has a spring loaded retainer and a pull rod that you can use to reach from the tailgate area. I keep the pull rod in the pass through. I also use a heavy duty spring loaded clip on the break away cable and just hook it on the cargo tie down points inside the bed. With the in bed 7 pin, I can do everything from the back of the truck.

[chuckster57]

I have a DRW, running boards make it a breeze to get into the toolbox or pull the hitch lock.

[rhagfo]

Originally Posted by flybouy

According to the profile a diesel 2500.

Well us normal users don’t yet have access to that part of the OP’s profile. Is that diesel 2500 a GM? If so it may have a GVWR of 11,300#, which gives them a chance of being within numbers.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by rhagfo

Well us normal users don’t yet have access to that part of the OP’s profile. Is that diesel 2500 a GM? If so it may have a GVWR of 11,300#, which gives them a chance of being within numbers.

If you are using the desktop version you have acess to the profile and statistics, even as a guest (not logged in). So if by "normal users" you're inferring that it's not normal to use the desktop version I don't know what the ratio of desktop to mobile users is. The truck is listed as a 2017 Ram diesel.

[rhagfo]

Originally Posted by flybouy

If you are using the desktop version you have acess to the profile and statistics, even as a guest (not logged in). So if by "normal users" you're inferring that it's not normal to use the desktop version I don't know what the ratio of desktop to mobile users is. The truck is listed as a 2017 Ram diesel.

Even on my desktop I don’t see the “about me” tab until the member has about 5 posts.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

I have a DRW, running boards make it a breeze to get into the toolbox or pull the hitch lock.

Bought one of these when we got our 1st dually, worked great.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by rhagfo

Even on my desktop I don’t see the “about me” tab until the member has about 5 posts.

Interesting, before I replied to your post I logged out, then opened the orum as a guest and could see it. What device and browser are you using?

[RollaMo]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Interesting, before I replied to your post I logged out, then opened the orum as a guest and could see it. What device and browser are you using?

Being a new user myself, can you explain how you are finding that profile info?

I can click on a user name and view the "Public Profile", but it does not show any of the info about about truck and/or trailer.


Edit: using a Mac laptop with Firefox web browser

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by RollaMo

Being a new user myself, can you explain how you are finding that profile info?

I can click on a user name and view the "Public Profile", but it does not show any of the info about about truck and/or trailer.


Edit: using a Mac laptop with Firefox web browser

Click on RollaMo to the left of your post and you will be able to get to your own profile or if you click on my username next to this post, you will see my profile. You can also see the date/time when the poster was last on the forum.