When we purchased our 29 foot travel trailer, we thought we’d have it for at least 3 years before we upgrade to something else, well, it didn’t quite happen that way!
We went on a several small trips to get ourselves accustomed to the RV life, and all worked out well, we had no issues at all. In all, we took 4 extended weekend trips and a week long venture to Las Vegas. We thought we were ready and all was going to be great.
In May we left our home to go on the road full time living in the travel trailer. We were so excited to get going and live the RV life.
After just 3 weeks into our RV life adventure, we decided the travel trailer did not fit our needs. We then created a long list of desirables, some of which were:
**A regular queen sized bed , ( not a “short” queen, that most RV’s have. ) Since Tony is 6’6″ tall, a short Queen bed just did not work for us.
**More kitchen counter space
**At couple more kitchen drawers
**More storage space, both inside and out
** Windows that faced the same direction as the door. We found most sites face the side of the door, and the best scenery is often out that front door.
**Bigger bathroom
**Place for our office set up
Laura heard of the great reputation that Grand Design RV has, so was pretty much set on that brand. The Solitude 5th Wheels were great, but just above our budget and they weighed so much more. We were determined to not finance the 5th wheel, and only pay cash, so had to fit below the $50K price tag.
We decided that we didn’t want to trade up trucks at this time, and had to make our existing truck, a RAM 2500 work for us, and we didn’t want to max out the weight limit, so the weight had to be less than 14K pounds, fully loaded.
We found the perfect size and layout for us, and it was on a clearance sale as they were wanting to clear the 2020 models off the lot to make room for 2020.5 models ( mid year change ). Laura liked the colors of the 2020 over the 2020.5 anyway, we had to act fast, so we did! We purchased it on Friday, the dealer did the delivery prep, we sold the truck topper on the truck, and installed a 5 wheel hitch. We picked it up the following Monday. We were so excited to upgrade our adventure!!
We decided on the 2020 Grand Design, Reflection, 31MB. The 31 is the lower trailer length, but the true length is 36 foot. The “MB” stands for MidBunk. We wanted to have two beds, as sometimes we need our own space. We use this room as a storage room for all our office and personal camping supplies. Our office printers are tied down on the counter, and office supplies are in the drawers below, and books in the cabinet above.
The top bunk is used for storage of those items that don’t fit elsewhere in the RV. The goal is to eventually identify those things that we really don’t need, that Laura thought we needed to take with us, or perhaps add to it, if needed!
The bedroom had plenty of space all around the Full sized Queen bed for us to walk around to access the closet spaces . Although there is no slide in the bedroom, it was ok as we needed to keep the weight down, and there was plenty of space in that master bedroom.
We are so extremely happy with our new fifth wheel. The construction of this RV, as compared to the travel trailer is much better. Even simple things, like the thermostat, and oven, work so much better in this RV. I know we can live much more comfortably and enjoy our life in this Fifth Wheel.
After we made this upgrade, we have heard many, many people, even close friends, do the exact same thing… upgrade from a Travel Trailer to a Fifth Wheel. If you are planning to live in your RV full time, spend the extra money up front to get exactly what you want.
Full Time RV Travel Adventure 