Eric and Alice; I think DougS has some good points referencing backing in. Pylon cones sound good, or, I've read where one RV'er used a special cord/rope laid down on the ground that he would attempt to follow with his RV wheels as he backed. My first attempt at backing the 5th wheel into a space was a tight campground in Cuivre River State Park in SE MO. I literally had my new Dodge 3500 in a ditch/ravine across from the camp site in the parking attempt. The sites were very tight and 39 foot of RV plus the Dodge was more than typically went into that site. I ended up with a ding in the upper right corner of the tail gate after backing up against a tree, in the ditch. My bro-in-law was doing the signal calling from in back of the RV, but it was me that backed into the tree. The RV came through it without a scratch.
What I wanted to convey to you was more in line with your origional question of "what do you wish you would have known before buying, or making your decisions on what to buy." I scoured this forum for more than a year, reading all I could regarding all of the hints, pointers, comments, etc. etc. etc., that I could before we bought our BH3455. As I see it now, (my vision is much better after we bought the RV), kind of in the order of importance, the following is my thought process.
1) Tires, or brand choice is quite important. Read up on the articles in the Heartland Owners forum on tires. My DW and I didn't before we bought. Now we have to go to great expense to buy a tire that we can roll down the road with more faith that one is less likely to blow out causing an accident. A tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) is another important tool you might consider. It could save you a really bad day.
2) Had I known how mediocre the drum brakes would be, we would have had disc brakes installed by the dealer when the RV was new. As many forum members will tell you, you have to leave a very good distance between your rig and any one in front of you while driving down the road/freeways. Traveling 5 to 10 mph below the posted limit is also a good starting point. With the drum brakes that most RV's come equipped with, they can literally wear your nerves incredibly thin. The installation of disc brakes on the RV are worth much consideration.
3) Another option that I would likely have had the dealer install before we picked the unit up, is the auto-leveling system that is available from several different manufacturers. The forum members here have numerous suggestions on several different brands. We will be adding a leveling system within the next year or so.
4) One item that I wish someone could have specifically told me about, was the type of ride you will get with the 5'er connected to various truck hitches while moving down the road. I was so nervous and concerned about the type of ride we would see with the 5'er attached, I had a terrible time making a decision on the type of hitch and pin box to select. After reading so many articles in this forum, I made the decision to have Heartland install a Mor-ryde pin box at the factory. I also decided to not install an air-bag type 5th wheel hitch, but instead went with a Pull-rite super 5th hitch (a non-slider). The thought process was that I can sell a $750 hitch and buy the expensive $2400 hitch only if I have to. DW can get a migraine headache at the drop of a hat, so I was very nervous that any chucking or bucking would end up with me driving the rig and DW flying to our destination. I am tickled to say that the ride we get with the RV hooked up to our 3500 Dodge is literally better than if we had just the truck with low tire pressure heading down the road. We have had absolutely zero chucking or bucking issues since we started pulling with our rig. I am really pleased to say that the ride is a great, smooth ride pulling the RV with our setup. We do have some minor difficulty when parking, or unhitching the rotating style of hitch ring in the Pull-rite hitch, but probably no more difficulty than experienced with the idiosyncrasies of other hitch brands and styles.
5) One item we bought, that would have gone to a lower priority, is a generator we bought with the RV. We have yet to use it. I would like to pull and stay where we could use it, but I just seems like where we always end up is a site where we just don't need it.
The model of RV you select is pretty much a personal opinion/selection. DW and I had or "must have" list and we got what we had on our list. I would suggest you make your selection based on your "must have" list and not buy based on what is on sale this month, which is what we almost succumbed to but finally resisted the temptation to "buy what was on sale".
There are many more considerations as you move closer to selecting both the TV and the RV. The forum members in this article bring up some really good points. Make your notes to create your "must have" list, and move forward. Happy RV'ing. gebills. //heartlandowners.org/images/icons/icon6.png
