Went on our first trip with our new (new to us) 5th wheel and it was a great learning experience! Had a state park in mind that was about 100 miles from our house. This was kind of a last minute thing. The reservations in PA are online so I put in the length of the trailer and everything with hook ups was already taken. We were anxious to use the trailer so we said “why not” and got a site with no hook ups. Well I found out later that in this park most of the sites with no hook ups are made for tents or very small trailers.
First time pulling the trailer was no problem, the truck pulled it fine. Freeway at 65 for the first hour and then back roads to the park after that. When we got into the park we were looking for our site number and I actually passed up a turn-off because it was a dirt/gravel road down a hill and I thought it was a bike path. But after the second time around we realized that was where our site was. Well I turned onto the road and we found the site. So here I am with a 33ft trailer and a quad truck on a single dirt/gravel road trying to back into a 90% turn with a muddy hill on my left and a 3 foot ditch on both sides of the entrance! It took me a good 40 minutes to get backed in and I almost got the truck stuck. I was sweating bullets! After I disconnected the truck we had to hook it up again and move over because I was too close to a tree to open the bedroom slide.
After all of that we had a pretty good time. It was cool in the woods and we didn’t really need any air conditioning. Battery lasted the weekend and we had plenty of water for the two of us. On Saturday we walked around the camp with the park map and put check marks on all the sites that I would like to have. First requirement, easy in – easy out. (For next time)
Had some damage to the trailer: broke off the TV antenna (low branches) and the bed rail of the truck made contact with the bottom of the 5th wheel leaving a big scratch and cutting some of the trim along the bottom. Below are a couple pictures.
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Dave
2011 Cruiser CF31REP 5th Wheel
2007 Dodge RAM 3500 Dually, Cummins 5.9