New Horizons Fifth Wheel
At Woodhead Park in Hell's Canyon, ID
The fifth wheel is a custom-built 2004 New Horizons F33RLSS (33' frame; rear living area; two slides).
In 2004, New Horizons was the only brand of fifth wheel to receive a rating of five stars (out of five) for full timing from the RV Consumer Group. In 2007 this was still true. If you buy the RV Consumer Group ratings CD and search for fifth wheels getting five stars for fulltiming you will see that only New Horizons is listed.
Why a Fifth Wheel?
We considered both motor homes and fifth wheel trailers. After reviewing materials on various sites, the ratings of various RV's from the RV Consumer Group, and other resources, we chose a fifth wheel. Here are the primary reasons.
- Bang for the Buck:
- More floor space, quality, and safety for the amount we were willing to spend.
- Office Floor plan:
- We only found one RV manufacturer that would customize the layout of the RV to give us the "mobile office" features that we wanted. That was the "towables" manufacturer New Horizons RV.
- Full Time RV'ing:
- We wanted an RV that would stand up well to being lived in full time for the foreseeable future. Given our budget, this meant a fifth wheel. The only fifth wheel to which the RV Consumer Group gives their top rating for full-timing are the ones built by New Horizons RV.
Safety questions pushed us away from motorhomes. The most common question raised was the safety of motorhomes in any kind of collision, and the likelihood of total destruction in a rollover. While we were researching RV's there were news stories of entire families being killed or maimed when motorhomes "exploded" in accidents at 35mph or less.
The only type of motorhome that appeared to be safe were bus conversions, and even then, only if slides were not added. But the bus conversions tend to cost much more than we were willing to spend. Motorhomes seem to be rather flimsy, in general. I'd rather ride in a truck that has at least some safety testing.
The problem seems to be that the RV industry is still in the "wild west" stage where anything goes, so long as consumers will buy it. There is no safety testing of any kind. There are no insurance industry crash tests. I figure it is okay if the fifth wheel is unsafe to ride in during travel because we ride in the truck, not the trailer. The truck has air bags, meets rollover safety standards, etc.