First post - in the "discovery" stage

[JimB]

Greetings!

I'm pleased to have found this site. We are long-time RVers who retired (early) last year. Since that time, we have been traveling by boat, seeing some of the country from a water perspective. We are having a ball with the boat, but both miss the RV lifestyle. We have over 250,000 miles in motorhomes, but have never owned a towable.

When we sold our last motorhome (40' diesel pusher), we took a pretty nasty beating on the depreciation. Plus, there was some frustration in dealing with service issues, since the motor, transmission, chassis, and the house on top of all that all required different service facilities. The truck service places never seemed happy to have to deal with a motorcoach, and most RV dealers are not set up to deal with the diesel chassis stuff. We have decided to go with a 5th wheel and are in the discovery stage. My initial research lead me towards Nu-Wa, Titanium, and Carriage. We had the opportunity to visit a Montana dealer and were impressed with the bang for the buck with these units. Leaning towards the 3400RL. So, the current mix is (in no particular order): Montana, Nu-Wa Discover America, and the Titanium.

Our usage will not be full-timing, but several months at a time (probably going back and forth between the boat, the house, and the RV). Of course, we'd appreciate any insight you'd like to offer regarding these brands (yes, I expect a certain bias towards one over the others - lol). We understand the Montana is less expensive than the other two, but wonder if the difference is significant. My wife is quite partial towards the Titanium (likes the bedroom arrangement with the bed over the cab of the truck), but it seems that there is less storage underneath due to that feature. The Nu-Wa has no problem with warranty issues with full-timing. We were both impressed with the livability of the Montana. Any thoughts you'd like to share would be appreciated.

Our purchase time will not be immediate, since we have plans on the boat for the next 4 months or so... we have time to search and ponder (stew over?) which 5er will best suit our needs.

Thanks for providing this forum - we look forward to participation here.

Best wishes,
Jim B.