The "New" Old Fifth Wheel

P

Pat Anderson

New member
We are on our "shakedown cruise" with our "new" 1991 27' Alpenlite Fifth Wheel - an overnighter to Fidalgo Bay RV Park in Anacortes. Park is owned by the Samish Tribe, so 50% off for me! So far we are lovin' it all! Some dings on the outside, inside seems clean as a whistle - looks like it was hardly ever used. Best of all, everything seems to work (no, we did not test every single system when we bought it). I think four new tires, get the bearings repacked (have I learned my lesson or what), and we are good to go just about anywhere. No slide-outs, so it is just about right for two people, a little tight for parties!

The plan though is to tow this over to Omak and put it in storage, take 'er out when we visit daughter Lydia and our grandchild-to-be due in November. Then we'll pull 'er out of storage, tow the short distance to the Omak City RV Park, and have our own little Tiltin' Hilton in Omak!

Russ and Toni are here, Jim and Laurie are in a motel, had a wonderful evening in Russ and Toni's 29.5' Hitchhiker II - with all those slide-outs that one is the party barge! Going to see about a ride on a Ranger 27 around noon (got something boat related in, but hey, this is That's Life, and I don't even have to).
 
Holy mackeral!-a 25 and a 16 footer, a fifth wheel trailer, a new grandchild and a 50% discount to boot. All you need now is some smoked sausage and a beer. Oh, you've got that already. It couldn't happen to nicer people. :thup
 
Ahh nephew, finally you listen to yer geezer uncle. Alpenite's are great. I had a 29 and towed it some 16,000 miles without a glitch. Patty will LOVE the little trap door that opens into the basement storage area. We stuck a basket under it and it was our "dirty clothes" hamper.

Don't know if your model has steps up to the bed area but check each step. Alpenlite used to put a hinge on one of the steps, making it an easily overlooked "stash" compartment that's burglar proof simply because there's no sign it's there.

Patty will at some point become irritated with the difficulty of making the bed every day, but it's the same problem in most all 5'ers under 29 ft., so she'll either do it or close the door and hide it from view.

Great choice!

Don'
 
Congrats, Pat and Patty! I have no doubt you will enjoy the RV lifestyle... it's a lot like boating, with generally more conveniences. Over the years, we have become accustomed to having our amenities with us when we travel... we just can't stand doing hotels/motels anymore. Renting a condo is better, but having your own bed, kitchen, potty, and living room with you tends to spoil you. We love to visit our daughter and son-in-law and still have our own space. I make Joan coffee in the morning, turn on the satellite TV, take the cat for a walk, then kick back and do a bit of web surfing with the Mifi card.

Don't get me wrong, we love traveling on Wild Blue (there's our boat related post), but when on land, the RV is better suited. Real furniture. A full size shower. Lots of closet space. Basement storage. When using Wild Blue as a land camper, we use the campground showers and are careful to not let gray water run out of the boat... when hooked to city water and sewer, you can shower to your heart's content (well, as long as your water heater capacity holds out :wink: ) and not have to trudge outside.

Even though it's not a boat, post some photos - we'd love to see your new cruising condo.

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan
 
Going to see about a ride on a Ranger 27 around noon

As I said on his facebook page too, Sounds like someone's got "new boat fever!" I think you'll like it. We've got the Annapolis Ranger Dealer coming to the Langford CBGT in a couple of weeks in a new Ranger 29!

Charlie
 
The "new" old 5th wheel. Photo by Toni Portner...

Andersons_RV_2_Sized.jpg

We love it!

The ride on the Ranger was AWESOME...Mac (Island Ranger now, Two Lucky Fish before) was our captain, Pat and Patty, Jim and Laurie and David as passengers ("crew" would imply we did something, which we didn't, other than enjoy the ride). A terrific boat.

However, the best part was seeing Dave and John Livingston and Jeff Messmer. These are quality people whose single mission is exceptional customer service, the reason a whole lot of folks will choose Ranger for their next (last?) boat. I only regret that Andrew Custis was not there as well!

After the ride, a wonderful lunch with Russ and Toni at the Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery (owned by my good friends Allen Rhodes and Rick Starr, former homebrewing buddies). Highly recommended when you are in Anacortes.

It was really sad to have to pull out of Fidalgo Bay RV Park, this is just a great place and I am sure we will be coming back as often as we can. Patty and I both felt we would have liked to stay there a couple of more days...not to be for a while yet!

 
Hey Pat, izzat your truck? If not, I have a 5th wheel tailgate for a Chevy truck that I'll trade for a healthy bar tab credit at yer hobby brewery.... I know it fits a 2001, so if it fits that year, it will fit a bunch of other years.

Don
 
Sounds like the next purchase will be an 18 wheeler with a car hauler attached to haul all the toys, sounds like a convoy to me! Were you able to get some pics of the new Ranger 27?
 
Yeah, that's my "new" old gas guzzlin' 93 Ford F-250 hooked up to the Alpenlite, see, the deal was that it was cheaper to take the truck with the fifth wheel than it was to buy and install a sliding hitch for our short bed Titan...it runs like a top, so far so good!

Sneaks":3bg0ye6m said:
Hey Pat, izzat your truck? If not, I have a 5th wheel tailgate for a Chevy truck that I'll trade for a healthy bar tab credit at yer hobby brewery.... I know it fits a 2001, so if it fits that year, it will fit a bunch of other years.

Don
Click to expand...
 
I didn't have a camera for pix of the Ranger 27, I'll bet Toni took a few pix of that as well though.


Don and Brenda":22bml2iy said:
Sounds like the next purchase will be an 18 wheeler with a car hauler attached to haul all the toys, sounds like a convoy to me! Were you able to get some pics of the new Ranger 27?
Click to expand...
 
Pat Anderson":bkleeyvh said:
I didn't have a camera for pix of the Ranger 27, I'll bet Toni took a few pix of that as well though.


Don and Brenda":bkleeyvh said:
Sounds like the next purchase will be an 18 wheeler with a car hauler attached to haul all the toys, sounds like a convoy to me! Were you able to get some pics of the new Ranger 27?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Go over to the TugNut's site - there's some new photo's there.
 
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