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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Another Look at the Carriage Fifth Wheel

For well over eight months now, we have spent much of our time thinking about life as Full-Time RVers. On the weekends it seems that we are always checking something out. It was a pretty good day for a drive so we decided to take a ride to one of the Carriage RV dealerships in the Northern Virginia, Western Maryland, Southern Pennsylvania area.
You may remember in January we went to the Chantilly RV show and looked at the Carriage Carri-Lite Fifth Wheel. Today we drove to the dealership in Hagerstown MD where we could get another look at a couple of the models.
The drive was about 90 minutes away and though you can tell, it, we ran into some snow flurries. Yikes! We are ready to be done with that. After all, the first day of spring was a couple of days ago. We met the owners, (Bill and Joann Rupar) a while ago, and they have a pretty good selection. We were able to so inside the one you see here. It is the Carriage Carri-Lite 36XTRM5 with the Emerald Package. This was a different model than the one we saw at the RV show about a month ago. One of the best things I like about the floorplan is the flat screen TV against the wall with the open shelf and desk area. The filing cabinet nearby is also a nice feature that I like. The two recliners seem very comfortable and are along the back window that give the 'living room' a pretty open feel to it. Joanne Rupar is showing Pam and I the finer details of the kitchen area. We like the storage cabinets and the way the counter swings out into an elbow. With more counter space and
cupboards for storage, it seems a little more like home. The dining area is across from the counter adn has a small table and chairs which have a leaf that can make it into a large dining table when we have guests. The bedroom has a queen size bed and lots of drawers and a couple of closets. One thing we like about this model is there is plenty of area around the bed to change sheets. Outside it had one of the larger storage areas and even an outside entertainment center that is folded up. We continue to be impressed with the Carri-Lite with the Emerald Package. The warranty is very good, the construction on the inside is high quality wood and it looks 'substantial'.
We took another look at some of the compartments underneath and they have a lot of storage. A lot is a comparative thing in Fifth Wheels, but this model is good. When compared to some other models, it also has a lot of cupboards and storage inside the unit.
We went back inside to get out of the cold and learned that we wanted to purchase a unit in Maryland, we would have 60 days to register it in our home state. We have seriously been thinking about become Texas residents after we sell our house next year. If that works out and we still like this unit, we could sell that house, buy the RV, pack it up and travel to Texas and become residents. That should be doable within 60 days. We would then register it there and pay Texas sales tax and get it insured in that state.
So we had another good day on the road to becoming Full-Timers. A good day in our mind is enjoying the pursuit, learning a lot and meeting some good people.