zimm wrote:
My first post, but I have lots of questions. We're a family of 4, with boys aged 2 and 4. Tow vehicle is a 2005 F250 (10,000 tow rating). We just sold our boat as she didn't like boating and I want to try out camping, but get away from tents on the ground.
I envision going more towards Virginia parks and dry camping rather than hanging out at the KOA camp ground 20 feet from my neighbors.
We'll have 3 dirt bikes (mine and two little kids 50's), but a toy hauler is probably out of budget. I'm envisioning keeping them in the bed of the truck and getting a bumper puller trailer.
We went to an RV show and have a list of wants and don't-wants. As this would be our first trailer and I'm not sure how much we'd use it, I want to keep it cheap. Around $10k would be ideal, but if I could get a get new one under $15k and finance, that could work too.
I think we want the smallest trailer we could get that has a queen up front, and two bunks in the rear for the kids. A slide out for the couch/dinette would be nice.
Must-haves- solid sides. No soft flop out beds, she's worried the kids will get stolen. So no pop ups or hybrids.
I don't care about fancy amenities like an outdoor kitchen. I plan to cook outside by the fire with my grill. I'd use a cooler for beer, no need for outdoor fridge. I own a Honda EU2000i generator, will that run a trailer if we're dry camping?
I do care about quality though- I want something build solid without spending money on "foo-foo" extras.
So that's where I stand, really looking forward to advice from RV'ers who've been there- done that.
Welcome! I recommend checking out the Trail Runner line from Heartland RVs ( http://www.heartlandrvs.com/ )...they're a tremendous value; we're on our second Trail Runner. +1 on the buying used advice too...we found our first 27' Trail Runner for about $11k, and took two cross country trips with it (California-Virginia in 2011, Virginia-California in 2014). We bought new this time because after 3 years, we knew EXACTLY what we wanted, and the Trail Runner was $10k off of MSRP, since it was a left over 2014 model.
