My wife and I have given this a lot of thought and we have decided to sell our Jayco 26BH for a smaller unit. I have a Tundra with the 5.7 so I have plenty of truck for any small unit we are looking at. During the school year we spend most weekends at Texas State parks so we have water/electric. But in the summertime we often spend up to 6 weeks traveling to other states and try to stay in small out of the way campsites with some light boondocking (forest service road camping and whatnot, nothing 4 wheel drive). There are 3 of us and we'd like a small bunkhouse. Currently we are looking at...Coachmen Clipper 18bh (and the bhs)Starcraft AR One Maxx 19BHLEWhat I don't like about my Jayco is the length. My main issue is I'm not sure if I'd rather have a narrower trailer with a slide, or the 8 foot without a slide. Does anyone have any experience with either of these models? Are there others I am overlooking? I have been inside both, and felt like the Starcraft was better built but that was just a brief walk through. Thanks for any insight you can give!

It's a very personal decision. We tried it.... it didn't work for us! Good Luck with your decision. memtb

Jayco makes some nice models in their small trailer line. We picked up a new 154BH and like it a lot. We use if for traveling not troubling. Simple and relatively inexpensive at $12,000.

Some folks will get two setups... One for the long haul trips and then a much smaller unit for the local camping trips off grid...My OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer is perfect for us to go to the local high country around here and get back off the Forest Service roads and enjoy the view or setup along side a creek somewhere and wake up to the fishing jumping in the creek...Both styles of camping has the good and bad...Being an avid Tent camper from the 50s and 60s I still just like to to get out and enjoy mother nature sometimes... Our OFF-ROAD camper is mostly just for sleeping off the ground... When the grandkids joins us they love sleeping in a tent or patio canopy we bring along with us... No complaints there haha...Roy Ken

I'm a fan of Jayco, but man they put some crazy small holding tanks in those. It just won't work for us. We've had 2 different pop ups and they were fun, but we are a hard sided family. When we want actual nature we go backpacking which we do a few times a year for several days at a time. WantsUnder 23 feet tip to tailminimum of 35 gallon fresh/gray tankbunkhousefront queendry bath

sherpaxc wrote:My wife and I have given this a lot of thought and we have decided to sell our Jayco 26BH for a smaller unit. There are 3 of us and we'd like a small bunkhouse. !Take a look a some of the smaller Lance trailers.

Downsizing trailers, need opinions | Good Sam Community

crasster
Explorer II
Mar 23, 2017
If it was just myself and my wife, I'd go with an egg, like Casita. Easy to pull, super cool & durable.
wbwood
Explorer
Mar 22, 2017
I agree it's a personal decision...You've had larger and decide you don't need that big.

My personal opinion is that the simpler, the better. I would opt to not have a slide. Dropping down 9' in length or so will make a big difference, especially without a slide. But I would rather give up a couple feet of width to avoid potential issues while camping. The idea is to enjoy camping, not worrying or having to fix things. The fact is, when there are more things that can go wrong, you have higher odds of something going wrong. The more advanced and technical that thing is, the more you will have to rely on others to fix it for you.

I need to be quiet...I'm about to talk myself into a tent...lol
riven1950
Explorer
Mar 22, 2017
We are on our 2nd Apex now. The first was a 215rb and we now have a 249rb. Bought both new. Had the 215 for 2 years and never had to take it back to the dealer. The 249 we bought in Dec and used for 6 weeks in the Keys since then. It does have some warranty items that need to be fixed, but nothing major. Overall I think the quality is good compared to others we loked at, but I am no expert.

One thing I noticed on both of our Apex TT is the shower floor doesn't "feel" really solid when standing on it. I think this is pretty common in RVs and I don't understand why they don't use a more solid base. Ours doesn't leak but it feels like it should.
TomG2
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
Deleted duplicate post
TomG2
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
Jayco offers a "Baja" version of some small trailers with fifty percent larger tanks and extra ground clearance. I am not a Jayco salesperson, but they looked like the best deal in small trailers. I looked at some other brands that had electric only refrigerators, small window air conditioners, and short warrantees at higher prices. My point is to look beyond floor plans and how many square feet you are getting for your dollar. An electric only refrigerator would be worthless for dry camping for example.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
fulltimedaniel wrote:
I would give very serious consideration to the R POD. It is a great little trailer well designed and has tiny slideouts too!.

"Little trailer" and "tiny slideouts" are the operative words here. :W JMO, but R-Pods are way too expensive for what they are - wet bath, small fridge, and little room to walk around in, even those with a slide. I took a careful look at them myself before we bought our Freedom Express and just didn't see the value in a trailer that is so limited in so many ways. To move from a significantly larger travel trailer such as the OP has to an R-Pod would indeed be a quantum downgrade IMO. :(
Padlin
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
I run into a lot of folks who love their R Pod's, also a few with Retro's by Riverside.

No idea on pricing for either.
fulltimedaniel
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
I would give very serious consideration to the R POD. It is a great little trailer well designed and has tiny slideouts too!.

If you have a bigger budget some of the small Airstreams are not only cute beyond counting they are VERY well designed and built.
sherpaxc
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
I would love an Escape. It is one of my favorite, sadly, I'm a bit priced out of that (wife and I are teachers, so budget is critical). We have about 15k max to spend. Would love to be a little less and lightly used is just fine by us.

That Apex looks interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about a Forest River product. I have no personal experience, just what I've read on different forums about quality control. Luckily I live not too far from a highly rated RV place (Ancira RV in Boerne).
Padlin
Explorer
Mar 21, 2017
A little biased here, but worth taking a look at are the Escapes. The 21'er might work for 3. No bunkhouses, or bump outs for that matter, you'd have to change the dinette to a bed at night.

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