We had an 18 foot Dutchmen. I can tell you want we DID not like about it after a year of ownership!
We did not like the corner bed at all. It only had one bed, but it was a corner, and climbing over each other to get in and out was horrible after a while. Because it was a corner bed, we had to be a contortionist to get in an out. And making the bed was a horrible exercise in futility. It literally had 4 walls with just a small space to get in-out. We had to crawl on the mattress to put on the blankets and sheets at the head. After a while, we REALLY hated this configuration.
The second thing we absolutely hated after a year, was the jack-knife sofa across the front of the trailer. Many things were VERY wrong with this set-up:
First, the jack knife sofa to begin with. When in the down position for a bed, that crack in the middle was horrible! We never solved that problem.
Second, it was too narrow for 2 adults ... absolutely awful.
Third, the pass through for the outside was under it. It seemed to always leak air. Not so bad in the summer, but we liked camping in the winter too, and that couch was just plane COLD!
Forth, it was across the front of the camper. The front of the camper was curved inward. When sitting on the couch, we could not sit straight up. Our heads always hit the wall, curving over our heads. It was the most useless item in the camper. Here again, it took year for us to come to terms with this reality, to accept it.
Next, was the bathroom. It had no heat duct. In cold weather, it was a horrible cold room. In the summer, it was a horribly HOT room. I added a household bathroom electric fan-vent to help pump air into that room when the door was shut. This helped tremendously. Leave the door open was not an option, because with the door open, there was no way to get into the main corner bed.
Next, it had no oven, just a stove top. With smaller campers, there's always a sacrifice. It wasn't until AFTER we purchased the camper we realized there was no oven. We just never caught that in all the excitement of purchasing. We saw all the glitter and missed the glue!
And last, and this is JUST the nature of a smaller trailer, backing up was always a challenge. We towed with a Suburban. I do believe the Suburban was longer than the trailer, making backing up a real challenge. I really didn't realize how horrible backing a smaller trailer was, until we got our next one, which was 31 feet long, and what a difference ... never had problems at all backing that 31 foot trailer, nothing like the 18 foot.
On the positive side, we enjoyed it for 2 years. And it did teach was what we did not like, more than what we did like. We had the 2nd trailer 8 years.
By the way, the size of the bathroom is not really all that important. But.... what is IMPORTANT for a man, is the ability to sit on the "throne" and spread his knees!
That was the problem with trailer #1 and trailer #2. No knee room when sitting. (Guys, you know what I'm talking about).....
So our 3rd trailer, I wanted a "royal throne" that had unlimited knee space. I got it. The "throne" is at an angle, NOT stuck between a sink and a wall or a door.
Unfortunately, in smaller trailers, these are the things you're going to most have to deal with. But these are the things that bugged us the most with our 18 foot Dutchmen.
(See my profile on the left for a photo of this camper).
