ronheater70 wrote:
I will be using it maybe 5 times a season, probably no more than 5 hours away, but typically 2 hours away or so.
My budget will allow more than I'm willing to spend. I'm not yet sold on Travel trailers but see it as the only way currently to continue to camp with our daughters. As such I'm thinking I dont want to spend more than 20K . However I dont want to spend 17-18k on something, then find out after 5-7 years its falling apart because of shortsightedness on my part!
In 7 years or so I see the girls being an age where they aren't necessarily into camping as much, and we could either resume tent camping or downsize into something smaller for the two of us.
I learned the hard way that you get what you pay for; I paid a little over $20K for my trailer and have spent at least $1.5K a year on maintenance and repairs. The trailer is still in great shape, but only because I stay on top of all the repairs. I had to replace the tongue last year and at the end of this season it goes in to address frame cracking issues above the spring hangers.
I also use my trailer much more frequently than most people do, and it sees close to 10K a year in mileage. Considering you are only planning to use yours 5 or so times a year and will be sticking close to home, you will likely be able to get away with a trailer under $20K, but budget at least $1K a year for maintenance and don't expect it to be worth much 5-7 years down the road.
My next trailer is going to be a Northwood, Outdoors RV, or Lance product, as those are really the only three companies out there that are making a trailer designed to be thoroughly used in my opinion. I won't touch another trailer with a Lippert frame under it (and that's what a large share of the market uses unfortunately).
Good luck with your search!
