1st Time Buyer - Recomendations??

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Also, if you have time, visit the campgrounds in your area and talk to the owners of rigs that are in the size range you are interested in. Owners love to tell about their RV's.

Thanks for the responses, all very helpful.

@Dutchmansport - of course we know there will be maintenance. We aren't cheap and we aren't "plug and play" type people. We are just looking for suggestions on low-maintenance brands. For example, we take care of our cars. Oil changes, washes, etc. But some brands are just better and don't require as much work (Toyota vs. Dodge)

A few additional thoughts that may help ...

This size of trailer will have but one entry door which will either be located midway along the side of the trailer or alternately near the rear. Having previously owned a trailer with a mid entry door we specifically looked this time for a rear entry, the reason being that I'm an early riser but my wife really enjoys sleeping in ... with a rear entry door the dog and I are much less likely to disturb her.

Regarding the slide, I'd personally have been just as happy without one but any models we found in this size without one had a fixed dinette on the curb side of the trailer. I think this would have worked fine for just the two of us but we also have an 80 pound dog so the extra floor space provided when our sofa slide is extended is an advantage I can't deny. It's also not uncommon for these dinette slides to be raised off the floor of the trailer, a design some don't mind but one I detest intensely as it makes me feel like I'm a mannequin on display when seated at such a dinette. I also don't see the point in having a dinette on the street side of the trailer where all you can see are trees or bushes or worse still your next door neighbour's campsite.

A mid entry trailer in this size will almost always have a full size bathroom located across the rear of the trailer, meaning it's a pretty good size, sometimes will even feature a glassed in neo angle shower. A rear entry trailer in this size most often has the fridge located along that rear wall so by definition the bathroom is going to be much smaller, as it is with our 192RBS. Although we'd like a large bathroom as much as anyone else the reality is we spend very little time in there overall, it offers all the same amenities, so in the overall scheme of things a small bathroom for us really wasn't an issue that would stop us from buying the trailer we otherwise liked very much.

A trailer in this size often will have very little galley countertop space ... our 192RBS is an exception and especially with a cutting board atop the stove we find it works just fine. We've owned trailers in the past that offered little countertop space and for us that proved to be a real annoyance.

Hope this helps! :)

No matter what brand you purchase, you will need to do maintenance. If you purchase "used" you can expect more. There are certain maintenance items that must be attended to, regardless of what type or brand of RV you get. Tires, roof inspection constantly, wheels, tires, bearing, washing, waxing, cleaning the awning, roof, and fixing issues immediately when they develop. If you are "plug and play" camper ... meaning you just plug in your camper and play, and that's it, nothing more ... your camper will be junk in a year. They ALL take constant attention, new, used, pop-up all the way to multi million dollar motor homes. There's no short cut and there are NO maintenance free campers unless you rent one one. Then someone else has to maintain it.

That's an excellent point on how to choose dinette or sofa. I'm looking at smaller Class C's, not TTs, but in our PUP, we rarely ever eat at the dinette. Sure, it's a pain to assemble but mostly we like to eat outside unless it's raining.

With our sons no longer camping with us we downsized from a triple bunk / queen bed travel trailer to a much shorter, lighter Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS couple's trailer. This will be our third season with it, no particular issues with it that I couldn't resolve myself, an easy tow behind our 1/2 ton Avalanche, short enough to park on our driveway here at the house during the season, and can easily be parked on pretty well any campsite. I struggled over having a trailer with a slide as we've never owned one before but so far I've had no issues with it and although it's a shallow 18" sofa slide it really does open up the floor space. In this size of trailer you'd most likely have to choose between a dinette OR a sofa ... we much prefer the latter as we almost always eat outside around the campfire and any dinette versions we looked at had a huge U shaped model that would seat 4 to 6 people, which made no sense to us in a camper designed for an adult couple. Click on the link below for pics. :)

check out the AScend line.
bumpy