Buying a Used Travel Trailer

I'm really not interested in a pop-up camper. I'm a serious landscape photographer who's partial to wilderness areas of the mountains and deserts of the American West. I also anticipate doing some traveling in colder weather. I just can't see myself ever being happy making do with a semi-tent on wheels.

Look for the sticker in your door jamb that says total weight of passengers and cargo not to exceed xxxx lbs.

Googling it, I came up with 1053 lbs - yours may be different depending on options. Look at the gross weight of the TT you are considering, or add 1K to the unloaded weight, then multiply by 13% to get a good estimation of tongue weight. Subtract from payload.

Subtract weight of hith and WDH - usually 100 lbs. Then subtract your weight and weight of stuff in the TV.

A high walled TT will create wind resistance which will need to be over come by your TV. Towing capacity is really a mythical number when it comes to towing an RV.

Don't be to down on slide outs. Go into TT's with and without them and see the difference. Lots of more living room with a slide out. And yes, there are always people who report problems with them, but you can find problems with any system associated with RV's.

A popup camper made by a company called Trailmanor may be suitable for your tow vehicle - just google the name.

Good luck with your search.

Here is a link to Nissan's 2008 towing guide, with all the information you need to know, and then some.

Clicky

hjcihak46 wrote:
Actually, I have another question. Slide-outs? A potential maintenance problem?

Yes, there is some potential maintenance but they increase the interior space so much, they are well worth it.

Go drive thru a local RV park and look at units less than 20yrs old and 99.9% will have slides.

Of course, you still have to be able to tow it.

There are some on this forum that absolutely have no tact. They don’t seem to know it, or don’t care. However, you can learn from what just about everybody says here. Sorta like that butthead teacher everyone has had.
The main weights that are important are payload for the TV, gross vehicle weights for TV and camper, and tongue weight. Dry weight of a camper is basically worthless as it is never anywhere near a real world weight.
Consult the Google if you need a better understanding of these.
Nothing wrong with buying used.
Ask away and sift through the answers. Pretty soon you’ll figure out what’s what.

I just looked up the payload on a 2008 Xterra and it ranges from just under 1k to just over 1k. The just over 1k is most likely for the 2wd models. Every option added will subtract from the payload, so that will probably be your limiting factor.

That being said, there are plenty of shorter trailers out there right around 3500# gross. We're looking to trade up from a Starcraft 17' that we've had for 6 years and never gave us any problems. We towed if all over the east coast with a 6 cylinder SUV with no problems. Had a little more payload than the Xterra but otherwise very similar.

Don't get discouraged, you don't need a condo on wheels, so you should be able to find something.

When looking used, consider a private sale, but talk to the seller to get a feel for what kind if maintenance they've done. All tt's require preventive maintenance and, if not done, could lead to leaks, bearing failures, etc. if no pm was done, unless it's close to brand new, I'd walk away.

The frontal area of a hard side trailer as well as weight will be difficult on your current tow vehicle. You are in teardrop or egg-shape territory if you do not want a pop-up. Consider a Casita if your budget allows. Buy once, cry once, enjoy it for a lifetime. They are well built and retain higher resale value compared to lesser quality models.

gdetrailer hit it on the head.

You may very well have to upgrade your tow vehicle, to have that large area of caution.

There are some beautiful, lightly used private sector trailers. If I'm buying new, I buy at the lot, used = person to person as much as possible.

I don't want to have to deal with "RV Lot Surprise" when dealing with the RV industry. Shabbily dressed "used car lot vibe" and absolute no ethics!

There is a lot of sense buying used, if you're new to the lifestyle. If you're sure you want to buy new, make sure that it's a quality building and manufacturer.

Some of the lightweight towables are Lances (spendy but well worth it) Minnie Winnie, Nash (Arctic Fox) & other Northwoods Mfg, Coachman, Grand Design, Airstream (literally no storage)

There are not many well made RV's on the market today and yesterday. Heck, some of the rv's today are re-treads from 1998

Here is a video made at Lance, it demonstrates the quality and the build standards, and the materials used (or NOT used in other RV's and trailers for the most part)

Lance Factory Tour

Winnie Minnie
1706FB

Another small Lance - this is the maximum I'd feel sale towing with your rig. Probably would be safer, one step down.

A Lance 1685


A lot can be said for YouTube. Go there and start looking at big class A's (you'll see many of the appliances are the exact same as a Coachman TT.) It's what you can't really see that matters. Just start on YouTube and looking at all different kinds of trailers, and paying attention to what they're telling you. It's important to have a good understanding of RV terms.

I've caught YouTube "dealership videos" lying on their videos about various stuff, from holding tank sizes to tow weight abilities to materials used. Even on videos factory tours, while the thing is being built, they're lying LOL

don't get discouraged looking, we looked for almost 7 months and was about to give up. then we found a used 07 Fleetwood that was everything we wanted. trailer had only been used 3-4 times and has several upgrades and stored in a heated shop. what a find, its absolutely like new. I have one repair to the skin on the slide then it will be prefect.
Jay D.

I have purchased used twice. The first was from a dealer and I bought the extended warranty. It paid off the first 6 months with an air conditioner repair and an expensive fridge fix.
The second was from a private party I knew more about trailers by then and knew what you look for.
Both purchases were very good deals.

Jesseannie