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mandjvanderpol's avatar
mandjvanderpol
Explorer
Jul 23, 2018

hybrids that sleep 8-10

we are a family of 8, 2 adults and 6 kids ranging from 11months-13 and need a hybrid to fit our family. we also sometimes have one extra person with us so 'just' sleeping 8 may be tight for us. we also need to fit a pack and play for a couple years yet :) we need an older one as we have a tight budget. 5000ish or less and must be lightweight and half ton towable about 4500 or less pounds. since we are a family of 8 we don't fit in a pick-up with lots of pulling power. we have an 11 passenger chevy express van. any advice?

we like the triple tip out beds as it keeps the trailer short for towing but yet gives lots of sleeping space. or single tip out with quad bunks. anyone have advice on which works better? triple tip out seems more 'open' but quad bunks means no one climbing over anyone else to get in/out of bed.

we also looked at 'expandables' with the 'slide out' queen bed and quad bunks. any preference on the expandable with quad bunks versus the hybrid with quad bunks?

we also bike a lot and noticed that many older expandables that have the slide out queen bed don't have a 'real' bumper to mount a bike rack too (and remember there are 8 of us so we need lots of bikes!)

we previously had a bare bones pop-up but too much work when you are camping on the go and have to set-up/take down every night-plus not near enough storage for 8 people, plus-most don't sleep 8 well. we then had a 5th wheel-but didn't sleep enough-and yeah don't fit in a pick-up with 8 of us anymore.

any makes to avoid?

we have really liked at forest river surveyor sv-255 rs (slide out queen and quad bunks) but storage is not what we would like as much...and we are just not sure about the slide out aspect if that is a good or bad thing?!

we have also liked a jayco jay feather 232. love that it is more open and have three beds that pop out so we aren't pulling as much length. but they seem to be harder to find (any three bed pop out does though) and the one we looked at had a weird 'soft spot' in front of the front bed. but there is a storage cabinet in front of that and a dinette and couch on each side and in the cabinet, couch, and table bench the floor is all hard. not sure where it could be leaking from. it is almost like someone dropped something there and 'cracked' the floor as it isn't really soft but more 'cracky' when you step there-any thoughts on what that could be?

positives/negatives of a jayco? forest river? or jayco vs. forest river?

what are your thought/opinions and any other suggestions for models/brands/makes?

any places to look for hybrids besides craigslist?!

Thanks everyone!
~julie

20 Replies

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  • mandjvanderpol's avatar
    mandjvanderpol
    Explorer
    Jul 24, 2018
    mileshuff wrote:
    4500 lbs loaded or unloaded? Those bikes, and all your camping gear will easily be 500+ lbs. Need to fill water tank too? That adds 8 lbs per gallon so a small 30 gallon tank adds another 240 lbs.

    As others have said you want something that can sleep 8-10, under $5,000 and I'm assuming under 4,500 lbs loaded. That low of weight puts you into a rather small trailer.

    We camped in a 2004 Starcraft 21SSO. It was about 5,000 lbs loaded and was small. Excellent trailer. It could sleep 4 adults on fold out beds, 2 teens on sofa bed and 2 infants on dinette. To fit all gear we filled the floor with coolers, duffel bags etc. Setting up meant first unloading everything off the floor outside. It did work well for us for 10 years but was cramped.


    4500 dry (so nothing in it, no water, sewer, etc.) we expect to be cramped and tight no matter what. :)
  • mileshuff's avatar
    mileshuff
    Explorer
    Jul 24, 2018
    4500 lbs loaded or unloaded? Those bikes, and all your camping gear will easily be 500+ lbs. Need to fill water tank too? That adds 8 lbs per gallon so a small 30 gallon tank adds another 240 lbs.

    As others have said you want something that can sleep 8-10, under $5,000 and I'm assuming under 4,500 lbs loaded. That low of weight puts you into a rather small trailer.

    We camped in a 2004 Starcraft 21SSO. It was about 5,000 lbs loaded and was small. Excellent trailer. It could sleep 4 adults on fold out beds, 2 teens on sofa bed and 2 infants on dinette. To fit all gear we filled the floor with coolers, duffel bags etc. Setting up meant first unloading everything off the floor outside. It did work well for us for 10 years but was cramped.
  • parker_rowe's avatar
    parker_rowe
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    mandjvanderpol wrote:
    parker.rowe wrote:
    I'm not sure if any of the 3 bed hybrids are down to 4500 dry. Maybe the ones without a slide, but with that many people in the camper I would really want the slide. It adds so much floor space!

    Our's is a 3 bed with a slide, dry weight on the yellow tag is 5160lbs.


    really?! am I looking at something wrong? all of the ones I mentioned are under 4500 or am I missing something? and we are not looking for one with a slide-most are even more out of our price range with a slide and we haven't seen one three bed with a slide come up for sale (nearish to us-like 250 mile radius) in the several months we have been looking. but maybe I am not looking in the right places for them....


    Maybe the older ones are lighter. It's been a while since I shopped them, so I could be wrong. Installed options can make a big difference in the final weight as well vs. the weight listed on the websites.

    You should be able to find something close though.
  • mandjvanderpol's avatar
    mandjvanderpol
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    parker.rowe wrote:
    I'm not sure if any of the 3 bed hybrids are down to 4500 dry. Maybe the ones without a slide, but with that many people in the camper I would really want the slide. It adds so much floor space!

    Our's is a 3 bed with a slide, dry weight on the yellow tag is 5160lbs.


    really?! am I looking at something wrong? all of the ones I mentioned are under 4500 or am I missing something? and we are not looking for one with a slide-most are even more out of our price range with a slide and we haven't seen one three bed with a slide come up for sale (nearish to us-like 250 mile radius) in the several months we have been looking. but maybe I am not looking in the right places for them....

    we would love to got 'bigger' or 'heavier' but we can't tow it then so I can't do anyting about that really.
  • parker_rowe's avatar
    parker_rowe
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    I'm not sure if any of the 3 bed hybrids are down to 4500 dry. Maybe the ones without a slide, but with that many people in the camper I would really want the slide. It adds so much floor space!

    Our's is a 3 bed with a slide, dry weight on the yellow tag is 5160lbs.
  • mandjvanderpol's avatar
    mandjvanderpol
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    thank you for that bike rack option! (even for when we go biking and not camping!) I had seen one on the back of a vehicle before and couldn't see a name on it anywhere so thought it was a 'homemade' type thing. this would work great for us!
  • mandjvanderpol's avatar
    mandjvanderpol
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    unfortunately our children are too young to safely sleep in a tent alone. we do have a large tent and a couple small ones from our tenting days but we are older and beyond tenting as a family

    I didn't say all 8 bikes had to go on a rack on the back-just saying we need to take 8. happy to put some inside, some on the back, roof top even (but guessing we won't need that)

    also looked at 2007? Starcraft Travel Star 21sd 'toy hauler' type hybrid-this would allow us to put bikes and other 'stuff' out there too.

    I am feeling very discouraged by these responses to be honest. we were excited to get back into camping after 4ish years 'off' but very little encouragement and suggestions here. we know it isn't going to be 'comfy' but were not looking for retirement 'camping' but we also pack-up and travel to a different spot each night often not staying in one place long so tents/pop-ups aren't a great option for us either (plus we would need to pull a large trailer to accommodate all our tenting gear for 8 haha!)

    thankfully? around here hybrids are not very popular-they sit and sit and sit it seems-but I also live rurally where most people have large trucks (and fit in the truck lol!) so many people have larger campers. but that also means there are not a ton on the market around here either.

    we need 4500 dry weight not gross weight.

    are the ones I mentioned not good options? are those not good makes? were they 'bad' for some reason?

    any other hybrid/expandable options. older probably 2000-2010 range. we are not looking for new.
  • Chuck_S's avatar
    Chuck_S
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    You need a couple GP Small tents and a trailer, not a hybrid.



    -- Chuck
  • Ralph_Cramden's avatar
    Ralph_Cramden
    Explorer II
    Jul 23, 2018
    mandjvanderpol wrote:
    we need an older one as we have a tight budget. 5000ish or less and must be lightweight and half ton towable about 4500 or less pounds.


    Having owned 3 hybrids, our current Rockwood Roo 23WS, a previous Keystone Passport 235EXP, and an Aerolite 185E, I can tell you from experience what you're looking for does not exist. Our 185E which had an 18' box and two bunks was heavier than the 4500 GVWR your looking for. You can cram 8-10 people into anything, even a popup. It just depends on how uncomfortable you want to be. Even a new 23' ish 3 bunk hybrid is going to be somewhat cramped sleeping 8-10 people with some of them young kids. Another thing is with the 3 bunk hybrids, you sacrifice a lot of the storage space for that 3rd bunk. Also on a 3 bunk the dinette converted to sleeping is going to be short as will the jack knife sofa, so sleeping 2 adults on either is going to really uncomfortable. Once you try and sleep with another person on a jack knife you'll know.

    Below the $5K price point your going to find a lot of worn out junk and it will probably be more than 10 years old. Not sure where you're located, but here in western PA hybrids command top dollar. A late model trade in, even a trade 5 or 6 years old, to an RV dealer in good shape will usually sit on his used lot for about 1 day before it gets snatched up at top dollar.

    The creampuff that someone bought new, used very little, and took exceptional care of does exist, but its really hard to find. It's sort of like hitting the lottery. And if you do find it most times the owner will know exactly what he has, and how much its worth, which will probably be a fair amount over $5K.

    As far as 8 bikes, you could go this route and despite what others claim on these boards with the proper amount of common sense, design, knowledge, and skill anything can be modified to accommodate such a thing including any trailer ever made. Granted its going to take a substantial amount of reinforcement. 8 BIKE HITCH RACK
  • bikendan's avatar
    bikendan
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2018
    you're asking a lot of any trailer.

    hybrids with quad bunk haven't been made for years, since the 3 bunk bunk end trailers came out. when you add 6 in the bunk ends, 2 in the dinette and 2 in the sofa bed, you have sleeping for 10.
    not many traditional TTs will have that capability.

    to expect a lot of storage in a trailer that sleeps 8-10, is not realistic. somethings got to give in order to having sleeping for that many humans, so storage space gets tossed.

    many with that size of family, have the older kids sleep in tents.

    finding a trailer that you can carry 8 bikes will be problematic also.
    i would never carry that many bikes on the back of an ultralight trailer. i don't know of any bike rack that could handle that many, mounted to a trailer.

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