Lance 1131 / 1191 w/ tent - pros/cons?
Hi all, I'm officially all over the map looking at truck campers. As much as I'd like to get one of the new multi-slide all hard sided TCs out there to sleep the 4 of us (Adventurer 116DS, Lance...
Forum Discussion
I knew I'd forget a couple of items from your list...
Outside storage. On the right side, there is the propane compartment (2 x 30# tanks on a sliding tray), and the door you couldn't figure out is (in ours) a compartment that houses the water pump but also has a decent storage for other stuff. We used to use it for TP, black tank chemicals and such. Decent size....now we converted it to store the litter box for the cat...I cut a hole into the interior of the camper and put in a cat door and we take the box out to clean from the outside. On the slide side (in the slide) is another compartment about that same size that takes up half of one side of the dinette and is accessed from outside; the other half is a drawer that is accessible from inside. It could easily be converted to a full drawer accessible from the inside if you desire. The other side of the dinette is a single big drawer. There is also a shallow, but tall and wide compartment at the back wall above the steps that would not be there if you get the tent. Later years also had an outside tool cabinet (shallow but wide and tall) that would be gone with the tent option. I know they moved around the battery box depending on year and the tent option but with ours it is on the back wall outside and can fit two group 31s with minor mods to the sliding tray.
Later years had a much bigger service bay. The possible drawback to later years are tank sizes. To add more storage (I think) they reduced the size of the tanks. Mine had 45 fresh 38/37 grey/black and I think later ones got slightly smaller like the numbers you mentioned.
Yes, there are occasionally campgrounds with temporary restrictions due to grizzlies that close CGs to soft sided rigs.....it is very very rare and technically they are 'temporary' but a few spots have had this restriction so commonly and for years that in effect no soft sided rigs are ever allowed (Many Glacier Campground in Glacier is the notable example of this) but it is so rate as to not be worth picking a hard sided camper just for this reason (IMHO).
The depth of the slide for my year is not nearly as deep as the new ones on the new model Lances. I THINK Lance did start making them deeper on the 1191 later (very recently) but I not sure of that. It is not super deep like on an 1172 now but it make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE to have a slide over no slide as far as living space in the TC.
Lastly, Lance is very good about having their old catalogs online so if you find a used one out there look up the catalog online to find floor plan and tanks capacities.
Good luck, let us all know if you have other questions. There is another guy here (handle starts with bka) who haS lived in his 1191 for nearly 7 years now and it has worked very well for him too; he has a later year and may chime in here as well.
Outside storage. On the right side, there is the propane compartment (2 x 30# tanks on a sliding tray), and the door you couldn't figure out is (in ours) a compartment that houses the water pump but also has a decent storage for other stuff. We used to use it for TP, black tank chemicals and such. Decent size....now we converted it to store the litter box for the cat...I cut a hole into the interior of the camper and put in a cat door and we take the box out to clean from the outside. On the slide side (in the slide) is another compartment about that same size that takes up half of one side of the dinette and is accessed from outside; the other half is a drawer that is accessible from inside. It could easily be converted to a full drawer accessible from the inside if you desire. The other side of the dinette is a single big drawer. There is also a shallow, but tall and wide compartment at the back wall above the steps that would not be there if you get the tent. Later years also had an outside tool cabinet (shallow but wide and tall) that would be gone with the tent option. I know they moved around the battery box depending on year and the tent option but with ours it is on the back wall outside and can fit two group 31s with minor mods to the sliding tray.
Later years had a much bigger service bay. The possible drawback to later years are tank sizes. To add more storage (I think) they reduced the size of the tanks. Mine had 45 fresh 38/37 grey/black and I think later ones got slightly smaller like the numbers you mentioned.
Yes, there are occasionally campgrounds with temporary restrictions due to grizzlies that close CGs to soft sided rigs.....it is very very rare and technically they are 'temporary' but a few spots have had this restriction so commonly and for years that in effect no soft sided rigs are ever allowed (Many Glacier Campground in Glacier is the notable example of this) but it is so rate as to not be worth picking a hard sided camper just for this reason (IMHO).
The depth of the slide for my year is not nearly as deep as the new ones on the new model Lances. I THINK Lance did start making them deeper on the 1191 later (very recently) but I not sure of that. It is not super deep like on an 1172 now but it make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE to have a slide over no slide as far as living space in the TC.
Lastly, Lance is very good about having their old catalogs online so if you find a used one out there look up the catalog online to find floor plan and tanks capacities.
Good luck, let us all know if you have other questions. There is another guy here (handle starts with bka) who haS lived in his 1191 for nearly 7 years now and it has worked very well for him too; he has a later year and may chime in here as well.
