jotamon wrote:
@BurbMan - For our family camping has always involved being in touch with the outdoors and using the forest when nature calls. Primitive camping is a lot different in the West and we prefer to camp in remote, undeveloped areas of Forest Service land. We want to raise our kids in this way. Honestly, I prefer tent camping but am sick of having to deal with the whole setup procedure when arriving. I mean no disrespect to the RV community, we just go about things a lot differently (hence my trailer requirements). Also, bears are not all that scary.
We where similar in terms of camping styles and i went with a truck camper as few of the small ones have any bathroom and really only a burner or two for a cooking area. Anyways after several years it was just too small especially for things like cloths and fishing/hunting gear. I rented a camplite 14' trailer to try it out and the same thing with it, there just wasn't enough storage space as every square inch of space is used. I'm not afraid of bears or anything but i hate spending time setting **** up and putting beds up or down, rolling up sleeping bags, moving coolers in and out of the way. Chasing kids, dogs, and their friends around is enough.
If you can pull it you might want to consider a larger trailer then you think is necessary. I too wanted to be as minimalist as possible which is easy to do in a larger trailer. You wont see any fuel savings between a 12' and a 17' travel trailer and any of the brands will lift it for $400-600 if you want off-road clearance.
After many years of camping and growing up camping (we never use campgrounds btw) I found the two most important things about campers are the roof and storage space.
