Newbie Truck and lightweight travel trailer advice

Greetings all! this is my first post, I am currently pretty far off from purchasing an RV, but after discussing things with the wife, I would like to begin lining things up for it. Our only experience is tent camping, which we have found to enjoy very much, the reason we would like to transition to a travel trailer is to camp a full three seasons when we would like.

Our first step will be purchasing a used vehicle next year. Our only tow vehicle right now is a Chevy Trailblazer that I use with our 5x10 utility trailer, so obviously that needs an upgrade. Currently our children are 2 1/2 and 1 1/2, which makes the truck decision difficult. If they were older, I wouldnt have a problem picking out any extended cab truck used, but due to the amount of room their car seats will take up in the foreseeable future, I think I am leaning towards a used expedition/2500 Suburban/Toyota Sequoia. My main issue hear is budget. I will be able to spend around 10 grand on the vehicle, but every forum I have searched seems to be populated by retirees with unlimited budgets ("Well obviously just buy a brand new Duramax or settle for a V10"), which unfortunately just isn't realistic to me. I searched craigslist for some 3/4 ton trucks in my area, and within my budget they seemed very few and far between, with extremely high mileage

Second step: The trailer. I have been doing my research because I do not wish to settle for the trailer that can work with my vehicle, I want to be able to pick the trailer I want. I don't really have any desire to step into a pop-up, it wouldn't get me the colder weather camping we were hoping for. I am currently trying to figure out what exactly I am looking for, while trying to manage expectations. This will probably be about 3 years down the road from now. I am thinking I would need to be around max 5-5500 pounds (dry) if I do go with a larger SUV, trying to account for a decent amount of cargo and supplies, would this sound about right? I wasn't sure if this was realistic, but here is my ideal trailer:

24-28 ft
Queen bed for us
bunk beds for the kids
decent bathroom
Non folding table (not sure of the proper term, but we dont like the kind that looks like an ironing board).

Any suggestions are appreciated. I haven't had a lot of luck searching, I guess I just don't know enough of the terms and models to cast a proper "net" on craigslist for example, and I get burned out trying to just browse everything to see what models I like. As far as budget, I went to some RV dealers and there are plenty of trailer I like that will fit my budget, it is just a matter of lining one up to the vehicle I am able to find. If I had 25K to drop on a truck, this wouldn't be an issue in the first place, so now I have to balance.

westend
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
Get a crew cab 3/4 ton truck and then get the trailer. By the time you're done looking for the "dream trailer" with the wife, you will probably have an SUV not up to the task.
Heavy_Metal_Doc
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
We went for a full sized 3500 van partially because it was about 30% cheaper than comparably towing capable trucks / suv's. More interior space that is easier to access than any suv. The only downside is worse gas mileage.
Bill___Kate
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
X2 on the vans being the best bang for the buck - the big chevy v-8 or ford v-10 are very capable tow vehicles, and have plenty of present and future room for family, friends, and camping stuff. I much prefer the driving position and visibility to pick ups. The kids are grown and gone, but we had a series a vans ever since they we little, and still tow with one ....
fla-gypsy
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
westend wrote:
Get a crew cab 3/4 ton truck and then get the trailer. By the time you're done looking for the "dream trailer" with the wife, you will probably have an SUV not up to the task.

Good advice
timmymacnj
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
Bill & Kate wrote:
X2 on the vans being the best bang for the buck - the big chevy v-8 or ford v-10 are very capable tow vehicles, and have plenty of present and future room for family, friends, and camping stuff. I much prefer the driving position and visibility to pick ups. The kids are grown and gone, but we had a series a vans ever since they we little, and still tow with one ....

I searched on these briefly but the majority I found were only 2 passenger?
Heavy_Metal_Doc
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
The description of the TT is very doable - a friend just picked up his first camper and it fits all of your ideas in a 24 footer that's light enough to pull with a light pickup truck (he has Nissan Frontier crew cab). What you will sacrifice to stay in that set of options will be some less convenient features such a queen murphy bed you have to fold up to use the couch, then fold down to sleep and he has no wall to separate the "bedroom" - just a curtain. You also will likely not get any slide-outs, which is fine as long as you understand things can get crowded inside the camper on a rainy day for a family of 4.
Speedogomer
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
You're in luck with the trailer wish list, because every manufacturer out there makes a 24-28 ft bunk model with a queen bed! That's the good news

The bad news is.... every single manufacturer out there makes a 24-28ft bunk model with a queen bed.... which means you'll get burned out in a hurry looking at countless floor plans that all seem to run together.

Take a trip to an RV show, it will help you narrow down what's out there. My cousin and I each have a TT, both our trailers meet your requirements, yet our 2 trailers are very very different.

With your limited wish list, you may be able to find everything you need in a smaller (24ft) trailer. Which could open up the half ton crew can truck market for you. Some of the newer crew cabs have cavernous rear seats, enough for any size car seat to fit.

The full sized 1 ton van idea isn't a bad idea to explore, be warned though, I've never driven a full sized van that isn't extremely crude. They ride and drive terrible. I know, I drive them for work every day.
Bill___Kate
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
timmymacnj wrote:
Bill & Kate wrote:
X2 on the vans being the best bang for the buck - the big chevy v-8 or ford v-10 are very capable tow vehicles, and have plenty of present and future room for family, friends, and camping stuff. I much prefer the driving position and visibility to pick ups. The kids are grown and gone, but we had a series a vans ever since they we little, and still tow with one ....

I searched on these briefly but the majority I found were only 2 passenger?

You need to find a passenger van or a conversion van. You can find them plain or with every creature comfort you can think of. The passenger vans seem to have a little softer suspension than the cargo vans - at least it seems that way to me .....
Heavy_Metal_Doc
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
timmymacnj wrote:

I searched on these briefly but the majority I found were only 2 passenger?

If you are going for used, there are a ton of ex-fleet passenger vans out there that are just old enough to get cycled out of the fleet and still have years of life left in them. They aren't "keeping up with the Jones's" vehicles, but they work. We have had a number of Chevy Express vans at my work that have gone the first 200K / 250K in "work" (hauling fully loaded parts and tools) with no significant issues beyond wear items.
timmymacnj
Explorer
Jun 25, 2014
Speedogomer wrote:

With your limited wish list, you may be able to find everything you need in a smaller (24ft) trailer. Which could open up the half ton crew can truck market for you. Some of the newer crew cabs have cavernous rear seats, enough for any size car seat to fit.

This brings up a very good point, I was thinking with a TT I was not going to be able to even look at a 1/2 ton, assuming most trailers are similar loaded, any suggestions on what the max dry weight I can look at as far as some typical 1/2 tons out there? That would open my options up greatly, and I would definitely sacrifice some of my "wants" on the TT later on to make it easy to get into a suitable vehicle sooner.