First travel trailer

tatest wrote:


Starting out with "do I buy XXX as a tow vehicle" to tow something "I don't know what it is going to be" is the wrong way to approach the problem, from my experience. The more limited your budget, the less freedom you have to make big mistakes. Starting with "this is the tow vehicle I want to buy" is the biggest mistake, in my experience.

Thanks for the tips and so sorry to hear about your wife. Unfortunately, up here in the Great White North, many things are quite a bit more expensive to buy than in the U.S. Even a half decent van conversion was way out of our budget range. Basically, any such vehicle with less than a 160,000 km (100,000 mi,) and less than 10 years old was into the $17,000 to $20,000 range or more. We did, however, check out what we felt we needed space-wise, etc. and settled on a travel trailer in the 17 ft. to 19 ft. range. We had previously stayed in TT's of this size (rented) when our kids were younger and still at home. Living in one would have been problematic, but we were just using it as a "motel room" and spending our days elsewhere. Once we decided on that, I looked into what TV could safely tow this size and weight TT while staying within our budget. The Pathfinder came closest and in this case we were able to get one in excellent condition even though it was an '04. Again, we are looking for a place to sleep and eat and occasionally relax between runs to various touristy areas. We really don't need a huge living space and there's no way we want to spend the $20,000 or more (more likely) to buy a pickup and larger heavier trailer. The HiLo caught my eye because when I checked out figures, I discovered that for some years, the weights were at or under 3,000 lbs for the 21 footers, which after all my calculations, gave us a reasonably good margin of safety. I realize that it's not the perfect solution, but I feel is a workable one and ,well, it is the one we can afford. Worst case scenario is that we don't like it and have to sell the TT at a loss. I'd rather be trying to unload a $3,000 to $4,000 TT (More potential buyers) than a $10,000 to $12,000 one. A lot less funds at risk. And as I've said , but will repeat, we have used TT's in this size and we were satisfied with them for the use at the time. I wouldn't want to park it in Florida or Arizona to live in for 4 or 5 months, but that's not our plan. We will travel, stop here and there to rest and to visit and then be on our way. Not a huge difference, I realize, but we feel it is workable and worth trying.

Andy