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mamalisa08's avatar
mamalisa08
Explorer
May 04, 2015

Travel Trailer For Family w/ 4 small kids

Hi there, I'm new to this forum but look forward to learning from everybody!

My husband and I are considering buying a travel trailer. I would love to have any/all recommendations you have on manufacturers, layouts, designs, features to look for when searching. We have 4 small kids so are thinking a trailer with bunks would be ideal. But we cannot buy anything too big. We will need to tow with a Suburban.

Any ideas you can provide are appreciated. Thanks! Lisa :D

24 Replies

  • I would suggest 1st deciding how much you plan in using your new camper. If you are planning to park it and use weekly (as we do) it will be very inconvenient to rely on breaking a booth down for sleeping. But if you are only planning to use it 3-4 weeks a year, it won't be such a pain.
  • I have a 23b hybrid with a slide. The actual trailer is 20' and both ends pop out. It's me, 2 teens and 2 granddaughters. My son gets the back bunk. My teen daughter gets the front, my 7 yr grandaughter either sleeps with daughter or gets the couch, the 2 yr grandaughter takes the dinette with me, when my oldest daughter wants to join, we still have enough room for her. We're not crowded while sleeping or on chilly, rainy days.
    I tow with a 02 Yukon 1500 4x4. Haven't had an issues but we stay in MI.
  • I feel like our trailer fits the narrow market that scbwr describes. We are a family of four that didn't want to go over 25' and still sleep 4 not counting the dinette. Our trailer does it with a dry weight of 5300lbs. There was a Keystone model of the same floorplan that was about 500 pounds lighter.

    It doesn't have 4 separate bunks, instead, 2 full size bunks.

    I think a hybrid may be a wiser choice though, considering your tow vehicle. You could probably sleep the same for 1000lbs less weight.

    Your Suburban is going to run out of payload pretty quick with 6 people and a tongue weight greater than 600 pounds. Especially as the kids grow.
  • You can get better responses if you provide the towing specs for your Suburban.
    You have to know what weight you can realistically tow with your Suburban loaded with 4 kids and you in addition to DH. Remember that tow ratings are only for vehicle with driver and no cargo.

    Getting sleeping space for 4 kids and two adults suggests to my that you may want to consider a hybrid IF you can easily open it up at home and get it dryed out if you have to pack up when it is wet. With a hybrid, you can have a feeling of more space in a shorter and lighter trailer, but have a few more ammenities than a pop up trailer (full bath, bigger galley, etc. I'm thinking of something like this: Jayco Ultra Lite X23F

    In a trailer (no bunkends), you would want a bunkhouse with four bunks and then a bed for you and DH. Finding that may hinge on towing capacity....but I'd start looking at trailers that have a dry weight of 4-5K and see if there are trailers in that weight range that would work. I think your options will be few, if any if you want to keep the trailer at 26' or less and the weight at 7,500 lbs. or less and if you need something lighter than that, it would be even more difficult. If you can tow 7,500 lbs., this may work: Salem bunkhouse model BUT...I don't know about a Suburban towing a 32' trailer.

    But to really approach this without wasting a bunch of time....do your homework on the towing specs, and if you want to avoid having towing problems, keep your towing weight 75-80% of the maximum capacity and you will avoid the typical mistake of buying a trailer that ends up being too heavy and puts you in the position of having to upgrade the tow vehicle. That can be a real problem if you have to stick to a budget and want to have money to enjoy the new trailer!