Travel trailer questions from an RV newbie

chschen wrote:


A couple of questions my husband reminded me to ask:

Is boondocking with a travel trailer more difficult than with a Class B or C RV?

Are there restrictions on paved roads you can go on with a trailer? Or do certain roads have length restrictions on the trailer?

Thanks again, everyone!

What do you mean by "boondocking"? If you are thinking about roads and areas where you will be off road and need 4 wheel drive, then in general trailers and RVs are not suitable, although some pop-up campers are suitable. You are getting into Truck Camper territory - the campers designed to slide into the back of pickup trucks. The "trip reports" in the TC (Truck Camper) forums will make you envious of their off road trips.

If by "boondocking" you are thinking about camping at places like state parks and forests that don't have electric hookups but do have designated camping areas, trailers are certainly fine for that. We do that more and more now that our kids are grown and we don't need the facilities or hookups of campground resorts.

The only length restrictions you might run into on regular roads is when you get into very large campers, and/or "double towing" - attaching another trailer to the back of your camp trailer. An MDX is not realistically capable of towing anything so big that you'd have to worry about that.

We haven't full-timed camping, but we have camped with babies, starting with tents. It is a lot of fun, we just made sure to plan out everything and have backup plans if the baby was not in a good mood. One trip we slept part of the night in the car because baby kept waking up and crying - didn't want to bother other campers. Just all part of the experience!

Get out and start camping. Try to get some camping in before making the "jump" to full timing, so you get a feel for it, and for what you might want.