(Original poster)
OK - having spent Saturday (yesterday) at the RV dealer up the road, the focus has changed. The r-pods are too small for us (at retirement age, we don't want to crawl over each other to get out of the bed and to the bathroom during the night). The Ascend 191 was OK (walk-around queed bed), but the seating at the dinette was uncomfortable - the backrests are set too far back, completely vertical, and a shelf protrusion at the top of the back cuts into one's back when you lean back. This would could be remedied with the addition of large, wedge-shaped foam blocks behind the backrests, but one shouldn’t have to correct things like that themselves.
At just two feet longer and a few hundred pounds heavier (and at the same price for a new demo model), the salesperson working thought we should look at the Surveyor Sport 220 by Forest River. The construction (fiberglass over aluminum frame) is very similar to the Ascend, but the U-shaped dinette in a shallow slide-out is infinitely more comfortable and the slide-out opens up the living are a lot more. The couple of extra feet and a rear, unified configuration make the bathroom facilities much roomier, too.
The GVW of the trailer is well within the limits of my Tahoe (2005 5.3 with tow package, coolers, and brake controller) and the dealer sets up a weight distribution hitch with anti-sway before you leave the lot.
I see a lot of Surveyor units on the road – fivers and travel trailers. What experience have any of you had with this line and/or the Surveyor Sport models in particular?
Thanks!
Rob
