Which models should I look at
We are looking for our first travel trailer and feel overwhelmed by the search. Would love some suggestions on which lightweight models we should look at. Needs to sleep 5+ GVWR needs to be less ...
Forum Discussion
Be wary of sleeping claims for number of people. Our KZ says up to 6 people. That'd have to be two people crammed onto the dinette table and which has the furnace under it. VERY uncomfortable to say the least. Another person would be on the jacknife sofa which is also uncomfortable. The sixth person would have to sleep on the floor. No way would be share our short queen bed with a third person! (The dog is bad enough, lol.) 4 young kids maybe, but def. not 6 adults.
While a murphy bed may not sound like the best of ideas, at least you'd get a sofa to relax in during the daytime. Murhpy beds can make a shorter TT seem larger inside than they are. Setting up a dinette bed every day could get annoying quickly. If you or kids are TV watchers, some TVs can be in locations where they are hard to see from the seating.
If you're talking about 2 adults and 3 young kids, after a certain age, many kids would much rather sleep outside in a tent and be on their own (until they hear the bogie man).
If your first TT, there are so many things to look and also to beware of. It can be a good idea to rent or borrow a TT and try one out first. You could easily find one you love only to discover lots of drawbacks and issues. Some CGs have rental TTs. Our first TT lasted exactly 1 year and we found it was way too small and the layout was no good. Lost a lot of $$ when we sold it a year later.
Dry weight and GVWR numbers vs length can vary all over the map and be very confusing. Our 29' TT with an advertised UVW of 5237 lbs had an as-delivered wt. of 6477 lbs. The dry tongue wt. went from 518 lbs dry to over 900 lbs. The safest thing to do is to take 12-13% of the GVWR so you'll know if your TV can handle it. The wt. of all our camping "stuff" for two plus mods came to 555 lbs and some claim theirs is in the 1,00-1500 lb range (on top of UVW). You might want to take your TV to a scale now fully loaded up as it would be for camping (passengers, pets, groceries, camping stuff, firewood and full tank of fuel. Then subtract that wt. from the GVWR on the door pillar sticker to see what payload capacity you have left for tongue wt. (It's the payload capacity number that'll be important not "tow"capacity.)
Another point is in looking for lower wt. ultralites, everything is lighter, thinner and lesser of, compared to other TTs so cargo carrying capacity can suffer. If you plan to tow with a full holding tank, that can add a lot of wt.
So many things to think about when choosing a first TT.
While a murphy bed may not sound like the best of ideas, at least you'd get a sofa to relax in during the daytime. Murhpy beds can make a shorter TT seem larger inside than they are. Setting up a dinette bed every day could get annoying quickly. If you or kids are TV watchers, some TVs can be in locations where they are hard to see from the seating.
If you're talking about 2 adults and 3 young kids, after a certain age, many kids would much rather sleep outside in a tent and be on their own (until they hear the bogie man).
If your first TT, there are so many things to look and also to beware of. It can be a good idea to rent or borrow a TT and try one out first. You could easily find one you love only to discover lots of drawbacks and issues. Some CGs have rental TTs. Our first TT lasted exactly 1 year and we found it was way too small and the layout was no good. Lost a lot of $$ when we sold it a year later.
Dry weight and GVWR numbers vs length can vary all over the map and be very confusing. Our 29' TT with an advertised UVW of 5237 lbs had an as-delivered wt. of 6477 lbs. The dry tongue wt. went from 518 lbs dry to over 900 lbs. The safest thing to do is to take 12-13% of the GVWR so you'll know if your TV can handle it. The wt. of all our camping "stuff" for two plus mods came to 555 lbs and some claim theirs is in the 1,00-1500 lb range (on top of UVW). You might want to take your TV to a scale now fully loaded up as it would be for camping (passengers, pets, groceries, camping stuff, firewood and full tank of fuel. Then subtract that wt. from the GVWR on the door pillar sticker to see what payload capacity you have left for tongue wt. (It's the payload capacity number that'll be important not "tow"capacity.)
Another point is in looking for lower wt. ultralites, everything is lighter, thinner and lesser of, compared to other TTs so cargo carrying capacity can suffer. If you plan to tow with a full holding tank, that can add a lot of wt.
So many things to think about when choosing a first TT.
