Forum Discussion

marcel's avatar
marcel
Explorer
Aug 28, 2013

Small(er) Quality 4-seasons RV

We have a beloved Northwoods Nash 2002-ish 28-5d that we have traveled far and on hard roads for years with our kids and dogs. With the kids off to college, but the canine friends always being with us, we are looking for a new trailer that fits our new almost-empty-nest-syndrome.

We want a 5-ver with rear-living, 4-seasons setup and on the smaller size (<30'). We love to dry-camp and camp at state/federal campgrounds where large trailers simply don't fit. We are highly biased toward Northwoods because of the amazing experience with our current trailer but would love hints as to potential alternatives.

Thank you!

Karen & Marcel
  • We like our Canyon Trail 27FREL, it has been very good for us since we camp like you do.

    Here is their latest brochure for product details -> http://gulfstreamrvtrailers.com/media/pdf/canyon-trail.pdf

    We are now looking for a bigger RV for some of our extended trips with family.

    Good luck with your search, I am sure their or many other 4 season smaller 5th's too.

    Ken
  • Don't overlook the Northwoods Fox Mountain fifth wheels. They are made on the in-house chassis & are 4-season. The "new" version of the 235 is a cute rear lounge plan. It is short on closet space. They also have a 285 with a closet slide. Unfortuantely, the new Arctic Fox line is all 8'6" wide, but the Fox Mountain is not.
  • Maybe I'm missing something. You have an <30' that you apparently love.

    Is there something wrong with it?
  • We have the Fox Mountain 235 RLS. Got it in April of this year and have been out 30+ times with over 3000 miles on it. Couple of glitches but warranty covered one and I took care of the other. As far as closet space goes, yes it definitely lacks some. However we have made two week long trips and never ran out of clothes to wear. The bedroom only has one cabinet over the bed. Another one would be nice and I'm not sure why they don't have one their. Lots of nice standard feature come on the FM. Plus Northwood makes their own frames. Ours came with a 4300+lb CCC which is a lot for a 27'10" 5'er. Great sound system plus a 32" tv. We did remove the booth dinette (never liked them) and put in a free standing table with two chairs. Way more comfortable. Northwood also allows their customers to have repair work done at authorized RV repair facilities if their dealer is not close by. For just the wife and I it's a great unit. Big enough to not feel cramped and small enough to get into most CG's.
  • valhalla360 wrote:
    Maybe I'm missing something. You have an <30' that you apparently love.

    Is there something wrong with it?


    The bunks in the back take a lot of room that could be utilized in a more comfortable layout for just the two of us. I've thought about how to "remodel" the space, but the water heater and other infrastructure are under the lower bunk, and that with the weird L-shape make it more difficult to convert to something useful. I also want a rear picture window, which is not possible with the current base floor-plan.

    We also have put a _lot_ of miles on our trailer, probably 75k miles at this point. While it is still going strong and will probably serve us for a couple more years, I don't expect it to last forever. I don't want to push it so far that "RV" stands for "Ruined Vacation"..... We love to actually travel :^) and want a trailer that is as solid as our current one.

    I'll take another look at the Fox Mountains. Thank you all for your suggestions.

    Karen
  • Nuwa out of Chanute Kansas (now out of business) used to make some good quality smaller fifth wheels.

    Their Hitchhiker II line had several models at or under 30 feet.

    May be worth a try searching via a site like RVTrader.com or similar.
  • Norsky, NUWA is not out of business, they have just quit building trailers. AS of a few days ago they still had 13 new HitchHiker trailers in their inventory. They are selling other brands of trailers and have kept their service department open and can do service on all 5th wheels. Their service department is excellent.