Downsizing trailers, need opinions

[sherpaxc]

My wife and I have given this a lot of thought and we have decided to sell our Jayco 26BH for a smaller unit. I have a Tundra with the 5.7 so I have plenty of truck for any small unit we are looking at. During the school year we spend most weekends at Texas State parks so we have water/electric. But in the summertime we often spend up to 6 weeks traveling to other states and try to stay in small out of the way campsites with some light boondocking (forest service road camping and whatnot, nothing 4 wheel drive). There are 3 of us and we'd like a small bunkhouse. Currently we are looking at...
Coachmen Clipper 18bh (and the bhs)
Starcraft AR One Maxx 19BHLE

What I don't like about my Jayco is the length. My main issue is I'm not sure if I'd rather have a narrower trailer with a slide, or the 8 foot without a slide. Does anyone have any experience with either of these models? Are there others I am overlooking? I have been inside both, and felt like the Starcraft was better built but that was just a brief walk through. Thanks for any insight you can give!

[crasster]

If it was just myself and my wife, I'd go with an egg, like Casita. Easy to pull, super cool & durable.

[wbwood]

I agree it's a personal decision...You've had larger and decide you don't need that big.

My personal opinion is that the simpler, the better. I would opt to not have a slide. Dropping down 9' in length or so will make a big difference, especially without a slide. But I would rather give up a couple feet of width to avoid potential issues while camping. The idea is to enjoy camping, not worrying or having to fix things. The fact is, when there are more things that can go wrong, you have higher odds of something going wrong. The more advanced and technical that thing is, the more you will have to rely on others to fix it for you.

I need to be quiet...I'm about to talk myself into a tent...lol

[riven1950]

We are on our 2nd Apex now. The first was a 215rb and we now have a 249rb. Bought both new. Had the 215 for 2 years and never had to take it back to the dealer. The 249 we bought in Dec and used for 6 weeks in the Keys since then. It does have some warranty items that need to be fixed, but nothing major. Overall I think the quality is good compared to others we loked at, but I am no expert.

One thing I noticed on both of our Apex TT is the shower floor doesn't "feel" really solid when standing on it. I think this is pretty common in RVs and I don't understand why they don't use a more solid base. Ours doesn't leak but it feels like it should.

[TomG2]

Deleted duplicate post

[TomG2]

Jayco offers a "Baja" version of some small trailers with fifty percent larger tanks and extra ground clearance. I am not a Jayco salesperson, but they looked like the best deal in small trailers. I looked at some other brands that had electric only refrigerators, small window air conditioners, and short warrantees at higher prices. My point is to look beyond floor plans and how many square feet you are getting for your dollar. An electric only refrigerator would be worthless for dry camping for example.

[SoundGuy]

fulltimedaniel wrote:
I would give very serious consideration to the R POD. It is a great little trailer well designed and has tiny slideouts too!.

"Little trailer" and "tiny slideouts" are the operative words here. :W JMO, but R-Pods are way too expensive for what they are - wet bath, small fridge, and little room to walk around in, even those with a slide. I took a careful look at them myself before we bought our Freedom Express and just didn't see the value in a trailer that is so limited in so many ways. To move from a significantly larger travel trailer such as the OP has to an R-Pod would indeed be a quantum downgrade IMO. 😞

[Padlin]

I run into a lot of folks who love their R Pod's, also a few with Retro's by Riverside.

No idea on pricing for either.

[fulltimedaniel]

I would give very serious consideration to the R POD. It is a great little trailer well designed and has tiny slideouts too!.

If you have a bigger budget some of the small Airstreams are not only cute beyond counting they are VERY well designed and built.

[sherpaxc]

I would love an Escape. It is one of my favorite, sadly, I'm a bit priced out of that (wife and I are teachers, so budget is critical). We have about 15k max to spend. Would love to be a little less and lightly used is just fine by us.

That Apex looks interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about a Forest River product. I have no personal experience, just what I've read on different forums about quality control. Luckily I live not too far from a highly rated RV place (Ancira RV in Boerne).

[Padlin]

A little biased here, but worth taking a look at are the Escapes. The 21'er might work for 3. No bunkhouses, or bump outs for that matter, you'd have to change the dinette to a bed at night.

[Lwiddis]

"My main issue is I'm not sure if I'd rather have a narrower trailer with a slide, or the 8 foot without a slide."

Not with these models but I like my 7.5 foot width Winnie with a slide. Easier to see both driving and backing than 8 or 8.5 footers. Wouldn't want the current Winnie 7.0 footers however...with much smaller fresh water and holding tanks.

[SoundGuy]

Back in 2006 we bought an RVision TrailCruiser hybrid that had no slide but was 8' wide. For whatever reason RVision that year also offered the exact same floorplan in another series that was only 7.5' wide and boy was that difference of just 6" ever noticeable. :E My suggestion - if you go with any trailer without a slide look for an 8' wide model and only consider any less than 8' wide if they do have a slide.

Since the Clipper is a Coachmen product you might want to consider a Coachmen Apex series instead ... a model such as the Apex 193BHS would seem to meet all your requirements in a trailer much more nicely appointed than that entry level Clipper.

[MarkTwain]

sherpaxc wrote:
My wife and I have given this a lot of thought and we have decided to sell our Jayco 26BH for a smaller unit. There are 3 of us and we'd like a small bunkhouse. !

Take a look a some of the smaller Lance trailers.

[sherpaxc]

I'm a fan of Jayco, but man they put some crazy small holding tanks in those. It just won't work for us. We've had 2 different pop ups and they were fun, but we are a hard sided family. When we want actual nature we go backpacking which we do a few times a year for several days at a time.
Wants
Under 23 feet tip to tail
minimum of 35 gallon fresh/gray tank
bunkhouse
front queen
dry bath