Trip to the RV Show and our top 3 sub-20' picks

Question

Over the weekend we braved the cold to head over the the Atlantic City RV Show to get some ideas for our upcoming small RV project. Right or wrong, it also let me use the trip as an early Valentines treat.

As a little overview of the show, it is a pretty standard RV show. For the most part it was local RV dealers showing off units they had in stock. For this reason there weren’t too many odd or interesting new RV’s on display that I’ve seen at other shows. I was also a little disappointed in the vendor area and the lack of RV gadgets being displayed. The vendors were of the typical home improvement variety that can be found at most fairs with a few campgrounds and RV type products mixed in.

We were specifically looking at small travel trailers to get some good space saving ideas since we're looking at TT's around 15' long.

Here's out top 3 < 20' travel trailers of the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBcC8NALp1M

Along with our related blog post:
http://www.rvcircus.com/the-best-small-travel-trailers-at-the-2016-atlantic-city-rv-show/

At the end of the day we didn’t see too much at the Atlantic City RV show that we haven’t seen before, but we still came home with some good ideas for our project.

ford_truck_guy · Answer

That small Airstream was crazy at $47,000.00 ... Or was it $41,000.00 ??  They must have a cult following ??? ...

scbwr · Answer

Be careful when you look at units with a Murphy bed. First of all, you need to know how much room is available (when folded up) for a replacement mattress. You may find that the mattress included is sub par at best and you'll end up addding a topper or replacing the mattress. And, on some trailers, the Murphy style bed takes away a pass through storage area as I saw that first hand on a couple of Jayco trailers.

From what I've seen, I really like those RPods for what they offer in a smaller trailer, and they have quite a few options/accessories available.

Airstream trailers are an interesting product. If $$ is no object, and you like it...I'd suggest looking for one used which would put you in a better position for getting most of your money back if you decide to sell it for a larger trailer.

So, you can see by my comments, I lean heavily towards the RPod. Good luck in your search, and I hope you are on the camping road soon!

scbwr · Answer

After checking your blog, I see that you're not in the market, but getting ideas for some sort of project.  So, I'd say the RPod has a lot of design features to consider in whatever you do.

rvcircus · Answer

scbwr wrote:After checking your blog, I see that you're not in the market, but getting ideas for some sort of project.  So, I'd say the RPod has a lot of design features to consider in whatever you do.I'd agree that the Rpod is by far the best practical choice of the 3 and has some awesome features.  The addition of the slide made a huge difference in the available living space.  I personally don't like the idea of a murphy bed and like that both the Rpod and Airstream have a dinette &amp; separate bed.If money was no object, which was the case in our "we're not really buying anything" comparison, I'd go with the Airstream.  I think for most of us $43,000 for a 16' trailer isn't reality and we like to dream sometimes.

rvcircus · Answer

ford truck guy wrote:That small Airstream was crazy at $47,000.00 ... Or was it $41,000.00 ??  They must have a cult following ??? ...The price is crazy for sure.  Awesome trailer and fun to look at, but at &gt; $40k for a 16' trailer it's certainly WAY out of my league.  For those that own them I can see the draw and if money wasn't a concern I'd own an Airstream (and a helicopter).

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Trip to the RV Show and our top 3 sub-20' picks

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