Buying a Used Travel Trailer

[hjcihak46]

I'm seriously considering my first trailer purchase. For practical reasons I need to at least consider buying a used one instead of a new one. I buy used cars and high end photo equipment without a problem, but I admit my knowledge of TT is pretty limited.

Any opinions on buying a used TT from a dealer? From a private owner?

Thanks for any help.

[LVJJJ]

We've bought several used trailers, here's what we've learned.
1. The TT will never be as nice as they look in the photos in the ad.
2. You have to be willing to walk away even if you've driven 1400 miles to see it, yes, we've done that.
3. Take a ladder with you to look at the roof, take old clothes and a creeper to look under it.
4. Plug it in and try all the applicances, lights, pump, etc. Then try it with battery only.
5. Back your TV up to the hitch, plug into the TT umbilical cord and try the lights and brakes (The cords from the truck and trailer usually are grounded). You can hear the brake magnets buzzing if they are working. Or pull the emergency brake pin.
6. Wander around looking at every wall, roof and floor looking for water damage. Push on the walls, floor and roof looking for soft areas. Open all the cabinet doors.

I can go on and on, but you need to take the time to look it over and over and over.

I did get bit on an '85 Wilderness that looked pristine, but under the carpet in the bathroom (carpet in the bathroom??) there had been a real slow leak and had rotted out the whole floor mostly under the sink and tub, couldn't get under those. So I ended up rebuilding the floor. However, I love to repair TT's so I didn't mind. Every used TT has taken a lot of maintenance and several small repairs which, again, I love doing. I can never wait to get it home and start working on it.

Oh yeah, the 1400 mile trip was because we had been looking for a certain floor plan of the Trail Lite and Trail Cruiser brand. We have a weak motor in our '94 Suburban and since we had a 30' Trail Lite once and knew they were actually "Lite", we had to look for months to find one. We live in Blaine WA, (north of Seattle, up against the Canadian border) and found that there were two listed for sale near Spokane and one near Coeur d' Alene Idaho. So we packed up everything we would need to provision the TT we would buy into the Suburban (it carried everything that was in our TT). Drove about 700 miles to Spokane and found that both of the them were complete junk, unvelievealbly bad. Drove 700 miles back, decided to hook up existing Tahoe and go camping for the rest of our vacation. While at Grandy Creek 1000 trails near Concrete. We, found an '05 Trail Cruiser with our floor plan about 25 miles away from the campground in Mt. Vernon, about 40 miles from our home. Bought it, then had to deal with two trailers. Sold the Tahoe for what we paid for it within 2 weeks, because we keep our TT's really clean.

[tragusa3]

Best of luck in your search. I do support that the tow vehicle discussion is the most important for your benefit. Been there, done that. You can make it work for a bit, but will eventually become frustrated and make a change. I encourage you to accept that now.

We limited our trailer options to our tow vehicle, discovered we didn't limit them enough and ended up with a new tow vehicle and then sold the trailer and bought the one we really wanted in the first place! You can avoid all of that by considering both parts of the equation the first time.

[2112]

If you stay with the Nissan as a tow vehicle you are limited to low profile, single axle trailers. If the trailer you are considering has 4 wheels walk away.

On the other hand, if you are considering replacing your Nissan for a more capable tow vehicle look at all trailers. Find the one that works for you and then match it to an appropriate tow vehicle.

Also keep in mind that a small, lifted low profile trailer is easier to get into those hard to get to, out of the way wilderness locations. Plus you will have remaining payload for extra water, equipment, generator, fuel, etc. You have a 4WD Nissan so a small teardrop will get you where you want to go. I know I keep pushing Casita's but those things are bullet proof relatively speaking.

Don't give up. Your trailer is out there but it may take some time to find that ideal match for both your needs and vehicle.

[valhalla360]

hjcihak46 wrote:
I'm a serious landscape photographer who's partial to wilderness areas of the mountains and deserts of the American West. I also anticipate doing some traveling in colder weather.

If you are going to spend a lot of time in the mountains, don't cheap out on the tow vehicle.

If it was a 50 mile drive on flat ground a few times a year, a marginal tow vehicle might get you what you need.

If you will regularly be pulling grades at high altitude, the little SUV will struggle if you push it to the limits. There are multiple aspects to this:
- Simply the HP to pull up a steep grade.
- You lose HP at altitude (usually assumed to be around 4% per thousand feet up), so you need some reserve power unless you have a turbo engine which compensates for altitude.
- You need to be able to stop the rig coming down the hill.

[GrandpaKip]

Also look at Hi-Lo. Same concept as Trailmanor.

[2012Coleman]

hjcihak46 wrote:
I'm really not interested in a pop-up camper. I'm a serious landscape photographer who's partial to wilderness areas of the mountains and deserts of the American West. I also anticipate doing some traveling in colder weather. I just can't see myself ever being happy making do with a semi-tent on wheels.

Trailmanor is not a popup tent camper. It's a hard sided hi-lo camper. It's a good alternative for your TV.

[hjcihak46]

I'm really not interested in a pop-up camper. I'm a serious landscape photographer who's partial to wilderness areas of the mountains and deserts of the American West. I also anticipate doing some traveling in colder weather. I just can't see myself ever being happy making do with a semi-tent on wheels.

[2012Coleman]

Look for the sticker in your door jamb that says total weight of passengers and cargo not to exceed xxxx lbs.

Googling it, I came up with 1053 lbs - yours may be different depending on options. Look at the gross weight of the TT you are considering, or add 1K to the unloaded weight, then multiply by 13% to get a good estimation of tongue weight. Subtract from payload.

Subtract weight of hith and WDH - usually 100 lbs. Then subtract your weight and weight of stuff in the TV.

A high walled TT will create wind resistance which will need to be over come by your TV. Towing capacity is really a mythical number when it comes to towing an RV.

Don't be to down on slide outs. Go into TT's with and without them and see the difference. Lots of more living room with a slide out. And yes, there are always people who report problems with them, but you can find problems with any system associated with RV's.

A popup camper made by a company called Trailmanor may be suitable for your tow vehicle - just google the name.

Good luck with your search.

[drsteve]

Here is a link to Nissan's 2008 towing guide, with all the information you need to know, and then some.

Clicky

[valhalla360]

hjcihak46 wrote:
Actually, I have another question. Slide-outs? A potential maintenance problem?

Yes, there is some potential maintenance but they increase the interior space so much, they are well worth it.

Go drive thru a local RV park and look at units less than 20yrs old and 99.9% will have slides.

Of course, you still have to be able to tow it.

[GrandpaKip]

There are some on this forum that absolutely have no tact. They don’t seem to know it, or don’t care. However, you can learn from what just about everybody says here. Sorta like that butthead teacher everyone has had.
The main weights that are important are payload for the TV, gross vehicle weights for TV and camper, and tongue weight. Dry weight of a camper is basically worthless as it is never anywhere near a real world weight.
Consult the Google if you need a better understanding of these.
Nothing wrong with buying used.
Ask away and sift through the answers. Pretty soon you’ll figure out what’s what.

[jfkmk]

I just looked up the payload on a 2008 Xterra and it ranges from just under 1k to just over 1k. The just over 1k is most likely for the 2wd models. Every option added will subtract from the payload, so that will probably be your limiting factor.

That being said, there are plenty of shorter trailers out there right around 3500# gross. We're looking to trade up from a Starcraft 17' that we've had for 6 years and never gave us any problems. We towed if all over the east coast with a 6 cylinder SUV with no problems. Had a little more payload than the Xterra but otherwise very similar.

Don't get discouraged, you don't need a condo on wheels, so you should be able to find something.

When looking used, consider a private sale, but talk to the seller to get a feel for what kind if maintenance they've done. All tt's require preventive maintenance and, if not done, could lead to leaks, bearing failures, etc. if no pm was done, unless it's close to brand new, I'd walk away.

[2112]

The frontal area of a hard side trailer as well as weight will be difficult on your current tow vehicle. You are in teardrop or egg-shape territory if you do not want a pop-up. Consider a Casita if your budget allows. Buy once, cry once, enjoy it for a lifetime. They are well built and retain higher resale value compared to lesser quality models.

[FrankShore]

gdetrailer hit it on the head.

You may very well have to upgrade your tow vehicle, to have that large area of caution.

There are some beautiful, lightly used private sector trailers. If I'm buying new, I buy at the lot, used = person to person as much as possible.

I don't want to have to deal with "RV Lot Surprise" when dealing with the RV industry. Shabbily dressed "used car lot vibe" and absolute no ethics!

There is a lot of sense buying used, if you're new to the lifestyle. If you're sure you want to buy new, make sure that it's a quality building and manufacturer.

Some of the lightweight towables are Lances (spendy but well worth it) Minnie Winnie, Nash (Arctic Fox) & other Northwoods Mfg, Coachman, Grand Design, Airstream (literally no storage)

There are not many well made RV's on the market today and yesterday. Heck, some of the rv's today are re-treads from 1998

Here is a video made at Lance, it demonstrates the quality and the build standards, and the materials used (or NOT used in other RV's and trailers for the most part)

Lance Factory Tour

Winnie Minnie
1706FB

Another small Lance - this is the maximum I'd feel sale towing with your rig. Probably would be safer, one step down.

A Lance 1685


A lot can be said for YouTube. Go there and start looking at big class A's (you'll see many of the appliances are the exact same as a Coachman TT.) It's what you can't really see that matters. Just start on YouTube and looking at all different kinds of trailers, and paying attention to what they're telling you. It's important to have a good understanding of RV terms.

I've caught YouTube "dealership videos" lying on their videos about various stuff, from holding tank sizes to tow weight abilities to materials used. Even on videos factory tours, while the thing is being built, they're lying LOL

[badsix]

don't get discouraged looking, we looked for almost 7 months and was about to give up. then we found a used 07 Fleetwood that was everything we wanted. trailer had only been used 3-4 times and has several upgrades and stored in a heated shop. what a find, its absolutely like new. I have one repair to the skin on the slide then it will be prefect.
Jay D.