Choosing our first travel trailer! Big family

[Jas1317]

I got so much help here narrowing down our truck choice/needs so I am going to follow up with a post for recommendations for choosing a travel trailer.
We will have a pickup with towing capabilities of 13,000lbs+
2 parents with mild towing experience (horse trailers not campers), 3 young kids, and 2 dogs looking to hit the road for several months-long cross country road trips 🙂
We have done a decent amount of research and visited camping world, checked out lots of new and used travel trailers.
We are honing in on something in the 30-33’ range with bunk beds in a back room type set up for the kids and preferably an outdoor kitchen. We have seen a lot of Jaycos. I will be so grateful for any insights you experienced people don’t mind typing out to me. Thanks in advance! We are complete newbies.

[kellem]

If your not opposed to buying used then you'll have many units to choose from when the Covid campers start dumping them.

After many years of pulling trailers we've found 30 ft to be the sweet spot for space and mobility but that length usually requires 2500 series trucks for the additional payload.

Biggest issue you may have is shuffling through all the trailer choices, so many today with variety of floorplans.

Grand Designs would be a good place to start, many happy customers.

Lastly, get a good weight distribution hitch and keep those trailer tires inflated to max PSI.

[valhalla360]

Give some thought to a toy hauler in that size range. Many have double bunks that are the full width of the garage that move up to the ceiling when using the garage for toys.

That will allow plenty of room for storing bikes, dog crates and other stuff that they will want to bring and most are walled of with a door, so it can provide a little privacy away from the parents. If you want a big grill or blackstone, you can just wheel it in and out convienently.

[lane_hog]

Jayco used to be a good name but the quality has dropped since being bought by Thor. We love our Grand Design.

If you're not in a hurry, there are gobs of trailers hitting the used market because of people who rushed into buying a RV when COVID hit, but realized it's not quite their thing.

[MitchF150]

I hope your truck is at least a "25" series truck... That's what I would want at the minimum for your goals...

Good luck! Mitch

[theoldwizard1]

Jas1317 wrote:
We are honing in on something in the 30-33’ range with bunk beds in a back room type set up for the kids and preferably an outdoor kitchen.

You want a bunk house where each kid get their own bunk. They will grow out of double bucks quickly.

Think hard about that outdoor kitchen. You lose space in the bunk room, and the appliances are just something else to break. Look for a propane grill that can attach to the camper and get a portable 12VDC compressor refrigerator maybe one that can switch to freezer mode. Carry an extra table for uses as your outdoor kitchen counter. These options give you a lot more flexibility.

Also something that large means it will likely come with 240V 50A electrical hook up to run 2 AC units. Do NOT buy a built in generator. Stick with a portable unit under <3000 watts, which will only run one AC at a time.

Also forget the propane refrigerator. Either get a 12VDC compressor refrigerator or residential refrigerator and four 6v golf cart batteries with a 2,000 watt pure sine wave inverter.