How did you decide on which TT to buy ?

[NanciL]

We have had four trailers in our long lifetime and we bought them all based on floor plan.
The biggest problem has been that each has had the perfect floor plan, but have been the lowest quality trailers.
On our last one we searched on the net all over the country, and came back with the same thing -floor plan vs quality and ended up once again getting the low quality one with the floor plan we were looking for

Luckily I am handy and have been able to rebuild things and repair other things.
I just wish a few of the high end companies would have a bigger selection of floor plans.

So how did you buy ?

Jack L

[falconbrother]

This is a real personal decision. Some people buy high end and never use it. Some people go economy and use it a lot. I store my TT at a place where there is a lot of RVs. I'll bet a good 1/3 of them are rotting where they sit, regardless of what they cost. There's DPs, gassers, 5ers and travel trailers that haven't moved on inch in at least 5 years. I think it's important to be realistic about how much use you'll get from an RV. Our initial plan was to buy a TT and store it at one of the big campgrounds in Myrtle Beach. Then we decided to maintain our contract with the storage place down the road and tow it more. Turns out that was a good decision.

I would spend consistent with how much I could afford and how much I was actually going to use it.

[Durb]

When we decided to upgrade from our Coleman pop-up we knew we wanted a walk around queen bed and considerable storage. We had a 1/2 ton truck which posed some limitations. I wanted superb quality, a step up from the others. I poured over brochures and websites, looked at every trailer and read every spec I could find. I found and bought what I concluded was the perfect trailer for us. It was perfect but our Granddaughters got bigger and the trailer stayed the same size, no longer perfect. We then upgraded to a fifth wheel. What I'm trying to say is your needs and wants will change. It didn't hurt to buy quality though.

[mobeewan]

It was Nov 2006. I wanted bunkhouse 26 to 28 ft length & 1/4 ton towable (under 5000 lbs with no slides). Needed separate front bedroom with Queen bed for my dad and his Chihuahua (she required most of bed). Needed bigger than 5 ft x 3 ft bathroom for me (I'm a tad over 300 lbs). Looked at many trailers and brochures on line an in person over a 2 year period.

I needed to finish paying off truck so I was a year away from purchasing. Stopped by local dealer for a pop up part and they had exactly what I was looking for on the showroom floor. Climbed in looked in bedroom at front. Walked to back opened bathroom door. Looked in at 4 ft x 5-1/2 bathroom with standard layout. Sat down on throne. There was plenty of room and it was "Yeah Buddy". Price was $13,800 new - "Cha-Ching".

[sgfrye]

3 things started our search for our TT which after 6 months purchase love and feel we made a good choice

1. budget
2. matching tv and tt for comfortable safe towing
3. floor plan. (no bunks) just wife and i , wanted at least 1 slide

after giving these 3 pieces of info to our salesman who did a good job of narrowing a ton of TT's on the lot down to only 3 look at and walk thru. he spent probably 30 minutes with us on each of the 3 going over details, then recommended my wife and i go back thru each one just the 2 of us with out him and take our time and talk over things about what we liked or didn't like. he went back inside and said to take our time and come see him if we had any other questions. we did that and both liked the layout and features of our forest river wildwood 33 footer. of all places this was at a camping world. didn't really want to go the camping world route but they are our closest dealer and thats still a 2 hour round trip drive. lucked up and got an experienced low pressure sales guy.

i know the tt's rolling off the assembly lines right now are mass produced and quality may be lacking but you ultimately get what you pay for. so far after 6 months ive only had to tighten a few screws and couple of water line fittings. maybe ours came off assembly line on a tuesday, wednesday or thursday. i always heard monday and friday were bad for cars being assembled. a travel trailer is basically a moving earthquake so things will happen. i quickly learned to to maintenance on it from the roof to the ground. at least once a month i do roof inspections and also get on a garage creeper underneath and check bolts and nuts from bumper to bumper.

airstreams are considered high end but i honestly wouldnt have one due to the no slide thing and cost.

[gmw_photos]

TheHound wrote:

proxim2020 wrote:
We made a spreadsheet of every spec we could think of for each trailer. Things like construction, options, weights, etc.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Time consuming but worth it imo.

I kept a notepad with a list of what I looked at in the truck with me during the shopping process, because I found out early on, that after looking at many of them, I was occasionally going back into one that I had already ruled out.

[LarryJM]

4 main considerations all important and in no particular order:

1. Hitch around 1K and GVW < 10K

2. Good counterspace in kitchen area

3. Good hanging closet space (i.e. not just shirt closet type found in many bedrooms)

4. Two separate seating areas with both having good sight line to TV set (i.e. not having to look sideways to see TV)

Larry

[TheHound]

proxim2020 wrote:
We made a spreadsheet of every spec we could think of for each trailer. Things like construction, options, weights, etc.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Time consuming but worth it imo.

[Community Alumni]

We first found a floorplan that we liked. We then found all of the manufacturers that make that floorplan. We made a spreadsheet of every spec we could think of for each trailer. Things like construction, options, weights, etc. Often times we would have to call up manufacturers because lots of the specs we were looking for were not included in the brochures. From there we narrowed it down and went to dealers to view the ones that were on the short list. We eventually picked the one we felt had the best construction.

[gmw_photos]

I spent almost 18 months shopping and deciding what was important. My list of requirements came down to a few things:

1. under 20'
2. under approx 4000 to 4500 pounds ready to camp
3. slideout
4. under $15K new out the door

I wanted reasonable quality, but after over a year of looking, I found that so-called better trailers were only marginally better. Mostly what they had was fancier interiors.

So I started looking at trailers with the eye towards "willing to compromise on quality, if it can be reasonably modified to be more reliable, and to suit my needs".

I also wanted this to be a one shot deal....did not want to have to trade up or down in a couple of years.

I ended up with something that works perfectly for me. I'm sitting in it happy as can be for the winter in Arizona again. I've had it six years, and have enjoyed every mile of towing it, and every night spent in it.
I've done a lot of small mods over the years to tailor it to my use. For instance, because of the basic floorplan, and a simple mod to television location, I am able to sit in a comfortable chair, and am 6' away from a 32" HD led tv set connected to dish satellite.
My dinette table top has been modded so I have a full function place to eat, with a 24" monitor hooked to a desktop computer for doing photo editing. Many other mods like this make the whole experience work well for me.

As I always say to potential new buyers: "some assembly required".

Funfinder 189FDS. 2012 model, built in april 2011, and still a work in progress as my needs evolve.

[1stgenfarmboy]

I have never owned an airstream, but there is a chance they could be a little beter quality than the other ones, having said that I don't like them so I won't own one.

I have however owne a couple of the " beter " quality ones that were no different than the Lower priced ones, I am also handy in the shop and it is a good thing because the last Lance we had took lots of shop time.

Most of them use the same appliances, so that is a wash, some have solid wood doors but with that said I have never had a problem with a cheap door, when you use them things get worn just like your recliner at home.


we have had many campers of all kinds and the floorplan is most important to us, also I guess it is how " hard " a person is on things, we are gentle when shutting doors and drawers and don't flop on the furnature so things seem to last, with kids it is hard to keep this up.



I think the only TT we have had that didn't have an problem of any kind was an 07 Jayco 28RLS we bought new, probably should have kept it even though it is a bit big for what we like to do.



just like everything in life, there are good and bad in every brand of everything, and no one thing be it a car, truck, motorcycle, boat, camper, bicycle, tires, gun, will do eveything the best.

[afidel]

We looked for about 2 years. We were doing a ton of camping and as I approached middle age I was getting tired of sleeping on cots or camping mats. A few years ago I spent 20% of my time between December and July in a tent. The final straw was when I had a retinal detachment and realized that I needed to enjoy the things I love while I could. Our requirements were needed to have bunk beds, a full length mattress and ceilings high enough that I wouldn't hit my head (I'm 6'3"), a dinette big enough to seat 4 adults, and light enough to pull with our minivan (this turned out to be undo-able but I'm glad we went light since ready to camp for 3 weeks and with 5 people we actually max out the half ton we ended up buying). Price was also a factor, I'm putting the wife through college and as soon as she's done my oldest will start. We love our little trailer, big enough for 5 for 3 weeks but not so big that it limits us in any way. We spent a total of 7 weeks and a half dozen weekends and 10,000 miles in it during the first year and we've already got plans for 4 full weeks and a few long weekends for next year, probably only do ~7,500 miles but still get good use out of it.

[TheHound]

AllenTC2 wrote:
I haven't bought yet, I'm still a long way off from it actually, but what I'm doing is reading a TON of forum posts and blogs. That and I'm trying to visualize what sort of camping I want to do and find a manufacturer that caters to that style.

To be more precise, I want to boondock a lot, so I want a good 4-season "home". A lot of reading has pointed me towards Arctic Fox and Outdoors RV (and to a degree, Lance). Outdoors RV has some nice options for rougher country, solar panels and whatnot.

So now that I've found a few manufacturers I like the look of, THEN I start looking at floorplans and what kind of vehicle I'd need to tow it.

I am in the same position. Here now to absorb the expertise and feedback regarding specific models, mods and repairs. Already have the tow vehicle and knowing we only need a couples camper, working on my shortlist.

Our plan is to boondock at our acreage and do some travelling. We will be attending our first RV show here in January and then the bigger one in March. It will be great to finally see the different layouts in person.

[GrandpaKip]

We bought a used pop up after selling our sailboat. We wanted to see if we would enjoy traveling in a camper. Having our own little house was great, especially at the beach. DW wanted hard sides though, so I bought a 6x14 vnose cargo trailer and had a lot of fun making an RV out of it. Toted that thing everywhere. The only complaint was there was no room for a dedicated dining area. It did have a galley, head, shower, and a full size bed.
So, we started thinking about the perfect camper for us. After a year or so of research, I found exactly what we were looking for- a 2007 Trail-Lite 214QB. It had an island queen, decent size bath, loads of storage, stove, large fridge and a dinette. Unfortunately, I did not know how to check for water intrusion problems, though I soon learned. After about 3 years of fixing floors, walls and the roof, we decided to give up and find another. But we loved the floor plan.
By luck, I stumbled upon what we have now, which has pretty much the same floor plan as the Trail-Lite, but with a small slide.
With the proper maintenance, this one should be our last.

[Hannibal]

Requirements are, rack and pinion slide mechanism, 80" queen bed, stand up shower, recliners and ability to reach and use everything with slides in while at a rest area for example. That lead us to our current Jayco Jay flight 28RLS.

[bobndot]

I now lease my 1500 trucks so I can be in a new truck every 3 years with no extra equipment other than a factory tow package. My previous trucks were 2500's and a 350 diesel but more expensive to lease. Lots of deals/rebate money out there on 1500's.
I wanted a TT short enough to do state parks and dirt roads off the beat n path. After towing countless trailers of many brands and types. I found a floorplan that would work for 2 people and a 70# foxhound in an aluminum sided , non slide floorplan which both save weight.
I wanted an island bed, dinette and sofa and found all these things in a 27 ft ball to bumper TT.
The bonus for me was a 90 gal freshwater tank and a large full width rear bath that's large enough to add / install a 2nd toilet, a porta-potti for boondocking without having to drag the TT to a dump station ( i camp for a month at a time off grid) .
My Jayco fit the bill and has been a very good unit with simple issues that I took care of myself. I put 7500 mi a year on it and it's been real nice.
I have owned better brands that folks here like a lot but I didn't find them to be the better option mechanically. If you don't have a good dealer that will help you, you are on your own with any brand of RV and they 'ALL' have problems.
A good dealer can resolve things to make it better in any brand. MY advice, buy the floorplan you like from a good dealer that knows what he's doing.