More time Turtling than not?

[3LittleDucks]

We love our HTT, and have no plans to change. But we find that we use our flip out bed (we only have 1) less and less. It doesn't really matter, but I did not forsee this.

Perhaps as the kids get older and want to spread out more it will get more use, doesn't hurt to have anyhow.

Has anyone else had this happen?

[3LittleDucks]

I was just curious if anyone else has experienced a similar thing. Looks like to some extent a few have, but so much depends on floorplan (and number of campers)

[SoundGuy]

3LittleDucks wrote:
Sorry I've been away, we were out camping for the long weekend!

As it turned out, a spectacular weekend! :B

Anyhow, as others have described, so the kids are never affected (the 3 of them sleep in single over double bunks), and since we never used the dinette we actually bought a full queen mattress (regular, not RV) and it fits perfectly. Hubby is 6'4" and has no issues with length.

We looked at the TT version of this trailer a few years ago, but just weren't comfortable that it would work for us long term. Our kids are all under 12, as atreis mentions it's possible that once they need more space the flip out will be more useful for us so we can spread out more.

So what's the question, as it relates to your original post? :?

[3LittleDucks]

Sorry I've been away, we were out camping for the long weekend! Anyhow, as others have described, so the kids are never affected (the 3 of them sleep in single over double bunks), and since we never used the dinette we actually bought a full queen mattress (regular, not RV) and it fits perfectly. Hubby is 6'4" and has no issues with length.

We looked at the TT version of this trailer a few years ago, but just weren't comfortable that it would work for us long term. Our kids are all under 12, as atreis mentions it's possible that once they need more space the flip out will be more useful for us so we can spread out more.

Here is a link to our floorplan, in case anyone is curious.. http://www.rvguide.com/specs/sites/rv/images/data/floorplan/2008_R-Vision_Trail-Sport_TSE21RBH.jpg

[pitch]

We have a Jayco 23b and we always turtle during parking lot stops while traveling. DW takes the couch and I the dinette. We travel with the dinette in the bed form.
Short term camping two or three night we use just the rear bed. Longer we open both and use the front for storage.

[buckeyefansrus]

We owned a hybrid for 9 years and bought our particular model (Cub 23BH) for the ability to turtle and still have "beds" for the four of us. The kids were on the bunk beds, me on the dinette and DH on the fold down couch. Main reason we purchased was for the smaller trailer but able to sleep six without using the couch or dinette routinely. We did not routinely turtle but did do this numerous times. when it got to be just he DH and I we turtled purposely sometimes. I was somewhat surprised by my wanting to do it too. We purchased a TT last fall but have no regrets of our time with our hybrid.

[atreis]

I have essentially the same trailer as the OP (TS has a few fewer features than TC, but the floorplan is the same). The dinette is quite comfortable for turtling, and plenty wide for all but the tallest of people. It's RV queen sized, same as the front bunk.

We turtle for overnight stays while traveling, and in cold weather. We've never turtled because of rain. We're five people, and fit okay turtling - but it's more comfortable opened up.

One of our kids is a teen, and the other two are getting close. (We are a small family - I'm the heaviest, at 150 lbs, and my son is the tallest, at 5'8".) I suspect you'll want the front bunk more as your kids get older.

[SoundGuy]

kknowlton wrote:
You must be small people, or have one of those big couches that turns into a bed.

The OP's C21RBH is exactly the same as the one we owned.

Large U Shaped Dinette



In Travel Mode



Dinette Converted to a Bed



One of the few hybrid models that turtles well because it has but one hybrid bed, those at the rear are permanent jack and jill bunk beds, so no one has to end up sleeping on the floor. 😉

[PAThwacker]

kknowlton wrote:
You must be small people, or have one of those big couches that turns into a bed. We tried turtling one night in our HTT, in a night-long downpour, and couldn't fit on the couch or the dinette (even individually.) They just weren't made for adults, in most cases, IMO. 🙂

Some of have cool BH hybrids. They give us rear bunks, side bunks, and one or two tend ends per floorplan.

[SoundGuy]

3LittleDucks wrote:
We love our HTT, and have no plans to change. But we find that we use our flip out bed (we only have 1) less and less. It doesn't really matter, but I did not forsee this.

Perhaps as the kids get older and want to spread out more it will get more use, doesn't hurt to have anyhow.

Has anyone else had this happen?

We're now several trailers beyond it but we too owned a 2007 C21RBH for two years and because we traveled a lot at the time we did quite a bit of turtling, which as you know is quite a bit easier to do in this particular model than most hybrids because it has only one hybrid bed at the front but permanent beds at the rear that aren't affected in any way by turtling - i.e. no one ends up sleeping on the floor because there's no place else to go. :M As you're probably aware RVision offered the exact same floorplan as both a hybrid or a conventional travel trailer ... my wife wanted the hybrid because she felt it would offer a much more "open" feeling, I wanted the travel trailer because I was so tired of dealing with tenting on our previous popups - obviously we got the hybrid. :S It worked well in that our boys had the two permanent beds at the rear of the trailer but I sure disliked that hybrid bed, especially with the 60/40 seam in the mattress that I would always slip into in the middle of the night. :M I even experimented with using a regular mattress but of course storing it for travel was difficult. Increasingly we began to turtle more and more, using the large U shaped dinette as a bed, uncomfortable as it was, and not bothering with the hybrid bed at all, so much so that I seriously considered removing the tenting entirely, in effect converting the hybrid to the travel trailer version I wanted in the first place. :S Instead however I eventually managed to convince my wife this was nonsense and it was time to move up to a real travel trailer - for us the move we should have made in the first place. Frankly, there's only 2 reasons I can see for choosing a hybrid over a travel trailer - either you absolutely LOVE sleeping under tenting and are willing to put up with all the vagaries involved with any trailer with tenting or because of parking restrictions you absolutely have to have the shortest trailer, coupler to bumper, that you can find that will accommodate a family. For us the kicker turned out to be our tow vehicle when I discovered to my chagrin that our 4.0L V6 Exploder just wasn't up to the task of towing the C21RBH and we upgraded to a 5.3L V8 Silverado ... which in turn meant we could easily tow a mid-size travel trailer that eventually turned out to be our triple bunk bed KZ Spree 240BH-LX.

[dadmomh]

Think we only turtled once or twice in the 7 years we had the ROO. Both times on the road and we didn't feel comfortable opening one of the bunkends. DH got the jack knife sofa - loved that!! I got the standard size dinette and sleeping sorta angled wasn't too bad, but wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis.

If conditions permit, I think you should open up. You're missing a huge part of the enjoyment of a hybrid.

[kknowlton]

You must be small people, or have one of those big couches that turns into a bed. We tried turtling one night in our HTT, in a night-long downpour, and couldn't fit on the couch or the dinette (even individually.) They just weren't made for adults, in most cases, IMO. 🙂

[poppin_fresh]

I can only assume that you are breaking down the dinette every night as your bed?

On our hybrid, with two tent ends, we only partially turtled once last year when it was a chilly (40F at night) weekend.

We kept the kids bunk closed and put them on the dinette and the wife and I stayed under our tent end. A small electric heater kept all of us plenty warm without having to run the furnace.

It worked, but breaking down the table every night to make a bed got old, even over just a weekend. If it doesn't bother you, I would say keep on keepin' on.

Jon