After many years in a tent, the wife and I are looking to upgrade to hybrid. Have been looking at Kodiak Express 172E, Jayco 16XRB, and Starcraft Launch 16RB.We'd love to get any feedback on these (or other Hybrids we should be looking at).

You are stepping a natural progression in your camping style that many of us have been through, going from tent to Pop-up / or / hybrid, to travel trailer / or / fifth wheel, to motor home.For many of us, it was initially hard leaving the "tent" feeling, so a pop-up or hybrid was a good alternative. They both afford the luxury of having a solid bed, getting off the ground, and still be surrounded by a "tent".However ... depending upon where you live, how you camp, and WHEN you like to camp, pop-up's and hybrids may NOT be all that good. Pop-up's and Hybrids still have tenting (soft) material that can (and is) a real pain to work with ... The biggest "pain" is having to close up the camper when the ends are wet. They can be wet from rain, or wet from dew. It doesn't matter, water is still water. And closing up a camper that has water is a "mold" just waiting to happen. So, that often means waiting for the sun to get up and hot enough to dry everything off before packing up, or having the ability to open the camper up once home so it can dry out. I think those who are most happy with both Pop-up's and Hybrids are those who can open them up at home and leave them open. If you cannot do this at home, because of where you live (like in a home-owners-association), or in a city zoned No RV's! Then you absolutely do not want a hybrid! You are destined to get caught in the rain sometime.Another thing to consider about hybrids. If you plan on early Spring, late Fall, or even winter camp, you're going to find those tent ends VERY cold, and you'll be burning through a lot of propane and / or electricity for space heaters to just keep warm. You will loose a lot of heat (and air conditioning) through those soft sides. On the other hand ... there are those who seem to really enjoy their hybrids. The biggest factor is they can have a shorter box to tow, and when opened up, creates more space. However, if you need to just park for an over night, while traveling, you'll have to unhook the tow vehicle, move it, then lower the tent ends. But then, you may never stop for just an over night. Still.... something to consider? You don't know how your camping style will change a year from now once you've started experiencing it.I may sound like doom-and-gloom, but coming from experience, may I suggest you skip right over the hybrid and go directly to a conventional travel trailer, for all the reasons I stated above. Your life will be much more simple!

Dutchman speaks with much camping wisdom.

You don't have to unhook if you choose not to. You can always "turtle" and then leave the next morning without disconnecting. Also, you can buy pop-up gizmo's to reduce both temperatures and light. As far as weather one or two electric heaters will keep the rig nice and warm. We have camped in all weather, including snow, but be prepared to keep snow limited on the tent ends. As far as brands, everyone has the picks. The best thing to do is find one that will fit your needs, both now and a few years ahead. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

We've owned 3 Jayco trailers we purchased new. A '93 1208 pop-up, an '03 Kiwi 17a hybrid, and our current X20E hybrid. All have been solid trailers. No major issues. The only issues were little things like misaligned door locks, a strip or door molding not glued down all the way, loose screws on the microwave bracket, stuff like that. What's going to be most important for you is floor plan and your dealer. As said above a hybrid is not for everyone, but also speaking from experience, having owned 2 hybrids over the past 13 years and still own, we can't say we're ready to be cooped up in a box just yet. We've been sleeping under some sort of tenting since 1985. We're in our middle 50s. You can't compare pop-ups to hybrids. Different animals, it's an apples to oranges comparison. We had a pop-up for 10 years before buying our first hybrid in '03. Night and day difference. We don't miss the work and hassle of a pop-up at all. Closing up wet is big problem with pop-ups, in fact we got mold in ours even after I was pretty sure it was dried out. Never completely got rid of the stains. Speaking of packing wet, our hybrids and others brands I've seen are vinyl covered canvas. They don't/can't get soaked. If they are wet when packing, they get dried with a towel. If it's raining, they get opened at home and toweled off. Not once have we gotten mold or mildew. If you live in HOA or in a no-RV zoned city, you've got far more issues than just drying the ends off. I'm honestly not sure we would have ever bought any trailer if I would have had to store somewhere else. The cost alone would have made me question it. Heating/cooling has never been an issue. Even in 28 degree weather, or in 100 degree heat in the NV desert. My wife now likes a heating blanket to supplement the heat, but it's due to a medical condition. Some folks use PUGs to cover the bunk ends but I personally think that would be little gain for a lot of extra work. Those that use them love them. We've done many over nighters without disconnecting. If our daughter was traveling with us I simply dropped the back bed and we slept on the dinette. Otherwise we didn't open anything and slept on the dinette.

Whether or not you can open your hybrid while hitched has to do with the length of the bed when open and the length of your hitch. We have a Jayco 17Z. We have a weight distribution hitch which lengthened the truck portion of the hitch by about a foot and we can open the front bunk while hitched. We even have just barely enough room to open the tail gate on the truck with the bunk open. Having said that, I understand that just adding a hitch extension is mondo dangerous so you don't want to do that.When we're overnighting in a rest area or truck stop we stay hitched and open only the front bunk. When overnighting in campgrounds we stay hitched but open both bunks. When overnighting by myself I often just sleep on the couch, but I'm short and fit on the junior bed.

Newbie -- Considering Hybrid Purchase | Good Sam Community

S1njin
Explorer
Jul 13, 2017
Sharopete wrote:

I sold my hybrid and purchased a large 5th wheel. It is a wonderful trailer, but it is not camping and is really best for two people. It is a luxury home on wheels, 40', 4 slides and requires a correspondingly large tow vehicle. I want to make camping memories with my grandkids and if I mange to sell the fiver, I will probably return to a hybrid. Quite likely another Jayco 23B. All the essentials, but still sleeping under canvas, at least preserving the illusion of camping. :-)

My DW and I are in the same boat. We just sold our motorhome (for a myriad of reasons) and are considering a Hybrid again to get back to 'camping'. Or really 'glamping'. Our kids spent far more time outside enjoying the environment when we had a pop-up and a hybrid - in the motorhome they sat inside it most of the time. Really my motorhome was a rolling apartment. Also for all the big RV resorts we like, we have found they have nice cabins (really destination trailers) fully decked out that have none of the aggravation that comes w/ owning/paying for/maintaining something that big. This year our OC, MD trip will be in one of those cabins; the 3 years prior we had the motorhome down there.

So we're leaning towards a hybrid next year - and we'll use the cabins (OC, MD - Disney) for the big keystone type trips. We'll 'camp' for all our other outings.

At least that's the prevailing wisdom in the house at this particular moment. It could have already changed by now - I'll see when I get home !
Juniorc
Explorer
May 07, 2017
Spent the New Years week in my hybrid. Ran a 12" 1500 watt electric heater. Kept the camper around 60 degrees on a 28 degree night. When using a furnace, it won't stay off 5 minutes in the winter, so we found that constant heat from a small heater was the way to go. We just cut the furnace on in the morning to heat up to 70 so we could shower. The bed areas are 10 degrees colder than the shell, but makes for great sleeping. Just use a good sleeping bag and winter camping is great being under the canvas.
cmcdar
Explorer
Jan 07, 2017
llowllms wrote:
You don't have to unhook if you choose not to. You can always "turtle" and then leave the next morning without disconnecting. Also, you can buy pop-up gizmo's to reduce both temperatures and light. As far as weather one or two electric heaters will keep the rig nice and warm. We have camped in all weather, including snow, but be prepared to keep snow limited on the tent ends. As far as brands, everyone has the picks. The best thing to do is find one that will fit your needs, both now and a few years ahead. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^

I am in my hybrid camper RIGHT NOW and it is 34 degrees outside.

One of those oil filled electric heaters is keeping my wife, 2 cats, 1 dog, and myself warm.

Nice thing it is easy to tow and expands when we need it to. I have towed it from Maine to Florida (Florida twice).

When traveling these long miles, we overnight at Walmarts or Cabelas. No need to un hook. The couch opens to a bed as does the dinette. There is no slide in the way of ANYTHING in the camper. We use the stove, fridge, bathroom, everything. On the trip to Maine I even had my MIL on board and we all got a good nights rest in a Walmart and never had to unhook.

I was too cheap to buy a Gizmo so I use one of those, heavy duty, brown one side silver the other tarps. They keep my tent ends dry and clean and I can even close up the bunk in the rain without having to get it wet.

Nice thing about the tarps is that they overhang the windows so I can open the screens and get some ventilation even when it is raining out.

For cold weather I use reflectix ziped into the windows of the tent ends and a reflectix blanket under the tarp. The reflectix is amazing for helping to hold in the heat and at the same time eliminate any condensation on the inside of the vinyl.

Anyway, it may sound like a lot of work but it is not. This way, we get a whole lot of camper with out the weight or the added length.
magnusfide
Explorer II
Jan 06, 2017
ricks99 wrote:
Just to circle back around... we've now done two trips in our HTT and love it. Having two queen beds without sacrificing floor space is something you just can't get from a hard-sided TT.

We love the "openness" of the tent sides. The issues of noise or wheather are nothing new to us (having been in a tent for years). Packing up wet isn't a big deal for us (we've done it in our tent many times) -- we just open up when we get home.

Glad you're enjoying it! Welcome to the wonderful world of RVing.:C
ricks99
Explorer
Jan 06, 2017
Just to circle back around... we've now done two trips in our HTT and love it. Having two queen beds without sacrificing floor space is something you just can't get from a hard-sided TT.

We love the "openness" of the tent sides. The issues of noise or wheather are nothing new to us (having been in a tent for years). Packing up wet isn't a big deal for us (we've done it in our tent many times) -- we just open up when we get home.
bid_time
Nomad II
Jan 05, 2017
We owned a hybrid for 12 years. It was the right choice for us at that stage in our lives. My son went to more places in that hybrid in those 12 years than I could ever had thought possible. We wouldn't had done that in a tent, and a TT and the capable vehicle to pull it wasn't a possibility at that time in our life. Life is about serious choices, my choices may not work for you; but that doesn't mean they are not right for me.
drenjoey
Explorer
Jan 03, 2017
RinconVTR wrote:
I'd skip the Hybrid entirely and get into a hard sided 19-23 footer.

Simple question:
Did you ever own an hybrid, and did you have negative experience with it?
We're on our third one, and with grandkids that want to come camping with us, this is the way to go !
jodiwer
Explorer
Jan 01, 2017
DH and I are in our late 60's and over the years have gone the full route from tent to VW camper van to pop-up to Kiwi hybrid to luxury Alfa 5th wheel. A couple years ago we sold the 5th wheel and went back to a hybrid - an Aero Cub - for all the pros mentioned and so we can go more places. We love our hybrid Cub. It has a dinette and a sofa in the slide out so it makes turtling on the road easy. And when we have the two queen beds down we can (and have) easily fit 6 adults. It has more kitchen counter space than our Alfa did. We have been much more mobile and as boondockers, can get into many more places. We travel in the Cub all year round and often camp in the snow near ski resorts, with an electric blanket in one of the queen beds and a space heater. It's the only time we hook up and we've always been comfortable even at 0 degrees. Just my 2 cents on the pros of hybrids.
mileshuff
Explorer
Dec 28, 2016
RinconVTR wrote:
I'd skip the Hybrid entirely and get into a hard sided 19-23 footer.

Went the typical route as our needs and pocketbook changed over the years.

Small 1000 lb pop up towed with a Suzuki Samurai!!
Larger 2000 lb pop up with shower, towed with a Nissan mini truck.
5000 lb Hybrid towed with a Durango.
Now have a 10,500 lb fiver towed with a diesel truck.

We had a hybrid for 10 years and loved it. No way would a TT do what our Hybrid did in the same weight range. Two queen beds and a sleeper sofa along with all the typical TT amenities is tough to find in a hard sided. Ours was 3450 dry, 5000 GVWR. We could easily sleep 5 adults plus 1 child and a dog! In a hard sided the bed(s) take up much of the available interior space. Not so with a hybrid.
RinconVTR
Explorer
Dec 28, 2016
I'd skip the Hybrid entirely and get into a hard sided 19-23 footer.