Newbie need help with purchase decision

bid_time wrote:
I will refute some of those claims based upon my experience with a Hybrid and a TT.
1. The mattress in my hybrid was thicker then the one I currently have in my TT. Neither one is a problem.

My TT is still in winter storage so I can't measure the mattress but I'd estimate it's ~ 8" thick, on top of which I have a 3" thick gel memory foam topper that remains permanently on the bed ... can't do that in any hybrid. In fact, I remember once dragging a real mattress into the trailer and getting it up on to that front bed platform ... that sure solved the comfort problem but there was no way it could stay there for travel and there was likewise nowhere else in the trailer where it could be stored ... so we just suffered with the crappy stock mattress with the 60/40 fold in it until we finally go wise and traded for a travel trailer with a queen bed and real mattress.

2. The mattress in my hybrid did not fold, it came in two sections.

Even worse. :E

3. The fold out beds in my hybrid did not leak (at least not in the 12 years I had it. Neither did the canvass.

You're lucky as many do. By the second spring our hybrid had a definite musty smell and the inside surface of the tiny storage compartment that was formed by the front wall was wet to the touch. To solve this I would have had to rip out the entire front of the trailer from the inside but I never found out if it was condensation or leakage as we traded it in on a travel trailer that in 6 subsequent years never showed any signs of leakage at all.

4. We did not constantly move stuff around. Once it was set up on-site it was good to go. Just the same as my TT currently is.

Key words - "Once it was set up on-site" ... to get to that point it's hard to avoid moving A to B to C, especially bedding that's too bulky to live on the beds in the travel mode. We were lucky in that our Trailcruiser had but one hybrid bed at the front but two permanent bunk beds at the rear ... that's where we stored bedding for the front bed during travel but that meant making up the bed every time we stopped for the night.

I liked the fact that I had the space of a 30' in the weight and shape of a 25' package. But in the end when I got a new one I got a TT for several reasons like not wanting to sleep in a tent end anymore.

Which is exactly what happens to so many well intentioned hybrid owners ... so if that's the case many would be better served by simply skipping the hybrid in the first place and just go where they're most likely going to end up anyway - a travel trailer. ;)

BTW, the OP said - "I am an expert off road enduro motorcycle racer and travel the regional championship circuit ..." - which suggests to me he may at times be interested in remaining hitched to the tow vehicle for short overnight stays, just as those of us who long distance travel often do. Depending on the relationship between the trailer and tow vehicle that can be impossible with a hybrid due to lack of clearance when the front hybrid bed is deployed ... but it's a non-issue with a travel trailer.

The devil is in the details. ;)