I wish some manufacturer made the trailer I was looking for. I have 4 children, and I use a SUV to carry the family. And from all the threads I constantly see here, and on other sites, I'm not the only one looking. Right now I use a popup to fit everyone and still be able to carry all the gear we need. And for the type of camping we do, it is annoying to have to setup and tear down every day as we travel to our destination. Then when we are at our destination, we have to do a smaller setup and tear down everyday to convert tables and couches to beds to fit everyone.Someone should be able to design a trailer that will give me 3 or 4 individual beds for the kids and a larger bed for my wife and I while still letting us have our gear for less than 550 lbs of tongue weight.My vehicle is a pretty typical SUV that has a 550lb tongue weight and a towing capacity of 7700. Once I put all the gear in a trailer, I can pull the weight, but everything that has a floor plan we can use has a tongue weight that requires a 2500 or 3500 truck to pull it, before the gear is even in the trailer.Why can't someone make something for larger families that fits the smaller vehicles that most people drive nowadays.I know there are Hybrid trailers. If I wanted to deal with tenting issues, I would stay with the popup. We want to be able to have a nice base camp for destination camping and be able to stop at places on the way there to make lunch/use the bathroom/ and sleep in the camper without deploying everything (stealth road camping).Airstream used to build something like this, but they have gone $$$ high end, and super heavy. I can find much older trailers that might work, if I could actually find one for sale...Anyone have any ideas?

Ugh, never mind. Miscounted bunks...

Almost all of them have a dinette and couch that turns into beds. And then a regular bed in the bedroom. That would put 2 kids in each and the 2 adults in the bedroom. What's wrong with that set up for you?

Sounds as though you have done the research, found nothing, & that in itself answers the question.

My sister had a similar issue with her four kids. She swapped out her vehicle for a full size 3/4 ton van. Lots of room for kids, stuff, bikes, and gives them ability to tow a heavier trailer.

rockhillmanor wrote:Almost all of them have a dinette and couch that turns into beds. And then a regular bed in the bedroom. That would put 2 kids in each and the 2 adults in the bedroom. What's wrong with that set up for you?I have to tear down and set up every day... Also, as kids get older, they generally don't want to share beds...

Rant - looking for a travel trailer | Good Sam Community

DakotaDad
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
Ugh, never mind. Miscounted bunks...
rockhillmanor
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
Almost all of them have a dinette and couch that turns into beds. And then a regular bed in the bedroom. That would put 2 kids in each and the 2 adults in the bedroom. What's wrong with that set up for you?
Dakota98
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
Sounds as though you have done the research, found nothing, & that in itself answers the question.
mbutts
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
My sister had a similar issue with her four kids. She swapped out her vehicle for a full size 3/4 ton van. Lots of room for kids, stuff, bikes, and gives them ability to tow a heavier trailer.
johnsoax
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
rockhillmanor wrote:
Almost all of them have a dinette and couch that turns into beds. And then a regular bed in the bedroom. That would put 2 kids in each and the 2 adults in the bedroom. What's wrong with that set up for you?

I have to tear down and set up every day... Also, as kids get older, they generally don't want to share beds...
johnsoax
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
Dakota98 wrote:
Sounds as though you have done the research, found nothing, & that in itself answers the question.

Pretty much...

It is really disappointing to find a new RV manufacturer, find a floor plan that looks like it would work great, and then see the tongue weight is 790lbs....
johnsoax
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
mbutts wrote:
My sister had a similar issue with her four kids. She swapped out her vehicle for a full size 3/4 ton van. Lots of room for kids, stuff, bikes, and gives them ability to tow a heavier trailer.

And then I am stuck with a vehicle that gets really lousy gas mileage and is too big 75% of the year.
_tpc_
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
I think the issue is less with the trailers and more with the truck. The fact you have a family of 4, plus 2 adults mean your "typical suv"'s payload is going to be eaten up quickly. Not to mention the issues with wheelbase and what is likely a longer travel trailer that you might be looking at.

Maybe look into some of the keystone brand passport ultralight units? They make some that have single bunks and fold down dinettes and/or sofas that can become a bed, or double wide bunks as well. Your looking at 540-625 on the hitch dry and max 7200 loaded total weight.

Again the issue is pulling a 30 foot trailer with such a short wheelbase truck. And those numbers are just the spec numbers, you have to add propane, battery, etc etc. So even if with a WDH and even if you could make the numbers work with your truck, I think your going to be severely under powered and have a not so great towing experience because of the short wheelbase.

Long story short, shorter, smaller TT than you want, and likely still fam in a second car, or much larger truck and the TT you want.

Its hard to get something for larger familys that is light enough in weight to fit a smaller vehicle. But I would check into the passport models, maybe there is something that is doable.
2012Coleman
Explorer II
Jun 16, 2015
Have you seen TrailManor ? These hard sided pop-ups can be towed by a variety of vechiles - I'm guessing yours as well after looking at the site.

Not going to help you "stealth camp" but if you are having to resort to that, then maybe not a good idea. Not making any judgements.

Good luck in your search.
Campfire_Time
Explorer
Jun 16, 2015
What Airstream are you talking about? All the one's I've seen, old and new are small and cramped feeling inside with small beds.

What you're looking for is a 10 pound item stuffed into a 5 pound box. It doesn't exist. More over every trailer you could buy will force you into some compromise one way or another. Except for the one you design and build yourself.

We owned a pop-up for 10 years, we've had 2 different hybrids over the past 13 seasons, the first we owned for 10 years. I can tell you that there is no comparison between the difficulty of dealing with pop-up canvas vs. hybrid bunk ends. Night and day difference. The hybrids are far easier and faster to setup. But with 4 kids it would still be difficult to catch some Zs in a wayside without opening a bed.