Rear Dining

[Littlechickadee]

Just a note on the advantages of rear dining in a small Travel Trailer. My husband and I just returned from a trip to Maine. Camped at Acadia's Seawall campground for a week and did a lot of hiking. My husband and I do lot of hiking and Acadia has a lot of good trails, although they have a lot of people on them compared to Colorado. We then stayed at a beautiful campground called Cobbscook further up the coast. We found a site right on the water and backed in and had lunch looking out on the water. We have a Gulfstream Vista 17rwd, It has rear dining and we get a lot of complements on it and we love it. We met some people with TTs around the size of ours, but the had front or side dining. One couple had an Escape 19, it's a very nice camper, though I couldn't believe the price, but they said that they really liked ours when they sat down at the booth and saw what great view we had, windows on 3 sides. All they could see was their truck.
I think that more manufacturers ought to go to rear dinning it just makes sense. Sometimes you need to be inside, if it's raining or it's cold or maybe you just want to sit at a table and have your breakfast or dinner in privacy. Why not also have the bet view possible. Jut my 2 cents.

[lgarcia]

We are mobility challenged, so I would rather have a large bathroom across the back that is easier to access and stand up in than having a dining area across the back and a smaller size side bathroom.

We usually are not inside looking out when we camp. We eat, read, and do things outside.

[trail-explorer]

Nash 17k

[GWolfe]

I love the rear dining in my new Coachmen 17RD, that big window is nice.

WildPlumYonder, I carry a squeegee that is on a telescoping pole to clean my back window.

[farmer_s_daught]

My daughter owns a 2015 Keystone Passport with rear dining; they love it. I bought a Forest River EVO with rear living--it has the big window at the back, but has a couch there, with a slide out for the dinette. I love the floor plan and having the large window. My previous trailer didn't have that and it was so dark!

[WildPlumYonder]

Just bought a 2017 Keystone 21FQ that has the entire back end of the trailer as a huge u-shaped dinette with an enormous rear window (that I already know I am going to have to carry a ladder to wash window from outside) and two good-sized side windows.

Originally I thought I wanted a small slide with a u-shaped dinette in it, until I thought about the last 4-5 times we'd taken the old trailer (an unloved 2011 FR Wolf Pup) out - each time, the view or the private area of the campsite was right behind the trailer and a slide on the utility side would just have me staring at someone else's RV.

Also the slide added another 500-800 lbs that we didn't need to tow. It IS nice that the slide opens up the center of the trailer, but I traded views for space. Trailer box on this is 21', it is 25'6" from the spare tire on the back bumper to the tip of the hitch receiver.

Now watch, everywhere we stay in this trailer will be looking at a wall out the back....

[pjgoeman]

My Outfoors RV Creekside 20fq has this layout with a front end walk around queen bed. Best layout out there in an overall length under 25'.

[myredracer]

Our first TT, a 20 footer, was a rear dinette and had a large picture window. It was really nice to get a great view and it also let a lot of light in as well. With the layout it had, it was a tight squeeze to slide past the kitchen counter to get onto the seating on one side tho.

Too many RVs have small windows that are too low down and you have to bend over to see out. The dark interiors they all use doesn't help either. With our current TT, we opted for a rear kitchen over something with a rear picture window because of it's large counter space but I REALLY miss the picture window.

[OBSPowerstroke]

I'm a big fan of the rear dinette as well. My first trailer had a huge U-shaped dinette that took up the whole back 1/4 of the trailer. I really liked that floor plan since it was only about 23 feet long. I have yet to find a new trailer with a similar floor plan and length; they are all either really small single axle trailers under 20 feet or huge 30+ foot ones.

[Bumpyroad]

my Ascend A17RD has the rear dinette. when we were deciding between the ascend and a similar RPod, we sat at the dinette and had rear and side windows. I asked the wife if the RPOD had a rear window and she said no. that clinched the deal.
bumpy

[korbe]

I would guess it would depend on where the views are at any particular park or campground. Our rig's layout has the biggest window and dining area on the drivers side which means we would normally be looking out at a neighbors site. I would have preferred the dinette be at least looking out towards our own outdoor living area.

BTW, when designing a park's layout, with views in mind, we attempt to give the outdoor living area the highest priority.

[SoundGuy]

I've always liked the concept of a rear dinette or rear lounge floor plan with a window on the back of the trailer but have never owned one. In thinking more about it though I can think of only the rare occasion on which there would have been a view of any kind to the rear of the trailer worth looking at, almost always it's just trees, bushes, and more trees. Same for any floor plan which features a dinette on the street side of the trailer ... almost nothing worth looking at and one of many reasons we chose in our latest trailer one that has no dinette at all but rather a sofa. In our experience if there's any view at all it's almost always from the curb side (campsite side) of the trailer. To each his / her own though. :R