Smaller bunk house trailer recommendations

[Tahoesurfkid]

My wife and I are looking to enter the travel trailer world.

We've been attracted to the 15-19 foot bunk house as we will be towing with a 4.6L Tundra with two young boys to stow in the bunks (not while driving;) )

I've seen floor plans for lots of manufactures:

Jayco
Forest River all the 18-19bh
Coleman 15bh
Coachman Clipper

The Coachman 17BH is a favorite due to its layout (small dinette, double bed, bunks x2, tub for said boys).

Any recommendations would be great. Mostly campsite camping in California mountains and coast. I'm trying to stay below 15K new and 10K used and I also worry about quality v. weight.

Cheers

[colliehauler]

Not a 22 to 24 foot but you might want to check out Wildwood 26bhss. With the large deep slide it gives you a lot of room for a rainy day. The Salem 26bhss is the same trailer. It might be larger then you want.

[jeepdave]

I have a kz spree escape 19 footer. Slide out two bunks. 2800 dry.

[Uplander]

Glad to hear you got a new 5.7 liter V8 Toyota tow vehicle. That truck will handle either 7,500 lbs or 10,000 pounds depending on year and model. This is a great place to get information....something's more than you want....Having been "around this block" a few times starting back in 1985 and having been there and done that with two children I must say you may have started with too small a unit.
We started with a 16 ft. Travel Trailer and quickly moved up to a 24 footer.
The 16 was too small...the 24 did work. It was a bunk house that had plenty of storage, full bath and kitchen. It was a light weight and towed well with a 6 cylinder automatic with trans cooler plus weight distribution hitch with sway control.
First thing you must do is confirm your towing capacity and never exceed it. You have a great truck. I owned one a few years back. Mine had a V8. I currently tow a light weight (3370 lbs dry weight)
R-Vision Trail-Lite 26 ft TT. I found it used in mint condition. My current tow vehicle is a Toyota FJ LandCruiser with a 4 liter VVTI V6 engine and 5 speed automatic trans with trans cooler installed after market by a qualified transmission shop.
I include all this info so you can begin the process of towing using all the right equipment.
Now some simple advise: First explore the used market...only consider units that are in excellent condition. Try to buy from the original owner...hopefully someone who is trading up after using the TT for one or two years and needs a bigger one or has decided the RV life isn't for him! This will save you lots of cash and you can ask a lot of questions of the original owner and not an RV salesman.
RV salesmen, like auto salesmen often will say whatever you want to hear....you can tell if they are lying (their lips are moving!).
Double check the weight of the unit ( stay 10% under your max towing capacity).
Tires....check mfg date codes.
Try to picture your family living in the Trailer on a rainy day...any trailer will work on a sunny day!
Look at a lot of different trailers and ask a lot of questions.
Then go camping. Try both full service RV campgrounds, Resort campgrounds and my favorite...
Rustic Natural Lakefront State Park campgrounds (they have the largest site often with privacy.
If you enjoy rustic camping next thing might be a small inverter-class generator for the boondocks!
Buy a canoe or a few Kayaks...ENJOY!

Happy Camping.

[1911papa]

Just my 2 cents along with everyone elses. We have an Ameri-lite 16bhc. We bought it used and enjoy it. Some things to watch out for while you shop.
1) Inside head room. Many are 6' and my head would rub the ceiling.
2) tank sizes. Many of the smaller tailers have 9 gal gry/ black tanks.
3) You want 6' long bunks that hold 250lbs. (kids grow fast)
4) Roof a/c unit.
The only thing I wish our camper had was a sink in the bathroom.
Small campers are nice, there are many campsites out there that are great but you are not going to get a big camper in.
Have fun with your shopping.

[marquette]

My wife and I are going down the same road as you are starting first looking at 18 ft lite campers and slowly moving up to 21-23 ft models because of layout and price. Our revelation on trailer length came at a dealer that showed us a nice 21 ft Areolite trailer. He also had a 22 ft Dutchman 5th wheel that he showed us next. Night and day difference in size and amenities inside. So not quite believing him about the 5th being only 22 ft I said that it looked much bigger than 1 ft larger than the trailer. He then explained that the trailer was measured bumper to hitch and probably had about 18 ft of trailer space and that the 5th was measured bumper to hitch pin but since the hitch pin is mounted right at the very front of the trailer a 22 ft 5th wheel is about the same as a 24 ft trailer. There are tons of other differences but after seeing the inside difference we have been looking at 22-24 ft trailers. We have a campground at the gun club I belong to and last weekend a friend and I measured several campers for box length and tongue length and wrote down the model numbers. When I got home I looked up the camper by model and checked the listed length. Every one of them was bumper to hitch for published length. Average hitch to front of trailer was 40 inches so published lengths were 3-4 ft longer than actual usable trailer length.

[stpauligirlmn]

Thanks for the update, let us know what tt you get.

[Tahoesurfkid]

Well,
A little update. I just picked up a 2012 Toyota Tundra 5.7L one owner for a really good deal. So my weight requirement has changed but my bunk house needs keep eating and getting bigger. It seems that used prices relax a bit without the need for and ultralight camper. I'd like to keep to 22' or 24' overall anyway.

Thanks everyone.

[brookside]

tatest: Regarding Lance, the length is the floor length (box) and not hitch to bumper: http://www.lancecamper.com/travel-trailers/ so it appears they are doing the same as the others. It used to be that a 21BH was a 21 foot from bumper to hitch but now that same 21BH is usually 24' and I have seen them as long as almost 26'. The fact that they changed this after many years of using the same system just seems to be deceiving. We shopped just before the change and then after the change. I could not figure out how the manufacturers were getting the extra space.

The molded fiberglass trailers like Scamp, Casita, Escape, Trillium, Lil' Snoozy, Parkliner all use the bumper to hitch length.

[zinger60]

We just purchased a 2011 Micro Lite 23LB which was only used 2 times and we got a great deal at $9000. It has a big double sink, big refrigerator, tub with shower, queen size bed and 2 bunks with windows, along with a dinette. It is just my husband and I but we are planning on taking the grandkids camping sometimes. We looked at many of the smaller TT with bunks and did not like the fact that most of them had a tiny sink like a popup camper and a smaller refrigerator. Most of them also had a small household-type A/C, very little storage, and the main bed that had to be converted from the dinette. I believe the weight on ours is 3700 pounds. Before you make the decision on which TT to buy, just make sure you look at all the small details that might really matter in the long run. This is our first camper after having a pop-up for 6 years and we really thought about what things we could do without in a TT and what things would really matter.

[TxTwoSome]

You might want to checkout the StarCraft line of AR-1 trailers seem to have a few good layouts and decent price.

[Tahoesurfkid]

Thank you everyone. I will look closely at the different models listed by all. I'm most limited by my tow vehicle. I live in the mountains and without a stronger engine or a diesel towing is labored. The second limitation is the budget. I have seen some of the higher end campers out there and while wonderful they have a bigger flat screen television then our house does. Not Camping… The trailer will provide a nice place to sleep, dress and eat so we can do the things we love (surf, bike, run marathons...). I do however worry about quality I'd rather spend a bit more and have a solidly built item then chase repairs.

We have considered a camper top too. Small is not as much of a problem as we have camped successfully in a tent with babies. If we like this endeavor then a truck upgrade will be the next option. Then a larger camper upgrade will be possible.

For what its worth I don't like the hybrids or pop ups due to the soggy feeling of sleeping in one in
Coastal California. I felt more comfortable in a four season tent.

I've been looking everywhere for used Amerlite's and Lances. I'll post what I finally get.

The advise here has been invaluable.

[marquette]

My wife and I looked at several of the models already mentioned at the camper show in Minneapolis. One thing we noticed was that the number of windows and size of windows varied considerably among the different brands with the same floor plan. Crawling underneath (not something all salesman appreciate I found out) the frame size varied also on equivalent brands. We thought the Wolf Pup seemed the best of the bunch. At the "show prices" $9999 was the going rate for most brands with the Wolf Pup at $10,999. The Lance we looked at was about 20 ft and was hands down above the rest but around $21,000.

[Doug33]

Some of the shorter models have interesting floor plans that do the best to get the most in a smaller space. As many have already said, it is what you want and can tolerate in terms of "closeness".

We have gone the opposite direction over the years. We started with PUs when the kids were little, then graduated to a 24' TT w/o slide when they were teenagers, then to a 28' w/ slide when they were college age. Despite the fact they only come with us occasionally, we like to have the capacity for essentially 4 adults at this point, without stepping all over each other. The extra wide bunks in our 28' provide enough privacy and storage space for my daughters when they do come with us. When it's just me and DW, the TT is very spacious.

I would have loved to have this TT when the kids were younger, but I was financially and tow vehicle restricted at the time.

Ironically we have lived in the same (relatively) small house since the kids were born, and never upgraded to a larger house. So maybe our TT is compensating for that. 😉

[Rangerman40]

Check out a Jayco 23mbh. It's only 4ft longer than the coachmen 17bh but will offer so much more room with the slide out.

[jonmad]

We had a Coachmen Clipper 17 FQ. Nice camper but like someone said earlier we up graded to a bigger unit. Now I'm stuck with $700.00 worth of hitch and prodigy 2 brake controller that I have on Craig's list for half price because I had to get a bigger tow vehicle that already had a brake controller and the WDH is only rated for 4000 pounds. The Clipper was nice but four people in there on a rainy day might be a little tight. Good luck with your decision.