Trailer Selection - Suggestions requested

[Baja_Man]

Owned several RVs over past 15 years…..Class C, Class A, 5er, and TT. All have their pros / cons.

Just sold our 2009 Toyhauler. Just too heavy (13K GVWR for my 2003 Ford V10). Great truck and do not want to sell it for a diesel. We do not have toys, but liked the three queen beds and genny.

Will retire end of June and wife and I want to spend some time traveling around the Southwest with our 16yo son. (CA, NV, NM, UT, etc). There may be summers when our 21 yo son will join us….but being a recent college grad and his age, he may not go with us very often. Wife enjoys close to home camping at state parks, but does not want to travel for extended trips (3+ weeks at a time).

Fly fishing in the above areas is near top of my list of things to do. Spending time with our 16yo son, who is on the Autism spectrum, is our top priority. I want him to camp and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. He enjoys RV travels. Wife is OK with 2-3 week trips, max. This will limit our how far we travel. I may be traveling at times solo for my fishing excursions or for locations further away.

Looking for another TT. As I get older, I prefer things much simpler…..smaller, lighter, practical, etc.
Deciding on brand, floorplan (bunks or no bunks) and length are my current quandaries.

Will purchase used.

Large U dinette OR bunks, larger shower, fixed queen vs Murphy, are the options I am considering.

Would like to keep size to max 28’ overall length (smaller is preferable). At least 50 gal of freshwater and 40/40 gray and black.

Primary places we stay….State parks, RV parks, campgrounds with no hook ups, and some BLM, but not much. Will mount a genny above propane tanks.

Thoughts and recommendations for a selection or other things I should be considering?

Thanks!

[Baja_Man]

All great advice! Be ready to strike like a rattlesnake!!!

There's a used 2020 Grand Design 2400BH about 300 miles from me ($31K or offer) If I can negotiate price over phone (mid $25K), I can make an offer, based on physical inspection.

I'm also considering an ORV, but not easy to find.

There's also a new 2021 Coachmen Adrenaline 21LT toyhauler that appears to check the boxes. It has an MSRP of $44K but can be had for approx. $33K.

How are the new Coachmens?

Coachmen Adrenaline 21LT

Grand Design 2400BH


Can't decide between new and used, or brand?????

Is a 28' overall much of a difference over a 32' overall?

NOTE: After seeing prices of new and used....feeling like I should have kept my 2009 28' Toyhauler. But at 32' Overall, it was just too long. And it was getting older, roof would need recoating, appliances were already 12 years old, etc.

Newer SHOULD provide at least 10 years of mostly trouble free BIG issues (aside from the annoying small issues all trailers seem to have).

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

[Kavoom]

" If/when you see the right one, don't think about it a while, don't wait until after lunch or after work to call."

Good advice.

[Grit_dog]

You already know what the market is like. If shopping new, I have no advice. If shopping used, I just went through that. (Private party only for me)
3 things stuck out, if you want a camper and don't want to over pay even more than you're going to have to, comparatively.
1. Have your money ready and have a way to send some, if the right one comes along and it's not just up the road or you're not able to immediately jump on it.
2. If/when you see the right one, don't think about it a while, don't wait until after lunch or after work to call. If its a decent price, it will be gone.
3. Be ready to travel. Of the 100s, likely I looked at, only a couple were within what I'd call commuting distance of Seattle. The best prices rotated around a bit, but the Midwest had decidedly the best prices generally. Denver was ok, Cali had a few. Montana and Wyoming was a couple decent deals.

After missing idk, 4 or 5 "deals", either due to being late to the party or not being able to travel right away, the one I found was only 300mi away and I called 3 hours after it was listed and the seller had an offer pending. If the buyer had money or credit (apparently he didn't have enough of either), it would have been gone.
I was the 3rd serious call in the first 3 hours and got second dibs after the first guy flaked and only because I had a buddy who could go check it out that night and put a deposit on it, did we get it.

[Kavoom]

Being retired, we had similar requirements. She has her checklist and would prefer 14 slides and 40 feet and a butler... I'm right with you short light but with room to "comfortably" sleep a couple of others and a 50 gallon fresh water tank. I always had a 27 foot limit but ended up just a bit more at 27 feet 4 inches...

We ended up with an Aspen Trail 2340BHSWE at 5500 lb's dry 7700 GVW (WE is west coast edition vs the BHS for east). It checked her boxes, full queen, doors for the bedroom, sink in bath, slide for space (both our boxes) It has two FULL bunks not 28 inchers. It does NOT have a separate "sofa" but she can live with that and that ALWAYS takes you up in the 30 foot range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsBNcySeZWc (short vid)

There are other brands with similar floor plans and they run from like 28 feet to 30 feet some better built. Build quality is Meh, but all the core systems work and are good quality and I'm handy as in making space utilization better from the original design. Up until about February, you could pick a new one up for under 24K, now 28K is about average and up to 35K in some areas of the country. Check out RVTrader for pricing averages and availability of both used and new versions of whatever you are looking at. "Dutchmen" Coleman's and Aspen Trail's are extremely similar with this being the first year of them having slightly different floor plans but they are built on the same lines using same materials.

As of this year, used pricing will only save a few bucks. People are literally selling used 2 to 4 year old units for the same price they paid for them. My dealer gave me 12K for my well cared for used one and I only paid 13 three years ago. He sold it for what I paid for it. NADA said it was only worth 8K (another dealer offered that). AND used ones disappear almost instantly... NADA values right now are worthless being based upon pre-covid values.

If you can find "lightly" used, it might be worth it if only for having first year bugs worked out. For mine, They have added things like lippert electric stabilizers and hitch lift and they keep redesigning the sink area storage with older ones being superior to the most recent iteration imho.

It checks all our boxes and seems to meet many of yours. It tows great and I am pleasantly surprised with a Fastway E2 10K hitch on a Ram 1500 5.7 Hemi. Oh, I added airbags for 300 bucks they sure don't hurt.

[Blazing_Zippers]

HAAAAAAA, that man in Rescue is pretty smart. Thanks for the chuckle.

[jdc1]

Ask your wife what she wants...then go get it.

[Lwiddis]

A minimum of 50 gallons of fresh water is becoming harder to find but you can work around it with 5 gallon jerry cans and a pump. The payload of newer TTs is going down too. Check that carefully.