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Travel trailer floor plans-rear bath vs middle-split bath

GmaTessa
Explorer
Explorer
This spring my husband and I will be switching from a slide in truck camper to a travel trailer, mainly due to difficulties crawling into the bed area as we age. Our truck camper does not have a bathroom other than a small port-a-potty. Can anyone give us some ideas of the pros/cons of having a rear bathroom, or a bathroom in the middle of the trailer? Obviously, ease of access at night is one with a middle bath. Are there others? A couple that we've wondered about in particular are odor and inconvenience of a narrower walkway from one end of the trailer to the other. Thanks!
34 REPLIES 34

Briand
Explorer
Explorer
John&Betty wrote:
Ours has a rear bath with an entry door so that bathroom is always accessible. The front entry door provides the access to everything else. We love the layout of our trailer and have lots of storage space.


what make and moodel
'97 F-350, CC, PSD
'02 NL, Ten2000 RD

BurbMan
Explorer II
Explorer II
Our Sunnybrook had a walk-through bath that separated the bunk area from the main trailer. Convenient in terms of bath access, for all, but you had to be super quiet at night to avoid waking the kids. Plus if one kid was in the bath, the other couldn't get in/out of the bunk area.

Floorplan of the Sunnybrook:



The other thing that bugged us was the lack of counter space in the cooking area. Also note there was no place to plug in phones for charging, etc, which usually mean they wound up by the sink...a disaster waiting to happen!

We bought the Terry on the premise that it would just be the two of us since the kids were away at school. One of big gripes we had about the bedroom in the Sunnybrook was lack of space to stand and get dressed in the bedroom. All of the TTs we saw with slides in the bedroom were bigger than we wanted. So we saw this floor plan with the huge wardrobe in the rear bath and figured that we could just get dressed in the bathroom. Just like at home, you come out of the shower and the walk in closet is right there. We got the optional bath shown below, not the bunks:



Also note the approx 15" of counter space between the stove and fridge. This is HUGE in terms of making the cooking area more functional.

The sofa bed folds out to a queen sleeper with an air bed, and one of things we found out quickly was that the end of the bed comes exactly up to the edge of the counter, making it impossible to walk around and effectively blocking access to the bath from the bedroom when guests are using the sofa sleeper.

We immediately swapped the sofa and table/chairs in the slide, so now the sofa opens up to the narrow part of the counter and you have about 18" or walk-by space. Still a tight squeeze but at least you can get past the bed to the bathroom if you need to. But when there's just two of us, the rear bath is nice! But, seemed like we had somebody in that bed every trip this past summer. I gues it must be comfortable LOL.

myredracer
Explorer II
Explorer II
With this particular layout, you have to move the slide out 6-12" to be able to get into the bathroom, which hasn't posed any problems for us so far.

For 2014 KZ changed to a large shower stall and am not sure why because the previous neo-angle stall was fine. The larger shower takes up a lot of valuable space and they had to get rid of the linen closet that used to be in the bathroom. The larger shower is nice though...

We really like the fridge in the slide because it gives more counter space. KZ had a short-lived early model year version for 2014 where the fridge was beside the entry door and pantry was in the slide. It cut down counter space quite a bit and the industry reaction was so negative they went back to the fridge in the slide. The large counter space is one of the things that sold us on this TT and you'll need a mid-bath to get it (unless you perhaps have a really big TT with an island counter).

teejaywhy wrote:
These are great threads as we are shopping for our first TT and it is always nice to hear about floorplan likes/dislikes because it helps discover various issues you might never consider otherwise.

myredracer wrote:



Wondering if you can access the bathroom when the slide-out is not deployed ?

Caveman_Charlie
Explorer
Explorer
I've had both and I would never go back to a TT with the bathroom in the middle. It makes the trailer hour glass shaped and uses up too much space. The rear bath design open ups the floor plan and allows you to have a more useable bathroom at the same time.

That being said I do like a shorter trailer. If you are going to purchase a real long one then the bath in the middle might work. But, as you go longer you start to get into other problems like, parking, hitching, turning, towing, and of course you must have a bigger truck to pull a bigger and heavier trailer.

Go to some RV shows walk around in some and get the feel for what you like. You can go to dealers lots and check out models too just be careful not to let the salesman talk you into anything your not ready for. Never buy a TT on the day you go to just look.
1993 Cobra Sunrise, 20 foot Travel Trailer.

stephend
Explorer
Explorer
Rear bath is good for us since we downsized from 28ft to 23ft. Also have wardrobe and drawers in the rear bath.
3 married children, 7 gr ch
Electrical engineer married to mom/homemaker
Log Home on lake to retire in 8 years
Not golfer, fisherman or hunter but Let's go camping!!
2013 Ford F150 5.0L 3.55 Axle Supercrew Cab Short Bed w/2010 Dutchmen Lite 25C-GS

Bumpyroad
Explorer
Explorer
Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:
Bathroom size versus other "room" sizes: How much time do you spend in each?


TMI
bumpy

John_Betty
Explorer
Explorer
Ours has a rear bath with an entry door so that bathroom is always accessible. The front entry door provides the access to everything else. We love the layout of our trailer and have lots of storage space.
John & Betty
2007 Dodge Ram 1500
2010 Keystone Bullet 246RBS

Heavy_Metal_Doc
Explorer
Explorer
Bathroom size versus other "room" sizes: How much time do you spend in each?

wannavolunteerF
Explorer
Explorer
my Jayco 24rks is very similar to myredracers rk TT. the main difference is the wardrobe and fridge are not part of the slide out, and the slide is not quite so deep. no problems using trailer with slide in... in fact over Thanksgiving, I used it with slide to conserve heat/propane by having less outside surface area on N side during freezing nights.

as to location of bath, I bought my TT because it had the mid-bath. I really disliked having to go past adult son on sofa to bath room in the middle of the night, when he was with me. Wasn't a problem when I was alone, but when I had someone with me, it was something I was uncomfortable with.
2015 FR Georgetown 378TS

teejaywhy
Explorer
Explorer
These are great threads as we are shopping for our first TT and it is always nice to hear about floorplan likes/dislikes because it helps discover various issues you might never consider otherwise.

myredracer wrote:



Wondering if you can access the bathroom when the slide-out is not deployed ?
The Yost Outpost
Gilbert, AZ
2007 GMC Sierra Classic 2500HD, Duramax LBZ
2019 Nash 23D

Bumpyroad
Explorer
Explorer
myredracer wrote:




I like it
bumpy

MargaretB
Explorer
Explorer
Ol' Elvis, our former RV, had a split bath between the kitchen and bedroom. We loved the split design because one person didn't tie it all up at a given time - I could shower while my husband shaved. There was a door between the bedroom and the bathroom, and another between the bathroom and the kitchen, so it could be configured however you wanted it.

Our new TT has a rear bath. We like it because the extra weight is at the rear, to balance the weight on the hitch. Of course, our TT is just 22' long, so there's not much of a trek from one end to the other.

In the end, it's your preference, depending on how big the unit is and how you want to use it. I like both arrangements.
Two retirees. Perpetual newbies. Techno- and mechanophobes.
2015 Tracer 230
2014 F-150 XLT EcoBoost

dadmomh
Explorer
Explorer
That is essentially our Rockwood 2604. We do not have the slide wardrobe, but have taken longer trips and find that we really don't need it. Also did not want the weight....we did not see that it was available when we bought Rocky, but would have chosen NO wardrobe slide anyway. If you felt you needed additional light in the bedroom, the front window has the cover that opens...don't think we've ever used it. Our emergency exit window is where the wardrobe is on the newer model and the window is on the curb side now.

The fold up countertop extension in the kitchen area was not on ours. Since our 3 drawers take up that entire area, don't know if the extension takes away a drawer or if you have to lift it to get into the top drawer. We had a ROO 23SS before and it had tons of countertop space and we wondered if the loss of some of that space would be a problem. Just took some revising on how we prep food, etc and it's good.

The bathroom was a huge factor in our choice because DH hated the standard shower in the ROO and usually went to the shower house. Rocky has the garden shower and it's wonderful. No space problems with using the commode. Plenty of space in the linen closet behind the commode.

We like the large window in the rear + 2 small windows at each end of the slide, 1 over the sofa and another larger one over the dinette, so lots of light and plenty of view.

This has worked perfectly for us. Ours came with the larger 44" dinette rather than the table and chairs and either would have been fine. A very open, roomy feeling trailer. No "boxy" feel to it.
Trailerless but still have the spirit

2013 Rockwood Ultra Lite 2604 - new family
2007 Rockwood ROO HTT - new family
2003 Ford F-150
4 doggies - We support Adopt/Rescue.
Sam, you were the best!
Cubbie, Foxy, Biscuit and Lily - all rescues!

TurnThePage
Explorer
Explorer
I like the larger rear baths but I've recently been eying those mid bathrooms that double as a hall between the bedroom and rest of RV. On the surface it seems like it could be inconvenient, but I really can't remember a time where someone was in the bathroom and someone else needed to go to/from the bedroom. I think it's a great use of space, allowing for a roomy bathroom and bedroom without usurping square feet from the rest of the RV. This could weigh heavily in determining if we go with a mid-sized trailer instead of fiver. This floorplan appears to be very roomy in a not too long trailer.
Flagstaff Ultralite
2015 Ram 1500
2022 Grand Design Imagine XLS 22RBE