Travel Trailer For Family w/ 4 small kids

You can get better responses if you provide the towing specs for your Suburban.
You have to know what weight you can realistically tow with your Suburban loaded with 4 kids and you in addition to DH. Remember that tow ratings are only for vehicle with driver and no cargo.

Getting sleeping space for 4 kids and two adults suggests to my that you may want to consider a hybrid IF you can easily open it up at home and get it dryed out if you have to pack up when it is wet. With a hybrid, you can have a feeling of more space in a shorter and lighter trailer, but have a few more ammenities than a pop up trailer (full bath, bigger galley, etc. I'm thinking of something like this: Jayco Ultra Lite X23F

In a trailer (no bunkends), you would want a bunkhouse with four bunks and then a bed for you and DH. Finding that may hinge on towing capacity....but I'd start looking at trailers that have a dry weight of 4-5K and see if there are trailers in that weight range that would work. I think your options will be few, if any if you want to keep the trailer at 26' or less and the weight at 7,500 lbs. or less and if you need something lighter than that, it would be even more difficult. If you can tow 7,500 lbs., this may work: Salem bunkhouse model BUT...I don't know about a Suburban towing a 32' trailer.

But to really approach this without wasting a bunch of time....do your homework on the towing specs, and if you want to avoid having towing problems, keep your towing weight 75-80% of the maximum capacity and you will avoid the typical mistake of buying a trailer that ends up being too heavy and puts you in the position of having to upgrade the tow vehicle. That can be a real problem if you have to stick to a budget and want to have money to enjoy the new trailer!

I feel like our trailer fits the narrow market that scbwr describes. We are a family of four that didn't want to go over 25' and still sleep 4 not counting the dinette. Our trailer does it with a dry weight of 5300lbs. There was a Keystone model of the same floorplan that was about 500 pounds lighter.

It doesn't have 4 separate bunks, instead, 2 full size bunks.

I think a hybrid may be a wiser choice though, considering your tow vehicle. You could probably sleep the same for 1000lbs less weight.

Your Suburban is going to run out of payload pretty quick with 6 people and a tongue weight greater than 600 pounds. Especially as the kids grow.

I have a 23b hybrid with a slide. The actual trailer is 20' and both ends pop out. It's me, 2 teens and 2 granddaughters. My son gets the back bunk. My teen daughter gets the front, my 7 yr grandaughter either sleeps with daughter or gets the couch, the 2 yr grandaughter takes the dinette with me, when my oldest daughter wants to join, we still have enough room for her. We're not crowded while sleeping or on chilly, rainy days.
I tow with a 02 Yukon 1500 4x4. Haven't had an issues but we stay in MI.

I would suggest 1st deciding how much you plan in using your new camper. If you are planning to park it and use weekly (as we do) it will be very inconvenient to rely on breaking a booth down for sleeping. But if you are only planning to use it 3-4 weeks a year, it won't be such a pain.

Are you sure you want to buy a TT for your family? How many times will you be going out in a season. (of course, in CA there is a 12 month season) Would you consider renting a couple of times to be sure you like the idea of camping? What about renting cabins at a campground? A TT that sits around for 50 weeks out of the year is a big financial drain.

Suburbans have tow ratings from 5000 pounds to 12000 pounds. There are people comfortably towing 38' overall length TTs with some of them, but certainly not all Suburbans can comfortably tow all 30' TTs. For larger families, the practical RV towing limit can be much lower than the vehicle ratings. So you need to find out all your ratings in order to know what your limit is for RVing. Year, model, engine, axle ratio, and payload are the primary, along with if it has the HD trailing package with extra transmission cooling. Once you narrow down a practical weight range, you can find RV types that meet your needs.

3-4 bunk trailers makes lots of families happy. We love ours.

Since we spend most all of our RV time at campgrounds, our kids couldn't wait to be old enough to be in their own tents. No need for bunks.

Agree on several things....you need to get your specs for YOUR Suburban. If you can't locate them actually ON the vehicle, take the VIN# to your dealer and they can get all the info. Then you'll know what is safe and doable.

Also agree that if you haven't looked at a hybrid, at least check them out. For whatever reason, they're not #1 in popularity in CA - therefore likely pricier but that can be remedied. You have perfect weather to enjoy the openness of a hybrid. With 4 kiddos, would highly recommend a 3 bunk so you don't have to make up a sofa or dinette nightly....gets old in a hurry. Hybrids are lighter weight, but when you open it up you gain tons of space. Don't confuse a hybrid with a pop-up...very different. We had a ROO 23SS - 2 bunkends - and loved every minute of it. Rockwood makes the ROO and the Shamrock, same trailer, different decals and maybe fabrics. The 183 or 233 are both very nice and you can check those out online. In our case, our 23SS had a 20'4" box, but when the 2 queensize beds were opened up we were just about 30'. If you like what you see, strongly suggest you look at RVWholesalers. They usually can beat any prices and are very reputable. Granted, they're in OH, but you might turn the pick-up into a vacation. Do not recommend delivery due to costs and no pre-delivery inspection (PDI). Going with a standard hardside travel trailer is definitely going to be more weight and likely more $. Good luck and happy shopping.

Depending on your tow ratings, maybe the Jayco X254 would work. Note that the pic at the top of the page is not the X254. The X254 has 4 bunks up front and a king jard slide at the rear so towing length is less. GVWR is 5995#.

Is your Suburban a 1500 or a 2500?

Lots of good suggestions here but not sure why someone on an RV camping site is suggesting you rent a cabin instead of buying a trailer. Camping is one of the best things we did as a family and the memories are great. There is something to be said about staying in your own trailer and not something that everyone else has used.

Most full bunkhouse are long and can be heavy although ours is only 8,000 max loaded. It is 35 feet long and was pulled by a 150 for awhile. Tongue weight and payload will be what limits you.