What Travel Traler to buy?

[BeauHymel]

Hope to be new to camping. Me and the wife are looking for our first travel trailer. I would have never thought it would be so tough.

We are looking for a bunkhouse less than 9000#GVWR
We have it narrowed down to about 3 makes, and five models:

Keystone Bullet/Hideout, Heartland Mallard/North Trail, Grand Design imagine 2800bh (all bunk house)

All but one fiberglass, which would you pick and why? The more we look the more we like.
THANSK

[DiskDoctr]

Congratulations!

Not sure what is the hardest and longest effort: Picking a model, finding a model, waiting to get your camper, outfitting your camper, or waiting for your first trip 🙂

Enjoy what you have and take some time in the Modifications threads. LOTS of good ideas. Make a list of things you find interesting for your style and camper.

Have fun! 🙂

[gbsb]

We have had our Hideout 26rlswe for about a month now. Have spent every night in it so for no problems. We are retired and were full timing in a Arctic Fox Truck Camper for 4 years, Just wanted more room . Do not like a 40 foot 5th wheel , not the weight I have a F450 diesel. I hope the Jayco works out for you. We are very happy with the Hideout. I like the metal sides and cap , and the wood construction but that is just me.

[myredracer]

kwise_6 wrote:
I have to agree regarding Jayco's products. I bought a Keystone Hideout (my 1st TT) last July. I only had taken it camping 3 or 4 times in the first few months I owned it, but - and without exagerating - I had to take it in for warranty repair/s after each outing.

Friends of ours have a Keystone TT. Terrible build quality. Spent quite a few hours in their 2nd year of owning it fixing their cabinets and dinette seating that were falling apart. Met a couple in a CG with a Keystone TT which leaked like a sieve. Dealer could not fix it so got sent to the factory which only made it worse. Looked at a Keystone TT on display at a CW. The axles and tires were loaded to near max. ratings - blowout and bent axle waiting to happen. I'd never buy one.

It does sound tho. from anecdotal reports from forum members that the Keystone TTs built in the west are the ones with a lot more quality issues.

Good call on getting a Jayco... Not sure if all Jayco trailers have the BAL frame (as opposed to Lippert frame), that one thing alone is what would make me buy a Jayco product.

[PAThwacker]

I have had two popups, a hybrid bunkhouse and a travel trailer. I'm limited by current truck. Based on current situation I'd be ideally suited with a popup truck camper or class C.

[js6343js6343]

aclay wrote:
As others have said, tow vehicle is very important and payload in particular. If trying to pull with a 1/2 ton, do a lot of math on this.

On the actual units, it's also helpful to know how many people are sleeping and how you would use the trailer, do you want to be able to have room for everyone on rainy days or is it just a shelter to sleep in? We had a Jayco 26BH and really liked it, but it was too small for us, so we got a much bigger trailer and a much bigger truck. We now own a Sprinter, and I wouldn't recommend Keystone products. I haven't had any major issues, but many, many, many small ones. Look at build quality, read posts about brands (and none are perfect). Get you and your family sitting in the ones you like for more than 20 min and start thinking about your day camping. What happens in the morning? Do you have to move past each other? Do you have to fold beds up for people to sit for breakfast? Do you want to be making beds up every day/morning?

There are many options, take the time to continue research, these forums are packed with information.

We bought a Sprinter as well. Endless problems. Junk. I would not recommend any Keystone product as their trailers seem to be all the same. I honestly dont know of ANY quality TT manufacturers.

[kwise_6]

Jpbeck1 wrote:
I'm going to suggest something despite knowing many things such as: what type of hitch you want, what color your truck is, and how much your dog weighs... 😄

We are on our 3rd Jayco, so I'm biased. However, we are shopping for a new rv as well, this one is 10 years old and we've gotten our monies worth out of it. We have 2 kids and a dog, and my truck can only tow about 9800lbs comfortable. I my rv pad at home for storage is only about 27 feet. The trailer we are considering is the Jayco Whitehawk 24MBH https://www.jayco.com/products/travel-trailers/2017-white-hawk/24mbh/

It has full sized bunks in the back, a queen size Murphy bed in the front, with a couch when the Murphy is folded up into the wall. The dining area has a slide full sized slide. The bathroom has its own door on the left side of the trailer (great for cross venetalation).

The only thing I don't like is the outdoor kitchen, if we buy it I'll probably gut it and use it for storage.

Anyways, thought I'd through that out there in case you needed more confusion. Take your time buying your rv, see what's out there.

I have to agree regarding Jayco's products. I bought a Keystone Hideout (my 1st TT) last July. I only had taken it camping 3 or 4 times in the first few months I owned it, but - and without exagerating - I had to take it in for warranty repair/s after each outing.

I really don't know if the problem was with Keystone's overall quality control or if it was just the luck of the draw with my unit. Nonetheless, I finally decided enough was enough and decided to replace it. I posted a similar question as yours on this forum and kept track of which manufaturers kept coming up as good recommendations. The most frequent ones were (in no particular order) Arctic Fox, Grand Design, Lance, and Jayco. I opted for Jayco primarily because I have a Jayco dealer only about 5 miles away from me. Any of the others and I would have to travel anywhere from 25 to 50 miles. (Too far if I had to deal with similar warranty issues as I had with the Keystone.)

I've only had the Jayco for a couple months, but it has been on one overnight initial "shake down" cruise and on two week-long trips up to the Eastern Sierras. Not one issue has come up. Also, just the difference in small details of construction (ie, quality control), is head and shoulders above what I found in my Keystone.

[BeauHymel]

well, just put a deposit on a Jayco Jayfeather 25BH. Think I mad a good decision. 78% of MSRP, think I got a good deal.

[BeauHymel]

now we are looking at the jayco feather 25bh, and the bullet 277bhs, still can't decide

[TxGearhead]

Just based on the quality of our Bigfoot cabover I would at least look at the Bigfoot TT. No slides and the biggest one is 25ft. But..no rubber roof, clamshell construction and high quality interiors. But no bunkhouse and quite expensive.
http://www.bigfootrv.com/bigfoot_rv_travel_trailers_2500_series.html

[KillerIsMe]

SoundGuy wrote:

KillerIsMe wrote:
Curious to know my Friend - what don't you like about the outdoor kitchen? I am asking because we are considering a Jayco SLX 242BHSW with that little kitchen under the awning.

Lynnmor wrote:
Just so you know, those wonderful electric awnings are so flimsy that they need rolled up at any signs of bad weather. Then you need to transfer everything inside anyway. I am in the minority here, but I would pay extra for a manual awning like was available years ago.

I'm one who did do that several years ago with our KZ Spree which was originally fitted with an awful Carefree of Colorado power awning that had virtually no tilt and would only suddenly dump water off one end when it got too heavy. :M



I replaced it with a manual Dometic 8500 that I could tilt WAY down and which would easily shed water even in the heaviest thunderstorm, allowing us to sit under it or even cook even in the worst weather.



As to that Jayco 242BHSW "outdoor kitchen", it really isn't, at least not compared to outdoor kitchens on many other trailers where it's MUCH larger and has a large hatch door that swings up to create a "roof" of sorts over that area to protect it during inclement weather. With this Jayco "kitchen" you'd want the awning to cover that area, otherwise it would be useless when it's raining. However, if the awning is the type that can't shed rainwater easily then that wouldn't be a solution either.

Personally I see these "outdoor kitchens" as almost useless as you're only duplicating what you already have inside yet will inevitably have to go inside anyway to get something you don't have outside. The fridges in these outside kitchens are just a 120 vac dorm style fridge so it won't be running when you're traveling, will only operate when you have shore power available, and are quite small in capacity anyway. Unfortunately, one of the few trailers we'd consider trading our current Freedom Express 192RBS for - the Coachmen Freedom Express 231RBDS - does have an outdoor "camp kitchen" which only makes the trailer heavier than it needs to be and causes the bathroom inside to be smaller than it also needs to be ... grrrrr! :R

Thank you my Friend. That outdoor kitchen LOOKS to be something you might just use, but then again might not. I like that little booze refrigerator though. That would definitely be handy.

[aclay]

As others have said, tow vehicle is very important and payload in particular. If trying to pull with a 1/2 ton, do a lot of math on this.

On the actual units, it's also helpful to know how many people are sleeping and how you would use the trailer, do you want to be able to have room for everyone on rainy days or is it just a shelter to sleep in? We had a Jayco 26BH and really liked it, but it was too small for us, so we got a much bigger trailer and a much bigger truck. We now own a Sprinter, and I wouldn't recommend Keystone products. I haven't had any major issues, but many, many, many small ones. Look at build quality, read posts about brands (and none are perfect). Get you and your family sitting in the ones you like for more than 20 min and start thinking about your day camping. What happens in the morning? Do you have to move past each other? Do you have to fold beds up for people to sit for breakfast? Do you want to be making beds up every day/morning?

There are many options, take the time to continue research, these forums are packed with information.

[BeauHymel]

So far I am leaning to the Heartland Mallard M26, the wife really likes the Cruiser RV Radiance 28BHIK. I Have read some good things about Heartland, can't find anything about the Cruiser RV, except that they no longer make the Radiance 28BHIK.

[goducks10]

None of them are superior to the other. I would look at holding tank capacities, payload capacity and go from there. Normally I would've picked the Imagine over the rest but after viewing a post on the Grand Design owners forum about a guys Reflection rear cap getting ripped off like a sardine can I will never own a GD product. I know that getting good help in the RV industry is tough today with the current boom going on, but with the rear cap off you can see many assembly procedures.
We had a North Trail 26LRSS as our 2nd TT. Had it for 2.5 years. Only interior issue was the hidden hinges kept popping out of the cabinet door. Some Super Glue applied to the plastic screw insert fixed it. I fixed about 5 of the upper cabinets that way. After a couple it only took 4-5 mins to fix.
I didn't like the way it towed either. A by product of the spread axles being to close to the center of the TT. I don't think the fact that they're spread axles helped at all.
I would look at Jayco.

[SoundGuy]

KillerIsMe wrote:
Curious to know my Friend - what don't you like about the outdoor kitchen? I am asking because we are considering a Jayco SLX 242BHSW with that little kitchen under the awning.

Lynnmor wrote:
Just so you know, those wonderful electric awnings are so flimsy that they need rolled up at any signs of bad weather. Then you need to transfer everything inside anyway. I am in the minority here, but I would pay extra for a manual awning like was available years ago.

I'm one who did do that several years ago with our KZ Spree which was originally fitted with an awful Carefree of Colorado power awning that had virtually no tilt and would only suddenly dump water off one end when it got too heavy. :M



I replaced it with a manual Dometic 8500 that I could tilt WAY down and which would easily shed water even in the heaviest thunderstorm, allowing us to sit under it or even cook even in the worst weather.



As to that Jayco 242BHSW "outdoor kitchen", it really isn't, at least not compared to outdoor kitchens on many other trailers where it's MUCH larger and has a large hatch door that swings up to create a "roof" of sorts over that area to protect it during inclement weather. With this Jayco "kitchen" you'd want the awning to cover that area, otherwise it would be useless when it's raining. However, if the awning is the type that can't shed rainwater easily then that wouldn't be a solution either.

Personally I see these "outdoor kitchens" as almost useless as you're only duplicating what you already have inside yet will inevitably have to go inside anyway to get something you don't have outside. The fridges in these outside kitchens are just a 120 vac dorm style fridge so it won't be running when you're traveling, will only operate when you have shore power available, and are quite small in capacity anyway. Unfortunately, one of the few trailers we'd consider trading our current Freedom Express 192RBS for - the Coachmen Freedom Express 231RBDS - does have an outdoor "camp kitchen" which only makes the trailer heavier than it needs to be and causes the bathroom inside to be smaller than it also needs to be ... grrrrr! :R