Travel Trailer Recs

[BobMc]

I had a Jayco Jay Flight for a few years. I forget the model name but it was a 22 footer. I towed it with a 2007 Tacoma with a V6 for two years. It was slow going but I was able to get it up "most" mountain passes around here.

My last camping trip with the Tacoma we'd decided to go to East Canyon. I knew the road up and over Big Mountain was pretty steep and vacillated between going that way (which was fastest) or going up through Ogden Canyon to Morgan.

I decided to give the Tacoma the test and headed up Big Mountain Pass. The pass is pretty steep and there are numerous switchbacks, it was by far the steepest I'd towed the trailer up. The little Tacoma downshifted like crazy but made it to the top without too much troubles and no overheating. I reached out, patted the dash and said aloud to my wife, "Good job truck..."

Then we started down the other side...

One of the reasons I'd vacillated between going the direct steep way versus the long flattish way was we were headed up for a three day weekend. I had a full load of water, a packed fridge and all the cabinets stocked with food. I had one of our two Honda generators, a full five gallon gas can, firewood, propane topped off. We were loaded for bear.

I knew that we had a heavy load, but my fear had all been about the climb up. I was worried the truck would overheat climbing up the steep switchbacks. Heh.

At first there was no trouble, I felt relieved the truck had no issues towing. We blissfully headed down. About halfway down I noticed the trailer brakes weren't working as well, I couldn't feel them when I'd hit the brakes. As it got steeper down the backside I was taking each curve a little faster to try and save my brakes. Near the bottom of the pass my brake pedal started fading, getting lower each time I'd hit them. I used the e-brake a few times and managed to make it to flat ground. We got to the campsite and I immediately told an agreeing wife I was done with that.

The following Monday I was at the Chevrolet dealership buying a 3/4 ton. We ended up trading in the Jayco on a 32' fifth wheel with the surprise of another child, the Jayco wasn't going to work with three kids. We actually did pretty well on trading it in, I got a fair price for it after negotiating a fair price on my 5er.

Moral of the story? Get a bigger tow vehicle or stick with a tent trailer.

[splat]

Was just talking to a friend who is going to an auction tomorrow to buy eight fifth wheel trailers for anywhere from $2K to $6K. They got a connect to get them for about half the going price cause they buy bunches of them to rent out for Burning Man. He said "Fuck RV's, if you break down in those you're pretty much fucked. If a fifth wheel breaks down you can disconnect it and drive away with a flat tire to get it fixed or whatever." He said the rigs they're buying are spacious as hell.

Don't know if that's pertinent, just my .05. edit - just saw your post above, Bob.

[HowNowBrownPow]

Since I got this new baby and my wifey isn't too keen on tent sleeping with a newborn I'm looking for a travel trailer

I already tried searching but nothing came up specific to travel trailers.

Looking for:

Under 5,000 lbs fully loaded
14-18ft
Sleeps 3-4
Around 15k new or used

So far looking at

Jayco Jay Flight
Gulf Stream Amerilite
Starcraft Rvs AR One
Forrest River R-pod. (Really like this but over budget)

If anyone has any experience with these or knowledge would be appreciated. I don't know shit about RV's.

Thanks

Just saw this thread, we have a RPod 182g with the tailgate and slide. Tow it with a Tacoma TRD, I wouldn't want to pull it with anything less honestly. We love it honestly and haven't had many problems, beyond the stuff that I personally F'd up. We camp in the winter often and find it to be perfect for our needs.

Went to the rv show this past weekend and saw a bunch of cool options. However, the tailgate in the RPod is the big winner in my opinion since you have a huge outdoor space to use in addition to the interior. I dry most of my ski gear out there in the winter and grill during the summer,etc.

[XXX-er]

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/

Thing with tin on wood frame is they rot but these ^^ small trailers the Boler being the most popular have a cult following because they are water proof, the original boler cost 1695 $ so 40 yrs later you will see lots of them for 3 times that price

So they are cheap, don't depreciate and at 1500 lb they are light and tow easily