That’s my biggest complaint with trailer/RV owners and where much misery IMO comes from.
Think of your trailer/RV as nice weatherproof tent, not a portable house. Pack it and use it that way.
It’s really surprising just how little weight allowance there is between curb weight and GVWR, even for motor homes. It’s not that they can’t carry it, but it fucks up the stability and handling when you grossly overload it.
At home I have a hard-side pop-up trailer that sleeps up to six. Unfortunately I’m not at home in Michigan, where the trailer and its title are. It’s extra long, and easily pullable with my Continental and Expedition (the latter needed an extra-low towing hitch, and the former needed an aftermarket electric brake trailer towing package added). Anyway, it’s probably a 1989 or so model, and “extra long” for a pop-up.
You know what features and size you want; I’m mostly popping in promote the virtues of a hard-side popup, if you can find one. Actual walls, actual doors, and actual windows make it seem so much less like tent camping (which I also enjoy).
It’s not one of those ones that have four solid walls that nest each other. In a collapsed state the walls are folded in (they hinge at 50% of the pop-up height). You still have to pull out front and rear beds (which are surrounded by the typical canvas), and erect their framing.
I’ll come back tonight to link to a photo in both states. I actually really, really love it.
Just chiming in for the heck of it!
I own a older tent trailer (that’s what we call them in Canada) from 1983. It’s fairly small and super light (750 pounds dry). We pulled it no problem behind our Honda Odyssey. There’s only my wife and myself and our 9 year old daughter.
Tent trailers tend to hold their value well in my market. I bought mine about 8 years ago for $1,500 and I’m quite confident I could still get $1,500 for it today.
I live in the interior of BC. No issues with mold on the canvas. If we close up the trailer and the canvas is wet, we just make sure to open it up as soon as we get home so it can dry-out.
Our experiences with the trailer have been great, there is one thing I would have done differently though. All of the “foam” padding in the tent trailer was original. The upholstery was in great shape, but the foam was really compressed. Compressed so much that we have to bring extra foam to put on top. What I should have done, is paid the $500-$700 to get all new foam padding. Now when we camp there is an added 15-20 minutes on setup and take down of the trailer rolling and folding up the various extra foam for comfort. This extra foam is also quite bulky, so we loose valuable storage room.
My one beef with tent trailers is when we arrive at a site, I basically have to raise the tent trailer, completely empty it and set up camp. Then when tearing down camp I basically have to completely empty the trailer, then re-pack it to get everything to fit “just right”.
We have since sold the Odyssey and now own an F-150 pickup. Next season I think we’ll look for an actual travel trailer (in the 18’-22’ range). It’ll be nice to back into a site, drop the jacks, open the door and put out the outside rug and be done with it!
MtM