Tent Trailers, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

[Dustin07]

Can anyone give me the low down on Tent Trailers? My wife and I are considering one.  I'm really quite tired of tenting, I'm looking for something more convenient and my wife is not open to a cabin/land yet. (yet... YET). So a tent trailer seems to be a compromise. Thing is, I really don't know anything about them. Here's what I have to tow them;

'89 Jeep Wrangler. <-- good local hunting rig, I hate it for long road trips though.
'02 Jeep Liberty <-- does the job, and can tow enough
'05 Jeep Cherokee <-- best for towing of the bunch, but my wife's DD. I wont' be using it for hunting, but WOULD use it for family camp trips.

What should I look for in a tent trailer? What's the difference between a $2k used trailer and a $6-10k newer one?

[300rum]

I don't really care for them and have a conventional trailer but they aren't all that bad depending on what you are doing with them.  The first hand negatives, that I have experience with, are that they can develop a lot of condensation on the "Canvas" sections over the beds (on the inside).  It can be pretty bad especially in the cold weather (November), the "canvas" will be wet and if you touch it you will get wet and sometimes it drips and your bags will get wet.  In cold weather they can be a little harder to take down and store as the "canvas" gets hard from being in the cold.  I have never seen it happen myself but had a fried who's windows cracked after having it in sub temps and tried to fold it after a hunt.  

The good things are that you can move them by hand and put them in the garage, they tow easily, and they sleep a lot of people for the space.

I would say that if you are using for the summers and October you will be fine.

[Buckmark]

Tent trailers are very good choices for people on a budget, small tow vehicle, no place for storage of a fullsize trailer. I have had 3 of them and that is the only camping trailer i used when my boys were young (3 of them), they work great. The #1 thing to look at and inspect closely is the canvas, if it is moldy, ripped etc beware, the age of the trailer wont make a huge difference but the canvas condition will, they can be very sparse inside or very appointed, but will get heavy the more luxurious they are, the base model trailers are really all the same and have not changed alot throughout the years.
Make sure to cover the canvas over the beds when camping to keep pitch and dirt off of it (small tarps work great).
And very important is that you have a dry/covered place to open and dry the trailer canvas if you get home after camping and it was raining, more than one person has put theres away wet and left it closed up, only to open it to a big moldy mess, and the canvas is expensive to replace.

[Dustin07]

What about storage within the trailer itself? Will it hold any extra gear, or they pretty much fold completely compact requiring that I pack gear in the vehicle? Another perk (Or so I thought) was the idea of leaving certain items in the tent trailer year round.

your points are good though, thanks for bringing that up. I hadn't thought about the condensation or freezing temps. do you think it's any worse than a regular tent? Keeping in mind that i'm looking at this as an upgrade from a tent, so if I didnt' get a tent trailer, i'd be dealing with some of these exact same issues in a traditional heavy duty canvast tent.

thanks again-

[Dustin07]

I can park mine in the garage when I need to (like after a hunt to dry off) and planned on keeping it covered, (tarp-like cover, I don't have an outdoor lean or shed big enough) but outside otherwise. I would dry it off though first, good point, thanks-

[300rum]

Probably about the same. 

your points are good though, thanks for bringing that up. I hadn't thought about the condensation or freezing temps. do you think it's any worse than a regular tent? Keeping in mind that i'm looking at this as an upgrade from a tent, so if I didnt' get a tent trailer, i'd be dealing with some of these exact same issues in a traditional heavy duty canvast tent.

[matlockmike]

I have one.

Good things:  Don't need a truck to tow it, I have a 2006 Jeep Wrangler and tow it perfect.  They are small so I can tow it into camp sites you couldn't get a normal travel trailer into.  They sleep 5 adults really easy or two people with a crap load of room for you and your honey. Way better than a tent.  You have a stove, water, lights, and a small place to go when it is raining.

Bad things:  You have to put it up, then take it down just like a tent.  I had the condensation problem, solution is to crack the windows just like a tent.  There is some storage for your gear when it is down but not a lot.  With my wife, two boys, and me I can fill the tent trailer (closed) with all our chairs, sleeping bags, cooler, and dry foods for the weekend and then fill the Jeep with poeple and all our clothes for the weekend and we are full to capacity (stuffed).  Another thing is it is like a tent, put it away wet you need to take it home and open it up to dry out.  When it rains it is just like a tent, tight clamped space if there is more than 2 people.

Thing to watch out for:  Keep everything well oiled with the up and down mechanics.  Don't force anything here because if the chains (these make the top go up and down)break your screwed.  And never forget to put the feet (Braces) down and get in the trailer, you go for a ride when the trailer stands on end.

My trailer has no bathroom and I don't thing I would want one, go outside.  I do have the ability to hook up to power and water.  Plus it has a battery for power so for cold weater you could hook up a heater to the plug in's inside.

Main thing is it is way better than a tent, but I is still a TENT.  So if you keep this in mind you'll be find.  If you like to go to remote camp areas where I do it works out great.

[JBar]

From a previous TT owner these were the things that I found.
Pros:
Light weight
a dry place to sleep off the ground
usually large beds
can have all the emenities of a large trailer ( mine even had a toilet )
HEAT
a table to sit at and eat or whatever
fairly simple to set up once youv'e done it a few times ( see cons )
it's nice to hear the night sounds when you're going to sleep ( can't really get that in a hard side trailer or cabin.

CONS
Storage can be an issue, theres not usually alot of storage for larger items once you close it up
they can be cramped for space for more than two adults to move around
you have to set it up and take it down, my wife and I had ours down to a science and we worked like a NASCAR pit crew but no matter how bad the weather outside you still have to set it up and take it down. the worst thing was to get it all the way down and realize you left the top vent up.
although the heaters work really good you'll use a bunch of propane keeping it warm on really cold nights.
The canvas or whatever the tenting is made out of needs to be aired out and dried before long storage periods.
I would recommend making sure it has at least an outdoor shower if for nothing your wife can wash her hair

I have more to say but I need to take off for awhile, I'll get back to you!

[matlockmike]

Also i made sure to seal the canvas every year and inspect it.

[Alchase]

A friend of mine bought a fully loaded Coleman 12 ft box with two 6ft slide outs, shower, portable toilet. This is what I learned quickly. From day one the canvas starts to fatigue on the corners, upper and lower. If not sealed correctly they will leak like a sieve and you will never get them sealed up once started. They are fine for sleeping, but forget about having four people inside comfortably even with a 12 ft box it is way to cram ed for 4 adults to move around. Cooking inside is a joke, they come with basically a Coleman stove (that also hooks on the outside) as the cooking surface. If you use the outside hookup be very sure it is connected correctly or it will fall off while you are trying to cook. We ended up putting the stove on a table outside. The shower is basically useless and takes up allot of space. While this was very convenient at times, most are not made well enough to sustain prolonged use. As others have said you better have a dry place to open it up and let it dry out.
Most important, Never, and I mean NEVER leave food stored inside! This is what ruined my friends trailer. Ants and mice got in and made a nest inside the box and destroyed everything. The mattresses were shredded and the canvas was chewed. This happened in less then a month. Thousands in damage.
There are what seem to be pretty nice tent trailers on the market now, but I would seriously look into how they a built.

[firefighter4607]

I would look at the Jayco Baja or Star Craft RT series. But I would try to find an 09 or 08 models since they are a bit shorter. Both trailers have more ground clearance and more aggresstive tires than most tent trailers. Also they have a front deck where you can put stuff on like coolers and other items like that. Also you can put a motorcycle or four wheeler on some of them!!
As far as I heard Jayco makes really really good trailers and I have heard great comments about there service and how they stand behind thier product. I thought I remebered a few months back someone on here where selling a Jayco Baja series. 

[JBar]

Okay back to it, actually FF4607 I was selling a Starcraft RT on here during summer so this is the model I have the most experience with though I owned an older Jayco before that. As far as what the guys are saying about the toilets they are right, just go outside. I think ours was used once by my daughter though the shower did come in handy during my week long elk hunt. The cooking stove can vary from trailer to trailer so evaluate each one you look at. Mine had a regular cooktop inside and a outdoor BBQ. Also the fridge was a nice addition but not a necessity a cooler would work just as well.  If you find a starcraft in the early 2000's or newer the tent material is really good. Never I mean NEVER did I have a leak in any part of the trailer or tenting. I think they called the material Aqualon or something like that. As far as the storage goes I would find one that offers the most interior storage you can find, also you could find one with the big storage compartment on the front. If you take care of them they will last a long time and I think right now you could find a high quality trailer for a really good price given the economy. Definitely stay away from the no name brands and stick with a Jayco, Starcraft or Coleman not necessarily in that order. All have been making TT for a long time and know what they are doing. Right now if you're looking at new there aren't many Starcraft dealers around here. My recommendation would be a Starcraft 10RT for your rig. Just make sure not to get too big for your tow vehicle. They are all light weight until you start filling them up with stuff. Any other questions shoot me a PM and I will try to answer them.

[Dustin07]

Thanks JBar (and everyone else!)  I appreciate the feedback-

There's a starcraft for sale locally I think I may at least go look at to get an idea. The storage would be a big thing for me. Since the TT's appear to have basically a similar amount of setup time required to a tent, I need to make sure the positives outweigh the negatives. Being able to leave a lot of my gear in their year round would be nice. Finding a way to store duck decoys in there would be a huge plus.

thanks guys-

[JBar]

No problem Dustin, actually the wife and I had set up and tear down to about 10 minutes so really not that bad. You could be out of the weather in about 5 minutes then do the final touches later if you need to. 

[Dustin07]

So after all the feedback everyone gave me here, my wife and I went out to look at hard sided trailers rather than tent trailers. I'm torn. You can get really good trailers right now for far less money than I thought. The one thing i noticed, is that they seem to try to keep all non-5th wheelers right at $20k or less, but they make a million models in that range. Not sure that's what I want to spend, i'm just amazed what you can get for the money. 26FT with nice bathroom, sleeping for anywhere from 3-6 comfortably, recliner chairs, leather, large screen tvs... geez these things are cush now days. they've come a long ways since the Komfort my parents took us on road trips with!