Buying a travel trailer....have a few questions?? UPDATE WITH PICS PAGE 4

[jrebel]

So me and my wife have agreed we are ready to purchase a travel trailer.  I know there a lot of you guys who currently own travel trailers and thought this would be a good site to get some helpful information.

I plan on hunting and camping year round and was wondering what a good 4 season trailer is?  I love the arctic fox, but it is slightly out of my price range and I there don't seem to be many used ones out there. 

What do you guys think about slides?  I like the room, but what about the maintenance / up keep, reliability of mechanisms, etc. etc...

There are thousands of trailers out there, so what do you have and how do you like it?

Thanks

Johnny

[ShaneTyTrey]

Go with 1/2 ton Cougar Series by Keystone.  You definitely want the slide-out, they are reliable and virtually maint. free.  That is my 

[whacker1]

There are lots of good manufacturers out there making 4 season trailers.

Cougar by Keystone makes a 4 season in a 1/2 ton series.

Slides are plenty reliable. 

How big of a trailer are you looking to buy? 

[Special T]

For the Trailer Vs the Camper I chose a trailer. The main reason being is that it is mucheasier to tow some place, set it up, then drive off to hunt/do other things. The main reason I would choose a camper is because i plan on towing a trailer for a boat, atvs, sea doos etc that i cannot fit in the back of my PU well. 

[DBHAWTHORNE]

If you can afford an Arctic Fox with slideouts then definitely go for it. I can't think of a better four season trailer. That being said we ended up going with a 2002 28" trailer that was in near mint condition. We picked it up for 7K and have been very happy with it. I couldn't justify spending much more than that on a travel trailer because there would come a point where it would be more cost effective to just stay in hotels (even at hotel room rate of $100 a night it takes whole lot of camping to make up for a $20K+ trailer, extra gas from towing, maintenance, time invested, campground fees (if you choose to stay in campgrounds) etc....... Even though our trailer is not considered "four season" on par with an Arctic Fox we had no issues camping in it from Oct-Dec last year. We stayed at a campground that had bathrooms (near our hunting areas) so we didn't hook up the water/sewage (though I am confident we could have and would have been fine...just more hassle than it was worth in my mind).

[trophyhunt]

Do some research on the brand your looking at before you buy, there are a lot of manufacture's that come and go when it comes to making trailers. Stay with the one's that have been around for many years, like Arctic fox. We have a Skyline (layton) built trailer and find it's holding up pretty well for being 11 years old. I would not buy new, there are too many nice used one's out there. Good luck

[DBHAWTHORNE]

Do some research on the brand your looking at before you buy, there are a lot of manufacture's that come and go when it comes to making trailers. Stay with the one's that have been around for many years, like Arctic fox. We have a Skyline (layton) built trailer and find it's holding up pretty well for being 11 years old. I would not buy new, there are too many nice used one's out there. Good luck

 

Ours is a 10 year old skyline and it's in great condition.

[SnakeEyes]

I researched and purchased my first travel trailer last year. You probably want a trailer with an enclosed underbelly with heat going to the storage tanks. You can do some searches on rv.net. Tons of info on that site.

I purchased an Outdoors RV product which is a sister company to Northwood manufacturing that makes Arctic Fox and Nash. After doing my research  I was concerned that some of the larger production builders were using frames built by companies that were subpar. Northwood makes their own frames which are very stout. Something to consider when you want your trailer to last a long time. Arctic Fox is a heavier built trailer but has one of the best reputations. The Outdoors RV products seem to be comparable. Both companies have great websites with videos of their products.

If you buy used make sure you do a thorough inspection. Leaks are the big issues. Everything else can be fixed. It would be nice to find an RV that was stored under cover.

Do you want aluminum or fiberglass type siding? If you decide on the fiberglass type siding look for delamination usually caused by leaks.

Have fun in your search.

[SemperFidelis97]

Honestly buy a nice wall tent, and call it a day if you live on the wetside.  I have owned 3 new trailers, and all have leaked almost everyone I know has leak problems with their trailers.  I bought a new 28 footer about 6 years ago from Korum Rv drove it home, and the kids wanted to sleep in it we got a knock on the door at about 2 am when water was leaking in from the seam in the roof I ended up having to silicone about a 6 foot section that was poorly sealed.  Our current RV a toybox has had a mysery leak in it since it was about a year old I have sealed everything had the tanks checked by an RV guy no one can find anything, but that *censored* still leaks.  I honestly parked it up at my other property put a tarp over it, and use it as a garage.  We bought a new wall tent last year, and wont be buying another RV as long as we live on the westside.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

Before we bought our current trailer we had purchased a Outdoors RV. If you are in the Spokane area I would highly recommend not going with RV Northwest. I won't go into too many details but we had a negative experience with them that actually put the safety of my family at risk. To top it off the owners showed zero interest in our situation once they had our $20K.

[jrebel]

Thanks for the good information...keep it coming.  To answer a few questions that have been posed;

1.  Weight is not an issue.  I will be towing it with a 3/4 ton dodge diesle with a 6 speed manual. 
2.  Size.  I want a 26-30' trailer, preferabley in a bunkhouse model.  I have two kids and it would be really nice to have them set up with their own beds.
3.  Semperfidelis97....I couldn't agree more about the wall tent.  I already own a 16x20 wall tent that we hunt with.  It is just to much of a pain for me and my wife to set up for a couple days. 
4.  An inclosed underbelly is a must.  It seams that most manufacturers are enclosing their underbelly's now. 
5.  I really like the fiberglass siding, but it is not a deal breaker if I find the rite trailer with aluminum siding. 

[jrebel]

One more question....What trailers / brands would be an absolute no go, stay away, garbage, etc. etc.??

[SnakeEyes]

There are always a few people who have problems with their trailer or RV no matter what brand. I think the main thing is how well was it cared for and maintained. It was hard to find a trend of a certain brand to stay away from.

If you find a trailer you like I would do a search for recalls. Some brands of trailers have had recalls for different things like axles, frames, etc.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

Thanks for the good information...keep it coming.  To answer a few questions that have been posed;

1.  Weight is not an issue.  I will be towing it with a 3/4 ton dodge diesle with a 6 speed manual. 
2.  Size.  I want a 26-30' trailer, preferabley in a bunkhouse model.  I have two kids and it would be really nice to have them set up with their own beds.
3.  Semperfidelis97....I couldn't agree more about the wall tent.  I already own a 16x20 wall tent that we hunt with.  It is just to much of a pain for me and my wife to set up for a couple days. 
4.  An inclosed underbelly is a must.  It seams that most manufacturers are enclosing their underbelly's now. 
5.  I really like the fiberglass siding, but it is not a deal breaker if I find the rite trailer with aluminum siding.

The one we bought has a triple bunk and it has worked out great with our two children (ages 8 and 3). I was also looking for a fiberglass model but the deal we got on this one was too good to pass up. Most of the ones I looked at had a enclosed or insulated underbelly of some form. Wall tents are great but they can certainly be a PITA compared to travel trailer...that being said I actually use a tent vs the travel trailer if I am only going for a couple days because it gets expense hauling that thing all over the state. Mine is primarily used for camping near my hunting areas for scouting/hunting so I haul mine up and pay a monthly rate $350 for the campground and leave it there. Since I scout/hunt every chance I get it actually works out to be much cheaper than hauling that thing around all the time (not to mention the expense of paying a daily rate vs a monthly rate if you chose to stay at a campground).

[Blacklab]

Just curious. Have you thought about a 5th wheel. They can be a little more money but mannuver ability is hands down easier than a travel trailer.