Camper owners

Crimson2v

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Renting is a great idea, we have never been camping so I am not sure how we will do out there. I will have to see if there are any rentals out here.
 

PhoenixM3

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This is well timed, wife and I have been talking about this. Just local camp grounds to get away for the weekend. I’d need to keep it in my garage though. I ain’t paying storage fees.
Yeah, us too. I went to sleep with a boner viewing the Air Stream models. Those are top notch, but pricey.
 

nickf2005

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Absolute pain in the ass.

Rent one a few times a year and be done with it. You can get some pretty nice campers on craigslist for 500/week. No storage. No maintenance. No dealing with the crap system. There's a good chance you don't even have to haul it. Get there - bring in your cooler and some food - enjoy yourself. Pack your stuff up and leave.

You don't have to worry about something coming up or not being able to go in a couple of years. You won't have your 20k camper just "sitting there" eating away at you. Reserve some time slots early in the year and just cancel if you can't make it. Camping 2-3 times a year is plenty for most people.

There is no way you come out ahead buying a camper vs. renting one unless you go all the time.
Great idea.
Renting is a great idea, we have never been camping so I am not sure how we will do out there. I will have to see if there are any rentals out here.
There's a camper dealer near me that rents, and like velo said above, they will pull it to some nearby grounds. $400 or so for 2-3 nights. You can get a lot of weekends in renting and come out ahead on a $20,000 camper.

I have no idea the full capabilities of your Tundra, but my guess is that you'd be looking at a 5,000ish pound DRY camper. Do those give you the necessities you need? Space/beds/bathroom/cooking...

This has been our setup at Dega the last several years. The only time I go camping. My wife has no interest.
171017_083113_12.jpeg


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patc84

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Coming from someone who was in the industry in the service dept. All campers will leak, roof, front cap leaks, windows, ect. I would stay far away from Forest River, stevie wonder could do a better job of constructing it. Grand design is a good company, so is Open Range.

If you are doing a bumper pull, make sure its a decent truck, install a weight distribution hitch on it to help with the sway, get a good brake controller and you will be good to go.

Pat
 

08mojo

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Absolute pain in the ass.

Rent one a few times a year and be done with it. You can get some pretty nice campers on craigslist for 500/week. No storage. No maintenance. No dealing with the crap system. There's a good chance you don't even have to haul it. Get there - bring in your cooler and some food - enjoy yourself. Pack your stuff up and leave.

You don't have to worry about something coming up or not being able to go in a couple of years. You won't have your 20k camper just "sitting there" eating away at you. Reserve some time slots early in the year and just cancel if you can't make it. Camping 2-3 times a year is plenty for most people.

There is no way you come out ahead buying a camper vs. renting one unless you go all the time.

This guy speaks the truth. Unless you are just dead-set on owning one and plan to use it a lot, I'd rent. I (used to) take care of campers we have at work. It was and is a complete pain in the ass. Something is always broken...always. And if it's not broken when you leave, it's broken when you arrive.

That said, our campers are very old now--approaching 13-15 years old and they are neglected since they are only used one time a year...max. The whole experience has just led me to despise the idea of owning one.
 

Crimson2v

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It has a tow hitch on it, the TRD package includes a towing package. Thanks for the heads up on the manufacturer issues.
 

patc84

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SVTXTC

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If you buy new there are several national dealers that offer a complimentary lifetime warranty on several major components. These lifetime warranties usually require that you check out and seal the roof once a year but that’s something you should be doing anyways. I would recommend looking for warranty or service contract coverage that covers “brown out” claims. Basically some of these RR TT parks aren’t setup to power all the units hooked up to them and when things go wrong in the park grid it can wipe out your AC and refrigerator pretty quickly (think Clark Griswold).

I would shop around...a large majority of them are made in Elkhart, Indiana. All made from the same parts and suppliers. The difference between the manufacturers is the vinyl stickers on the outside, the floor plan and the color of the carpet etc.

The few that are truly exceptional are the niche ones like Airstream.

Be aware that in the RV and TT industry that a new 2017 can really have been made in 2015 or even 2014 manufacturing date. I forget how exactly they do this with old inventory sitting at the manufacturer and they redo the VINS on the frames but maybe someone else can comment in.

Hopefully this was helpful and good luck with your search. It’s a lifestyle purchase!
 

Russo

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OP what you want is a 2020 Rockwood 20BHS or Flagstaff 20BHS... i have a 2019 Rockwood 19BH and wish i had the slide...
 

jaxbusa

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This guy speaks the truth. Unless you are just dead-set on owning one and plan to use it a lot, I'd rent. I (used to) take care of campers we have at work. It was and is a complete pain in the ass. Something is always broken...always. And if it's not broken when you leave, it's broken when you arrive.

That said, our campers are very old now--approaching 13-15 years old and they are neglected since they are only used one time a year...max. The whole experience has just led me to despise the idea of owning one.

I’ll third that notion. I think I would only get one if I could afford an all fiberglass one like this https://olivertraveltrailers.com that is boat like quality, or if I lived full time in one and had all day to maintain it. They fall apart and depreciate at light speed. You will not use it as much as you think you will. I would just stay in cabins if I were you.


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coposrv

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I’d look into just renting one. How often are you really going to use it?


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91Gtturbo

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We have had a pop-up, travel trailer, class C, and now on our third 5th wheel and in all those years, we have never had a single major issue. A few small issues along the way (replace exhaust fan, leak at the water fill, leveling system fault which came from a dead battery). We camp ever month because we love getting away and both my wife and I fly fish. The last 5th wheel was a Jayco Eagle which is one of their lower tier models and we never had any issues. We recently traded for a Grand Design 320G (our 2nd GD) and they definitely seem in fit and finish to be one of the better manufactures.
 

Crimson2v

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Not sure how many times we would go out camping. We have plenty of places in NC to visit the outdoors and bring a camper which would be nice for the kids to experience. I think we will try renting first and then move on from there if we like it.
 

coposrv

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Not sure how many times we would go out camping. We have plenty of places in NC to visit the outdoors and bring a camper which would be nice for the kids to experience. I think we will try renting first and then move on from there if we like it.

I think this is the best approach. It sort of applies here, I know a lot of people who have bought a boat for it to only sit on the hard in a marina all summer. Unless it’s something you plan to use pretty often the total cost of ownership for a toy like this is far greater than the cost to rent a few weekends a year.


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nickf2005

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I think this is the best approach. It sort of applies here, I know a lot of people who have bought a boat for it to only sit on the hard in a marina all summer. Unless it’s something you plan to use pretty often the total cost of ownership for a toy like this is far greater than the cost to rent a few weekends a year.


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Just think how many car owners here would rent a car for a weekend at the track versus own if that was an option...

Blow a motor and qualified the pistons to be astronauts? Meh, load it up on the trailer and take it back for somebody else to fix!

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fireman02

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Go to Rvnetforums.com. Good place to get questions answered. We had 1 for 4 years. To get the wife on board we went big. I had a Springdale 303bhss (35ft bunkhouse) and made sure I had plenty of truck to pull it, Ram 2500 w/ 6.7 Cummins. My 2 kids as they’ve grown up (now 14 & 10) got too busy with travel sports to get out camping anymore. However, the 4 years we had it, we had zero issues with it and had a lot of fun. My advice would be to not be at the limits of your trucks towing weight, and do a ton of research on the camper you buy and where you buy it from. Rv salesmen are a whole new level of shady.


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