Smaller Camper Recommendations?

[Ivy 36]

Looks very nice! Congrats!

[dblr....Rennie 224]

16 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

When we traded in our last trailer on our mh 5 years ago, the owner of the dealership personally inspected our trailer.  He was up on a ladder checking all the seams for leaks, and checking for delamination....the sorts of things that destroy an RV.  Maybe he got burned once, but either way it actually gave me some peace of mind that they might not peddle junk to unsuspecting customers.  

I would agree with you on they don't peddle junk. We had one dealer that we traded in our popup that I asked do you want me to open it up? His reply was if the inside looks half as good as inside I am not worried. Another dealer called us after we got home with our new one to let us know the shop asked why we traded in a brand new unit, it was 5 years old at the time.

[dblr....Rennie 224]

15 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Thanks!!  And no worries about taking the greater ease of towing for granted.  We've been through a serious wreck (not our fault but still) and not looking for a repeat

 

Yes I remember reading about that.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Happy travels Mo.

[TnBob 311]

that equlizer hitch will make a lot of difference, once you get it loaded adjust it and you will love it

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

On 5/20/2019 at 7:31 PM, LONE-STAR said:

Oh and congrats on the new trailer it looks nice. The trailer we bought last year we went the other direction 4' longer and about 2,500 pounds more. But tows just as good as the last one. We are up to 40' now plus the truck.

 

On 5/20/2019 at 10:16 PM, ImDownWithDisney said:

The new trailer looks great! Congratulations on the new rig. 

 

 

On 5/20/2019 at 10:57 PM, Ivy said:

Looks very nice! Congrats!

Thanks!

On 5/21/2019 at 6:54 AM, dblr....Rennie said:

...His reply was if the inside looks half as good as inside I am not worried. Another dealer called us after we got home with our new one to let us know the shop asked why we traded in a brand new unit, it was 5 years old at the time.

When we pulled our old TT into the lot there was someone there picking up a brand new Airstream.  He was surprised our Open Range was our trade-in and said "It looks new!" He was shocked when we told him it was a 2011.  🙂

16 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Happy travels Mo.

Thanks Gretchen!

10 hours ago, TnBob said:

that equlizer hitch will make a lot of difference, once you get it loaded adjust it and you will love it

I'm not sure how much of it was the hitch and how much is the 2,000 lbs fewer, but it towed amazingly well empty through the mountains.  We'll test it loaded this week. Not going far, but far enough to get a good sense of any adjustments.

Speaking of loading... we'd emptied the old camper out and put everything in the dining room.  Sunday I loaded back in everything I knew for sure we'd need for this weekend.  It was about HALF of what we took out. We've been pretty good over the years of keeping the extra "stuff" to a minimum, but it still accumulates over time.  My plan is to wait until after this weekend to see if I find myself missing any of that other stuff and if I don't - buh bye!

[keith_h 420]

On 5/20/2019 at 12:43 PM, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

So as it turned out, all the fretting and cleaning we did getting the old camper ready to trade was probably a waste.  They never even opened the door, or heck even asked us for the keys (we left them hanging out of the door).  No one ever even looked to see if it was the actual camper we told them we were trading in - LOL!  They just said "yeah you can leave it there".

Congrats on the new trailer. It looks nice. 

Our experience was similar. When I came to pickup the new trailer the salesman opened the door, stepped inside, did a 360 then walked out and said let's finish the paperwork. I don't think they want to have too much knowledge as it gives them plausible deniability to sell "As Is" and not fix any problems the unit might have.  

 

On 5/20/2019 at 12:43 PM, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

.... I still have empty drawers/cabinets!

You've obviously done something wrong.

 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, keith_h said:

Congrats on the new trailer. It looks nice. 

Our experience was similar. When I came to pickup the new trailer the salesman opened the door, stepped inside, did a 360 then walked out and said let's finish the paperwork. I don't think they want to have too much knowledge as it gives them plausible deniability to sell "As Is" and not fix any problems the unit might have.  

Not only did no one look at it (didn't even walk around it), we signed nothing.  Checked with the finance/paperwork guy to be sure, and he said "nope, you're on my sheet as 'complete' so you're good to go"

Weirdest experience buying a camper evah. The only "hassle" (and it wasn't really) is the guy doing the walk through was required to give us a lap around their store describing all the things they recommended we "needed."  Yeah, we had all that stuff already but he knew we were longtime campers coming in, so he made it as quick as possible.

1 hour ago, keith_h said:

You've obviously done something wrong.

Hah!  I really think all the important stuff is in there, but I'm waiting for the weekend for me to go, "rats, where's the...???"

Luckily we're not going far and will be with family we can mooch from if we really are missing something.

Packing for the weekend last night and noticed something for the first time... there's no toilet paper holder/tack anywhere in the bathroom.  Talk about a weird way to cut costs!

There's also not a towel bar anywhere in there, just a couple of hooks on the wall.  There's actually plenty of room in there for both and easy enough to fix. We already bought a cheap towel ring to hang, but I looks like this weekend we're going to be juggling the TP.  LOL

[DaveInTN 3,247]

3 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Not only did no one look at it (didn't even walk around it), we signed nothing. 

Did you at least sign the title over?  Or does NH not title trailers?

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

3 minutes ago, DaveInTN said:

Did you at least sign the title over?  Or does NH not title trailers?

We signed some stuff when we were there 2 weeks before re: transferring ownership to them (along with 57 other things we signed).

NH doesn't title trailers under a particular weight, but this is definitely over that.  They did give us some paperwork to provide for getting the trailer inspected.  Yeah... we don't do that in NH.

#LiveFreeOrDie 

[DaveInTN 3,247]

4 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

#LiveFreeOrDie 

[keith_h 420]

2 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

There's also not a towel bar anywhere in there, just a couple of hooks on the wall.  There's actually plenty of room in there for both and easy enough to fix. We already bought a cheap towel ring to hang, but I looks like this weekend we're going to be juggling the TP.  LOL

Ours came with a TP holder but we can't find any place to mount it so use a floor standing model. For towels we just went with a couple of over the cabinet door type bars and the bath sized ones go on a collapsible drying rack. It fits the shower well and manages to stay up when we travel or goes outside for fresh air when the weather permits.  

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

41 minutes ago, keith_h said:

Ours came with a TP holder but we can't find any place to mount it so use a floor standing model. For towels we just went with a couple of over the cabinet door type bars and the bath sized ones go on a collapsible drying rack. It fits the shower well and manages to stay up when we travel or goes outside for fresh air when the weather permits.  

I think I can fit the type of tp holder we have in the house where it's just one screw to the wall and basically just a hook you slide the roll over (bonus: no excuses to not change the roll!)

We've got room to add a towel bar for bath towels. There's also this small nook space next to the shower - only about 6" wide, not really good for anything else - where I think I can add a couple of sticky hooks. We've got a spiffy corner shower with sliding doors (vs curtain/rod) but it doesn't really work to flip the towels up and over.  This medicine cabinet is also a LOT smaller than our last one so I'm having to scale down a bit.  Worst case we might be able to put a couple of shelves or a small cabinet up in the corner, but I'm waiting to see how it goes when we're actually using it before I go bananas.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

We had to add TP holder and towel racks also.  Weird way to 'save' money not putting those in to start with.

3 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

 (bonus: no excuses to not change the roll!)

 

[dblr....Rennie 224]

19 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Packing for the weekend last night and noticed something for the first time... there's no toilet paper holder/tack anywhere in the bathroom.  Talk about a weird way to cut costs!

There's also not a towel bar anywhere in there, just a couple of hooks on the wall.  There's actually plenty of room in there for both and easy enough to fix. We already bought a cheap towel ring to hang, but I looks like this weekend we're going to be juggling the TP.  LOL

2 of our previous 5th wheels did not have either installed. the story was they let the owners do it so they are put where they like it. The last 2 all were installed. Weird excuse if you ask me.

[LONE-STAR 370]

Most of our trailers I had to install the TP holder, for some reason our last one that got totaled I never installed it. Every trip my DW would say we need  a TP holder and I would agree but once home we never thought about it.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

On 5/25/2019 at 6:38 AM, dblr....Rennie said:

2 of our previous 5th wheels did not have either installed. the story was they let the owners do it so they are put where they like it. The last 2 all were installed. Weird excuse if you ask me.

I'd say that someone in accounting made that decision more than someone actually thinking about the customer.

9 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

Most of our trailers I had to install the TP holder, for some reason our last one that got totaled I never installed it. Every trip my DW would say we need  a TP holder and I would agree but once home we never thought about it.

Yeah, I can see us doing that. We brought the one we bought with us camping this weekend but DH never installed it - LOL.  We've got a few things we need to tweak in the bathroom this weekend (like lowering the medicine cabinet so I can see my chin - who built this thing, giants??) and hopefully it gets done then. 

[LONE-STAR 370]

When we got our current camper we camped in it at the house a couple times before we took it camping that way we could work out the bugs and adjust everything right then.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

9 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

When we got our current camper we camped in it at the house a couple times before we took it camping that way we could work out the bugs and adjust everything right then.

We were just at the in laws nearby last weekend for our annual Memorial Day gathering - almost the same as our driveway. I kept a list in my phone of things we need to get/do.

Since we picked it up only the week before we didn't have a lot of time to spend in it beforehand.  We're home this weekend though and can work out the kinks - and DH can get on installing the bar.  🙂

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

On 5/24/2019 at 10:10 AM, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Packing for the weekend last night and noticed something for the first time... there's no toilet paper holder/tack anywhere in the bathroom.  Talk about a weird way to cut costs!

As was mentioned we've had several units where the TP holder was in a drawer for a "Custom" install which I liked. Too many times it is placed in a very dumb spot by the guy building it, or he has a weird sense of humor.

[Robin 48]

We went to 2 RV shows this past winter and looked at a lot of RV's almost none of them had a toilet paper roll or a towel bar.

[Travisma 1,317]

21 minutes ago, Robin said:

We went to 2 RV shows this past winter and looked at a lot of RV's almost none of them had a toilet paper roll or a towel bar.

That's one way to keep the black tank clean.

 

if you can't "go", then there is no need to wash up!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

3 hours ago, Robin said:

We went to 2 RV shows this past winter and looked at a lot of RV's almost none of them had a toilet paper roll or a towel bar.

It's funny because we went to a few shows and looked at a gazillion units at multiple dealers and I never noticed.  Heck I didn't notice in this one until we'd had it a week!

3 hours ago, Travisma said:

That's one way to keep the black tank clean.

if you can't "go", then there is no need to wash up!

 

.....and ew.

[dblr....Rennie 224]

As far as the tp holder when we would go to shows I would always go into the bathrooms close the door and actually sit on the toilet to see if I fit, meaning do my legs hit anything, is it a right or left hand reach for tp and will even stand in the shower to see if I can stand straight up without hitting my head. You should have seen the lady's face when she opened the door and I yelled OCCUPIED!!!! 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

3 hours ago, dblr....Rennie said:

As far as the tp holder when we would go to shows I would always go into the bathrooms close the door and actually sit on the toilet to see if I fit, meaning do my legs hit anything, is it a right or left hand reach for tp and will even stand in the shower to see if I can stand straight up without hitting my head. You should have seen the lady's face when she opened the door and I yelled OCCUPIED!!!! 

 

I made DH get in the shower when we were looking at this one.  It's a spiffy corner one with sliding glass doors - which looks cool but it's not as roomy as you'd think when you actually get in it. It's big enough, but just.