Camper vs trailer

[hex0rz]

With our new home in our budget now, the need for such a large trailer like our toyhauler is just not necessary for us now. Especially the hefty monthly payment for it. We are looking to downsize to something smaller and affordable. I would like to better utilize the money for other things that can get me ahead instead of paying on an RV that I might use once or twice a year, but paying for it all year long.

 

I'm at a bit of a crossroad with what I want. I would like to get something small if I had to choose a travel trailer. But the idea of a camper is also very appealing as well. We may do some occasional traveling in long distance. We also may go camping once or twice a year in the forest. We do plan on a family some day, but we already live in the woods. I would still want to take them camping when they're older, but that doesnt mean they have to be in a trailer. Tents work just fine too! Maybe eventually have elk camp again someday.

 

The other idea I had was with my future beekeeping ventures or another thought of versatility is to secure the camper to a gooseneck and have it transport that way. I may eventually go into the migratory thing. Do you still have to tab a camper like a trailer every year? I know I could have to step up my plate endorsement if hauling it since I will be heavier than 8800 lbs for the roads. ID taxes you if you drive heavy. I cant remember if this applied to recreationalists or not. Also, I'm concerned about a camper and how it affects the drive-ability of the truck vs a trailer.

 

Anyways, I'll be working on clearing and cleaning out the toyhauler soon and taking her back down to a dealer for a down trade soon. I just need some other input on the matter to help me make a decision!

Edited April 9, 2016 by hex0rz

[Wild and Free]

Just sell it period and stick what you can into equity of the new house and then when "Someday" comes you can then look into options if one can afford it., priorities do change as life goes on.

[JAG1]

A camper does haul heavy. Even if you have a dually you will need some suspension upgrades. Airbags will save the rear springs from eventually wearing down but the thing I want you to know is a camper is higher and harder to go inside sitting high on the bed of the truck. The cab over bed is high also and the wife now has a harder time climbing in and out of bed. She complains about the small bathroom also.

 

A trailer is the least expensive option as truck campers are expensive for the square footage you receive.

 

I do like the smaller rv to wash and take care of and I can go places in the wild and not worry about turning around. I also like the ability to stealth camp at times. The view out the windows is nice sitting up so high and feel a bit safer camping in problem bear country being up that high.

 

I don't like the difficulty of dropping off the rv and reloading on the truck like a trailer would be. I got older so staying in one place for a base camp going on day trips would be better with a trailer. A truck camper can be considered a bit more for traveling and camping more places but, like I said vacations are more restful staying in one place and going for day trips. That's the best I can explain my experience with my truck camper for the last 13 years.

[hex0rz]

Ideally, I could just get rid of the trailer and not have anything. But being that I still owe on it, I'm betting they would not take it unless I agreed to get into something else of lesser. It'll really boil down to the numbers and what they are willing to do. I'd like to get rid of it and get the payments out of my life. And agreed, I can use that to help pay down principal on the house.

 

All I can do is hope for the best plan for the worst!

 

I was concerned about hauling weight. Although, I'm not sure it would be something like what the pin weight was for my toyhauler. Which I estimated was almost 4k pounds. I think my wife really needs to step inside a camper to get an idea of what she would be facing. I like the appeal of the small footprint of a camper and the ability to tow behind me if need be. It'd be convenient as well as I would not need to worry about a trailer if I wanted to go somewhere limited, like you said.

 

When you stay in your camper is it just you and your wife? I understand space is limited, but how inconvenient is it? I have seen some campers with slide outs as well, but not too hot on the idea of a potential leak area. It sure did help to add to space though!

[Mopar1973Man]

Hex0rz travel trailers are much lower hitch weight mine is about 1,100 pound much more manageable vs heavy pin weight of your toy hauler. I tend to agree with Wild & Free the optimal is to get rid the toy hauler. If you opt for a RV again I would suggest a travel trailer way less hitch weight and typically lighter trailer weights vs. most 5th wheels. Still have a fair sized RV without lot of weight on the truck. Like JAG1 has quite a heavy camper for what he's got. I'm sure Me78569 camper is lighter but he's short the bathroom and holding tanks (he's got water). Again you back to a lot of weight on the truck.

 

Again Wild and Free is right and would bee best to get rid of it and put your money into paying off your current house.

[JAG1]

When we take the camper it is usually the wife and I, but she has lost interest in recent years. Doesn't like the open road like I do... would rather stay home and read rather than read sitting in a truck.

 

It does get the cramped feeling after about 9 days that's about it for us and love to come home at that point. Made a couple scary mistakes loading and unloading a couple times. Like they say the older you get the more you forget. I won't go into details, but they could have spelled disaster while jacked so high the thing looks like a killer you have to get to close to once in awhile..

 

I had one experience were one jack went down and the camper could have crushed me, rolled onto me while trying to relock it fast enough.

 

I would sell the one you have now.... wait for the current bubble to burst and be standing on the sidelines with money when it gets tight again. This gives you time to hoard some of it while others out spending themselves.

Edited April 9, 2016 by JAG1

[Wild and Free]

Are you upside down on the loan? If not just sell it outright and be done with it and put the payment money into the house and property..............................................and most importantly some sort of savings.

[Mopar1973Man]

Like for us an RV is a valuable tool. Since we live so far from a large cities it allows us to pull the RV down to RV park and be just outside the large cities and be able to gather supplies, groceries, etc. Either way we go there is at least 5-6 hours of driving to making day trips to larger cities. So this allows us to doing shopping without being rushed. As for camping we are already making plans for this summer on where we would like to go.

 

I will admit the 5th wheel you got Hex0rz is huge and I would have to say most likely too big for your truck anyways. I would sell it for now like Wild & Free is suggesting. Then later on when thing settle down again or maybe get lucky and find something a bit more suitable for your truck and camping then go for it.

 

I would weight your options of slide in camper, travel trailer or 5th wheel again. Next time when you plan on getting back into an RV I would weight out you truck and see what you have left over for towing / hauling.

[IBMobile]

 

1 hour ago, Wild and Free said:

Are you upside down on the loan? If not just sell it outright and be done with it

RVs' value drop faster than a squirrel falling from a tree.  The RV dealer will tell you one thing on the phone to get you to haul it to his place and then low ball you hoping that you won't want to drag it back.

3 hours ago, JAG1 said:

she has lost interest in recent years.

I put my set-up together because my wife likes to do day trips and take pictures.  I like to fish and she doesn't.  Now she only goes camping if the grand kids are with use or we go some where new.

It's hard to tell what the future will be but the value of that toy hauler isn't going up so unload it PDQ.  When you're ready to get a new set-up reevaluate your situation and think of how it will work for you 10+ years out, as you can see things change.      

[JAG1]

It is a great asset to owning the right RV though. Mine has given us the chance to really go places and have a ton of fun. It's been just great traveling everywhere sleeping on a good mattress and having a clean bathroom. The memories and places we've been well.... it doesn't get better than that.

 

I think the key to the right one is that small is beautiful as long as it is enough.

 

Once I went for RV parts at a dealership. I saw a guy pull in with the longest 5th wheel I ever saw. I mean this thing was a behemoth. I could tell he just bought it new but for some reason was very unhappy and the wife looked like one of those kind of wives used to getting everything and acted like she was concerned about only staying away from her crabby husband at the moment. Poor guy I thought look what he got roped into. The thing would take all day to wash the outside.

Edited April 9, 2016 by JAG1

[Mopar1973Man]

I started out small with a 1976 Dodge Jamboree motorhome Class C 20 foot.

 

Then upgrade from the little 20 foot Class C to a 31 foot travel trailer.

 

Thing is Hex0rz started out huge and now trying to down size. Not to mention bought new as well. both my RV's I bought used. Like the 1976 Dodge Jamboree I bought it used from my Dad back in 1992 for $3,000. Server me well till 2010 when I traded it in for the 2000 Jayco which was already 10 years old which I purchased in 2010. I'm still using that beast...

Edited April 10, 2016 by Mopar1973Man

[dripley]

I bought both my 5th wheels new. Traded the first one in on the second one and still owed money. At the time all I had to do was walk in the bank and tell them how much to write the check for. Talk about being upside down. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made. i just paid the second off a month ago but it took every extra dime I had to do it. Spent the last 2 years averaging $1000 a month just on principle. It was a PITA but walking in the bank and giving them the last $145 and change in cash was fun. I hope you were smarter than me when you purchased yours.

[hex0rz]

At the time, like usual, it was what I felt out of necessity. When I was doing construction, I was trying to satisfy the best of both worlds. Wife did not want me to travel and her be stuck somewhere. I didnt have a place to call home anyways and figured I might as well have one on wheels.

 

We were living in my parents basement for about a year and I was wearing out my welcome. So we pulled the trigger on a trailer. We really believed we were going to live in it for a very long time. I was going to keep pursuing my job and keep going. But after traveling for a little bit, my employer pretty much lost interest in me and I was without work. We worked are rears off for 3 months with the promise of having at least 6 months worth of work for the first phase of the job. He had 3 jobs in the area that was supposed to last 2 1/2 years.

 

I saw the writing on the wall. My time was short. Once the snow started flying after coming back to Sandpoint I told them dont bother asking me to go anywhere as I was not going to pull it in the snow. My time with that company ended and then I got the job I have now. MUCH happier with it and have obviously enough money to pay the bills and some. But before we bought the house, we knew getting rid of the 5th wheel was needed.

 

I dunno if I'm upside down on it. I really hope I can just walk away from it without paying or getting into another loan. Its hard to say. The dealer told me they thought the only reason I got the thing in the first place was because of the monster package it came with. It was supposed to be a ton of extras that was "free" from the manufacturer to up the value without requiring a higher MSRP. It was like buying a house for less than it was worth and having equity in my favor.

 

I would have bought a small travel trailer from the get go, but me and the wife and two dogs. I think she would have gone crazy living that small! Where can I go to find out the value of it? I'm having a hard time finding something like a kelley blue book for RV's.

Edited April 10, 2016 by hex0rz

[Wild and Free]

Now is the time of the year to put it up for sale. Maybe check with some dealers and / or your own bank for value and possible consignment.

[AH64ID]

You talked about registration and weight so here is what I know for Idaho. 

 

There are 3 weight categories for non-commercial vehicles. 

 

0-8,000 lbs, and what most everyone has. 

8,000-16,000 lbs 

16,001 - 26,000 lbs. 

 

These are for your GCW and are immaterial of your GVWR or GCWR. If you have a 8,800 GVWR and a 8,000 lb registration you are illegal at 8,800 lbs. The only exception is weight with an RV sticker (trailer, slide in, etc). So with a 8K registration you could be at 16,000 GCW legally as long as your RV stickerd trailer was at least 8K lbs. 

 

Making a redneck toy hauler (camper on a gooseneck) would be a little of both. The trailer would be a standard trailer and count towards the registered weight, but the weight of the camper would not. 

 

This gets many folks in Idaho in trouble because the DMV has a history of not asking you how much weight you want to register for and last I heard Idaho does ticket non-commercial for weight issues. I have also heard the DMV is doing a better job of asking about weight, but???

 

Personally I register to 26K and don't worry about it. My truck is 8,400 without a trailer. I rarely go over the 16K mark but the last two weeks I have a couple hundred miles in the 23-26K range. 

 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

28 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

Personally I register to 26K and don't worry about it.

 

Done the same thing here.

 

28 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

are immaterial of your GVWR or GCWR.

 

Be careful there... I've talk to a few state police officers about truck weights. As far as they said you are not permitted to exceed either GVWR or GCWR limits of the truck, even if the truck can safely haul the weight. Basically like he pointed out if your over weight and have an accident the weight issue might come to bite you. Weight laws are changing...

 

http://www.worktruckonline.com/channel/safety-accident-management/article/story/2007/11/dot-mandates-may-apply-when-using-trailers.aspx

 

Friend of mine got pulled over for hauling a stock trailer and got away with it because he was barely under the line by a few hundred pounds. He's 3500 single axle. So State Police are cracking down on weight violations. Like he though he's not commercial just a common Joe hauling a friends trailer. No longer true...

Edited April 10, 2016 by Mopar1973Man

[01cummins4ever]

NADA usualy has used RV values. Selling outright is probably best option. Find out the value and advertise a little lower if you can without going in the hole. Thier is a lot of used rv,s out thier for sale, you are just going to have to be competiitive

[JAG1]

14 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I started out small with a 1976 Dodge Jamboree motorhome Class C 20 foot.

 

Then upgrade from the little 20 foot Class C to a 31 foot travel trailer.

I've always had a real affinity for these older smaller Class C's.

 

On a last note I bought my slide in new and during the first 3-4 years I had more leaks and more problems with it than you can imagine. Wish I bought a good fixer upper instead. Not a project rv but a fixer.

[IBMobile]

Here's the NADA and RTV web sites for price checking.  Remember, these are only price guides and actual value my differ due to supply and demand along with condition and options.

http://www.nadaguides.com/RVs

http://www.rvt.com/price-checker/?searched=true

Edited April 10, 2016 by IBMobile

[JAG1]

There are a lot of sellers just hoping to take advantage of buyers. Seen some real garbage for way too much. I would look at comparables that are selling on Craigslist and go from there to make a slightly more attractive deal than the rest out there.