RV Canucks

What to Know Before You Buy a New or Used RV | Episode 22

January 06, 2021 RV Canucks Season 2 Episode 22
RV Canucks
What to Know Before You Buy a New or Used RV | Episode 22
Show Notes Transcript

Whether you've never owned an RV or are considering an upgrade, we've got a comprehensive list of what you need to consider before you say "I do" to your next home on wheels. In this episode we cover:

  • What to think about before upgrading your rig
  • The main considerations for motorhome vs trailer
  • How Covid is affecting delivery times for new rigs
  • How buying an RV is different from a car
  • How after-sale service should play a role in your decision
  • How to decide what vehicle to buy
  • Whether you should buy or upgrade your tow vehicle or trailer first
  • The items we wish our current rig had most.

It's a bit longer than our average episode but it is chock-full, so enjoy! And if you haven't left us a review on Apple podcasts or Facebook, would you consider that? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you love or want to hear more of in the future. We're all ears!

0 (0s):
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1 (5s):
Welcome to the RV connects podcast and RV tips, tricks and travel advice podcast that gives you the tools to travel further on your vacations and experience the beauty of life on the road. As part-time our veers. If you're new to the show, I am Molina. And that over there is my hunky husband, Dan, hello, and together with our teen and tween, we are the RV connects a Canadian-based family of four who keep it real and help you keep the yelling to a minimum. When things get tricky on the road to a minimum, not eliminated. I think I have to qualify that. Yes, indeed. Welcome to the first episode of season two.

2 (43s):
So our first episode of season two, the start of a new year, I know that a lot of people are probably thinking about getting into RV for the first time. Maybe they want to upgrade. Maybe they want to change what they want to do, but you start to think about it in the winter to get excited for the summer and in a normal year, you would probably want to go to the RV show. But of course, Covid probably not going to let you do that where you live. So we wanted to talk a little bit about the things you want to consider before you make a emotional purchase and spend a lot of money. Hopefully this will let you think a little bit more long-term as I kind of read through my notes and the things that I wanted to tell everybody, you can certainly rush out pretty quickly and you can put down your down payment and sign your contract and get yourself a trailer, or get yourself an RV and be on the road pretty quickly.

2 (1m 31s):
But I think that if this is not your first purchase and you're upgrading, I hope you would agree with me that maybe this is always an ongoing process so that you're not rushing into something. And you've thought through things besides just picking up a new RV. I think probably one of the first things you need to decide is, do you want a motor home be that a class, a or a class C, do you want a travel trailer? And then there's a whole subset of travel trailer types. Or do you want yourself a fifth wheel? And I think Molina and I find ourselves having regular debates about what are our next big purchase would be, or what does retirement look like? I'm firmly in the motor home group.

2 (2m 11s):
I liked the idea of the vehicle moving down the highway and driving along and somebody can go and use the washroom without me having to pull over that we can make a sandwich on the go. And I don't think Molina agrees with me by the looks of it.

1 (2m 24s):
No, I'm going to say he talks about using the convenience of it, but the only thing he wants is a fresh sandwich.

2 (2m 29s):
It's beyond that. I think it would make boondocking a little bit easier, but that's one consideration travel trailers comes in all kinds of layouts, all configurations, all different sizes. And then of course, you've got fifth wheels. I think you lean towards a fifth wheel sometimes when you think about retirement and, and having maybe some extra luxurious items, but still being able to detach in and go somewhere else. So I think with a motor home, one thing you need to keep in mind is it's another motor that you have to take care of. So maybe you two cars at your house. This is a third motor. That's going to need a nother set of oil changes. It's going to need probably more money in tires than say a trailer, bit more complicated breaking system, all that kind of extra stuff you're going to have to prepare yourself for chances are you're probably going to want to tow a little vehicle behind it so that when you get somewhere, you can scoot off and, and do day trips or do something else.

2 (3m 23s):
You're not going to have just the motor home, because if you have just the motor home, if you need to get groceries or pick something up or you forgot something, everybody's got a load up and then you have to drive and get that with the motor home

1 (3m 33s):
Or consideration too, is if you're going like we, when we talk about our next reg, we talk about retirement. We talk about how we're going to use it after retirement, when we're traveling full time, or even just take road trips that are weeks long, you have to consider that if the motor home breaks, that's your home. And if it's in the shop for a week, then it, number one, you want to set up a second vehicle. And number two, you're going to have to budget for, you know, the potential for hotel stays and stuff like that while your entire home, and all of your belongings are in a shop being fixed right now. That's not necessarily a detractor, but it is a consideration

2 (4m 6s):
With that being said, there were some pros to having a motor home. First of all, the motor home probably lets you have a bigger living space with more luxuries and it might actually let you bring more people. So if you're you have a large family, maybe more than five people, it might give you the option to bring your whole family and not have to take two vehicles. If you want to do a trip because you know, of course everybody needs a seatbelt. So there are some options to that. If you're going to boondock, it lets you be able to, if worst comes to worst, hop in the driver's seat and drive away from trouble and not have to get outside, you can probably incorporate a generator built in a little bit easier than just your average travel trailer. So there's lots of pros to having a motor home, but maybe think that through travel trailers comes lots of different sizes, lots of different layouts.

2 (4m 52s):
It means that you have a vehicle for day trips or to scoot off and get something that you forgot. But it also might mean that, you know, if you're a typical family in North America, you probably have two vehicles. And one of those is your day one. They're probably both daily drivers or vehicles that get driven on a regular basis. And you're probably going to have maybe a bit of a bigger vehicle than you normally would have. And then you have a fifth wheel. The thing to keep in mind with fifth wheels is they look amazing when you walk inside and they're very attractive, but you're always going to have to own a pickup truck. So if you don't want to pick up truck than a fifth wheel, probably doesn't want a pickup truck. Damn. There are people out there maybe they don't want to pick up truck. I'm just saying

1 (5m 29s):
I'm a huge fan of fifth wheels because I love their layout. I love the space. I love that you could walk in and you have these like super vaulted ceilings, like we're tall people. And I don't know the luxury you can get from a fifth wheel. It's definitely my first choice preference wise, because I think it allows a lot of extra room for like grandkids too.

2 (5m 46s):
You know, that's just my vote. Another thing to keep in mind with a fifth wheel though, is you're going to lose your truck bed for storage. True. And it's a bigger hitch. So that's all gone inside the bed when you're towing is you've lost the entire truck bed and that might be okay for you. If you don't have a lot of stuff for you managed to get it all into the trailer, that's fine. But maybe it's something that just matters to you. And then of course, you're going to have a bigger hitch that you need to store in the off season or when you get to your destination. So just things to keep in mind

1 (6m 14s):
Now on a lesser note to stares, right? Like if you're somebody that has a difficulty with stairs, fifth wheel is probably not going to be your top choice. If you have they're higher than a normal trailer. And then you've got internal stairs usually to get up to the bedroom level. So if you have mobility issues or you're expecting that mobility issues might be in your future, maybe fifth wheel is not the right choice.

2 (6m 33s):
So I think this is where I start to talk about thinking. Long-term the thing I think about longterm is maybe what you want to consider is if you're leaning towards a motor home, rather than buying a motor home rent, a motor home, rent a motor home for one of your trips and go on a motor home, or if there's a specific type of trailer that you want to try out, maybe you can find that on one of the RV rental apps and rent that, or you can rent one from your local dealer and see if that's the kind of trailer that you want. And I think the other thing I would say is it might even give you the opportunity to tow something and see if you're comfortable with it. You might actually find that a longer trailer is not as intimidating to tow as you think it is. Or you might find that, Hey, I don't want a longer trailer.

2 (7m 16s):
I want to go with a shorter trailer. So what I'm trying to say is that if you invest a few thousand dollars in a rental that might save you lots of money down the road so that you can narrow down your choice about whether you want a motor home, a fifth wheel or travel trailer, I'll pop up a hybrid, all those kinds of things. Try it out first before you spend all kinds of money and find yourself not happy. The next little tip I'd like to talk about is buy for service. You can probably always go out there and find the trailer that you want somewhere else for cheaper. But I think that when you own a trailer, service matters and dealers are going to service what they sell first, before they service somebody else's stuff. So when you purchase that, think about one or two years down the road, when I need to get something fixed or I need to get something upgraded, will I be able to get it serviced here?

2 (8m 3s):
And you might find that a large volume dealer doesn't focus on service. They focus on getting trailers out the door. And so maybe you would want to spend a little bit more money to buy something for service so that you have peace of mind and you don't need to wait six weeks for something to get fixed. At some point, you're going to have to change tires. You're maybe you want to take it in to get winterized. Something is going to break and you want to be able to take it back where you bought it and get it serviced in a volume dealer. Might not do that for you. The other thing that you want to make sure is when you purchase that, are they going to give you a walkthrough of your trailer? Are they going to show you how everything works? And the first new trailer that we bought, jeez, we were there for three or four hours getting a walkthrough, if not longer, will they set the hitch up on the truck?

2 (8m 47s):
Whereas other places are just going to say, Hey, that's your trailer over there, hitch up and off you go. And so if you're new and inexperienced to this, or maybe you've been around a while, it's always a good idea to maybe get that walkthrough. And I think you should think about that when you're selecting the dealer that you want to buy from. This is, this is maybe the last thing you need to think about in your long-term plan or your medium term plan is which comes first, the truck or the trailer, assuming that you're buying a trailer. And it's a bit of, does the chicken come first or does the egg come first? And I think I'll talk a little bit more about vehicles later on in the podcast before you go out and buy a new trailer. I think you'd probably need to give yourself a little bit of thought put into the vehicle that I have right now.

2 (9m 29s):
Is that the vehicle that I'm going to have four or five years from now, or do I plan on replacing that vehicle anyways in six months? Because if you're going to replace that vehicle in six months, then maybe your best plan is to take a medium or a longer term view and replace that vehicle first and then go RV shopping as opposed to buy a trailer and then a truck or vehicle to pull that trailer. So maybe just figure out how long you think you're going to have your vehicle, that you have couple other things that you want to keep in mind when you go in and you finally have decided that, Hey, I'm going to get a specific trailer or a fifth wheel. You have a money budget. And that money budget number is probably an easier number to come up with.

2 (10m 9s):
Your next budget is your weight budget. What can you tow? You need to know what you can tow. And then you're going to have a length budget. What are you comfortable towing? Are you comfortable with 20 feet, 25 feet, 30 feet? You should probably have a good idea of what those numbers are and what the implications of those numbers are. Because I think we found it really easy to stay within the money budget. It was harder to stay within the weight budget. So I think probably you need to have a good idea when you show up what your number is when you get there.

1 (10m 38s):
And this could be like an entire other episode, but the Coles notes version, I will say like just Google, how to determine how much weight you can tell, because it's more than just looking at the sticker on the side of the trailer that says this trailer is dry. Weight is 6,400 pounds and you think, okay, Oh yeah, sure, no problem. I'll add a couple hundred pounds in gear and we're good to go. There's a lot more to it, but there's a lot of very good reputable sites on the internet that will help you calculate your actual weight in terms of payload, in terms of hitch weight, in terms of all kinds of other aspects, you know, whether you're traveling with full water tanks or not. So make sure you understand what goes in to how much you can pull before you even start looking, because that is going to be the biggest hurdle is, is knowing that true number before you start looking.

1 (11m 22s):
Cause you will get sidelined by beautiful looking things that you'll end up with disappointment over because you can't actually tow it. Even though the sticker on the side of the trailer says you can.

2 (11m 31s):
And absolutely the person who's selling it is probably going to be more favorable that you can tow whatever you show up to buy that trailer. And they're going to tell you, you can tow it. So maybe you just need to have some independent research and opinions done before you show up so that you can narrow down your pool of what you want to look at for sure. So the next big thing I would say is you need to think about whether you want to buy new or you want to buy used. Maybe you, when you do a little bit of research and this is what kind of our first new trailer experience was. We were upgrading from a pop-up camper to a proper travel trailer. And when we showed up, we realized that it was only a few thousand dollars more to just buy a new trailer. And so maybe that's a better choice is to just buy an outright new trailer because that means it comes with, you know, who's used it or the fact that nobody's used it, you know, that it still comes with warranty, all those kinds of things to no hidden history to it.

2 (12m 23s):
So that's one thing to consider, especially if, if the used trailer that you're looking at, it's only a couple of years old with that being said, if you can find a used trailer and it's the right dollar value for you, and you're just going to drive it until it's at the end of its life cycle. And that's it, you're not too concerned about it. Then maybe a used trailer is, is right for you or maybe a used trailer is a good way to just put a little bit of money on the table. See if this is something that you really like before you get too deep into it. So there's no right or wrong way. There's just considerations about which way you want to head.

1 (12m 55s):
I think one thing you have to consider is the trailers are fairly maintenance heavy, right? And if, if you are buying it from somebody, a use unit outside of a dealer, you're going to encounter owners who don't go up and in check their they're caulking, you know, twice a year and re cock the trailer and has got a slide out. They put the lube on the slide to make sure that everything's working properly. Like there, you will encounter owners like that, who just want to offload it. So knowing what to look for when you're buying used as well, things like soft spots on the floor and water stains around windows and skylights and things like that. But even a used trailer is still a fair amount of money depending on the year and the length that you're going for. So even throwing down a couple of hundred dollars to have an RV inspector come inspect, it is not a bad idea.

1 (13m 39s):
So that you're confident that when you hit the road, you're not stopping 200 miles later because something's catastrophic gotten wrong.

2 (13m 45s):
And maybe just ask, why is the person selling it? And maybe you're not going to get an honest answer, but maybe you will, from the history that they give you to deuce that they haven't owned it, that that long. And sometimes that can be an indicator that, Hey, we bought it. There's something wrong with it. We just want to get it out of our driveway and into somebody else's driveway pretty quickly. If they haven't owned it that long versus somebody who's owned it for 10 years. And they're just at a different stage in their life. Right. But buyer beware, just go into that. Knowing buyer beware. Let me give you a few considerations on tow vehicles and things to just ponder and by no means, do I have all the solutions and all the answers I think right off the bat, if you're going out to buy a new vehicle, one of the things I always have heard said before, and I don't know who started this phrases buy for your next trailer, don't buy for your current trailer, which maybe means if you're planning on buying a bigger trailer, buy a bigger truck or a bigger tow vehicle.

2 (14m 36s):
If you're going to pick out a new vehicle, good idea to get a tow package, the tow package is more than just the hitch, the connector, depending on what you're ordering. It's bigger mirrors and bigger mirrors is just one of those little things there you don't ever have to mess with clip-on mirrors anymore. They adjust on the fly so much easier. Probably going to come with a brake controller might come with backup assist. It might come with an oil cooler, a heavier transmission, extra cooling capacity, the stuff that you don't see beyond the hitch. And those are the things that you want to think about. So maybe just go ahead and get the tow package. There's tons of new futures that you can, you know, it's really hard to keep up with. And I get so excited when I see new truck commercials, because there's inverters built in that you can now run tools off the back and, you know, hitches that lower and backup cameras and all kinds of little things like that, that you probably want to do a little bit of research and figure out is that something you want, but even if you have it, will that be compatible with the trailer that you have another thing I would think everybody maybe want to just keep in the back of your mind, if you're going to get a pickup truck, what size box are you going to get?

2 (15m 41s):
Typically, you know, you can get an eight foot box, but chances are, most people are going to settle on a six and a half foot box or a five foot eight box. We have a six and a half foot box. I'd say our family tends to pack a little heavy most of the time. And somehow whether we're going camping or we're going on a, to a hockey tournament or we're going anywhere on a day trip, we managed to fill the back of that box

1 (16m 1s):
Story. Plus it helps me bring home antiques from wherever we visited,

2 (16m 5s):
Where I'm going with. This is not this, this vehicle has to tow what you're going to do your RV in it, but it also has to help you out the rest of the year, because inevitably is probably going to be somebody's daily driver. And if you have a six and a half foot box, no that getting in and out to pick up just a bag of milk like I had to do this morning was not just whipping into a parking spot. The turning radius is longer. You might not be able to get into that parking garage that you want to get into all those little day-to-day things that you don't think about in with a minivan. You maybe need to think about with six and a half foot box versus a five foot eight box. It, there is a noticeable difference because I've driven both and there isn't a right or a wrong way.

2 (16m 45s):
But I think you just need to remember that you're going to have to use this beyond just towing your RV and it's got to work with the rest of your life.

1 (16m 52s):
So we have two daily drivers in our household and the truck is my daily driver. And then we have a smaller SUV that Dan currently drives. And Dan was away just recently. And I had to take Fiona. I can't remember if we've told us. So if I've, if I've already told this story on the podcast, I apologize, but I had to take Fiona into the city for a prescheduled appointment with her surgeon. Fiona has scoliosis. So we go for regular checkups and we got to the hospital in the middle of the city. And literally it didn't occur to me until I was like committed to going to the underground garage that, Oh yeah, every time we come down here, I bring the SUV because it's a whole lot smaller. And I realized way too late. Like couldn't back up because of the length of the truck.

1 (17m 32s):
There's like that dip as you enter the garage at the bottom of the ramp, I was committed. And I can tell you, there was literally an inch. There was an inch of room between the top of our truck and the roof of the parking garage, the entire way. And there were sprinkler heads hanging down and there were feed bumps inside the parking garage. And Fiona had to reach out and grab the antenna to stop it from scraping the top of the concrete. And everyone was looking at us and I am just glad that we made it in and made it out with no problems because it could have been a very different stories. So normally speaking, I would have taken the smaller vehicle, but if, if the larger vehicles, all you have, you need to think about the kinds of places you visit in your day-to-day life.

2 (18m 13s):
Absolutely. And Hey, we love that truck and it's like traveling in business class on an airplane, but maybe the end of the trip is when you're trying to get into a parking spot is, is trouble. And like Molina said, one of my little tips is if I have the truck and I'm looking at a parking garage or whether or not I'm going to go in, I look to see if my truck's in there already. Cause chances are, if there's an F-150 in there or a Dodge Ram in there you can get in there. What I will tell you is I did that once and found out that it was a F-150 with a five foot eight box, not an F150 with a six foot five box. And I got stuck. I literally got stuck because it wouldn't make the turning radius. And I had to get five cars to back up and let me out. So just keep that in mind that it's really got to work for you.

2 (18m 54s):
Now, you could also, maybe you're not a pickup truck person and that's cool too. Maybe you want to get a suburban or a Tahoe or a Ford excursion or an Explorer or something like that. You can get an SUV, you can get a minivan, you can even tow with a car. But what I would say is do your research on Kendall's vehicles, tow, what can they tow? Cause they're all built a little bit differently and you want to make sure, Hey, it's going to work with your life and be that you're going to be able to tow no matter what you're doing. I feel like out of an abundance of caution, my own personal opinion is to give myself wiggle room. If I need something that tows 7,500 pounds, I kind of just naturally feel like I'd like to be able to tow 11,000 pounds, give yourself a little bit of wiggle room so that you don't need to worry about that kind of thing.

1 (19m 36s):
Let me tell you a story about a kitchen Island, a beautiful kitchen Island with granite countertops, with pendant lights hanging over it in the most gorgeous trailer we'd ever seen. And it was like a couple hundred pounds over our towing limit. We did what we're advising you kind of not to do. We purchased our current trailer with our old truck George, who was a 2000 GMC Sierra. We didn't even have like a quad cab. It was like extended cab, tiny little three door, tiny little backseats. And we bought our trailer and it was like the max of what George could comfortably tow. However, he was getting so old that we knew we were going to have to replace them. And within a year of owning our current trailer, we upgraded to the F-150, which of course tows a whole lot more.

1 (20m 19s):
And I could've gotten my beautiful kitchen Island with like double slide-outs, et cetera, et cetera. We've lived it. And I still am for that gorgeous Island. But I mean, I'm very happy with my trailer now, but there's, there's a difference between the laminate countertops and corner kitchen that I have now versus this beautiful open concept. Okay.

2 (20m 36s):
And that's probably a good thing to remind. If you have a ten-year old pickup truck that towed 7,500 pounds, 10 years ago, it probably doesn't tow 7,500 pounds. Now it's wear and is going to reduce that number on you. So just keep that in the back of your mind. Another little tip I give you on, even if you're going to purchase a trailer, this works to bring your kids at least once to see the trailer a hundred percent, because if you can take your kids and lay them down on a bed, you'll know if your kids are going to fit, you're going to know how long that bed we'll ask them by actually just laying them down. Yeah. So that's one tip the other tip. And we did this with the truck is we found a non-pressure dealer, a Ford and GM dealer.

2 (21m 16s):
Actually, we did this kind of two different times. Yeah. We put the girls in the back seat. We were upfront when we walked in and say, we're just doing a little bit of preliminary research. We're looking at buying, but we're not going to buy today. Do you mind if we look around and they absolutely let us out blow pressure. And we put the kids in the back seat, and that was probably one of the big determining factors was if they're comfortable in the back seat, it's going to be a lot happier in the front seat.

1 (21m 38s):
And I mean, we have an abnormally tall family. I feel like like our 12 year old is five, eight already. And Fiona is five, seven, and Dan six feet. And I'm five, 10, and leg space is a huge consideration for us when we buy any vehicle.

2 (21m 51s):
So maybe just bring your kids out at least once to try that out. And then when you're ready to go make your purchase, you can leave them behind at home, you know, kind of to get the paperwork done, but at least bring your kids out and make them part of that process. So I think the last thing that you want to just think about is all the potential features. Do you want four by four? Do you want backup cameras? Do you want built-in inverters? I have seen some trucks that have features that will let you turn on the AC and your trailer if it's properly equipped so that the AC is running 20 minutes before you show up at the campground and your trailers. Nice and cool down. Do you need backup assist? Make sure it works Monday to Thursday so that, you know, you can enjoy it properly. On Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. Let me offer a couple other tips about trailers.

2 (22m 32s):
Let's just jump back. And this goes with fifth wheels, RVs, motor homes, manage your expectations around a spring, delivering Canada. If you're in most of Canada right now, chances are, there's a good chunk of snow on the ground. Nobody, you know, the campgrounds are closed. Things are buttoned up tight. Nobody is going out there, but we all know that there's going to be that week in April or may, where all of a sudden the buds come out, the flowers come up, the grass is green, and everybody wants to get out. RV. Dealers can only deliver so many trailers a day. And if you walk in, then expecting to pick up your trailer, make a purchase and buy your trailer and get it a week later, or four days later, you might be disappointed.

2 (23m 12s):
So manage your expectations around a spring delivery. And by that, I mean, think about coming in sooner in the fall or, you know, the early winter to make that purchase know though that if you pick up your trailer in the late fall or at a time when you're not actually gonna use it, the warranty's actually ticking. So you may actually pick up your trailer in September park it, and you just lost six months of warranty because you haven't used it until the end of may. So know that your warranty will start ticking. The minute that you pick up your trailer, ordering a trailer is not like ordering a car. Yes, dealers can order our views 12 of the year, but generally speaking, they order twice a year. They make two big purchases. Yes, RV's are made 12 months of the year, but the dealer and the manufacturer are kind of guessing what is going to be the popular model that year.

2 (23m 58s):
And that's what they order. So some dealers may focus on a specific type, be it fifth wheel, be it motor homes. Some may just offer a good general selection. What I'm trying to tell you by this is shop early so that you can get what you want so that they can try and find what you want, but know that they can't just phone somebody up or the specific trailer that you want. And that you're going to get it a month later, they have to work with what's in the supply chain. And of course, with COVID, it's even just harder with COVID to, to manage the supply chain. And then of course, that trailer still needs to be brought across the border with special drivers. So it's a little bit different than buying a car. And if this is your first new purchase of an RV, just keep that in the back of your mind,

1 (24m 36s):
Think of it this way. Anybody who's ever shopped for a house, you have your list of like what you want in the house, but inevitably before you end up signing on the dotted line, there's stuff that you've compromised on, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you don't enjoy your house. So you've just, you've compromised on certain features to get different features. And I feel like that's the way it is with RVs. I think if I were to make a list of everything I wanted in a trailer, it probably that trailer doesn't exist because just those layouts don't happen. And I mean, we've certainly compromised on some things that we have, but I still love our trailer. So you can still be happy with compromise. Don't feel like if you don't get X, Y, or Z, that the whole experience is ruined for you and you're, you're not going to enjoy what your trailer has to offer.

2 (25m 15s):
Exactly. And I think maybe just think about what do you need in two years? What do you need in five years? What do you need in seven years? Where are your kids going to be? Are your kid's going to be five inches taller or your kid's going to be off to college and university. Are you going to be retired or are you maybe going to be a little busier at work? Think about all those kinds of things and just keep in the back of your mind, is this going to be the right kind of purchase? That's going to let me grow into it. And by that, I mean, I know that maybe it's just a touch big for the kids right now, but they're going to grow. So as they want to bring friends, we can kind of expand the family and the experience into the trailer, or do I know I'm going to retire soon? And so maybe I don't need something maybe, maybe I can do with something that's a little cramp for a year, but I know that we're going to downsize anyways, or we're going to be empty nesters and you're going to contract into that unit and it's okay to go bigger and smaller and up and down and left and right.

2 (26m 1s):
There's okay. There's no right way to do that. So that's, I think maybe what I would just my Sage advice or my wisdom, hopefully people think I'm wise, but that's just kinda my thoughts on that. I think there's probably a few things we wanted to talk about within travel trailers to give yourself a little bit of thought, because we know that we have your conventional travel trailer with hard sides and an a tip out. But within that, there's some subsets. So we have pop-up campers. Do you want to talk about the pros and cons of pop-up campers?

1 (26m 28s):
Yeah, I think, I mean, we started with a pop-up, but it was a tiny trailer, but at that point we were tent campers and that's how we camped. And so a pop-up trailer was like a luxurious step up, but we had like an eight foot box. It was tiny. We still had the two kids, but they were like two and five the time. So they were small as well, but we realized pretty quickly, you know, we needed something that potentially had a toilet in it because, you know, you've heard us talk about our potty. We love our potty. And that was like one of the first things we bought for the pop-up trailer and just the bed was not going to work for our kids. And we didn't want the hassle of having to put up and down the table every day to make another bed or one of the kids. So that being said, I loved our pop-up. I love, I love tent camping.

1 (27m 9s):
Like I love it. I love it. Love it, love it. I love, you know, the sound of rain on canvas. I just, I think it's great. And you still get that feeling, you know, you may not have air conditioning, but we had little fans that were in the, in the ceiling of the box and you could just open up all of the windows and you would always get a cross breeze, like, so there's some really great benefits to opening a pop-up you really feel closer to nature, but up off the ground, you know, we had a little furnace in ours, so it was nice when it got cooler to keep you warm. It's a really simple way to camp. There's not a lot of like gizmos and gadgets to go wrong, but we live in Ontario. It rains a lot in Ontario. So we were stuck with the problem of packing up in the rain constantly coming home. And then you have to Jack the whole thing up.

1 (27m 50s):
You can't just empty it and leave it cause everything will mold. So we would have to Jack it up, set it up, wait for it to stop raining. Then we would hope that we would get enough days between rain, for it to dry so that we could fold it back out while it was dry before it rained again. So that was like a really arduous process for us because we had small kids and we were only doing weekend trips. And I would say probably our trip to pancake Bay changed the landscape for us because that was our first big road trip. And we kind of realized that that that's the way we wanted to travel. We wanted to do big road trips. We realized very quickly that pop-up camping, especially if we wanted to boondock overnight, because we wanted to go down the road further. Wasn't going to work. So we did consider hybrids because to a lot of people who own pops ups like a hybrid camper where you have a hard sided trailer, but like the beds still fold out and you've got the canvas bunks.

1 (28m 36s):
That's kind of the next step for a lot of people. I think who upgrade from a pop-up. But I realized what I hated about the pop-up I would still have to do with the hybrid and that's making sure that I would have to bring in the bunks all the time if they were wet and set them out to dry. And you know, that's a, that's a lot of extra work that I just didn't want to deal with. But that being said, the benefit of a hybrid is that for anybody who lives in a subdivision or who has a very short driveway, you can get a lot of trailer in a hybrid because you don't have the extra length of the bunks and you can probably park your trailer at home. What he was is the fees that you're going to have to pay to store the offsite. So, I mean, there are some benefits, but I think just thinking about how you want to use it is super important, but for us going to a hard sided, hard top trailer was the way we want it to go.

1 (29m 20s):
But we knew we wanted bunks. Like that was a big thing for us was the bunk room number one, because our kids hate sleeping in the same bed together, a number two, because we knew they were both going to be giants based on their growth patterns so far. And number three, we wanted the ability to sleep for kids so that they could each bring a friend as they got older.

2 (29m 37s):
And we've done that. And I think grandpa's used the bunks from time to time, you know, so you can put extra adults in a proper sized bunk in that worked for us. Pop-up trailers. They will fit in your driveway. You can probably get into it for not too much money, but it's probably a little bit more work getting ready and getting home and unpacking and that kind of thing. I think you nailed it with hybrids. I think what I would, you know, even here's one of the things, if your pop-up trailer isn't too big, you might even be able to push it around one thing. And maybe you want to comment on this. Sometimes it's harder to back up a smaller trailer than it is a bigger trailer

1 (30m 10s):
Sometimes all the time. I literally, okay. Now I'm gonna qualify this first by saying like, if we were to do this all over again, would we buy a pop-up absolutely a hundred percent. I would go back and I would do everything the way we did it. Cause I think there were really valuable way to kind of get your foot wet into camping. That's not 10 camping, but that being said, if I ever had to take the kids camping without Dan, like I literally had to find somebody to back up the trailer. And that sounds ridiculous. But like at the touch of a wheel, the smaller your trailer is it'll jackknife, right? Like, whereas if you've got a longer wheel base to deal with, you can, you can kind of course correct as you're backing up a whole lot easier. So you still end up where you want to be. Whereas I would just touch the wheel and the thing would jackknife and I'd have to do it again and again and again, and it would take me like 15 tries to get into the driveway or a camping site.

1 (30m 58s):
And it was so frustrating. Like it made the whole experience on enjoyable. Now somebody might be listening to this going like, that's just cause you can't back up. And that might be, but the mechanics of backing up, I have down, like I've said before, I can literally parallel park our trailer right now. If I, if the need arises our 30 foot trailer and that's totally okay, but still we, you know, you all know we have Sally, our vintage trailer. Who's only 15 feet long and I cannot back up Sally to save my life either. So maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's just me.

2 (31m 29s):
Right. And, but you know, maybe the pop-up trailer and I didn't really talk about this on the length budget. When I talked about how long do you want your trailer to be the shorter your trailer, the more access you have to campsites. So everything's a trade off. So when you have a long trailer like us, we've ruled out a lot of campsites cause we just can't get into them. So then

1 (31m 46s):
That means a lot of like waterfront campsites too. But

2 (31m 48s):
Maybe if you're okay with having to be a little bit more nimble with a pop-up or put a little bit of extra work and you're going to get the better campsite you want, there's no right or wrong way to do this. They're just things that we've learned over the years that hopefully there's one or two nuggets in there that, that help you make that purchase and decide what you want, but certainly wouldn't want you to be intimidated one way or the other. And that's why I tell you that sometimes backing up a longer trailer, it's a little bit more easier than the shorter trailer. Yeah. So there's some things that we would do differently or things that we kind of have on our wishlist or like Molina used the analogy of buying a house or some must haves and things that we would want in future purchases. I think for me having a built-in generator be a big thing, you know, something with a built-in generator.

2 (32m 29s):
So we can fire that up when we're boondocking or camping off the grid would be really cool. And so I kind of look forward to that's my must have,

1 (32m 36s):
And I would say for me, just knowing what I know about the road, where we take and we had the option of this feature and we declined it when we bought our trailer. And number one that was to get the bunk space and a larger shower was the fact that we lost a direct door access to the, to the bathroom, which we thought wouldn't be such a big deal. However, based on the roads we found ourselves on how long we tend to travel in the day. Sometimes we just, somebody's got to go and you need to pull the trailer over. And I shouldn't say sometimes, like it happens a lot that we have to pull the trailer over because somebody just has to use the bathroom. But unfortunately, to get to our bathroom, you have to put out the slide. So I would say that would be top of my list for sure.

2 (33m 17s):
Yup. I think one thing I'd really like, and one thing I envy those people who have ladders up under their roof lateral or no ladder, a lot of trailers have rubber roofs. Those roofs need to be cleaned. Seals need to be checked, having a ladder to get up. There is a lot easier than me having to get the step ladder and do that in the driveway and move things around would just be so nice to climb up there and do it while we're traveling along the road. I'm not going to lie. We've scraped the top with a few branches and it would be nice to easily pop up there and make sure everything was okay without having to stack lawn chairs on top of picnic tables to get a good look up top. So I think a ladder is a big thing for me.

1 (33m 51s):
And it would say for me is that we have a bunk room. And so we have two full sized bunks, but on the other side of the room, there's like a tiny little table that folds down into a bunk. And then there's a flip down bunk that stored up the wall. But those banks are only like half width bunks. The, you can fit an adult on it, but like turning over from side to side is a little uncomfortable when you have a slide-out in the bunk room as well, which does add weight, get full-sized bunks on either side or a couch that folds out into like another queen or a double. I mean, it's not essential, but it certainly would be nice to have. I think for the amount of guests we have ended up entertaining.

2 (34m 23s):
These are things we already have, but they're keepers for me, power awning, power Jack, big thing for me jacking up and down with the hitch system that we have is so much easier, smoother. That's a big thing for me, power awning. We've talked a little bit about awnings and things you should know in past episodes. I'd like the power on and goes in and out. We haven't knock on wood, had too many troubles with it, but I think that's one of the things I really like and would want on our next person.

1 (34m 48s):
One thing that we have that I would definitely keep and do again, is the fact that our interior ceilings are curved and this was something like, I never really thought about it. Like it was, it just felt really spacious when we bought it. But, you know, since we've purchased it and going to the RV shows and into other people's trailers and things, I definitely notice a difference when you have a flat ceiling inside versus a curved ceiling, my brother is six foot five and a half, and he has stayed with us in our trailer and he can comfortably stand up in the trailer, which is, which is like almost unheard of for some trailers. So I just love that feeling of openness. We get with a travel trailer. That's got a little bit of, you know, it's inches. It's not a lot of room, but it just really makes it feel a whole lot bigger.

2 (35m 27s):
Yeah. It's a really good feature that I wasn't even aware of. And I'm certainly glad that we have it. I think I would also take a look at the configuration of your outdoor kitchen. If that's something that comes with your trailer, there's some that are quite tall with cabinets on the outside. Generally speaking, that will cut into the bunk space. Yeah. Or you might have a smaller kitchen that when you realize that you look at the trailer from the inside and the outside that the kitchen is slid in underneath the bar, one of the bunks, which is what we have, which is what we have, and it works, the stove part slides out, and you can easily get to a small fridge where you can keep condiments and drinks, which keeps kids out of the trailer. And hopefully keep some of the dirt down. What you can't do is on our specific model that you can't slide the sink out, which makes it a little bit more awkward to try and wash your hands.

2 (36m 14s):
Especially if you're outside handling raw meat and chicken and cooking, or just want to keep your hands nice and clean. It's a little bit more awkward to try and get that.

1 (36m 24s):
And if you've listened to our episode on like our five favorite cast iron recipes that we did in December, we do all of our cooking outside. Like it's very, very, very rare that we use the indoor kitchen. So the ability to have things like our plates and our cutlery and our cooking supplies outside in that outdoor kitchen with like a larger kitchen, that's got some cupboard space and our coffee maker and things like that would be so fantastic. Like I said, not essential. We get along just fine and it works great. But having that now I realized like, yeah, that really fits with the way that we like to.

2 (36m 53s):
Right. And I think this is about compromises and you're going to have to compromise along the way. You're not going to get everything that you want. So figure out what, what are your, what are your must haves? What do you need 80% of the time to make your family happy, have that on your list. And then just think about some of these other things. And don't be afraid to ask questions. Maybe my last thing, I seem to have this obsession with power, whether it's in the truck or the trailer or a generator is a solar connection. I noticed that comes with a lot of trailers nowadays. And I think that would be really happy just either to keep batteries charged up or camp off the grid, stuff like that.

1 (37m 24s):
<inaudible> and I think using some of these tips and just knowing what's available, like I said earlier, like if I made a list of everything I wanted, that trailer doesn't exist. And I know that, and I know that you're going to see repeated floor plans and whatnot between manufacturers and I know at a glance what's available and what's not. So knowing what you want versus what's actually a possibility before you start looking in a really competitive market. Like I feel 20, 21 is going to be, that is going to help you narrow down your choice and be able to make a decision you're happy with faster when you see the one that you want. And I would say, we haven't even touched on like vans or Overland or is there anything like that? And I think that's primarily because unless you want advice about a 1980 Dodge, 300 camper van that I camped in as a kid, like we don't have van experience and I think Overlanders are super amazing and super cool, but it's just not something that we're familiar with, but maybe

2 (38m 16s):
Someday, hopefully, but maybe that's another episode, maybe a bit of a teaser. We did find this cool thing on YouTube over the holidays about the Pan-American highway that runs from Alaska to South America. We are currently planning it's on the bucket list. Yeah. But I don't think there'll be a 20, 21 trip. No, definitely not. Anyways. That's maybe a little bit of a

3 (38m 36s):
Teaser. What we've been thinking about over the holidays. I think that's it. All right. Get your wallet out and go spend some money. All right. We'll talk to you in a few weeks. Bye-bye bye-bye.