[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by kwatson51

Thank you all for your responses...a lot of sound wisdom here.
And thank you very much Ray for sharing your knowlege and experience...this is an awesome response! It's good to know that there is someone here in the Springs that has personal experience in what I'm talking about.

Most welcome. Mainly because of our extremely high altitudes and very cold nights even in mid summer, Colorado camping is quite different than camping elsewhere in the nation and I felt you needed a very detailed answer to your questions.

After reading your post, I was wondering if the TM was really that much better than a pup. But after digesting it a bit more, I realized that everything is relative ; and even though the TM is not an Airstream (assuming Airstreams are good), the TMs should be a significant upgrade from a pup. Now, I just need to decide whether that upgrade is worth the $$$ of a TM.

When it comes to cool/cold weather camping, a TM is most definitely a lot better than a pup...hard walls (with 1 inch of foam insulation) and glass windows (even thin glass) make for a far warmer, more comfortable interior than canvas walls and plastic film windows. But in subfreezing conditions, a TM is also no Bigfoot trailer with the optional double pane windows and heated, enclosed holding tanks. I've long felt that if the TM company was located in Fargo, ND instead of relatively balmy Lake City, TN, the trailer would have been engineered substantially differently.

As for the worthiness of spending about 2.5 times as much for a TM versus a roughly equivalent high end popup, that was for me a real easy decision: popups simply don't have the real travel trailer amenities like a true bathroom with a true, albeit small shower or holding tanks or an actual living room area like the "SL" (slide, living room) type TMs do. No matter how fancy, the best you can do in a popup is "camp"...in a TM, especially an "SL" TM, you can actually live in near residential accomodations. Having the amentities of a real travel trailer in a vehicle that had the storability and towability of a popup was for me well worth about $15K...especially when that $15K was spread/amortized over a 20 year expected period of ownership.

When I go on one of my hiking/biking/kayaking/mountain climbing trips, I "camp" in name only and I certainly have no interest in "roughing it" in any way, shape or form. When I return to the campground after a 17 mile hike (with 2000 to 3000 feet of vertical), I want fresh made ice for my martini, a hot shower for my body and a hot meal (oven baked lasagna is just awesome on those cold rainy evenings in the mountains)...and a really comfy overstuffed chair to plunk my tired butt in...all inside a real trailer with glass windows and hard walls. But when I return home, I also want to stow my trailer inside my own garage instead of at some expensive RV storage lot where it could be destroyed by our infamous hail storms or cooked by our UV intense sunlight. And as an independent software designer/consultant, I've occasionally taken my trailer on business trips and used it/worked out of it much like at residential hotel (but at a fraction of the cost of those hotels). So for me, the value decision was super easy...huge comfort gains without the other pains of a real travel trailer at a price I easily could handle. I guess it all depends on how highly you value comfort...is the trailer mostly just for sleeping (an off-the-ground tent on wheels) while you do most of the other traditional camping activities outside or do you want something you can actually live in for a week or two.

One more thing -- Did you buy your unit new? locally?

Bought it brand new at the Car Show here in Colorado Springs. Ordered it through them at the annual RV show so got a decent (about 15%) show discount off list price.