RV Comparison Shopping

I attended the Tampa RV Super Show today and just returned with a handful of brochures. I hoped to see some Trail Manors at the show, but there weren't any. It was a little disappointing, because I had hoped to compare them with several other manufacturers side-by-side so to speak.

Let me say that the selection of small, lightweight travel trailers loaded with options is much larger than it was 2 years ago when we last attended the show. There are 6 or 7 travel trailers that remain on my shopping list, but 3 or 4 have the edge on those.

I've put together an attachment that lists those still on my list with some of the primary considerations. Let me know what you think.

Since I wasn't able to see the Trail Manor at the show, I'm interested in hearing some of your observations concerning my shopping list compared to the Trail Manor features and benefits.

[Barb&Tim]

I know that I could not get a true feeling for what a folding TM was like until I actually made a special trip to see one.

Tim

Edit: Maybe this place has one to look at:


Jim Crandell RV Sales
Phone: 813-629-3333
3332 Paul Buchman Hwy
Zephyrhills, Florida


Seems to be about 30miles or so away from you.
(I would call them first to make sure they still have any Tm's on the lot)

Yes. I believe a trip to Zephyrhills is in our future.

I'll be honest and tell you that the Gulfstream Visa and Aerolite Shuttle 188 are presently at the top of my list with the MPG 181 with the Platinum package in a close third place. Once I am able to actually see the Trail Manors up close I suspect it will move up the list.

If we'd have been ready to buy today, I could have gotten a good deal on the Aerolite ($12k-13K) and they were selling the Gulfstream Visa's like hot cakes for $16.9k. There was a HUGE interest in the Visa's.

[scrubjaysnest]

For us the TM was a no brainer. We were coming off a 6 month trip in a pop-up. We had looked at the r-Pod and a few others and mostly they had two big disadvantages. Less room then our pup and to high of a towing profile. Here in Fl high winds on the highway usually aren't a problem but by the time you get around Ok or Tx they became a real issue for us. Another area of concern is many of the campsites in the National Park system cannot take a camper much over 20 feet so that can create getting a site a big problem. Last year at Glacier it wasn't to bad but once Yellowstone starting shutting down campgrounds in Sept. It was a major head ache. I managed to shoe horn the pup into a site that was more or less level. Then it would take 15 minutes to park the TV on pavement but not the CG loop road. At Yellowstone we saw TT's and 5th wheels that could not open their slides because the sites were so small. For us a camper that is 20 feet long towing and below the cab of the truck but opens to 27 feet of living space was the only way to go. If you want to run that far J D Sanders RV has 3 or 4 TM's on their site. They are about 20 mins north of Gainsville on 441. The prices there a about 15k higher then what an r-Pod or some of the others are you looked at today.

[wbmiller3]

We wanted to have a hard sided trailer that could be stored in our garage. If that is what you want, it narrows your options considerably. If you don't care about keeping whatever you buy in a standard garage, a standard big-box trailer is most likely more economical.

Since your search includes more models than TM, there are other forums which may add more. I have had several trailers but none of these particular models. These look very cool, however.

What are your constraints and expectations? Why do you want a smaller trailer? What are you pulling with? How many campers?

The key differences I noticed immediately with these models were:

Slide - that could add more apparent space but you really have to compare the floor plans and see if it makes a difference to you. Is that important to you?

Couch - Having only a dinette to chill and spread out can be restrictive - this is a factor with the TM but you can easily put the table down. Think about if or where the TV will be and if it will cause an aneurysm to see the tube :-) Some trailers have a very nice foldable backrest for the beds to make it into a quasi-couch during the day.

Oven - the oven adds quite a bit of flexibility to camping. Do you cook? If you had free time would you want to fill it whipping up some redneck risotto (chicken and rice) or maybe a key lime pie?

Full size fridge - Some of these had a smaller fridge with integrated freezer while others had the separate freezer. Bigger is awesome.

Walk-around bed - useful if going to bed at different times or getting up in the middle of the night.

It's ideal to have at least a 20% factor of safety with the limits of the tow vehicle (TV) for GCWR (combined weight) and GVWR.

There is no perfect trailer but you can get very close but it's almost entirely personal once you have the "must have" items.

Have fun.

Matt

If you want to see a 3124 TM in Tampa, you are more than welcome to come by and look at ours. We opened it up today to get a start on spring cleaning, for an upcomming spring break trip. Contact me at emartin at TFC.NET.

[hhoenig]

every trailer you list is smaller than the smallest TM. The 2619 opens to 26'. You will be trailering 1 more foot (19 vs 18) to gain much more space. We had the 2619 for a family of 4 and loved it.
Good luck

You might also consider the Keystone Bullet line of trailers. They have several models under 4000lb dry weight.

What are you planning to tow with? The other thing to remember that all those units do not have a HVAC. Add about 200 pounds for it unless you are not planning to use AC.

To me the biggest downside to the TM are the setting up and knocking down. That means you cannot have a full size refer and everything has to be off the counters before you can fold and go. It doesn't matter how tired you are, you still have to do that before you can skoot.

That said the TMs are nice machines, very light, fuel efficient, and fairly well equipped. The HW tanks are among the few that work with both propane and electricity. Talk about fast recovery!!!