Re:Prospective Owners
Geezer,
There are obvious tradeoffs, and you have hit two of the big ones sqarely.
My suggestion is that you take a look at your typical camping patterns. If you find that you are traveling more than you're staying in one spot, and will continue to do so, the scales may tip to the TM for the obvious reasons. If you go somewhere and stay a long time, the creature comforts of the conventional rig may be compelling. The TM isn't uncomfortable by any stretch, and I don't see many conventional units with a king-size bed unless they have a slide-out.
With the conventional rig, we knew our top-end was about 55 mph (and 5.5 GPH) and that every windy day and tight turn through a fast-food joint was going to be interesting. We knew there were some places in the mountains (where we like to go to escape the Texas summers) that we probably couldn't (or wouldn't) want to go. But once we were set up, especially with the slide-outs and built-in goodies, it was a comfortable place to live.
With the fold-downs, we know we can go almost anywhere, and can run as fast as we want. My tach on the 1/2 ton suburban shows exactly the same RPM at 70 mph with or without the TM in tow. 80-85 MPH speeds on the interstate aren't hard to maintain, with no apparent effort. The windy days and the big rigs are no sweat. I have to watch the curbs in the drive-through lanes at Wendy's but usually make it easily.
The TM's aren't as roomy, but our 3124KS is plenty big enough for DW and me and all our stuff. I'd like a bigger/fancier terlit, but that isn't going to happen. Since we don't normally stay anywhere for a long time, and since we are normally hooked up anyway, the capacity issues haven't been an issue for us.
Everybody has their own little soapbox speeches, and mine is that I just don't like to have to keep my camper somewhere other than my house, and sure don't like to pay for the privilege. The TM will go under the carport, and is always where I can do things that I want to do, or make a spare bedroom for grandkids in about 10 minutes (counting the time to hook up and pull it out.)
We have also owned several pop-ups, and the TM goes up and down so much easier and slicker than any of the tent-types that it's not even a contest. The animated segment on the TM website showing the woman doing it with one hand is not an exaggeration.
I don't know if you will like the TM better, but am pretty sure that if you try one and don't like it you will find the resale value to be better than anything else you have owned.
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