Trailers, Campers and RVs… | Page 5 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Trailers, Campers and RVs…

What’s cooling the market is rising interest rates. No more cheap money from your line of credit and the value of your house going down has sobered up folks from throwing caution to the wind for toys.

The perfect storm was high demand and low supply related to supply chain issues.

Things have levelled off.

Back to camping, I prefer smaller units that can park anywhere. As long as we sleep off the ground, don’t care much.


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PrivatePilot said:
Honestly, quality and longevity, and better resale value and "cachet" aside (they are the Harley's of the trailer world), Airstreams don't appeal to me due to their lack of slides and overall living space. They're like trailers from the 70's and 80's, pretty fixed.

Slides add complexity and such, but wow do they ever expand living space - our 5th wheel had a super slide down the entire drivers side of the trailer that expanded the entire main living area to basically double it's width.

A lot of trailers also offer slides in the bedrooms (so you have space down the sides of the bed instead of a sliver of space to shuffle around in), kitchens, kids living areas, etc.

It makes a huge difference.
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I have avoided slides as I do not want to deal with the leaks and hassle they look nice but I have never really missed them.

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One of the reasons we started looking at things now is because things are returning to ‘normal’ and prices should stabilize.

Unfortunately the people that overpaid ‘know what they’ve got so don’t lowball me’ will be in for some pain before they accept reality.

Or things will turn around and the market will spike again. Not sure. But my mortgage went up 400/month in the last 6 months.
 
Scuba Steve said:
I actually noticed the rentals dried up this year on our trailer only 2 all summer
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That’s all we had as well, but that’s all I really aim for anyways as I don’t want the thing gone all summer and not be able to camp ourselves. And I have a fairly tight target audience - the mature / retired crowd. They don’t care about my hefty damage deposit, and they take care of the trailer.

Both were fairly long rentals - a 1.75 week trip within Ontario, and it just got back last weekend from a 3 week trip out to Saskatchewan. Between those 2 rentals it paid for a good majority of our own travels this summer.

But yeah, overall inquiries were down this year. No surprise with travel being available again now and $2.25/L gas at one point.

As for slides….in 8 years owning our 5th wheel I literally did nothing except lubricate the rails. No leaks, no issues. The technology has come a long way.
 
Mikedezo44 said:
Depending on usage and distances you plan to travel maintenance, storing it, etc it will probably be cheaper to drive the odyssey and stop at reasonably priced hotels/motels... Ontario parks book up in a matter of minutes for the coming summer when they are released in the winter, limiting your places to stop. For a powered site these days can easily run $50-$60 or more per night, plus extra fuel for towing. Nothing is cheap anymore.
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We just did 5 nights at Arrowhead Provincial Park with our little Hybrid trailer. Was a touch over $250 all in including the online reservation fees. Of course firewood, gas and other extras add on. Just the same all 5 nights came to less than some hotels are charging nowadays.

Provincial Park is hydro so we use a wagon plus a few waterjugs (Reliance desert patrol model you can find at Canadian Tire) refill the water through the trip. We also have a tote and store portable black/grey tank so I can empty my tanks on a longer stay. Conservation Areas have sites with hydro and water but they cost another $9 or so per day.

If you want to tow with your minivan get a transmission cooler installed and an electronic brake controller. Look into hybrid campers. Ours is a 17 ft model and we are going to a 25 ft traditional travel trailer next. There are some models with 3 fold out sections so 3 different bed areas. Would work great for that many people and just fit into your weight rating.

Our trailer has more than paid for itself over the years and has held its value very well. I am literally a happy camper.

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Got a pic of your trailer @Zoodles95 ?

Thanks everyone for the recommendations and suggestions. Always love hearing peoples experience.
 
mimico_polak said:
Got a pic of your trailer @Zoodles95 ?

Thanks everyone for the recommendations and suggestions. Always love hearing peoples experience.
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Will post. Ours is easily towed by a minivan. 2 queen beds and the "dinette" also turns into a bed. The main drawbacks to our trailer are the limited space in the "common" -aka non sleeping- area(s) and the smaller fluid tank sizes. However, it has "surge brakes" so no need for an electronic brake controller. Also, even though it is about as small as a Hybrid trailer gets it still has most features you would want: full bathroom, furnace, ac, stove, microwave, etc. We has the furrnace on our second last night on this recent trip as it was +3 C and it was still okay in there.

I am at the New Order concert ronightwith the Mrs. Will post some pics when we get back. Not sure how to post pics from my phone so I use my laptop to post pics.

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Here is the little happy trailer on an earlier trip this year. I think this was Awenda.




Some trailers have a propane "tap" so that you can hook up an external BBQ, Stove etc using the propane on the trailer. As you can see we don't have that so I use a 20 lb tank and the vast majority of cooking occurs outside using the old Coleman stove from our tenting days. There is a 3 burner stove in our trailer but with the trailer being so small it is a pain to cook in there. I do use it but more often than not it is during my solo trips.

One advantage of something like a popup or hybrid is that it can easily fit into some crazy small campsites and then you open them up after you are level.


This is what we use to refill the fresh water tank at a Provincial Park.



We do this for our potable water. The fresh water in the tank is used for washing dishes, toilet, bathroom sink etc.


Various pics of the inside:









Jayco 17C model. Over the years I have had to:
-Apply new Dicor to reseal the roof seams.
-Replace the microwave
-Replace part of the water pump
-Replace the CO/Propane alarm
-Replace the bathroom faucet (had to do this just before our most recent trip).
-Replace the tires, brakes, backing plates, and relubricate axles.
-Awning fabric was replaced right before we took delivery
-Used awning tape to repair some minor pin holes in the vinyl fabric over the bed ends. Awning tape is some crazy stuff. Still holding on 5 years later without fail.

Then there were the minor upgrades we did:
-Upgrade from 1 30 lb Propane tank to dual tanks with auto changeover.
-Add the stove cover to try and get some additional kitchen workspace.
-Use a Costco memory foam mattress overlay on the bed we use.
-Vent cover over the bathroom vent so that the vent can be open without rain coming in.
-The old bathroom faucet finally bit the dust. Instead of fighting with cartridges of the cheap OEM unit I decided to just replace it.




We still love camping with the RV. At our old house we kept the trailer there from May until October and then took it to a temp winter home. Now we keep it in the driveway all winter long so I go in every few weeks to make sure all is still good in the offseason. I use Irish Spring soap, fabric softener sheets and some other silly things to try and keep the rodents at bay. Touch wood, we have never had any rodents take up residence in the trailer yet.

One advantage of a hybrid over a popup is that you always have access to the main part of the trailer so it is easy to load the fridge before a trip, pack your clothes etc. Heck, you can even use the bathroom enroute if you want to.
 
Old acquaintance was a mechanic at “Hitch House” , he did brake and engine work, but the number two warranty repair on RVs is the slide outs . First is on for more electric issue


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He also said almost every slide unit repair was poor judgement by owners , opening without clearance, closing without interior clearance and complete lack of maintenance. Sending a tech to a park so someone can get a jammed slide closed for was a regular thing


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crankcall said:
He also said almost every slide unit repair was poor judgement by owners , opening without clearance, closing without interior clearance and complete lack of maintenance. Sending a tech to a park so someone can get a jammed slide closed for was a regular thing


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I believe that. It is important to practice setting up and taking down your rig and making sure everything is properly set up.r stowed after.

If our next unit has a slide I would seriously consider adding a slide topper which is essentially a roll out awning for the slide so as to avoid having to sweep debris and leaves off the slide before stowing it.

As another poster mentioned delamination is a common issue with trailers and ours has the same issue in a few spots. Not worth the $ to fix. Airstreams or something like a Lance would likely not suffer from this (Airstream obviously not) but $$$$.

Since we "couple camp" most of the time we are looking at a sterotypical style.enclosed travel trailer sans slide. There are 2 very similar models with a north/south orientated queen in the front with small side stands and kitchen bathrom in the middle and the rear has a jack knife sofa if you have a guest and a full dinette which also converts into a bed if needed. No more having to put out the beds in the driveway after a trip because it was raining when we broke camp.

Jayco Jayflight 212 QB and Palomino Puma XLE Lite 20 RLC are the leading contenders. Both 26 ft or shorter, no slide to deal with and small enough to fit into where we camp.

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Just read the whole thread, this is "overwhelming" lol
I might just stick to tenting lol

As the kids get older i'll try to get them more into backpacking, a lot easier to travel light and camp i guess!?

We do have a "glamping" setup that we use 3-4 times per year. But for the whole trailer thing, since we have a station wagon and family of 4, i don't think it's gonna happen since we're trying to stick to being a 1-car household as long as we can!

I'll probably consider the rentals as the kids get older maybe. My sis in law does it (rents hers out)
 
crankcall said:
Sending a tech to a park so someone can get a jammed slide closed for was a regular thing
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Almost all slide issues are incredibly simple fixes. Most common issue is a shear pin on the cross shaft that has...sheared.

But so many people are so incredibly hopeless when it comes to fixing anything on their own, or even looking at it and figuring things out.

I see it all the time on the FB owners forums for the rental platforms - people (and the OWNERS nonetheless!) often post questions about how to fix something that a renter broke, or is broken during a trip. Some of the incredibly simple stuff just blows my mind.

Owning an RV is so much simpler when you are handy. But I see people taking trailers to dealers and waiting months (during prime camping season) for things they could have fixed themselves in 30 minutes if they'd take the time to learn how. It's nuts.
 
Think motorcycle ( yeah I know) , boat, RV , house repair , cottage . There is an entire generation, or two , that have missed the handy gene .


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crankcall said:
Think motorcycle ( yeah I know) , boat, RV , house repair , cottage . There is an entire generation, or two , that have missed the handy gene .


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I dont consider myself very handy. But my father wasn't/isn't handy at all.
Then i worked in restaurants, did more gardening, started doing things here and there on the car/motorcycle like brakes, suspension, oil change, etc. Heck even things on my bicycle i didn't wanna play with

It's just so gratifying.

And with the age of youtube and the interwebs, there are less and less reasons to NOT do it. Where my in-laws are from, there was no "home builder" they built their homes, and that's just 1-2 generations (ie. my wife's grandparents). I learn a bunch from them and i feel less useless as a human.
Problem is, not a lot of people have access to those "resource" people to instill confidence.

Then you have the time factor too...
we got a family member to build our deck in the backyard... 14 x 16. Him and his wife do it for a living and they got here at 9, materials got tehre at 930, and they were completely done at 2pm
For a lot of people that would take weeks of doing a few hours here or there and figuring it out.
 
I make a very tidy beer fund building running rigging for boats and designing’systems’ for boats that want to run spinnakers that never had them , and sorting diesels out for guys dumber than me . My handi gene was growing up with farm stuff and then being very poor when first married.
I’m pretty happy when I meet other people that like to do stuff and save a bunch of money , and usually inconvenience.


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crankcall said:
I make a very tidy beer fund building running rigging for boats and designing’systems’ for boats that want to run spinnakers that never had them , and sorting diesels out for guys dumber than me . My handi gene was growing up with farm stuff and then being very poor when first married.
I’m pretty happy when I meet other people that like to do stuff and save a bunch of money , and usually inconvenience.


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I can't remember the context but, to be handy, it helps if you were born north of highway 7.
 
My largest issue with fixing mechanical things (on the car or bike) is typically finding the issue. Replacement is easy….finding is a pain.

Which reminds me I need to fix the damn fan in the bathroom.
 
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