For several years my wife and I have discussed the idea of getting a travel trailer. Among our motivations are the ability to take weekend trips to the mountains, have a home-away-from-home for longer trips, and take our dog with us when we travel. I grew up camping, both the roughing-it type and the comfortable type and enjoy both. My wife on the other hand, prefers the comfortable type. If it doesn’t include a regular bed that you can walk around and a regular private bathroom, she’s not interested.
We had been to an RV show a couple of years ago and were looking at smaller trailers that we could pull behind our mid-size SUV with a V6. However, anything that would meet the above requirements would be pushing our towing capacity limit, something that is not advisable when you want to tow across mountain passes. In addition, our homeowners’ association doesn’t allow us to park a trailer in our driveway, so we would have to pay to store one, whether it was 13 or 30 feet long.
We bought a used Ford F150 in December which opened the door to a much larger trailer, but we still had concerns about towing and setting up a travel trailer. Although I grew up around them and have lots of experience towing a boat and other smaller trailers, I had never towed anything longer than 20 feet or heavier than about 3,000 pounds. And I had never been responsible for emptying a holding tank and all the other responsibilities that go along with a travel trailer.
The obvious choice before buying one and committing ourselves to the sales cost, storage costs, and operational costs, was to rent one and try it out. A weekend trip celebrating my birthday and our anniversary seemed like a good opportunity, so we found a 24′ model on RVShare.com and booked it for the first weekend in June. Finding a campsite was another challenge since we wanted full hook-ups, but we were able to secure one at Echo Glen Resort in Poudre Canyon, about an hour and a half away. This was probably because the Cameron Peak Fire last summer burned to within a half mile of the campground, but the campground itself was untouched.
So early on Friday afternoon we picked up the trailer from the owner, who patiently showed us everything we needed to know, and headed out to the campsite. The trailer felt very large at the start and definitely required planning ahead for acceleration onto the highway and for stops, but the 5.0L V8 engine in the F150 handled it fine in tow/haul mode. An anti-sway weight-distribution hitch supplied by the owner helped and before long I became comfortable with the towing experience, despite narrowed lanes for construction on I-25 and on the winding two-lane Poudre Canyon highway. As we approached a tunnel I briefly panicked about not asking the owner about clearance height, but it wasn’t an issue. Arriving at the campground I was able to back the trailer into the site with direction from my wife after only having to pull up and straighten out once.
Setting up the trailer, including leveling, electrical/water/sewer hookups, and extending the slide-out took about 30 minutes but was certainly less work and a lot more comfortable than setting up a tent campsite. We took the dog for a walk around the campground, grilled steaks and cooked s’mores, and oriented ourselves to the trailer. After a restful night, on Saturday morning we drove past burned forest areas to explore the Red Feather Lakes. Returning to the trailer for lunch, we waited out a bit of rain playing cards, then got in a hike before coming back for a grilled chicken dinner. More rain was in the forecast, so we rented a couple of movies and enjoyed watching them in the trailer on Saturday night.
On Sunday we packed up after breakfast and headed back to drop off the trailer. A successful first experience with RV camping under our belts, we updated our wish list in a couple of areas. 1.) I had felt that 24 feet was about as long as I wanted to go, but after getting used to it, I think we could go a bit longer; 2.) however, with the truck being 19 feet, too much longer would rule out certain campsites and probably push the limits of our towing capacity; 3.) related to the above, a queen bed and more room around the bed and in the bathroom would be nice; and 4.) a slide is a must and the layout is key–we would prefer a rear-living model vs. the rear bath that we rented.
The truck did fine, but MPG dropped to 12 from the 18 we usually get even in town, so additional gas costs must be considered. I felt that the work involved in towing and setting up was still worth the comfort, even for only a two-night weekend trip. We would like to rent a different one in the future and try “boondocking” with no hookups to see how that changes the experience. We’ll have to weigh the cost of owning versus renting, but ultimately I think we will want to have a trailer of our own one of these days. I may still go “roughing it” with the guys from time to time, but I have to say that my wife might be on to something with her preference for comfortable camping.
Pathways 