Travel Trailer Recommendations

My wife and I are also tossing around the idea of a camping trailer. Has to be light enough so the Tacoma can handle it safely, but also needs an inside bath with shower (doesn't matter if wet or dry bath, but she would prefer a dry bath if possible), and a queen bed. My biggest issue is that I have benign tumors on my lower spine so bending over or being hunched over can cause severe pain, so I'm looking at headroom specs carefully. After doing a lot of research here, I was looking at the Casitas, Scamp, and Escape trailers, but all of them say they have interior heights of 6' 2", and I'm 6' 2" tall so that may not work for me.

We also looked at total cost vs just doing AirBnB's, and while there is an annual breakeven point, it totally depends on the number of trips taken and how expensive the AirBnBs are. The nice thing about the trailer, is since my lower back is garbage, I would always have my own comfortable bed and seats - which is a gamble in any AirBnB - sometimes those have nice, newer furniture and mattresses, and other times they are 15+ years old and broken down. My wife is also sensitive to fragrances, so the camp trailer checks a couple of boxes.
I think the ceiling heights push me out of the clamshell fiberglass manufacturers like Casita unfortunately, so I'm researching well made, but lighter weight alternatives. I was also a tandem axle fan for stability while pulling, but I see most of the smaller/lighter trailers are single axle only. I wonder how they pull compared to a tandem. Any inputs would be very welcome!

 

A Tab 400 might work for your needs. I have the 320 and it tows great.

 

Look at hipcamp. While most of their listings are bring-your-own camping setup, they do have plenty of trailer/yurt/cabin options that I find to be competitive with AirBnB.

I would also try renting a trailer. I run a pop-up camper that has a ceiling of between 6-5" and 6-8", depending on where the electric winch decides to stop that day. But as a fellow suffering-back club member, I can tell you the potential pitfalls of trailer travelling. It will be the process of throwing down leveling blocks, unhitching and lowering the stabilizer jacks. It can be a 20 minute ballet of bending, stooping, and squatting, and it will ruin a weekend if you aren't prepared to handle it. That's why I recommend wasting a rental fee and trying out a model or two that you are interested in. See if you like it. Its also a good moment to test mattresses. Fair warning, most trailer mattresses aren't spectacular. You might need an arsenal of foam toppers and cheap replacements.

That said, I don't spend huge amounts of time standing up inside. I might spend 30 minutes manning the galley (if its raining out), but the rest of the time I'm either sitting at the dinette, sleeping, or I'm outside. The big discomforts to the ol' back will be during set up and tear down, as I mentioned. (Tear down is actually worse despite being so much faster and easier than set up. You will be groggy, sore, and in a hurry to hitch up. Mistakes will be made.) As far as pulling goes, I love my single axle. Its light, it tracks well on pavement and dirt, and its good on fuel.

 

Spend that big money on the one button auto leveling. A friend had it and I was pretty jealous about his five minute setup after parking the truck.

 

One of those would double the value of my trailer. And also wouldn't help with the crazy spots I seem to pick.

 

Oh, I know the fun of the set up and tear down, LOL. I've had multiple slide in truck campers and camping trailers over the years. Prior to my back issues, I almost exclusively used a Lance slide in on a full size Dodge and pulled our toys behind that (boat, motorcycles, ATVs, etc). Then the back problems started up, and I sold the camper as it was too hard to get in and out of, plus cramped inside. My kids started racing ATVs around that same time, so we ran a 48' ATC aluminum gooseneck race trailer, and later "downsized" to a 27' Desert Fox toyhauler before they all went off to college and moved away. Its just me and my wife now. I would love a self leveling system, but I'm not so frail that I can't handle a little of the set up and tear down, but I will admit, my boys did most of the work when they were racing and I just 'supervised', lol. When I've had to do the set up before by myself, I insured that I had lots of plastic pads for leveling (vs heavier wood blocks), and used a cordless drill on the slow setting to raise/lower the stabilizers, so as not to damage them. And I always had an electric jack up front (that would likely still be preferable, even with a lighter trailer).
At this point, really just trying to see what other types/brands folks have had good luck with, aside from the Casita style trailers.

 

I'm with you on all of these points! In my last trailer, I bought a new hybrid spring/memory foam mattress for the trailer. Easy to install since it "unwrapped" itself on the bedframe. Would definitely do that again if space permitted. Same with the dinette cushions - had the lower ones all redone with stiffer memory foam and it made a world of difference for my back.

I don't spend much time in the trailer at all either, but when I am inside, I just couldn't hunch over. That's almost worse for me than full bending unfortunately. But I like being outdoors as much as possible, so a good awning is also a must have.

Glad to hear the single axles track good! I've only had single axle utility trailers in the past, and some were good and some weren't. All my tandem axle trailers tracked perfectly, hence my little bit of concern. Thanks!!

 

Finally stopped a couple of weeks ago and spent time in some trailers. Looked at several different RPODs and the showers were too short for me to use on almost every one. NOBO's were $$ and not much better for space/layout. Dealer had a lot of layouts with bunk beds, which we don't need/want either so that ruled out a bunch of inventory. My wife really liked a new leftover 2024 22' Dutchman trailer that I think is a little too big and heavy (claimed 4200 lbs dry and no slide out) for the Taco, so we are still on the hunt. We're not in a hurry, so its going to be one of those things where we stumble on the right trailer as we take our time looking. One thing that is certain - these have gone up in price since I last went RV shopping a few years back. Even the pre-owned inventory is spendy at the dealers. While we're looking at models/floorplans, its easier to shop at the dealers. Once we find one we like, I might look elsewhere to actually purchase since prices third party are considerably lower.

 

Well, we ended up going the motorized route (Class C). After a lot of research, we were looking for a Winnebago View or a pre-Thor Tiffin Wayfarer. Found one in Florida that had the configuration we wanted. So, we picked up our 2019 Tiffin Wayfarer on Saturday. 20k miles on it. It drives better than I expected.

 

Nice! Glad you found what you wanted. After going to one of the larger dealers up here to look at inventory, there are so many different options to choose from than just a few years ago.