Travel Trailers

[MT Runner]

The biggest downside of a hybrid or tent trailer is if you happen to live or like to camp in areas with a lot of bears. Like Yellowstone Park area for example. You'll be eliminating access to a lot of camping spots where hard sides are required. But those are pretty rare. I'm from Bozeman, MT - so I travel there 3-5 times a year typically and there are a number of campgrounds between here and there that don't allow tents or tent trailers. For camping in Utah and Colorado they'd be great. Something I think that's kind of a bummer about them is that almost invariably the tent portion is the bed area. If it were the dining area for example it would be easy to close up at night if you're camping in bear heavy areas. But you can't really do that if it's the beds, which it always is.

Just something to consider if that's important or you live or plan to spend a lot of time camping around Yellowstone or Glacier parks primarily.

That is true, and completely valid, just never anything we’ve really worried about either. Some areas that you mentioned won’t actually allow them, which there is no way around. But we don’t hesitate to use ours in areas we know there are bears as long as they’re not outright not allowed. The biggest trip we do with ours is for just over a week in the general area of West Yellowstone where there are a lot of grizzlies. We just take our precautions.

We’ve never done this because we haven’t needed to, but ours does have a dinette that folds down into a queen size bed also, so we can still use it without the ends popped out and use the dinette as our bed. Not practical if you have a family, but it’d be doable for just my wife and I.

 

[WallyT4R]

As a general rule it is good to stay at or below 85% of the vehicles towing capacity. With a 4 I would also add airbags and of course a brake controller for the trailers brakes at least. An it wouldn't hurt to have some type of anti sway device. Good luck with your choice of trailers but unless you change vehicles I would stick to what all these guys are saying and to the 85% rule listed.

 

[Ausumm]

If you are worried about size....

My wife and I, and our 3 kids... went tent camping on the beach.
We crammed all 5 people and all of our gear and supplies
in my Plymouth Neon (with a roof rack).
It rained 3 out of 5 days...
so we all had to entertain ourselves in our two little tents.
On top of that, our tents, our clothes, and our sleeping bags...were filled with sand.

Spend ONE vacation living like that...
and you'll be damned happy with ANY size camper.

 

[MT Runner]

As a general rule it is good to stay at or below 85% of the vehicles towing capacity. With a 4 I would also add airbags and of course a brake controller for the trailers brakes at least. An it wouldn't hurt to have some type of anti sway device. Good luck with your choice of trailers but unless you change vehicles I would stick to what all these guys are saying and to the 85% rule listed.

Exactly. I didn’t do the airbags, but we do have a weight distribution/anti sway setup on the camper, a brake controller and installed an aux trans cooler to make sure all was good. I’ve never had issues, but like I said, I’m towing somewhere between 3,500-4,000lbs at most, well under the 5,000lb weight limit for the 4.0.

 

[flipflopnfly]

When shopping for our trailer, our mantra was "As small as possible, as big as necessary". Ended up with a 19' fiberglass Escape, and have absolutely no regrets.

The 19 Foot Escape

Don't be scared by the price - it's in Canadian dollars, so cut it by 20- 25% for US dollars.

Escape looks like a nice unit. Fore and aft windows are very, very, very nice to have for vision and ventilation. One in a thousand hardshells have fore and aft windows.

Good size fresh/grey/black tanks, enclosed underbelly, good size fridge/freezer, dual torsion axles, outside storage, dual LP tanks.

Decent ground clearance (and could probably be lifted), 15" wheels. Narrow and lightweight, offgrid and offroad ready.

Decent bathroom and shower, wardrobe.

That's a great little unit, checks off almost every single box on the wishlist for a small trailer. Only thing missing is two sinks and two-door fridge, but that's nit-picky.

It's rare to find a small unit so well setup as that, congrats, wish I had one. Not gonna buy one, spent plenty on a Winnie 1706fb and a '95 Eurovan Winnebago camper conversion the past few years, but that Escape sure checks off all the important boxes.

 

[smokeatrr]

we have been looking at an Oliver travel trailer. They are similar to the escape which are built in Canada. The Olivers are built in western Tennessee. You can contact them to visit the plant.

 

[Glenn Goodlett]

Just got an Ibex 19 QBS

I just got a Ibex 19 QBS. I have not towed it much but lived in it a bunch for work. My 20 Pro has a hard time with the weight, I don't think I would go any heavier than around 4000.

Ibex 19QBS | Forest River RV - Manufacturer of Travel Trailers - Fifth Wheels - Tent Campers - Motorhomes

 

[adventure95004]

03 V8 limited 4x4 240k miles. We have towed 6000 to 6400 with a GV of 11200 or so for 20,000miles mostly out west including a lot up in the Rockies with no issues. we have new airbags, Bilstein 5100's, upgraded discs and pads and Yoko Geolander XL rated tires.
When we go offroad we are well over 7500lbs with water and supplies.
We make sure tires are at correct psi and sway bars are adjusted for load and conditions, we have driven in some pretty brutal cross winds in TX and UT we are really happy with how it tows.
For reference I have towed with everything from CRV to 3500 dually.