the driver’s compartment and walk outside in order to enter the living space.
Designers of these trailers, like those who design motorhomes, create different floor plans to accommodate varying lifestyles. There is often an extension over the towing vehicle where two people can sleep, with a small ladder leading up to it. Kids tell me they really like to sleep on the raised bunk. Other furnishings inside the trailer fold up or out of the way to provide more beds. According to Matthew, who is 11, “Trailer camping is the ultimate way to spend the summer.”
Ordinary passenger cars can tow lightweight tent-trailers.
The heavier your trailer is, the beefier your towing vehicle must be. If you’re renting a trailer, the agent will want to know how you plan to tow it, and he may reject your car if it isn’t powerful enough. SUVs, vans and sedans can pull some, but not all trailers, but as the trailers become smaller, the amenities are fewer. The smallest of trailers will have only enough space for sleeping and storage, and possibly a cooler and a chemical toilet, but even a compact car can pull them.
Like motorhomes, the price of a trailer will vary considerably, depending on its size and the amenities inside. In a recent issue of RVLife, I saw used trailers advertised as starting at $9500, but some went above $32,000, and many advertisers did not list price at all. The rental for a trailer from one national company was $89 per night for a trailer that sleeps five, to $109 per night for one that sleeps up to eight. Taxes, propane refueling, and a rented trailer hitch are additional costs.
A pop-up or tent-trailer is a kind of hybrid. It’s a neat, low, solid-looking unit when it is being towed. Once it’s parked in camp, the solid top goes up, fabric walls with sewn-in screens rise, and two or three of the sides pop out to create beds. Although it seems like a tent, it’s a whole lot easier to set up, and the smooth and level floor is bare of little rocks and twigs poking through. There’s lots of room to store things on the floor of the pop-up, even when the top is down and secure. Some models have additional storage compartments accessible from the outside of the unit. Pop-ups come with kitchens; some even have chemical toilets and collapsible shower stalls. These units are much lighter than other trailers, so ordinary passenger cars can tow them.
Pop-ups need to be leveled too, and, even then, walking in the trailer feels like rolling in a boat. Sleeping in a pop-up trailer is almost like sleeping in a tent, except that you have a big, comfortable bed instead of a skinny cot or hard ground. When my friend Christine was an infant, her mother told me, they put her in one of the big beds and piled clothing and duffels on the edge to keep her from rolling out.
Like the people in big motorhomes, trailer campers prefer pull-through campsites. Backing a trailer into its space is really tricky. Gloria told me that her husband never did get the hang of backing up their pop-up tent-trailer. She did it easily, she said, and their 9-year-old son was expert at leveling it.
If you’d like to rent a tent trailer, you’ll have to do a lot of research on the internet and in your local directories. Not many rental agencies carry them. If you choose to buy a tent-trailer, you’ll find it more expensive than a tent, but less than a trailer. At a recent RV show that I attended, the most minimal tent-trailer, one that could be towed by a passenger car, sold for only $1500. A salesman who assured me that his tent trailers were “top of the line” told me their prices ranged from $6000 to $16,000. Before you buy one, be sure you have space to store it.
Truck Campers
A truck camper is like a trailer set on the chassis of a pick-up truck. It, too, may have a sleeping area over the cab. These units are popular with rental agencies. Zach liked the fact that his bed was always available, without having to be converted from a sofa or a dinette. Campers tend to be quite compact, but the manufacturers manage to include kitchens, bathrooms, and ingenious storage and sleeping arrangements. On some units, the whole back wall opens up and a ramp slides out, creating a “garage” where you can tie down a motorcycle, an all-terrain vehicle, or a powered wheelchair.
You often see truck campers towing boats or trailers full of motorcycles or bicycles, but like the motorhome, if you want to drive a camper into town, you’re taking your home with you. Unlike motorhome drivers, whose compartment is open to the living quarters, camper drivers must leave their seats and walk around the back to enter.
An additional concern with a camper is space for the travelers. Unless the cab of the camper has a back seat, there is no space for the family. Ellen’s children like to ride in the bed over the cab of their camper, which she allows on country roads, but on freeways they sit in the back seat of the big cab.
When they were smaller, Ellen’s children shared a bed in the camper or slept outside in a tent with a parent. Now her 10-year-old sleeps leaning back in the front seat of the cab while her 9-year-old sleeps in the bed made up from the dinette, and the parents get the over-the-cab bed.
There is a toilet in their camper, but Ellen limits its use. “There’s only so much you want to deal with,” she explained. If the camp they are visiting has hook-ups and a dumping station, they dump on arrival before attaching the sewage hose. If there is no hook-up, they encourage the use of the camp toilet facilities, and dump just before they leave.
Even though their camper is smaller as RVs go, each member of the family has a cupboard for his or her own clothing, and there’s a big bag for dirty clothes. There’s also ample room for fishing gear, the scooter, books, and horseshoes.
If you already have a pick-up truck, you can add a fully equipped new camper to it for only $8000, an ad in RVLife assures me. This does not include installation. Otherwise, add the cost of the truck of your choice to the price of the camper.
Vans
Who will get to sleep in the “upper berth” of this van?
Another kind of RV that you see less often in the RV shows and in camps is the van that has been converted to or outfitted as a camper. Vans are compact and easy to drive. Alaina’s van has a pop-up top over a bunk where her kids, Oscar and Isabela, both 6, sleep. The kitchen and a double bed are on the main floor. Holly’s EuroVan has a pop-up top with a bed, too, but her kids prefer to sleep in tents outside. When campers with a van arrive in camp, they park; no leveling is necessary. When it’s time to leave, they secure the pop-up top and off they go.
Camper vans are expensive and hard to find. One dealer, who told me they no longer sell camper vans, told me that the last one they sold went for $44,000. I talked to Duane at a company near my home that is a “custom shop.” They convert the van of your choice to a camper. Duane said that no two customers want the same things in their van, and that recent conversion costs ranged from $1500 to $15,000, depending on the amenities that were installed. He said that storage was the biggest concern of their customers.
EXPERT’S ADVICE
Renting RVs
If you’re thinking of renting an RV, Roger Arnell of RV Gold, Inc., recommends renting the smallest RV that can possibly meet all your needs for sleeping and safe travel. This will ensure that you’re comfortable but not paying too much in rental fees or gas for an RV that is larger than you need.
Renting
As a novice camper, you may still be confused or at least undecided about which to choose among the many possibilities—tent, RV, or something in
