Litre
08-01-2012, 09:25 AM
The wife (32-years-old) & I (33-years-old) decided to upgrade from tent camping to a TT. When shopping for one, we had a few criteria:
Small (18-24')
Open floorplan (no "rooms")
a slide
bathroom on the opposite end of the trailer from the bedroom
walk-around space around the bed
as inexpensive as possible
After doing about 3-months worth of shopping, we narrowed it down to three: The Keystone Cougar Xlite 21RBSWE (http://www.keystone-xlite.com/index.php?page=floorplans&coast=west&model=21RBSWE), The Dutchmen 202RBS (http://dutchmen-rv.com/index.php?p=floorplans&model=202RBS&coast=west), and the Keystone Springdale 212RBL (http://www.keystone-springdale.com/index.php?page=floorplans&coast=west&model=212RBLSWE). The Cougar was our favorite, but was marked at Camping world ~$2-3k above the Dutchmen, and as a result, was quickly eliminated. The Dutchmen was the front-runner until we looked at another lot and found the Springdale, with basically the same floor plan as the Cougar, with some minor alterations.
Since it was basically the same price as the Dutchmen, it was a no-brainer. We agreed to purchase the trailer on Saturday, and picked it up yesterday.
My wife and I are total and complete newbies. The total amount of trailer-pulling experience I had prior to picking it up was watching my father tow our 21' sailboat when I was a kid. Luckily, my Tundra didn't hesitate a bit, and with all of niceties that come with the tow package on my truck (tow mirrors, back-up camera, tow-haul mode, and the ability to manually select which gear to be in), it made this newbie's life a lot simpler.
We've put together a spreadsheet prioritizing what we need to get before we head out on our first trip (it's like buying for our first apartment together!). We figure within a couple weeks, we'll head out. We're planning on going to a few sites with full-hookups first, so that we can try everything out, before we endeavor to dry-camp/boondock.
Here are a few pics. Pardon the quality, they were taken with cell-phone cameras. Hopefully we'll have more in the near future!
http://i50.tinypic.com/2nip8k1.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/21b2neu.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/dczbx4.jpg
Small (18-24')
Open floorplan (no "rooms")
a slide
bathroom on the opposite end of the trailer from the bedroom
walk-around space around the bed
as inexpensive as possible
After doing about 3-months worth of shopping, we narrowed it down to three: The Keystone Cougar Xlite 21RBSWE (http://www.keystone-xlite.com/index.php?page=floorplans&coast=west&model=21RBSWE), The Dutchmen 202RBS (http://dutchmen-rv.com/index.php?p=floorplans&model=202RBS&coast=west), and the Keystone Springdale 212RBL (http://www.keystone-springdale.com/index.php?page=floorplans&coast=west&model=212RBLSWE). The Cougar was our favorite, but was marked at Camping world ~$2-3k above the Dutchmen, and as a result, was quickly eliminated. The Dutchmen was the front-runner until we looked at another lot and found the Springdale, with basically the same floor plan as the Cougar, with some minor alterations.
Since it was basically the same price as the Dutchmen, it was a no-brainer. We agreed to purchase the trailer on Saturday, and picked it up yesterday.
My wife and I are total and complete newbies. The total amount of trailer-pulling experience I had prior to picking it up was watching my father tow our 21' sailboat when I was a kid. Luckily, my Tundra didn't hesitate a bit, and with all of niceties that come with the tow package on my truck (tow mirrors, back-up camera, tow-haul mode, and the ability to manually select which gear to be in), it made this newbie's life a lot simpler.
We've put together a spreadsheet prioritizing what we need to get before we head out on our first trip (it's like buying for our first apartment together!). We figure within a couple weeks, we'll head out. We're planning on going to a few sites with full-hookups first, so that we can try everything out, before we endeavor to dry-camp/boondock.
Here are a few pics. Pardon the quality, they were taken with cell-phone cameras. Hopefully we'll have more in the near future!
http://i50.tinypic.com/2nip8k1.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/21b2neu.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/dczbx4.jpg