Switching from tent to trailer

[AdventureGirl55]

Hello! My husband and I have been tent camping in predominantly the PNW for over 30 years. For the most part, it has always been a terrific experience. However, now that we are in our mid fifties, the middle-of-the-night trips to the restroom in the rain and packing up a wet tent to move to a new location further on down the road are beginning to lose their appeal.

We have a 2008 Toyota 4Runner with a tow package for our TV to start with and are currently exploring both the Jay Flight 145RB Baja and the 175RD Baja.

We've been to numerous dealerships, looked at a lot of models and thought long and hard about how we camp and live.

I'd love to hear feedback on either of the models if you own or have owned them. We are minimalist campers (although more creature comforts have slipped in the past few years) who have had only two or three man hiking tents for decades. We like out-of-the-way campgrounds and think that dry camping and solar would definitely have a place in our adventures.

I have enjoyed reading this forum and am looking forward to our first trailer purchase. Being able to stand up and change your clothes while camping is an appealing concept.

[WinnieView]

Welcome to JOF, we are glad you joined us.

[norty1]

Welcome to JOF. I can't help you with the choice but I would advise to not get a camper that your present truck can handle in addition to a floor plan that suits your needs.

We were tent campers for years and a friend loaned me his motor home many years ago. One night in that and my wife decided that our tent days were over and so they were.

Now if I tent camp it is with my sons and grandsons.

[Ohiofinlander]

We camped over the weekend with high temps. not reaching the 40's. Boy was the TT nice when the rains came. Felt sorry for the tent campers, as we've spent many trips as they did trying to stay dry and warm in our tent camping days. We are in our 50's as well and glad we made the jump into a x23b. Tow it with a Trailblazer now, but will likely go to a Silverado for our next vehicle.
Happy Shopping!

[Isaacs]

Welcome! Have you considered a small hybrid similar to what we have? The tent ends will give you lots of ventilation on nights when you have no electricity. Two queen beds gives you lots of room without crawling over each other for the nocturnal potty trips. Whatever you get, you'll want to watch your cargo capacity on the 4Runner. You can expect about 400 pounds of hitch weight plus you and all your stuff.

[wags999]

I would see what your 4 runner will handle. Checking the drivers door post you will find a yellow sticker with cargo capacity as built on it. That is the total amount of weight your vehicle can handle, including passengers, cargo AND the loaded trailer (with propane and water, and batteries) tongue weight and your hitch. Typically the cargo capacity is reached much quicker than towing capacity. Once you know this number you can then make a better choice as to what TT will work. Know that typically the tongue weight is about 12% - 13% of the total weight of the trailer loaded.

If your going to be camping off grid, water both fresh and gray and black will be something you also want to look at. You may want to add a 2nd battery also, so if it's cold you have some extra capacity to run your heater. This needs to be calculated into your cargo and tongue weight.

Happy Camping your going to love having a dry warm and comfortable bed. And the bathroom is a HUGE plus.

[jasum]

You are definitely going to love the switch!!

[trashman]

Welcome to the forum! and we love pictures with the posts.

[JtlBean]

Adventuregirl, we just picked up our 175rd (Not a baja however). And we moved from our pop-up for the same reasons you are moving from a tent. This seems to be a great layout for us. We like the nice dining/hanging out area and how it's separated from the bed area. Well, as separated as can be in a small TT. We were able to find room for all of our stuff. Plenty of storage. We are also towing with an SUV (Chevy Traverse). To be fair, I haven't towed it far yet but the drive home from the dealer seemed comfortable. I'll know more after this upcoming weekend when we take it for it's first outing. Good luck with your decision!

[Iraq 69]

Welcome to the zoo from MO

[Mustang65]

CONGRATULATIONS on the JAYCO!!!

...and WELCOME TO JOF!!! The members here are GREAT!!! There is a lot of GREAT information to be found here. I am sure that you will have information and pictures to share with us... so please do!!

If you are thinking of dry-camping, add a second battery as mentioned earlier... Same MFR/Model/Amp Hours, that is an investment well worth the money.

Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[jkaras7]

Welcome to the JOF. You will be happy you moved up from tent camping. Enjoy!

[TWP723]

Welcome to the JOF! I remember the tent camping days all too well. One bad experience was the deciding factor for us getting into a camper. It was the best decision we've ever made for our family. The time spent in the outdoors with family and friends is priceless. It's even better with a dry, climate controlled place to sleep!


Enjoy the forum!

[bankr63]

Hello and welcome to JOF!

We were wimpier than you, deciding to crawl up off the ground in our 40's, but we never wax nostalgic for the tents - mostly because my sis (now 60) still camps with us in a tent, and I hear the moaning from the aches and pains after about 2 nights!

That is a nice little trailer that is well within the capability of your TV (5000lb V6, 7000 lb V8).

The one question I would have is "has hubby actually laid down on the bed?" I quickly ruled out the SLX7 line last time we were shopping because, at 6'3" (and shrinking) I am longer than the bunk and that would drive me crazy pretty darn quick since the bunks are side-to-side.

When considering how you would live in each, think about the seating vs bed space. If you don't need the extra seating space of the 145 during the day, I would go with the 175 with its separate bunk. Stowing everything away and breaking down the dinette for the bed every single night also gets pretty old pretty quick (did that for 8 years in our pup).

Ultimately it's the little things that make or break your love affair with your camper. Choose wisely and it will serve you well for years to come.

[Kim Gass]

We too moved up from a three man tent ( for two), backpacking style. We got the larger 195 as we wanted a queen walk around bed. Crawling over a body is not what we now want to do.

Hybrids weren't attractive to us. As we were planning a visit to Alaska where some CG require either a bear fence for soft sided units or a hard sided unit, we went with the hard sided unit. Often its cold and I didn't want to sleep suspended over cold air.

We do dry camp with a generator. In our neck of the country solar just isn't practical.. (I watched one guy adjust his solar panel placement each 15 minutes on the coast of Maine in a campground.. dang tree shadows.)

We never added a second battery. We found that with our tenting canoe camping background we really don't need much electricity.

We started with our cooking setup from ...backpacking and added as we felt we "needed" more conveniences. We did add a toaster and coffeepot but neither were really needs. We added a second set of plastic glasses.

To beat all, the backpacking tent and sleeping bags and pads and backpacking stove and Helinox chairs and table are in the trailer storage too.. Often we do a backcountry canoe trip in the middle of a trailer journey.

The generator was one thing we bought that now I'm not sure was necessary, but it comes in handy for more than four days out, where the battery is not enough to...power the awning.. Once we had to get the thing out of the truck as we wanted to leave towing the TT but the battery was too low ( I am sure this is not advised!) to pull the awning in.

And I sorta wish the awning were not there.. The bug tent we have is pretty awesome.( from tenting days)

So we do both now tent and trailer. I really like the hard side for the cozy warm feeling when its lousy and raw out.