Show of hands....

[Badbird2000]

How many of you started with a hybrid and moved to a TT? We bought our 19XUD March of last year. We love it, but....a few trips have ended in rain, thus requiring a set up when we got home to dry everything out. The dinette is only useful for people under the voting age. Non of these things keep us from going and using it, but I think a trade up may happen in the next year or so. My wife and I sleep in the rear bunk, and it's a chore to make up and even get into after awhile.
Just wondering who here upgraded.

Thanks!
Wayne

[norty1]

You will hear a large variety of stories. We went from a tent to a motor home, then to a tt, then to 3 increasing larger fifth wheels.
We plan to downsize someday but a hybrid is not in the equation for the reasons you have already discovered.

[paul_ottawa]

We went from a 2009 Jayco 1206 tent trailer (which we purchased used in 2016) to a 2016 Jayco x213 (purchased used in 2018).

For us it was mostly because my wife had never really been camping and we didn't want to go too big if she didn't like it. She loved it (hence the upgrade), but the tent ends made camping not as enjoyable. We LOVED the airflow that we could get with the tent trailer by opening everything up, but the rain wasn't pleasant. We did have some leaks (but it was 7 years old when we got it. It seemed to be in good shape, but we did have some leaks in the tent ends). We also had some issues with condensation when we were out in the fall, but from what I have read on here I think we could have managed it better.

Thankfully we only had to pack up twice in the rain, but both times it was our last stop before coming home, but it wasn't too big of a deal. I always made sure it was dry before packing it up, but I also had the luxury of keeping it in my driveway. If it was not bone dry when I packed it up, I would make sure to get it open again as soon as possible to get it completely dry.

The other issue we had with tent ends was in parks with bears. At the end of our first long trip the campground warned about bears and we were not to keep any food in a trailer that was not hard sided. So we ended up moving all of our food into the back of the SUV, which was not the greatest. It was at that point we decided our next trailer would be hard sided, even though we had been looking at going to a 3-bed hybrid.

Our dinette in the 1206 pulled out giving us a nice sized one that I still miss compared to the x213, but being able to store food and not having to worry about tent ends more than make up for it.

Not matter what way you look at it, you'll probably be buying multiple trailers anyway... My salesman said I'd be getting 3... I'm on number 2, but number 3 probably won't be until the kids are done camping (they are 10 and 12 now), so I have a few more years to go.

Happy Camping!

[pcurtiss]

Hey, we totally enjoyed our Starcraft hybrid, and yes, we LOVED the fresh air and sunshine that the screened bed offered--when the weather was nice. But, we were camping on the ocean at Fort DeSoto near St. Petersburg when a big storm hit during the night. The pop-out bed was shaking terribly and it became terrifying for my grandson sleeping there, so we had to pull it in! Plus, things got very wet inside when we had to close it up.
Here's our solution: we bought a toy hauler (Octane 222). We can open the back door, pull down the screen, and enjoy the screen room effect when the weather is nice. But if it's bad, we're safer and dry.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by norty1

Y....We plan to downsize someday but a hybrid is not in the equation for the reasons you have already discovered.

norty1

Are you still going to order the TT & TV in the picture below?
Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Quantum]

We skipped the popup, hybrid and went straight to a x213. Having grown up with camping, I knew that I didn't want any form of tent end. My wife was not a camper and the only way I was going to get her into camping was to have 4 solid walls, not having to deal with wet tent ends or making beds. She (and I) absolutely loved our x213, but with 3 kids we needed to move up to a bigger unit.

[DocBrown]

Having come from tents, then a pop-up, we're now on our second hybrid. No plans to go to a regular TT just yet. It will happen, just a ways off.

We always take the dinette table outside. We've been doing that since our pop-up days. More room inside to move around and we spend most of our time outside anyway. If we do eat inside, we really don't need a table. We sleep in the front bed and use the dinette seat to make the climb into bed easier.

[TWP723]

Originally Posted by Badbird2000

How many of you started with a hybrid and moved to a TT? We bought our 19XUD March of last year. We love it, but....a few trips have ended in rain, thus requiring a set up when we got home to dry everything out. The dinette is only useful for people under the voting age. Non of these things keep us from going and using it, but I think a trade up may happen in the next year or so. My wife and I sleep in the rear bunk, and it's a chore to make up and even get into after awhile.
Just wondering who here upgraded.

Thanks!
Wayne

Very common to upgrade. Always looking for something bigger and better, at least in my case. Started with a pop-up, went to a TT and now my wife has her eye on a new Pinnacle. It's the upgrade game. Happens a lot in the boating industry as well.

[norty1]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

norty1

Are you still going to order the TT & TV in the picture below?
Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

I don't see any kayak racks on that getup!

[Ohiofinlander]

We purchased a 23xb as our second TT, and upgraded 1 year later. Same reasons you brought up.

[mBuxx]

We went from , pop up, to hybrid, to TT within 5 years. Although our hybrid had some soft spots in the floor, we absolutely loved it. I kept it in tip top shape and planned to re do the floors this year and everything would have been like it came out of the factory.

However that little guy was destroyed in an accident which led to our new trailer.

[North of 49°]

Started out in a pop-up, then went to a hybrid and now on to a TT. While our hybrid was nice and it was easy to tow, we just got to the point where it was too much work for us. Setting up and tearing down the bunks, dealing with the condensation and weather, putting away the wet canvas.... Around here, we have four distinct seasons, so any camping early or late in the season means questionable weather, and sleeping under canvas when the temperatures drop to freezing really made us think about what we wanted from our camping experience. With a fully enclosed travel trailer, we're now at the point where we back it into the site, level, chock, unhook, connect the services, open beer.

[Kim Gass]

Car camping in a tent sometimes was far from fun.. We did not want any part of wet canvas that mice can also gnaw. We went right from tent to TT.. The tent for backpacking is in the cellar of the TT as we do use it for canoe excursions while we travel and cannot portage the TT!

[njburn]

Started with a tent, moved to a Trail-Lite hybrid with canvas beds on both ends then to 2007 Jayco 26L with a queen pop out for the wife & I and bunks in the back for the kids. We upgraded last year to 28BHBE and no looking back. It is wonderful not having to deal with the canvas for the reason you said. Wife hated the idea of a popup so we skipped that step.

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by Badbird2000

How many of you started with a hybrid and moved to a TT? We bought our 19XUD March of last year. We love it, but....a few trips have ended in rain, thus requiring a set up when we got home to dry everything out. The dinette is only useful for people under the voting age. Non of these things keep us from going and using it, but I think a trade up may happen in the next year or so. My wife and I sleep in the rear bunk, and it's a chore to make up and even get into after awhile.
Just wondering who here upgraded.

Thanks!
Wayne

We once camped in Pennsylvania in a bear area in our popup and were for once less than careful with cleaning up the food before going to bed (as was the rest of the campground). We left the cooler sit outside. My wife woke me up at 2 am, there was a black bear right under our bunk getting into our cooler. You could hear it sniffing the canvas too. It got some shredded cheese and made off to the next tree 10 feet away. That's when my wife told me: "get the cooler and put it in the car". I stupidly did. In any case, I lived to tell the tale, the good thing was that the bear left after being disappointed the cooler was gone after checking back. It then went on to ravage the rest of the campground, as was obvious the next morning.

We decided to buy a hard side thereafter, especially since we wanted to go to Yellowstone. Would have liked that experience even less with a grizzly. Needless to say, we are also much more careful cleaning up the food outside.

[Badbird2000]

Thanks for all the input guys. We still love our hybrid, but I think a TT is in the mix. It's all a tradeoff, but we too would like to venture out west at some point. We live in east Tennessee and have tent camped in the park, but always very careful with our food (Eagle Scout, wouldn't look good if my family is eaten due to negligence). Overall I am very pleased with Jayco and our dealer has been wonderful.

[Badbird2000]

Looking at possibly a 242BHS.

[Pyrate]

My family is actually doing the reverse. We bought our first camper, a 26BH, ten years ago and will be taking delivery of an X23E next month. The hybrid actually provides more living space with the slide-out dinette and the tent ends/middle. With three kids, DW, and dog, the 26 seemed very small inside.

[jpgale]

I went straight into a large travel trailer with the 32BHDS. We did rent a 26BH and both me and the wife felt like it was a little too small for us. I have spent nights in a tent and even in the bed of a pickup with a Snugtop on it, enjoyed both but much prefer a little more space and a real bed.

[Icyblu14]

We went from a Starcraft hybrid to a jay feather and love it! We had the hybrid when it was just my husband and I, and now that we have 3 kids, we wanted more beds and more space.