So quality is not great on most campers I see and that's going to lead to some woodworking projects in one way or another. Let's hear about the good, the bad & the ugly.
So, trying to get the family camping is like pulling teeth, they all want glamping. Personally, I'm happy if I can just get the humidity knocked down in the summer, a proper camper w/heat & A/C opens up many possibilites. We went to camping world today to look at sub 3000lb pop-ups, the minivan will pull those. First we looked at the 40' fifth wheels and some, actually most, were very nice! Let the kids know these + $90K for a tow vehicle is totally doable but you each get $0.38 from mom & dad when you graduate HS instead of a budgeted bachelors degree. So yeah, writing a check right now for $200K puts a dent in their future not mine. Sorry kids, my retirement first, your education second. Then I though maybe a ~17' regular trailer which in theory would work for the van but pushing it, those actually have less room for sleeping. Then I though maybe a ~30' bunk house +$35-40K for a decent 1/2 ton rig after trading or more likely selling my truck. Anything over ~8K and I'd want a 3/4 ton, the 6.4 gas in the RAM is meh, the 7.3 gas in the Ford appears it cannot be equipped the way I require so that leads me to diesels, new stripped 2wd RAM is $65K and probably eternal lead time, Ford is $74K and eternal +10 years lead time. The used market is full of salvage titles and dreamers. The F150 max towing will on paper tow 14K, I wouldn't but I am wondering how it would handle 10K in real life?
Camping world had no shortage of brands and all looked iffy even if nice, I saw the most apprentice marks on the new Coleman trailers but the higher end ones were not immune. They carried:
1. Coleman
2. Jayco
3. Forest River
4. Mallard
5. Coachmen
6. Keystone
7. Heartland (Pioneer?)
Of what we looked at, I liked the Keystone 34TSB the best but the internet tells me a new 2023 will be $60K, their new 2022 only had the MSRP listed at $74,419 and it has an empty weight of 8660lbs. I'm assuming another 1000lbs rolling down the road with food, water & stocked cabinets which would be a bunch for a 1/2 ton truck, I think? Way says y'all who have lots more experience? My heavy towing experience has been with class 8 trucks and a 500hp Ram 2500 effortlessly pulling a 13K# 48' Featherlite race trailer.