Question:
anyone? We are looking to buy a good new tent trailer and would love
to get some biased or unbiased input. We are in Canada and our price range
is up to about $15,000, including tax. Any good dealers in and around
Calgary? What options would you recommend?
Answer:
-The $15K ones are usually very heavy. Can you handle the weight?
I bought a 99 Coleman Westlake for my first camper (1999$CDN 13K taxes out).
All in all we are pretty happy. We have 4 kids so we love the sleeping
capacity (9.) It is loaded with 3 way fridge, 2 stoves, shower/toilet,
furnace, hot water heater, external shower, etc...but it still fell within
the technical weight limit of our mini-van. (Try to keep it at 75% of
capacity instead.) It was fine on the flats, but I know we would have never
made it over the Rockies.
If I had known that we would be doing more traveling than "camping", we
would have bought a small travel trailer (for about $1-2K more.) A year
later we upgraded our mini-van to a mid-sized van. If we had made our
purchase decisions in reverse order, we probably would have bought the
Niagara with the storage trunk and sliding dinette (3200lbs.) I think
owners with small front beds or front storage trunks can stay hitched with
the camper open. This would be great for travelling. Most models don't let
you get at your fridge when the camper is folded down - but some do.
I looked at several brands of trailers and I figured you got what you paid
for: either in features, quality or north american warranty. The bigest
factor is finding a dealer (of any brand) that you can trust.
-We have a '98 Coleman Mesa, and bought pretty much the basic unit, saving us
lots of $$. You should choose the options depending on the kind of camping
you do. Here's what we didn't pick as options, and our reasoning:
1. Basic pump sink, no hot water heater/tank. Although it would be nice to
have a hot water heater, we use an electric 30 cup coffee pot for heating
water -- usually outside -- and that gives us plenty of hot water, and uses
the campground's electricity. And there's less winterizing to do, and less to
maintain.
2. No bath or shower. Yes this would be nice, especially since I camp with
my wife and 3 daughters. However, they want a little more privacy (and so do
I) than the typical tent bath's offer. We'll probably move up to a "hybrid"
in a few years for that reason. Personally, I'm happy with a clean campground
bathhouse.
3. No roof-top air conditioner. This depends on when, where and how often
you camp. We usually need the air conditioner on only a couple of trips a
year. However, in many instances, we either don't need it or can't use it (in
State Parks with no electricity.) Rather than hauling a large air conditioner
around, I built a shelf and bracket that holds a standard window air
conditioner up to the side of the camper, next to the front door. It is
entirely supported by the camper, and plugs into the outside outlet. I attach
clear vinyl (with magnets) to mask the portions of the screen around the
unit. I can operate the controls by slipping my hand between the screen and
the unit. The screen and canvass are not cut or modified in any way. On
trips where I need air conditioning, I'll just take along an old 7,000 BTU
window unit and set it up. It works great, costs lots less than an installed
model, and stays home when I don't need it.
4. No slide out. I wish that they had more options like this when I bought
mine, because we could really use the additional space inside.
One VERY IMPORTANT feature to us is the ability to load and unload the
refrigerator while the camper is folded up. On many of the units we looked
at, the sink unit folds down over the fridge, making it necessary to open up
the camper each time you want to access the unit. What a hassle! When
looking at campers, we made sure that we had plenty of storage access when
folded up, by climbing through the little door. On a typical weekend trip,
we'll plug in the unit the night before. My wife will load the fridge and
slide all of the storage containers into the "cargo" area of the folded
camper. (we use large storage bins that are waterproof so we can leave them
outside at the campsite.) We just unplug and go, switching the fridge to 12V
on the road, and then to either gas or electric at the campground. When we
return home, unpacking is just the reverse, without unfolding and cranking up
the unit.
