Ok who has one that can tell me the good and the bad about them.
Wife and I are considering getting one because they are light wt. easy to tow.
Ok who has one that can tell me the good and the bad about them.
Wife and I are considering getting one because they are light wt. easy to tow.
I had a buddy with one. He loved the fact that it really opened up the main space with the beds out of the way. He hated the canvas over the beds. Had to be dry before you put it away like a popup.
I have a Surveyor 26ft Hybrid with a bunkhouse in the back, sleeps 8 as it came, pretty roomy, had a queen bed in the hybrid area that opened up, couch and dinette both made twin beds, and 4 bunk beds in the back. I can't stress enough how bad an idea a hybrid is, almost impossible to keep it cool during the summer, and hard to keep the hybrid bed area warm in the winter, plus the canvas part has lots on condensation during the winter, any time the camper moves, you get hit in the face with ice water drops... I've tried a thing called a popup gizmo and other ways to insulate and cover the canvas part and nothing has really worked well. I've had a pop up before and liked it better than the hybrid we have now, I really wish I would have gotten a lite travel trailer, minus the hybrid. I had a leak in the bunk house area of mine and decided since I had to take the bunks out to repair the floor, I'm leaving 1 bunk for storage\my 5 year old to sleep and putting in a permanent queen bed with storage and a nice wardrobe\drawers, so I can stop using the hybrid part of the camper.
My recommendation would be to find an ultra-lite travel trailer with a permanent queen bed, less chance of leaks, no hassle of folding and unfolding bed, easy to keep warm\cool... FYI, my trailer weighs 4000# empty and around 5500# loaded to go for a week. We tow it with a Nissan Armada full size V8 SUV and it tows great and very easy to maneuver, the camper is 28' hitch to rear bumper.
We had a Jayco 17A for a number of years. It's a small 17' hard shell that opens on the front and back to give an open length of about 25'.
I agree with the problem heating and cooling one. The hot/cold air seemed to hang around the hard shell area so we always had to have a fan or fans running to circulate the air. We never had the condensation problem that Stephen mentioned though. Another con is the noise. I'm a super light sleeper and since there's only canvas separating the beds from the outside, it's noisy. On rainy days, it's tough having adults, kids and dog in a small area.. Pros, nice an light, easy to tow, has every convenience of any other camper just in a smaller package, easier and cheaper to store.
Tom
Tom,Originally Posted by TomM
We had a Jayco 17A for a number of years. It's a small 17' hard shell that opens on the front and back to give an open length of about 25'.
I agree with the problem heating and cooling one. The hot/cold air seemed to hang around the hard shell area so we always had to have a fan or fans running to circulate the air. We never had the condensation problem that Stephen mentioned though. Another con is the noise. I'm a super light sleeper and since there's only canvas separating the beds from the outside, it's noisy. On rainy days, it's tough having adults, kids and dog in a small area.. Pros, nice an light, easy to tow, has every convenience of any other camper just in a smaller package, easier and cheaper to store.
Tom
I think my specific issue with condensation is due to me only having one Canvas popup, when running the heat, it's all escaping out that one end of the camper and causing the condensation, at least that's my theory, I never had an issue in my pop up.
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