What travel trailer for full time trip?

[ktn1966]

Plenty of people out here doing it. You can also. As far as Europe, would buy in Europe and sell in europe. There will be a loss but way cheaper than renting. We looked at going recently but other plans came up.

Keep in mind that all these weights are without two adults, two small children and a small house load of all your stuff, kids stuff, extra trailer stuff, food stuff, and all the other stuff you will need for day to day living. Pick a vehicle combination that gives you wiggle room for the days you all eat at the buffet.

We recently ran in to a couple with three young kids seeing all 50 states. The family had a mid size class c that towed a compact car. It was just the perfect size to be able to get in to Boondocking sites. I am sure the gas tank bill was large but that is the trade off. Find something that fits but don't compromise on safety.

[Searching_Ut]

Your dream trip sounds like a blast, but I think you would enjoy just doing either the stateside, or Europe one.



A lot regarding how to do the trip depends on your family. With your wife being British, and your having experience living over there you're at a great advantage. I spent a year stationed with the Air Force in Germany back in the 70', and a total of 9 years over three tours of England. Used all my leave exploring over there. My greatest adventure was touring the continent by backpack mostly staying in Hostels, but occasionally just in the sleeping bag on the beach etc. (They frown on that in Monte Carlo).



For your summer months in Europe, a tent might actually be a good option even though it rains a lot. We used to enjoy that, and found we were virtually never in the tent. On those trips though we were mostly in Holiday camp type places where they had clubhouses and lots of entertainment for the evenings, and great locations where you were out exploring by day. Not sure how your family would tolerate that long term though, and you would probably want to try and mix it with short term rentals in different areas.



Again, for the alaska/stateside adventure I'd get out and look at dealers, rv shows etc and try and get an idea of what you would be comfortable spending a year in. Keep in mind that you'll want big enough water and waste tanks to go a few days without hookups, and verify whatever process you go through if any to get the bed space is something you would want to be doing pretty much every day for a year or two, and that the interior space would work for you when everyone is stuck inside on the really nasty days where you just get stuck inside. It happens on long trips.


Enjoy

[fotis]

Originally Posted by su26

Thank you all for your responses it’s been super helpful to hear these perspectives. We are certainly open to pretty much anything right now. Originally we were going to just all fly to England and then buy a tow vehicle and caravan there and just tour Europe. My wife is a UK citizen and we used to live in the UK before moving to Los Angeles. But since we are currently in Los Angeles, we figured maybe why don’t we just start from here.

The towing capacity of our Dodge grand Caravan is supposed to be 3600 pounds. I found this article https://rvlifemag.com/venture-rv-sonic-190vrb/ where they did tow a trailer, but I really appreciate the comments from you guys. It does seem a bit misleading if they are towing something so close to the rated capacity, and not accounting for that much in terms of cargo and other options on the trailer. So while it does seem possible that we could use the minivan to tell a reasonable sized trailer, it might not be the smartest choice.

seem like sizing up the tow vehicle might be a good idea, we do still want to keep the trailer fairly small. This just fits our personalities, and having seen campsites in Europe in the past, it does seem like it would be particularly challenging if we were over there and in something bigger than 20 to 24 feet.

The rationale for a travel trailer over say a large class B camper van, is that we really like the idea of being able to set up a home base and explore nearby attractions, or just run errands if need be without having to pack everything up and move the house. Although the notion of a big camper van does have its own appeal.

Also still considering ditching the US portion of the trip and going back to the original plan

Your best bet my be a conversation van (Little bit tight quarters but it's able to go everywhere including Europe)

[Blazing zipp]

One might remember that a Toyota truck "pulled" the Space Shuttle. Nothing was mentioned about stopping the Shuttle, having the family in the truck, or going up the hills and mountains you will come upon.
Son, I'm not advocating getting a 450 dually and a 42 toy hauler, but some serious consideration about a better suited set up might/could be in order.
As far as a "pop up" trailer---a family of 4 pulled along side our campsite a few years ago. Each member of the group had specific jobs to set up their pop up. Well, twenty minutes later they were still working hard to set camp. They're working made me tired, soooo tired I went in and took a nap. Moral of the story would be that the set up task would be each time you wanted to stop for the night.

[Joseph08]

I don't have enough knowledge about it but i can definitely assume that this could be really expensive. You should look for cheaper transport alternatives.

[KyleC]

We tried with a minivan and a hybrid. Then switched to a Pathfinder for more towing. The hybrid was a terrible idea for us. We decided to add a caravan awning from the UK that added an extra room outside. Awesome idea. Terrible setting it up. Between the new awning and the pop out tents. We had an hour set up and an hour tear down. Rough with 4 kids.

The hybrid was a bit past the tow for the minivan. It was 32000 dry. Our problem with the hybrid was the condensation. The tents couldn't keep up in the summer in the south. And then in the evenings, especially rainy nights, the condensation would accumulate on the ceiling of the tent beds and awning and drip all over us!

Not to mention the AC couldn't keep up either. So after three trips of the tough set up and the condensation, we sold it and upgraded to the prowler 25lx bunkhouse. This put is past the max on the Pathfinder ( another discussion for another thread)

All of this to say we ended up with a Ford E150 van. After driving this beast around and towing with it, I can honestly say, had I known about full size vans, I never would have bought the minivan. It tows 7000 lbs and has the 5.4 L v-8. My suggestion is no matter what your towing, have more wiggle room with your number.