Regret going bigger.
It seems many here are justifying their large camper purchase, and that's great, but large campers don't work for some of us.
We've owned 15 previous campers from 12' to 34' and spend the winter months traveling the southwest. Until Covid we were on the road six months of the year. We also have a great seasonal site .8 mile from our condo in Lanesboro, MN.
A few of our campers bottomed out going through gullies, including our 16' Scamp. We raised our 27' Jayco 5th wheel 4" to avoid bottoming out.
The 34' made it one camping trip. No way was it going to turn to get into a number of sites we enjoy, and we've been in many state/federal campgrounds where the limit was 25'.
In Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota we watched one idiot who decided that the 25' limit didn't apply to them and they scrapped the side of their 35' camper. At Chihuahua National Monument there are two concrete gullies that we've listened to a couple of over 25' campers scrape their rigs. It sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. At the BLM near Capital Reef National Park last winter there was a fairly heavy rain. Most small rigs made it to the highway, but most big rigs knew better and had to stay until the mud reasonably dried out. A couple were stuck in the middle of the mud road preventing others from passing. I could go on and on.
Everyone has different reasons for their purchase. We want to get away from the huge rigs with their stereos and outside TVs. We want quiet at night and no damn generators (we have 465 watts of solar on the roof and a 100 watt portable). We live outside, not inside, and need the camper for a fridge, toilet, clothes storage, and a decent bed (we're considering buying a Sleep Number RV queen). We don't have a microwave, oven, or tv, but each of us uses a reader. I know of a number of people full-timing in their 13-17' fiberglass campers. They don't understand the big rigs anymore than the big rigs understand their small campers. TETO!
We have a 21'
Escape 5.0 that has been modified to fit our needs, carry two folding Tern e-bikes behind the driver's seat of our F150, and an ICE e-trike in the back bed. Last winter we hiked over 200 miles and rode our bikes over 400 miles.
At night we use a
BioLite FirePit to cook our meals on charcoal and then throw in a few logs to BS with each other till we climb into bed. We actually use that Biolite underneath our awning in heavy rain. We live outdoors, not inside.
Everyone is different. In no way am I trying to convince others to camp our way, but if you camp in the places we do you rarely see a rig over 25 feet. Just like others here, we're happy with our choice.
Enjoy,
Perry
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