The first time I pulled into a campsite with our camper, I walked up to the power pedestal, opened that little metal door, and stared at it like it owed me money. Three different outlets. A couple of breakers. And me, standing there in front of my family, pretending I knew exactly what I was doing.

I barely knew what I was doing.

So today we’re covering the thing every new RVer eventually has to figure out, usually in a hurry, usually while it’s 95 degrees and the kids are asking why the AC isn’t on yet. What do 50 amp, 30 amp, and 20 amp actually mean, what happens when you have NO power at all, and what gear you need so you don’t cook the electronics in your rig.

Grab a coffee. This one’s useful.

The Three Types of Shore Power

When a campground says “electric,” it comes in three sizes. And no, they are not just different shaped plugs. The difference in actual power is HUGE.

50 amp is the king. Here’s the part that trips everybody up. A 50 amp pedestal isn’t 50 amps. It’s actually two separate 50 amp legs of 120 volts, which works out to about 12,000 watts of available power. Big fifth wheels and Class A’s are built for this. Two air conditioners, the residential fridge, the microwave, and someone blow drying their hair all at the same time? Go nuts.

30 amp is what most travel trailers run on, and it’s the most common hookup in America. Especially at state parks and older campgrounds. One leg, 120 volts, about 3,600 watts total.

Read that again. 50 amp service gives you over THREE TIMES the power of 30 amp. Not 20 more. Three times. This matters later, I promise.

20 amp is basically the outlet in your garage, bolted to a post. Around 2,400 watts. You’ll find these at some state parks, fairgrounds, and sometimes in tent sites with electric. It’ll keep your batteries charged and run your lights and a fan. Can you run your AC on it? Technically, sometimes, briefly. Should you? No. The guy two sites over who says he does it all the time is the same guy whose breaker trips every 40 minutes all weekend. Don’t be that guy.

And Then There’s No Power At All

Dry camping (or boondocking when you’re out in the wild somewhere) means no pedestal, no hookups, no nothing. You’re living off your batteries, possibly a solar setup, a limited fresh water tank, your propane, and your planning skills.

And here’s where a lot of new folks get humbled. Your lights, water pump, and furnace fan will run off batteries just fine. For a while. But your microwave? Your AC? Your electric water heater? Those are off the table unless you brought a generator or you’ve invested in a serious battery and inverter setup.

Most stock RV battery setups hold a lot less juice than people think. Find out what yours holds BEFORE you’re in the middle of nowhere at 3am wondering why the furnace stopped.

A Quick Word On Amps And Breakers

I’m not going to turn this into an electrical engineering class, because I’d lose you and honestly I’d lose me too. But you need the basics.

Every appliance in your rig pulls a certain number of amps. Think of your hookup as a budget, and everything you turn on as spending from it. Rough numbers:

• Air conditioner: 12-16 amps when it kicks on

• Microwave: 8-13 amps

• Electric water heater: 8-12 amps

• Hair dryer: up to 12 amps. By itself. For HAIR.

Now do the math on a 30 amp budget. AC plus the water heater plus someone firing up the microwave for chicken nuggets, and congratulations, you’re over budget.

That’s when the breaker trips. And here’s the thing. That’s not your rig breaking. That’s your rig working. Your camper has its own breaker panel, usually hiding behind a little door near the floor or in a cabinet. It works just like the panel in your house. Too much current on a circuit, breaker pops, power cut, nothing melts.

The pedestal has breakers too, by the way. If you lose power, check BOTH panels before you march up to the camp office. I’d bet half the “broken pedestal!!” complaints I read in reviews were a tripped breaker that nobody looked at.

One more thing. If a breaker keeps tripping, that’s the rig telling you something. Turn stuff off. Resetting the same breaker five times in a row while changing nothing is not a strategy, it’s a fire hazard with extra steps.

The Dogbone: Your New Best Friend

So your trailer is 30 amp, and you pull into your site, and the pedestal only has a working 50 amp outlet. Now what?

Now you reach into your bin and pull out an adapter, known to RVers everywhere as a dogbone. (Short fat cable, plug on each end, looks like a dog bone. The RV world is not subtle.)

30-to-50 dogbone: Plugs your 30 amp rig into a 50 amp outlet. Totally safe. Your rig still only pulls its normal 30 amps. It just lets you connect. Every 30 amp owner should have one of these, no exceptions. At busy parks, the 50 amp outlet is sometimes the only one that works.

50-to-30 dogbone: Plugs your 50 amp rig into a 30 amp pedestal. Also safe, BUT, your big rig is now living on a 30 amp allowance. One AC at a time. Manage your appliances or get real familiar with that breaker panel we just talked about.

30-to-20 adapter: Plugs you into a regular household outlet. Great for charging batteries in the driveway. That’s about it. Keep your ambitions low.

Spend the extra few bucks on quality adapters with solid molded ends. The bargain bin dogbone that melts at the pedestal is a real thing that happens to real people, and it always happens on the hottest weekend of the year. I prefer Camco brand for this one. They’re not cheaply made, and also won’t hurt your wallet.

Surge Protection: The Most Boring Money You’ll Ever Be Glad You Spent

Alright, this is the section I actually care about, so if you skimmed everything else, slow down here.

Campground electrical systems are all over the place. Some are brand new and wired beautifully. Some were installed when Nixon was in office and have been “repaired” by every handy campground owner since. You have no idea which one you’re plugging into. None.

Bad pedestal power comes in a few flavors. Voltage spikes from storms. Miswired outlets with open grounds or reversed polarity. Low voltage on hot afternoons when 200 sites all run their AC at once. And every one of them can quietly fry the electronics in your rig. Modern campers are rolling computers, folks. Converters, control boards, TVs, fridges. They do not forgive bad power, and they are NOT cheap to replace.

The fix is a high quality surge protector, or better yet, a full electrical management system (EMS). The difference matters:

A basic surge protector eats voltage spikes. That’s it. Better than nothing. And you have to cross your fingers its not going to melt and catch fire.

An EMS is the real bodyguard. It checks the pedestal’s wiring BEFORE letting power through to your rig, and it cuts the connection if voltage runs dangerously high or low. Plug it in, let it think for a minute, and it tells you if the pedestal is safe.

Yes, a good EMS runs a few hundred bucks. I get it, that stings. You know what stings more? A dead converter, a fried control board, and a canceled trip while you wait on parts. Of every accessory in this hobby, this is the one I will never, ever skip. The bumper stickers are optional. The EMS is not.

Personally, I use the Hughes Power Watchdog system in my new rig that is 50 amp. I used the Camco Power Grip in my previous 30 amp rig. The difference between the two is a canyon, however they both are good quality and do the same thing for various amperage. The Camco Power Grip gets plugged into the pedestal, tells you if the connection is good and gives you a green light to plug into your rig, simple enough. The Power Watchdog does similar, with the dog face on the front lighting up white or red depending on the connection. However, it also has built in water resistance, housing for your power cord to go, covers for the outlets when not in use, and also connects to bluetooth and/or wifi. I will occasionally open the app on my phone and check the connection from time to time, and it will send me a push notification if there are voltage irregularities.

Most high quality surge protectors run $200-400 depending on what bells and whistles you want on it. Mine ran about $300, which a lot of folks may think is a crazy price. But let me explain why I bought the version of the Hughes surge protector that I did, but in a more direct way. Its a $300 insurance policy. Will your RV insurance pay for it if a surge totals your electrical system? Maybe. But by the time its been reviewed, inspected, and approved, it could be weeks or months, which you’re giving up for precious camping time. Not to mention, any other fees that go along with getting your camper towed, stored, etc.

Your 30 Second Pedestal Routine

Before you plug in at any site, every site, every time:

1. Pedestal breaker OFF before you plug in or unplug. Always. No exceptions.

2. Plug in your surge protector or EMS first and let it check the power.

3. Connect your rig, flip the breaker on, confirm everything inside looks normal.

4. Know your amp budget for the day and don’t run every big appliance at once.

That’s it. Thirty seconds, and the most expensive systems in your camper stay protected.

Electricity is the least fun part of this hobby and the fastest way to ruin a trip when it goes sideways. Learn your rig’s limits, carry the right dogbones, protect your electronics, and that scary metal box becomes just another box.

And then you can get back to the important stuff like debating if hot dogs or hamburgers are a more iconic campground meal.

Happy electrified trails!

Gotta Catch Em’ All

“I got a free 1 year membership to Thousand Trails with my new travel trailer, are they any good?” I said to my friend whose photos of travels in HIS trailer are the reason I got mine (he knows who he is, and I blame him for this debt).

I went on a bit of a camping group binge at first. I felt like I had to collect them like pokemon to get THE best campgrounds and the best deals. I had subscriptions to Thousand Trails, Passport America, Good Sam, and signed up for so many free email lists it was insane. I had an email filter JUST for campground emails, newsletters, etc. And this was before my travel trailer even went on its maiden voyage!

It was a LOT. Trip planning became analysis paralysis our first season. Which campground did we want to go to, who had the best deal, who had full hookups, was it a blackout weekend on Passport? Did Good Sam have a better deal? I was pulling my hair out.

Memberships Options & What We Learned

In our second season, we let all of our camping passes, trials, and subscriptions lapse. Nearly 2 camping seasons in, and we barely used any of them, some we didn’t use at all! The one we used the most was our Thousand Trails trial subscription which also expired.

Let’s review each membership we had and what I learned.

Thousand Trails

Speaking with other Thousand Trails members I met along our travels, everyones results vary wildly.

Thousand Trails is a membership organization where you choose one of 5 regions of the US you want to camp in, and pay a base fee of $475/year. This gets you nearly unlimited access to all of their campgrounds in that region, whenever you want, as long as they are open with availability, up to I believe 2 consistent weeks per park at a time. You can add “regions” to your camping pass which tacks another $140 per year onto your membership, and if you want some of their nicer and more luxurious campgrounds, its another add-on fee of another $475 I believe. As an example, our trial membership was for the Northeast region only and covered only their base campgrounds. If we had renewed, it would have been $475/year, but if we also wanted to add the Southeast, it would have been another $140/year, and if we wanted the upgraded group of campgrounds, another $475. $1090/year. Honestly, if you’ll use it, it’s not a bad deal.

However. There’s a lot to consider. Quality of their campgrounds is wildly different. Many of their campgrounds that I visited were generationally owned family campgrounds that needed significant facelifts, and were primarily long term seasonal campers. One of the campgrounds had about 90% seasonals and most of their sites looked like hoarders junkyards. I also visited some that were relatively nice and had a great staff.

My biggest complaints about Thousand Trails are the predatory contract, how unsafe the campgrounds are for getting your sites, and the website. I’ll explain.

• Complex Subscription Cancellation Policies. If you search on the internet, you’ll find hundreds of stories of people that are unable to get out of their contracts because they didn’t properly follow a very complicated cancellation policy. That, or they did, and customer service wouldn’t return calls or emails, and since it was out of the cancellation window, they would get stuck with the contract. Laws have become tighter, allowing people to get out of predatory timeshare agreements, and I feel (vibes, not proof), that many of those folks got into the campground business. Looking at the history of Thousand Trails, they used to be owned by a timeshare company which divested in the late 90’s, and are now owned by a massive real estate investment trust. Luckily, I was in a trial and never signed up, so I had nothing to cancel, but I mostly enjoyed our membership while we had it.

• No Assigned Sites = Dangerous. Not a single Thousand Trail campground assigned sites upon checkin. When you arrived and checked in, you were instructed to drive around the campground until you found a spot you liked, then call the office, tell them your site #, and they’d register you. At first I liked this because I got to pick whatever site I wanted. But after a few stays, I found this to significantly increase the risk of damaging our rig, and it increases the likelihood of kids being struck. There were several times we drove around in circles for a while because we couldn’t fit a site that properly fit our rig, or the site was unreasonably un-level. Once, we found a nice spot, set up, hooked up, started relaxing, and we were told it was a seasonal site and had an hour to move or they’d tow me. That was the last time we visited a Thousand Trail and never renewed.

• The website is horrific. It is constant ads, trying to get you to upgrade your membership on a regular basis. Also it was hard to see what other campgrounds may or may not be available on a given day/week, and you had to go into each individual one to enter your camping details to get availability. It was excruciating.

VERDICT: On a scale of 1 out of 5 with 5 being the best, I give it a 3. The bad contract, not able to secure a site, and bad website. Otherwise, if you’re a full timer or 3/4 timer and need longer term places to stay with some variety, TT is a good deal. If you’re just starting out in your RV life, there are other places you can put your money.

Passport America

PA is more or less just a discount program at participating campgrounds. Membership starts at $50/year (there are sales pretty often), with a 3 year option at $129, 5 years at $199, and lifetime at $400.

Honestly, its not a bad price. However, you have to jump through hoops to book with any of their campgrounds. We had our membership at a discount for $40 for a year, and we never used it once. We tried to book with several of their participating campgrounds, but at the time, you had to call the campground directly, ask if they would still accept the discount, and if they did, you couldn’t use it during blackout periods. Blackout periods were mostly weekends and holidays, ya know, when most people want to camp. In addition, the list of campgrounds that participate gets smaller year by year.

The PA card also has other benefits such as RV insurance discounts, a trip planning tool, and other discount programs.

Verdict: Out of 5, I give it a hard 1. I really cant vouch for their participating campgrounds since we never got a chance to book one due to blackout days. However, for the price, and again, if you travel a ton and are on the road more than I am, it may be worth it. But I felt that with all the hoops I had to jump through just to book a campground since I HAD to call each campground, had no website to book reservations through, and many blackout periods, it wasn’t worth it.

Good Sam

The value in the Good Sam membership is for the rewards at Camping World. There is a lot of talk about the quality of RV service at Camping World , and i’ll let you look that up yourself. However, I LOVE the Camping World stores for gear, getting to see new gadgets in person, and pick up some backups of things. The good Sam membership gives you discounts at the campgrounds they partner with as well.

We only stayed at a few Good Sam campgrounds, and they were ok at best. Just like Passport, its a partnership and you have to ask if they accept it, with some blackout days.

However, the blackout days weren’t a huge deal because we had the Good Sam card for the Camping World benefits and earning rewards, not so much the camping benefits, that was more of a bonus for us. At the end of each season I typically wind up having to pay a lot less for antifreeze because of my accumulated Camping World points.

Verdict: I give it a 3.5/5, solely because the campgrounds that accepted it were just ok, but the rewards points for Camping World are fantastic.

KOA Rewards (Kampgrounds of America)

To be transparent, i’m a huge fan of KOA’s, so i’m definitely going to sound biased. But to be clear, as i’ve stated several times before, we accept no money or influence from campgrounds to provide fair and honest reviews. I’m just personally a big fan of the brand.

KOA Rewards is $40 a year. You immediately get 10% off all of their campgrounds. You can rack up rewards points with a transparent point system. You get a free night during their KOA rewards members weekend annually. If you get enough points, you use them for $’s off reservations. Last, but not least, if you accumulate enough points in a year, they automatically renew you for the rewards program at a “VIP” tier for the following year for free. The VIP tier gets you more rewards points per dollar, thus, more free money to spend on stays.

Not to mention, great discounts at their partners like Goodyear, RV Mattress, Progressive Insurance, Coleman, etc. The deals can get bigger at certain times of the year as well. At one point I got 20% off of a set of Goodyear Tires (higher than their usual 10-15% off for KOA members), it saved me a boatload.

Their campgrounds, while some can be hit or miss, are still pretty great. There’s plenty to do for the family, are usually close to many attractions, and are well kept campgrounds. Even the KOA’s that were a “miss” still tend to be pretty good.

Verdict: $40 a year for 10% off all campgrounds, accumulative rewards points to use for money off reservations, a free enrollment or auto-renewal for VIP rewards if you earn enough points in a year, and great partner discounts. You really can’t beat it. There are KOA’s all over the country, and with different tiers of campgrounds (Journey, Holiday, Resort), they have amenities for every need. The only downside to KOA is they tend to be a bit more pricier with higher than average camping costs. However, in some of their campgrounds, I almost consider them the Disney World of campgrounds. Sure, you’ll spend more money, but the value per dollar is higher.

Others

State Park Passes are worth looking into. Many states offer an annual, or sometimes even lifetime state park memberships that can provide HEAVILY discounted camping. My parents have one of these for Maryland and I think they pay maybe $20 a night now after purchasing their golden pass for life.

Resort Parks International (RPI) A reciprocal access network with a large number of resorts across the country. Often purchased as an add-on to a Thousand Trails membership, but available standalone.

Coast to Coast RV Resorts Similar model to Thousand Trails. Known for offering a free 2-night introductory stay -- which comes with a sales presentation. Worth researching before committing.

Escapees RV Club Community-focused and popular with full-timers. Discounts on campgrounds, mail forwarding, healthcare resources, and a strong peer network. Less about saving on individual nights, more about support infrastructure for life on the road.

Harvest Hosts Under $100/year gets you free overnight parking at farms, wineries, breweries, and museums. No hookups at most locations, so you need to be self-contained. A genuinely unique experience if you’re not chained to full hookups every night.

Boondockers Welcome Access to private property hosts -- real people who let you park on their land for free. Over 3,500 hosts across the country. Add it to a Harvest Hosts membership and you’ve got a solid alternative camping stack for around $169/year combined.

Campright / Elite Resorts A smaller regional network with a footprint in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Worth knowing if you camp heavily in that corridor.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

Most experienced RVers don’t pick just one. They stack programs, maybe a Thousand Trails zone pass for their home region, KOA rewards for discount nights elsewhere, and Harvest Hosts for something different on the road.

That said, read the contracts before you sign anything. Some of these programs are straightforward annual subscriptions. Others come with multi-year commitments, transfer restrictions, and exit headaches that are harder to undo than they look on paper.

My recommendation to you is if you are just starting out, don’t sign up for any. Learn how you like to camp and where you like to camp. Figure out what type of campgrounds you like, what amenities work best, and what are truly “nice to haves” versus requirements.

Once you figure out what works best for you, THEN buy your memberships or affiliations. Or, you’ll wind up like I did in the beginning, with a stack of cards in your wallet, a full email inbox, and a face full of confusion.

There Was An Attempt…

I grew up relatively poor, so “meals” to us growing up were what we could put together with whatever scraps we had in our cabinets. Our cabinets at the end of the week were mostly bare. Meals consisted of hot dogs on white bread, peanut butter & jelly, bologna & cheese, etc. When my Mom had a little extra time to throw together Chicken Tonight, it was a good day. Especially when my family and I sang the jingle and did the dance from the commercial. Click the link, I dare you, you’ll never get that song out of your head. Very rarely, we’d get a pizza from the local pizza joint, and it was a huge treat (I still LOVE their sausage pie!). Unfortunately though, I was never really taught how to cook because my parents worked around the clock. I tried to cook a frozen apple pie from the grocery store once, and I didn’t consider that the pie pan would be hot when I took it out of the oven, so I dropped it. That amish apple pie turned into apple charcoal, and to this day, I can’t get that smell out of my head. I didn’t eat apple pie for probably 15 years after that. My first REAL foray into cooking was in high school home-economics class. I did….ok….to say the least.

Fast forward many many years, and I tried to cook for my fiancee (now wife), which was also met with the same underwhelming result. You ever see someone serve rice and forget to drain most of the water? Ever see eggs that were so awfully cooked, they turned black and greasy? Yup, that was me. Still to this day I have no idea how I didn’t kill us.

After we got married, we also didn’t have a lot of money, but did have basic cable, so to entertain ourselves, we watched a LOT of Food Network and food tourism shows. Iron Chef, Chopped, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain, Man vs. Food, Guy Fieri, and so on. I realized that cooking really wasn’t as hard as I made it, it was just about memorization, technique, commitment, consistency, and learning through repetition. Well, basic cooking skills that is.

Determined To Ditch Black & Oily Eggs

Thats really all it took. I started cooking regularly. I started by trying to cook eggs a bunch of ways. Fried, poached, over easy, under, french style, scrambled, omelettes, and so on. Once I was able to successfully make eggs regularly, I moved on to other breakfast items like pancakes and waffles, and then meats, some cultural foods, baked goods, and the rubber REALLY started to hit the road.

I learned to make my own pretzel buns for burgers and hot dogs, sticky buns, cakes, cookies, and tons of other things. I had a miles long list of favorites on AllRecipes (before it started to suck). I even had a journal I started writing some of these recipes down!

After a while I started experimenting more with my recipes as I understood what each ingredient was for, and what could substitute it. Did you know you can substitute eggs with applesauce in baked goods if its used as a moisturizer? Not if its a binder! I tried it, and its AMAZING!

The best thing i’ve ever made was a 4 layer berry chantilly cake, pictured below. I hadn’t QUITE figured out how to properly ice a cake yet, hence the berries falling off the top. But i’m a lot better now and plan on making this again this summer. I’ve come a long way!

The Awakening of the Griddle

Now, I try to cook at home when I have the time and energy, which isn’t common for me to have both. Energy, sure. Time? Not so much. We do takeout probably more than we should at home, and my wallet cries. However, on camping trips? The amateur cook in me grabs a spatula and gets back to work.

At the beginning of the 2022 camping season, we were camped near a Walmart. We went to pick up a few groceries, and I saw that they had a major sale on outdoor cooking equipment. So there I was, up in the mountains, loading a 22” portable Blackstone griddle into my cart with all of the necessary tools. We took it straight back to the campground, got it cleaned up and seasoned, and fired it right up!

I have to admit, I had my preferences for cooking tools, seasonings, and equipment when making things at home. However, I never really cared about outdoor cooking. Grill, griddle, charcoal, or gas. I never cared much. Whatever cooked the hot dog or hamburger. I never really understood what the fascination was about Blackstone, but I knew I needed something large enough that would fit food for a family of 4 on it ,and allow me to lug it around on camping trips. It was more expensive than other camp grills and griddles, but I was curious about the rave reviews, and decided to take the leap.

I quickly discovered how much I loved cooking on a flat top, how much better it is than a traditional grill, and happily joined the cult of Blackstone. All hail our properly seasoned leader.

There are few things in life as glorious as the smell of cooking pancakes, bacon and eggs on the griddle while sipping a nice cup of coffee while you listen to the birds at the campsite. Once I made breakfast on it the first time, I was sold.

Campground Cooking Should Be Simple & Diverse

I read posts on various platforms of people asking for recommendations for menus because they’re sick of burgers and dogs, or sick of peanut butter and jelly, or what have you.

If you’re one of those people…please….pick up a griddle. Quite literally anything edible can be griddled. It doesn’t have to be a Blackstone, or even very large, but i’d definitely recommend it because of MASSIVE variety of foods you can cook on it, and the ecosystem of tools available. Blackstone has a fantastic Youtube Channel that teaches you a lot about how to cook on and season your griddle, i’d highly recommend it! As a note, campfire cooking on open flame is an entirely different discussion, equally as delicious, but for this context, we’re going to focus solely on griddle cooking with propane.

So what can you cook on a griddle?

Pasta? Put the pot of water right on the griddle
A muffin? Slice it in half, and griddle face down with some butter.
Steak? Please do.
Chicken? Butterfly, and griddle your heart out.
Rice? Just like pasta, put the water in a pot on the blackstone and go to town!
Vegetables? Absolutely!
Ice Cream? You thought I was kidding, weren’t you? I’m not.
So, so so, much more.

The key to successful campground cooking is simplicity and diversity. You want simple dishes that are easy to make, easy to store, easy to re-heat, and easy to clean. You also don’t want to be eating the same things over and over and over again. When you’re camping, you’re adventuring into the wilderness, why not adventure and experiment with your cooking skills? There are so, so, so many different things you can cook on griddles. Every time I experiment and think it’s going to fail, it succeeds, spectacularly.

You can surely do burgers, dogs, brats, etc. Typical backyard food. Nothing wrong with that. But they don’t go as far in most cases, and can get really boring.

Let’s try a few new things here, shall we?

BREAKFAST : Smashed Breakfast Tacos

This is a unique take on a traditional eggs & sausage breakfast. It uses ingredients you’re probably already stocking in your camper, but assembles them in a way that gives you a break from traditional breakfasts. You can make multiples quickly, and they’re absolutely delicious. “Bulk sausage” can be a raw whole sausage roll, or as a good alternative, you can buy sausages in casing like sweet italian or hot italian, slice the casing, peel it off, and you now have bulk sausage. NOTE: If you do use a more spice heavy sausage like italian, or mexican chorizo, adjust your toppings that fit the profile a bit more. If you go italian, use parmesan or mozzarella cheese, if you go mexican, pepper jack works, but you can sub with cojita or monterey jack.

Lunch/Dinner: Campground Fried Rice

“What the heck are green onions?” I can already hear it. I’m a huge fan of green onions. They’re a lot cheaper, easier to store, and more flexible than debating on whether a white or yellow onion will work better in a recipe. Some may know the top part of a green onion by its other name…”chive”. I used green onions in a recipe once because we had them, for some odd reason, and i’ll never go back. They aren’t as in your face as traditional onions, but still give that onion flavor. In regards to frozen veggies, you don’t have to use peas and carrots. We sometimes use broccoli, eggplant, whatever we have on hand. I read once that fried rice was a way to get rid of leftovers. You can also throw chicken in here, sliced beef, whatever you have!

Brunch: Griddled Cinnamon & Sugar French Toast Sticks

This one, admittedly, is a bit more than simple because of the ingredients involved. Assuming you have some leftover bread, butter, and syrup from other breakfasts, the rest of the ingredients may be a bit more uncommon in your camper like vanilla, brown sugar, etc. Luckily, most of the ingredients have a really long shelf life, and if you have the storage for outdoor cooking tools and ingredients, keep them on hand! Vanilla has many uses, as does sugars and cinnamon.

That’s 3 recipes mostly made from things you’ll have on hand, or are easy to get at any grocery store. Personally, I try to always stay within 30 mins of a grocery store having small children. When they’re much older and grown, we’ll head out deeper into the wilderness for boondocking trips, but until then, we’re tethered to the local grocers.

Simple Setup = Simple Cooking

That same principal extends to your cooking setup. Your cooking setup should be as minimalist as possible, easy to store and travel with, and provide as little friction for you as possible.

Personally, i’m not a fan of most outdoor cooking prep stations on campers. They’re more form over function, and more often, cause more problems than they solve. In addition, i’d MUCH rather have that space for storing whatever I want rather than an outdoor sink i’ll use once in a while.

If you’re in an RV, chances are, you’re probably going to try and cook with propane. Most modern RV’s come with a propane quick connect, which make it so that you don’t have to lug a heavy propane bottle around your campsite. Just make sure you have a propane hose long enough to connect to it, and keep your cook station a fair distance away from your camper for safety purposes. I see people either using the outdoor kitchen or attaching their own cook tops WAY too close to a rig made mostly of wood, and it gives me serious anxiety. We use a 25’ propane quick connect hose, and our griddle typically stays on the OUTSIDE of our awning (so the rising heat doesn’t damage it), unless its raining. Granted, a Blackstone retains heat pretty well in the cook top, but never take chances!

Even though most griddles say “tabletop”, i’m still very worried about heat transfer, and use a GCI Outdoor cook table. That table has been through some things bouncing around in the back of my truck for the last few years! It folds up REALLY nicely, has a carrying handle, and very strong once its setup. I put the blackstone on top, and have space for tools, bowls, etc. It also cleans up really nicely with a paper towel & vinegar, or if you want to go nuclear, some sanitation wipes. The foldout counters are hard plastic with metal arms, and the top is metal slats .

I also have another side table that I use for prep and ingredient positioning while getting meals ready. Its another table similar to the GCI (I can’t find a link to the other table), with a larger top. Admittedly, I would like just a flat table instead another table with a bunch of fold out counters to make prep SLIGHTLY easier, but it helps, nonetheless.

Both of my tables fold up nicely on top of each other, and take up minimal space in the truck. I also have a griddle tool bag, similar to this one on Amazon. In my toolbag, I carry my spatulas, tongs, egg rings, squirt bottles for water and oil, and a spatula mat. I also carry a few basic spices that are used in most of what I cook.

Keep the setup simple! Here’s the list of what I carry for cooking:

• 2 minimalist cook/prep tables that fold up small

• 1 22” blackstone griddle with lid

  • Transported in a black, heavy duty, zipper carrying bag with handles

  • I have a ran cover zipped around it

• 1 tool bag with cooking tools & spices:

  • 3 Metal Spatulas (1 wide spatula, and 2 thinner ones)

  • 1 set of medium sized locking tongs

  • 4 Egg rings (2 small and 2 large)

  • Silicone tool rest/spatula mat (a thick paper towel works too)

  • Grease catcher (attaches to the blackstone)

  • Spices

    • Kosher salt (sea salt can be used too, but I prefer kosher)

    • Black pepper

    • Garlic powder

    • Cinnamon

    • Vanilla

  • Avocado oil for cooking and/or seasoning - I prefer it. It has a higher smoke point, is healthier than some seed oils due to its fat content, burns cleaner, and has a relatively neutral taste. Have you ever had avocado cake frosting? Or avocado ice cream? No? You’re DEFINITELY missing out. The Avocado is an unsung heroine. I use this as a seasoning layer after each cook.

  • Blackstone griddle seasoning for seasoning after a full scrub down. I scrub down the griddle top once or twice a season, and season with the Blackstone stuff. Its more expensive than avocado oil, but is good to use for conditioning your griddle top after a scrub down, but is too expensive to use between cooks. For that, use avocado oil.

  • A roll of paper towels

  • Small trash bags. I hang these from my cook table to put egg shells, food scraps, etc in to. After each meal I tie them off until the next meal, unless its overnight. Don’t leave your food outdoors for long periods of time, or you’ll get visitors!

  • A pair of kitchen scissors

• A propane quick connect hose

With 2 tables, a griddle, and a tool bag, an empty camp side setup turns into a full blown outdoor kitchen. You can get a glimpse of my setup in the FIRST picture attached to the top of the post.

Ok, I won’t make you scroll back. You only live once, right?

Ok, I said not to lug around propane. This was before I learned how to PROPERLY connect my gas line to the quick connect.

To Outdoor Kitchen or Not to Outdoor Kitchen, That Is The Question.

Yes, I know some Shakespeare. Whether tis nobler in the mind than to suffer the slings and arrows…..or something like that. That was even WITHOUT looking it up!

Anyway.

The next question is WHEN should you setup your outdoor gourmet paradise? Well, this is really up to you. If you’re like me, you’re trying to get your setup simpler, and simpler, so you can setup and break down in record time like a Formula 1 pit crew.

Usually, I bring my whole outdoor setup on trips longer than a weekend, and try to travel as light as possible for short trips. Weekend trips are more for a quick unwinding, or getting away from home to take a breath. Longer trips, you’re living. You have to plan, shop, eat, in my case work sometimes, and have a bit of an agenda every day, even if its a loose and fuzzy one.

Indoor cooking is an option. But if you have the option to NOT heat up your camper, why would you? You also can’t always get takeout or eat out all the time, right? Or, you shouldn’t at least.

My family prefers outdoor cooking unless its high winds, winter temperatures, or extreme heat. As long as its not one of those conditions and its more than a weekend trip, we’re bringing the whole setup with us.

The answer to the “should I or shouldn’t I” bring your whole outdoor setup is really up to you. If you have a camper that has a functional outdoor kitchen (you can tell those who designed some of these outdoor kitchens never cooked a day in their lives), or a tiny camp stove, then you may not need to bring more than what you already have in stock. But if you’re like me that opted to NOT have an outdoor kitchen, and have to take it all with you, then you may only do it on long trips.

Cooking Is Memory, Cooking Is Love

The sharpest memories rarely announce themselves. They sneak in on a smell such as woodsmoke, sizzling oil, something sweet caramelizing in the open air — and suddenly you’re back. Kids laughing somewhere nearby, the world going quiet around the edges.

That’s what cooking for the people you love actually looks like most of the time. It isn’t always a holiday table or a birthday cake. Sometimes it’s a griddle at a campsite, a spatula in one hand, a drink in the other, and the people who matter most somewhere within earshot. You’re not just making food. You’re making the thing they’ll smell in twenty years and still feel something about.

I’ll close this article the same way I opened it: cooking is love. Not in some abstract way, but in the most literal sense. Every meal you make for someone is time you chose to spend on them. And there’s no better reminder of that than being outside, fire going, kids carrying on in the background, the whole world smelling exactly like where you want to be.

That is one of the many reasons why we chose this life, and year after year we strive to find more ways to stay on the road longer.

In a previous article, we talked about the spike in campground prices, industry trends in campground occupancy/utilization and how RV sales have impacted that. Also if you follow my notes, the research I did to give the year based occupancy averages caused my brain to start wandering, and gave an entrepreneurial itch. One that I have no plans (yet) on chasing, but still something worth thinking about.

Most of the campgrounds i’ve visited over the last 6 seasons were mostly built half a century ago or more and owned throughout multiple generations of the same family, or may have changed hands and brand names, but the infrastructure remained the same with minor upgrades. The bigger KOA’s and resort chain owned sites had new concrete patios, 100 amp power (50/30/20), and some had cabins. But the smaller, family owned campgrounds not within a franchise or resort group seemingly were untouched.

The campgrounds built 50 years ago served a different time and generation. A time when you could work one job, afford a home, and take your family on the occasional weekend jaunt with a small camper or tents in the back of the family car (without seatbelts or car seats!). Just looking at the share of campground ownership alone from RVParkIQ.com is pretty staggering!

The average camper size (popup → class A) from 1976 until the mid to late 80’s was roughly 26’. Some of the Class A’s got as long as 31’, but that (based on my research) was a rarity. Smaller class C’s were roughly 16-18. But one would assume that the share of RV owners to tent campers decades ago was much different than it is today. But fast forward to today, i’ve seen 45’ 5th wheels! There’s even a guy on youtube with a 54’ long custom built RV that he hauls with a sleeper tractor with a total length of about 75’! Holy cow! I mean, MAYBE thats a little much? But who am I to judge?

So why is that problem now? Because many many many RV sites are built for rigs that were sized 40-50 years ago, remote work was a fantasy, and the internet wasn’t even available to the masses yet! I’m not one to say “bigger is better”, but things have definitely changed and many campgrounds have not kept up, and those that have are slow going.

The various camping reports from the RVIA, KOA, Woodlands, etc show the RV space gaining significant ground sharply in 2020 and beyond, and while a lot of people still tent camp, the number of folks jumping into the RV Life whether part or full time are growing rapidly.

SHOW ME THE NUMBERS!

Let’s look at some rough numbers. I sourced some data from various sources below for your enjoyment:

Wild, right? The average number of nights from 2021 to 2025 has gone up 10 additional nights per year! That doesnt sound like a lot. But when you consider a large part of the United States is under a frozen tundra from late fall to spring and many campsites are closed, and you STILL have an additional 10 nights? Thats a lot.

Not to mention the median owner age has dropped significantly. RV owners are getting younger, and now 1/3 of the market is brand new to RV’ing. While I didn’t dig into the % of new rv’ers metric, I would assume a lot of them are full timers, and/or traveling more domestically if not full time than often.

Lastly, 22% of have a remote worker at home! I just happen to be one of them.

Right now in more of the more aged campgrounds, many of them are primarily seasonal stays, with a smattering of overnight or transient sites. I’d even venture to guess that many of those aren’t even considered for many of these reports. I know that factually, a campground where my family members used to have a seasonal site no longer accept transient (overnighters) campers, and hasnt for the better part of a decade, and is SOLELY seasonal. At that point are they truly a campground? Or a mobile home park? The classification is a bit murky.

Gap In Product, Not In Availability

After reading the 10,000 foot view of the data above, the point is clear. There is a product gap, not an availability gap.

There isn’t necessarily a gap in campsite AVAILABILITY. Based on my previous article, the utilization/occupation of campgrounds that spiked to 80-85%+ in 2020-2022 has come back down to earth slightly in 2025 and 2026, but still higher than the average in 2010.

The permanent closure rates of campgrounds was difficult to find reliable data, but what I did find was minimal and in the single digit %’s. But most of them are just changing hands, from generation to generation, or private owner to private equity, etc.

We are at a major turning point in the industry. The RV owner has changed and continuing to change, but the RV park isn’t far behind. Our goal should be to set the standard for what makes the most sense for all of us before private equity, or major companies do it for us.

Let’s Build A Campground

Queue up the Spongebob Squarepants meme kids. Because its time for….

Let’s have some fun, shall we? Let’s start with my first rendering of what MY thoughts are for the next generation campground. I gave some ideas to Google Gemini because i’m not an artist (anymore) and the Raccoon Report runs on a penny candy budget.

Let’s break it down. PLEASE add comments to this article, i’d love to get thoughts from the readers on what a modern campground should include that I may have missed. As a note, in business I try to preach “you can’t be all things to everyone, focus on your demographic”. In my case, the demo is primarily RV’s (trailers, 5’ers, and class a/b/c). However, not everyone is in a position to own/operate one and I think my goal with this modern campground is to be more of a place for everyone, not just the few. With that said, the target for this campground is for the MODERN camper. Wanderers, remote workers, those who are full time or travel heavily, and more importantly, those who want to connect the modern life of hustle and bustle with the analog lifestyle of a campground and the outdoors.

1. Campsites
   Every site should be reasonably spacious. Enough room that I can't see into my neighbor's rig or cabin from inside my own when everyone's windows are open, that I can put out my awning without it feeling like a "hallway" between rigs, and that I'm not eating lunch 5 feet from someone else's sewer inlet. Enough that my kids can run around without tripping over utility lines, that the fire ring isn't crowding anything flammable, and that I'm never wondering "am I in their site?" Enough, in short, that I know I have neighbors without having to sit next to them if I don’t wish to.

   1. RV Sites
      I’d definitely have a mix of pull through’s and back ins. I’d lean more toward the pull throughs to have more big rig friendly sites that are long enough for a class A and towed vehicle, with another 2-3’ gimme so they’re clearly off the road. I would want every single RV site to be a concrete pad. Something that would allow water runoff and be safe in 4 seasons. Something easy to park on and get level. I would also ensure that the area around the “rv” spot was thick, lush grass. There’s nothing better than sticking your feet in soft grass on a nice summer day while making a meal for your family, or just daydreaming while sitting in your camping chair.

   2. Cabins
      The cabin sites would be equipped with modern amenities. Charging stations for devices, electric a/c and heat, etc. Some cabins will have their own private bathroom & shower (premium cabins), and some will be more rustic without it and rely on the bath houses. I considered ALL cabins being more “hotel-ish” with bathrooms, but having some cabins able to be grabbed with a heavy duty truck and moved is valuable. Its much easier to replace them down the road, or move them to another spot if you want to change some of the layout of the campground. Yes, I know its not just a “pickup and move it” situation, since theres a lot of disconnecting “things”, but it makes it easier in the long run.

   3. Tent Sites
      I considered not including tent sites at all since I really don’t have input here. However, tent campers are still a VERY large % of the camping life and I don’t want to leave them out. I’d plan on keeping every site electrified, with a water hookup, with a very obvious spot to put a tent. Some campgrounds do a good job of providing a platform to put a tent, but I think thats just something else to maintain, and it creates a hard surface to camp on. I’d rather just ensure amenities are available and a clean site for a tent camper to setup as they wish.

2. Bath & Shower Houses - I would plan to have more than enough for ALL of the guests, regardless if you have a bathroom in your RV or not. At minimum one for the West side of the campground, one on the East side. One to support RV’s and the other to support Cabins & Tents. The multi-purpose pavilion in the activity green would also have restrooms and showers for the activity green, pool, etc. The showers would be single stall and each contain a toilet and sink, large shower, shelves for your shower bag, and places to hang towels. I’d also ensure that there was one or two “family” shower stalls, since parents may often have to help their little ones get clean. I would ensure it would provide adequate heat & ac, non slip floors, and proper accessibility access and handles.

3. Laundry Facilities - these are necessary for long term stays. Many campgrounds rely on old, out of date machines, or technology that has barely been tested. Disney does it REALLY well here by partnering with a software company that will text you when a washer or dryer is available, and when its done. It is a touchless payment system as well, making it MUCH easier to pay for laundry instead of scrounging for coins! If I REALLY had the investment capital, i’d have an employee handle strictly laundry pickup & dropoff. Wouldn’t that be great? For a small fee, you just give provided net bags to the laundry pickup person, and they bring it back later that day or the next when its done, and you pay a fee per bag. The laundry service is a pipe dream, but the tech-enabled laundry machines are not!

4. Utilities

   1. Power
      Each site will have a total of 100 amps of power. 50/30/20. Enough said. Each power pedestal will have a solar light on it as well that will be turned ON automatically after an employee is done checking and clearing a site after checkout. This allows late check-ins the ability to have some light at the pedestal to see what the heck they’re doing, or people like me who occasionally head out to the pedestal to check things, and not need a super bright scare/trailer light on or a flashlight. Its a very small convenience with major value. I’d LIKE to put voltage meters on the pedestals as well, since i’ve never seen this done (yet), but, i’m not sure if its entirely necessary. Thoughts?

   2. Water
      For all that is good and holy. A splitter (or 2 water spigots from the same line) and an adjustable pressure gauge will be installed at every spigot. Almost EVERY single RV’er i’ve ever met used at minimum a fixed regulator, some more experienced used adjustable gauges (I use an adjustable), and many used a splitter. The gauge usage ensures you don’t split your trailer plumbing, and the hose splitter has so ….so…so many uses. I use my splitter for SHORTER weekend trips to flush my black tank. If its a longer trip, I attach the same hose to use for rinsing down swimsuits, rinse mud and debris off steps and mats, fill buckets before starting a campfire, etc. Its so much easier to use a splitter and have an extra hose laying around than trying to disconnect your drinking water line and finagle everything to do what you need it to.

   3. Sewer
      This may be an odd one. But I’d recess the sewer a bit into the ground so its always “downhill”. I’ve seen so many campgrounds that have a sewer outlet inches off the ground, making it harder for you go dump downhill. Walt Disney World Fort Wilderness does this the ABSOLUTE best in my opinion. They have a stainless steel “sink” of sorts about 4” in the ground, and the sewer outlet is dead center. This gives the ability to be truly downhill, and also provides a place for splash liquid to go. Instead of having a PVC pipe sticking out of the ground, it will be recessed into its own stainless steel sink.

5. Campground Entry & Roads
   The interior roads would all be paved, no negotiation. We all know the campgrounds with dirt roads, which in most cases is ok. But everyone has that story of a campground that DIDN’T take care of their roads and had potholes the size of the pacific ocean, or absolute mudslides. I’ll never forget one that was so deep, which was hidden by the puddle water, that it took out one of our stabilizers that was fully retracted in its housing! I almost bottomed out my trailer. The roads would be 1 way throughout the campground, so no one has to try and pass one another, and clearly marked to differentiate the road from the campsite.
   
   For entry, I would probably use a gated system with a tag reader. This keeps things safe, and potentially avoids campers inviting caravans of visitors to come visit, taking up space, parking, and making a ton of ruckus. I don’t have an issue with visitors at all ,but the campgrounds that i’ve visited that used a security gate typically are quieter at nights with less issues than ones without security.

6. Renewable Energy & Greenery - Honestly, I would like to cut back on overall green “maintenance”. The thick grass in the sites will be maintained to a reasonable level, but the surrounding greenery between each site would be local to the area as much as possible, and i’d let it grow wild. I’d build wooden trellises between each site, and allow grass and vines to grow up them, to provide some privacy between the sites, on the sides that matter. If its a back-in, you’d get 3 walls of greenery as privacy, for a pull in, two.
   
   I would install solar on every stationary building in the campground. On each cabin, on the camp store, on the multi-purpose pavilion, and where we need faux covering or light posts, i’d use solar as well. I would try and make as MUCH of the campground’s energy as renewable as possible. Wouldn’t it be great to get a campground with a fully renewable energy source? That will probably be pretty difficult if we are going to maintain some shade, but every little bit helps!

7. Camp Store / Checkin Building
   I want to reduce the volume of structures for this camp design. Therefore, the “camp store” would be a larger than usual building (although in the drawing above it isn’t). This will be multi-purpose, and more of a “support hub” for the campground. My proposed support hub will have a few things:

   1. Express Checkin - dedicated touchscreen to help you check in. Here you can pay for the rest of your trip, order things to deliver to your site, book future trips, etc.

   2. Standard Checkin - work with a human to check you in if you don’t want to use the touch screen. Its important to provide the tech for those who want it and may be more introverted, and the human for those who don’t want to use it.

   3. Souvenirs, RV Gear & Groceries - I’m not a fan of camp stores that sell junk for souvenirs. I don’t need another generic ornament, or some sun catcher, especially if I can’t remember where I got it. In my proposed model, souvenirs will have the campground name, logo, and location on them. For every ornament, sticker, magnet, or tshirt, guests will remember where they got it from! And in regards to toys for kids, I don’t want cheap junk I can get from the dollar store. Balls, frisbees, kites, etc. All branded after the campground, and decent quality that they will enjoy for years to come. If they want cheap toys, go to a dollar store or Amazon. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I want to offer. In regards to groceries, I will offer the basics, but if we’re further out from a grocery store, a little more than the basics. I’d also like to sell prepared foods (or produce) from local growers! There’s a farm near me that sells other local farms goods such as jams, pies, cookies, etc, and they’re delicious! We will also stock RV gear that folks tend to need when enjoying their trip that they may forget, or need a backup. Water pressure regulators, extra footage of sewer pipe, extra long water hoses, rubber washers, toilet treatment, etc. It drives me crazy how much stores jack up the prices on those items. Sure, i’ll have a bit of a convenience tax, but not exorbitant.

   4. Local Artisan Items - I love to support the arts and local artisans. I’d like to offer their items in the camp store on a small consignment. They get to display their work, the campground gets a small %, and they make money as well to have a place to promote and sell their passion. Art, woodcraft, soapmaking, etc. It would cost me very little, and supports local business. Not to mention, the more art, the better!

   5. Office Supplies - Since we will also focus on remote workers, I will offer basic office supplies in the camp store. Batteries for wireless devices, extra usb cables, charging cables for phones/devices, and so on. The overhead on storing this stuff is much higher, so it would be a slim selection, but necessary items.

   6. 24/7 Package Pickup - Having package pickup is VERY helpful at a campground. You may need to order something from the internet you need for your camper that isn’t in the camp store and need it delivered. Or you’re waiting on something like mailed medication, etc. I’d like to have a “locker” machine (think Amazon lockers) where when a package arrives for you, and the camp store team puts it in a box, you’re notified via email or text with your special code and the box #. When you pickup your item, it alerts the camp store that box is now free to use again. This way you can pickup your package any time of day or night. I had a situation where I accidentally left my breakaway emergency cable attached when decoupling from my trailer, and it snapped. I wasn’t going to be able to move my trailer again until I bought a new one and plugged it in. I ordered one from amazon, and couldn’t pick it up from the store because they had closed before I was able to get there. I had to go to the store the next morning to get it to re-install before checkout. Not a huge deal, but having 24/7 pickup would have been more ideal.

   7. 24/7 Self Checkout/Vending - There have been SEVERAL times where I had a hankering for a snack I didn’t have, or needed something I ran out of like medication for a headache or allergies after the camp store closed. I would have loved to not have had to leave camp to go to a local 24 hour pharmacy or big box store, especially with the gas prices right now! I’d like to have a limited selection of items available in a closed off section of the camp store that is only available for self checkout after hours (and camera monitored). Less “honor system” (wide open for theft), but more on demand purchases/vending machine style. Self checkout for firewood, marshmallows, aspirin or ibuprofen, batteries, extra usb-c cords, 12 oz drinks, etc.

8. On Site Food & Snacks - Personally, as a prospective campground operator, I don’t want to be in the business of food service. There’s way too much red tape, regulations, and certifications required. I’d much rather have great food come to us to provide service for my campers. I’d have 1-3 empty “pads” in the “Activity Green” (shown above in the image) for a food truck or three, including water, sewer, and electric. This way, they don’t have to burn money on fuel for a generator or running out of water. We would charge a small fee to the truck to cover any permitting and light utility usage (pretty much totally at cost), and allow them to sell their delicious offerings to our campers.

9. Activities & Social Gatherings - THIS is where I think one of the differentiators will be. Instead of fun and games being spread throughout the campground, I want to create a “town center” vibe smack dab in the center of the campground called “the activities green”. This will hold the various major activities:

   1. Pool & hot tub

   2. Life size chess board

   3. Mini golf, or some sort of “course” based game? DO people want this? I like mini golf, but I feel like this one can be divisive. Discuss! Maybe even replace this with a catch & release pond, or a pond for paddle boats?

   4. LARGE community campfire with benches and Adirondack chairs.

   5. Throwing games (cornhole, horseshoes, washers)

   6. Food truck pads

   7. Outdoor movie viewing area - this would have the ability to operate like a ‘silent disco’. Bring your own headphones, connect to the audio via an app, and everyone can hear the movie without the movie making a peep otherwise. This would be a BLAST for midnight showings of some spookier movies around Halloween like Ghostbusters, or some cult classics like Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc.

   
   Maybe even add some relaxing bench swings, hammocks, etc. This should feel like a public park and very intentional and not just “its there because it has to be to get reservations” like some other campgrounds have, with a dated playground just dumped in a random place.
   
   The focus of this area is SOCIAL gatherings. This is also where the food trucks will be parked during their “open” time, and all outdoor campground based activities will be held. I want this to feel like a “quad” area. This is a place to meet new friends, enjoy activities with friends and family, and enjoy the outdoors as a camping community. If you don’t like the social aspect of camping, you can feel free to enjoy the peace and quiet at your own site.
   
   Outside of activities on the “Green”, i’d also like to provide the ability for folks to rent pedal karts, or maybe even small bikes. The pedal karts (think KOA) would be much easier to maintain in the long term. Heck, if the campground is VERY large, maybe even have a relationship with a local golf cart company and rent theirs for commissions?
   

10. Multi-Purpose Building - This is where my “modern” version of a campground will come to life. In the drawing, its the “Great Oak Pavillion”. This would be a permanent structure with sturdy walls, a decorative roof, and roll up doors that can be open in cooler months, closed for A/C in the summer and heat in the winter. This building first and foremost serve as HARD SHELTER should there be a need to use it in inclement weather, and also will be built to support social activities and remote work. The time slots will vary dependent on if its Monday - Thursday, a weekend day Friday - Sunday, or a holiday. I would venture to guess that remote work availability may be 24 hours most days unless another event was scheduled .TBD.

    1. Social Breakfast : 7am - 9am
       Some of the best campgrounds i’ve visited served breakfast either for free or very low cost like $3-5/person. Something simple and inexpensive like waffles or pancakes with coffee and juice. Sometimes sausage or bacon, and maybe an option for cereal, pastries or donuts.

    2. Remote Work Hub : 9am - 3pm
       The intention would be to provide a “We Work” style environment. Long tables with several power stations that fold into the tabletop when not in use, and out when in use. Plugs would have power outlets, direct connect to ethernet, and outlets for USB plugins. This area can also be used for remote schooling. This would be available with your campground reservation, headphones required.

    3. Family or Kid Events: 3pm - 5pm
       This time slot would be for kids to enjoy time with their friends and families, and meet other kids. Crafts, games, story time, contests, etc.

    4. Social Time : 7pm - ?
       This time slot would be used for various social activities. This could include things like candy bar bingo, wine tasting for adults, DJ/dancing, karaoke, ice cream/dessert buffet, couples arts and crafts, and so on.

11. Pool & Water - nothing out of the ordinary here. Create a pool large enough so that no one feels crowded. I wouldn’t go with a traditional square pool. I’d shoot for fun shaped pools, accessible and “walk in” instead of a climb in or ladder entry, with a waterslide. And i’m not talking just a little blue slide, i’d want something large. Something with 2-3 slides that curves and is fast for bigger kids, and a smaller one for smaller kids.
    
    I’d also implement a nice family splash pad instead of a kiddie pool. Let’s be real. Kiddie pools are gross, and no one wants to clean them. But give the kids (and sometimes adults) a nice, large splash pad with auto-filling buckets, water sprayers, and things to run through, it winds up being a blast, and its a lot less to clean up outside of the occasional pressure wash. My kids and I love soaking each other with the filled buckets.
    
    If we’re going to focus on the next generation of campers, we also have to include a way to relax. I’d implement a hot tub near the pool but not directly next to it that will have kids beelining for it. An adult hot tub that is large enough for 10-15 folks to be seated up to their neck.

12. Internet - For all that is good and holy. First and foremost, I thank every single campground operator for their hard work. However, I have only ever been to ONE campground that has ever truly understood how internet access ACTUALLY works. No, I cannot work remotely from a home wi-fi router if 99% of the campground is ALSO on it.
    
    I would invest in commercial internet infrastructure. Ports to support EVERY campsite with 3-5 devices each, 5GHZ with multiple access points. The pavilion will have both wi-fi AND ethernet, so choose your weapon there, remote workers!
    
    I understand it is expensive. But it is critical that folks have internet access in 2026, and if we are going to have a campground that supports the modern camper, its a necessity that we get it RIGHT.

    ---

    Ok That’s Enough Dreaming For Now

    I’ve had enough, and i’m sure if you’ve made it to this point, you’re also tired of campground dreaming.

    
    By now, we have a picture of what the modern campground COULD look like. Bigger sites to accommodate modern rig sizes and how people like to camp, lush greenery to provide privacy between sites, social spaces that bring people together, opportunities for remote workers to have space to actually work, a variety of activities both indoor and outdoor, wi-fi that actually works, and things to do for both introverts that want to be left alone (i’m sometimes one of them), and those that want to have a burger with a stranger.
    
    Ultimately, the next generation of campground may be built, somewhere out there. But I have a dream that we can build one where human connection is at its center, literally. If you take a hard look at my loose rendering, all of the social aspects of camping are in the middle of the map. The pavilion, the activity green, the pool, the community fire ring.
    
    Yes, this campground may be tech enabled with modern wi-fi, tech enabled laundry service, a remote work area with power and ethernet, tech-enabled lockers for package pickup, modern vending services to provide needed items 24/7, and more. But, the tech will only help provide a better guest experience in the long term, allowing the campers MORE time to connect with each other, and get back to enjoying nature and the outdoors…together.

What Would It Take To Build This?

I’m glad you asked. No, really, I am. Honestly, building a campground is expensive. Whether you build in the Northeast, or the South West, its expensive. Land may be cheaper in one area, and more expensive in another, where property taxes are higher in one and cheaper than another. The area where land is cheaper may be so far out in the middle of nowhere, it will take MUCH MUCH longer to turn a profit and attract campers since its not really near much of anything.

Could you buy an existing campground? Sure can. There are a LOT of campgrounds for sale, and the “silver tsunami” of elder campground operators who want out of the business. But who has a few cold million buckaroos sitting around? Not me. Not to mention, you’re taking an existing campground that may have built decades ago, and molding it into your vision, which may not be a good fit. You also may be taking on their debt as well which can significantly stretch out the timeline of even hitting a small percentage of the vision.

Therefore, the option is private equity, loans, etc. Wherein, you may run the risk of losing more of that vision to build the campground of the future.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to concede any of my vision to build the next great campground, so if, and hopefully when, my chance ever comes up to do this, it will be on my own terms, own funding, and with the ability to create my own destiny.

I’ve ran my vision through several ai models for funsies, and it was interesting what it came up with. Here’s what it may take to build this vision, and it appears to include ALL of my ideas. Note, I did reduce the # of RV sites from 50 to 35 for more space as well from the original image plan above.

Yikes. The MID range of $10.5 million? This is in the Delaware Water Gap/Adirondacks area too, so land prices are slightly higher, but still a VERY desirable area.

I guess I should just keep dreaming right?

What would YOUR ideal campground be? Discuss in the comments!

Typically, I don’t book camping trips over a major holiday. Usually, the kids have something going on locally with friends, we get invited to a party, or we just generally don’t feel like dealing with the traffic and congestion. We are the family that like to go in the OPPOSITE direction of what everyone else is doing.

This year, however, we were thinking of booking a last minute trip for memorial day weekend, but keeping it within an hour of home. We still have a few local things going on, but want to get out and spend more time in our camper.

Let me start my rant by saying that I completely understand prices spiking due to supply and demand. I run a few businesses in my day job and prices ebb and flow based on demand and availability. My previous life in business was roughly a decade in the truck rental business, and weekends in summer were notorious for high rental prices, especially in college areas.

But there are reasonable, understandable increases, and there is just arbitrary gouging. When searching for campgrounds, I always start with the Kampgrounds of America (KOA) site. Yes, I know that they cost more than smaller, private campgrounds or state parks. However, I know what i’m pay for when looking at a KOA Holiday, KOA journey, or KOA luxury campground. A journey is a quick hop on/off the road 2-3 night campground which tends to be a little cheaper being no frills, and the holidays tend to be for longer stays and come with a lot more for your buck. Going to a KOA is like going to Walt Disney World. You know its not gonna be cheap, but you know you’ll get a lot of value for your money, and it’ll keep the family entertained. On a side note, Fort Wilderness is a FANTASTIC place for RV camping check out my review of it on the site! I’ll also debate anyone that says it’s not worth the money.

Opening the KOA app, I knew what I was getting into. I checked out my usual haunts that ran $55-65/night. For memorial day weekend they were asking $200+ a night, at least for the camps that still had space.

I checked out a few smaller private campgrounds and they were also high, and finally settled on one for $85/night for full hookups with 30amp service. Which, is still pricey, but not nearly as bad.

Rates Are Going Up, Holidays Or Not

I have learned over the seasons to book as far in advance as possible. This allows you more availability of sites, but less “settling” for a site type you may not really want for some, and you may get to pick your spot out way in advance! I only have ever needed to postpone a trip once, and the campground was more than accommodating since I booked way in advance and tried to be easy to work with. And sometimes, SOMETIMES, you get better pricing the further out you book.

Unfortunately, those days seem to be gone, or going quickly.

A campground that is about 90 minutes from home that is low/no frills but immaculately clean, quiet, and peaceful, used to run about $60-70/night when we first started RV’ing in 2021. It was our go-to for our first camp of the season to relax and de-winterize. Their pricing gone up a little here and there, understandably so with the cost of utilities and resources going up. However, now, even on a non holiday weekend it runs $120-130/night.

We chose to not go this year. This trend repeated across most of our favorite campgrounds, save for the few in the middle of nowhere in “whoKnowsWheresville, USA”. Some went up 20-30%, some doubled.

In 2024 I looked into going to a campground in Myrtle Beach that was about $120 a night. Yes, expensive. However, it was a weekend in the beginning of the season, and it was RIGHT on the beach. The same weekend in 2026? $300. Nope, not a typo. THREE BENJAMINS PER NIGHT!

Three hundred dollars a night for a square piece of concrete, a power pedestal, a water spigot, and a sewer line. Sure, you get a fun pool, and you’re right on the beach. But when you’re providing about 80% of the cost of living (guesstimating there) with your camper, etc, I have a real hard time paying more for a campsite than a hotel room at that point. And I don’t have to empty the black tank at the hotel!

When booking our long trip this year, once again, I was shocked at the price of smaller family owned campgrounds. Those and State Parks are typically the last bastion of reasonable pricing, but those were also giving sticker shock.

There are 0 expectations to pay the same rate in 2026 that I had in 2021, that would be unreasonable. But 2 and sometimes even 3x the rate 5 years ago is absolutely insane!

What’s Driving Increases?

Depends who you ask. But at the most basic level, its supply and demand. During the COVID period, many people (me included) wanted to get out of the house, and many folks turned to the camping and RV life. The demand for RV’s was suddenly CRAZY high, and threw the entire industry into a volatile nightmare. They were pumping them out as fast as humanly possible, and circumventing solid quality assurance processes to keep up with the demand. Hence the term “COVID BUILD” was coined. Many campground groups (Thousand Trails, Good Sam, etc) gave out memberships, and heavy discounts to camp at their places if you bought an RV. Campgrounds were packed wall to wall, and it went a bit crazy for a while. That continued for a few years, and prices climbed.

I have no evidence to back this next observation up, just observations. During the 2020-2023 RV boom, I noticed a lot of campgrounds putting some money into their business. New amenities, better marketing, systems, etc. Many of them got accustomed to the high campground utilization. They got used to regular income and sites being rented out on a regular basis…which, for some, may be why they’re so expensive NOW.

However, as I personally expected, as soon as COVID was sunk and we were all safe to go back to normal life mostly, the used RV market was flooded with equipment, which drove SUPPLY high, and demand started to dip. And dip, and dip, and dip. Many were returned because people went back to normal life, many were sold because they were too complicated for folks to figure out that thought it’d be easy. These folks clearly didn’t know about the black tank.

So you had kind of an upside down inventory. A lot of used units for sale, and dealers slowed down accepting trades for reasonable money. Still to this day, new RV sales have been dipping (as evidenced above. Bish’s uses publicly available new RV registration date), but per some articles I read, the used market in early 2026 started to stabilize, so i’d expect new to even out a bit. But there’s still a lot of inventory out there.

So what? Fewer people are buying RV’s, what does that mean?

What Does the Utilization/Occupancy Data Say?

As more RV’s came off the road and into sale lots, and new sales slipped, utilization at campgrounds began slipping. At the same time, utility costs spiked, and so much more. For some, rentals spiked, for others, it bottomed out. This chart I had Claude spin up from average campground occupancy from the COVID period to now. It’s not a perfect science, and it blends data from many sources, including KOA’s campground reports. So take it with a grain of salt, but the high level numbers paint a picture.

The 2019 pre-pandemic area ran an average of 55-60% utilized. And then you can see the massive spike in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and the fall off begin in 2023 to stabilize a bit with projected numbers in 2026 of 60-68%.

Why is the projected occupancy in 2026 higher than 2019?

The Housing Affordability Crisis & Remote Work

As we know, house pricing shot through the stratosphere pretty much everywhere, with seemingly no end in sight. The cost of living, food, fuel, taxes, catapulted, also with no signs of slowing down. So if you have to cut out a major expense, a mortgage is the easiest place to look. I would debate that is the wrong place to cut expenses, and an RV will cost more, but thats a topic for another day.

More and more folks began to enjoy the RV LIFE full time! They took to youtube, tiktok, and various other social media outlets and generated income just by documenting their journeys. Folks like Happily Ever Hanks (my favorite), Wild Outdoor RV life, Keep Your Daydream, and so many many more. Some started before the pandemic, some during or after, but the content really caught on when they had a captive audience, and many more people joined the van or rv life.

Now, more RV’s are being built for remote workers as well. Don’t believe me? Check out the Brinkley Z3515! It has a office flex space! Snazzy! If I didn’t have kids, i’d be grabbing something like that and on the road a LOT more.

With the housing crisis still keeping folks in RV’s longer term, the influencer/fulltime/vanlife movement getting bigger, and the remote work pool getting larger, campground utilization while it has stabilized, still remains a bit higher than 2019.

The byproduct of all of the content out there on the internet now of full timers and van lifers, is that it makes popular destinations even more popular. National Parks, hidden roadside gems, small family campgrounds that used to be a best kept secret are no longer such.

And as the demand grows and supply dwindles, pricing goes up, right?

Some Didn’t Plan For The Downturn

I have no data to back this point up in particular, other than, again, observations. I said earlier in this article about how some campgrounds made big investments into their business during COVID spikes thinking it would last forever. The RV boom, not COVID, to be clear.

And we all know now it didn’t.

So if a campground invested more money, anticipating higher utilization, had it for a LITTLE while, and then it dropped, how do they make up that money?

By charging more.

This wasn’t isolated to just franchise campground groups like KOA, or Thousand Trails, or just state parks or private parks. This was EVERYONE. I visited plenty of KOA’s re-doing sites and putting in premium patios and pads, private campgrounds installing pads and new pools, state parks upgrading their facilities and roads, the list goes on and on and on.

Some parks kept a higher utilization and are very hard to get into. These are primarily low cost state parks, and they will make their money back.

However, some of the larger, and more value add parks still have lower utilization and have to charge exorbitant rates to recoup their costs.

So What Do We DO?

Pretty much we write articles on substack and complain about it.

Just kidding. Maybe. Sorta.

Joking aside, there’s not really much we CAN do about it, directly. Costs are up that drive campground expenses higher. Fuel, electricity, natural resources, land, taxes, etc. And having to cover that AND past captial expenditures that need to get paid off, its tough.

What we CAN do is support the hobby. Promote the campgrounds that do awesome work, and go out of their way to provide a great experience. Tell your friends, share it online. Bring friends to campgrounds you like for a night, family members.

Yes, this will eventually increase the volume of campers and raise occupancy. And yes, we will probably need more campgrounds.

But think to yourself, if you have been camping for a while, when was the last time you saw a new campground go up?

I am not young, but I also am not too far from retirement age and I will confidently tell you that I have NEVER seen a new campground built, ever. And I have traveled all over the place by plane, by car, and by train. I read about ONE that was built on an old farm, but it was very small.

There are a LOT of family campgrounds that have elderly owners that more than likely do not want to continue to cut down branches for the rest of their lives. Their campgrounds probably have a large % of seasonals paying the same rates they have for a long time. They probably do not have amenities that modern travelers need.

More than likely, a double digit % of campground properties are catering to an audience that is aging out, and are not ready to really target the demographics that WANT to be visiting your camgprounds. Solid internet & wifi, better sites, more group activities, social hours, remote work spaces, etc.

My favorite private campground was an abandoned mobile home park. The owner formerly owned a hot rod shop, and wanted to slow down. He bought it, cleaned it up, modernized it a bit, introduced some social activities, provided starlink hotspots for remote work (covered), and the place does VERY well. Every single spot is full on a summer weekend. During the week, he’s at about 50% capacity. Not great, but he makes up for it big time with big weekend utilization %’s.

My point is, the campground business in of itself needs an overhaul. For NOW, you can help bring prices down by driving utilization up, promoting campgrounds that deserve it and calling out those who need some TLC (politely). If you have the means and ambition, find ways to protect land from more warehouses and data centers so we can build future campgrounds, or even tiny house towns that are rentable. Something, ANYTHING we can do to help more and more people live minimally, and get back in touch with the outdoors and each other.

As of this writing, it is May. In many parts of the United States, camping season has begun and is in full swing, while in other places that still have a bit of a chill, its on the verge of starting.

The key to the longevity of any RV is regular maintenance, and that STARTS with proper de-winterizing.

To many newbies, de-winterizing is just flushing out the antifreeze, doing a spit shine, and hitting the road. That may be ok just to get you out and into the wild outdoors, but de-winterization should be a series of tasks, not just a quick flush and flee (that line made me laugh, i’m keeping it). Proper de-winterization will ensure a longer life for your RV, and fewer disruptions during your camping season.

In this article, we’re going to go through what you SHOULD be considering at the beginning of the season to properly de-winterize your home on wheels. At the end of this article, i’ve provided a handy dandy checklist with some things you should do at the start of every season. If you are new to RV’ing, having a checklist of things you should be doing printed out is helpful until you get the hang of things and becomes muscle memory.

As always, I will state that I do not represent any RV manufacturer nor appliance brand, and suggest reading your manuals for proper maintenance guidance.

First, Book A Short and Close Trip*

*unless you store it at home with power/water/sewer access

Yup, you read that right. Book your trip. A lot of folks, me included, have to store our rig in an RV storage lot without access to power, water, or sewer, so most of what we HAVE to do, has to be done with the ability to dump waste water.

So go book your trip. Keep it within an hour of home, don’t go crazy with it. Book the largest site you can. Pull throughs typically give you more room than a back in site, and tend to be slightly more level. But if you have a favorite campground that has roomy back ins, do that instead. Whatever works better for you. You want a good amount of room to move around, lay out equipment like ladders, buckets, chemicals, etc.

I used to try to de-winterize as much as I could in storage, and then on our first trip of the season do as little as I could to get ready for the season but still allow me to enjoy the trip. But that was stressful. I’d be trying to de-winterize in storage, trying not to spill anything, moving around in tight quarters next to my class A bus neighbors. Eventually, I was given the advice of doing the full de-winterization at a campground instead, and after trying it, I won’t go back.

However, consider some campgrounds will NOT allow you to do all of your de-winterization process at their campground. As an example, not all campgrounds will allow you to wash your rig with soap and water due to the amount of water used and the chemicals. Some do. Always check, and if it’s not listed, just call the campground and asked!

Make sure to get a FULL hookup site with electric, sewer, and water. Not a dump station, you’ll want an on-site sewer hookup for the amount of water we’re about to dump. If you want to be fancy and get a site with a patio and whatnot, you do you. I do love a nice patio.

Rinse Out Your Water System BEFORE Hooking To The Camper

The most basic of the basic de-winterizing functions (hopefully), is to flush the antifreeze out of your lines.

But before we do that, we’re going to hook up to the city water, and rinse out our inlet hoses that may have sat all winter.

1. Turn on the campground spigot. Ensure that water runs clean. Even the campground spigot needs to prove its running clean before we hook it up to our camper. I do this EVERY trip, regardless of de-winterization or not. Helps reduce the amount of sediment you get. Sometimes if its not used in a bit, the water can be brown.

2. Hook up the water pressure regulator and rinse it out (keep it 50psi and below, but read your RV manuals to see what their recommended pressure is). I recommend a brass Renator Brand regulator . They last a long time, and you can adjust your pressure, instead of using a fixed pressure regulator.

3. Connect a new water filter & run water through it. I have been using a Camco Tastepure filter every season. Since i’m not a full timer (30-50 nights a year), I replace mine at the beginning of every season. You WILL see water come out the other end black. This is just rinsing out the charcoal in the filter. This is another task I do before hooking up my water EVERY time. SOME folks put their filter closer to the trailer, I don’t like to do that, because it adds more weight to the hose and the inlet. I try to keep the weight on the inlet as light as possible and use a hose elbow to reduce the pull.

4. Connect your drinking water hose to the water filter, and rinse the hose out. This rinses out any standing water that may have been trapped in your hose during the season and keeps it fresh.

5. Connect your drinking water hose to your rig, and then let the city water fly!

Flushing The Antifreeze

Now that you’re hooked up to city water, starting at the furthest fixture away from the city water inlet, run the water until it runs clear for the cold water first, then turn it off. Then do the same for the hot water until it runs clear, then turn it off. Then work your way backward to the city water inlet, repeating for each fixture.

DO NOT forget the following water fixtures:

• The toilet

• The shower head & wand (if you have both)

• Exterior hoses/exterior shower (I sometimes forget these)

• Your low point drains

I am pretty obsessive with flushing the antifreeze completely, so I repeat the flush process twice. There has only been one time in my now 6th season of camping that i’ve still seen pink antifreeze on the 2nd rinse, but its still a good way to ensure you’re getting it all out.

Once you are done flushing all of your lines, turn off the city water, open a fixture to draink the water, and go pull the plug on your water heater if its tankless.

This will relieve the pressure from the water heater, and allow any excess water that may have got into the lines out.

Sanitizing Your Fresh Water Tank & Plumbing

This is a step I didn’t do in my first 2 seasons because I didn’t use the fresh tank often. But once I did it, I never turned back. Early in my camping days, we only stopped at rest stops for bathroom use because I didn’t know how to properly manage my waste tanks and fresh tanks, and was afraid of having waste in the tanks while driving. After a lot of learning, we now almost exclusively use the bathroom and sinks in our rig now when we stop, and only go into the rest stop for snacks or to stretch our legs. More on that another time!

Not only does this process help sanitize your fresh tank, but it also helps sanitize your plumbing for cleaner water. Sanitizing your plumbing at the beginning of a season is a great way to not only keep your system cleaner and healthier, but you too!

We’re already using a water filter and most modern campers come with sediment screens on your inlets, water pumps, and hoses. But bacteria can build up over long periods of downtime you want to make sure is cleaned out.

This is where being hooked up to sewer is REALLY going to help, because we’re going to use a LOT of water. We’re going to be going back and forth on using and not using city water, so stick with me here. I suggest disconnecting city water when running your water pump, because your water pump should only be running when no city water is present, otherwise it can cause issues.

1. Choose a sanitizing liquid of your choice. Personally, I use the Camco TastePure Water System Cleaner & Deodorizer. I have known people to use highly diluted bleach instead. Personally, I won’t. I have this fear of it not being fully cleared from the lines, and one of my family drinks the water, or brushes teeth with it, and we have a potential problem.

2. Pour the right amount of the sanitizing liquid into your fresh water tank. The bottle will tell you how much you need to add based on the amount of gallons your fresh tank can hold. Every fresh water tank is either a gravity fill (inlet down into the tank), or fed via a wet bay/nautilus system.

   1. If gravity fed, just measure out how much you need, and pour it in.

   2. If not gravity fed and is a wet bay/nautilus system disconnect the city water, direct the system to redirect water to the fresh tank, and use the water pump to siphon the sanitizing liquid directly into the fresh tank.

3. If you used a wet bay, turn off the water pump and reconnect city water. Fill your fresh tank with city water, depending on the size of your tank, this may take a while. I have a 55 gallon tank, and this took a bit. Putting the sanitizer in FIRST, then water SECOND will agitate the solution enough to start to foam (if using the Camco solution, or something similar), and do a much more thorough job.

4. Once the tank is full, if you are able, it’s recommended to further agitate the tank to “wash” it further. This can be done by driving the camper around a bit, allowing the water to slosh about. Or, retracting your stabilizers, and gently rocking the camper to allow the water to slosh back and forth.

5. Disconnect City water, turn on the water pump. Set your wet bay to send the fresh water into your plumbing lines.

6. Run the agitated sanitized water through your lines. You are going to repeat the process that you did when flushing the antifreeze from your lines. Starting at the furthest water fixture from your water inlets, open the cold water for 2-3 minutes, do the same with hot water. Do this with every fixture, including the toilet, shower, and outdoor showers. You want to make sure all of your plumbing lines that run fresh water are sanitized. Repeat the process in every line until the fresh tank is empty.

7. Turn the water pump off. Reconnect your city water.

8. Fill your fresh tank again with city water only, no chemicals, disconnect city water

9. Repeat step 6 to run the fresh water tank water through your lines, until the tank is empty.

10. IF the water is now running clean, clear, and not sudsy, or smelling like bleach, without running out of fresh water, finish emptying the tank. Optionally, you can fill & flush a third and final time if you need it. The Camco solution is non toxic, but it sure as heck doesn’t taste great. So if you still have some suds, fill and flush it again.

11. When completed, ensure your water pump is off, city water is reconnected. Then flush the few droplets that are probably still left in your fresh tank by pulling the dump valve. Dropping a tiny bit of fresh water onto the ground won’t hurt anyone, since its clean and fresh.

De-Winterizing The Water Heater

This step really depends on what TYPE of water heater you have. You are essentially doing the same thing for both, but there are different methods for both. Note that you should NEVER run antifreeze through your tank water heater, so this is just a quick cleaning and prevention item.

Tank Based Water Heater
The tank water heaters are slightly easier to descale because you have more control over it, and don’t have to buy any crazy contraptions.

1. Ensure that you have not changed the bypass for your water heater, and the plumbing is still bypassing it.

2. Remove the drain plug, but stand aside when you do this, because whatever water that may have been left in there over the winter (hopefully none), will come out. I typically did NOT replace my drain plug when I winterized, and just put it inside the heater door, so that the tank could dry out over the winter, and no ice would form with leftover water that may have been inside. Never had a problem, but consult your manual.

3. In a bucket, combine a water & vinegar solution on a 1:1 ratio. For every gallon of water, a gallon of vinegar. If your trailer has sat a VERY long time and theres signs of scaling on the inlet, you can go full vinegar. I wouldn’t do that often though, it can be harsh on the tank.

4. Purchase a hose wand like this one from Camco. This will allow you to easily get into the water heater and spray inside to properly descale and clean, attach to a hose end.

5. Attach the hose to city water, and spray all throughout the inside of the water heater, you are going to try and loosen some of the scaling (if any), and just rinse out the first layer

6. Using the same siphoning method you used to get the antifreeze into the plumbing lines with the heater bypassed, we’re going to do the same, but switch the water heater OFF of bypass.

7. Siphon the water & vinegar mixture with your water pump directly into the water heater until full (or until the vinegar/water mixture is gone).

8. Some say it should sit overnight, some just a few hours. Check your manufacturers guidance to determine how long it should sit.

9. Once the solution has sat long enough, pull the plug on the water heater, and drain it.

10. Using your hose with the wand attachment, attached to city water, rinse out the inside of the tank once again to get the vinegar out. You may notice that as the water comes out of the heater, it may look cloudy or sandy. That is the broken down scale working its way out. Keep rinsing inside with high pressure until it runs clear.

11. FDEPENDING ON THE WATER HEATER you may need to use an anode rod. The dometic water heaters do not need them, but suburbans do. Again, check your manuals to determine if an Anode is recommended. If it is NOT recommended and you use one, it may rapidly deteriorate your tank! The rods in different sizes and prevent your tank from rusting. Here is an image of a bad vs good Anode rod. I typically replaced mine every season, or every other, depending how bad the water was at the campgrounds we stayed at. If needed, replace your anode rod

    

12. Replace the seal around the water heater plug. This is important. You need to keep a tight seal around the water heater plug, so it can build pressure to push hot water through the lines. I would typically replace the plumbers tape around the plug every season, as needed.

TANKLESS Water Heater

In the earlier instructions, you were told to remove the drain plug from the tankless water heater before flushing the antifreeze from your lines. Pretty much, thats all you need to do to drain the water. Next, you will need to descale.

Descaling for a tankless isn’t as involved as the tank based heater, but you do need special equipment like the Chromex brand tankless water heater descaler kit. The descaler kit comes with a bucket, submersible pump, chemicals, and tubing.

More or less, it’s the same process as the tank based water heater, except theres no tank to run vinegar through. Instead, the provided tubing gets hooked up to the water heater directly and runs the solution through the lines. That’s it. At least you get a bucket out of the kit, right?

Clean & Protect Your Slide Out Seals

Outside water should stay on the outside. Let me repeat that. Outside water should stay on the outside.

So let’s make sure the water stays on the outside by keeping our slide seals clean & protected.

If I learned ANYTHING from my previous travel trailer, its that I should haven taken better care of my seals. Note that there are a million solutions on the market for RV seal conditioners and lubricants. Slide seals are made by typically 1 of 2 companies, and they are not rubber! And both say they’re manufactured to be uv resistant.

Yup, you read that right. Don’t believe me? Listen to Ross from one my favorite educational youtube channels, RV Tips and Travels, talk about slide seal maintenance.

If you watched Ross, you have an idea what to do here. If you don’t, heres a few simple steps.

1. Get a bucket of clean water & dawn dish soap, or a spray bottle (Ross uses a pressurized bottle).

2. Starting at the top of your slide seals, clean top down.

3. Spray off the soap and water with a hose quickly. If it dries on regularly, it could damage the makeup of the seal.

4. Use a water based protectant (not silicone) like 303 UV protectant, spray top down, wipe it.

Inspect & Protect Your Roof

Staying in the same context of keeping the outside water outside, you also want to ensure you inspect your roof.

Hopefully, you have a walkable roof. If not, get yourself a foldable a-frame ladder like a “little giant”. You can also get a telescoping ladder, but an a-frame is stronger, sturdier, and safer, and i’ve seen telescoping ladders collapse.

Walk your roof, and inspect all of the sealant around appliances by check for cracks, or areas for water to enter. The sealant will typically crack due to uv damage, drying out, and many other reasons. There are several different sealants that you can use, and the best kind is what is recommended by your roof memberane manufacturer.

Clean the cracked area, and scrap off the cracked seal, then replace with new sealant.

For tears in the roof, again, contact the manufacturers. But it can be fixed with dicor self leveling lap sealant, as well as eternabond tape. It just needs to be cleaned, and protected from water.

Annually, you want to make sure to clean your roof and condition it, so why not do it when de-winterizing?

The proper roof conditioning depends on your roof membrane manufacturer. Again, check with your manufacturer and what conditioning solution they would recommend. This ensures your roof stays protected from UV rays and less susceptible to the elements.

Clean Your RV Inside & Out

This should go without saying, the cleaner you start the season, the easier it is to KEEP it that way for the rest of the season.

Many campgrounds will NOT allow you to wash your rig on site due to the water consumption and/or chemical usage. Some may with proper approval.

Me, I just decided to instead use a waterless wash when we de-winterized this year. It was the cleanest i’ve ever seen my trailer since we got it last season. It looks better now than it did when it left the dealership! I used the Aero Cosmetics brand waterless wash, and it came out spectacular during our season opening trip. I had help from my teenager, and it took us the better part of the day, but we got it done, and it came out great.

I would also suggest doing a full clean and condition of your tire rubber. Not a tire shine, but a legitimate deep CLEAN and condition. UV protecting your rubber will help extend the life of your tires.

Last, but definitely not least, clean your interior top to bottom. Dust, mop, vaccum, wipe, sanitize, etc.

Treat Any Signs Of Rust

Rust and water are your enemies when RV’ing. Anywhere you see rust, it needs to be treated asap, especially when it comes to towing, or your RV frame.

I am a fan of Por15. You can get an inexpensive kit that will last a while. It’s a relatively simple process, which is also detailed on the box itself.

1. Clean the rusty area

2. Use the desgreaser chemical on the clean area.

3. Use a fine grit sandpaper (provided) to create a rough surface for the treatment to adhere to. You do NOT have to sand off the rust.

4. Using the metal prep, cover the sandpapered section.

5. Once the metal prep solution is dried, paint the area carefully with the rust-proof paint provided.

6. Once the paint dries, do another coat of it. 2-3 coats should be enough.

Clean All Electronic Connections

Using something like CRC Electronic Cleaner, ensure you spray all of your electronic connections. This ensures to prevent any corrosion or buildup on your connectors and ensures they remain conductive. Connectors like:

• The 5 way cable from your trailer to your tow vehicle

• Your power cable that connects to the campground power to your rig

• Any other power cables that are used on the exterior of your rig

Inspect & Tighten Towing Safety Items

Just like the heading says. Ensure anything that needs to be tightened, fastened, cleaned, protected, etc for towing and safe travel is done. This include tightening the lugnuts on wheels as needed, on the hitch, and on the tongue jack.

Turn On, Open, Close & Test All The Things

Every light, every fan, every appliance, every tank, every heater, every window, every door.

Make sure everything in that camper that moves is tested, and is functional.

Anything Else Is Sort Of Optional, but….

…the more you do now, the easier the season will be.

It is true! The more prep you do on your inaugural camping trip after shaking off the winter, the less you will have to do during the season, and more time you have to enjoy time in the great outdoors.

Below you will find a great and VERY detailed de-winterization checklist that hits ALL of the important points, and some that may be a bit redundant or optional. But if you are new to the RV Life, it will help you create muscle memory every season to make your seasonal rollouts more peaceful and efficient.

The Raccoon Report is Live

First, the exciting part. The Raccoon Report is officially live and open to the public. Our 2026 trip review is already posted, along with all of 2025, and what might be our favorite campground we’ve ever stayed at (you’ll know it when you see the score). Over the next few weeks I’ll be backloading reviews from 2021 through 2024, so stay tuned.

How It Started

This project started toward the end of 2025 with a simple, unglamorous problem.

I asked my wife which site number we had reserved at a campground we were rebooking for 2026. She had to physically walk out to the camper to check her camping journal. I love analog journaling, I’m not knocking it at all, but in that moment I thought: there has to be a better way to keep track of all of this.

I didn’t want a YouTube channel. I didn’t want TikTok. I have zero interest in putting my family in front of a camera or broadcasting our lives to the internet. What I wanted was a clean, honest digital record of everywhere we’d been. What a campground had, and more importantly, what it was actually like.

That distinction matters more than it sounds.

We’ve stayed at campgrounds loaded with amenities that still managed to disappoint. We’ve also stayed at campgrounds with modest write-ups that completely blew us away, and others with glowing reputations that frankly didn’t deserve them. You’ll see both reflected in upcoming reviews.

Part of the problem is how campground reviews work. A hotel on a major booking platform might have fifty thousand reviews, enough data that one bad night barely moves the needle. A campground might have forty. One frustrated camper on a rough weekend can tank a genuinely great place. One overly generous review can prop up one that doesn’t deserve it. That felt unfair to campgrounds and misleading to travelers.

So I started building a scoring system that was fair, consistent, and weighted. One that separated objective facts from subjective experience and treated every campground by the same standard regardless of size or popularity.

The other thing I knew from the start: the reviewer has to be independent. No free stays. No sponsored visits. No campground paying to be featured. The moment money flows from a campground to a reviewer, the review stops meaning anything. That’s the foundation this whole thing is built on.

The Platform Was Born

Instead of just a camping journal, I decided to turn this initiative into a whole platform. I asked myself what “I” value when researching campgrounds to book trips. The list was pretty short and simple.

• I don’t need or want another login or password

• I don’t want to read a novel about the entire stay. If i’m going with kids, let me read about just the entertainment and activities available if I want.

• I don’t want to be bombarded with ads at every click

• I don’t want to have to sift through junk just to get to a review

• I want to be able to filter reviews to find campgrounds that meet my needs

• I don’t want to read through pages and pages of just “star” reviews with no comments.

• I want to be able to read it easily on any device

• Simple to navigate, easy on the eyes

So I got to work! The premise was simple. Campground reviews, easy navigation, provide value, respecting your privacy. I didn’t need to provide a massive suite of services just one platform people want to use of all skill level.

The first iteration was kinda ugly. It looked like something I would’ve built 20 years ago.

I wasn’t really a fan of the first draft, and it felt more like a utility website than a helpful tool for campers. One evening, I was goofing off and being a fan of 50’s style art, and art deco architeture, I decided to put a campfire and an old fashioned camper on the main page. I loved the design so much I expanded on it, and kept going.

It turned into a moment where you tell yourself you’ll only have a small piece of pizza, and the next thing you know you can’t stop yourself and wind up eating 3/4 of the pie!!! I kept going and going and going, and every night for months getting little sleep, I got to the prototype phase, sent it to some friends to provide feedback, and started entering reviews one by one. Which brings us to today.

Why I’m Doing This For The Camping Community

The more obvious is the reasons stated above. The less obvious is twofold.

First, this initiative is a love letter to the entire camping industry. It is not an easy industry to run a business in. It is a lot of hard work, dedication, and commitment. Whether its running a campground, or gear manufacturing. Its hard work, and this initiative is a big “thank you” for providing the foundation for my family and I to build great memories on.

Last, is a more personal reason. Selfishly, I want to give my time back to my family. I have spent most of my adult life working hard to provide my family the life I didn’t have growing up. When we got our first travel trailer in 2021 and started our adventures, I was able to slow down and really spend the most time with them I ever had. Once I got a taste for what “slowing down” really felt like, it was addictive. When the idea struck to create the most trusted platform in campground reviews, I saw the potential to turn my hobby and passion of RV camping into one that generates revenue, which will in turn continue to fund our travels to spend even MORE time with each other while more rapidly contributing more and more reviews to you, the reader.

Passion Is Free, But Running The Platform Isn’t

I will always journal my camping experiences as long as I am able, whether this site exists or not. I love being out on the road with the family, and I will always take rolls of photos, and document our travels. However, while passion is free, this initiative to bring my adventures to you isn’t

There are various costs involved in running, and continuing to provide real life independent campground reviews. Domain hosting, site management/upgrades, and all the costs that go along with camping like camping fees, fuel, maintenance, etc. After all, no camping, no reviews!

If you notice, I do not require a login, or your email. That is, unless you want to follow this glorious Substack, or as we call them, Raccoon Report “Field Notes”. Since we don’t collect your private information, it doesn’t get handed off to Lord knows who. However, we do collect generally public information such as where in the world you’re visiting the site from, and what reviews people look at. It helps us provide overall insights to our industry partners and prospective partners in hopes of generating revenue generating partnerships to keep funding this initiative!

How You Can Help

Share, Share, Share!
The Raccoon Report will only get bigger, better, and provide more value the more people that see it. The more folks see it, the more value we can provide to our partners, the more opportunities for monetization, which funds our work and site hosting.

Buy From Our Partners
The Trading Post on the website hosts links for our partners. We will only form partnerships with companies that our reviewers like, use, and vouch for. As of the time of this writing, we partner with RV Snap Pads and RV Life, and I personally use both heavily. Every purchase from our partners using one of our links and/or promo codes earns The Raccoon Report a small commission, which helps fund this project.

Donating
If you like our work and want to continue to see more reviews in more states, donations are not required but always welcome! You can donate directly on our site via Paypal!

Feedback!
This is the first iteration of the Raccoon Report, and there is no such thing as bad feedback! Please use the contact form on the site to drop us a line! Whether it is feedback on the site, or something that you would find valuable to add (or remove) from reviews! Or even if you think we should consider an entirely separate line of reviews like rustic tent camping, etc.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who provided early feedback and testing while the platform was built and launched. Thank you to the hard working campground operators, equipment and accessory manufacturers, and RV industry experts. Thank you to the influencers on Youtube that make every camping trip look seamless while simultaneously making you feel comfortable with cleaning out your black tank.

The RV Life provided peace and harmony back into my life, and allowed me to find amazing campgrounds to create lifelong memories with my kids who will not be little forever. I hope that the Raccoon Report can help you do the same.

From the outside, the RV life may seem glamorous. Everyone loves to share their pictures of beautiful campsites (mine included above), a nice trailer & tow vehicle setup, or gorgeous panoramic photos of sunsets on the horizon or serene lakes. Folks see these and immediately think “it can’t be that hard, right?”

I thought that too. In mid to late 2020 when I still had social media (long since gone, thankfully, other than Substack) , a friend of mine had bought a small 18’ trailer to tow on the back of his Pathfinder(?) and shared his photos of all of his adventures. He wanted to get out of the house with the kids and explore the country.

At first, I had flashbacks to how my parents used to have a seasonal camper near the beach. We had some good times there, and my Dad taught me how to use the basic functions like managing the waste tanks, etc. I thought there was no way i’d want to do what my friend was doing. Then I remembered that when I worked in truck rental, I used to help move 12 to 26 foot trucks from location to location on busy weekends to cover reservations. Often times, I even had to hook up car carriers and tow my car when there were no other drivers to pick me up.

So, I could drive and navigate big vehicles. I knew some of the basic functions of a trailer, AND knew how to operate a hitch system.

What was stopping me? If my friend could do it, I SURELY could do it!!!

The only RV brand I knew at the time was Airstream and Winnebago. Airstream STARTED at 6 figure MSRP, and I had thought Winnebago’s were only the drivable RV’s. We didn’t want a drivable for reasons i’ll get to in a future article. So I took advice from my friend, went to the same dealer he went to, and bought a similar model, just larger. I didn’t know any better.

How hard could it be, right?

Then Came The Hard Part

Understanding basic plumbing, electrical systems, proper tank treatment, seal conditioning/maintenance, hitch and tongue maintenance, torque poundage, wheels, tire and brake maintenance, bearing greasing, roof inspections, roof conditioning, proper exterior cleaning and protectant, leveling, payload weights, gross vehicle weights, dry weights, hitches and towing, and so on and so on and so on.

It’s a lot.

On top of that, knowing every single thing inside of the trailer such as how to operate every single appliance, control panel, gauge, sensor, and utility.

On top of just knowing how things work and how to keep them working, theres what CAN happen out there in the wilderness and on the road.

How do you handle a flat tire on your RV? What happens if you get into an accident? What happens if you can’t get level? What happens when theres no power to the pedestal in a full hookup? What happens if the campground doesn’t have full hookups and you didn’t realize it until you got there?

How could I POSSIBLY watch all of these RV influencers on Youtube live these magical lives on the road, and I don’t know anything??!!! I’ll never be able to do what they do.

WHAT IF, WHY ME, HOW DO I, WHEN DO I, WHAT THE ACTUAL LIVING HECK IS GOING ON??? AND WHAT THE HECK IS LEAKING???

Deep Breath, Let’s Level Set Here

There is a lot of content out there on the internet about the RV Life. A lot of great stuff that really inspires folks to get out and see the beautiful landscapes around them, and a lot of stuff that is just absolute rage bait trying to scare you into whatever they’re selling or taking out their own frustrations in front of a camera.

Don’t worry too much about whether you bought the right camper, or the right tow vehicle, or if your tires aren’t as good as everyone says, or if others tell you that you’re not a real camper because you stay at full hookups, or whatever.

Do you know what the best camper is? The one you like. The one you are willing to maintain, and the one you make memories in. I have my personal opinions on things, but thats exactly it, personal.

Do you know what the best tow vehicle is? The one that will safely tow your rig. I also highly recommend reading my article on Towing Terms, Guidelines and Best Practices to help you further.

Do you know what the best RV gear is? The kind you like that protects your investment.

Do you know how you learn how to properly maintain your camper? Time and failing over and over and over again.

Camping memories aren’t just the beautiful national parks, or the landscapes, or the quiet moments campside with the family. They’re also having the black tank backwash onto you while you’re learning, or the hot water heater plug shooting out at you like buckshot because you forgot to depressurize the tank, or you not perfectly leveling the camper and feeling like you’re going to roll onto your spouse and knock them off the bed.

And yes, i’ve done ALL of those things, and not just once. Ive blown water heater water all over myself at least twice!!! I even did it with a TANKLESS water heater! It happens folks.

Nothing Worth Doing Is Easy

There are many quotes and phrases that transcend time and context, and this is definitely one of them. Nothing worth doing is easy, and that is absolutely true for this hobby.

The camping and RV Life is rewarding. Its not easy, it definitely sometimes isn’t cheap, but it will create memories that will last a lifetime.

Just remember that sometimes when you’re going through it on the road or at the campsite, we have all been there at one point or another. Everyone starts from somewhere, and everyone has had a black tank incident.

Happy Trails!

The Raccoon Report site is officially in its beta launch and only available to a select few testers for its final polish! This also gives me time to load 5 years worth of campground experiences with detailed reviews of “what they have” and “what it’s like” for categories like utilities, amenities, and the local area. Its been a labor of love the last few months, but during this final stretch of manual data entry, it has caused me to pause and not only recall so many good memories, but zoom out a bit and realize how every single campground is a small business. Whether they were privately owned, or part of a franchise, each and every one is truly a small business, often times family run and handed down through generations.

These folks from the checkin desk to the folks digging ditches for electrical lines work extremely hard to provide us all the framework to create lasting memories. And for that, I am grateful.

You all give me and so many others the ability to get away from it all whether its for a short weekend jaunt, or a long term adventure, to let go of our day to day lives. While some campgrounds can use a little more love and care than others, that does in no way, shape or form take away from the amount of work and sometimes generational care that has gone into that campground.

Recently, I considered buying a chunk of land and opening my own campground because my home State has shockingly fewer campgrounds than you would expect, being so close to a major city. I’m no stranger to hard work and commitment, but when you start to stack up how much is actually involved in building a campground from the ground up, it starts to make sense why you don’t see brand new campgrounds that often, if ever. At least in my area.

Think of everything that is involved to start and run campground and you’ll see why!

• Land costs, taxes, permits and zoning

• Insurance (must be astronomical).

• Land clearing & preparation. If you’re building from the ground up, you need interior roads, sites, land cleared and prepared, getting your sites some semblance of level.

• Utilities. Digging ditches & tapping into the mains for electrical, water, sewer. Not to mention constant maintenance on the utilities, since the elements can be rough on them.

• Building restrooms, bath houses & storm shelters (if needed).

• Building a camp store & administrative office(s)

• Pest control is a concern. Yes, it’s nature and people need to be aware that its the outdoors, but a certain level of pest control is needed to keep your campers safe. The last thing you need is tickborne illnesses, rodent infestations, or some sort of mosquito borne illness.

• Parking & storage

• Groundskeeping. Cutting grass & trees, keeping sites immaculate and welcoming.

• Hardscaping maintenance.

• Buying & Maintaining equipment. From backhoes and tractors to computers and credit card swipe machines, theres a lot to own and maintain.

• Buying & maintaining stock in your camp store. This includes not only hard goods, but food as well, which requires its own maintenance to abide by expiration dates, and food sales regulations.

• If you have a restaurant on site, keeping up with THOSE regulations.

• Managing employees, staff, payroll, benefits, overtime, paychecks, insurance, etc.

I think y’all get the idea. Its a LOT. And while that list is definitely NOT everything (not even close), its still a ton.

When I built the scoring rubric for The Raccoon Report, I wanted each and every campground to have a fair shot to score high. A campground that has a lot of STUFF may still provide a great experience, but a campground that provides a great experience and service but is no frills should also have a fair shot. I wanted to keep in mind every single campground operator that wants to share their labor of love with campers from all over that come to visit them.

The Raccoon Report is a massive love letter to the great outdoors and every campground. Whether you are a generational family owned campground, a KOA, a Good Sam, a Thousand Trail, I thank each and every one of you for doing the hard work that many many others will not do to provide lifetimes of memories for everyone that will take advantage.

Ultimately, even a “just ok” day at the campground is better than sitting on your butt at home.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Actually, never mind, the elephant couldn’t fit in the trailer.

During my mission to find the PERFECT upgrade to my previous travel trailer, my family and I physically toured 100+ rv’s at RV shows and dealerships, as well as hundreds more floorplans digitally online.

After the countless hours of touring RV’s in person and digitally, I came to a few conclusions, only including thoughts that are relevant for this article for now:

• External storage in higher end brands tends to be an afterthought for some reason.

• Theres a difference between a true Family camper and a camper that happens to sleep enough people to resemble a family.

What do I mean a FAMILY camper compared to one that SLEEPS a family?

It’s pretty simple. If you had a family of 4 or 5 in a small home, would you just lay out foam on your kitchen table for your youngest to sleep on? Probably not. You’d more than likely want some sort of bed for your kid. Would you want to get dressed in the middle of your house in front of your kids? Probably not. What if you had to store all the kids toys and “stuff” in your bedroom? Not a great thing.

Let me start by saying that I understand there’s an RV for every budget, and sometimes you have to sacrifice a bit of function to save a few bucks. I get it. But I think the RV industry really has to consider what they label a “Family” camper.

A great example is the ai generated image at the top of the article. The image on the left in my opinion is the true “family” camper, the one on the right, just happens to sleep 4.

In my opinion, a FAMILY camper provides the following:

• Dedicated beds for most family members. I say most because not every family is 2 adults and 2 children. Some family campers come with a master bed, and a bunk space with 2 dedicated bunks, some larger (and more expensive) ones may have a loft that can sleep more, and can have comfortable sleeping space.

• A Private Bathroom. This is a weird one. I’ve seen some campers without a truly private bathroom. I saw one camper recently that had transparent walls on the bathroom and was labeled a “family” camper. So, the rest of the family is supposed to leave the camper while you do your business or take a shower? They can’t be serious.

• Dedicated Space for kids to get changed. Sure, this can be a bathroom. But the bathroom should be big enough that you don’t have to do a circus level contortion act just to change your underwear.

• Some Sort of Physical Separation. Doors, preferable. Curtains, work just as good. But SOME sort of separation in living spaces is great. Even if its a thin sheet, sometimes people just want privacy to tune out the noise a bit.

• Storage for Kids Things like clothes & toys. You don’t need anything fancy like a dresser or french armoire. Giving kids their own “space” to manage not only teaches them accountability and organization, but makes them feel included. In our previous camper, we had to dedicate 2 shelves in our pantry for our kids clothes and some travel toys. Any overflow went into the storage area my wife and I used. Not that we mind sharing, but everyone having their own dedicated space is nice.

• Adequate Outdoor Storage. Kids may have their own camp chairs, foldable scooter, helmets, life vets (for swimming/boating), water wings, shovels and buckets, extra shoes, etc. For all that is good and holy, please, if an RV company is reading this, invest in better exterior storage. We looked at a BEAUTIFUL 5th wheel, and there was ONE, yes, ONE SINGLE exterior compartment for storage, but yet had a MASSIVE “outdoor kitchen" compartment, which stored kitchen stuff only. There was a compartment under the 5th wheel overhang behind the propane storage. But that is typically where maintenance items go like the 50 amp electrical cord, tools, chemicals, sealants, parts, black tank extra hoses, etc. I GUESS you could use it for family stuff + maintenance stuff, but God speed on playing a game of Tetris and Jenga simultaneously while trying to get out a refill for your Thermacell lantern.

Maybe i’m just a curmudgeon here. But imagine, if you will, you pull into your campsite for your trip. You level the camper with a PERFECT level, feeling good about yourself. You connect your utilities, setup the outdoor camp chairs, crack your beverage of choice, and play frisbee with the family. It starts pouring, and is super windy, so you cant use the awning without risk of damage, so you decide its time to turn in for the night, and your partner and 2-3 kids all cram into the “family” camper in the same small space, tripping on one another. While you’re waiting for your turn in the shower, you can’t sit on the sofa since that’s now setup for your youngest’s bed, you can’t sit at the dinette because that’s setup for the other kids bed. You resort to laying in your bed, dirty, while you wait for the shower to be available. Thats IF and only if the bathroom isn’t a jack & jill style bathroom that isn’t blocking access to your bedroom while its occupied.

Alternatively, with a more family focused camper, the kids sit at the dinette playing a board game, you get out your lap tray and catch up on a few emails on your laptop, while your partner is in the shower. The kids have their own dedicated bunks and bunkspace. In this scenario, you all have your own space for some quiet downtime, and not on top of one another.

When shopping for your next, or your FIRST RV, the # of people it “SLEEPS” does not necessarily mean its family friendly. But again, budgets determine the reality, but if you have the budget, spring for a REAL family camper, not just one that sleeps a family.

But now, I want to talk about my personal rules and guidelines I follow each camping trip. These are rules I set for myself and learned through trial and error that once I implemented, it made my experiences exponentially better.

1. The Rule of 333 is followed to the letter
   This was the BIGGEST change for me. I used to try and “hoof it” between one campsite and the next on longer trips. It was exhausting, and frankly I had no idea how people did cross country trips. On my first trip to Florida, I did 6-7 hours between stops. Hauling 10,000lbs behind you white knuckling down 95 can take a lot out of you. Now that I max out at 4 hours or 300 miles/day, yes, it may take longer, but it makes my trips MUCH more enjoyable.

2. Do Not Take The Blackstone Griddle On Short Trips
   I only drag the Blackstone along on trips longer than a weekend. Yes, it’s a smaller one, portable, and fits on a tabletop that hooks into our camper’s propane quick connect. However, even though I have a travel bag for it, it’s not light, and it has no place in the trailer for travel days that isn’t out of the way. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love our 22” Blackstone Tabletop Griddle, and when we do longer trips, we use it for nearly every meal (griddling > grilling, i’ll fight anyone on this one). However, it needs a table to sit on, which the picnic table may not be the best bet since its wooden (fire hazard), large, and heavy, and my quick connect cable is only so long. Thus, we have 2 foldable tables, one to put the griddle on (and griddling tools), and one for a prep station. Its just a lot of work to get the griddle out and prepped, the tables out and prepped, connected, etc. Not worth it for a short weekend.

3. Do Not Use The X-Chocks On Short Trips
   My reasoning here is the same as the griddle above, its just a lot of work for a short trip. These are usually far back in my maintenance compartment requiring some serious tetris skills to get out, require my drill to properly setup, and are a bit of work. They’re fantastic for longer trips where I don’t want the trailer moving AT ALL while we’re in it. But for just a short weekend, if we’re perfectly level and have our normal rubber chocks and stabilizers down, we typically don’t need these.

4. Stay On Top of Tire Pressures
   I check the week of the trip, and the day I roll out of the storage lot. It’s currently Monday, 4 days before I leave for a trip right now. I checked trailer tire appearance (make sure nothing is sticking out of the treads of sidewall) and pressures on Sunday (80psi, hasn’t changed since November!), and i’ll do a quick spot check before we leave Friday afternoon. I also always check tire pressure on the truck before I ever roll out of the driveway. Regular tire maintenance is key to safe travels!

5. Keep The Maintenance Compartment Organized
   Every RV should have a designated “maintenance” compartment or two. Mine has gear including tools, sealants, fasteners, cleaners, chemicals, propane hoses, gauges, filters, surge protector, etc, and a small black tank tote (with extra hoses, gloves, clear end elbows, plunger plug), etc. I’m in the maintenance compartments frequently every trip. I’m always doing some sort of chore to keep the thing running, clean, and efficient. I hate fishing for stuff, and being unable to find things easily. My general rule is if it has to be stacked more than 2 high, then its too much stuff. I also use stackable/lockable storage bins in the compartment to keep all my “stuff” neat and organized. In the old rig, I had 2 stacked. In the new rig, I only need one since our new trailer has many more amenities we no longer need portable accessories for.

6. Load All Clothing, Portable Equipment & Non Perishables In Advance
   There’s little I dislike more in the world than sweating profusely trying to load my camper the day of a trip in the dead heat of summer. I try to keep my departure day as low friction as possible, so we try to load everything up the week of, as much as we can. For the trip this Friday, i’ll have my “opening weekend” supplies (to clean and dewinterize), my little giant ladder, and most of my clothes for the weekend already packed before we even hook up on Friday to leave.

7. First & Last Trips Of The Season Are For Maintenance & Chores
   I can’t store my camper at home (small propety), and keep it at a storage lot. Naturally, I have no water, power, or sewer hookups there, so I have to rely on campgrounds or taking it to a dealer which is super expensive for beginning or end of season maintenance. Instead of fretting about it and shelling out $$$ for someone else to do it, our first and last trips of the season are booked within an hour of home and reserved for winterizing and de-winterizing. On the first trip of the season, we dewinterize, clean and protect the slide seals, do a nice “start of season” waterless wash, do a roof inspection, clean and treat any metal rust spots, and install any new gadgets I bought in the offseason. At the END of the season, we do the same thing, but winterize the water lines to prep for our pride and joys’ long winter nap.

8. Try Not To Unhook The Truck For A Layover, Water & Electric Only
   Following the Rule of 333, I stop for the night every 4 hours or 300 miles. If i’m on a long journey that may take a few days to get to my destination, I will not unhook the truck for a one night layover. However, I WILL put the tongue jack down to take the pressure off of the back of the truck and do my best to level front to back. Most campgrounds that you’ll do a 1 night layover in will usually have pull through sites which TEND to be relatively level left to right. Even if not fully level left to right, its good enough for just a few hours to catch some sleep and rest, get up early, and continue on your journey. On the RARE occasion I unhook the truck, its probably to go into town to grab a quite bite for the family, or for a minor emergency (illness, etc). Also on overnights, even if we have a sewer hookup, I tend not to dump the black tank unless its at least 3/4 full, and I have at least half to 3/4 of my grey water tank full. Plus, because its a lot of unloading of “stuff” like hoses etc,, a process to dump, then re-pack it all. I try to only dump when necessary. For a one night layover I try my best to

9. Always get drive-through on departure day
   No matter what time of day it is. Burgers and fries or coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Makes my life easier. If EVERYONE is fed and happy, it makes travel days 10x easier.

10. If Leaving On A School Day : Kids Bathe Before Departing
    As soon as they get home from school between 2:45-3:30ish, they get right in the shower. Shower, change into their PJ’s, and get ready to go. By the time they’re done, the stuff they’re taking is already in the truck ready. They just get in and go. This way, if we get held up in traffic, or have a hard time getting into the campground, leveling, getting into our site, etc, they’re already mostly ready for bed. Fed, bathed, and ready to snooze away.

There you have it, those are my hard rules for every trip to make my trips smoother, simpler, and more peaceful.

So you’ve decided to do this. You’ve watched approximately 47 hours of YouTube, bookmarked every RV forum thread you could find, and somewhere in the process completely overwhelmed yourself with Class A’s, Class C’s, fifth wheels, travel trailers, toy haulers, and every opinion known to mankind about which one is the “right” choice. And now you’re more confused than when you started. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Here’s the thing. There is no universally right answer. But there absolutely IS a right answer for YOU. And honestly, it’s a lot simpler to figure out than the RV internet would have you believe. Let’s break it down.

First, Let’s Sort Out the Big Picture

At the highest level, RVs fall into two categories: ones you drive, and ones you tow. That’s it. Everything else flows from there.

RVs you drive are called motorhomes. The whole thing, your living space AND your engine, is one unit. You get in, start it up, and go. No separate tow vehicle needed.

RVs you tow get pulled behind a vehicle you already own, or plan to buy. No engine of their own. Travel trailers and fifth wheels live in this camp.

Within motorhomes, you’ll constantly hear three terms: Class A, Class B, and Class C. Here’s what they actually mean.

Class A motorhomes are the big dogs. The ones that look like a Greyhound bus had a baby with a luxury hotel room. They run anywhere from 25 to over 45 feet, offer the most living space, and come with price tags to match. New ones can easily crack six figures, though you can find solid used ones for significantly less. They’re built for the long haul and feel like a rolling apartment. The catch? They’re BIG. Fuel economy is rough, parking anywhere other than a dedicated campground requires patience and skill, and if you’re new to driving something that size, there will absolutely be a learning curve. Plan for it.

Class C motorhomes are built on a truck or van chassis and are recognizable by the bunk that extends over the cab. That’s where the kids usually end up, for better or worse. They’re more maneuverable than a Class A, typically run 20 to 33 feet, and are popular with families because they sleep a surprisingly large number of people. Fuel economy isn’t great, but it’s better than a Class A. They’re kind of the sweet spot for “I want a motorhome but I don’t want to give myself a panic attack every time I need to park.”

Class B motorhomes, or camper vans, are built on full-size van platforms. Think a Mercedes Sprinter or Ford Transit with a kitchen, a bed, and sometimes a tiny bathroom crammed in there. They’re the most fuel-efficient of the bunch, easy to drive, and can park in a normal parking spot. For a couple or solo traveler who values mobility over square footage, they’re hard to argue with. For families or anyone who needs actual living space, they’re going to feel tight fast. Like, REALLY tight.

Now the Towable World: Travel Trailers and Fifth Wheels

If you already own a capable truck or SUV, or are open to buying one, towables are worth serious consideration. Lower entry cost, massive variety, and one big advantage people don’t always think about upfront: when you get to your campsite, you unhitch and the tow vehicle is free. Want to go grab dinner or explore the area? You just hop in the truck and go. You’re not packing up the whole house to make a beer run. It’s a bigger deal than it sounds.

Travel trailers are the most common towable RV for a reason. They hitch to a ball mount on the back of your tow vehicle, come in lengths from about 12 feet all the way past 35, and range from bare-bones tent-on-wheels to fully loaded rolling homes. There’s something for every budget and every style of camping. The things to know going in: towing takes practice, longer trailers can sway in crosswinds or when big trucks blow by you on the highway, and backing one into a tight campsite is a skill you will develop over time whether you want to or not. (Pro tip: practice in an empty parking lot before your first real trip. You will absolutely thank me later.)

Fifth wheels are also towed, but they connect differently. Instead of a ball hitch at the bumper, they use a specialized hitch mounted in the bed of a pickup truck, similar to how commercial trailers are hauled. That connection point sitting in the bed rather than hanging off the bumper makes fifth wheels notably more stable on the road, and significantly easier to back into a site than a standard travel trailer. They also tend to be larger, with a raised section over the hitch area that usually becomes the master bedroom. The tradeoffs: you need a pickup with a bed that can fit the hitch, which takes some trucks out of the running, and they’re generally pricier than comparable travel trailers. But if stability and space are priorities and you’ve got the right truck, they’re absolutely worth a look.

Okay, So How Do You Actually Decide?

Four honest questions. Answer them honestly and you’ll have your answer.

What can your tow vehicle actually pull? This is non-negotiable and I cannot stress it enough. Every vehicle has a tow rating, the maximum weight it can safely pull. Not a suggestion. Not a ballpark. A hard limit. Exceeding it is dangerous, can void your warranty, and can destroy your transmission climbing a hill on the way to your campsite. Before you fall in love with any trailer, look up your vehicle’s actual tow rating and be conservative with it. Factor in the weight of your gear, your water, your passengers, and everything else you’re throwing in there. If a dealer tells you your vehicle can tow more than the manufacturer says, and some will, trust the manufacturer every single time.

How many people are sleeping in this thing? A couple needs a very different floor plan than a family of five. Class B vans and smaller travel trailers work great for two. The minute you add kids to the equation you need real sleeping space, and that usually means stepping up to at least a Class C or a mid-size travel trailer with a dedicated bunkhouse layout.

How are you planning to camp? If your style is finding somewhere beautiful and staying put for a week, a larger more comfortable rig makes a lot of sense. You’ll actually live in it. If you’re the type who drives a few hours, sleeps, and moves on the next morning, a smaller and more maneuverable setup will serve you better and save you a ton in fuel over a season.

How comfortable are you, honestly, driving something large? This is the one people lie to themselves about most. A 40-foot Class A is genuinely challenging to drive, especially through tight campgrounds, cities, or narrow mountain roads. There is zero shame in starting smaller. You can always upgrade later. You cannot un-have the accident. Start where you’re actually comfortable, get your reps in, and grow from there.

A Few Things Nobody Really Tells You

Renting before buying is one of the smartest moves a first-timer can make. Services that let you rent privately owned RVs have made this way more accessible than it used to be. Spend a weekend in a Class C before you buy one. Sleep in a travel trailer. The stuff that genuinely bothers you, and the stuff that really doesn’t, will tell you more than any spec sheet or YouTube video ever could.

Also, and I say this as someone who has been through the process: new is not always better. The RV industry has a pretty well-documented quality control problem. A lot of experienced RVers will tell you straight up to buy a two or three year old unit and let someone else work out the bugs and eat the depreciation. New RVs lose value hard and fast. A solid used rig in good shape is frequently the smarter financial decision, and you often end up with something that’s already been sorted out by its first owner. Worth thinking about before you walk into a dealership.

You’ve Got This

The perfect RV doesn’t exist. But the right RV for where you are right now, with the trips you’ll actually take and the people who’ll actually come along? That one absolutely exists.

Start practical. Buy for the camping you’ll actually do, not the fantasy version you’ve been watching on YouTube at 11pm. You can always move up or trade in as you figure out what you actually love about this lifestyle. And you will figure that out, probably faster than you think.

Every person confidently backing a fifth wheel into a tight spot right now was once exactly where you are, completely overwhelmed and wondering if they were cut out for this. They were. You are too. Now go find your rig.

When folks new to RV’ing look for their dream RV, the first question they normally ask is “can my vehicle tow it?”. I completely get it, I was there too. When I bought my Grey Wolf, my first instinct was to go look for a larger SUV to tow it. I scoured the used SUV’s on the Enterprise used vehicle site (its a gem for cheaper, decently maintained cars btw). After a lot of research, I settled on a Ram 1500 big horn. However, I didn’t consider wheelbase until 5 years later when I moved on from the Big Horn and the Grey wolf.

To give you a visual of why my truck WASN’T the ideal tow vehicle, imagine a see saw. What happens when you sit on a see saw with 2 people of the same or similar weight? It balances out, and doesn’t really move at all. Now, lets say one of those people suddenly gets off the see saw, what happens to the person left? They take a sharp THUD into the ground, right?

Imagine a heavy trailer tongue pushing all that weight down on your hitch. If you have a Honda civic, that car’s front end will be pointing North and getting some serious air time in the front axle. Something with a longer wheelbase may fare better. IF you have a Ram 1500 with a short bed and wheelbase, your front end may do some funky things and feel like its lifting off the road sometimes, or tough to control.

Yup, that was me. The wheels wouldn’t come off the road, but it would bounce up and down in the front end a LOT more when going > 60mph, and looking back, I think if it hit one good bump at a good speed, it WOULD have come off the road. It would also occasionally be difficult to keep the wheel straight in some instances, and if the wind blew just right, I had to white knuckle that rig through difficult traffic as the back end swayed. I thought it was just a bad road, or weather conditions….until many years later realized what the problem was.

Wheelbase. Wheelbase. Wheelbase.

Now, with the wheelbase I HAD with the Ram, on paper, it should tow ok. But with a low payload in the bed + tongue weight & a loaded trailer, its pushing its limits and in non ideal conditions could have been dangerous, as I experienced. And note, I was never overloaded, used a weight distribution hitch, and properly loaded my truck and trailer. I thought that was “Just how it was” when towing a trailer, but was very wrong. Once I upgraded to my F350 with a bigger bed, payload, and wheelbase (20 inches more!), it made a big difference and I dont have to white knuckle it down the highway.

So what actually IS a wheelbase?

Wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear axles of a vehicle. It’s measured as a straight horizontal line from the middle of the front wheel (or axle) to the middle of the rear wheel (or axle). This measurement is significant because it affects a vehicle’s turning radius, stability, ride quality, and interior space. A longer wheelbase generally provides a smoother ride and more cabin room, while a shorter wheelbase improves maneuverability.

Why is wheelbase relevant for towing an RV?

In the simplest answer, consider the seesaw effect. Too much weight on one end can tip it. Even out the weight, spread the load, and its good. Its really that simple. But lets dig in a little deeper. Here are some key reasons why wheelbase matters.

Stability and sway control. A shorter wheelbase gives the trailer more leverage over the tow vehicle. When the trailer starts to sway (from wind gusts, passing semis, or uneven roads), a short-wheelbase truck has less mechanical advantage to resist that pendulum effect. The pivot point (the hitch) is closer to both axles, so the trailer’s momentum can push the rear of the truck around more easily.

The whip effect. Steering inputs get amplified with a short wheelbase. Small corrections at highway speed can cause exaggerated reactions at the rear, which the trailer then magnifies further. This is the classic escalating sway scenario that leads to loss of control, or in other words, sometimes causes what we call the “Death Wobble”. In that recording, what looks like a suburban was towing a longer trailer (31-32’?), so its probably a weight issue AND a wheelBASE issue.

Weight distribution challenges. Tongue weight needs to press down on the rear axle, but with a short wheelbase, that downward force can unload the front axle disproportionately. This reduces front-tire grip and steering authority — exactly the opposite of what you want when you’ve got thousands of pounds pushing from behind.

Payload and pin weight geometry. With a fifth wheel, the pin sits over (or near) the rear axle. A longer wheelbase means more frame ahead of and behind that pin, distributing stress more evenly. A short wheelbase concentrates forces and can overload the rear axle while starving the front.

Braking dynamics. Under hard braking, a short wheelbase is more susceptible to being “pushed” by the trailer. The shorter lever arm between axles means less inherent resistance to jackknifing forces, especially on downhill grades or slippery surfaces.

Turning and low-speed maneuverability trade-off. Ironically, the one advantage of a short wheelbase — tighter turning — becomes a liability when towing because sharper turn angles increase the risk of the trailer contacting the cab or bed, and they create more aggressive off-tracking of the trailer’s wheels.

Legal and manufacturer guidelines. Most truck and trailer manufacturers specify minimum wheelbase requirements for towing certain GVWR classes. Going below those recommendations can void warranties and put you outside the engineered safety envelope.

Does This Mean I Can’t Tow With My Large SUV?

It Depends™

Usually, no. Just because, on paper, it says you may be able to, doesn’t mean you should. The numbers on paper are in IDEAL conditions. My friend who got ME into RV’ing towed his first trailer with their family SUV. He said it did the job, but ultimately decided to upgrade into a pickup truck and a slightly bigger trailer and tows like a dream.

I’m not a manufacturer of vehicles or RV’s, and do not represent them in any way, shape or form. However, you should always consult your manufacturer, and safety guidelines.

In my “average person on the internet” opinion, always have more tow vehicle for your RV. Though, obviously, dont get a dually with a massive engine for a 12’ Casita. Thats ridiculous and has its OWN safety concerns. Though, Casitas are amazing trailers, so no hate on Casita.

However, having more tow vehicle than needed will not only future proof you, but provide a very comfortable safety cushion to provide season long peace of mind. I know you love your Rav4 (you know who you are), but its time to put it to rest, and consider your future of owning a pickup truck.

But i’m not a truck guy. Neither was I. I loved my Honda Civic. It was quick, comfortable, fit everywhere, never concern about parking. But once I got into my first truck because I seriously had to consider it, i’ll never go back.

Does this mean you can NEVER tow a travel trailer with a non truck? No. Just understand your limitations, refer to manufacturer and safety guidelines, and give yourself a cushion. Like everything in the RV world, it requires proper planning.

What’s A Good Formula To Determine A Safe Wheelbase To Tow?

I use the formula provided by Josh the RV Nerd at Bish’s RV. By the way, Josh is a WEALTH of knowledge and I highly recommend you follow him on Youtube. I love his content on the state of the RV industry he puts out every so often.

His formula is to use the 110/20 and 4/1 ratio.

Start with a BASELINE of 110” wheelbase. That will give you the ability to safely tow a 20’ Trailer (this is the 110/20 ratio).

Now, calculate your tow vehicles wheelbase MINUS 110”. For every 4” of wheelbase you have ABOVE the 110”, you can tow an additional 1” of trailer safely ABOVE the 20’ length that can safely be towed with 110”.

Here’s an actual example to illustrate the formula:

Vehicle: 2025 Ford F350 XLT Tremor with 6.75’ bed.
Wheelbase: 164” (if the specs on the dealer site are correct)
Trailer Length: 34’ 10”

• 164” wheelbase - 110” baseline = 54” of additional wheelbase

• 54” of wheelbase / 4 = 13.5’ of additional trailer length beyond the 110”

• 13.5’ additional length + 20 in the 110/20 ratio = 35.5’ max of safe towing length

With my trailer being 34’ 10”, my truck can SAFELY tow my trailer from a WEIGHT perspective AND a LENGTH perspective. Smooth travels!

Now lets look at my PREVIOUS truck and see if it was able to tow my old trailer safely.

Vehicle: 2021 Ram 1500 Big Horn Crew Cab with 5.7’ bed
Wheelbase: 144.5” (if the dealer specs are right on the website)
Trailer Length: 31’ 7”

• 144.5” of wheelbase - 110” baseline = 34.5” of additional wheelbase

• 34.5” of wheelbase / 4 = 8.625’ of additional trailer length beyond the 110”

• 8.625’ additional length + 20’ in the 110/20 ratio = 28.625’ max safe towing length

With this rig, I was 3.075’ OVER the safe wheelbase towing capacity. Can that make a big difference? Absolutely. A few inches? Maybe not anything too noticeable. But 3 feet! Absolutely! Imagine all 3 of those feet are filled to the brim with bricks. If I told you to carry 3’ of bricks, how would that impact YOU walking? A lot, right?

What are the Legal Implications Of RV Length?

Let me first say that i’m not an attorney, nor represent any highway safety group, state, or federal government. So first and foremost, consult your local laws for this.

But in my research, its a HUGE It Depends™. In my research, many states cap RV length at 40ish feet. Yes, you read that right, 40’. Many 5th wheels are longer than 40 feet! Enforcement is honestly pretty lax on RV’s just driving down the highway, and RV’s can be purchased or shipped to ANY U.S. State, however, if you were to get in an accident with a state where your RV length is over the legal limit, you’ll probably have a tough conversation with local law enforcement and your insurance company. There are also limits on TOTAL length between tow vehicle and trailer!

Oh, but i’m under the 40’ max length, I can tow that right?

Well, like they told Doctor Frankenstein (probably), just because you could, doesn’t mean you should. And I refer you to EVERYTHING ELSE YOU READ BEFORE THIS POINT and Josh’s video on why wheelbase is important.

Now You’ll See It More

In closing, now that you have a firm understanding of tow weights and tow vehicles from my other articles, and now a bit more in depth knowledge on how your WHEELBASE is important, take an extra second to look closer when you see someone towing an RV down the road.

How is the front end doing on their vehicle? Does it look like its sitting higher? Level? Is the RV swaying? Does the RV look like the hitch is barely holding it up?

The best way to provide a smooth, safe, and comfortable experience in RV’ing is from observation, learning, and making mistakes.

I’m very fortunate I never had any accidents with my old rig. Frankly, I didn’t really know that wheelbase was something to even consider until RIGHT before I bought the new truck & trailer last year. I’m very lucky that the new rig configuration was one that is well within the limits and within all best practice guidelines.

I hope this helps you in your journeys! Drive safe!

In my early days of the #RVLife, I struggled to find a “groove” in how I traveled. Originally, I would try to hoof it during travel days driving 6-8 hours a day before finding a place to rest for the night. Sometimes we’d get in late and lose daylight and struggle to setup, sometimes not.

Roughly 2 years into our camping journey, I learned about the Rule of 333. Ever since, it has made my travels significantly easier.

The Rules

1. Drive No More Than 300 Miles Per Day : For the average max speed limit in my area, this calculates to roughly 4 to 5 hours a day. Limiting to 300 miles or 4-5 hours allows you to break up your travel day into two sections. 2 - 2.5 hours of travel, a rest stop, and then another stretch of 2-2.5 hours. Driving for several hours a day in an RV, or towing a trailer is much different and taxing than driving a car or a pickup truck. Even with all the sway control in the world, you still will sway a tiny bit, work hard to go up and down hills, and so on. Driving too long in the RV Life can really take a lot out of you. Sticking to 300 miles a day allows you to stay alert, sleep in and enjoy your mornings, as well as not checking into your site too late, which leads us to #2.

2. Arrive Before 3pm. Most, if not all campgrounds in the US checkin starts on or before 3pm. Arriving no later than 3pm allows you to set up camp in the daylight with room to spare avoiding damage from low branches and tight spaces, but it also allows you time to enjoy your afternoon and early evening. With that extra free time you can go for a hike, setup your outdoor cook stations and make a great meal, or just light the campfire and enjoy peace and quiet. Whatever you do, do NOT arrive after dark. I have had to setup in the dark a few times prior to following the rule of 333, and it can be challenging and potentially dangerous.

3. Stay at least 3 days whenever you head out. Don’t ever go away for only one day, do at least 3 days. If you don’t, you’ll spend most of your time traveling, setting up, and breaking down. Sure, you’ll spend only one night sometimes when doing long trips and following rule #1, but that usually comes with multiple days in the camper. As an example, if you only do one night at a local campground, youll spend travel time on the way out and setup time, and then get up the next day to only break down and head home. Its way too much work, and can be stressful.

Following the rules of 333 helps more efficiently plan your trips, and helps keep stress levels down. Even though at first glance it the rules are restrictive and slow you down, understand that is the entire point. RV’ing should be fun, relaxing, and rewarding, not a job.

If you have got this far, you know that you’re ready for RV life. You know when and where you’ll camp, have an idea of what type of RV and truck you want, and you feel comfortable towing the thing around the country.

So now its time to fill the RV with stuff you’ll need and accessorize. The challenge though, is to be able to swim through the absolute deluge of RV gadgets, gizmos, and accessories and understand what you REALLY need out of the gate.

For me, I scoured youtube, talked to friends, and bought WAY more than I really needed up front. So in this article, i’m going to talk about some things that I bought over my first year that really really were helpful and necessary. Disclosure: some of the links below I may get a commission if you purchase directly with the links provided, though as I mentioned in my first articles, I will only suggest items that I personally use, and/or friends have used and recommend, and I would vouch for.

Let’s Start With The REQUIRED Items

This is the most basic list of things you will need to head out on your first RV adventure. Note that these items are JUST go get the rig out, set it up, and camp.

• Rubber Wheel Chocks - I HIGHLY recommend rubber. The yellow (or other colored) plastic ones are cheap, light weight, and will break easily. You want heavy duty, sturdy, rubber chocks that will stop the trailer should it roll. I recommend the Maxxhaul brand from amazon for < $20 for a set. Well worth every penny. They are long lasting as well, mine are going on 6 years old and still look brand new. I would get 2 sets of chocks if you have a dual axle trailer (2 chocks on each side), and if you have a tri-axle trailer do 3 sets (3 on each side).

• Surge Protector - Do not cheap out here. Yes, they are expensive. But they are an insurance policy. If your campground has a surge or drop in power, it can cause significant damage to your RV, sometimes cooking your electronics requiring a full replacement. Yes, you will have insurance, but i’m personally not sure if it would be considered negligence if you do not have a surge protector, and who wants their RV being down for service, or potentially totaled? I recommend the Hughes Watchdog brand surge protectors. Here is a link to the 50 amp version I recently purchased from Tractor Supply. Amazon has them too, but was a better price at TS. There are also the 30 amp versions as well for a few dollars less. I like the Watchdog bluetooth version because I can check the app on my phone and keep an eye on the amperage, and get notifications and alerts if it goes too high or too low. It also has a nice housing on the bottom to protect the electrical cable from the elements to extend the lifespan, nice ambient lightning, and is BEEFY. (warning: i’m not a licensed insurance professional, so anything here is just personal opinion and not fact, please discuss your insurance needs with a licensed professional).

• Drinking Water Hose - There are a LOT of hoses. You want to make sure you get a DRINKING water graded hose. A drinking water hose is food safe and certified for potable water, while a regular garden hose is not, made with PVC, and may leach chemicals or cause bad taste. I think you stay simple here and use a Camco 35’ drinking water hose. 35’ should be good enough to get you started, if you wanted to stretch a bit, you can go a little longer up to 50’, but there’s only ever been ONE time over the years where it was a little tight and almost ran out of length. I wouldn’t get too fancy with the hose in getting one of those “lay flat leightweight” hoses that expand when water passes through. Those tend to puncture and leak easily, so for your first outing, get a basic strong water hose like the one linked, it’ll last you a long time. If you’re going to be doing cold weather camping, you want a HEATED drinking water hose. I don’t have a specific recommendation, but i’d probably stick with Camco brand. Note: Some RV’s come with a hose on a reel already included. I would still have a backup in the event that the hose starts leaking.

• Water Pressure Regulator - RV plumbing can only take so much water pressure before it blows, splits, and starts to leak. Water inside an rv thats NOT coming from your faucets is BAD. VERY BAD. Most modern RV plumbing PEX style and has a max range of 40-60psi. Most RVs youre safe with 45-50psi. Sometimes, your water pressure at campgrounds can swing in a big way from hour to hour. If the campsite is full of rigs on a Friday night, your pressure may be on the lower end, but as people leave it may wind up on the higher end, or a random surge in pressure could come in depending on how the RV park handles their water. There are two different types of regulators that being an adjustable regulator (I prefer this one), or a fixed regulator. A fixed regulator comes fixed at 40-50 psi with a max intake of 120psi, so it will automatically set your pressure for you based on flow. The adjustable regulator lets you manually set a PSI, which I usually leave at 50 to set it and forget it. I prefer the adjustable Renator brand (pictured) since I can see the PSI gauge, but nowadays you can also get digital PSI gauges and use the fixed. Whichever you feel more comfortable using from the jump is up to you. I used the fixed for a while and upgraded eventually to the adjustable. NOTE: this should be the first thing installed directly to the city water at your campsite.

• Water Filter - This is an absolute, without a doubt requirement. You use water, a lot. Some folks may want to bring bottled water to brush teeth with and/or drink it, some folks don’t. You will at minimum need water to shower and wash dishes, so you should make sure the contaminants are filtered out. Enter the water filter. This gets installed after your water pressure regulator between your city water (spigot at the campground site) and your rig. This prevents a massive surge of water going into the filter and bursting it or causing damage. Typically you will replace these once or twice a camping season, depending on how long your seasons are and how often you camp. In the Northeast, we are out 30-40 nights a year, and we replace these annually. I use the Camco brand filter about 98% of the time. If I don’t use camco it was because I forgot to replace the old filter at the beginning of a season, and had to run to the camp store at a campground to buy a new one that wasn’t Camco brand. Note: some higher end campers may have their own permanent filtration systems not replaceable bottles. Follow your manufacturers guides.

• Sewer Water Handling System & tank treatment - Choose carefully here. I’ve covered this heavily in my other article “The Dreaded Black Tank” which should answer product recommendations. I do recommend at least 50’ of sewer piping, typically in two 25’ sections that can be stored in your bumper, or some sort of under mount system.

• Leveling Blocks (aka Legos) - These are multi use, and either have more than you need or not enough, there’s never a middle ground. I’ve used both Camco and Lynx brand blocks, and personally, i’m more of a fan of Lynx blocks. I have put some weight on them and beaten them up and they’re still holding shape and doing well other than some color fading, whereas my Camco blocks cracked easy and I had to toss some of them. But we aren’t going to use these for LEVELING, technically. We’re going to be using them for support. Support for our tongue jack, support for our stabilizers, and/or, if the Andersen leveling system (see bullet below) isn’t going to cut it based on the terrain you’re on.

• Andersen Levelers - THIS is what you will use for leveling. There are different camps on which is the better leveling system, whether its Andersen or Lynx/Camco. They are VERY different styles of leveling. On one side youre building a ramp of sorts with 2.5” stackable blocks, and with the other youre driving up the ramp until level. To each their own. I’ve found i’ve achieved level faster with the Andersens than I did with the Lynx blocks, and is a bit less work. The Andersens ARE a bit more money (about $100 for a set of 2), versus the Lynx which is about 1/3 of the price per bag, so you’ll have to be your own judge. As a note, you should have one Andersen leveler PER RV axle. So if you have a tandem (dual) axle on your travel trailer, you should have a bag of 2 levelers, single, only 1, you get the point.

• 12” Bubble Level - if you have ever done any home maintenance or hung a frame, I guarantee you’ve seen one of these (hopefully). A basic bubble level will help you figure out if your rig is fully level side to side, and front to back. There are a lot of fancy digital leveling systems which we’ll talk about in a future article, but just to get you started, a bubble level will do just fine. I’d recommend getting one that is at least 12” and something more used in bigger projects than hanging photographs. You want something that can stand alone without you holding it. You’ll want to be able to place this in the middle of your rig on the floor to ensure it is fully level. You can also use stick on bubble levels, but save that for later when you’re more comfortable with your rig, and for now use the standard bubble level.

• Tongue Jack Stand -you’ll need some sort of someTHING to put your tongue jack down on. This could be something as simple as a block of wood or concrete. You dont want to put your jack stand down on something that isn’t flat like gravel, or sand for many reasons. First, its unstable and your jack stand could sink a bit causing the trailer to go off level, second, the trailer will tend to rock a bit more. Given that many campsites in the US aren’t a flat concrete pad, a jack stand is a requirement. There are a ton of hard plastic jack stands out there that only serve one job, that is this, but I personally just prefer to stack a few legos underneath the jack to ensure its not fully extended, and more stable with my Lynx blocks. You may opt to go with something more expensive like the jack stand blocks from RV Snap pads or something, but they all ultimately do the same thing.

• Stabilizer Jack Pads - similar to the jack stand, youll want to ensure your stabilizer jacks (or leveling jacks, if a 5th wheel) aren’t directly on the ground. Again, this ensures they don’t sink in, are safer, and provide stability. Even on solid concrete, its good to have a wide surface area to rest them on for more stability, and are not fully extended. The further out your jack stand & stabilizer jacks are extended, the more wobbly they get. In this scenario, once again, i recommend the Lynx blocks. If you haven’t noticed yet, this is why I said earlier we’re not going to use them for leveling, but more for stabilization.

• Tire Pressure Monitoring System - some would probably argue that this isn’t necessary out of the gate, but I fully disagree. Tire issues are the biggest cause of RV breakdowns, and they can not only bring you down for a long time, but also cause significant damage to your RV and costs a good amount to fix. A blown tire can blow up with great force, and sometimes tear up the underbody and wheel well. I used the non banded Tymate system for my entire time in my previous camper and had 0 issues. Its very basic, charges via a solar cell (or can be plugged in), you can set low/max pressure and temperatures to give off alarms, and the valve stem caps are bluetooth to connect to the system powered by small replaceable round batteries. There are other fancier systems out there, but this one is about $70 and will get you on the road. I caught a tire issue early with my Tymate system that told me my tires on the driver side kept getting hot. It turned out our axle was having issues that was covered by warranty and putting more pressure on the tires. Once we had it fixed, it got better, but the tires were worn down, so we replaced all 4 tires and avoided a major issue. NOTE: the tymate system linked is for Rv’s that do NOT have a banded TPMS system. Banded = steel bands around the inner wheel that connect to the system (much like your car), non banded are valve stem caps. If you have a banded system, this will not work for you. If you DO have a banded system that came with your RV, then they will supply the monitoring system. If you bought a USED RV, find out what the tpms system is if its banded, and contact the manufacturer.

• A Backup Camera - You could say that it isnt needed because “back in my day we didn’t have backup cameras, we could park an rv in a spot without one with a blindfold on and both hands tied behind my back!”. That would be true (probably), and technically, if you have someone helping you back in, you may not need a camera. However, where I find them super useful is actually while DRIVING not while parking. I have my camera positioned to see the car directly behind me, which helps me determine if I have enough distance to pass someone. As much as its nice, and best practice, to stay in the right lane doing no more than 65-70mph, sometimes you’re going to have to pass people, and the safer you can do it, the better. Unless you’re in a drivable RV like a class A or C, a Furrion backup camera with a 4.3” monitor will do the trick. Furrion is more or less the industry standard on retail RV’s and do a great job.

Honorable Mentions : Only Kind Of Required

• Extra fuses - in case any burn out. This is unlikely if youre managing your power correctly and use a surge protector. But can’t hurt to have them around. They’re cheap

• Toolkit - its good to have tools on the road. A basic kit from a hardware store will do. I have a Craftsman set with screwdrivers, sockets, pliers, channel locks, allen wrenches/keys. If I needed a tool outside that set it was rare, and usually an odd unique screw.

• Reusable poncho - good to keep in your tow vehicle. Nothing is worse than setting up your campsite in the rain.

• A trailer coupler lock - good to attach to your expensive trailer when youre going to be gone a long period of time. Most campers i’ve met have been great folks, but sometimes, ya just never know. Better to be safe than sorry. I usually attach and lock mine up if i’m going to be camping somewhere more than a weekend. I use a Master Lock version for my trailer. There’s no such thing as perfect locks for your rig, as they all have flaws, but having something is definitely better than nothing.

• 10’ Drinking Water Hose - this is more of a luxury than anything. I said earlier to get a 35’ section of hose, but sometimes your water may be < 10’ from your rig, and you’re digging out a 35’ section of hose. The last season before we traded in our Grey Wolf for our Brinkley, we purchased a second drinking water hose, of 10’ for the “just in case” we were really close to a spigot. We found we used it about 70% of the time, and it made life 100x easier than lugging around a big hose to hook up and break down and trying to drain it after every trip.

Thats about it! I’m sure im missing something. But realistically, the items above will get you on the road, parked and leveled safely, with proper hookup connections, and prevent shaking and wobbling, making your first camping trip more enjoyable.

There’s an entire world of RV widgets and gizmos out there, and we’re only just scratching the surface. But all of those other “things” are for when you’re more comfortable using your rig and all of its features, and then start understanding how you can best be lazier or more automated in your tasks to enjoy more well deserved R&R. That reminds me, I really need to get a bluetooth enabled propane tank monitor.

Happy Shopping!

There are two types of people.

1. People who like Ford trucks

2. Those who are wrong

I’m kidding...maybe.

One thing is certain for those enjoying the #RVLife, its not a matter of IF you will get a truck its WHEN, if you have a towable. At some point, towing a teardrop trailer with your Rav4 isn’t gonna cut it as you hear the engine screaming for mercy, burying the tachometer going uphill punching the accelerator and its barely going 45mph.

So what truck is the right truck? For the right answer to this question, don’t ask a truck owner. And i’m quite serious. They will tell you why the other brands suck. My father is a Chevy guy has never veered, and every time i’m considering a new truck will tell me he can call his “guy” at the Chevy dealer, to which I politely decline.

What Truck Is Right For You?

There’s so many brands out there its overwhelming. Ford, Chevy, RAM, GMC, Toyota, Nissan, and to add the new electric brands Rivian and Tesla.

When looking for the right truck to tow your pride and joy, the choices are seemingly endless. But, not all things are what they seem. There are a few basic attributes you should look for in your tow vehicle of choice, no matter WHAT brand you choose.

Engine & Fuel Type : Gas or diesel?

This is one topic that will get a lot of conversation no matter what truck owner you ask.

Diesel needs maintenance less frequently than a gas vehicle, but the maintenance costs a lot more. Diesel vehicles, at least in the US have something called a diesel particulate filter (or DPF) that filters the soot out of the engine, and collects in the DPF. The truck has to get hot enough to burn the soot in the DPF, so the truck has to run for a long period, or haul heavy loads to get hot enough to burn off the waste (this is also called regeneration). Unfortunately, when using a diesel vehicle for every day use, it will rarely get hot enough to burn it off easily, which over time can cause higher maintenance costs. When hauling a heavier trailer or 5th wheel, that can help, but since it isnt all the time, it only kind of helps. Maintaining the DPF in of itself is also quite expensive. Next, diesel trucks need DEF. DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is a non-toxic mixture of 32.5% urea and 67.5% deionized water used in diesel trucks to reduce emissions. Lastly, a negative, diesel fuel can be heavily impacted by cold weather, and more likely are to get bad fuel from a fuel station that has sediment in the tanks. In super cold weather, diesel fuel can gel, so additives are required in colder weather.

Gas vehicles, on the other hand, just run. They may need more frequent maintenance, but the overall cost of ownership is a bit lower. No DEF, no DPF, just fire it up and go.

So what vehicle is the right one? That depends on you. Diesel engines can do more with less, and in the past were much stronger to tow whatever you throw at them. With technological advances in gas engines, it now comes down to preference.

Personally, I went with a V8 gas engine with my recent truck.

Wheelbase : is the distance between the center of a vehicle’s front wheels and the center of its rear wheels. It affects stability, handling, ride comfort, and towing behavior.

Often, people shopping for trucks and trailers focus SOLELY on tow capacity. It’s a good practice to ALSO consider wheelbase and turn radius. The shorter the wheelbase, the more chance your tow vehicle/truck has for SWAY. You do not want sway. The longer your wheelbase, the more stable it is tow the trailer behind you.

110” Vehicle Wheelbase is considered safe for a 20ft Trailer • For every 4” add’l wheelbase add another 1ft to your trailer’s safe towing length.

As an example, my truck has a 160’ wheelbase. 160 - 110 = 50ft. 50ft / 4 = 12.5ft. So I can safely tow 32.5ft. My trailer is about 34’10” but I also use a sway control hitch, have sway control on my trailer, and my truck.

Can you tow a trailer SLIGHTLY longer than your recommended length? In some cases, yes, but with proper precautions like a sway control system on your trailer, hitch, or truck.

Tow Capacity : is the maximum weight a vehicle is rated to pull safely when towing a trailer, as defined by the manufacturer.

I would recommend you find a truck with a tow capacity that your towable is no more than 80% of. If you can afford it, and future proof further, go one step up if you’re starting small. Ex: if your travel trailer is 6500lbs and your tow capacity is 10,000 (8,000 would be the 80% limit), you’re in a great spot. You are above and beyond the 80% limit with a lot of wiggle room! Futureproof!

Axle ratio (or gear ratio) is the ratio between how many times the driveshaft turns and how many times the wheels turn. It determines how much torque is delivered to the wheels and affects towing power, acceleration, and fuel economy.

The HIGHER the gear axle ratio, the beefier your towing. However, keep in mind, your truck is pulling hard with or without a trailer attached to it. A high gear axle ratio is great, but can be a bear on fuel economy when unloaded.

Payload is the maximum weight your vehicle can carry in or on the vehicle itself—including passengers, cargo, hitch weight, and accessories.

I don’t have a suggestion on payload, but in almost all scenarios you’ll max out your payload before you max out your tow capacity. So if you’re going to go with a truck, probably start with a 3/4 ton truck to be quite honest. The cost difference is minimal over a 5-7 year finance term and the weight off your shoulders from having to be concerned about payload.

Tongue weight is the amount of a trailer’s total weight that presses down on the tow vehicle’s hitch (typically 10–15% for travel trailers).

Not much to add here. Find a truck that has the tongue weight capacity that works for the rig you’re looking to tow.

Fuel Tank Capacity: the total amount of fuel the truck can carry.

This is wildly different for every truck. I went from a 26 gallon tank to a 34 gallon tank and the difference is major. Those extra few miles to find a fuel stop, or not having to stop before camp are helpful. Where its MORE helpful is if you plan to camp in more remote areas where fuel is sparse. As an example, the road RV’s take into Alaska has minimal fuel stops, so having a larger tank (and a spare portable tank) can be the difference of hoofing it to a gas station, or pulling in with just enough to fill up.

Hitch Class: the size of hitch receiver on your truck that determines the size of your hitch and how much you can tow. Here is the breakdown in high level detail:

Class I : 1.25” receiver, gross towing of < 2k lbs, used on small cars (ex Honda Civic)

Class II: 1.25” receiver, gross towing of < 3500lbs, used on vans & suv’s (ex. Suburban, Rav4)

Class III: 2” receiver, gross towing of 5-8,000lbs, used on SUV’s & light trucks (ex. Suburban, Tacoma)

Class IV: 2.5” receiver, gross towing of 10-14,000lbs, used on 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks (F150, F250, etc)

Class V: 3” receiver, gross towing of 16-20,000+lbs, used on Heavy Duty pickups (F350, 3500, etc)

From the data above, you can see the higher the hitch class, the more weight you can tow. My first truck was a Ram 1500 and had a Class IV receiver hitch, and my trailer was about 700lbs GVW. When I upgraded to my F350, I went up to a Class V hitch to be able to tow quite literally almost anything I wanted without breaking a sweat.

Lift Kits & Ground Clearance: Some trucks may be “lifted” in the rear with airbags or other kits. These are TYPICALLY detrimental to your trailer, depending on the trailer’s ground clearance as well and/or if you have an adjustable height hitch (aka hitch “drop”). IF you have a lower sitting trailer, and a higher lift truck, the truck is LIFTING the trailer higher in the end than is anticipated, thus putting more weight on the rear axle of the trailer, causing more wear and tear faster. This can be dangerous and not recommended. When towing, you want your entire rig to be as level as possible. So when shopping for a truck, opt for a truck without any kind of rear airbags or lift kit, UNLESS the trailer you’re shopping is also slightly higher off the ground, and/or your hitch can be adjusted to sit lower. My truck is the F350 “Tremor” package which sits a little higher (2”) than most trucks because its built for offroad use as well. My trailer sits up slightly higher to begin with, and my hitch is adjusted lower for safer towing, and has a heavier rear axle. Therefore, I can handle the tongue weight, the towing capacity, and tow level.

If All Else Is Equal, Which Is The Best Truck?

We have gone through the more important attributes above, now everything else comes down to your personal decisions beyond that. Consumer reviews, comfort, pricing, amenities, etc.

In only my personal experience, I think FORD is the best heavy duty truck. This is not based on any articles or volumes of data, but just by personal experience.

Over the summer, my family and I wanted to upgrade our camper from the Forest River Grey Wolf to a 5th wheel. We knew very well our Ram 1500 wasn’t going to cut it from a payload (1200lbs roughly) nor a towing (11,500) capacity, so we had to go heavier.

We looked at Ford, GMC, Ram, Chevy. Here were the trucks I looked at and my opinions:

RAM: I owned a Ram 1500 big horn and LOVED the truck. It had a few minor inconvenient recalls, but we got through it. The truck gave us amazing camping seasons. It went to/from Florida twice, into new england, and elsewhere up and down the eastern seaboard. I loved that truck and wanted to just get the same trim, but in a heavier duty model.

However, looking at the heavier duty versions (2500 & 3500) the Big Horn was out of my price range. So I started looking at the models more in my price range, and I was underwhelmed. Note that I was looking at the “work trucks”, not the luxury models. Work trucks are typically no frills and lower prices, built more as fleet vehicles. Its a more affordable way to buy a truck. They usually wind up becoming maintenance trucks, snowplows, etc. So while they may lack some bells and whistles, the prices are usually right.

I felt that the 2500 & 3500 work style trucks were mostly plastic in the interiors, poor quality seats, VERY few bells and whistles and asking a LOT for a lack of features, and compared to the other brands, the pricing was way out of whack. There was also a general concern about Stellantis in general. There was a lot of concern with the dealers and the home office whether or not RAM would stay long term. I still have no idea whether or not they’ll sell off the RAM brand.

GMC: Nice trucks, super expensive. I don’t recall which one I test drove, but I just wasn’t feeling it honestly.

CHEVY: I test drove a silverado, and liked it. I felt the hood was a bit boxy, and I didnt like how the middle of the hood stuck out a bit for the engine, it felt like it impeded my vision. The bells and whistles were minimal, but do you know what it lacked? Cup holders. Cup holders were the differentiator here. The dealer tried to tell me that shouldn’t stop me from buying a vehicle, but with 2 kids in the back, it sure as heck was going to. There’s a story about Mercedes Benz (or was it BMW?) about how their folks surveyed a bunch of customers and they gave negative feedback about the # of cupholders it was lacking. One of their new models had more cup holders, and it drove sales higher. Cup holders...its a serious thing!

FORD: My first test drive was an F350 Tremor but a higher end package. They wanted roughly $80,000 for this truck, way out of my price range. The dealer we test drove with called me constantly to see how long i’d be (I was < 5 mins out), and kept asking me questions while I was driving, so we decided if we were buying it wasn’t from them. We LOVED the truck, but it was out of our range.

Defeated that we didn’t really find the truck for us, I refined my scope of what attributes I really wanted. I wanted high towing, a high gear axle ratio, a good payload, and the ABILITY to tow a 5th wheel OR a travel trailer. Every truck I specd out was either too expensive, or missing some of the attributes I needed for a lower price. After talking to a friend who had worked in the dealership world for 20 years, he said I could find the truck i want, just keep searching daily.

Finally, it hit. A Ford F350 specd the way I want in the XLT (lower end work truck model) with the Tremor package (2” lift with heavier duty axles, offroad tires, better suspension) came available at a dealer 30 mins away. Not only that, but it was on the LOW end of the price range I set, and it was new! We called the dealer, and checked it out the next day, we were driving it home a few days later.

The truck rode REALLY nicely and comfortably, it had a lot more cup holders, it had 120v outlets to charge tablets/phones/game devices, plenty of head/leg room, MORE than enough towing capabilities a great payload, and all the basic features we wanted. The only thing it was missing was an upgraded touchscreen that included XM radio, but we figured we’d download music if we’re heading into more remote cell-unfriendly areas.

We have taken it on two camping trips thus far and it has been an absolute monster. Comfortable, towing easily, and fits all our gear easily.

Research Matters

One of the items I did the most research on when shopping for the truck was reports on recalls. ChatGPT and other Ai tools are super helpful on going through volumes of consumer report and recall data on specific year, make and model of trucks.

I found out with heavy research that GM/Chevy had massive engine issues that almost led to a “DO NOT SELL” from the federal government based on how bad of quality their engines were for a bit. FORD had reported electrical issues, and to date is the most recalled truck, but Ford has been RESPONDING well to those recalls, fortunately. RAM had some recalls as well but were manageable.

Ultimately the volume of recalls was one of the pushes to choose Ford over Chevy. Even though FORD had more recalls, Chevy’s were much more egregious and bigger issues ultimately.

Now that you have read this, I hope you enjoy your FORD truck that you’re going to buy because it’s the best truck brand out there. Kidding...maybe.

The biggest concern EVERY new or prospective RV’er has is dealing with wastewater, primarily the black tank. First, let’s talk about the types of wastewater.

• Gray Water: Its called that because, well, its gray in color typically. Gray wastewater is the water that comes out of the other end of whatever goes down the drain in your sinks and shower. This should be ONLY water, and occasionally small food scraps that may escape into kitchen drains.

• Black Water: It’s exactly what you think it is. This is strictly what goes down your toilet when you flush, if your RV is equipped with a toilet. Human waste, water, and toilet paper.

In most standard RV’s that have both sinks and toilets, you will at minimum have two HOLDING tanks. A gray water tank, and a black water tank. I emphasize HOLDING tank because thats exactly what they are for, temporarily holding that waste that should be drained regularly. Some higher end RV’s may have several gray tanks such as one for the kitchen waste water, and one for shower water, to keep them separate and give you more wastewater holding capacity, and some may also have more than one bathroom justifying multiple black tanks.

Where Do I “Dump” My Waste Water?

If you are in a “full hookup” site, that means that your site comes with electric, water, and sewer hookups. The sewer hookup at your campsite runs into a septic system that supports the entire campground, and on a regular basis that is either pumped into the public system, or the campground pays a vacuum truck to do its thing. Personally, i’ve only seen a sewer vacuum truck once in several years, so its probably noting you’ll ever run into. To add, if you are staying long term in a campground that does NOT have sewer, some campgrounds will have a “pump out” service that can attach to your black tank flush valve and clear out your tanks for you. I haven’t ever used this service, but it does exist.

If you are NOT at a campground that has sewer at your site, you will need to find a dump station. Campgrounds that do NOT have sewer at your site will typically have a single dump station, or several, for the campground, or can direct you to one. Some truck stops have dump stations, and some rest stops off of major highways have them. Some charge a fee to dump (very inexpensive), some are free. If you plan on doing a lot of “off grid” camping (aka boondocking) and/or plan to spend time at non full hookup campgrounds, you’ll want to pick yourself up a portable sewer tote. Note, the link provided is for a 28 gallon one, but you should get one 2-3 gallons larger than your largest holding tank. Ex, if your largest tank is 25 gallons, get a 28 gallon. If your tank is 28 gallon, get a 30-35 gallon. You can never go wrong with a little extra liquid room.

How Do I Draink My Holding Tanks?

Every RV that has gray and/or black holding tanks has a sewer pipe. I’m sure theres a more technical term for it, but thats what I call it. Its typically a round black pipe under your RV with a round black or clear bayoneted cap on it. When I say “bayonted” i mean the cap has long skinny plastic “bayonet” looking pieces that lock into hard plastic pegs on the sewer pipe to ensure you don’t have an open pipe, and a strong fit.

Near that pipe are usually two handles, called gate valves. One Gray, one Black. Pretty self explanatory. When you pull the gate valve handle, it opens the gate for that holding tank and the wastewater flows out of the sewer pipe. Some higher end RV’s have electronic gate valve switches located elsewhere on the RV. Personally, im not a fan of these, because its something else electronic to break.

However, BEFORE dumping your tank(s), you have to make sure the sludge has somewhere to go. The cover image for this article is my personal brand preference for sewer hoses, Rhino. They expand and contract with an acordian style design, are heavy duty plastic, and hold up VERY well for long periods of time. and keep smells at bay. I’d HIGHLY recommend the starter kit if you are new to RV’ing. It comes with a carrying case for your accessories and storage, a clear elbow, caps, and support shelving. Why is the support shelving important? In the event that your camper is “downhill” and the sewer has to go UPhill, you want to do everything in your power to lift that hose so the waste can go DOWNhill as much as possible, so the support shelving helps accomplish that. You also want the clear elbow, because it is a window into what is going down into the sewer. Gross looking? Sure. But its a visual indicator to let you know if what is coming out of the tank is right, the flow is right, etc. I’ve had several occasions where I found my kids putting non RV paper products down the toilet and causing near clogs.

The portable sewer pipes can be stored in several places on your rv when youre ready to go home and put the camper back in storage. Most trailers have a rear bumper with rubber caps on either end. These come off, and you can slide your sewer pipes into just fine with a little finagleing. I would HIGHLY recommend getting TWO sections of accordian sewer pipe and connect one end to a magnetic bumper cap on each end. Instead of having to fish into your bumper to pull out your hose, it attaches to the cap and can be easily pulled out, one section at a time (1 on each end). The alternative to storing them is a plastic hose carrier unit that secures to the bottom fo your RV frame. These, in my opinion are superior than storing in the bumper, because the bumper is made of metal and can rust over time. The sewer pipes can and will leak a little water, and will damage your bumper. With the plastic tube, theres no worry about that at all.

The last thing you should also have in your arsenal is a sewer donut. While the Rhino kit linked above has nearly everything you need, the elbow that connects to the campground sewer inlet is plastic, and may not “screw in” snugly to the receptable. Having the rubber donut gives something for the elbow “male” piece to connect to snugly in the event that the campground inlet is weak, or isnt threaded. You do NOT want a loose conection to the sewer when dumping your black tank. You want that as tight as possible, even if you have to put a boulder on top of it (yes, youll probably get a weight to put on it too).

Ok, so we have talked about all the PARTS of the black tank, the dump gate valves, the sewer connector(s), and storage. Now all we have to do is let er rip, by opening the gate valves one by one until the associated tank fully drains. But...theres a CORRECT order of doing it.

1. Always empty the BLACK tank first. You want to get all the nasties in the sewer pipe first. Pull the gate valve and let it go until theres a slow trickle of water showing in the clear elbow.

2. Always empty the GRAY tank second. Once the black tank is done draining and is a slow trickle of water, or no water, CLOSE the black tank and empty the gray tank. What this does is rinses out your sewer pipe with sink and shower water, while its not CLEAN, its a lot cleaner than the toilet waste. It will wash away smells, and any solids left in the sewer pipe down into the septic system. The gray tanks are always larger than the black tanks, so this may take a bit. My recommendation is always wait to dump the gray tank until its full or close to full. This way you can ensure it does a good job of cleaning out the sewer pipe by releasing a full force of water current.

After draining your gray tank, close it up and rejoice. You closed both your gray AND the dreaded black tanks without making a mess. The ONLY time during this process where you could come into contact with waste is if you try to disconnect your SEWER pipe before its done draining fully, and/or if theres a bit of a drip when disconnecting it to tear down and put it away for storage. I do recommend buying a set of Camco sanitary gloves to setup and connect the sewer pipe to both the RV and the campground septic system, because you dont know what may have leaked. I keep my gloves in the same box I keep my extra 20’ of sewer pipe in.

NOTE: NEVER EVER EVER LEAVE YOUR GATE VALVES OPEN!

A lot of new RV’ers are tempted to leave one of their gate valves open, specifically the gray tank valve. I’ve had some folks say that they want to take a long shower and not worry about the tank overflowing, so they leave the gray water tank open during. The issue with THAT is that you are creating an open connection from your drainage system to the campground septic system. So any smells, drain flies, bugs, bacteria, will work its way up into your sewer pipe and into your trailer. I accidentally left my gray tank open for a few hours on my last camping trip and spent days trying to get drain flies out of my camper.

But now that we emptied our tanks, it comes for the MOST important part, and thats tank maintenance!

Proper & Regular Tank Maintenance Prevents Issues

To avoid any natural disasters (I crack me up), proper tank maintenance is CRUCIAL to avoid spills and backups.

What does it mean to properly maintain your holding tanks?

• Emptying your holding tanks at regular intervals .Your RV, whether it is a budget RV slapped together with glue, screws and nails, or a more luxurious one with wood fixtures and leather recliners all have some sort of holding tank monitor(s), the fanciness of which is on a scale from blinky red lights to a full control panel lit up like a christmas tree with bluetooth connectivity. See a few examples below of a lower end panel versus a higher end panel. Regardless of your model or how fancy it may be, you just need to know the levels of your tanks. Once you get in the hang of how long it takes you to “Fill” a tank, youll get into a rhythm of emptying them in a predetermined cycle. As an example, I know with a family of 4 with washing dishes 2-3x/day and everyone showering at night, that i’ll have to empty the gray holding tank(s) at least once a day, or day and a half. Black tank, I have about 3-5 days before i’ll need to empty the tank, depending on....volume.

• Use LOTS of water, avoid the waste pyramid: In most cases, you want to keep water OUT of your camper, but in the case of your black tank, water is your friend. EVERY time you dump your black tank, and are not tearing down to leave your camping trip, it should be refilled with 2-3 gallons of water by either holding down the foot pedal, or doing what I do and having a spare 1 gallon bottle, filling it 3x and dumping it down the toilet. What this will do is create an amount of water for solids to go into and start to dissolve. Because otherwise, without water, it is a dry tank, and solids will start to build up (pyramid), clog your tank, and create a massive mess to fix and clean up. The water and a good quality black tank treatment like Happy Camper helps break everything down into liquid, making it go down easier when dumping your black tank (no pun intended).

• Use Tank Treatment With Every Black Tank Dumping: Along with water being your friend in your black tank, your tank treatment is also a requirement. Tank treatments like Happy Camper are typically a single scoop, or in other brand cases, a pouch, that is put down into you black tank via the toilet after a tank emptying (and multiple gallons of water used). This will keep the odors at bay, and quickly break down any solids like waste and toilet paper to ensure your tank stays unclogged. Some RV’ers also use tank treatment on their GRAY water tank as well. This doesn’t need to be done with EVERY empty, but its good to treat this tank a few times a year to break down any food scrap particles that may have gathered in the gray tank from the kitchen sink and needs to be broken down. I usually do this once in the spring, once in the fall, and once in summer.

• Doing A Full Black Tank Flush Before Storing Your Camper will ensure your tank stays free of clogs, and fully cleaned out. Most RV’s nowadays have what is called a “black tank flush” hookup somewhere. With this hookup, you connect a garden hose from your water source to the inlet, and when running water is ran through, it sprays at a high pressure from a hose within your black tank to fill with water and clean out whatever may be left behind. Some RV techs recommend doing this after every tank emptying. I think that is a case by case basis depending on usage, but I do my flush before storing the camper and have never had issues. More or less, what you are doing is running high pressure water through your tank to give it a bath by breaking up anything that may be stuck to the walls like paper, solids, etc, and forcing that down the sewer pipe to the septic system. You SHOULD do this with your black tank gate valve OPEN, otherwise it could back up into your toilet and you have a massive mess. I will typically CLOSE my black tank valve for about 1-2 minutes to build up a few gallons of water, open the valve and let it flush out rapidly. I do this 5-7 times, or until the “black tank” water is fully running clear in the clear elbow. You would be SHOCKED what can still come out of your black tank even though you think you cleaned it well enough.

In summary, fear of the black tank is unfounded. I completely understand the anxiety, but its as dirty as a job as you make it. If you follow consistent process of emptying black than gray tanks in that order, and properly maintain, treat, and clean your holding tanks, maintaining ole’ stinkpot becomes a quick task, and not a smelly chore.

If I could give you ONE piece of advice from a lived experience though, always travel with three 20’ sections of sewer pipe. TWO of them can travel in your bumper or storage tube, and one can be stored in your portable tote (the rhino kit I linked earlier). You hopefully will never need to use that extra length, but nothing is worse than parking and getting level at a campground where the septic system is at the very FRONT of your rig, and the hookups to your black tank are at the back. Then you have to make the executive decision of using your waste water tote tank on the trip, OR, spend a fortune in the camp store buying another section of hose to close the gap, literally.

I hope you found this article on cleaning, emptying, and maintaining the cave of wonders insightful and reduced your anxiety a bit, and i’m glad you got to learn what a “waste pyramid” is now. After I did my first empty or 3, it got easier really quickly.

Just remember this line next time you’re pulling the gate valve on the black tank:

“Drip, sip, and let er’ rip” - Happily Ever Hanks

DISCLAIMER: The information below is solely my opinion based on personal experience and personal education and is not meant to be a replacement or expert guidance for towing or safety regulations to supercede any vehicle manufacturer, rv manufacturer, or government safety agency regulations or guidance. Please read your manuals folks!

Congratulations on making it this far!

By now, you know you’re prepared for this new journey, what kind of camper you want to be, when and where you’ll want to camp, and you even started shopping for your RV!You may have your sight sets on a few towables like a teardrop, travel trailer, or even a 5th wheel. If you do, keep reading! If you’re considering going with a drivable motorhome, skip to the bottom of this section about towing a vehicle instead.

So let’s get down to business. By now, you have a trailer or 5th wheel you like, but are trying to figure out Can I Tow This With My Current Vehicle? Chances are, probably not. Well, not safely at least. But first, before we get into the details, I have to call the authorities.

SEND IN THE TOW POLICE!

There’s a long running joke in the RV community that when discussing towing in ANY capacity, the “tow police” show up. The tow police are random community members that tend to be know it alls about towing. They will either tell you you can tow more than you really can, or a lot less than you really can, and give long quadratic equations about how they’re justified.

Joking aside, its good discussion and it helps people learn about the tow capacity of your vehicle, and what it actually takes to hoof one of these camping beauties up the road.

But lets get into the REAL details.

Towing Terms & Definitions

Before we get into the details, we need to discuss the various terms you’re going to hear a lot when researching tow capabilities.

• Curb Weight. This is the weight of your vehicle with fluids, without passengers or cargo. This is helpful to determine the factory weight of your vehicle before adding anything to it to determine the next term...

• Gross Combined Weight Rating (aka GCWR). This is the absolute MAXIMUM your tow vehicle can support. This weight rating includes the weight of the vehicle, payload on the vehicle, trailer, cargo, trailer tongue, fuel, propane, driver, passengers, water, waste, etc.

• Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (aka GVWR). This is the MAX allowable weight for your tow vehicle OR trailer/5th wheel ONLY. This includes a full load of gear, passengers, liquids (fuel, propane, water, waste etc), and hitch equipment.

• Max Payload. This is the max weight on TOP of the curb weight you can add. This includes driver, passengers, gear in the vehicle, and towing equipment (hitch, 5th wheel, etc).

• Max Tongue Load/Weight: This is the absolute maximum “tongue” load your vehicle can handle. A tongue weight (see trailer terms) includes the trailer hitch + the vehicle’s attached towing equipment and anything else that may be on the tongue of the trailer that will put weight on your bumper. That includes propane tanks, batteries, etc.

• Max Trailer Rating (also may seen as “tow capacity”): The absolute maximum allowable weight your vehicle can tow in a trailer. Note that this includes the trailer AND gear and liquids like water in you fresh water tank, and any leftover waste water in your black & gray tanks (more on that in a future article).

• Gear Axle Ratio. A gear axle ratio changes how easily the truck can pull weight. The higher ratio = better towing power. Lower ratio = better fuel economy. A truck with a “lower” tow rating almost always has a numerically lower

• Hitch. The thing that hooks the trailer up to to the truck to tow it. There are 3 types of hitches to choose from, a 5th Wheel Hitch, a Coventional Hitch, and a Gooseneck Hitch.

• 5th Wheel hitch. This type of hitch can be more expensive, VERY heavy and labor intensive to install, typically requiring cutting into a truck frame to install into a 7’ or 8’ long bed. It is a VERY secure method securing the 5th wheel “PIN” into steel jaws on your truck. You can see an example here from Curt

• Gooseneck Hitch. This type of hitch is a bit more uncommon. Frankly, I dont even’t have a great link for one because I couldn’t find one. This is a LOT less common in the RV business (at least in my experience), and more common when it comes to utility trailers, horse trailers, etc. So we’re gonna skip this one mostly. Its very similar to a 5th wheel hitch that mounts in your truck bet, but instead of a set of steel jaws that clamp onto a pin from the 5th wheel trailer, its a hitch ball mounted in your bed that is clamped on to from the trailer. Again, uncommon.

• Conventional Hitch. This is the hitch that most know. A big heavy metal block sticking out of the back of your vehicle that you lower a trailer hitch onto a big silver ball, lock the pin, hook up your chains, and call it a day. You will see these on travel trailers, teardrop trailers and pop ups.

Whew. Thats a lot. And we’re ONLY talking about the tow vehicle right now. Hoo boy. But lets look at a real world weight examples from my truck. Yes, these are the actual specs of my truck. Its a big boy.

Yup, this is my beast. A 2025 Ford F350 XLT Tremor Package with a 4.30 gear axle ratio. It has a 7.3L “godzilla” engine. It is definitely not a Honda Civic. The truck weighs 11,499 when fully loaded with gear and people, can have a combined maximum weight between truck, gear and trailer and cargo of 28,600 lbs and has a max payload of 4376lbs. For a comparison, the payload in my previous truck, a ram 1500 was about 1200lbs.

Now lets take a look at its trailering capacity.

You’ll notice that the max tongue & trailer rating for a CONVENTIONAL trailer is less than that of a 5th wheel. Wait, what? A 5th wheel is typically larger, and heavier, isnt it?

Yes! It is. But tow capacity is all about POWER and WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION. Lets review why this would be different.

Travel trailer vs 5th wheel towing weight distribution differs

In the image above, youll see a clear difference of 5th wheel (bottom) to travel trailer (top). With a travel trailer, more weight sits on the rear bumper, and more weight sits fully behind the truck to tow. Whereas, with a 5th wheel, more weight sits on the truck itself and is distributed slightly more evenly, so there is more of a need for a stronger rear axle.

What Can I Tow With My SUV?

The answer is...probably not. Or, probably not SAFELY. First and foremost, never listen to what the RV dealership tells you that you can and cannot tow. Their goal is to sell RV’s, not make sure you’re safely towing what they’re selling you. Yes, they’ll make sure you have the capability to tow it off the lot, but thats about it. Do your math and research on tow capacity BEFORE you start having serious conversations with RV dealers.

Let’s Break It Down

My friend has a 2026 Subaru Crosstrek 2.5L engine. The tow capacity is 3500 lbs (not a lot). So, do we go find a trailer that is 3500 lbs and call it a day?

ABSOLUTELY NOT

WHY? The more the weight, the harder it is to stop. Yes, the vehicle can tow 3500 lbs. But its not a best practice to be RIGHT AT your tow capacity. You want a bit of a buffer between what your car is capable of towing and the trailer’s total capacity. So what should that number be?

A good practice is to not exceed 80% of your vehicles max tow weight. This 20% buffer will allow you some wiggle room if you have to carry slightly more cargo, are unable to dump your water or waste tanks before leaving camp, etc. The worst thing that can happen is already being AT weight capacity, and unable to dump your waste tanks, now you’re rolling down the highway above your maximum weight limit. Its a major safety issue.

With that guideline, if this Subaru has a max tow capacity of 3500lbs, and using the 80% best practice rule, you should not have a trailer > 2,800lbs.

Lets go back to the screenshots from my truck above. For this exercise.

The max trailer rating for a conventional trailer listed above is 18,200lbs.

• 80% of 18,200 = 14,560lbs.

The max trailer rating for a 5th wheel trailer listed above is 21,000lbs.

• 80% of 21,000 = 16,800lbs

Therefore, I can VERY safely tow any conventional trailer with a GVWR of 14,560lbs or less, and a 5th wheel with 16,800lbs GVWR or less.

However, when using the Subaru Crosstrek as the example with a max tow capacity of 3500lbs, I can tow MUCH less and limit any creature comforts that I may get with a slightly heavier shower line possibly a bathroom, or shower.

In the earlier example, the crosstrek’s SAFE towing max GVWR for an RV is 2800lbs (3500 * 80%). That would allow you to tow this really nice inTech Luna teardrop trailer. I know that inTechs are aluminum lightweight frames, so even though you’re sacricifing some things, you’re still GETTING a high quality trailer with inTech. But, if you have a spouse and/or kids, I don’t think that trailer is big enough for all of you. Maybe? Maybe.

To be very clear, the 80% rule is a great rule for beginners. Well, actually, anyone, in my opinion. Where the TOW police typically get involved is stating that youll rarely, if ever be at full GVWR on your trailer, because that means youre bringing a LOT of stuff, and you shouldn’t do that. Well, yes, thats correct. But that is assuming no one is an overpacker, which we all know isnt true.

Can You Go Above the 80%?

If you have been RVing or towing for a bit and think the 80% method is a bit of overkill, you wouldn’t be alone. First and foremost, i’d buy you a tow police badge.

But then i’d suggest you knowing your weights inside and out, and knowing where your body tags are for your trailer and your tow vehicle. Knowing your weights will tell you where you have some “wiggle room “ to play with your vehicle/rig combination of weights. Body tags for your truck are usually yellow and white stickers within the driver side door jamb, and the trailer is usually by the front on the bottom rail somewhere, or on the tongue and looks similar to the sticker on your car.

In addition to knowing your weight capacities, its important to have access to a truck scale. CAT Scales is a good example of a business with multiple locations that can weigh your rig for a small fee.

Why do you need a truck scale and how will that help?

First, if you know the GCWR of your tow vehicle, you know the legal and safe MAX limit of your truck & towable as a baseline.

If you load your truck up with you, your family, and the TYPICAL gear you’ll tow, with a fuel tank of fuel, and go weight it at the CAT scale, you’ll set a baseline for how much your tow vehicle will weigh, maximum (in most scenarios). Now, start adding a Blackstone Grill, and some cast iron pans or something to your vehicle, then you have to start adjusting that a bit. But you get the idea here.

Here’s a quick example and a math exercise to visualize how the 80% rule MAY be too restrictive. Note, the #’s below are completely made up. Consult your tow vehicle & trailers registered and recommended weights and capacities:

Truck GVWR: 12,000lbs

Truck GCWR: 28,000lbs

Tow Capacity: 18,000lbs

Max Tongue Weight: 1800lbs

Trailer GVWR: 16,000lbs

80% baseline Tow Capacity: 14,400lbs (80% of 18,000 tow capacity)

Truck Weight, fully loaded at a CAT scale: 5500lbs

Since your trucks GCWR = 28,000lbs and your truck is weighed at 5500lbs, that gives you a remainder of 22,500lbs. A LOT of wiggle room. Granted, your TOW capacity based on manufacturers recommendations is 18,000lbs, but your 80% tow capacity baseline is 14,400. So what can we do here if the trailer we WANT has a GVWR of 16,000lbs?

First, we know the truck can legally tow UP TO 18,000lbs SAFELY. With the trailer you want having a GVWR (total weight with stuff & liquids) at 16,000, your truck can safely tow it. However, its > the 80% baseline, so what now?

We go to the GCWR of course! Since we already know you have a REMAINDER of 22,500lbs of GCWR after the 5500lbs weigh in of your truck + gear, lets deduct the 16,000lbs trailer GVWR from that. That leaves us with 6500lbs (22,500 - 16,000). Wow thats STILL a lot of weight left AND its over the 80% mark! Note that the 16,000lb trailer is ASSUMING its packed to the gills and full of water and full waste tanks. Thats pretty unlikely in most cases. But I would suggest to WEIGH it when it has a typical load of gear, fresh water, and some water in its waste tanks to get an average. But for this exercise, we’ll assume its packed to the gills at 16,000lbs, and you and your family need to have a conversation about minimizing.

Is that safe? Yup! You are UNDER the max weights, and most importantly, way under the Max Tow Capacity of your truck.

But Dont Forget About Tongue Weight!!!!

The tongue weight IS included in the GVWR of your trailer. However, that weight of the trailer tongue, propane bottles full (if included), and your hitch should be considered as well as just tow capacity.

In this exercise, the tongue weight max listed for our truck above is 1800lbs. The trailer we are interested in has a tongue weight of 800lbs, which gives us 1,000 lbs of wiggle room. Our hitch weighs about roughly 100lbs, so we are now at 900lbs of total tongue weight. As a note, the TONGUE weight listed by the manufacturer typically includes the propane tank(s) and battery(ies) already in that rating. However, if any modifications were done, the dealer threw in a heavier battery, or larger propane bottles, it would be suggested to get a more accurate weight.

Putting All Of Our Math Together

Loaded truck w/family & full tank of gas: 5500lbs

Tongue Weight: 900lbs

Fully Loaded Trailer weight: 16,000lbs

Total Combined Gross Weight: 22,400lbs

Gross Combined Weight Rating Max: 28,000

Difference: 5,600lbs

We originally said that the 80% baseline was 14,400, but chose a trailer that is 16kGVWR. With the wiggle room of 5,600lbs of remaining GCWR, that gives us a bit of a safety cushion to be able to stop safely, being that we are still UNDER the tow capacity, but OVER the 80% baseline max towing. But thats ok!

Whew. Thats a ton of math. And i’m sure youre an expert by now, right? RIGHT?

Please remember the 80% of tow capacity is a way to help you set a max to give you enough wiggle room while you get started. If you have a lighter weight tow vehicle like a large SUV, or 1/2 ton truck, then you definitely want to stick to that 80% mark. Once you get up into the heavy duty trucks like 3/4 and 1 ton, then you can probably go on the higher end of the spectrum. Or, if youre like me, you just get too much truck for your trailer with an F350 super duty that can tow 22,000lbs but have a trailer that has a GVWR at 10,500lbs and NEVER worry about weight capacity EVER again. I like taking a mental load off, what can I say?

Towing A Vehicle With A Driveable (Motorhome)

Quite honestly, this is one category I do NOT have direct experience with. However, I spent some time in the one way truck rental business where folks had to tow cars regularly, spoken with dozens of motorhome owners, and understand the concepts of towing for a motorhome at a high level, so i’ll give ya what I got here.

The long and short of it is, if you buy a drivable (motorhome), you may want to tow a car with you. But why would I want to tow a vehicle if I can drive my motorhome?

If you run out of eggs and bacon, are you going to drive a 45’ bus to a tiny Aldi parking lot? More than likely not. Sure, maybe for a quick weekend jaunt you don’t want to tow, but for longer trips you may want to. Not to mention, having to disconnect your water, sewer, electric, come off of being level, and then having to do it AGAIN when you get back? Hard pass.

Since I don’t have direct experience, I will defer to the experts on the fine details here. But i’ll give you the high level. Know that there are a few types of towing experiences when towing a vehicle, and each one is VERY specific to the drivetrain of the car.

Just like a towable RV, each vehicle towing method has its own maximum weights, sizes, etc, so a lot of the same that you learned earlier applies here. Max towing capacity instead of being on your personal vehicle/truck, is now on your motorhome, the car trailer now ALSO has a max weight as well. You get the idea.

Here are the 3 primary towing methods:

• Tow Dolly: A towed device that lifts the front two wheels of the vehicle off the ground. Used for passenger vehicles with front wheel drive.

• Car Carrier: A towed device that lifts all 4 wheels of the passenger vehicle off the ground. Used for vehicles that have 4WD or AWD that can NOT be disengaged.

• Flat Towing: A flat towing bar connects from the RV to the passenger vehicle and allows it to be towed without a car carrier or tow dolly. This is only used for vehicles where the drivetrain can be disengaged fully and run in true neutral with all 4 wheels rolling independently. Vehicles that usually fit this bill are jeeps, or some small sedans.

• Honorable Mention: I have also seen enclosed trailers towing motorcycles, electric bikes, etc. But the more “trailer” you have, the more weight to tow, so I don’t see these as often.

The motorhome owners I have met over the years try to tow as small of a vehicle as possible. I’ve seen many smart cars, small electric cars (chevy bolt, nissan leaf, honda fit, tesla model s, etc), and LOTS of Jeeps.

Holy Crap Thats A Lot

It is, it really is. But knowing your towing limits not only keeps your tow vehicle and RV safe, but also you, your passengers, and everyone else on the road. There are so many times i’ve seen poor setups going down the highway, or in a campground, and wonder how the heck those people got dressed in the morning.

Note that I am not a towing expert by any means, and would suggest reading multiple sources on towing and weight capacities if this is your first camping rig. Do not solely rely on your RV dealer, or me. This is a category where the MORE you know, the safer and better off you are. Your vehicle and RV manufacturer guidance is gospel!

One final note. Often times, towing guides scare new campers and they feel they HAVE to go run out and buy a heavy duty pickup to have more truck than they know what to do with. Thats not really necessary. With proper planning, you could get a small trailer to be towed by your Subaru, or Suburban, or a massive 5th wheel to be towed by your 1 ton pickup.

However, I do encourage anyone who asks that if you ARE going to commit to this lifestyle long term, to future proof your tow vehicle. Because I will guarantee you that if you enjoy this type of adventure, you WILL upgrade your RV within a few years, within reason. I’m not saying go from a Subaru Crosstrek to a 1 ton pickup. But maybe consider ditching the Crosstrek for an F150, Ram 1500, etc. Run that for a few years until you may or may not be ready to move into a larger and more luxurious unit.

Towing was the category that gave ME the most anxiety. My knowledge above has been through years of experiences, both good and bad, and I hope I helped take some of the panic out of your shopping experience.

Now that you are a tow expert, you can safely go pick out a few RV’s that will fit your towing profile for your current vehicle, or your future vehicle.

In our last article, we talked about the details of every RV type to help you start thinking about what you’d like to purchase to fit your need and budget. However, when purchasing an RV, much like a personal vehicle, there’s a lot of “add-ons” and options that you may or may not need.

The list below is based on my personal opinions, and may be controversial to some. Let’s talk about it in the comments!

Let’s get into it!

1. Factory installed solar systems: Solar has provided a lot of value to the RV market, and reduced the reliance on propane and campsites with full hookups. It’s also created a huge boom in off grid camping (boon docking). However, if you have the option to NOT get solar, don’t. Dealerships will mark up the RV significantly, even for the smallest solar panels. Find a local RV mobile tech (they’re usually very good), or an electrician familiar with solar, and get a quote for panels and installation. You’ll save some money, and the installation will in many cases be higher quality than factory installed (depending on brand). Lastly, most low/mid cost RV’s only have a small inverter and a small solar panel that can barely power a refrigerator for a few hours. The up charge for light solar isn’t really worth it. In my opinion, you’re either interested in boon docking, or you aren’t. I’m not a boon docker, and my little solar panel just keeps our fridge cold in transit, and if I knew this tip in advance, I would have looked for something without solar.

2. Outdoor kitchen : Let’s get real here. Most outdoor kitchens are just storage that has the resemblance of kitchen cabinets, and/or give a little counter space to put a small griddle. When you jump into the #RVLife, storage is at a premium. In the 5 years I have owned my RV, I have used the outdoor kitchen one time for its intended purpose. In my outdoor kitchen compartment, it has a dorm room style fridge, and large roll out tray with a cooktop (propane quick connect), and a wash basin. However, no counter space whatsoever. In addition, I feel that the “outdoor kitchens” with cooktops are WAY TOO CLOSE to the camper and are a major fire hazard. After I understood how non functional the “outdoor kitchen” was, I bought myself this outdoor cook station table, a 22” Blackstone griddle with cover, a slew of utensils, and was in business. Now, the only thing I use my “outdoor kitchen” for is to store drinks, condiments, and items for the griddle in. With my new trailer, it doesn’t have an outdoor kitchen, just a compartment with a small fridge in it, which for me is perfection.

3. Roof Add-Ons: This one is a bit tougher to avoid. Many RV’s may come with all sorts of roof “STUFF” such as antennas for tv’s, satellite prep, vent covers, etc. If you have the OPTION to not get these things through the dealer, don’t do it. Modern televisions really don’t need antennas anymore, the satellite prep is pointless since you’ll have to climb up/down onto the roof to hook and unhook it with each trip if you’re not a full timer in a seasonal spot. The vent covers are debatable. They are plastic covers that prevent rain from getting into your exhaust fan vents (bathroom & kitchen areas typically), so you can keep them open in the rain. However, exhaust fans in the midrange+ models have rain sensors already so they’ll close when it rains. These covers are relatively inexpensive and easy to install, so use your best judgement here. Its more holes and potential points of entry for water, so if you have the option to not put holes in your roof, don’t do it.

4. Slide toppers : Debris on your slide outs can be a major problem. If not properly swept/blown off, when the slide goes back in, the debris like twigs and pine needles can wind up getting pushed under the seal, creating an entry point for water. These slide toppers prevent debris from getting onto your slide outs in general. That sounds great, right? It really is....if you’re planning on frequently staying in heavily wooded areas. If where you’re camping is mostly open, and only occasionally stay in tall trees, these aren’t as valuable. Not to mention, these cannot (in most cases) go in/out electronically like your primary canopy does on the camp side of your RV. These are permanently attached to rollers, so when your slide goes out, it unrolls the slide topper. In of itself, it sounds harmless, but if you’re camping and a big rain or wind storm rolls in, you’d normally put away your slide. With these slide toppers, you can’t unless you get up on a ladder and disconnect them. What a pain. That, and they can make a ton of noise flapping around at night. Last, but not least, each RV has their preference for slide topper partnerships. A lot of them use Solera brand, and if they’re prepped for Solera, in most cases, you HAVE to use Solera, and brand exclusivity can get expensive. In my opinion, its easier to just clean off the slide yourself than to spend all that money. Get yourself a Little Giant Ladder that can fold for easier travel, a cheap broom, or even a small Ryobi leaf blower.

5. Touchscreen EVERYTHING : Hard pass. It’s not a matter of IF your RV will have issues, its a matter of WHEN. Also consider that if you are not a full time RV’er, it will sit in storage with heat, humidity, cold and frost, a complete recipe for disaster for touch screens. Having a touch screen AND actual buttons/switches? That’s the sweet spot. The Lippert One Control app which is equipped on a lot of RV’s gives you the ability to control some functions from your smartphone such as your slides, awnings, ac/heat, view holding tank levels, and battery levels, overall RV health etc. However, some more luxury RV’s have fancy in unit touchscreens with little to no actual buttons or switches for manual overrides. I’d steer clear and opt to not get this feature if its available.

6. Factory upgraded mattresses : The mattresses on most RV’s are no better than low quality lawn furniture cushions, and I am absolutely not kidding. Some brands may offer an upgraded mattress for an additional fee. These upgrades aren’t much better, in most cases. Mattresses are very personal and should be hand picked by the buyer, not by the dealer. About 2 years ago I replaced our “camp furniture” mattress with RV Mattress by Brooklyn Bedding 10” Dreamfoam Essential mattress. It was by far THE best purchase i’ve made for my RV. I’d frequently wake up with back pains with the previous mattress, the dreamfoam essential is probably more comfortable than my bed at home. If you do replace your mattress, MEASURE! Most RV beds are not standard sizes. We found out ours was a “short queen” after being told by the dealership it was a “Standard Queen” which wasn’t true. So to save a few bucks on initial purchase, take whatever is included.

7. On board vacuums : You’ll see these more in higher end RV’s. Its pretty pointless. The suction isn’t great, and the hoses are difficult to use. Just get yourself a good quality stick vac, and a small dust buster, and call it a day. Save yourself the trouble.

8. Dinettes (conditional): I travel with a family of 4. We have a “U” shaped dinette that is relatively large, and has drawers and storage under each seat. We use it heavily for dining, and occasionally, we’ll also convert it to a guest bed for an extended family member. It holds significant value, for us. However, if you’re an individual or couple, the dinette may not hold much value for you. You may just want seating and portable dining trays, and use the dinette space for a desk or home office. I have walked through an RV at the Hersehy RV Show this year that had a kitchen island that could have doubled as a remote work spot when not in use, a dinette, and additional seating. The dinette just felt like it was there “just because”. In that case, i’d have opted for an RV that didn’t have it and saved a few bucks.

9. Multiple Bathrooms: As a family of 4, we have got by just fine with a single bathroom. Most campgrounds will have some sort of bath house with showers and restrooms. Staying with the theme that storage is at a premium in the #RVLife, i’d rather not spend the extra money for another bathroom, and instead have storage or room to spread out. Not to mention, an extra bathroom is more than likely adding more weight to the RV, more to tow, and higher fuel consumption. Unless you have a large family and are springing for a large luxury RV, i’d leave the 2nd bathroom and use the campground facilities in extreme circumstances.

10. Full Body Paint & Graphics : Over the last few years post COVID, RV brands have been rolling out beautiful new aesthetics. I’ve seen a boom in color over the last few years, and with it, unnecessary cost. Some of the more high quality brands have beautiful exterior finishes where the color will last as long as the RV does, and some of the lower quality brands are slapping up stickers that start fading after a short time just to appear “high quality” like their competitors, hoping you don’t peel back the layers and realize it’s low quality.

HONORABLE MENTION:

11. Add ons at the dealer’s finance office : We’re all used to this if you have purchased a car in your lifetime. Tire packages, extended warranties, subscription road service, and so on. In many cases, your insurance company will also offer many of these things at a fraction of the price and not be susceptible to an interest rate, and there are a LOT of over the road maintenance and emergency services companies you can sign up for as well. Skip the dealer for these

And there’s the list folks! Some of the list may not apply to you based on the type of camper you are, or type of RV you’re considering buying, but I hope this helped provide some insight into a few ways to save money early on!

By this point you have decided that you are absolutely sure the #RVLife is for you, you have decided where and when you want to camp, and what type of camper you want to be.

So now what? Well, its time to go shopping!

PLEAS NOTE that is a MAJOR consideration on your tow vehicle (aka your truck/vehicle), but before confusing you with all of the acronyms like GVWR, GCWR, Tongue Weight, etc, let’s first figure out a category or 3 that fits your desired RV lifestyle first. Then, and only then can we start determining if your CURRENT vehicle is right for you, or if its time to trade it in for something more fitting.

Which RV type is for you?

RV’s break down into the following categories:

• Tear drop Trailer

• Pop up Trailer

• Travel Trailer

• Toy Hauler

• 5th Wheel

• Motor Home Class A, B, C

• Destination Trailer

• Specialty RV (high tech and super expensive, but we’ll cover this)

There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s take it one step at a time. Below, you’ll find photos of each RV type, along with my insights on their pros, cons, and typical price ranges. I have provided brand comments if I used an image for a brand i’m familiar with. These are not advertisements or endorsements, just my personal experiences.

Tear Drop Trailer

A teardrop travel trailer is a compact, lightweight camper with a distinct rounded, teardrop-shaped design. It’s usually just big enough for sleeping two people, featuring a cozy interior bed space and a rear hatch that opens into a small outdoor kitchen. These trailers are prized for being easy to tow, fuel-efficient, and ideal for minimalist or weekend camping trips. I more or less consider these a hard shell tent.

• Pros: Small, lightweight, provides a wider assortment of tow vehicle options, easier to care for due to its size, much less to “break” on it, great for boon dockers, more insulation than a pop up trailer.

• Cons: Tight quarters, cannot hold much cargo, no private bathroom or shower, even though it is light to tow, most of your gear will need to go in your tow vehicle which may be smaller to begin with, not great for long trips.

• Best For: Individuals, Couples who like being really close together, boon dockers, people upgrading from “tent” camping, those who do not want to upgrade their mid/large size SUV to a pickup truck or heavier SUV.

• Price Range: $5,000-$30,000+

• Brand Comments: I displayed the InTech brand, and their LUNA model due to their high tech, high quality builds. InTech uses a welded aluminum frame, which is how they keep it lightweight, and also VERY strong. I nearly considered buying an InTech Aucta Sycamore this year but went in another direction

Pop Up Trailer

Pop-up trailers , also called tent trailers or folding campers, are lightweight towable RVs that collapse for easy storage and towing, then expand at the campsite to provide sleeping and living space. They typically feature soft canvas or hybrid hard-sided walls, fold-out beds on each end, and a compact kitchen or dinette inside. Most can be towed by midsize SUVs or light trucks due to their low weight (1,000–3,000 lbs).

• Pros: Small, lightweight, provides a wider assortment of tow vehicle options, easier to care for due to its size, much less to “break” on it, can sometimes have a toilet and shower in them.

• Cons: Since the sides/bed “pop up”, the weight limit per bed may be minimal if you’re on the heavier side, pop ups come in all different styles and shapes every year so parts become more sparse. Most importantly, the market for pop ups is dwindling. YTD in 2025, wholesale numbers are down 17%, and continues to drop year after year. There’s a good chance the pop up trailer is on life support and may not be made much longer, meaning parts and service will become even more difficult. If the data is right, YTD in 2025, around 3500 wholesale orders in the US were placed for pop ups, but undetermined on the RETAIL sales.

• Best For: Individuals, Couples, families with small children, those who want a minor upgrade from tent camping on a budget.

• Price Range: $5,000-$35,000+

Travel Trailer

A travel trailer is a towable RV with rigid walls and a full interior, typically including a kitchen, bathroom, sleeping area, and living space. It hitches to a vehicle’s bumper or frame-mounted receiver, making it one of the most common and versatile RV types.

• Pros: Varying lengths and trim levels from small and inexpensive to large and luxurious. A large variety of options, colors, floor plans, and availability based on your camping style and budget, can go on very long trips or be possibly used for full time living (depending on model and trim).

• Cons: Quality very dependent on budget. The RV industry is definitely “you get what you pay for”, especially in travel trailers. Since they are heavier than tear drop and pop up trailers, you need a vehicle more capable of towing more weight, and requires a bit of skill to maneuver and back in. Lastly, a travel trailer is a big kite going down the road, and being attached to your rear bumper, the “sway” caused by high winds on highways and bridges takes some getting used to

• Best For: Individuals, Couples, families. Travel trailers are great for folks who want the amenities above and beyond a pop up or teardrop like a private toilet or shower, or even a private bedroom.

• Price Range: $10,000-$100,000+

• Brand Comments: Pictured is the “Brinkley” brand , and their “i” model. For my personal needs, I have done by far the most research on the Brinkley brand. They were formed in 2022 from former engineers and product folks from the Grand Design brand, after their acquisition by Winnebago. The Brinkley team has set MUCH higher standards in quality, features, finish and design for the RV industry. As an example, they use wood for kitchen cabinets instead of fiberboard (compressed cardboard). In full disclosure, I recently traded in my previous travel trailer (will discuss in a future post) for a Brinkley Model i294.

Toy Hauler

A toy hauler is a type of RV (recreational vehicle) or travel trailer designed with a built-in garage area for transporting “toys” such as ATVs, dirt bikes, golf carts, or motorcycles while still providing full living quarters.

• Pros: Similar pros to both a 5th wheel and travel trailer, typically a lot of living and storage space, versatile garage that can be used to haul mechanical toys (dirt bike, motorcycle, golf cart, buggy, scooter) and/or additional bunk, office or bathroom space, garage ramps more recently have been used to convert into a deck for outdoor seating.

• Cons: Similar to travel trailers, quality can vary GREATLY based on the model, typically much heavier than a standard travel trailer or 5th wheel, more often requiring tri-axle and a heavier duty tow vehicle, less “homey” feel in the garage area due to it being...well, a garage

• Best For: Individuals, Couples, families, motorcycle or offroad enthusiasts, those who take longer term trips requiring a golf cart in campgrounds, remote workers

• Price Range: $20,000-$80,000 (travel trailer), $50,000-$200,000+ (5th wheels)

5th Wheel

A fifth wheel RV is a large towable camper that connects to a special hitch mounted in the bed of a pickup truck, rather than a standard rear bumper hitch. This connection point gives it better stability, maneuverability, and weight distribution than most travel trailers..

• Pros: Being over your truck bed attached to a locking “5th wheel” in your bed provides a lot of extra stability making it easier to tow than a travel trailer, a lot of extra interior space, a large main bedroom and generally large floor plan and a lot of storage. 5th wheels feel much like home, and can sometimes even have a loft/upstairs airs, larger and/or multiple bathrooms, great for RV “full timers”, and many comforts of home.

• Cons: Much heavier to haul requiring at least a 3/4+ ton truck, you lose a majority of your cargo square footage in your truck bed because of the 5th wheel, purchasing and installing a 5th wheel is expensive requiring truck frame work which can be bad if not done correctly, removing a 5th wheel at the end of season requires 2 people at minimum possibly 3, 5th wheels lose a minimum of 40% of their value as soon as they leave the dealership lot, much more dependent on electronic systems to function, whereas a travel trailer has fewer.

• Best For: Everyone!

• Price Range: $25,000 - $200,000+

Motor Home (Class A, B, C)

A motorhome is a self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) that combines both living accommodations and a vehicle chassis in one unit, meaning you can drive it without towing anything. There are 3 “classes” of motorhome.

Class A

A Class A motorhome is the largest and most luxurious type of motorhome, designed for extended travel or full-time RV living. It’s built on a commercial bus, truck, or custom RV chassis, making it feel more like a coach or tour bus than a van or truck-based RV.

• Pros: All of comforts and luxuries of home. Typically a full sized bedroom with a king or queen bed, a full kitchen, bathroom and other amenities. Fully insulated, good for all 4 seasons. Great for long term living and long distance traveling.

• Cons: The price tag is that of a house. They are also very large, and difficult to park in many campgrounds, and are often not eligible for national parks due to their size. Their fuel economy also runs very low, and is costly to fill their tanks (diesel only), and dependent on problematic Diesel particulate filters (DPF) doing their job and not having issues.

• Price Range: $200,000 - $1,000,000 New and $15,000 - $150,000 used

Class B

A Class B motorhome, often called a camper van, is the smallest and most maneuverable type of motorhome. It’s built on a van chassis (like a Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit, or Ram ProMaster) and combines driving and living spaces in one compact unit.

• Pros: A Class B motorhome is smaller, as simple to drive as a large SUV. It is easy to park and setup at camp, can tow a small car, and comes with many amenities to make it comfortable. It is great for an individual or couple, and since it is smaller, great for low overpasses, and the best fuel economy of all of the RV’s.

• Cons: While it has a luxurious feel, it also can lack a private bathroom and shower similar to a popup or teardrop trailer. While they’re typically of good build quality in its cab & chassis, they are extremely expensive, but mechanically reliable.

• Price Range: $25,000 - $275,000

Class C

A Class C motorhome is a mid-sized RV that bridges the gap between the large, bus-style Class A and the compact Class B camper van. It’s built on a truck or van cutaway chassis (like a Ford E-450 or Mercedes Sprinter) and is easily recognized by the cab-over bunk above the driver’s seat.

• Pros: A Class C is a great “tweener” between the massive, expensive, and luxurious Class A, and the small, barely livable Class B. Typically has a private bathroom and shower, plenty of storage, a comfortable cab for a driver and passenger, comfortable quarters, plenty of “extra” sleeping space for a few guests, and the ability to tow a small car or golf cart trailer.

• Cons: Since the unit is connected, if it breaks down, you’re out your vehicle AND a living space. The costs are typically much higher than a trailer or 5th wheel, and like its class A counterpart, fuel economy is lacking. However, a Class C can come in Diesel OR Gasoline power.

• Price Range: $40,000-$120,000 (used), $100,000 - $350,000 (new)

Destination Trailer

A destination trailer is a type of travel trailer designed for extended stays at one location, such as a seasonal campsite, vacation property, or long-term RV park. Unlike standard travel trailers, it’s built for comfort and residential-style living rather than frequent towing. This isn’t technically an RV that you would travel with frequently, so is outside the typical scope of this site. However, I wanted to ensure it was covered here to help you continue to expand your education on the industry as a whole.

• Pros: Set it and forget it (mostly)! A destination trailer is meant to be purchased, and dropped somewhere long term. Months, or even years! They can cost a fraction of an actual vacation home or propery, and are much easier to maintain as well. Destination trailers come in a variety of floor plans and styles to include lofts/2nd floors, home offices, bunk rooms, full kitchens, living rooms, etc. If you are residing at a popular campground, these can be easy to sell or rent to a new tenant.

• Cons: Not meant to travel often, tethered to one spot long term. Some RV parks/campgrounds will not allow full time living, and may not allow trailers > 10 years old or charge a premium for a site. Many destination trailers don’t have a true “front door” and instead have sliding glass, requiring a patio or deck to be built for full usage.

• Best For: Full time RV’ers, retirees, families looking for a vacation home without the massive overhead and maintenance

• Price Range: $45,000 - $120,000

Specialty RV

There is a growing number of specialty RV’s hitting the market with brands like Pebble and Lightship. These are modern in design with a focus on efficiency, towability, and sustainability, often with a hefty price tag and “wow” factor in its features and technology.

• Pros: Are always on the cutting edge. Comforts of home are more common. Less demand on the environment around you and relying on noisy generators or non sustainable methods. Hold their value longer term due to the uniqueness of the unit, typically can be towed by a wider amount of vehicles. Power assist rear wheels make towing these units easier, and some with app controls allow for easier backing and hooking/unhooking.

• Cons: Specialty units tend to be very expensie. Being first to market comes with its disadvantages on service, parts and experience due to the small dealer and parts networks, as well as a lack of historical issues to learn from. Specialty trailers also tend to be a bit smaller, sometimes sacrificing space and storage for style and “wow” factor.

• Best For: Small families with young children, individuals and couples. I wouldn’t recommend one of these for retirees at this point because of the amount of technology required to adopt to. Older retirees may have a hard time adjusting.

• Price Range: $109,000 - $185,000+

In this article we have discussed every type of RV on the market. We have summaries, pros, cons, and price ranges of each model. I hope that this article has helped you start to narrow down your prefences to 1-3 types to choose between.

Next, we will be covering tow vehicles! Paging the TOW POLICE, TOW POLICE, your time has come.

Joking aside, the “tow police” is just another way of knowing that opinions on towing are all different. Some want to haul as close as your max tow capacity as possible, some, like myself, want to give as much buffer as possible for safety and hill/decline purposes for stopping power. However, your limitations are in black and white, clear as day, and we will cover that and a bunch of towing acronyms in the next article.

Until then, travel on!

Disclaimer: I am a hobbyist RV’er and my opinions are my own and not professional legal or financial advice. Please seek a certified professional.