It’s no secret that the typical RV isn’t a high watermark for quality. You know it, I know it, and dealers know it, too. Yet, somehow, it seems quality got even worse during the pandemic. My parents bought a new camper in 2022 and it spent that year broken at the dealer awaiting parts. We’re finally using it now, but it’s not because it stopped breaking. This nearly-new camper is so poorly built that parts fall off on every time we take a trip.
The trailer in question is a 2022 Heartland Mallard M33. This is a large bumper-pull travel trailer that weighs 7,746 pounds empty, stretches about 37 feet from tongue to bumper, and is advertised as being able to sleep a big family of nine or more. Heartland is a family-oriented luxury brand within Thor Industries with a focus on following interior design trends. The Mallard model boasts an open floorplan and a supposedly lightweight design. Really, the Mallard looks like it’s trying its hardest to look like a mobile farmhouse.
My parents bought this trailer back in March 2022 and the trailer was just a couple of months old, having been built that January. The sticker price was $62,800 but Dad says he managed to get it for $58,000, or still not cheap. It’s been over two years since then and we’ve yet to be able to camp in this thing without something silly breaking.
You’re about to read about an impressive laundry list of issues and it may sound like I’m just straight up bashing Thor Industries. The truth is that I want everyone to be able to go out camping in their own way, be it in a sleeping bag under the stars or a multi-million dollar Prevost. Regardless of what “camping” means to you, I want you to have a good time. I want you to be able to spend 60 grand of your hard-earned money and feel like you’re getting what you paid for.
Every time I go to an RV show, I’m not just looking for something weird to write about. I’m scanning typical units and I’m talking with RV owners and RV dealerships. I have seen glaring quality issues with my own eyes and the operators of dealer chains have been open that some units are built like garbage. That’s a shame. I don’t want to trash RV manufacturers. I want them to build better products so families can create memories without worrying about busting out another thousand bucks to fix something that shouldn’t have broken in the first place.
Unfortunately, one of the brands that has disappointed me is Heartland Recreational Vehicles, and not just because of my parents’ unit. When I go to an RV show, I usually see a Heartland unit displaying what I feel is sub-par work. Sometimes it’s a fifth-wheel trailer pin box that’s covered in spray paint to cover up surface rust, missing fasteners, or interior trim that’s already coming off of a new unit being demoed for media at an RV show. Again, these are things I’ve seen with my own eyes over the past couple of years.
I’ll even give you photo evidence. The RV in the photo above is a Heartland Torque that was just a few months old when I took the picture. Rust was already appearing on the fifth wheel and someone just lazily sprayed paint on it in an effort to hide it. Check out the overspray on the decals:
Again, I’m not trying to bash the manufacturer here, just point out that regular people can see stuff like this and want the industry to do better. It’s not just me, either. RV experts have been blowing the whistle on bad quality for years. In 2021, Dave Solberg, an RV repair expert over at RV Travel, reported what we’ve all been seeing:
Most RV manufacturers build the cheapest rig as fast as possible
Keep in mind that most RV manufacturers strive to build the cheapest rig as fast as possible. Fit and finish is hidden with expandable foam, silicone, and a product called gimp, which is a vinyl strip used between cabinets and walls to hide uneven cuts and gaps. They use cheap fabrics, single-layer foam in cushions, and even low-level furniture that they give a fancy name like it’s designer quality when actually it’s a lower level than what you would find at a big box store!
Take a closer look. You’ll find particle board with a vinyl wrap, paneling used to look like solid wood, holes that look like they were cut out with a hatchet inside those cabinets rather than a nice cutout with decorative trim to finish it off. Nope, that all takes time, which costs money. Since the unit sitting across the aisle doesn’t have it, it’s a waste of money.
Things got even worse during the pandemic, with even dealerships sounding off about how bad things have gotten, as reported by RV Travel:
“It’s some of the worst stuff I’ve seen in 30 years,” said one longtime RV dealer. “It’s horrendous inside and out. But we have no recourse but to put it on the lot and try to sell it. You take what you can get, and you move on.”
The East Coast dealer said RV manufacturers are “building them as fast as they can, and there just isn’t any quality control. Manufacturers are not doing a good job of taking care of their customers. It’s gone from bad to worse.”
Friend of the Autopian attorney Steve Lehto frequently uploads videos about RV nightmare stories and there are entire YouTube channels dedicated to pointing out bad RVs. Liz Amazing lives up to her name:
So keep all of this in mind as you read on.
The First Time Around
Let’s start with what happened back in 2022, because that’ll just set the tone here.
My parents took delivery of a unit that was broken straight from the factory. Right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed was that the unit had cool LED light strips on the front cap. However, not only were these strips the kind of crap you get from Amazon for $20, but they were attached to the cap with a weak adhesive. Of course, the light strips were already peeling off and the trailer hadn’t even been on a single trip yet.
Honestly, that’s a small problem, but it got worse from there. I moved to the side of the trailer and found that one of the RV’s aerodynamic side skirts (the dealer tech calls these “J-channels”) was halfway through deleting itself from the unit. How were these even bolted on? Through cheap self-tapping screws. Then I saw how the sealant around every window looked like it was applied by a seven-year-old kid.
Somehow, it still got worse. One of the safety chain hooks fell off of the trailer on its first tow, the emergency brake cable disintegrated in my hand, and then there’s the rust. The trailer was just a few months old, yet the underbody had a surprising amount of surface rust. By that summer, the frame had more surface rust than our family’s old camper, a 2007 Adirondack by Thor. Don’t worry, the absurdity of that statement hasn’t escaped my family.
The solution to that rust? Our dealer said to spray the frame with Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer. Now, as a proud owner of rusty piles of junk, I’ve used a lot of Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer in my time. It works great to cover up unsightly rust and does seem to slow rust down, but in my experience, it is not a long-term fix for rust for cars, so I’m not sure how it would work for a trailer frame.
Mind you, all of this was discovered before my family even took the camper on its first outing. So, the camper went back to the dealer, where it sat for a few months waiting on parts. We did get the camper back in time for some summer camping, but oh boy did the trailer not want to go out. We found these problems merely attempting to take it on a trip, from one of my last entries on this trailer:
In addition to the safety problems, we found three light switches that weren’t even screwed in, random staples everywhere on the ceiling, a window valence that fell off a wall, and a bathtub that wasn’t even close to being installed correctly. In fact, the bathtub wasn’t even screwed in or secured, but just sitting in place. Because of this, there was a huge water leak when we tested the shower and tub. Amazingly, that wasn’t even the only place water was gushing out into the wrong places. The water heater also sprayed water all over everything inside and outside of the trailer.
All of these new problems meant that the trailer spent its first year sitting at the dealership. Sometimes, it took the dealership multiple tries to get things right, too. For example, the loose bathtub was finally screwed in by the dealership, but whatever tech did the job mounted the tub in a horribly crooked position. It took the dealership two more tries before the bathtub was finally correctly mounted in and as you’re soon about to read, it may have to go back again.
The rest of the year was spent waiting on parts or just a free technician. Our local dealer says it was swamped with work throughout the pandemic and immediately after, so even when the parts did come in there might not have been anyone to work on the camper. Oh, and while our camper was at the dealer for a year, someone broke in and stole some really specific items. They took precisely three dinette cushions plus all of the silverware, plates, pots, pans, and towels that my mom stored in the trailer.
The dealership later admitted that a tech took our cushions to put into another Mallard that came from the factory missing its cushions. But then, that guy just forgot to replace what he took, I guess? That also means someone got a brand-new camper with technically used cushions. It also doesn’t explain why someone stole plates, towels, and silverware. Thankfully, none of that stuff was special, but that just made it even more bizarre.
Finally, all of that drama ended in 2023. To our dealer’s credit, they fixed all of that stuff under warranty and even cut my parents a check for the stuff that was stolen while the camper was on the dealer’s property. That’s great!
Keep On Breakin’
Summer 2023 rolls around and my family is eager to finally take this trailer camping for the first time since it was purchased over a year earlier.
We thought we were out of the woods, but as I wrote last year, the trailer’s poor quality continues to show:
We first discovered things weren’t quite right when we tried to turn on the kitchen’s LED lights, which now don’t work. That switch knows what it did wrong…
Then, we tried to open the refrigerator to put food in it. The door jammed on the second closure, and when we tried to clear the jam, the door responded by snapping off its handle. I couldn’t help but laugh so hard that I started crying. This is the kind of stuff from a comedy movie, but a dumb one like an Adam Sandler flick.
And we’re not done yet. We found that the water heater wasn’t working. While I was troubleshooting it, I opened up the outdoor kitchen, which revealed that the refrigerator had pulled itself from the wall, taking its holder with it. Meanwhile, the ceiling of the outdoor kitchen is separating, causing a snow of particle board dust.
Inside, we found that the window shades don’t like to stay open on their own and perhaps thanks to Chicago potholes, interior wall trim is falling off. Also comical is the fact that every single fixture mounted to the walls is crooked.
I later found out that the water heater wasn’t working because its valves were still in the closed position from the trailer’s winterization. Unfortunately, the water heater itself immediately began leaking once I opened the valves. But hey, the water leaked outside of the trailer now, which was a marked improvement from the previous leaks!
Or, that’s what I thought. The kitchen sink began leaking out onto the trailer’s floor and the bathroom, which has its own door to the outside, had seals so bad that water got in during rainstorms. The bathroom door’s seal is such a joke that you can see outside light through the door when the door is closed. Just this weekend, I also noticed that there’s a part of the primary bedroom that isn’t sealed and thus you can see light through a tiny portion of the floor. It’s baffling me how nobody noticed or perhaps cared about this stuff at the factory.
But hey, these problems were not too bad, so my family took the trailer out a couple of more times before sending it back to the dealership for repairs over the winter.
Breaking Bad
Now it’s 2024 and the camping season is almost over. My parents were a bit too busy for most of the year, so they missed out on some good camping. I still took out the older Adirondack to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024, enjoyed some fun tent camping, and even roughed it out in the back of a Volkswagen Touareg back in March. I may love RVs, but I still don’t mind doing things the hard way every now and then.
Anyway, my parents decided to take the Mallard out for Labor Day. By my count, this is maybe the fifth or sixth time the trailer’s been slept in since my parents bought it. So, it’s not even really broken in. Or, maybe that’s the wrong phrase to use since it’s definitely still broken.
The dealer spent the winter fixing as many complaints as it could. The water heater had to be replaced due to an internal failure and the new one doesn’t leak. The refrigerator now has working handles, shoddy wiring was fixed and now the kitchen LEDs do work, the random staples have been removed, crooked fixtures straightened up, water leaks vanquished, and the outdoor refrigerator secured again. By the dealer’s own admission, they effectively spent the winter fixing what the factory failed to do two years ago.
Well, the dealer’s going to be back at it again this year. Unfortunately, the trailer’s bumper-to-bumper warranty has expired, so these fixes will be coming out of my parents’ pockets.
My dad says this weekend’s headache began before the trailer even reached its campsite at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park resort just south of Milwaukee. Dad reports that first, the cap for the tanks blew off on the highway. Ok, that’s stupid, but something that does sometimes happen with campers. Then he made me laugh immediately after when he said “Then, the handle for the black tank blew off.”
Alright, that one is new to me and I still cannot stop laughing. Look, it’s a small issue because you can still pull on the rod with your hand or a pair of pliers, but still, that’s silly.
Then there’s the glob of foam around the tank exit, which is supposed to protect the wiring underneath and keep wildlife out of the trailer’s underbody. Well, some animals have been trying to get their way through the seal.
Sheryl and I arrived at the camper on Saturday and we found that my parents filled the interior refrigerator to the brim with steaks and such, so Sheryl’s drinks had to go outside. That’s the great thing about having more than one refrigerator! Upon opening the hatch, I found more of the particle board “sawdust” material sprayed around the outdoor kitchen. The shifting wall problem has not been resolved.
Unfortunately, my parents have been told by the dealer there isn’t really a fix for this. The trailer’s frame and living unit are going to flex, which is going to cause these walls to move a little. I understand that, but it’s still janky as heck that you have to clean up what’s basically wall snow every time you camp.
This flexing thing is also occurring inside. I’m not sure the bathroom in this camper is deserving of being called a room. The walls of the bathroom are these outrageously thin pieces of board, and I’m talking thinner than cardboard. These boards are so thin that just trying to adjust the temperature on the thermostat causes the entire wall to flex. The walls are so thin that if you drunkenly stumbled into one you’ll end up in the bathtub.
The walls are also secured with this black piece of trim. Unfortunately, the trim dislodged during travel, which means everything is even looser than usual over there. Later, the trim finally liberated itself from the wall, hitting my mom in the face on its journey down to the floor.
With the trim completely removed, you can see and feel the absolute garbage quality of the materials used in the trailer’s interior and how they were put together. I get that the Mallard is supposed to be lightweight, but this is just bad.
It’s not just there, either. Trim pieces are buckling and falling off all over the trailer’s interior from the primary bedroom to the living room. The bathtub’s wall is also ripping itself from the paper-thin wall.
I also had to take a gander at the rust. Thankfully, most of it is still of the surface variety, but some parts are legitimately crusty like you’d expect from a Midwestern car after over a decade.
Again, this trailer is just two years old, yet it’s falling apart and rusting faster than the Adirondack, which is edging closer to 20 years of age.
Weird Design Decisions
When I wasn’t laughing about the broken tank handles or the walls separating, I began to notice some interesting design decisions.
Let’s start with the primary bedroom. Heartland boasts about the unit’s queen bed and truth be told, it’s a nice bed to sleep in. However, the bed also takes up the entirety of the primary bedroom, leaving no room to get dressed in, you know, the bedroom.
Then there’s really not much for privacy here. The Mallard has a hefty sliding door that blocks off the primary bedroom from the rest of the trailer. However, this whole deal is sort of stupid. First, the sliding door doesn’t lock, so there’s no real privacy. Second, the door scrapes the wall as it slides, leading to permanent scratches being put into the door. I think I can solve this with a bunch of felt pads, but again, it’s just another example of the manufacturer’s lack of detail.
There’s also little ventilation in the room. You get two HVAC vents, one tiny window, and the emergency exit window. That seems like enough until you put two people in the room.
The body heat of those two people is enough to make everything hot and stuffy. Opening the windows does nothing for this if there isn’t a breeze, so you’re left using the trailer’s HVAC system. However, you’ll find that the primary bedroom feels blazing hot while the rest of the trailer feels fine, so the other people in the trailer might not want you turning the temps down on the thermostat.
The smaller Adirondack has a solution for this with a bedroom roof fan. Sheryl and I have found that using the Adirondack’s roof fan keeps the primary bedroom in that trailer at about the same temps as the rest of the trailer. The easy fix for the Mallard was bringing my own fan and putting it in the window, but again, that’s a detail that could have been done at the factory.
Ok, my phone’s camera makes this look better than it really is:
Finally, the last oddity is that the Mallard has little side lighting despite having LEDs basically everywhere else. The awning has a dim LED strip and there’s a light for the outdoor kitchen, but that’s it. If you want to eat outside at night you’ll have to bring your own light.
Not All Bad
So, this trailer has found a way to break every time we take it out. Boat owners joke that “Boat” is an acronym for “bust out another thousand,” but this travel trailer is trying its hardest to be like one of those boats. The problems have gotten to the point where my parents don’t even want the trailer anymore, but there’s no chance they’ll ever make their money back on resale. So, they’re just shaking their heads and are sticking with it.
Despite everything that’s given my parents a headache, I do see some genuine good ideas at play here. The primary bedroom’s bed is legitimately comfortable, which I couldn’t say about the bed in the Adirondack or most travel trailers built in the 2000s.
I also like the open concept, which makes the Mallard feel a bit closer to a home and not an RV. Other high marks include the cool lighting, the trailer’s composite front cap, and generous storage. I also like how the unit tows with confidence and doesn’t entirely feel like you’re trying to ram a brick through wind.
There was some clever thinking with this trailer. There’s no way to access the rear of the trailer when the slides are closed, yet there’s a second entrance door right there to the bathroom. So, you could read the Morning Dump in a parking lot with the slides closed if you need to.
I also love how the main entry stair touches the ground. All RVs should have stairs like this. You no longer get the feeling of instability while climbing the stairs. Also, stairs that rip out of the trailer’s body, which is something that has happened to my family in decades past, are now a thing of the past. That’s genius!
If only the rest of the trailer were built like the stairway is.
As always, I want to end this with some advice. Never buy a camper sight unseen. I don’t care how good it looks in an ad or what the salesperson says. Go hook your own peepers on it before exchanging a dollar or agreeing to anything. Even better? Get a pre-purchase inspection. This is good advice for buying a car, too. Find someone who knows what to look for and have them take a look.
Speaking of cars, don’t think that RVs are built like cars or like houses because, usually, they aren’t. Don’t get blinded by flashy features or a cute design. Keep your eyes peeled for problems. If a brand-new unit is rusting only a month out of the factory, you might want to reconsider.
I do have some good news. While there’s so much bad in the RV world right now, you don’t have to settle for something poorly built. There are brands with a reputation for quality, even if you have to pay more to get it. Brands like inTech, Happier Camper, and Scamp have their own issues here and there, but a lot of happy campers. It’s why I try to highlight some of the cooler RVs out there when I find them.
No matter what you do, have fun. That’s what this whole camping thing is all about. Regardless if you’re in a tent or in a bus, just get out there and have fun.
They are junk. I spend a LOT of time in them – 1200+ nights in the last 8 years by my calculations…and they are all JUNK. Its amazing.
I hate to say it, but this is a industry that needs some regulation, because the manufacturers are NOT going to improve on their own. .
This is why I’m converting an ambulance instead of buying a RV. The box is 100% welded aluminum built to actual federal standards with required side impact and roll over testing.
ambulances are the only trucks that are built to a roll over standard. cause it would look bad to get killed in an ambulance accident… I looked at some to buy, they are wide.
They are wide – about the width of a Class C but not built out of particle board.
20+ years ago now, I was watching Jesse James and a crew of guys hoping to get some notoriety and free tools tear down an RV on Monster Garage to turn it into a traveling carnival funhouse. The shocking flimsiness of it never left my mind.
Years later, I was doing a job for the local fire authority. Their practice area for rescuing people from vehicles had an RV and a trailer like this one, and they were just as flimsy as the one I saw on TV 20 years ago.
Other quality brands I think are Lance, who make trailers and truck campers.
And Escape who make full fiberglass trailers and smaller fifth wheel.
Thanks Mercedes,
I’ve read many articles that reveal poor manufacturing processes. Yet I am still drawn to own one.
So last weekend I rented one, a 2022 Catalina Summit, made by Coachmen and owned by Forest River. I don’t think the Catalina could be represented as a luxury or near luxury brand, it was pretty basic, and falling apart like your parents’. This was my first time camping in a trailer, although I’ve been in tents and cabins enough to lose count.
For those who say it is a bad investment, I counter that it is an investment into your loved ones. I like being outdoors, and campsites offer this. Cooking outside, sitting by the fire, and being close to outside recreation are all advantages of this. And you get a bed off of the ground, air conditioning, and a private bathroom. I may never own one, but I am closer after this past weekend.
And that is despite all the substandard aspects of the equipment we rented. The bed was un-sleepable, so we bought an air mattress and a step-stool, so my wife could climb up into a comfortable spot. That’s after taking the time to set it up each night. I folded down the dinette and slept on the cushions. Barely an improvement over the ground with a modest air mattress.
The bathroom and kitchen were falling apart. Resembled many of the pictures you showed. When I turned it in, I told the check in guy that I put all the spare parts I found in the silverware drawer.
But still there were positives, just like you pointed out. I won’t try to mention them all, but the gross shortcomings took away much of the enjoyment of the time. Also, I would recommend the guy I rented from. The unit was was equipped, prepared, and safe. Most of it was clean.
TL:DR I agree that this era of trailers are very crappy because I experienced it over the holiday weekend. But I still want one.
That sounds like torture.
Motorhome ownership almost makes boats look like a screamin’ deal. Have you considered trading it for a nice yacht? They make some pretty sweet cabins down in those things.
Either way, I’m going to stick with my plan to plop a roof tent on a Cayenne, I think. PARSH HARDER, WITH A VENGEANCE. (Also, a nicer place to sleep than any of the ground surfaces at MSR-Houston. Goals. GOALS!)
RV manufacturers are held to no minimum standard, and the companies are in a race to the bottom to build maximum profit with minimal product. The only real solution is to stop buying this overpriced junk until the quality gets better. The manufacturers are playing a game to see how far people will go to purchase their product. They raise prices and pull out quality, and wash, rinse, repeat so long as we keep buying. So stop buying. Sieze the gears of this machinery.
There is an “industry standard” represented by RVIA. self-regulating. that always works. https://www.rvia.org/
Buying an RV is right up there with buying a time share. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the cost never stops, and the enjoyment never happens.
I’ll absolutely never understand the (financial) motivation to own one of these things. Take that same $58k and put it into a boring EFT – S&P 500 or something similar, and now you have something which earns ~~~$5,800 / year in interest.
$5,800 buys a lot of Airbnb stays, allows you to take flights, and compounds with time if you don’t spend all of it.
You don’t have to pay to store an Airbnb, it doesn’t depreciate in value, it doesn’t go for repair, it doesn’t wait at a dealership for a year, you don’t need a truck to tow it.
Ever seen the movie Money Pit with Tom Hanks? Little different setting, but I see similarities.
The idea of a pop-up tent trailer has been vaguely bandied about in my household, so I genuinely appreciate these articles telling me what I’m getting into. (Excellently written as usual for The Autopian, too.)
We have had a pop up for about 15 years now. It wasn’t bad to start with (plenty of help to set up), but as I get older and kids move out, it’s becoming a hassle. When the last one moves out, and it’s just me and the Mrs. we’ll probably go back to a nice tent. The pop up isn’t worth much anymore, so I may just strip it down and make a flatbed to haul the camping gear.
Good context, thanks. You can certainly get a lot of tent for your money these days. Things have evolved since last I bought one 20 years ago (which, broken poles aside, has served very well).
This is why I have a 1973 Motorhome, you get what you get, and I paid far less. Smaller, no slide outs, but it hasn’t gotten much worse in the 7 years I’ve owned it. Steel, aluminum, and SMC (like a Corvette), the only structural wood is the floor and the fittings.
RV build quality has never been great, but this is beyond bad. Every time my dad mentions selling the family Born Free RV, we all push back hard… this just reinforces that point.
Mercedes,
Our 8 year old Jayco Eagle 5th Wheel is soon to be totaled due to frame failure that happened in a terrible construction zone on our nation’s fine highways……yes, it was that bad and we are not the only folks to sustain damage…..
Anyway, Thor now owns Jayco and quality seems to have really taken a hit. No RV is perfect, but it seems that Thor & Forest River own over 80% of the brands now. Most folks don’t realize this, but both companies seem to be racing to the bottom for quality while charging as much for RVs as possible.
We are debating purchasing new vs used, but any RV from 2020-2023 are absolute COVID crap. Quality worse than the already questionable RV “quality”.
We have thought about just moving to hotels and forgetting an RV altogether, but my wife & I both work from home, and unlike most folks spend 2-3 months out of a year traveling the nation seeing all we can see. Hotels don’t fit this lifestyle as well.
All this said, have you reviewed Brinkley or Alliance RVs?
Both are newer, privately owned companies and they seem to actually be trying to build a better quality RV. Granted, they are still using many of the same brands as components (Lippert, Furrion, Dometic, etc.) but the actual box and frame seem to be better made than the competition.
Would love your thoughts.
Mighty Renault decided to hop on VW’s Westphalia pop up camping van’s success and sold a version of its Master van, converted by a “specialist.”
Followed by a very embarrassing public recall because the “specialist” had used very cheap fittings for the bed under the pop up and people were breaking bones when the fitting broke and dumped them on the floor….
RV’s in general are one of the worst financial investments you can make. They are junk, they seldom get used, and the depreciation is off the charts. Then pay a couple of grand a year to park it in a storage lot. They fall apart with no use, and are impossible/horribly expensive to get repaired. They are rarely 100% operational. Buzzkill for sure, but maybe my money is harder to come by than most RV owners. And they mostly sit inside and watch TV anyway.
> They fall apart with no use
The good news is you can use them with abandon, since they won’t get any worse with use.
The issue with RVs is that they are only a means to sell financing, and they have no incentive to actually build them well. I’m sure you have noticed at any RV dealer that there are $15k camper trailers with a sticker that says “….or $60/mo when you do a 240 month loan”, and good god do people take them up on that offer. The RV only needs to be put together enough to convince someone it is worth buying and taking a loan out on. Whatever happens from there is not a priority to the manufacturers.
This was a really good article btw and was a joy to read
My wife and I have been talking about getting into (back into for her) camping and she always did tent camping. I have always liked the idea of a teardrop but all these articles have definitely turned me towards the roughing it side of camping. Hell I would probably push for a roof top tent before getting a new camper
A nice tent that sleeps 8+ with 7′ ceilings and is only being used by 2 when we do it up with inflatable mattresses, a bunch a pillows and sitting/storage area is something I wouldn’t trade for a teardrop. Everything we need in terms of gear fits in a Rubbermaid Roughneck box.
We did tent camping one weekend during the winter months (in GA so not exactly cold) with a blow up mattress and a space heater. I found that fine but we now have a 2 year old so feel like something enclosed and with a solid roof would be a better sell. But only time will tell!
I built a teardrop on my own about 13 years ago. Weighs about 1700# loaded. It is by far the easiest trailer to tow and could be towed by a lot of vehicles. The advantage over a tent is off the ground, warmer when chilly, and a dry contained space when weather gets drippy. Mostly, the builders aren’t as focused on volume/cutting costs but more craftmanship and design. Of course there are exceptions, and if you want a potty/shower/permanent fridge, it isn’t for everyone. The beauty is the portability.
This was so interesting…I’ve read the previous articles about this too. I love the RV stories and everything else you write; it’s always well written and an easy read. Thank you
I think the problem, design-wise, is that they are trying to make it look like a house inside. It’s built to a price and to a weight and it shows. I think making it more honest material-wise would go a long way.
Yeesh, that seems like lawsuit quality stuff to me if that was purchased new.
I think I’ll stick with tent camping…
Not sure what RV’ing is for. Seems more like a cult of people duped into “saving money” by buying something to go on vacations in instead of spending it on hotels and airfare and rental cars, meeting other culty people at their culty camps. I have friends with them and I wonder why they aren’t out in them at least once a month for several days, going to places they’ve never been. No, they go to the same camps about twice a year. So much setting up and packing up on each trip keeps them from going more frequently. Then they sell them with the ROI less than an EV. Yay, money saved! “But, I need to fix this or that before we go again, and take it to an RV shop…”
Oh, and the beds are terrible.
No one I know uses the “I’m saving money” excuse to justify their RV, except for maybe people who are traveling a lot and/or living on the road. Maybe I just need dumber friends and family.
The build quality of current travel trailers is why I’m looking for an older fiberglass unit that I can retrofit with the amenities I want. I have a family of 3, so the 16/17ft fiberglass units are pretty much perfect for me.
I kind of want to retrofit one of those 70’s GMC Motorhomes. But I know I’d finish it and never use it.
I thought about that a lot, and I can’t figure out what would be a good transaxle setup to replace the 3-speed non lockup unit.
GM modified the THM425 into the THM325-4L with 4 speeds and overdrive, but I doubt it’s up to the task of the power and weight of the Motorhome.
I can understand issues on a ten year old trailer that has had some flex to it but to see these types of fitment issues on a brand new trailer is just nuts.