Before buying our camper, we did a TON of research. Which was better fifth wheel, travel trailer, motor home, etc. The truth of the matter is, you just need to buy what’s right for you. That’s what it’ll really boil down to.
Don’t worry that a certain percentage of RV owners prefer one over the other. The one they own fits their needs so that’s why they have a preference.
After at least a year of searching campers online we finally went to a dealership to actually put our hands on some. We went to Camping World in east Knoxville. They had a ton of used campers on their lot all unlocked and without salesmen crawling the place. How refreshing. We could look at our own pace, see models, layouts, designs, prices, and everything else we needed to see before talking with a salesman. I’m liking this no pressure approach.
Our first day at Camping World we must walked through 30 campers. Pointing out things we liked, and disliked. We left probably a little more puzzled than we expected. There are so many brands, layouts, and designs, but you’ll know it when you see the right one.
We went back a couple of months later to walk through again. We walked through many more, but didn’t find the one that was quite right.
In the meantime, we’ve been searching online. Pictures are great, video is even better, but there’s nothing like seeing things in person.
We went to Camping World in south Knoxville because we had seen a camper online that we felt fit our needs. We looked at the camper, liked it, and went to seek out a sales person. We found a sales person and told him what we were doing and why we were interested in the camper we found online. He asked us questions about our needs, etc. and offered to show us a few before we made a final decision. After walking through about 10 more campers, we went to the one we wanted. He looked at it, looked at the price and said, let me show you one more. We walked a few campers down and into the one we ended up purchasing. It was almost everything we wanted. I say almost because it’s a little longer than I would’ve liked. And that’s only because I’ve never towed a camper before. Now that I’ve towed it a couple of times and it’s got the office in the back, I’ll deal with the extra 3 feet. I wanted a camper that wasn’t longer than 30 feet and this one has an overall length of about 33 feet.
It met all of the requirements we had listed. It was a little more than we had planned on spending, but it was brand new, had a 2 year warranty so it was worth going over budget. With all of the campers we had looked at online and in person, this one is the one.
My suggestion when you’re searching, don’t buy the first one you see. Take your time. Research and ask questions. There are TONS of online communities that focus on RVing. I’ve found that everyone is very friendly and willing to help.
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