What camper? Is this an appropriate question?

[3girlsfun]

Ok, as many of you know, I have whined about my DH not wanting to camp at Disney, so I got down to the nitty gritty tonight....he said he can deal with towing the camper down, but, we do not have enough room in our camper. (He does have a point.)

In our 25 ft. camper that is all one "room" except the bathroom, there is a queen size bed, with a curtain thing that separates the other parts of the camper. Then the "kitchen" with a booth, and the kitchen area. As you go on, the right side of the camper has bunk beds. The top bunk is completely used as storage. Then the back is the tiny, tiny, tiny bathroom....but, it does have a bathtub for the kids. My major requirement for our first camper.

This layout was perfect when we had 1 child. However, now we have 3! The oldest is 5, and then we have a 1 year old, and a 6 month old. We can't figure out what will work best where everyone will be safe and contained. DH says he doesn't want to have to take down the booth every time someone needs a nap or needs to sleep. (Good point, bc it would big time suck!)

We have a Yukon XL, 4X4, so that is our pulling capabilities. No hopes for a new truck anytime soon. (Not until car seats and strollers are out of our lives!) My dream is a 5th wheel, but, that isn't in the near future, so, I have to settle for something else now.

Suggestions?

(I apologize if this is an inappropriate question.)

 

[joyah]

Are there any closets? we have a 25' mallard that has a big closet between the bunks and the dining table. I had DH make shelves out of this. He used 2x2 for the uprights and 1/2 and 3/4" plywood for the shelves. He also used some 1/4" for dividers down the middle. Top shelf I use for towels, next shelf is for food, 3rd is boys cloths 1 side for each and the bottom is for extra bowls and cooking stuff on 1 side and blankets/back packs and such on the other. This freed up a TON of space. I then took a bed rail lifted up the top bunk mattress and duck taped the holy heck out of it, it held for years. Our oldest started sleeping up there at 4. That takes care of the 2 older ones.
As for the baby well do you really use the table space to eat at or could you just use a picnic table, that way you could put a pack and play maybe in that space? You could always put a second bed rail on the bottom bunk and then let the baby nap there and the middle one in your bed durning the day and then the table only goes up and down once.

remeber where there's a will there's a way.

 

[Ellen aka Snow White]

My DH made the comment last week while camping at the fort that he hated to admit it but he thinks we have outgrown our camper - we have a pop-up that we got in new in 1995 and our girls are now 17 and 20!!
I can't help with your question but we are starting to look at some other options as we are tired of setting up and breaking down a popup. Good luck!

 

[Solamom]

We are looking at the Keystone Passports. We have a Suburban w/ a 7700 lb towing capacity so a 28 ft. Passport is under 5,000lbs. I think the 29ft. one (which I would love to have) has 4 bunks in the back and weighs about 5,000lbs. Anyway, they are good sizes and light. We are trying to stay at or around 5,000 to tow in the mountains at some point.

 

[mnsprk]

You could also look at one of the HYBRIDS. There are numerous floor plans and unless you are set on new, a couple of the older models had a smaller side bunk as well as the front and rear. Newer ones have slide-outs and are still fairly light.

 

[4kids4karen]

I don't have a camper but can tell you from what I have seen on all my camping trips (Disney, state parks, etc) is it appears a lot of people utilize the outdoor space for their dining areas.

Does FW campsites already have a picnic table on each site like the state parks? Or a folding table that you can bring?

I think it looks very quaint and cozy to drive by the RV sites and see the picnic tables and some have that outdoor carpet underneath.

Utilize your outdoor space as much as possible. I would think inside the camper would be more for just sleeping and bathing and bad weather.

Can one of your children not share the bed with you and your DH? My kids always end up sleeping in our bed on trips.

 

[big kahuna1]

Leave the booth and/or table down. You won't use it much anyway as you can eat outside. Also, the Disney bath houses are very nice so do not be afraid to use them for showers.

 

[3girlsfun]

The closet in the camper is pretty pitiful. It will pretty much hold the girls clothes, and not much more. It has half of it as a "hanging clothes" section, then the other half is shelves. The shelves are useful though, don't get me wrong.

If you take down the booth table, there is not enough room for a pack in play there. The booth doesn't move.

We always eat outside when possible. Only if there is bad weather would we eat inside. We never shower in the camper, only give baths for little ones in the camper.

The biggest problem I am seeing is the top bunk...it holds all of our "stuff." Blankets, towels, food, paper plates, etc. Anything and everything that doesn't fit anywhere else. The Kitchen area has 6 cabinets.

Mine and DH's clothing goes in the bedroom area, and just does fit, so there is no where to store "camping stuff." I did have the thought that once the girls are old enough, the bathtub can become storage.....
Definitely where there is a will, there is a way!

 

[Disney Bunny]

The closet in the camper is pretty pitiful. It will pretty much hold the girls clothes, and not much more. It has half of it as a "hanging clothes" section, then the other half is shelves. The shelves are useful though, don't get me wrong.

If you take down the booth table, there is not enough room for a pack in play there. The booth doesn't move.

We always eat outside when possible. Only if there is bad weather would we eat inside. We never shower in the camper, only give baths for little ones in the camper.

The biggest problem I am seeing is the top bunk...it holds all of our "stuff." Blankets, towels, food, paper plates, etc. Anything and everything that doesn't fit anywhere else. The Kitchen area has 6 cabinets.

Mine and DH's clothing goes in the bedroom area, and just does fit, so there is no where to store "camping stuff." I did have the thought that once the girls are old enough, the bathtub can become storage.....
Definitely where there is a will, there is a way!

Take an inventory of what you have in those kitchen cabinets. Eliminate anything that you don't use. Look for creative ways to make your cabinets more efficient. Will a "Lazy Susan" help to utilize wasted space? Whatever you have stored on that top bunk that you use on a daily basis, find another spot in the camper to store them. Things like extra blankets and such, store in the back of your Yukon when you set up. What about buying rubbermaid containers that can stay in the back of the truck to store things to give you more space in your camper? Those containers can ride inside of the camper for travel and then be placed in the Yukon during setup. You might consider actually packing clothes in them and just remove a day or two at a time and move into the camper. That would free up some of your closet space for other things.

 

[naturegirl]

We use a pack 'n play for our 2 year old. We have an old 27' airstream so there are no beds, there are 2 couches (think futons) that convert into full size beds. The dinette area is collapsed every night and the pack 'n play goes there. Then each morning we take down the pack 'n play. It's a PITA, but it's what we have to do. It's basically using up all of our available floor space which makes things tight to squeeze by to get in/out the door or get back to the bathroom which is why we don't leave it up all the time.

We have a wonderful bathroom with a tub, so I'm willing to deal with the inconvenience of packing up beds every morning.

What are you storing in your kitchen cabinets? I feel like I have too much storage space and empty cabinets.

 

[becky1960]

Its been my expirence that you have about the same room as the Pop hotel rooms. And look at the closet space they dont have. If there is a lot of disagreement it would not be a enjoyable time. You just have to go with the flow and adjust a little. Its still better at the Fort than the small rooms you get and we have tried them all....

 

[tcmsu]

We have a Jayco 31BHS, that has a bedroom in the front with a queen bed, and 4 bunks in the back separated from the living room area by an curtain type door.
It also has a slide that makes the inside much bigger. The bottom 2 bunks fold up out of the way and the whole back end of the trailer becomes storage - holds
bikes, chairs, patio mat, blue porta-tank, grill, etc
when we travel.

We bought it used and the previous owner towed with a Suburban.

There were some other bunkhouse trailers that we looked at that had 3 bunks in the back, but one was basically a mattress on the floor and we didn't like that.

My advice is go "shopping". Many RV places have tons of units on their lots that people can walk through. We were originally looking for a 25-26ft trailer as our first trailer,
but ended up finding a floor plan we loved and then found a used one using RVTrader that was close to home but much less than a brand new one.

Good Luck!!!

 

[owensmama2007]

Look around as the pp just said and you might find something that will suit your needs.

However, my experience is that with kids you never seem to have enough room or storage space. Kids needs change from age to age.

We currently have a fifth wheel with a bunkhouse with 4 twin beds. I have 2 nephews, ages 10 and 12, that usually go with us and our 2 year old. We thought when we upgraded from a 24 ft. travel trailer we had tons of room but once you get everyone and everything in there, it's still cramped.

Like the others said, try to use the outdoors as your eating area. Invest in a small screen house/tent as it will help a lot with any worries of insects.

 

[stefa70]

We have an add a room on our hybrid and that's where all our "stuff" goes, shoes, cooler, crock pot, games.... The add a rooms are pretty pricey, but I wouldn't go any other way. It's like having a triple wide (with the slide out on the other side) Maybe you could pick up a free standing screen room for all the stuff that has no place else to go?!? I agree with the rest of the folks here, I will suffer through anything just to be at the fort! Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

[BradyBz12]

There are some pretty snazzy hybrids these days that have hard slide outs in addition to 2 or 3 pop outs for sleeping (or just extra storage space). All opened up they're pretty spacious and each sleeping "tent" has its own privacy curtain. Setup is just popping the ends out and making your beds (or if you want it super simple - especially for the kids - sleeping bags!)

We had a Kodiak hybrid for 5 years and it was awesome. We pulled it with a V-8 Explorer (big engine, extra trannie cooler) and had no trouble at all with the roughly 3000 mile round trip to WDW.

It was just DH and I, but we bring our 3 (40-ish lb) border collies camping with us. So we doubled up the queen mattresses on one end and setup the dogs' three 24x36" crates on the other. The dog end also doubled as overflow storage space. No slide outs on ours, but we managed to find a way to cram supplies for 3 weeks at the Fort in it for the lot of us.

Good luck with your search!

 

[FWFans]

When we first started camping we had a pop-up that we quickly out grew with the addition of our 3rd and 4th child. Storage space was at a premium !!! I packed our clothes in suitcases and placed them under the camper/awning when we set up to get them out of the way or in the car that way floor space was freed up to walk around inside. (Our pop up did not have a slide out). If tables were provided by the campground we would eat meals outside under the awning. That way I didn't have to reassemble the table/bed everyday. We'd also cook our meals outside as often as possible.
You could also store your clothes in a tent outside of the camper and use it as a changing room in the mornings/evenings.

I'd do anything to be camping at the fort !!!

 

[disney4dan]

We are looking at the Keystone Passports. We have a Suburban w/ a 7700 lb towing capacity so a 28 ft. Passport is under 5,000lbs. I think the 29ft. one (which I would love to have) has 4 bunks in the back and weighs about 5,000lbs. Anyway, they are good sizes and light. We are trying to stay at or around 5,000 to tow in the mountains at some point.

We have a Keystone Passport Ultralite 300BH and love the floor plan. With that said, keep in mind that the posted weight is "dry" and not what it will weigh with your gear in it. I have not weighed mine on the scales yet this year, but the tongue weight is consistently coming in at around 800 pounds so I would say we are closer to the 7,000 pound range when loaded for the trip.

Also, things to keep in mind;

Can you get to (and use) the bathroom with the slides pulled in?
How much fresh water will you need in the tank (ours only carries 24 gallons)
Do you need heat at the front of the trailer (ours has a bedroom up front, all the heating vents are in the middle of the trailer and we camp in chilly weather).

 

[phalynx]

We just purchased an Innsbruck 269BHL. It was very affordable and has amazing space. 2 bunks, seperate bedroom and a slide out. Doesn't weigh a heck of a lot. I believe it would be in the Yukon XL tow rating at around 6500 lbs. Here are a couple of pictures of our inside.

 

[redandblue]

We just purchased an Innsbruck 269BHL. It was very affordable and has amazing space. 2 bunks, seperate bedroom and a slide out. Doesn't weigh a heck of a lot. I believe it would be in the Yukon XL tow rating at around 6500 lbs. Here are a couple of pictures of our inside.

Wow that is a really nice camper. I like how they have a full bed then a bunk over top I thought that would be great for toddlers to grow into, two or three could sleep in the full until one was old enough to move to the bunk. DH didn't like that style so we got a Outback 27ft with a quad bunkhouse, slide for living area (which really just moves our futon like couch out about 3 feet but does give enough space to set up a pack n play) and our queen bed is a slide out. We thought it would be great as we are only pulling 27ft but the slide gives us extra space. We hate it, I was pregnant last year and constantly crawling over DH to use the bathroom 3xs a night. The space is all bed so you are constantly banging into the window blinds, finally I had MIL sew us some drapes. We bought a Chevy Sierra diesal so we may upgrade to a 5th wheel next summer. Maybe this year will be better with me not being pregnant.

Sorry for the novel but I also wanted to add that I hate where our tv is to be set up, I didn't think it was a huge deal as I never watched tv while camping but 2yoDS likes to watch a movie to relax. Our tv is supposed to be set on a small counter area which is right next to the sink. So it is constantly in the way when trying to wash dishes. And with a 2yo picky eater who is easily distracted we ate in the camper quite a bit.

 

[disney4dan]

We just purchased an Innsbruck 269BHL. It was very affordable and has amazing space. 2 bunks, seperate bedroom and a slide out. Doesn't weigh a heck of a lot. I believe it would be in the Yukon XL tow rating at around 6500 lbs. Here are a couple of pictures of our inside.

I like the height of the fridge; ours sits on top of the furnace and the little ones would not be able to reach the freezer portion. Of course, they are growing like weeds and will tower over me before long!