I have written about this in one of our books, but I don’t think I have ever blogged about it. It is a cautionary tale about buying a camper. It is a Travel Trailer purchase that could have been avoided had either Tammy or I said five simple words.

The Long, Long Trailer

The story really starts out in 2007 with the purchase of a massive Coachmen Travel Trailer. The 288FKS was a travel trailer that was, for us, love at first site. When Tammy and I went to DeHaan RV Center in Elkhorn Wisconsin back in 2007, I wandered around the lot. While I was just walking around looking at what brands they carried, Tammy found the Coachmen 288FKS. She found me and as she was taking me to it, we ran into the owner Kim. She asked if we saw anything we liked and Tammy said “Yes, this Coachmen up ahead”.

Kendra standing in the u-shaped kitchen.

I was blown away when I saw it. It had the nicest kitchen of any trailer we have ever owned. It had real cabinets, and more than you could ever want PLUS counter space galore. There really was nothing bad about this trailer, other than it’s length. It was thirty five feet long. In addition it had the wheels placed almost directly in the center of the rig, so the pivot point made it difficult to maneuver.

Hannah and Kendra in the Coachmens living area.

This trailer never gave us an ounce of trouble but trips became a nightmare at gas stations. Regular gas stations just didn’t give enough room to pull this rig away from the pumps safely. Therefore every gas stop was proceeded by viewing the approaching station and trying to figure out if there was enough room to get in and out easily. If the answer was “No” then it was on to another gas station. Over the course of the eight years that we owned that trailer, there was never a trip where the length combined with the pivot point didn’t cause us stress.

In 2015, Tammy and I decided we could probably safely downsize to a 24′ trailer. We had recently lost our dog Kaela and were now down to two German shepherds, Hannah and Kendra. I wanted to travel without the struggle at the pumps. We thought this trailer, the Jayco 24RBS, would be the solution.

I have to say the layout looked great on the internet, but then doesn’t everything? We basically dealt with the dealership on-line including the trade in value of the Coachmen. All we had left to do was drive from North Texas to Oklahoma City to pick it up.

The trip took place on maybe one of the worst possible days for towing, cold with freezing rain. More than once going over a bridge I could feel the Coachmens’ tail start to slide. After about the fourth episode of this I told Tammy “If it happens one more time we are stopping at the next exit and waiting out this weather, even if that means camping there”.

Fortunately shortly after that we drove out of the rain. Then it was into the RV Dealership to deal with the walk through and paper work.

When you are used to a large open floor-plan like the coachmen, it’s hard to wrap your head around a smaller space. When we walked in the bedroom and bathroom doors were both closed. So we entered into the living area, and my first thought was that this trailer was surprisingly small. As I looked around I began to wonder is it just that both doors are closed so we feel confined? Little did I know it at the time but Tammy was having the exact same conversation in her head. That is where the problem began; neither of us voiced our concerns.

We finished the paperwork, and left with our trailer to a nearby campground. Both of us probably wondering if the small size was a concern to the other spouse.

I want to say first of all that we did a lot of traveling with this trailer. Our worries about gas stations evaporated on the way home from the dealership. We could easily pull in and out of any gas station that had an open pump. There are certainly advantages to having a smaller travel trailer.

I have had three Jayco travel trailers over the years and I have to say (I sound like a broken record) but they have the strongest roof of any trailer we have ever owned. There are other things that they do well, like bathroom layout and storage. The things they don’t do so well with are items like furniture, and space to walk around the bed.

Keep in mind the national average for people trading in an RV is about seven years. However, after only a year of traveling in the 24RBS with our two girls (Hannah and Kendra), it became apparent it just wasn’t large enough. That’s about the time we discovered we had both held our tongues during the walk through. If only we had said those five little words “This is just too small”, our lives would have been easier. Our decision to downsize would have been better done at an RV show. That way we could have gotten an appreciation over what was available, and it probably would have forced us to have some conversations about space.

While the trailer would have been fantastic for a couple; it wasn’t great with the the puppies. There was a window that went almost to the floor behind the table. This became a favorite barking point for my girls as well as one of the only spots they could stay out of the way of our feet. Could we have made it work? Maybe. Did we want to? Not really!

Eight years later we are in our almost seven year old Imagine. It rivals the Coachmens’ length, but several things have changed since then. 1. The wheel placement on the Imagine is so much better that maneuvering at gas stations for the first four years wasn’t an issue. 2. I bought a diesel Ram in late 2020, and now I go through truck stops to get my gas. There are no worries about gas pumps anymore at all.

I miss these two: Kendra and Hannah – They were great camping companions, even in small spaces!
Eva – Our current camping floor child.

This Imagine was probably the most thought out purchase we have made, and we haven’t seen anything that would take it’s place. I always say “there is no perfect travel trailer”, and that is still true with the imagine. You just need to make the best possible choice available. Most important is to voice any concerns immediately to your significant other.