Buying our trailer this week and going fulltime. Thoughts?

Hey folks,
My girlfriend and I are planning to buy a 2018 Keystone Sprinter (Campfire Edition 25RK) this week. We will be moving into it ASAP (our lease ends Oct. 7th) and then living in it fulltime for about 14 months. During that time we will be traveling around the United States. We will be visiting friends/family and going on lots of hikes. I have researched extensively over the past 9 months but now it is really happening and I want to see if anyone here has any advice. Thank you in advance.
-Tom

Howdy TomRiddle,

First of all, welcome to the forum!

Second, everyone here certainly has *tons* of advice... it would help if you ask more specific questions, and provide more details on yourselves, your budget, planned camping style, tow vehicle, planned destinations, etc.

From the get-go, I would suggest that you do *not* buy a new camper, but a gently used, well maintained one. This will not only save you a lot of money (specially if you plan on reselling it at the end of these 14 months -- new RVs depreciate heavily in the first 2-3 years) but also will save you a lot of time and aggravation getting stuff fixed (incredibly, new RVs almost always come from factory with many issues, which will demand time and patience to be solved -- this is specially important is you plan on hopping on it and starting your trip right away: on a brand new RV you'd need at least many days, and possibly weeks, to have everything fixed, while on a good, gently used unit, they will have been fixed by the previous owner).

I would also suggest that you check very carefully whether your tow vehicle can really pull your camper safely -- do not just take any salesman word on it (including manufacturer claims that it is"half ton towable" etc). Instead, get your camper's GVWR -- not it's dry weight -- and your tow vehicle's detailed specs and crunch your own numbers to make sure it's a safe combination (otherwise you are putting yourselves at great risk, not only of life and limb, but also financially as in any accident there will surely be lawyers involved, and they *will* check -- and if your camper plus all its cargo, and your tow vehicle cargo including yourselves and fuel, in any way exceeds your tow vehicle ratings, they will take it out of your hide).

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Cheers,
--
  Vall.

Tom Riddle (He who should not be named??    ) Welcome to the RV'ing world.  Hopefully your research included the things VallandMo brought up.  All very important. 

Even with all the research you will learn a lot with real life experiences. 

If new trailer, be sure the dealer will let you park for a few nights on the lot to test all the things in the trailer so they can be fixed before you leave the dealership.  Better yet don't pay for the trailer until you have spent at least one night in the trailer and whatever you find wrong gets fixed. 

Welcome to the forum Tom, go to the Library and read, there is a lot to digest.

I hope you have at least a 3/4 ton truck or preferably a 1 ton truck. But for some reason I have the feeling you are going to try and pull it with a half ton since that is what everyone seems to want to do.

Well, that trailer is towable by some of the half ton pickups, though not all of them. A 3/4 ton would,certainly be an easier tow, but a one ton seems a bit extreme. Total weight would be maxed at just over 9300 pounds. That's heavier than what I tow with a 3/4 ton diesel, but it (barely) in the range of a half ton as long as only two people are in the truck.

It looks like a nice trailer with good storage and big tanks. Have fun.

UTTransplant said:

Well, that trailer is towable by some of the half ton pickups, though not all of them. A 3/4 ton would,certainly be an easier tow, but a one ton seems a bit extreme. Total weight would be maxed at just over 9300 pounds. That's heavier than what I tow with a 3/4 ton diesel, but it (barely) in the range of a half ton as long as only two people are in the truck.

It looks like a nice trailer with good storage and big tanks. Have fun.

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It is not a question can it be towed. The question is would it be safe using a half ton. A 29 footer in a mild wind would be a real white knuckle experience. And by getting a one ton they would be future proofing themselves for when they upgraded to a larger trailer. They would not have to buy a new truck at that point.

SeilerBird said:

I hope you have at least a 3/4 ton truck or preferably a 1 ton truck. But for some reason I have the feeling you are going to try and pull it with a half ton since that is what everyone seems to want to do.

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I am going to be towing it with a 2008 Diesel F-250 Super Duty.

Thank you to everyone for the welcomes and advice. We did about half of our PDI on Monday after agreeing on a price. We caught about 5 minor issues. On Wednesday we will go to complete the PDI with everything hooked up, filling/emptying tanks, etc. Assuming there are no major issues we will be taking it home that day. We are super excited. I will post pictures once we are all set up and I'm sure we will have questions for the forum moving forward. Thanks again.

You will love it and good choice of trucks. We snowbird and just follow the temperatures.  You may be in trouble when you realize you dont want to quit. Safe travels to you and see you in the desert

Having Rved for 30 plus years and now full timing I can tell you that is a hardship to try and full time in an RV not built with a full timer in mind.  For one the refer/freezer are too small to fit more than a couple days groceries in it.  To full time make sure the amenities you see as important are available.

dsmall54 said:

Having Rved for 30 plus years and now full timing I can tell you that is a hardship to try and full time in an RV not built with a full timer in mind.  For one the refer/freezer are too small to fit more than a couple days groceries in it.  To full time make sure the amenities you see as important are available.

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No RV is built with full timing in mind. I full timed it for 10 years in RVs that were way too small to a 39 foot DP. Most of the time I was in a 27 footer and a 32 footer, both class As. Works great for me but then again I am single with three cats.