Why I chose a toy hauler instead of a travel trailer or others.

Hopefully this post will help others come to a decision or at least get them further on their ideas. It was a few years ago when I decided my young family would enjoy a camping rig and I started to explore all options. I am a Sith lord level handyman and at one point I was ready to build my own travel trailer. I purchased plans from Glen-L but even as an experienced fabricator I found the plans lacking.

So a couple summers later and a huge unexpected summer work bonus I was shopping for a used trailer. I came across so many toads before I found our princess. I even bought a travel trailer, towed it home, and flipped it the same day for a $1,200 profit because I wasn't in love with the style. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice 2008 Pilgrim custom build with a MASSIVE bathroom but that bathroom came from the expense of the living quarters. At this point I really started thinking "what am I really looking for in a camper?" Well initially I totally avoided toy haulers as my old man said a friend had one and complained the cabin always smelled like gasoline and that would be a perpetual problem for haulers.

So I was mainly looking at travel trailers on the local Craigslist. I tossed out the idea of any motorized RV (Class A, B, C, or bus) because I wanted the ability to leave the rig and drive to the fishin' spot, dry goods store, or restaurant and know I wouldn't lose my spot at the camp ground. I didn't want a fifth wheel (even though I love them) because my tow vehicle is a half ton (but still bad @ass for a half ton) and I didn't want to sacrifice my pick up bed. I also threw out pop-ups because we wanted a solid rig, something a large wild cat couldn't claw it's way through. Tossing motorized options out limited my opportunity to take our boat with us as well but I decided I would tow doubles because A) America and B) I am a bad @ss trailer puller as my old man had me backing the boat before I had a driver's license.

After weeks of getting frustrated by dumb Craigslist people I decided to open my mind to toy haulers. I researched other forums and discovered lingering gasoline smell is really hit or miss and many of the people complaining of the smell admitted to spilling gasoline on the floor during transport. As soon as I considered the toy hauler the reasoning crashed on my head. We do have mini bikes, quads, off-road go-karts, wakeboard winches, full size grills, and more. And I liked the idea of having some open space for whatever, even normal household furniture like my favorite leather recliner.

How would you get half of this stuff through the door of the travel trailer?- you wouldn't. And what if you didn't have all those internal combustion toys?- who cares. With the hauler you get a large rear door to roll what ever you're into, into the rig. So that's what we decided upon, A) we can take toys, B) if we don't take toys we can take things that give the rig a more home type of feel. On our first trip with the toy hauler, we fell a dead oak tree and burned some of it at our campfire. I wanted to bring the trunk home and the toy hauler was the perfect solution. And oh yeah- there wasn't a hint of gasoline in the cabin even after towing the trailer in 100+ degree Arizona weather for several hours.

If this post helps, please comment and tell us about it. Happy trailer-ing my friends!

Interesting concept. Great point of view. Good planing!  8)

I too purchased a Toy hauler after only owning our first camper for only 6 months. Once we bought the first camper we quickly realized that all the stuff we wanted to take while boondock camping was tough. generator, fuel, ATV, firewood chairs and anything else you need had to be carried in the bed of my short bed truck. This led me to buy a special rack to carry the ATV, but at 54 years old driving up into the back of that truck at over 6 feet was getting a little scary. We did our home work and started looking for a unit that would do what we wanted, my wife's only requirement was that she wanted a door between the garage and the living quarter. Her reason was if there was any smells she did not want to deal with the fumes. We had a 2012 coachman bunkhouse with no slides and while it was great for short stays with the grand kids it was a tight quarters at night. We choose a Keystone Carbon 31 with the garage configure with fold down couches and a drop down bed. We have spent about 12 nights in the last 30 days since our purchase and I have to say we hit a home run with our choose.

First, after opening up the garage and unloading there are no smells, second the Garage is a great space that can be used for so many things. Ours functions as dinning room with really comfortable seating, it is equipped with 2 queen beds for added guest, great place to put the bulky items we want to bring, like chairs and rugs that usually would be stored in the basements. Having a 30 gallon fuel tank on board with a fuel station means that I do not need to carry gas cans that always smell and leak. We have the screen attached to the ramp door so we have a great screen porch to have breakfast. The other thing that made me go toward the TH was the ceiling height, I am 6-2 and any slide out in a traditional trailer would peel the top of my head when I got close to them.

To sum it up we love this unit. We bought our TH with a onboard generator but because we had purchased a 3k Honda for the other TT I bring the Honda and use it at night because it is so much quieter and I can place it away from the Camper so CO is not an issue while sleeping with the A/C running.