FIRST THINGS, FIRST.
Let’s get this part out of the way, our model RV is the Jayco Jay Flight 32BHDS. It has everything that will be discussed in this post. We just wanted to give you an idea of what model we settled on.
One Size Doesn’t Fit Most
If you read about our crew, then you already know that life has a funny way of throwing unexpected events at you. The addition of our third child (and last, snip snip) was really the perfect situation to happen in our journey while we were searching for RVs. Last year we were talking about everything from pop-ups to small travel trailers because we only had two kids to fit inside. A fifth family member doesn’t warrant a fifth wheel, but it does require some considerations.
We really are at the beginning of our journey, which means we have to consider the future. The future is three growing kids, lots of friends and a lot of camping. We wanted to make sure that the camper we chose allowed us to grow into it.
Find the Right Layout
What I love about sites like campingworld.com isn’t all the bad reviews that come along with them – it’s their filtering system when you are looking at RVs. My wife and I started our search without a price in mind because we honestly had no idea. This isn’t like buying a car, where I think you have a much better idea of where you are going to be with the cost. Buying an RV is a lot like buying a home. You know what you want out of a house, but finding that in the right location isn’t always easy so you end up with some sort of compromise. The same can be said for a camper. You might not find everything you think you want, but so far in our experience, you can get pretty darn close. When looking at the layout for our camper we had a very simple want. A Bunkhouse.
OUR TIP
Start with the layout. When you see a layout that makes you stop in your scrolling or take a second look, that is where you want to start making notes of models and the things you like or dislike about it.
That was literally it. At this point, we didn’t even really know what the difference was between a travel trailer, pop-up trailer, or 5th wheel, but we knew we wanted a bunkhouse. We put that filter into the Camping World website and it returned 18,552 – all travel trailers.
Pair Down the List with Needs vs. Wants
To get that list down from 18,000, start adding additional filters. Check the boxes of things you want. Look through a few results and start making a list of needs vs. wants. Keep in mind, the wants are the things that you can live without but would make a trip that much more enjoyable.
Before long your list might look like ours:
– Bunkhouse / Need
– Central bathroom / Want
– Tub in bathroom / Want
– 2 slide outs / Want
– Front bedroom w/door / Need
– Outdoor kitchen / Want
– 2 entrances, ideally a bathroom entrance / Need
– Fireplace / Want
– TV mountable wall location / Want
Our list isn’t very long and that is because as we were looking through results we immediately started to find the layouts we really liked and those that were ‘eh, we can live with it’.
OUR TIP
Don’t settle on just one website to do your research, we found 360-degree galleries and video walkthroughs on the web, so as you start to settle on a few models that fit your criteria, look elsewhere for looks inside.
The hard part from here was deciding on the right brand, and this takes more time than the fun part of finding the right camper. In an upcoming blog, I will talk about the research that went into settling on the model we purchased – the Jayco Jay Flight 32BHDS.
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