Hitching Time

Loading

Hitching Time
General

Picking Up Our New Camper – Dutchman Kodiak 332BHSL

After months of looking at several different floor plans, brands, layouts, types, and everything else, we finally decided on a trailer. We decided to go with the Dutchman Kodiak 332BHSL. It is a bunkhouse model bumper pull trailer. 

This one worked out best for us because it has a separate room for our kids and each has their own bed. It has a large living area and a hidden pantry that doubles as a washer/dryer area if you would rather have that instead. Being a family of 5, having the storage area that a pantry would provide 

Once we chose the floor plan, the rest of the process went relatively smoothly. We decided on which camper we wanted and went down to the dealership and started the paperwork. We filled out the credit application and then it was time to wait for the banks to come back with an answer.

While we were waiting for them, we looked at some of the options that they were including with the camper. We bought a weight distribution hitch that had built-in sway and leveling bars and a brake controller. They ended up giving us the brake controller and lowering the price of the hitch down to almost half. 

They also included what they called a Premium Startup Package which had 12 different items in it.

It Included:

  • Fresh Water Hose
  • Septic Drain Hose
  • Two wheel chocks
  • RV plug to 110V adaptor
  • Surge protector
  • Fresh Water Filter
  • Water Pressure Regulator
  • Four Pack of RV toilet paper
  • 10-piece Leveling Blocks
  • Black Water Tank Chemicals
  • Hose Saver Angled Fitting
  • Bug Screens for Furnace and Hot Water Heater

By this time, it was well after lunchtime so we decided to run to town and grab some food and goto Walmart for a couple of items that we needed. We made it back to the dealership at about 4 pm and they told us that they had heard back from the banks and that we were approved with no money down. Which from what the sales manager said, is a rare thing even with people that have over 850 credit scores. 

Back to the finance office, we went to sign our life away…I mean sign the loan paperwork. After what seemed like signing our names on 50 different pieces of paper, we were done! Now we just had to wait on the dealership to get the trailer ready so we could take delivery. Unfortunately, that was not something that could be done that same day, so we scheduled it for the following Monday.

The weekend couldn’t go by fast enough and every time that we talked to each other, whether it was in person or on the phone, we would start the conversation with “Hey guess what? We bought a camper!” and do a little happy dance. 

Monday finally came and we were so eager to get our camper that we showed up thirty minutes early for our appointment and had to wait in the parking lot because the dealership wasn’t even open yet. Once the doors were unlocked, our truck doors flew open, and inside we went.

We checked in with the walk-through check-in desk and they took our truck to get the hitch and brake controller put in. They were actually done doing that before we even got to start our walk-through. Honestly, though, that was a good thing, because we had our three kids with us and they could sit in the truck right outside the camper and play on their tablets so we could listen to the walk-through. 

The walk-through took about an hour to do and we recorded the entire thing so we could refer back to it at a later date if we needed to. Starting on the outside she showed us how to operate the propane, turn on the battery, and hook up the water and sewer lines. We looked at the low point drain and the outside gas hookup; The outside kitchen and TV mount and the under belly side-to-side storage bay. 

Then we went inside and it was how to fold down the bed in the back, about all the features in the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom. How to operate the fireplace, the tankless water heater, the stove, and the oven, setting the refrigerator, and the hidden plug and phone charger on the countertop. We looked at all the storage, which is a lot for this size trailer really. We were shown to unfold and refold the couches, change the dinette configurations to each of the three setups that it has and how operate the A/C units.

Lastly, it was time to hook it up and go through the process of tearing it down. So I backed my truck up right to the ball thanks to the two-view backup camera on my truck. She walked us through how to attach the trailer to the hitch, attaching the leveling/sway bars, safety chains, and the emergency brake cord. We got the stabilizer jacks up before attaching them to the truck then put the awning and slides in, disconnected the water hose and power cord, and got everything put away into the storage compartment and everything locked up and ready to go.

All we had left to do was pick up our premium starter package kit from their camping store, sign the document saying that we got it and we did the walk-through, the temporary tag was attached to the trailer and we were ready to load up and head for home.

Shortly after leaving was when the “What in the world” moment happened, but that is for the next blog post. So make sure you follow our blog and our Instagram channel for some behind the scenes stuff as well as blog post notifications.

Until next time yall,

Happy Camping!

NOTE: This post is from earlier this year when we first started our blog. I am posting old blog posts to get caught up to the present then I will start posting new ones.

RV Tips

Deciphering RV Model Numbers

Hopefully by the time you are reading this post you have made a decision on what type of RV you want, now let’s go through the different floorplan options. Let me preface this by saying this is no small choice. It took us several months of looking at floorplans to find what we liked. Even after we picked a few floorplans we wanted, it wasn’t until we actually saw the RV in person that we decided to get the Dutchman Kodiak Ultra-lite 332BHSL.

Thankfully most RV dealership websites have pictures of the floorplans and you can sort and filter by certain aspects of the RV. However, I think it is still a good thing to understand what you are looking at at a glance when you are scrolling through the listings so let’s go over what the model numbers mean.

The Number Portion

The first three characters of the model number can be one of two things and both are currently in use as of the writing of this post. One of the options is that the number represents the square foot of the RV. So let’s use the model that we bought, 332BHSL. If 332 was the square foot of the trailer and we do a little math:

Length x Width = Area in square feet

We know the width of an RV is typically 8 feet wide so we would have to adjust the formula to be:

Length = 332 / 8

The answer would be 41.5 feet in length. I can tell you that our camper is 33 feet long so 332 is not the square foot of the RV. 

Typically, according to the research I have done, is that in a fifth-wheel RV, the 332 would be the square footage. However, our RV is a bumper pull so it is different. According to what I have read, typically, in a bumper pull RV, the first two numbers of the model number are the length of the trailer. So for our trailer, the first two are 33 and our trailer is approximately 33 feet long, so that matches.

The third digit in the model number I really couldnt find anything as to what it was for certain. Some sources said it was the year that that floorplan had been manufactured. So in our case it would be the second year. Other sources stated that it was how many slides the RV has. Again it would be correct for us because our RV has two. Maybe it is just something that the manufacture does that isn’t standard across the industry, I don’t really know.

The Letter Portion

Now, on to the letter portion of the model number. The letter portion of the model number is fairly easy to figure out if you know what you are looking for. They are not standard across the industry, but they are typically pretty much the same for most.

Let go through some common ones:

Living Room

RL – Rear Living

FL – Front Living

  • The living room area is located at the front of the RV, closest to the tongue
  • I have seen some really nice fifth-wheel RVs that have a front living floorplan that are very nice.
  • Example: 2023 Forest River Rv Salem Hemisphere 378FL

RE or FE – Rear or Front Entertainment

  • This is basically the same as the Rear/Front Living above, but it may have an upgrade entertainment system. This like a bigger TV or a surround sound system. Things that are normal the typical would have in them.
  • Example: 2023 Cruiser MPG 2780RE

Kitchen

FK – Front Kitchen

RK – Rear Kitchen

  • The kitchen is located on the opposite end from the hitch at the rear of the trailer
  • This is generally found on bumper pull and fifth-wheel RVs
  • Example: 2023 Palomino Puma 30RKQS

OK – Outside Kitchen

  • This is a small kitchen area that is accessible from the outside of the camper
  • This could mean two things.
    • It may be a very small trailer and the only kitchen is located on the outside of the trailer. For example, a tear drop camper has out outside kitchen or
    • The RV will have a normal kitchen inside but also have a condensed version outside. Typically with a small dorm style fridge, sink, griddle or stove and some storage areas. 
  • These are nice to have for those times when you are cooking meat or something that is messy to cook and you don’t want to mess up the kitchen inside to cook it. It is also nice for when it is hot outside so you dont heat up the entire camper cooking.
  • Example: 2022 Ember Rv Overland Micro Series ROK

IK – Island Kitchen

Bedroom

BH – Bunk House

  • Somewhere in the floorplan there is an area that had at least two bunk bed style bed in it. These could be smaller than twins like our bunk beds are or it could be about the size of full beds.
  • The beds could be in their own room or it could be right off the living area with only a curtain for privacy
  • Example: 2023 Dutchmen Rv Kodiak Ultra-Lite 332BHSL

MB – Middle Bunk

BL – Bunk Living

  • Bunk room that has a top bunk bed and a jack knife couch as the bottom bunk. It will have things like a TV, desk, wardrob area in it as well.
  • This one is a guess on my part because it makes sense, at least in my mind
  • Example: 2023 Forest River Rv Salem Hemisphere 369BL

QB – Quad Bunk

TB – Twin Beds

  • Twin bed in the RV
  • This is typically found on the smaller RVs
  • Example: 

Q or QB – Queen Bed

DB – Double Beds

RQ or FQ – Rear or Front Queen

K or KB – King Bed

Bathroom Location

RB – Rear Bathroom

FB – Front Bathroom

Slides

WS or S – Single Slide

SS – Super Slide

DS – Dinette Slide

  • A slide includes the dinette
  • I have seen a lot of floorplans of smaller bumper pull RVs that have just a single slide that moves the dinette out to make more living area.

TS – Triple Slide

  • RV with three slides

Misc

SLX/XLT – Lightweight/Ultra-Lite

W/WE – Western States Edition

  • States like California and others have different RV laws than the rest of the country does. To comply with these laws, some RV manufactures have to make specific changes to their units for compliance reasons.
  • This type is geared more towards motorhomes than towable RVs due to things like emissions laws for example.

There is a lot of model codes out there. Some of them are easy to figure out, others don’t make any sense at all! I saw one trailer that was a tear drop trailer and its model number was 10SS. In other RV the SS means Super Slide but in this instance…

Common sense tells me that when you are determining a model number for an RV, you want to make it where it will highlight the best feature or the most noticeable feature on the unit. Makes sense, right? Maybe if I knew what they stood for, then maybe I would understand why a letter combination was picked.

I hope that this bit of information helped you decipher the RV model numbers you may have been looking at. If it did, please consider following us on our blog, facebook and Instagram.

Until it is Hitching Time again…

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post is was published earlier this year when we first started out blog. I am posting all these blog posts from before prior to posting new content.

General

What Type of RV to Get?

When you are looking to get a new camper, the first question you need to answer is “What type of RV is the right choice?” Do you want a bumper pull, fifth wheel, Toy Hauler, or motorhome? Should you get a new one or a used one? How many beds do you need? What kind of amenities do you want? There are so many questions that you need to answer before you even start looking for the right floor plan.

DISCLAIMER: The below descriptions are based on what we have seen personally. There may be some floorplans or RVs that we have not seen and therefore we can not speak about it from personal experience. If you have other experiences or opinions, please leave a comment below and let us know.

What Style of RV

Motorhome

A motorhome is going to be the most expensive option because it is basically all-inclusive. With motorhomes, you drive it where you want to camp and everything is self-contained. The main drawback of a motorhome is that you will have to pull a car behind it to have transportation while you are camping. 

Out of all the different types of RVs, the motorhome is the most expensive. They also typically have the highest quality finishes and amenities. The price of a motorhome starts at about $75,000 and can go up over one million dollars or more!

You are limited on the floorplan options that you can have. You are always going to have the living area up front and the sleeping area in the back. The only exception to this is that some motorhomes will have a queen bed that can be lowered above the driver’s seat. There are also some models that have a couple of bunk beds. 

The next question for a motorhome is what class do you want? There are Class C, Class C+, Class B, Class A, and Diesel Pushers. Class C is your smallest option and only requires a class C license to drive it. The class A and Diesel Pushers require a class A license. The standard class A motorhome has gas engines and the Diesel pushers have diesel engines. So then the question becomes how much you want to spend on fuel when you fill it up. 

Class A Motorhomes have a large amount of storage in the form of outside storage bays. There are large bay doors that line both sides of the motorhome. Inside storage really depends on the floor plan.

Fifth Wheel RV

Fifth Wheel RVs are typically larger than bumper pull campers and therefore are heavier. With them being heavier they require a larger pull vehicle. Most can be pulled with a three-quarter-ton truck but are more stable with a one-ton dually truck. This is, of course, my opinion. There are a ton of people that pull fifth-wheel RVs with a single-tire rear end. However, there are a few fifth-wheel RVs that can be pulled with some half-ton trucks. 

For new fifth-wheel RVs, the prices range from about $40k up to several hundred thousand. When we are able to live in an RV full-time, we are leaning towards something like the Forest River Rv Sandpiper Luxury 388BHRD. This model runs about $85k from our local RV dealership and it fits all the needs that we want.

You also have more options with floorplan options with a fifth wheel versus other types of RVs. There are fifth wheels that have living rooms in the back, middle, or front. There are some that have two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Some have bunk rooms; some have multiple bunk rooms.

Fifth wheels will typically have the most room out of all the choices from what we have seen. They have larger living areas and kitchens making them the best choice if you are planning on living in them full-time and having a bigger family. 

You also have to get a special fifth-wheel hitch installed in the bed of your truck. Because the fifth wheel attaches to the bed of your truck it allows for a heavier load because the tongue weight will be centered over the rear wheels. This makes towing a fifth wheel easier to maneuver in tight spaces. The main drawback to this is that you can’t store anything in the bed of your truck that is taller than the plate of the fifth-wheel hitch. 

The other thing that has to be considered when buying a fifth wheel is how big the bed of your truck is. If it is an eight-foot bed then you don’t have anything really to worry about. If it is a six-and-a-half-foot or less bed then you will have to buy a sliding fifth-wheel hitch, which costs more. This type of hitch allows the connection point to slide back and forth about a foot or so when you turn corners.

Bumper Pull

 A bumper pull trailer is probably the first one that people get a lot of the time, especially if it is just a couple or maybe one kid. They are smaller and lighter than fifth wheels and can normally be pulled easily with a half-ton pickup. 

They range from anywhere from a pop-up tent camper, to a larger bunkhouse camper like we ended up getting, from 2,000 pounds to 10,000 pounds. With heavier ones you may have to get airbags or bigger springs put on your truck but with the smaller ones you shouldn’t have to do anything. 

The price of a bumper pull RV is typically the cheapest option of any of the RV choices that you have. You can get a new bumper pull RV for as little as about $16k and they go up about $60k. The RV that we got was on the higher end of the bumper pull style because it is one of the bigger ones because we have five people in our family. We got the Dutchamn Kodiak Ultra-lite 332BHSL

A bumper pull will typically not have as much room as other types of RVs as they normally don’t have as many slides. If they do have a slide, it is normally in the living area, sometimes there will be a slide in a bedroom. 

Bumper pull trailers also don’t typically have as much storage as other RVs, especially outside storage. Our camper only has one outside storage area that stretches across the front of the camper. Inside there is a fairly decent amount of storage but nothing like a fifth wheel has. However, the point of living in an RV is to pair down on the things that you have to only what you need, right?

Toy Haulers

Toy haulers are a variation of a towable RV. They can be both fifth-wheel and bumper pull styles. A toy hauler is based around a rear garage with a lowerable ramp. The ones that we have seen have a modest living area and kitchen, a front master bedroom with a bathroom, and then a large garage area in the back. Some of them will have a single or double bed system in the garage area that has the ability to be raised and lowered. 

This allows for more sleeping areas when they are lowered and a place to store a four-wheeler, side-by-side, or golf cart when they are raised up. Some toy haulers will have a full-width bed on top and the lower one be a foldable bed that can be converted into a bench for a table. Some floor plans also have a full or half bathroom in the garage area as well.

The other really neat thing about toy haulers is often the back ramp can double as an outdoor patio area. Some of them have a foldable railing that can be folded up so no one falls off the side of it and gets hurt. We saw one toy hauler that had two porches, one off the back of the garage area and one that lowered off the front and could be accessed by a door in the living room.

New or Used?

Now that we have covered the many different types of RVs, let’s talk about whether it is better to go with a new RV or a used one. Obviously, this is a personal question that only you can answer for yourself. Let’s look at some of the reasoning for both sides. 

New RVs

Let’s look at some of the reasons to buy a new one first. When my wife and I were asking ourselves this question, one of the most important reasons is that a new one comes with a warranty. There are going to be enough expenses with buying an RV that we don’t have to worry about making any repairs or fixing any issues right off the bat and being out of that money. 

New RVs will also have the latest and greatest technology. If you are a technology-loving person then having neat “toys” with your new RV will be a big pull for you. On our new camper, we have a Bluetooth connection that will control a bunch of the features of our camper. We can lower the stabilizer jacks, put in or out the slides, control the inside and outside lights, control the water pump, and check the battery and tank levels all from your phone!

Of course, the technology, warranty, and all the newness of the RVs come at a price too. You will pay more for new RVs than you will for older ones. Much like vehicles, an RV starts to depreciate almost as soon as you drive off the lot with it. It doesn’t depreciate as much as a car or truck does but it will drop about 10-15% in the first year and then about 8% for the next four years. After that, it starts to slow down and will not lose as much value every year. How much an RV depreciates also depends on how well your RV is taken care of and any damage that may be done to it.

Used RVs

If you decide to go with a used RV there are some advantages though. Used RVs have been lived in already so any bugs that there might have been had been worked out already. Like if a plug doesn’t work, or the A/C doesn’t work, the person that bought it new, more than likely, has already taken it in and gotten it fixed. There is probably always going to be some kind of issue with any new RV that you buy

Used RVs are typically a lot cheaper than a new one because the first owner is the one that “ate” the depreciation and depending on how old the RV is will determine how much of a lower price you will get. My biggest fear with buying a used one is that there may be a water leak in the roof or something else that might be wrong with it. Of course, this is true with any used item you get, you have to do your own due diligence before you purchase it and accept the fact that there may be some things that you will have to fix once you buy it.

Which is the Best?

So which is the best option to buy? That depends on what you want and how big your family is. Each type of RV has its pros and cons. It also depends on what type of vehicle you have now. If you have a half-to-truck and you don’t want to trade it in also, a bumper pull is your best option. If you have a three-quarters-ton or a one-ton truck, then anything but the motorhome will work for you. If you have a small car then maybe a motorhome is what would work best for you.

If you have a big family, then a small bumper pull will probably be a little tight to live in even if it is nothing more than just sleeping in. If it is just for two people then a small bumper pull would work. They even have little teardrop campers that can be pulled with an SUV.

In the next post, we will be talking about floor plans and things to look for when trying to decide on what RV you will buy, so please follow our blog or follow us on our Facebook or Instagram accounts. On our social media pages, there will be some extra things that you might not see on our blog. 

Until next time,

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post is from our old blog when we started before. I will be posting all our old blog post to get caught up to now.