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Campground Review

Bravos River Hideout – Second Camping Trip

For our second camping trip we stumbled across a campground called Brazos River Hideout. We were searching Google for campgrounds close by and were scrolling across the map and saw it on the map.  It is snuggled along the Brazos River just outside of Glen Rose, TX. Again we wanted to stay close to home just in case we forgot something again. 

This time around we planned on staying for an entire weekend instead of just a night or two in the middle of the week. We checked in on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. This campground presented us with a little more of a challenge than Dinosaur Valley RV Park did. More on that a little later in this post. 

All and all, we ended up having a great time and it turned out to be a fairly relaxing weekend. Our kids made some new friends, got to ride their bikes, and collect more shells along the river. Jess and I got to sit and relax by the fire both evenings and most of the day.

About the Campground

First off the basics. The campground is out in the middle of nowhere, so it is great if you want to just sit and relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. The campground has 25 RV spots all with a fire pit, picnic table, water, and 30/50 amp electricity. There aren’t any sewer hookups at the sites, but there is a dump station near the entrance/exit to the park. Their website states that they have WiFi, however, it is only available in the cabin and lodge area at the time we stayed there. The park hosts stated that they have been trying to get it down to the RV spot areas for a while but haven’t been able to get it yet. 

Even though there wasnt any Wifi in the camping area, we still had fairly good cell phone service. We are on AT&T and we had two bars while we were outside and had LTE or 5G. When we went inside, it was between one and two bars on LTE. However the cell service was good enough that we were able to stream a movie on our TV hooked to the hotspot on one of our phones.

Even though there isn’t a sewer hookup at the spots, the hosts did have a dump trailer and would come down and empty your tanks for you when you needed it. They actually came down three times while we were there. Not having a sewer hookup with three kids is not fun. You don’t realize how much water you use until you have a limited amount of storage.

The campground is located at the very end of a county road and at the very end of a long one-lane driveway. This makes the campground very secluded and for the most part, if you are down there it is because you are staying there. If you don’t belong there, everyone is going to see you and know that you are there. The draw back to this though is that you are a long way from medical help if you had an emergency. 

When you first enter the park, you are about 30-40 feet above the RV spots. After you check-in, you continue down the one-lane driveway that leads you to a steep downgrade S-Curve that leads to the actual RV spots. The RV spots area are on a 100-year floodplain. While this doesnt really sound that bad, This campground is located downriver from Lake Granbury. During times of heavy rain and the lake is full, the dam at the lake will release water downriver. I drive over this river twice a day when I commute to work and there are several times in the past few years that I have seen the river really high. I have to wonder how high it gets at this campground.

The first thing that we noticed when we got out of the truck to setup our camper was the stickers! We talked to the host on the first day we were there and he said that the owner just reopened the park about a year ago. When he purchased the property the grass was about four feet tall and they have been fighting the stickers ever since. He said that they are working on getting them knocked out but it will probably take a couple years to fully get rid of them. I will say that the grounds are kept very nice. Granted we went there over the New Years weekend so all the grass was dead and the trees didnt have any leaves on them. 

While we were setting up our camper, one of the host stopped by and offered us some 4×6 blocks to use as leveling blocks and offered to bring us some fire wood if we needed any. The spots are pretty level so it made leveling our camper very easy as well. The spot that we ended up in was pretty close to the river entrance. They had a walk way made from railroad ties leading most of the way down to the riverside and it was only about 100 feet or so from our campsite. The view was very nice even though we were surrounded by ground that was taller than than where we were at. At night, it was pitch black, making star gazing at night phenomenal!

Amenities

Let’s talk about amenities. Well, there really wasnt any to speak of. There wasnt a pool or playground, there was an outdoor shower but it was one pull string spray head in the middle of the park. There was a fire ring at each of the camp sites, and they offered firewood at no charge. 

Up on top of the hill near the entrance, there is a club house that you can use. I will say that it looked very nice. The inside of it was beautiful and you could actual sleep probably 20 people in it in the upstairs bedrooms. It had a kitchen, living and dining area and then a male and female bathroom that had multiple showers in it. We learned when we left and stopped in that there was a side door that lead just to the showers so I guess we couldve used those while we were there. 

On the outside of the building there were several seating areas, an outdoor kitchen with grill, sink and a big screen tv. There was a fire pit off to the side with four chairs to sit around it and then a little ways away there was a pavilion with several picnic tables and a large smoker. 

The draw back to this club house is that it is rentable and was rented while we were there by a very large family. So it just didnt feel right to me for me to be hanging out up there and not be part of their group. I think the host need to be a little more communicative when it comes to what is where and all the things that are available to you while camping there. We were basically told that they offered firewood and ice but they didnt tell us where we could get it at. We werent told about the showers or anything that was inside or around the club house.

There is also a one bedroom cabin that is available to rent if you dont have an RV. It is a cute little cabin with a queen bed, bathroom , living and dining area and kitchen.

Online Presence

First off, let’s talk about their online presence. After all, how else are people going to find your campground, see what you have and know if they want to go there or not. You can have the best campground in the world and relying on word of mouth alone will only get you so far. We actually stumbled across the campground when we were looking for campgrounds near me on google. They were not listed on the search results, it was just a spot on the map that we saw while looking at another campground.

First off their website. You can find it at BrazosRiverHideout.com. It is basically a one page website with general information and some rules about the campground. You can book online through their website. There is a Book Now link at the top of the page that takes you to CampSpot.com. When we booked out spot this way, it showed that every spot was available and we could pick which site we want and lock it in for an extra $10. 

However, when we got there, we learned that there is actually three full timers that live there and the spot that we picked one of them were in already. So they dont keep up with their online booking sites as to which one is rented and which one isnt.

They also have a facebook page that you can find at Facebook.com/BrazosRiverHideout. On their facebook page, they have a whole four posts. They are when they added their Logo, a map of the campground, a picture of the river and a picture of the camping area. All of the posts are from July 6, 2022. 

Pricing

My wife was the one that made our reservation for this site so I didn’t learn about how much it cost until we were already there. Honestly, for what this campground has to offer is very expensive. For just up to four people, two adults and two kids, the RV spots are $50 a night! For every additional person or kid it is an extra $10. For us, two adults and three kids, it was $60 a night. 

On top of the $60 a night it cost us, there was an additional $20 Occupancy Fee and a $2 booking fee. For two weeknights, it cost $122!! We actually paid $132`, because we stayed over New Year’s so the spot prices were a little higher. With the amenities that they offer, and the lack of a sewer hookup and wifi, this price is extremely steep in my opinion. $25-30 a night would be more appropriate I think.

They do offer monthly rentals for $650 a month with all utilities included. Again, I think this is a little high for what they have to offer. If they had sewer and maybe a playground or something then it might be worth it.

Conclusion

Overall, it was not worth the price that it cost to camp here. We probably wont be going back. While it has the potential to be a good campground it is not there yet and the price of it is to steep. 

Please remember that this post is our personal opinion and is meant only as information to help make your decision to stay here or not. If you are fine with no sewer and just relaxing under the stars, then this place would be great. The host said that they owner is working on doing stuff to make the park better and remember it has only been reopened for about a year now. 

I hope if the owner sees this post, he will take our observations and make his park better. 

Until it is time to hitch up the camper again,

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post was originally posted earlier this year(2023) when we originally started our blog. I am posting all of our old posts to get caught up to the present and then I will start posting new posts.

Campground Review

Dinosaur Valley RV Park – Starting Slow

It didn’t take long after we picked up our new camper to make our first reservation at a nearby campground. We picked up our new 2023 Kodiak Ultra-light 332BHSL bumper pull camper on Monday and by Wednesday we had our reservations made for the following week. We decided to start slow on our first camping trip and camp at a park that was close to home for several reasons. 

First of all, when you have never camped in your own RV, you may think that you know what you are going to need, but if you are anything like us, there will be stuff that you don’t have or that you forget to load. Camping nearby allows us to be able to run home if we forgot something that we absolutely had to have but far enough away that it felt like we were away from home. 

We are really bad at this! It never fails when we go on vacation we always forget something. This time is no different as it turns out. You can plan and make lists, and check and double-check things but it always seems that we forget one or two things. This time was no different. We forgot to load our folding table and camping chairs for our kids. 

Secondly, if you are not used to pulling a big trailer, taking a short trip for your first excursion will help you get the feel for it without having to drive a long distance. This trip was the second time in my life that I have pulled anything bigger and heavier than a 16-foot flatbed trailer. Let me tell you, there is a big difference between pulling a 16-foot flatbed and a 34-foot RV. 

The first time that I pulled it, I had some very weird stuff happen to my truck that you can read about in the post, Warning Lights Galore. This time though none of them came on so maybe it fixed itself.

Heading to the Campground

We had taken a sneak peek of the Dinosaur Valley RV Park a couple of weeks prior to this trip and our first impression of it was that it was pretty nice. It has a very nice atmosphere to it and even though it is still under construction, it is a pretty nice park. 

This trip we went with our camper ready to camp. I got off of work and went home to finish loading the camper and do some last minute things. We hooked up and off we went! Pulling it was fun and there are definitely some things that I am going to have to do to my truck to make pulling our camper a little easier. 

We got an equalizer hitch to help level the truck out some but I think we need a little bit more so we are going to get some airbags put on my truck before we go camping in the spring. More about those in a later post. 

We arrived at the park about 4 pm and checked in. The camp ground was pretty empty being that it was the week before Christmas. We picked a spot that was pretty close to the playground so Jess and I could sit outside our camper and our kids could play on the playground and we could still see them. 

Setting up the camper for the first time

We had partially setup our camper in our yard a few days prior to camping and slept in it for one night. We only had power hooked up so we didn’t have water or sewer hooked up to having running water. This time was a little more extensive. 

We found our spot and got parked. We failed to check and see if the trailer was level from left to right so we we a little off level but it wasn’t to bad. We got unhooked from the truck and got it leveled front to back then dropped the stabilizer jacks down. It took both of us to get the sewer hoses connected because they we brand new. Then hooked the water up with the water filter and were ready to move the slides out. 

What We Did On Our Camping Trip

While I was getting all the outside stuff done, Jess had made a fire since we were cooking hotdogs for supper. Once the fire was going, she went inside and got the inside of our camper ready then it was time for supper. The kids had a blast roasting hotdogs over an open fire and we finished the night off with some roasted marshmallows then it was off to bed for the kids.

Jess and I sat outside under the stars sitting around our camp fire for another hour or two just enjoying the quiet and the crackle of the fire. With the exception of a couple crackles that crackled a little to loudly and sent a few large embers out and onto Jess’s leg. We finished out the night laying on our new mattress, we had to ditch the one that came with the trailer and get up a better one after the night we spent in the camper at home, her playing on her IPad and me starting this blog post.

Honestly that new mattress was so comfortable, we may end up getting a king size one just like it for our house. We slept so good that night and for the first time in a long time, I actually slept until about 8 am. The kids woke Jess up about an hour before though. After we got up and around it was time to make some breakfast. Time to try out the flat top grill outside to cook the bacon on. I made the bacon outside and Jess made the eggs and toast inside, both turned out great.

After breakfast, the kids went to the playground and played while Jess and I straightened up and organized the under belly storage area. The kids met a new friend while playing and we talked with his mother for a little bit. After they left, we went on a small adventure down to the river that runs along side the campground. There is a nice shoreline and hiking area along side the river where we were able to throw and skip rocks and the kids found a bunch of small shells. 

Next we drove around the camp ground and checked out the bike track, the goat and donkey pastures and we able to pet them, we checked out a teepee and some indian statues and the park store. We bought some souvenirs and some fossil eggs for the kids. The fossil eggs we pretty neat, they were made out of some type of sandy material and shaped into a dinosaur egg. Inside there was a small toy dinosaur. By this time is was past lunch time so we tried to grill up some hamburgers, but the wind was blowing to hard and the flattop wouldn’t get warm enough. We decided to nix our lunch plans and gave the kids something small and easy to snack on and started packing up the camper. 

We had originally planned on staying two nights but between the time we made the reservations and the time that we actually went camping the weather forecast went from the 40’s for lows and 50’s for highs to being 43 for the high and 12 for the low on Thursday. The high is forecasted to be right after sunrise then dropping fast after over the next two to three hours. We really didn’t want to have to pack up everything , drive home and unload everything when it was in the 20’s so we decided to leave a day early.

Dinosaur Valley RV Park

Dinosaur Valley RV Park is a pretty new park. I think it is a little over a year old now. It is owed by one of the people that I used to work with. He built it after he retired as our fire chief. It has come a long way in just a short amount of time. He has a great location! 

The park is directly across the street from DinoWorld, and right next door to Dinosaur Valley 

State Park. If you or your kids are at all interested in dinosaurs, this is the perfect place to go! There is also Fossil Rim Wildlife Park that is only about four miles away. It is a drive thru wild life park. 

There are 80 pull through RV spots that have both 30 and 50 amp service, water and serwer hookups. The RV spots are $49 Sunday – Wednesday and $55 on Thursday – Saturday. If you decide to stay for a week, you will pay for six nights and the 7th one is free. There are also five cabins that sleep up to two adults and three kids. Each cabin is fully furnished and has a queen bed downstairs and two twin beds in the loft. One of the cabins also has a pull out couch. The cabins are $139 Sunday – Wednesday and $159 Thursday – Saturday. There is also a $35 cleaning fee per reservation. 

The park has a family pool and an adult only pool and hottub. There is a bycycle/RC car track, playground, dog park, and event center big enough to hold about 65 people. 

Below is their website and social media pages, go and give them a follow and check out what they got!

Final Thoughts

Overall, everybody had a great time. I’m sure that we will be going there again so we can experience it all and stay longer than just one night, even though we only live about 30 miles away. I highly recommend checking out this camp ground. I would definitely say to plan on staying at least three day though as there is so much to do both at the campground and in the surrounding area. 

Thank you very much for checking out our blog, we will have more posts like this as well as item reviews and tip and tricks. Please follow us here on the blog as well as on our Instagram to get a more behind the scenes and extras look at our adventures. 

Until it is Hitching Time again…

Happy Camping!

NOTE: This post was originally posted earlier this year(2023), when we first started our blog. I am posting all our old posts to get us caught up with the present and then I will starting posting new posts.

General

Troubles With Our Truck

Have you ever had that “What in the world is going on” moment? Well, we had one the day we picked up our new RV. The first time that I pressed on the brake and the new brake controller engaged my instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree! That’s when I thought we might have some truck trouble. 

Instrument Cluster - Warning Lights

My traction control light was on, my auto engine turn-off light was on, there was another light that I can’t remember that was on and my cruise control no longer worked. It was very weird for sure. After we got home and unhooked the camper, I shut off my truck and when I turned it back on all the lights were off and my cruise control worked again. So, I reached down and pressed down on my brake controller and nothing happened the first time, but when I depressed it harder again all the warning lights came on. That told me that it was something to do with the brake controller.

I wanted to get a Mopar one that would integrate into my truck and work the best but they were back-ordered for about six months!! So we had to settle for an aftermarket one and had the RV dealership install it for us. So maybe they gave us a faulty one or wired it in wrong or something. Whatever happened it wasn’t playing nice with my truck.

So I gave the dealership a call and asked them about what was going on. I spoke with the installation supervisor and told him what had happened. He advised me that with my model of truck and how new it is, the brake controller is just plug and play. He said there is a plug that is in the wiring harness behind my dash that the controller gets plugged into and that was all they did. The supervisor then told me that he had put the controller on a simulator system that they have and it checked out fine. They told me that I should take my truck to the truck dealership and have them take a look at it and that it would be something to do with my truck and not the controller.

On one hand, I could see where they were coming from. There isn’t much to a brake controller so there isn’t much to go wrong with them. 

On the other hand, how could one thing mess up so many other systems on a 2019 model truck that one little addition would cause if it was working correctly?

I will say though, my truck has a lot of ghosts in the system, so to speak. When we first bought the truck, the auto turn-off system wouldn’t work, and then all a sudden started working and I haven’t had an issue with it to this day. Sometimes when I try to raise my front windows from about 2” down they go auto down all the way instead of going up. 

Fine, I gave in and called my local ram dealership. I explained to them what was going on and they said something along the lines of, “OK, we will be happy to take a look and it see if we can find out what’s going on with it. You will need to bring your truck in and leave it with us, we are running about three weeks behind.”

REALLY!!??!!

How in the world can they expect someone to bring their vehicle in to be worked on and leave it with them for three weeks!! Yes, we have a second vehicle, but no I’m not going to leave my truck with you for three weeks and leave my wife without a vehicle with three kids. Aint going to happen!

Time to break out the volt meter and do some testing. With the warning lights and stuff on, I took my volt meter and tested the plug while my wife pressed the brake controller manual button and it showed to be sending voltage back to the trailer to engage its brakes. That told me that the brake controller worked with all the warning lights on. If that was the way we were going to have to use it then so be it.

A few days later we went on our first camping trip and we didnt have a single issue. We stopped several times so I know that the brake controller engaged but the warning lights never came on. My cruise controll worked the entire way, every time I tried it and the auto shut off worked as well. We have pulled our camper several times at the time of the writing and it hasnt happened again. 

The day I started writing this post, I did try to manually press the brake controller to see if it was still doing it. The first time I tried, nothing happened. I tried again pressing it harder this time and I did get the warning lights again. So while it is not totally fixed, it seems the computer in the truck has compensated for it or adjusted to it and doesnt show the warning lights anymore. 

I still should probably take my truck in one of these days and have it checked out but that it for later down the road since we are really only planning on going camping once or twice a week until we are able to do it full time.

Anybody have any ideas why this might be happening? Leave us a comment.

Please make sure that you bookmark our blog and give us a follow on Facebook and Instagram. On there we have more behind the scenes and every day life type things as well as post announcements.

Until its time to Hitch Up the Camper again,

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post was originally written and posted the first part of this year. I am posting old posts to get caught up with the present then I will start posting new posts.

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.