Are there any good fully enclosed travel trailers?

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Do you mean Scamp? There is also the Casita and high-end Oliver's and Bigfoots currently in production, and a bunch like the Burro that are still around but not in production. I saw a photo somewhere of an Oliver on the Shafer trail below the switchbacks which I thought was pretty sporty. The Casita and Scamp are light enough for a 4Runner. The Olivers and Bigfoots not.
Yeah sorry Scamp
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Scamps are nice.
My buddy with the scamp did a yr trip ysing the V6 Rav4 with rear airbag system. He said with two people and staying light they were fine. But his recent trip with the first kid and assorted junk made it Very clear he needed to get a higher load rated vehicle probably in a couple of yrs. He is waiting on the Bronco and maybe some modern new 4runner but laughed and said Toyota probably won’t do anything modern till everyone Else is driving full hybrid 4x4’s. He’s probably right. Lol
 

Paddler Ed

Adventurer
That T@B will be better built than nearly everything else on the market if it's anything like the UK market.

My parent's Knaus (part of the Knaus-Tabbert group who also make the T@B) caravan (travel trailer) has a 10 year water ingress warranty (https://www.knaus.com/en-uk/caravans/), and compared to a UK made van which they'd change every 3 years (before it started leaking too badly...) they'll keep a German made van for 7-10 years.
 

hscoots

Member
Expect a long wait to git an Escape as they have sold out their yearly production for many years and therefore expect a very long lead time for delivery of a new ordered trailer.
that's no longer the case with new ownership, on their website it states their build time is 4 months. Also the flip side of new ownership is they got rid of canadian prices of american consumers, so in essence we pay higher right now(when CAD $ is devalued a bit). They also had inventory of new escapes of various models for few months, now all of them are sold out(except for the boats :))
 

AZ4Runner

Observer
Wow! This thread has taken off. Amazed at how active the subject is. I want to thank everyone for bringing some different models and brands into the mix. I'm still set on the ones I was originally looking at because of size and availability. I would love some of these smaller ones but the wife wants space and we need to live in the thing for the next few months to a year. Honestly happy to hear a few point out that Jayco actually has a decent build. It was one of the original ones I looked at while starting my search. I would love one of those escape models but finding one seems to be an issue and no bunk models. Also I would like to buy used but again wife doesn't want something someone has sleeped in even though we drive a 17 yr old rig. Maybe a new mattress will help me sway her if I find something good. Tomorrow the dealer opens for those forest river makes so will make the call to see when the apex and no bo units arrive. Honestly like the apex 194 on paper.
 

JackW

Explorer
I had a 17' Escape - very nice trailer but it was more trailer than I needed for my typical weekend trips. My Discovery 5 towed it without an issue but it was too heavy for my Defender 90 diesel and I typically take the Defender on my camping trips.
So I decided to sell it back in January and go back to another German Eriba travel trailer - this one is a 1995 Eriba Puck that I imported from England.
It was more cost effective than buying one over here although I did have to rewire it for 120V from the European 240V system that it came with -but my two previous Eriba trailers had that done to them as well.

I've owned a 8' Appleby pop-up tent camper, 13' Boler, a 13' U-Haul, a 12' Eriba Puck, a 15' Eriba Triton, a 17' Escape and now another 12' Eriba Puck. I like the Puck because it weighs less than 1000 lbs empty, is the same width as the Defender and tows like a dream.


Escape00.jpg



Escape at SAE.jpg


D90&Puck2s.jpg
 
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Trixxx

Well-known member
The Escapes and Bigfoots are nice in that they’re fiberglass exteriors, but unfortunately they have all the same crap wood interiors as the cheap stick built trailers. Wooden cabinets, bed frames, furniture frames, etc. over time, all stuff you’ll notice quality issues with. We spent 5 years full time in a “new” 40’ 5th wheel with similar interiors.

The Casita’s and Oliver’s, however, are fully molded fiberglass interiors. All the cabinets, seats, frames for fridge, etc, are fiberglass frames like the shell. The only wood is the actual cabinet doors. We have a 17’ Casita and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but an Oliver.

C71A8718-1ED4-4161-8B66-B30D1B27C795.jpeg32A8C607-130C-40B1-8BAA-92CEBE4E2882.jpeg0BF2A228-7591-4710-B4F1-84440EB4431B.jpeg6E656328-85C9-47B8-B75F-F8404BDCA2F8.jpeg
 

James T

New member
I've been on the same hunt with basically the same vehicle ('04 GX). Came to the conclusion that beefing up an older molded fiberglass trailer is probably our best bet. Ditto the above for preferencing the molded interiors. Our plan is new box frame for ~17' trailer and stronger axle.

Not going to be picky with trailer brand (not a lot for sale right now anyway), but I'm partial to the Uhaul and Burros, which of course are super rare.

Of course none of that helps your time-sensitive search
 

TGK

Active member
Just stumbled on this little trailer. A step up from a teardrop that one can stand up in, assuming your 6ft or under. However, doesn't appear to have integrated cooking, inside or out. Not sure what type of axle/suspension it has. Anyone come across one of these yet?

http://gobecampers.com/photo-gallery/
 

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