The Decision:
About 5 years ago, after camping with our motorcycles in our utility trailer, we thought about getting a camper trailer. The camping and having the motorcycles was fun, but the lack of a bathroom and kitchen was annoying.
We then looked in to a version of 5th wheel trailer known as a “Toy Hauler”. A Toy Hauler is an RV Trailer that in addition to having a bedroom, bathroom, living room & kitchen, has a garage at the rear for “toys” such as motorcycles or golf carts (no, we are not taking up golf).
We spent the next couple of years studying various Recreational Vehicles with a focus on Toy Haulers. We attended every RV & Camping show in New England to see first hand what the advantages & disadvantages of various models. A Toy Hauler would allow us to travel to the western United States, and have housing in the huge parks, while we rode our motorcycles around to see the sites. There turned out to be a number of impediments to that idea. The first was that a Toy Hauler large enough to accommodate both of our motorcycles would not fit on the Carlisle property. The second was that to tow a Toy Hauler required a dual rear wheeled (dually) one ton, long bed truck. Since we still lived in the Boston area, and frequently needed to parallel park, a dually truck would to hard to live with. We eventually decided that the Toy Hauler was a nice idea, but we had a more immediate need.
Over the last 15 years the real estate taxes have climbed skyward in the town of Carlisle. Blah blah blah… and we realized we were going to have to sell the house. We also decided we wanted to move to NH for a number of reasons.
As our focus shifted to selling the house, we determined that we wanted to decouple selling from buying the next one. Finding a new house under pressure of moving out of Carlisle would be much too much stress and Rob wants to reduce his stress! We discussed renting an apartment but found that to be both expensive and limiting. Rental companies want a commitment of 1 to 2 year leases but we knew we needed flexibility. We would need a place to live near Carlisle while we prepared the house for sale. Then a very different place to live up in New Hampshire, once the house sold, as our base while we searched for our next house.
This need for flexibility returned us to the RV market. At RV shows we had inspected 5th-Wheel Trailers, and Tow-behind Travel Trailers (often called “bumper pull or TT for Travel Trailer). During our research, we determined that 5th-Wheel Trailers were easier to tow than tow behind trailers and provided more living space and storage per length of trailer. This is because a tow-behind trailer attaches to a hitch behind the the bumper, while a 5th-Wheel attaches to the truck at a point located above the rear axle. Another feature is that many of the 5th-Wheel Trailers we looked at were light enough to be able to be hauled by a single rear wheeled truck instead of requiring a dually. Each of the manufacturers produce a large number of different floor plans in this category. (There are floor plans which have bunk rooms for children, front living rooms, middle living rooms, and rear living rooms, as examples.)
Armed with all of this information, Deryl built an Excel workbook which compared numerous manufacturers 5th-Wheel trailers features, and the ability for the largest Ram single rear-wheel, diesel 1-ton truck to safely tow each unit. As part of the process, Deryl reduced the trailer selection down by only comparing the floor plan style that Rob and Deryl felt would be the most comfortable for them.
At each of the shows we kept coming back and admiring the same trailer, a Grand Design Reflection 337RLS. This unit had a floor plan and features we liked. We eventually decided that we could afford a used unit, and set our price point around what we were finding on the internet for a 2016 or 2017 unit.
Three years ago we replaced Rob’s aging 2005 Ram 1500 gas engine truck with the new to us 2015 Ram 3500 single rear wheel, diesel truck. After using the truck to move the Bobcat skid-steer to the Bobcat service center, and hauling our sound gear to several festivals, the truck was named “Clyde” as in Clydesdale, because the truck pulls our loads without issue.
The Purchase:
In early November 2020, Rob was perusing a website called RVTrader, and found the perfect unit. It was the correct floor-plan, at the correct price, located only over in up state New York, and as a bonus it was a 2018 model! The photo below is the floor plan.
We took a long weekend and drove out to Potsdam, NY (located between the top of Adirondack State Park and the Saint Laurence river) in November. We met the original owner, a lovely single lady, who was looking to get out from under the loan on the trailer. After our inspection, and having a professional RV inspection, we bought the trailer in early December. The previous owner had paid the dealership, she bought the trailer from to store it for the winter and they said that we could keep the trailer where it was, until the end of April when they would need the space for the incoming new trailers. The timing was perfect!
Our plan was to put the house on the market by the end of May, 2021. Therefore picking up the trailer in April would enable us to fit it up with our belongings and move ourselves and the cats out of the house so that it could be shown for selling.
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