Why can't RV builders figure out the small trailer market?

[Blueblaze]

Any small RV COULD fit into a standard garage if anyone cared to make one. As I pointed out in the post that started this thread, the problem is RV BUILDERS CAN'T FIGURE OUT THE SMALL TRAILER MARKET.

How does one build a trailer to fit in a garage? Exactly how I described it in a later post that you I guess you didn't read.

The average American is 5'8" tall. The average garage door is 7'6" tall. That's 22" to work with. Here's a crazy idea -- you could start by choosing a $300 window A/C instead of a $2000 roof unit.

Seriously, I don't care if my head touches the ceiling, if it saves me $1000/year in storage costs. I suspect I'm not the only one. Nobody needs a foot of headroom to warm up a TV dinner and watch TV after long day on the road -- during that one month a year that the average RV owner actually uses his rig.

But you're right, RedBaron. There is no RV made today that fits in a garage that's not a glorified tent. However, you can build one from a 6x12 utility trailer. You'll get a tandem-axle all-aluminum trailer that's built like a tank, and yet weighs half what your typical generic rolling dinette weighs. Here's my plan. By they way, it's got a 6' ceiling.

 

[redbaron]

THe market that seems closets to what you are looking for is the overland market. That segment creates trailers that do not conform to RVIA standards and allow things like "shorter living spaces" and wall / window based air conditioners. Most of the overland trailers do fit in a garage, and most of them started their life as a Harbor Freight trailer.

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[Blueblaze]

It's like they made a video just to illustrate my point. THEY JUST DON'T GET IT!

One glorified tent after another, each set in a beautiful wilderness location -- and about as relevant to this market segment as a 3rd nipple. They've invented a dozen ways to raise the roof to 8', using an impossible-to-air-condition mesh screen. Some genius even invented a fold-up hard-side tent, where your kitchen is also your bathroom and your shower is the wild outdoors. And in every stinking one of them, what do you find? That same stupid DINETTE, trying to pass off a 3" cushion as both your bed and your easy chair.

It's so pathetic it brings a tear to the eye. In desperation, I even went to look at a couple of them recently. When I asked the Aliner guy to show me a trailer where I didn't have to shower outdoors, he proudly raised a shower curtain in the middle of the kitchen, cleverly hidden under a trap door in the floor! When I wasn't impressed, he then showed me the "Little Guy" rolling-dinette-in-a-teardrop, cleverly designed to fit a foot of headroom and a rooftop A/C under an 8' garage door -- by giving me 5" of ground clearance. So we looked at a bigger "Retro" that definitely wouldn't fit in a garage and would probably be a nightmare to tow with an SUV. Get this -- it had SEPARATE sewer connections for grey water vs black! Have you ever seen a campground with two sewer connections? What idiot would design such a thing? And what did I find inside? The same standard dinette trying to pass for a bed, sitting next to a jack-knife bench seat, straight out of a '47 DeSoto! Seriously -- who gives these guys the money to build these silly contraptions? All this cleverness wasted, just to keep my head from touching the ceiling? WHY?

RedBaron, I know these little trailers aren't your kind of RV. But can you at least see the point I'm trying to make?

 

[bpaikman]

I will chimb in about the sleeper sofa. The one we have in our motorhome is it ugliest, most impractical, and uncomfortable thing I’ve ever seen. We never used it again after the first time. Because it stretches out length-wise across the motorhome, so even with slide-outs on both sides, it completely blocks off the area if set up. You have to climb over the bed to go outside. we looked into replacing it with a jackknife sofa and got a price quote $4000 installed. we decided, since we only have a 3rd person in emergencies, (twice in 3 years) we could buy a very nice air mattress set up instead..
now we only use the sofa as a sofa, and I have to say it still a very uncomfortable sofa for tall people - it seems to be a little short depth-wise: we end up with just one person using it, and turning sideways to support their legs. No, personally, I like our dining area - we have a table and chairs instead of a dinette and it doubles as a desk and vanity.
However, we would much prefer two comfortable recliners with tables that could be swung up in front of them for meals and desk work. that would free up the current dining area for storage, additional seating, fold-out bed, whatever.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Sounds like you have a very specific set of requirements.
A custom build, as you sketched out, is probably your best option.

 

[Blueblaze]

I will chimb in about the sleeper sofa. The one we have in our motorhome is it ugliest, most impractical, and uncomfortable thing I’ve ever seen. We never used it again after the first time. Because it stretches out length-wise across the motorhome, so even with slide-outs on both sides, it completely blocks off the area if set up. You have to climb over the bed to go outside. we looked into replacing it with a jackknife sofa and got a price quote $4000 installed. we decided, since we only have a 3rd person in emergencies, (twice in 3 years) we could buy a very nice air mattress set up instead..
now we only use the sofa as a sofa, and I have to say it still a very uncomfortable sofa for tall people - it seems to be a little short depth-wise: we end up with just one person using it, and turning sideways to support their legs. No, personally, I like our dining area - we have a table and chairs instead of a dinette and it doubles as a desk and vanity.
However, we would much prefer two comfortable recliners with tables that could be swung up in front of them for meals and desk work. that would free up the current dining area for storage, additional seating, fold-out bed, whatever.

My suggestion to you is what I used to solve the same problem in my Phoenix Cruiser 2410. I ripped out that worthless dinette and replaced it with a 68" Deleon dual recliner from Shop4Seats. You could do the same with your worthless sofa. Like you, I was in Texas at the time. Shop4Seats is just down the road from you in SanTone. It cost me $1500, but I installed it myself. I don't know why every small RV doesn't have one. It came with attached swing-away TV trays, and a center console with storage, USB, and drink holders. It would be the solution for the worthless dinette in every small trailer, too, if not for that damned wheel well that sticks up on the side.

 

[Blueblaze]

Sounds like you have a very specific set of requirements.
A custom build, as you sketched out, is probably your best option.

My "specific set of requirements" is the same as anyone who doesn't want an $80K, 3/4 ton behemoth of a truck sitting outside in their driveway and burning 10mpg every time they drive it to Wallyworld.

Building my own is not the best option. It's the ONLY option. My question is WHY? If I can figure this out in two hours using nothing more than a copy of Microsoft Visio, why can't Forest River, or Grand Designs, or Jayco, or Riverside, or Braxton Creek, or TravelLite, or Lance, or Casita, or Escape, or Taxa, or Aliner, or Scamp, or Nucamp, or Little Guy, ..., ..., ...

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

My "specific set of requirements" is the same as anyone who doesn't want an $80K, 3/4 ton behemoth of a truck sitting outside in their driveway and burning 10mpg every time they drive it to Wallyworld.

Building my own is not the best option. It's the ONLY option. My question is WHY? If I can figure this out in two hours using nothing more than a copy of Microsoft Visio, why can't Forest River, or Grand Designs, or Jayco, or Riverside, or Braxton Creek, or TravelLite, or Lance, or Casita, or Escape, or Taxa, or Aliner, or Scamp, or Nucamp, or Little Guy, ..., ..., ...

They must not see enough market in this type of configuration.

A company like ATC (Aluminum Trailer Company/Corporation) would build something like this for you.

 

[Crazydog]

 

[Blueblaze]

View attachment 24844

That is LITERALLY THE COMPLAINT! NOTHING "GOING" FOR ME, because there is NOTHING TO BUY!