Its Done!

deerslayer · 04-15-2012, 05:07 PM

Well its official,we traded in the sunny! Picked up our 2012 Chaparral open trail 26rls yesterday! Its a really nice rig, pulls great, and I cant wait to wax those smoooooooth sides

Poppy & Nana · 04-15-2012, 05:15 PM

WOW it looks like everyone is upgranding to 5ers........

Congrats on your new "toy"....may you ave many years of happying camping!

deerslayer · 04-15-2012, 05:28 PM

Lol thanks! We really hated to see the sunny go, was a great camper and we had almost 5 great years with it! We really need more space, especially storage space, and we wanted to upgrade while we could still get a decent price on the sunny! We started looking into new travel trailers but quickly changed gears to the lightweight 5vrs!

kanyonkitty · 04-15-2012, 06:26 PM

Congrats on your new rig, bet it was sad leaving your Sunny at the dealers lot. When you get a chance, we'd love to see some interior photos. Ya know how us SOC folks are, photos, show us PHOTOS !!!!!

Kitty

deerslayer · 04-17-2012, 07:24 AM

Thanks, will try to work on pics but things are pretty crazy right now as ball season has started for my daughter and we are still trying to get the rig right before next thursday for our first trip! My main priority right now is getting the paint sealed and 1 or two coats of wax applied, especially on the front (way worse of a bug magnet that the sunny ever was)

**JohnB** · 04-18-2012, 10:42 AM

WOW!! Very nice looking. Super Congrats on your new camper!

Your Comment:

Quote:

We started looking into new travel trailers but quickly changed gears to the lightweight 5vrs!

What was the dedicing factors that made you switch from the TT to the 5'er?

Quality of what is now avaible in a TT, space, dollars spent verses return?

We do not yet have the 5er urge but getting high quality in a TT now a days in a new camper is becoming very limited and only in a few brands.

Thanks for sharing and best of luck on your first trip.

John

deerslayer · 04-19-2012, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

WOW!! Very nice looking. Super Congrats on your new camper!

Your Comment:

What was the dedicing factors that made you switch from the TT to the 5'er?

Quality of what is now avaible in a TT, space, dollars spent verses return?

We do not yet have the 5er urge but getting high quality in a TT now a days in a new camper is becoming very limited and only in a few brands.

Thanks for sharing and best of luck on your first trip.

John

Well it was a couple of factors. Storage being the main one, 5vr storage cant be beat, the pass through compartment is unreal, and we have the front compartment under the nose of the camper as well. we had to store our table and all our chairs on top of our bed, the grill had to go in the doorway along with the ice maker. Other main reason for me was towing, this rig tows so much better than the TT. Its a little heavier than the sunny but suprising its pulls easier. The ride home was great, only thing I got was a little bit of swaying motion (front to back) on the highway going over overpasses but the truck is getting airbags today as we speak! Over all we felt the 5vr was the better route, the layouts we found suited our needs better, the options we wanted were there, and suprisingly, even in this lightweight 5vr the quality is still there unlike a lot of new TT. Its still very solid inside, well made. Only time will tell if it will hold up like the Sunlines have!
Oh and the other big thing for me, was getting the smooth sides for maintance purposes. Most of the TT's we liked that had smooth side were pretty heavy or very cheap. This was a great compromise and now I can wax easier and keep the rig much cleaner now. I can walk on the roof which means I can wash it each time I wash the sides which will greatly reduce the streak issues!
Also the hooking up and unhooking is a breeze now with the 5vr. No greasey hitch or bars, no leaving the tailgate down so I dont whack my shins on the hitch sticking out the back of the truck. No backing up 5 or 6 times hooking up the to ball. I can hook up and be ready now in a matter of minutes and when we get to the campground i can unhook in no time flat. And now with the teflon disc there is no grease on the hitch

So I guess, in all reality, there is a bunch of reasons we decided on the 5vr, seems to fit our needs much better!

**JohnB** · 04-19-2012, 10:23 AM

Thanks for the report back.

Everyone has different needs to make their camper ideal for them. All things to think through.

Your comment on where to store things... Yes this is a challenge some times in a TT. Each floor plan has different options and compromises. And there is no denying a 5’er from storage perspective. The front storage bay can be huge. One can crawl in and go to sleep if they want to, or…. Need too.

Have a good time this weekend.

John