Destination / Park Model Trailers

[WTP-GC]

We're in the market for a new trailer to place on a lot that will stay there full time. Of course, we can accomplish this with any standard RV, but I've started looking at those that are designed more for this purpose. We don't want a mobile home type park model. What advice can you give for these "destination" style RV's? When in this market, I presume the quality differences are the same as if we were shopping for any other RV? Is there any notable advantage in going this direction vs. a standard RV?

[philh]

I just bought a quailridge park model, literally a few weeks ago. It's my 2nd unit.

Quality is pretty typical Forest River quality. Luckily campground owner is an actual dealer and doesn't charge a markup. He prefers people put park models at his campground, it's actually a great business model.

If you're going to order, get the order sheet, read it once, twice,... TWENTY times. Make sure you understand each and every item. Look at photos at dealers, at Forest River, and customers. We got a 39UKL and IRC specified prior year kitchen layout, and flipped the design end for end.

We are putting a 400 sqft add on room doubling our space. Spent a lot of time designing the layout of the room to fit our needs. This will be our retirement home. We hope to travel 4ish months during the winter. We poured enough concrete to land a 747 on, and then sealed the cement under the trailer and addition. We have an external "package unit" HAVAC that is hard plumbed to trailer and addition. We're still in the midst of a massive construction project, and had to leave our prior model... something about the new owners wanting possession.

[WTP-GC]

dblr wrote:
In a destination trailer I would look at the Cedar Creek Cottage, now if your talking a park model I have no suggestion on what brand there. Good luck on your search.

Thanks, I'll check those out.
FYI, I'm not really looking for the park models you see in a mobile home park or places that prefer permanent-looking options. Definitely more of the long-term RV style.

[WTP-GC]

mgirardo wrote:
We were shopping for a Destination TT for about a year. We looked at many different models and brands. We are a family of 4, so bunk houses were a must. We also have lots of nieces and nephews, so the more bunks the better. We ended up with a Jayco Jayflight Bungalow with a bunkhouse and 4 slides. The bunkhouse has 2 opposing slides (bunks are in the slides) with a half bath. It has 4 bunks and 2 trundle beds. The lower bunks are about an inch shy of being a twin size bed. We actually replaced the OEM mattresses with memory foam mattresses and they overhang the frame about an inch. It's pretty roomy and our kids (16 & 14 when we bought it) really appreciated the space. We've used all 6 beds in it several times.

The quality is on par with any other TT. The biggest advantage of a Destination Trailer is that they usually have taller ceilings and the floor plans are geared more towards full time living. Ours has all residential appliances, including the range. It's smaller than a normal range, but it has 4 burners and the oven fits a full sized baking sheet. Much nicer than the standard RV stove and oven. We use it all the time. Our refrigerator is an 18 Cubic Foot unit with ice maker. We have several large parties during the season and it is nice not having to rely on coolers to store extra food.

We found with Jayco, they only build Destination Trailers for a short period of time (seems like during the winter) and if we wanted to special order one, it would probably take a long time. Other manufacturers may be different, but it is something to plan for. When we really got serious about buying a Destination TT in mid May, the dealer had several, but only one of the floor plan we wanted. In the short time it took us to decide to buy, it had been sold. The dealer told us it would probably be 8 weeks before Jayco could get one built. We decided to pass since the season would be more than half over by then.

The following year, we started a little earlier. At the time, the dealer had 3 on the lot. When we got to the dealer they had only 2 of the floor plan we wanted (with 4 more ordered) left, but only 1 with the options we wanted. The one we ended up buying had only been on the lot a few weeks. Two of the 4 units they had on order had actually been ordered the summer before and hadn't been fulfilled yet. The salesman told us that happens a lot with Destination Trailers since Jayco only makes so many of them.

Ours was pretty well built. Although we had a few minor issues, nothing that required a warranty claim (which is good since we had no way of getting the TT back to the dealer). I was able to fix the minor things.

-Michael

That's really good info and I greatly appreciate it! Looks like Jayco doesn't offer a similar floor plan to that anymore, so maybe I could try and find an older stock model that might be leftover.

[mgirardo]

We were shopping for a Destination TT for about a year. We looked at many different models and brands. We are a family of 4, so bunk houses were a must. We also have lots of nieces and nephews, so the more bunks the better. We ended up with a Jayco Jayflight Bungalow with a bunkhouse and 4 slides. The bunkhouse has 2 opposing slides (bunks are in the slides) with a half bath. It has 4 bunks and 2 trundle beds. The lower bunks are about an inch shy of being a twin size bed. We actually replaced the OEM mattresses with memory foam mattresses and they overhang the frame about an inch. It's pretty roomy and our kids (16 & 14 when we bought it) really appreciated the space. We've used all 6 beds in it several times.

The quality is on par with any other TT. The biggest advantage of a Destination Trailer is that they usually have taller ceilings and the floor plans are geared more towards full time living. Ours has all residential appliances, including the range. It's smaller than a normal range, but it has 4 burners and the oven fits a full sized baking sheet. Much nicer than the standard RV stove and oven. We use it all the time. Our refrigerator is an 18 Cubic Foot unit with ice maker. We have several large parties during the season and it is nice not having to rely on coolers to store extra food.

We found with Jayco, they only build Destination Trailers for a short period of time (seems like during the winter) and if we wanted to special order one, it would probably take a long time. Other manufacturers may be different, but it is something to plan for. When we really got serious about buying a Destination TT in mid May, the dealer had several, but only one of the floor plan we wanted. In the short time it took us to decide to buy, it had been sold. The dealer told us it would probably be 8 weeks before Jayco could get one built. We decided to pass since the season would be more than half over by then.

The following year, we started a little earlier. At the time, the dealer had 3 on the lot. When we got to the dealer they had only 2 of the floor plan we wanted (with 4 more ordered) left, but only 1 with the options we wanted. The one we ended up buying had only been on the lot a few weeks. Two of the 4 units they had on order had actually been ordered the summer before and hadn't been fulfilled yet. The salesman told us that happens a lot with Destination Trailers since Jayco only makes so many of them.

Ours was pretty well built. Although we had a few minor issues, nothing that required a warranty claim (which is good since we had no way of getting the TT back to the dealer). I was able to fix the minor things.

-Michael

[dblr]

In a destination trailer I would look at the Cedar Creek Cottage, now if your talking a park model I have no suggestion on what brand there. Good luck on your search.