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I have a Lance 2185 which has triple bunks.
Towing with a 200-series Toyota Land Cruiser (2 Viewers)
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I have a 21' Coleman which has double bunks. One I use for storage and the other is my kiddos. It's 3500 lbs. dry. Maybe you'd determine "huge and heavy" differently than I would?
My rental trailer I picked up last year.
Yes, 2020 1985.
We convert the dinette, or they can use the RTT. I’ll be selling mine this fall. I bought it so we could get out of the house and use it during a home remodel this summer. We had an unfortunate water leak, so insurance subsidized the purchase after some negotiation.
Slow Paddler
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The ones I looked at were all around 6000lb dry, going up to 9000-10000 GVWR. I'll have a look at Coleman!
I'm curious to hear from both of you on what you think of Lance trailers. Quality, features, overall satisfaction? Would you buy again?
I'm not in the market just yet - but hope to be next spring. Every time I look at traditional travel trailers I'm immediately attracted to the BigFoot option, as they're easily one of the best in terms of quality and features (plus their factory is 30 minutes from me), but I'm not crazy about their layouts, so I always start looking at other manufacturers, like Lance. I find myself in a never-ending back & fourth between a few brands, worrying about compromises in each option...
If anyone has suggestions for brands/models to look into, this is what my "ideal" trailer would be:
- 21ft length (or smaller)
- dual axles; ideally on torsion axles
- under 5000lb dry
- proper, 60x80" queen bed, in north-west orientation, with at least partial walk-around-ability
- two bunk beds
- dry shower
- modern finishings (ie. none of that ancient, brown-oak and brown carpet everywhere)
- excellent build quality
- properly, fully-enclosed and heated underbelly (like on the BigFoots)
- second-hand models that are around 1-4 years old can be had for under $50k CAD
I'm dreaming, I know...
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This is the first trailer I have owned, so it's all I know at this point. The Lance is probably one of the better built trailers, but it's definitely not an "off-road" trailer. After about a week of well kept forest roads in New Mexico quite a few things had rattled loose. Little things mostly, but I would expect better build quality for the price. We looked at purchasing an Oliver trailer which was light years ahead in build quality, but it was way too small for our purposes. It was interesting when we would stay at RV parks the common conversation was always "gotta fix something". It's just trailer life I guess. In terms of design/layout, the Lance 1985 works great. We have been living in it as a family of 3 for the last 8 weeks and we all still get along. We still have partial use of the house and I have an air conditioned shop to take refuge in but it's where we sleep and watch TV in the evenings. I would not buy a Lance at full retail, but a good used one offers a lot of value. I noticed we had a lot of conveniences other brands did not.
I reached out to @linuxgod before purchasing and he had a lot of very helpful advise. Like Land Cruisers, he is a wealth of information.
That's very helpful, thank you.
I looked at classifieds yesterday and am seeing Lance units that are a few years old being listed for about half of their normal retail price here, so that's some appealing depreciation value (from a buyer's point of view). The 1995 model seems like the best option for our wants/needs at this point. Wish it had bunks though...
I'm familiar with Oliver trailers - a great option for some folks (like the posts above show!) but much, much too small for us.
Slow Paddler
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It s perfect for just the two of us. Other than the previous Hiker trailer, this is our only RV of any kind after decades of tent camping. Actually the Hiker was perfect for us, but adding air conditioning, an indoor toilet, and the ability to get dressed standing up is wonderful.
Too many nights of Deb using the shower tent and wag bag when the seat was frosty.With everything being fiberglass, there's nothing to fall apart or rot. The only wood in the entire trailer is used for the dovetailed drawers. Nothing is stapled together.
When we were first looking at Oliver trailers last summer, many in the 1-5 year old range were listed at more than retail price, and usually sold in a day or two. Many new owners came from Airstream, and it seems the reason for sale in almost all cases is health reasons of death of a spouse. It is a trailer to last a lifetime, just like the LC. Of course you pay a premium, too. Ours optioned out to about the same cost as the small Kimberly Kruiser.
They're slick trailers, for sure.It s perfect for just the two of us. Other than the previous Hiker trailer, this is our only RV of any kind after decades of tent camping. Actually the Hiker was perfect for us, but adding air conditioning, an indoor toilet, and the ability to get dressed standing up is wonderful.
With everything being fiberglass, there's nothing to fall apart or rot. The only wood in the entire trailer is used for the dovetailed drawers. Nothing is stapled together.
When we were first looking at Oliver trailers last summer, many in the 1-5 year old range were listed at more than retail price, and usually sold in a day or two. Many new owners came from Airstream, and it seems the reason for sale in almost all cases is health reasons of death of a spouse. It is a trailer to last a lifetime, just like the LC. Of course you pay a premium, too. Ours optioned out to about the same cost as the small Kimberly Kruiser.
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I looked at them extensively a few years back. Unfortunately I simply wouldn't fit into either of the beds/sleeping options, much less sleep the wife+kid+dog.
For full on fibreglass options I've got the BigFoot factory 30 mins away, and the Escape factory about 3.5 hours away. Both easily accessible. Unfortunately the layouts of both manufacturers leave much to be desired (for us). BigFoot is nonetheless always a top contender.
Dollar for dollar if I were a baller, Kimberley T3 would be my pick any day of the week.
Slow Paddler
SILVER Star
S3 for us. We were "that" close to ordering. We'd been to see David twice, and toured a trailer that someone here ordered before they even had a chance to see it. Then they found that you couldn't put a weight distribution hitch on it (I have the Andersen on the Oliver) and prices rose by huge percent and shipping by tenfold. So the S3 that we would have ordered at $120k would have landed at $175k according to David. For the few times that I'd really need it, I had zero chance of justifying nearly double the cost of the Oliver. And unlike the guy whose trailer we toured, there was no chance of me changing tow vehicles or getting a second vehicle just to tow.
I'm extremely happy with where we ended up!
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- #1,453
We went with Lance because I had 3 kids sleeping in it and wanted the triple bunk. There were only maybe 3 or 4 trailers still made which had 3+ bunks in a package which was <28’ total and <6500lbs. I serious considered new and was going to order one from a dealer out west and have it shipped but then I ran across a great deal on a 3 year old model locally - roughly 45% off the cost of a new one and as far as I could tell it was used maybe a couple times.
Lance is definitely a higher build quality than the Indiana manufacturers like Thor, but you’re subjecting your house to a continuous earthquake and hurricane force winds, so yeah stuff breaks. I’ve put probably 30k on my Lance and really everything that’s needed work has been minor IMO. But to @tincan45 point it’s definitely not an off-road trailer.
I hear ya. The prices are astronomical.
"Off-road" can be subjective, but let me ask you this: if I had a recently-modern Lance trailer, diligently dropped the tire pressure to ~18 PSI every time we hit dirt, and didn't intentionally abuse the trailer by going too fast, would it survive forest service roads without disintegrating? For the sake of argument, let's assume the trailer will have been lifted some 4-6" for better clearance.
I understand that some screws will inevitably back out, some fittings might come loose, the occasional drawer will slide open, etc. I can fix such things. What I don't want is an expensive trailer that will end up with body/frame/appliance problems from relatively light (but frequent) FSRs.
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- #1,455
Gravel forest roads are fine, but if you think you need a lift on your trailer to get to wherever you want to camp you're looking at the wrong type of trailer, IMO. The Lance is a house on wheels. If you really want something to get to places where you can't get a Honda Civic then you should look at off-road trailers. Keep in mind though those typically have a different setup as they're designed for a different purpose. For instance the Kimberly Karavan's are awesome, but you're going to be cooking outside. That's great if you're camped in the woods but it's not going to work if you're stopping at a Walmart parking lot overnight while traveling to your final destination. It's also not necessarily great for camping in bear country unless you are OK with packing everything back down each time you're done.
I've not really had issues with screws backing out or things like that (ok, I had one partially back out on me). The main issue I've seen is that the cabinets are not "positive locking", so while they do have resistance on the door struts if you're tossing the trailer around your stuff in the cabinets may knock them open and end up all over the trailer. I also had an issue with the bottom bolts on the slide out deforming, which ultimately will result in cracking of the laminate unless it's fixed. I caught mine early and replaced them with thicker "hurricane/sidewalk" bolts with extra wide heads but I imagine that bouncing and tossing the weight of any trailer will eventually cause things to break down.
I believe the current Lance trailers have a 2.5" lift option. If you want 6" you'd have to buy one of the 2012-2015 first generation models like I have. I've seen one with a 6" lift though and it looks kind of silly. Also with that kind of lift you need longer stabilizers, a longer tongue jack, stairs with an extra step, etc.
There are many options with bunks in smaller, light trailers. Our kids have slept in the dinette and in the bunks. Dinettes usually flip in minutes. Some have bunks, dinette and Murphy/couch up front under 5k lb dry.
I’ve had good luck with our Grand Designs Imagine 2400bh. Better quality than most I walked through when shopping and not quite as spendy as a Lance. I appreciate the full size bunks as they work fine for adults which was important for me so I can use the camper on hunting trips with buddies.
Great info, thank you. I would lift whatever trailer I got, regardless of factory options. They're all relatively easy to lift. Here's how my older Hymer was lifted by a local shop. I would want clearance not so much for proper obstacles (that would then require/suggest a need for the proper off-road trailers, as you suggest) but rather getting over the occasional cross ditch, approach/departure angle, etc. Basically "light" obstacles that might be enough to catch on a normal-height trailer. Extending stabilizers, jacks, stairs, etc., is all trivial - not worried about that.
For your issue of cabinet doors opening up in transit, you may want to pick up a simple, magnetic catch. They're easy to install on just about any cabinet and should be a big help. If that and the slide hardware is the biggest issues I'd have on a Lance, I would consider that a huge win.
Thanks for the lead. I've seen these on the road, but never really looked at them more than that. That particular model has a surprisingly nice-looking interior! Not what I'd have expected. The length is much too big for us IMO, but I'll look at their other options. I'd love to keep the overall trailer length to 25' or smaller.
