Five small high-quality travel trailers for 2026
What are the best high-quality travel trailers coming on the market in 2026? Are there any surprises? We use our experience in the RV industry to suggest five new high-quality travel trailers you won't want to miss in this week's StressLess Camping RV podcast.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Our podcast with Josh the RV Nerd about how RVs are built
Our Ember RV Overland 190MSL review
Our full review of the 2026 Safari Condo Alto F2414
Our full review of the 2026 Rockwood Geo Pro G20BHT
Full review of the 2026 Rockwood Mini Lite 2108RB
Our video review of the 2026 Lance 2075
Jacob Rigor - Rigor RV Repair YouTube channel
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 332
Peggy
This week on the Stressless Camping RV Podcast, we're revisiting five smaller, high quality travel trailers that we saw recently.
Tony
Wait, wait, wait. We got a couple of bonus models, too.
Peggy
Oh, six.
Tony
Wait, we'll see.
Peggy
Well, we'll find out how many we're visiting. Some smaller, high quality trailers that we saw recently. These small couples campers offer a lot of functionality in a smaller size. Some of them might not be on your radar, but if you're shopping for a small travel trailer, maybe they should be. We have this week's podcast along with notes and stories to go with it and discounts, deals, helpful tips and more at our home on the web@stresslesscamping.com hey.
Tony
Don'T forget to like and share. And thank you for joining us for podcast episode 332, dressless camping. I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
And we're two RV industry veterans who.
Peggy
Travel part time in a Rockwood mini.
Tony
Light, looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks and discounts.
Peggy
We are experimenting a little bit right now. It looks like we're in two different places, but we're actually in the same house. Yeah.
Tony
We're just down the hall from one another.
Peggy
Yeah. But I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks visiting my mom, and I don't want to miss out on being part of the podcast during those couple weeks. So we're playing around with recording from separate spots with separate computers. Now, maybe it'll be easier when we're 600 miles apart, but since we're six feet apart, there's a weird delay for us.
Peggy
And so if we are hesitant or laughing at one another, it's because we're struggling a little bit with this technology.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Well, we're trying to. We're going to get it right.
Tony
To be honest, our home Internet is terrible.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And we, as you may know, we live out in the desert, but I'm too cheap to fire up the Starlink dish while we're here because all of our cameras and stuff are on this network and it's not very fast and it's not very good and it's cheap and that's why we use it. And since we're not here much, it actually kind of usually works out. We usually don't try to record two video podcasts from at the same time. Yeah.
Peggy
So, yeah.
Tony
Anyway, it is what it is.
Peggy
Anyway, so this will be a fun episode to get through. And then by next week, we should have all this ironed out.
Tony
Or not.
Peggy
Or not. Who knows?
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Anyway, next week we'll be together because we will be at the Romp it up music festival with the border hookups and we will not only be sitting in the same room together to record or the same trailer, but will also be off grid.
Tony
Yeah.
Tony
And the way we're pulling that off is with our Master Volt power system from ABC upfitters. This is a system, you know, it's, there's stuff to plan for when you go on a trip, but this system, it's just out there. The fridge is running right now. We don't even think about it. We just basically hitch up and go and know that we can be camping off the grid and just having a great time without that being a concern of ours.
Peggy
Right. So we're busy, you know, figuring out what we're going to eat and what we're going to make for potlucks and what we're going to wear and what we're going to do and what instruments Tony might want to play during open mic night. We don't need to be figuring out what, what we're going to do for power and we don't have to, we don't have to worry about that.
Tony
No. But it's a great system and we've been really pleased with it and just used the heck out of it.
Tony
And if you would like a system tailored for the way you camp that you really don't have to be worried about. Our friends at ABC Upfitters are the people to know. And you can reach them at 574-333-3323.
Peggy
That's 574-333-3225 or there should be a QR code somewhere. You can check out the other information that we have on our website about ABC Upfitters.
Tony
Absolutely. Well, we have five small, high quality trailers with a few bonuses thrown in as well. But I think it's. First, how do we determine that a trailer is high quality? And this is something.
Tony
Yeah, go ahead.
Peggy
I think that's important to say, you know, there are many, many, many, many small trailers out there and that's fine. And these are not necessarily all the good ones, but these are five good ones or five or more good ones that we have actually got to touch and feel lately and that, that we know to be good quality. So tell us where you start to determine good quality.
Tony
Always at the suspension and chassis.
Tony
I always look at. There are a lot of trailers that use simple leaf spring suspensions and those off brand tires and no tire pressure monitor and all of that and to me, that is, if a company cares so little about your experience that they're going to put those off brand tires and lousy suspension and that's so obvious, how are they going to do with things that are kind of hidden behind walls and under floors and that kind of stuff? So I always start at the suspension and tires and work my way up. And I know a lot of people walk in. I heard a lot of people say, oh, I really love the cabinets in this.
Tony
Okay. But over time, what's under the trailer matters almost more than what's in the trailer because everybody modifies what they buy.
Peggy
Well, sure, yeah. Don't go by, you know, the color of the shower curtain or even the color of the mini blinds for that matter. Those things are really easy to change.
Peggy
The suspension is not so easy to change.
Tony
No, no, that's for sure. We also have a podcast with Josh the RV nerd about how RVs are built and we did that one a while back. It's episode 75 and of course, as always, we will put a link in the show notes so you can find it more easily.
Peggy
Right.
Peggy
So that is going to talk about not only the suspension, but the construction methods that different companies use. And some of those construction methods are the reason that they got on this list or didn't get on this list. Some of those brands, that's true.
Tony
Something else that we talk about when you're RV shopping is to absolutely find a high quality locally owned dealer first because the caliber of the dealership and their service department make a lot of difference in your overall experience. And we have a full article about how to find a great locally owned dealership.
Tony
It makes all the difference in the world. So we also have full reviews linked in the show notes here for each of these trailers. I believe all of them we have videos for. So that's another thing to look for.
Peggy
All right, so let's start with the.
Peggy
Let's start with Geopro, maybe. Geo Pro is a Rockwood brand, a Forest River Rockwood brand. And we're going to look today at the G20BHT.
Tony
Now Rockwood also has a G20BHS which is. It's similar but not.
Tony
How's that? Okay, The Geo Pro have been smaller single axle trailers that are more kind of off grid ready. They found themselves a big hit with smaller trailers that offer a lot of top notch features and top notch build methods and things like that. And you know, typically the smaller trailers in a line are kind of the cheaper ones, ones that offer fewer quality features. And Rockwood's like, no, we're going to build as good a trailer.
Tony
We're just going to build it smaller with a single axle. And they just found a huge hit with that. Well, we found that Rockward now is offering some two axle versions in the Geo Pro line.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And this is one of them.
Peggy
Funny thing, you know, when we very first start got our first mini light, when we really first started with travel trailers, we had a single axle, but it wasn't a Geo Pro, it was a Mini light. And then by the time we were shopping again, the single axles were all the Geo Pros. And if you wanted two axles or if you wanted a Mini light, you got two axles. If you wanted two axles, you got a mini light. And now that's not, that's not even the breakoff point anymore.
Peggy
Now I have to think of a different way to break them off. Just I think it's, it's 21ft. I think that's the, that's the way to do the mini lights now. 21 to 25ft.
Tony
Okay.
Tony
The funny thing is I heard from Rockwood that the floor plan we had, which was a 1905 Murphy bed in the front, it had a dinette on the camp side, a kitchen on the roadside and the bathroom across the back. It didn't sell well. But then when it became a Geo Pro, it sold like hotcakes.
Peggy
Yeah. Funny.
Peggy
So this one's a little bit similar to that, right?
Tony
Yeah, sort of. Kind of. Yeah, this sort of, kind of in.
Peggy
That it has a Murphy bed up front, I guess.
Tony
Right. And what they've done is something really different. The Murphy bed. Typically there was a couch under the. So when you folded down the Murphy bed, there was a couch there and instead they put a little dinette.
Tony
And that dinette has a table that's like on a pole with a strut in it. And something I loved about that table is it kind of moved around on that pole. So it was fat dude approved or I don't know. That's probably not politically correct. Right.
Tony
It was probably a chunky dude approved.
Peggy
Oh, okay. It was kind of, I think you referred to it as a Ouija board table because the tabletop itself moved back and forth and side to side. So if you wanted to, you know, not in this dinette but in other dinettes that they're using the similar table leg. If you sat on the back of a U dinette you could push the table out a little bit so that there's a little More room in the back.
Peggy
But if you didn't have anyone on that back section, you could push it, you know, kind of all the way against the seat cushions and have a little more room on the outer side. And this table does all those things, but the back seat doesn't exist.
Tony
Right. Another thing I really liked is you could set the table to any height in the range that it goes up and down. So it's on that hydraulic pole.
Tony
And you could raise it however high you want. So you could have it like desk height or eating height, whatever, and it just stops there, which I thought was really neat.
Peggy
Yeah. I am a big fan of that new table leg. And I think that's across the whole Rockwood Geo Pro Rockwood line.
Peggy
Is that right?
Tony
Might be. Yeah. I also like. Well, so the floor plan is there's a Murphy bed in front.
Tony
Now, the good thing is Rockwood does good Murphy beds that the beds don't have to bend. The bad thing on this is it's a small trailer. So it's a 54 inch by 74 inch Murphy bed. And it's east west. So basically you're somebody sleeping against the front wall.
Tony
And for some people, that's not a big deal, Right? For some people, it's a total big deal. So that could be a deal breaker. Some people don't like Murphy beds at all. So they offer a number of floor plans, but this one we saw as a new floor plan when we were at open house.
Tony
And I thought it was kind of neat.
Peggy
Yeah. So I either didn't realize or forgot that it is an east west Murphy bed. So that's why the. The length is limited, but the width also is kind of limited.
Peggy
However, that's good because you can put the slide in with the bed down, right?
Tony
Yeah, I believe you can. And that's. That's. So it is boondocking overnight approved.
Peggy
Yeah. Or I should say you can put the bed down even if the side's still in.
Tony
Yeah. Or you could. I mean, if you don't want the.
Tony
The Murphy bed at all, you could just leave it down all the time.
Peggy
So is it okay to travel with that Murphy bed down?
Tony
I think so, because now they put a latch when it's down.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
I believe it is.
Tony
And of course, that's one where you'd absolutely want a RV super bag. We have a story about that. RV super bag.
Peggy
Sure. Yeah.
Tony
But yeah, that makes those Murphy beds totally functional.
Peggy
Okay, sorry I interrupted. So.
Tony
Oh, that's okay. So in the back there's small single over single bunks.
Tony
So that's cool. But I know a few people who I sold trailers to basically used those bunk beds on smaller trailers for storage.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
I know at least two who also used it for like a cat area.
Peggy
Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah.
Tony
So it doesn't have to be for kids, right.
Peggy
Maybe you have one child that travels with you. So they like the really high up bunk bed. And you can have the whole bottom for the cat or the dog or the storage or vice versa.
Tony
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Tony
Or if you travel with a skunk.
Peggy
Whatever, whatever. And then in the middle, between the Murphy bed in the front and the bunk beds in the back, in the middle there is a slide and you have a choice there of a sofa or theater seats, right?
Tony
I believe so, yeah. And then the kitchen in this is pretty small as you would expect it to be.
Tony
Uses a two burner propane stove and convection air fryer microwave. So that's kind of cool.
Peggy
Actually, I think I'm wrong about the theater seats. I just looked at the floor plan. That was another one that we'll talk about later.
Tony
Okay. Outside, I like that. This uses those slipper quick drop stabilizers back inside bouncing around. The bathroom I thought was a little bit small, but certainly usable. And the way that it's usable, it has a sink in the bathroom that kind of flips down.
Tony
So if you don't want to use the main kitchen sink, the bathroom has like this flip down feature, you know, so there's no sink if it's flipped up and a sink if it's flipped down.
Peggy
Oh, okay. So that makes a little more spacious if you're getting out of the shower or using the toity or whatever.
Tony
Yeah, exactly. Or if you just are like, I'll just use this kitchen sink to wash my hands or whatever.
Tony
Something else that we glossed over. This does use torsion axle suspension. It uses the tire pressure monitoring system standard. And it has those balancing beads in the tire that helps too. So a lot of pieces that really help smooth out the ride in this thing, which is a good thing.
Tony
I mean. Yeah, something goofy at least to me. This uses a voice activated control panel so you can use, you know, you can just touch the control panel if you want. Or you can use your phone or you can use voice and you say, hey, power pro. And truthfully, I found this system is about as touchy listens as well as the devil that lives in my phone.
Tony
How's that?
Peggy
And that phone being the Apple phones. So we don't say her name because she's always listening and she'll try to respond, but yeah, she doesn't always listen. Sometimes she says, I don't know who the heck you are.
Tony
Oh, my gosh.
Peggy
Well, anyway, yeah. So another thing that you know about Rockwoods in general, Rockwoods Geo Pros, mini lights, those, they have features like the Shower Miser is in all their units. Right. And so if you're, especially if you're boondocking a lot or you know, you maybe you're hooked up to water, but you're not hooked up to sewer and you don't want to fill your gray tank too quickly, you can use the Shower Miser to keep the water from filling the gray tank. And that if you're boondocking and you're also trying to conserve water, that's good.
Peggy
Then the, that water, without arguing with anybody. Oren, Oren. That water ends up back in, ends up in the fresh tank whether it's supposed to or not. And then, you know, it's still available for use. It didn't get wasted into the gray tank right away.
Tony
Yep. There's also a Flagstaff. So Rockwood and Flagstaff are the same product, different stickers. There is a Flagstaff version of this. So if you're local dealer carries Flagstaff, then that's.
Peggy
It will be an E Pro, not a GEO Pro.
Tony
It would be an EPro.
Peggy
Yeah. Okay, so next up is we're going to stick with Forest River a little longer and we're going to go with the Nobo 18.2 with beast mode.
Tony
Yes.
Tony
So Nobo or no Boundaries was kind of once Forest river figured out, oh my gosh, we're selling kind of small, high quality travel trailers like nobody's business. They founded both no Boundaries Nobo and Ibex and they're in some ways the same product and in some ways not. But when we were at Open house, we stumbled across this nobo 18.2 and very specifically with the Beast mode. What the Beast mode is, is it's Kurt's Kurt Curt, which is part of Lippert, their independent coil suspension system. And as I said, you know, shop from the ground up.
Tony
Well, this thing has a remarkable suspension, but it's an option so standard you just get a lousy leaf spring suspension. And if you don't travel much, let's say you use this for seasonal or whatever. All right, then leaf spring suspension is fine. But if you do a fair amount of traveling, the difference that this good suspension makes is night and day. And we actually will put a link to it we got to ride in fifth wheels with leaf spring suspensions and then curts coil suspension.
Tony
What a difference. Yeah, we did a video about that. And this has as an option curts independent suspension. And what we like this is a small single axle, no slide travel trailer. And typically that's like, oh gosh, it's going to be really small and crowded, right?
Tony
No, they did a super job with this.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah they did. Now this is one that you can choose either a sofa or a theater seat. But that's kind of in the middle. We should start.
Peggy
We should try to be somewhat logical. So start in the front.
Tony
So one of the things that's going to be polarizing is again this is an east west bed. And so some of you, that's an immediate disqualification. And I understand that you have to shop based on what you like, but if this is something that doesn't bother you, then this has an east west bed which gives you more space inside.
Peggy
And it's not a Murphy bed, it's a full time bed. Right, right.
Tony
It's a proper bed. So from there on the camp side you get like a dining bar. And that dining bar is under a really large window.
Tony
And this is one of those European style windows that's a dual pane window that it flips up. So it's hinged at the top, but it flips up like 90 degrees. And then there is an integrated shade and bug screen. And so you can pull the shade down if you want or pull the bug screen up if you want or neither. And then you can have as like a pass through from the inside to the out and outside.
Tony
This has a flat top propane griddle and a little table that slide into a like a rail on the side. So you could literally almost have like a walk up dinner service situation.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah. This is really, it's very cool from the standpoint of just not even thinking about dinner but thinking about that as a workspace. You flip that table up and you're sitting, you know, with your laptop right here, but this giant window right here.
Peggy
So I don't know how you get any work done because you're always just going to be staring out the window. Yeah, but it's a, but it's a great window for, for all those things. Like it's a lot of light, it's a lot of airflow. It can be wide open so you can pass things back and forth. You could open a food truck maybe.
Tony
Yeah, yeah. You could be the campground gourmet. And then. Yeah, it does Only have a two burner propane stove and a convection air fryer microwave so you're not cooking that big a meal. But most of these smaller trailers, that's pretty typical.
Peggy
Sure. Yeah. And you've got that outside griddle too. So. Yeah.
Peggy
You can cook a lot of your food outside and you don't have to go up and down the stairs to go and get the ketchup that you forgot. You can just have someone pass it to you through the window.
Tony
Yep, that's the fact. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of neat.
Tony
Overall, I was surprised at how roomy this trailer felt because it does not have a slide. So as you said, I mean that, you know, again, part of it is that it east west bed in the front, but that dinette and then or not dinette, that the like bar table thing. And then opposite is that as a couch. That's like a theater couch with flip up footrests. I dug this little trailer.
Peggy
Yeah. Then you've got a rear kitchen which isn't very big. But again you've got the outside kitchen. So if you're into using the outside kitchen anywhere or the outside cooker, you know, cooktop. It's not really a kitchen.
Peggy
Right. But if you're into that outdoor cooking, then the inside doesn't really matter. But it is just like half of the back wall.
Tony
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
And the other half is the bathroom. And the bathroom wasn't bad in this again, for the size of this radio.
Peggy
For the size.
Tony
Pretty good.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Now, speaking of the bathroom, something I noticed was. So we'll put a link to this guy, Jacob Rigger and his complaints about RV plumbing. And one of his biggest complaints is using PEX clamps on flexible hoses. And he has made enough of a stink that he is actually forcing, not forcing. He is empowering change in the RV industry.
Tony
And this still uses PEX clamps on flex hoses, which are almost a guarantee leak. And so boo on Nobo for that. But maybe they'll change. Truthfully, Rockwood has changed their plumbing. Ember has changed their plumbing because of Jacob Brigger.
Tony
A few others have changed their plumbing. This guy's making a big, big impact and I'm happier for it because we have had pex clamps on flex hoses leak.
Peggy
Yep.
Tony
And this has that. So there's there that and the east west bed, I think are the downside for these.
Peggy
Okay, so let's leave Rockwood for a moment. I mean let's leave Forest river for a moment. And let's go on A safari. I mean, in a safari.
Tony
So we're going to go up to Canada.
Tony
And when we were at Open House, we were wandering around through the vendors and I saw a lady there and she had a shirt from Safari Condo, which is a Canadian RV maker that I've looked at for years and thought, oh, they make such cool stuff. So I asked her, oh, do you know if Safari Condo is here? She said yes and told me where it was. That was Dominique Newdow, who's the head of Safari Condo. I didn't even realize.
Tony
So anyway, so we went over.
Peggy
It's a good thing she knew the answer then.
Tony
Yeah, I don't know where my stuff is. So this was their first year at Open House. What we're looking at is the safari condo ultra F2414.
Peggy
It's a lot of words for a little trailer.
Tony
And this is bigger than the last two that we looked at. But Safari makes their walls very differently. So while both the nobo and the rockwood that we just looked at use like an aluminum skeleton. And it's all laminated together, which means glued.
Tony
So it's fiberglass outside, wallboard inside, and then some insulation. And the aluminum, this is very different. It's an aluminum outside and inside and like a honeycomb type of thing. And so it's really, really light. And to show how light this thing is, it weighs less than £3,000, which is very light.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
What I liked about it is that up at the front it has like a small dinette and a huge window. And the huge window kind of opens up almost like a clamshell. And it's one of those dual pane windows, again with the integrated shades and bug screens.
Tony
The counter in this, a lot of drawers and a big cabinet. So there was good storage. And the sleeping is unusual. So at the back of the trailer are two benches, effectively. So there are couches during the day, but then that's also where the bed is at night.
Tony
So the benches are the bed. So you could do like the I Love Lucy, you each get your own bed type of thing. And apparently these twin bed trailers are very popular. But if you want a king size bed, there's like a platform that goes between the two side cushions. So it makes the whole back of the trailer a king size bed.
Peggy
Alternatively, you can also lower from the ceiling a. I believe it's also a king or a queen size bed that can come down now. I suppose if you lower it far enough, you just take the place of the lower beds. But you could also kind of turn that into a big bunk.
Tony
It only goes so far because it's designed. It's an option.
Tony
So they have a second bed that's kind of on a lift and it comes down. So then now you could sleep four people in the back, but that's an option. And it was not in the unit I saw.
Peggy
Okay. And then the front.
Peggy
Though the front dinette also turns into a bed. So you could sleep like six people. People in this, right?
Tony
Yeah. If you buy that optional bed, then yeah.
Tony
Or you just could do four probably, if it's just the, you know, without that optional drop down king. So that's kind of cool.
Peggy
Or you just leave the dinette all the time. And you have a dinette in the front and twin beds in the back.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
And you don't have room for other people.
Tony
And don't tell them it makes into a dinette.
Peggy
That's right.
Tony
Another thing about that bed in the back. There's sort of a halo of cabinets all the way around it.
Tony
So a lot of cabinet space, a lot of windows. And they're those again, those dual pane windows that hinge from the top and flip up and have the shades and bug screens built in. Here's something it did not have. And I know some of you love the solid steps. Peggy.
Tony
And I do not like the solid steps.
Peggy
Well, I like the solid part of the solid steps. I don't like putting the solid steps inside the camper.
Tony
Right. So this had more traditional trailer steps.
Tony
And they felt solid to me. So it's proof that it can be done. You don't have to do what everybody's doing and have those stupid solid steps that I don't like.
Peggy
Right now you're working in and out, in and out. Right now there's a couple more things we wanted to say on the inside.
Peggy
And then we'll go back outside to the suspension. But there's 12 volt fans. Yeah.
Tony
And they're not like in the ceiling. They're, you know, sort of like desk fans built into the wall.
Tony
That I thought was cool.
Peggy
And it does have kind of a small water tank.
Tony
So on the subject of the water tank, There's a few things that I think some people will absolutely not like about this.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
The small water tank, as you said, the shower is.
Tony
It's a separate. So there's a toilet room. That's the toilet and the sink. And has a door, of course. And then the shower is a glass door.
Tony
And it exits right into the main body of the trailer. So if you're at all shy, you're in the shower, and there's just that glass door between you and the rest of the trailer.
Peggy
And then you step out of the shower right in. Not into a bathroom, but just into the main part of the trailer.
Tony
Right into the main body of the trailer.
Tony
So.
Peggy
Right. So if you're alone or a married door.
Tony
So if you want to be, you know, want an audience, there's that.
Peggy
Okay, so I think that was everything that you.
Peggy
That you had written down for the inside.
Tony
Yeah. Outside, again, it's got sort of a torsion style suspension. And this company sells most of their RVs direct. So you can have the factory set.
Tony
It kind of in the higher setting or the lower setting, which is interesting.
Peggy
And is that for the height of your vehicle, your tow vehicle?
Tony
Well, it's the total height of the trailer. So if you have it higher, then it's less aerodynamic, but you have more ground clearance.
Peggy
Oh, the suspension.
Peggy
So the actual height of the overall trailer itself would change.
Tony
Right. Oh, and. And this company also actually tests their RVs in a wind tunnel. Apparently not something most people do.
Tony
Now, there's something you really.
Peggy
Yeah. Okay, back inside real quick.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
I understand why they look like this because of the construction method, but I'm not a giant fan of the, you know, the interior.
Peggy
Like, the lower cabinets are a wood grain look. The upper cabinets and the walls are all like the white metal right there. This the.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
The frame itself part of the.
Peggy
Yeah. And it's not. It's just not a look that I love. So it wouldn't really necessarily stop me from buying one, but I think I would probably maybe get. Go to Spoonflower and get some removable wallpaper that I could just kind of warm up or soften those walls a little bit for the feel to me that, like, aluminum walls feel cold and impersonal and hospital like or something.
Tony
Well, like an Airstream.
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah. And I just. It's.
Peggy
I know that it's a look you really like, and it's just not. It's not my favorite look. But again, it wouldn't stop me from buying the quality. It just is something that I would probably work on making feel warmer to me.
Tony
Yeah.
Tony
Yeah, that's. I. I don't disagree with you. I think, like, taking that aluminum interior and at least putting some, like, stick on wallpaper, and there's that spoon flower stuff that. Yeah, it can be changed. It's sort of like a sticky note type material.
Tony
That wouldn't be too bad in here. I Think that would warm it up nicely. And then you could even change it seasonally if you're crazy.
Peggy
If you really wanted to. I love to put on wallpaper, but I think it would be pretty easy because you're not, you know, you're just putting it on aluminum.
Peggy
You're not putting it on like some kind of wood grain or some kind of, you know, wallpaper. Wood grain. I know that not everything that looks like wood is wood, but, you know.
Tony
Right, right. A lot of it is that.
Tony
Oh, I forgot that.
Peggy
Yeah, I can't remember what it's called.
Tony
Sticker board, whatever.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tony
Now something a legit concern about these.
Tony
And for example, our friends Mike and Lisa had a trailer from this company, the insulate. Since there's not really insulation. There's the aluminum outer wall, the aluminum inner wall, and this honeycomb. These things are hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and so the insulation is not that great on them. And Dominique was saying, she's like, yeah, we're actually looking at kind of changing that or seeing what we can do about it.
Tony
So if you're in Texas or Minnesota, maybe these. Although they make them in Canada and sell them.
Peggy
So, yeah, maybe this is very seasonal, you know, a very, you know, you only want to go where the weather suits your insulation.
Tony
Right. Now the next one, I must spend some of your money for you.
Tony
And this was something I just saw. I've seen it in the past. I was just back at Ember again not too long ago. And it's the ember overland 190msl. And I will warn you, this thing's expensive.
Tony
It's, I think MSRP. It's a single axle trailer. It's like 77,000 MSRP.
Peggy
Wow.
Tony
So I ain't cheap.
Peggy
Amber does have different levels, right? That of they have their touring line, which is really designed for long trips on the road. They have their Overland series, which is really built for off roading. And they have their. I can't remember what it's called.
Tony
The E series are the essential, which are the most affordable Embers. And actually typical Ember, the company, all of their decision makers are also RVers. So even their Touring Edition, even their E Series, which is the most affordable, are not lousy. Right. They are still a good, well equipped trailer with things that will make sense.
Tony
Yeah, The Touring edition got a complete reboot. Touring Edition is more of a longer distance. It's the E Series, but it has the curt touring coil suspension. So that's one of the big upgrades. It Got is a new suspension system and then there's Overland.
Tony
And Overland was designed as. You know, it really has kind of defined the overlanding trailer in the US and they're very similar to some of the trailers we've seen from Australia. So this has the curt independent suspension which again is the best suspension in my opinion for. For a towable. The way Ember builds these things is totally different.
Tony
So typically trailers are kind of screwed together and there's a seam tape put on and all of that. Ember uses a different way of building the corners. And then there's a extruded aluminum edges that they call brush guards but that are. It's just. It's so much better in how it's built in terms of longevity.
Tony
And there's no insert molding which is this plastic molding that goes over the screws that you know you have to replace after two years or three years.
Peggy
Sure. Yeah.
Tony
So no, because that's just like a plastic.
Peggy
Like a piece of plastic.
Peggy
Right? Yeah. That's going to be out there in the sun. It's not going to last forever.
Tony
Nope.
Tony
Like most of these they have the key to like where one key opens the baggage doors and all of that. One of the things only Ember does to my knowledge. And this is our buddy Christopher Barth. It's his idea. At the top in the back there are marker lights.
Tony
You know, typically you see the five lights. Well there are seven on an Ember and the two additional lights are actually turn signal lights. So you have the turn signals at the bottom and you have marker lights that flash at the top. So you have an extra measure of.
Peggy
Safety which is cool and only one side flash.
Peggy
They're turn signals like correct indications.
Tony
There's a lot of that kind of thinking in this trailer. This is a small no slide single axle trailer. They do make other variations of the Overland series. This one, the 190 MSL is a bunk model and it has again a Murphy bed at the front and it's the east west Murphy bed.
Tony
So that means there's a couch by day, Murphy bed by night.
Peggy
So that fold down Murphy bed, if it's an east west. And I know that the type of Murphy bed that is Ember uses usually has a folded mattress. Does that mean that the mattress is folded kind of down the middle so it's almost like two mattresses, two twin beds stuck together a little bit more.
Tony
Yeah, I guess.
Tony
Sort of. Sort of. Kind of.
Peggy
That might even be better than having it fold in the middle of your body.
Tony
Yeah, yeah, might be.
Tony
And over that bed, Embers Overland series have the Stargazer window, which is a dual pane window. And again it flips up, has the shades and the bug screen built into it. This also has a couch on the camp side. But here is the coolest thing about the Ember. The MSL series in the back, it's got what could be double over, double bunks.
Tony
And these whole. The bunks are like a platform that slot into this rail system and you could take that rail system and take the bunks out. You could make it single over single. You could use that for cargo carrying while you're towing. You can use it to hang a hammock.
Tony
And it's something Ember calls EmberTrack. But it's an adjustable standard shelving, for lack of a better description system that you can change on the fly. And it's super flexible and only Ember has it. And it just makes this thing absolutely brilliant because there's so many different. Oh, go ahead.
Peggy
That Ember track, you know, like you're saying, it's so many different possibilities. We've looked at it and, you know, fantasized about a desk at the lower level and then storage, you know, instead of a bunk, have a storage above the top for added storage. The good thing also about that track is, you know, you can take those beds or desks or whatever out of the way. And does this one have, I assume it has like the big back door on the back so that you can ride your bicycle in and. And store your bicycles inside.
Tony
Yeah. And there are tie downs for cargo too. So you could put in kayak or bicycles or whatever. But here's another thing that's back there. There are washer and dryer hookups in this space.
Tony
So if you don't want to use that for storage and you want a washer dryer, it's back there.
Peggy
Wow.
Tony
Yeah. And it's just so much flexibility in this area. Another thing, when I was looking at that, I was like, oh, gosh, imagine, you know, when I was a kid, I may or may not have been a big pain in the neck.
Tony
I'm still a pain in the neck. I'm just older now. But if I were laying in that bunk and I looked over and there are faucet valves, you know, I'm going.
Peggy
To turn them on.
Tony
Right.
Tony
So Ember puts a shutoff at every fixture in their trailers. So that, that's two benefits. One is if there's some sort of a failure, like let's say A faucet breaks or whatever, you can just shut that fixture off and keep on camping on. That's also true of the washer dryer hookups. There are auxiliary shutoff valves behind a panel.
Tony
So if little Johnny is the true pain in the neck that Little Tony was, you can circumvent his turning on a faucet and letting the water run out.
Peggy
That's good. We need preventions against Little Tony's and Little Johnny's.
Tony
Yes, indeed. Lastly, the Ember is one of the few trailers where they will take their all their trailers, not each one built, but each model to Truma.
Tony
And Truma has a climate chamber where they actually test the trailers down from 0 degrees to 110 degrees. And there are different ratings you get based on your performance in being able to recover from a cold or from cold too hot, that sort of thing.
Peggy
From a cold?
Tony
Yeah. From a cold.
Tony
Ember got the gold certification, which is their highest rating. So these are actually tested. You know, you get a lot of trailers where they say, oh, this is got climate max and it's four season capable. Well, Ember has the proof that yes, they are. They really are a lot of things that are again, not the cheapest trailer, but you get what you pay for.
Peggy
Sure. Yeah. Okay, so we promised you five. So here's number five. This is going to be back to the Rockwood line.
Peggy
And this is a 2108 RB.
Tony
And it's a Mini light.
Peggy
Yeah, it's a mini light. I think there's a few different 2108s, but we're going to talk about the RB.
Tony
Well, the 2108.
Tony
The difference. One of the differences between the Mini Light and the Geo Pro is the Mini light is a full 8 foot wide. So that's one of the advantages. This is not a bunkhouse, but it's a couples camper. And it features that same dinette in the front under the Murphy bed.
Tony
So you have the two seats and you have the table that moves around and you can mash that down and you get a Murphy bed. And in this case, the Murphy bed is 60 by 74.
Peggy
An RV queen. RV queen. So it's a full 60 wide and it's north south.
Peggy
It's not an east west bed.
Tony
Correct. This one does have a slide. And in that slide is a theater seat. And in that theater seat there's a.
Tony
It's a wider theater seat. So between the two sides is like an induction charger for a phone or something like that.
Peggy
When you say theater Seats, like, I don't know if people know this, but theater seats range, you know, theater seat being like two, two bottoms, two seats and maybe with some kind of a flip down console in the middle where maybe you get a third small body. But theater seating other than that ranges everywhere from like 60 inches, maybe with no console to like 78 inches. So when we say theater seats, they're not all the exact same seats.
Tony
So this one's a 72 inch, but it is a two seater because it's got a big kind of console in the middle with an armrest.
Peggy
It's not a flip up console.
Tony
No, it's permanent.
Peggy
It's a solid console. Yeah.
Tony
Now the kitchen in this another like move up on the Rockwood on the mini lights. This one has a three burner propane stove with a true 21 inch propane oven. So this is one of our first good ovens in a trailer. And if that's a priority for you, this is a good way to go. It's also, it's an L shaped kitchen and I thought that was unusual in this floor plan, but it really works well.
Peggy
Now the L shaped kitchen, I'm like. Is that the right word? Ambivalent. I'm torn between L shaped kitchen because while you get more counter space and you get more of a feeling of a kitchen, you also get part of the kitchen that goes across the floor of the trailer. So when the slide comes in and that L shaped part of the kitchen, you're pretty much blocking any access to anything behind that L shape.
Tony
Yeah. It does make it more difficult to squeeze between the theater seat and the kitchen when the slide is in. And this is one of those slide rooms, it's a rack and pinion slide, which I think is the best kind. But you're not supposed to sit in it when the slide is in. And I know some of you are going to go, but I do it all the time.
Tony
Okay, your trailer, your rules. But when it breaks, don't come crying to me.
Peggy
Yeah. So I mean I know that there are people who maybe don't even sit in it, but maybe they like crawl over the seats to get to the bathroom in the back or something. And I just, in my opinion, I'm not putting any temporary excess weight and I got excess weight, so I'm not putting that in a closed slide.
Tony
Yeah. And then this one has the bathroom all the way across the back. So it's a pretty big bathroom for a small trailer. So I, I really like the way Rockwood has used the Space. And in this trailer, I thought it was really useful.
Tony
I mean, you have a table theater seat. You have the Murphy bed, a decent kitchen and a really good bathroom. And then again, Rockwood in the Mini Light line uses a torsion axle suspension. It uses Goodyear Endurance tires with tire pressure monitoring and nitrogen fill. There are balancing beads in the tire so it checks pretty much all the boxes.
Tony
So those are the five. I've got five.
Peggy
Bye now. Just kidding.
Tony
No, no, I've got a few more to just to put in your head.
Tony
These are a little bit bigger because we said smaller trailers and these are not big trailers, but not super tiny trailers. One of those is the Flagstaff Microlight 22 FPS, which is the same floor plan as the Rockwood mini light 2205 that we traveled with for years and years.
Peggy
Well, two.
Tony
Okay, two years. That's years and years.
Peggy
Years and years. Yeah. This was a great floor plan for us. We had a full solid bed. Theater seat.
Peggy
Well, it came with theater seats in the slide. Right. And then the kitchen on the camp side and the bathroom in the corner in the back and the refrigerator right by the door. So some of the things we really liked about that was the refrigerator really close to the entry, the full time bed. The theater seats were terrific.
Peggy
But what we found is we couldn't get any work done because they were so comfortable. We just would relax. And so we did some modification and we took those out and made it into a home office. But if you're not trying to work and you want comfort, then the theater seats in the slide were great.
Tony
Yep.
Tony
Another one to look at. We have a full review and video is the Lance 2075 does not have a slide. And one last suggestion, the InTech OVR navigate. And again we have a full review of that. So a few more to look at.
Tony
So that's five plus three smaller trailers.
Peggy
Smaller and slightly less smaller.
Tony
Yeah, absolutely. So there you go. You have anything that we should have included, let us know in the show.
Peggy
We would have had to talk longer.
Tony
Yeah, that's true.
Peggy
Maybe we'll do five almost little trailers another time.
Tony
Yeah. Or if you have a class we should look at, let us know.
Tony
I mean we always, we, you know, we're driven by your feedback and always appreciate it.
Peggy
Absolutely. Okay, so. Well, Halloween is past boo hoo. And all the other holidays are right on our tails.
Peggy
And last week, well, two weeks ago we asked you the question of the week. Did you scare up any Halloween plans in camping? And thank you of those of you who Shared your camping plans and camping pictures, Halloween pictures. This week we would like to ask you, is there an rver on your holiday shopping list? You know, it is coming up to shopping season for the holidays and over the next few weeks we have been lining up some some people to talk to that might give you some ideas if you need to shop for an RVer.
Peggy
And so over the next few weeks, we'll be kind of offering some shopping ideas, some gadget ideas, some RV related ideas that might help you with your shopping. And so stay tuned for all of those.
Tony
Yeah, as always, as we've said many times, we're happy to spend your money for you.
Peggy
Absolutely.
Tony
And of course, you can answer that question at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group.
Tony
Ask your own questions, post pictures, whatever you like. People have been very polite there because that's how we like it. It's a great group, it really is.
Peggy
But in order to remember that group and read these questions and, you know, get the show notes and find out where Tony and I are camping, you need to sign up for the newsletter. If you're not already signed up, it's absolutely free.
Peggy
It's absolutely only one time a week and you can sign up on any page of our website so that you can receive that newsletter and get all that great news.
Tony
Yeah. And, and unlike a lot of people, we only send once a week because we're lazy. So.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
We're stressless camping.
Peggy
That's right. We're busy camping. You can also on the website look for the show notes for this episode and all the episodes, but this One is episode 332. We will have links to the RV reviews of the trailers that we talked about and many, many, many other things.
Tony
And you can also check out our RV products and services page page for our favorite things that you may need on your stressless camping adventure.
Peggy
We are of course, in all the social places. So once you've seen all those things on the website, hop off onto the social and go hang out with us there.
Tony
Of course, if you're an audio listener and you don't want to miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast, it is free to subscribe on any podcast app. And of course, we're saving you a seat around our brain virtual campfire.
Tony
If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and share. And we love your comments. All of that helps with YouTube telling other people, hey, this podcast might be worth listening to. So your likes and shares and comments.
Peggy
I want to steal an idea from Brooks and say would you please share with one friend?
Peggy
Yeah, you know like sharing to everyone in the world might seem intimidating, but if you just tell one friend and they tell one friend, we'll be like.
Tony
A shampoo commercial and so on. Yeah. And of course speaking of sharing with a friend, if you found something on our website that has served you well, please do share it with your friends on social media or whatever. Also helps us as well, so helps us to serve you.
Tony
That's what it's all about. Like the hokey Pokey.
Peggy
Yeah. Well thank you again for joining us for episode 332. We will see you next week from Romp it up and until that time, Stressless Camping.
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stress less camping adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure and we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
