Good News: Accepted Into RVICS - Bad News: We Need an RV!

Taking Delivery of Our Arctic Fox Travel Trailer

In February we contacted RVICS for information and then made application to join.  Our thinking was that we might rent some sort of RV if accepted and assigned to a summer project.  Well, it all came to pass.  In mid-April we received word that we were accepted by the RVICS membership committee and were scheduled for a project in Alberta Canada beginning mid-June.

 

When faced with reality the idea of towing a rented travel trailer, with its condition and maintenance history uncertain, more than 4,500 miles or trying to coordinate a rental in Alberta from California wasn’t too appealing, not to mention the costs.  Could we determine the type of RV we should own for the long term, then locate and purchase it in time for the Alberta project?  The photo gives it away.  Keep reading to learn why and how we ended up choosing our Arctic Fox 25R travel trailer.

Class A Motor Home

RVs fall into two major categories; motor homes and trailers.  The former include Class B, B+, C and A motor homes.  The common feature is that they are built on some kind of truck or bus chassis.  Most motor homes can be seen with a ‘Toad’ tagging along, a smaller vehicle for transportation once at a destination. 

Trailers, as the name implies, require a tow vehicle but the tow vehicle can be used for transportation at the destination.  We decided at the outset that we wanted to make use of our 2006 Dodge RAM 2500 truck as a tow vehicle. This directed our attention to 5^th wheel and travel trailer options.

Other criteria included having the RV be small enough for use in many state and national parks. This meant a maximum overall length of about 32 feet (a coach length of 30 feet or less).

We also wanted it to be well within the tow capacity of our truck.  This criterion was frequently poo-pooed by RV sales persons, especially since we have Cummins diesel power.  But we wanted something that left a comfortable margin in terms of our trucks towing capacity.

A Larger Arctic Fox Fifth Wheel

We began assuming that a 5^th wheel would be our best option due to their superior towing characteristics and basement storage.  But we found that 5th wheel trailers in the size we were looking for were often built so that ½ ton pickup trucks could tow them. This meant these trailers were ‘lite’ models with 'lite' construction and payload capacities.  Also, the advantage of basement storage is offset by losing the use of the pickup bed due to the fifth wheel hitch.  Further, our truck has a short 6 foot bed so interference (queue crunching sounds) can occur between the trailer and the truck cab in tight maneuvers. Because of these issues we began to consider travel trailers.

Advantages of travel trailers include having a flat single level floor and typically being less expensive compared to a 5^th wheel of similar size because of their simpler chassis and coach construction.  The main disadvantage is that travel trailers attach to the rear of the truck rather than to a hitch over the rear axle.  This makes them more susceptible to sway and other poor road manners.  We decided we could offset this disadvantage by not getting too much trailer, taking care to properly load the trailer, and by outfitting the truck with a weight distribution, anti-sway hitch system that was up to the task. More on this in a future post.

We also wanted a trailer that would be suitable for dry camping for up to a week.  This requires adequate fresh, gray and black water tank capacities. This also requires ability to travel on dirt roads, for example to access BLM land.

We discovered that many ‘travel’ trailers are not actually built to travel much.  Instead they are built well enough to be pulled occasionally for an hour or two on smooth roads and then hook up to full services. Most will spend the bulk of their useful life stationary in storge.  We also learned that most RVs are sold by emphasizing finishes and amenities that are easily seen, not by their hidden construction quality.  Most of the RVs we investigated delivered faux luxury on a platform that could be sold at a lower price point.

We were aware of a small camper and trailer manufacturer located in Oregon – Northwood Manufacturing, known for their not particularly snazzy but rugged four season RVs.  Each time we saw a Northwood made trailer we found ourselves increasingly evaluating all others against them.  Their target market just fit our profile.  We actually overheard a sales person commenting to another that “Yep, they are the Arctic Fox type”, which we took to mean a bit more informed than average, unimpressed with foo-foo, willing to pay more for ruggedness and durability, wanting to camp unplugged, and prone to dive under the trailer and into storage bays to look at materials and workmanship before looking at the coach interior.  We concluded it was true – we are the ‘Arctic Fox type’.

Arctic Fox 25R

It is not news that RVs are a terrible investment with a depreciation curve similar to the glide path of a brick.  We set out intent on finding a clean used trailer to reduce the depreciation hit. Northwood builds relatively few trailers a year compared to the large manufacturers so there are fewer on the market. Two we called on were sold before we could contact the seller.  Two later model year examples in Cambria and Bakersfield had asking prices close to the price of a new unit.  To make an already long story a bit shorter we located a new previous year (2015) Arctic Fox 25R at a ‘Blowout!’ price at a dealer, a compromise between buying a new 2016 model and a used late model.  We took delivery on April 28.

In a later post we will describe some of the features we appreciate about our Arctic Fox 25R, but the process of outfitting our new travel trailer for the trip to Alberta is now underway in earnest.  Stay tuned.