Is A Travel Trailer Right For You?
We asked three different RV owners to share why they decided to buy a travel trailer and their advice for anyone thinking of buying one. Here’s what they had to say.
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Welcome To My RV
Jayco Jay Flight RV Tour
Hi, We're Takacs!
If you are ready to stop sleeping in a tent on the cold, hard ground and move over to a comfortable RV you can actually afford, there might just be a solution you’ll like.
We'll set the stage for you, so you can understand why we love our small Jayco travel trailer and think it's the perfect transition RV for most families. It might even be the one you stay with for the long haul like us.
We are a family of hardcore, middle class weekend warriors that love to get out and camp just about every other weekend. Living in Texas, we do this all year long, even when temperatures dip into the 30s.
Alison and I budget and are relatively frugal. We rarely eat out, and most of our extra money is used for having fun outdoor experiences with our two boys. So, buying an RV that is guaranteed to last a long time is essential.
Also, being able to simply pull up and camp in just about any campsite we select is very important to us. We like the flexibility and the ability to essentially camp wherever we want.
Welcome To Our RV!
When we first got into RVing 10 years ago, we picked a travel trailer that perfectly fit our needs. As our kids grew, we felt we needed a few small upgrades. Essentially, we switched from the Jay Flight 184BH without a slide out to the 184BS which has one for just a bit more room. We figured, why go with something different if what was working is working well.
Our Jayco is perfect for us and has everything we need: a shower, a sink, beds for the whole crew, a refrigerator, a toilet, great tires, durable walls and a sturdy roof. It’s all that we need to go on our adventures.
Explore Our RV
Click around to discover some of our favorite features.
Our Favorite Features
Slide-Outs
We know many models have slide-outs, but this was a great upgrade for us as we moved over from our first RV model. When our children were smaller, space wasn't an issue. Ten years later, our two teenage boys are now much larger and obviously need more room.
The slide-out adds several additional feet of space in width and keeps us from having to buy a longer RV. It's become an important feature as we now have a 6-foot-tall teenager.
You might be surprised how a few extra feet across can keep everyone in our family from bumping into each other in a small camper.
It also allows us to have a separate dining room area. With the slideout, this dining area was already set up and doesn't require folding and unfolding a table multiple times a day. We'll discuss this more in the next section.
Comfortable RV Beds
Not everyone likes sleeping on the ground while camping.
For years, we didn’t mind it as tent campers — foam cushions and inflatable mattresses did the trick. But as we got older, so did our tolerance for roughing it.
We started looking into RVs with regular-height beds. We also wanted our kids to have their own space — especially important in bear country — so we chose a model with comfortable bunk beds.
Now that our kids are older, we’ve found the bunks are even more valuable. Teenagers need privacy, and the bunks help make travel enjoyable for them at this stage of life. We also made sure the beds could accommodate their growing height, knowing they'd likely surpass six feet tall.
As for our bed, we love that it doesn’t have to be converted daily. Our first RV’s dinette turned into a bed, which meant we had to pack up bedding every morning before breakfast. It wasn’t difficult, but definitely not ideal for a relaxing trip.
Another bonus? The dedicated bed gives us a ton of extra storage underneath — more on that in the next section.
Storage Capacity
Plenty of storage is essential for longer road trips when choosing a travel trailer. That doesn’t mean packing your whole house — RVs have weight limits, after all — but it’s helpful to have enough space for a week or more on the road.
We have storage under our bed, the kids’ bunks, and the dinette seats for bulkier items. These spots hold our clothes, games, sports gear, camping chairs, exterior rug, camera equipment, and more. They're easy to access and suit our camping style well. We also use the pantry, under-sink cabinet, and overhead storage above our bed for smaller essentials.
For big items like chairs and the rug, the front compartment is perfect. It stretches across the full width of our Jayco, easily opened with a magnetic-hold door. If we can’t reach something from the outside, we just lift the bed to grab it.
Powerful Air Conditioner
Since we are based in Texas and love to travel all over the state in the summer, a reliable air conditioner is a must. In the hottest part of the year, temperatures can reach 110 degrees. That doesn't stop us from camping. We know the AC unit in our Jayco is powerful enough to keep up midday and make our small travel trailer feel cool.
This is also true when we travel farther to other states just as hot. What about Southern Utah and New Mexico? No problem! Not once have we worried about our RV having an issue in the heat. The equipment works reliably.
Built-in Radio
It's nice not to have to lug around extra gear when RVing. This even goes for something small like a radio. Luckily o,ur Jayco has one built in for both convenience and enjoyment when we are camping.
We love that the radio plays both inside and outside the RV since Alison and I love sitting under the awning a couple of times a day on longer trips. A radio that has exterior capabilities really helps set the mood for a relaxing time when boondocking far away from everyone.
Why The Jayco Jay Flight Fits Our Needs
Why does your RV work for your lifestyle?
As part-time RVers on a budget, our small Jayco allows us to affordably take regular vacations. We can go on quick camping getaways over the weekend or use our RV as a hotel room for events in other cities. There's no need to spend hours packing tons of gear when going on these mini trips. We simply grab the necessities like a few clothes, food, and camera gear, then we hit the road for some fun.
It's also a good size for our longer summer trips. There is enough room inside for us to feel comfortable when we aren't outside exploring and relaxing.
How did you land on buying this particular RV?
Jayco is a brand we had seen while tent camping for two decades before we started RVing. We would see the familiar bird logo all over the place at every campground we visited all over the US. What we realized was that some Jaycos were shiny and new, and some were much older but still chugging along just fine. So, we knew it would be a reliable brand for us to go with as our RV brand.
As for the particular model of 184BH and later the 184BS, they are very similar. We didn’t feel we needed a slide out when we first started RVing with a 5 and a 3 year old in 2015. There was enough room for us all. Six years later, we wanted a little more space, so we upgraded just a bit to a model with a slide out.
What are the specifications of your RV?
Our Jayco is a little over 21 feet long, around 3,400 pounds unloaded, holds about 20 gallons of fresh water, and can sleep up to 6 people. It's the perfect size for our family of 4. Our travel trailer is compact enough to fit in spaces we want to camp in and light enough to tow with our Ford F-150 or similar half-ton trucks.
We also like that the dining room table converts to a bed, which allows our kids to occasionally bring a friend along. Plus, it has enough water storage for everyone to last for several days while dry camping.
If you are a new RVer switching over from tent camping, give this model some consideration. It’s been the perfect travel trailer for us, and we bet it will work well for you, too, if you are on a budget.
Where has your RV taken you?
Traveling in our Jayco part-time for close to a decade has given us the chance to see so many amazing places across the US. Since we love both dark skies and unique landforms, we tend to center our RV trips mainly in the West where the night skies are typically less light polluted and the Earth’s features are more dramatic.
For our summer trips, we change our theme each year. Sometimes we'll explore Southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains to hike alpine lakes and go off-roading using a side-by-side. Other times we'll do some desert hiking near the arches and slot canyons of Utah. We even plan trips that stretch across eight or nine states looking for the best stargazing experiences.
From the Badlands of the Dakotas to the basin and range topography of Nevada, we try to see it all and document it on our RWT Adventures YouTube channel. We simply love to explore whenever we get the chance.
On the weekends, we normally like to stick to our massive state of Texas and neighboring Oklahoma. We've been to well over a hundred different campsites in each state and are always trying to find new ones as a quick family getaway to enjoy the stars at night.
Jayco is a brand we had seen while tent camping for two decades before we started RVing. We would see the familiar bird logo all over the place at every campground we visited all over the US. Some Jaycos were shiny and new, and some were much older but still chugging along just fine, so we knew it would be a reliable brand for us to go with as our RV brand.
Travel Trailers
Travel trailers are the most popular type of non-motorized RV. No doubt you’ve seen one pulled down the highway hitched to a car or pickup. Travel trailers come in all sizes including tiny jellybean-shaped models with a chuckwagon kitchen in the rear to the massive house-on-wheels with picture windows and a sliding glass patio door.
Find Your Perfect RV
Whether you're new to the world of RVing or you're ready to narrow your search, we're here to help you sort through it all and find the RV that's right for you. Explore RVs based off of your lifestyle and the features important to you.
