Hey y'all i need yalls advice.
2 options and i am trying to figure out which will be the cheapest on gas and truck ware, and general comfortability.

Option one - truck with a travel trailer, regual hitch. trailer around 1500-2000 keeping it light.
Option two - truck with a bed camper in bed or on top of cab.

both i think will cost anywhere from 10-15k to set up but whats the best option on gas, and if the missis comes with.
thanks!

tow option is best for gas, unless you go with smaller popup option on slide in camper.

the shower/bathroom is basically non-existent on smaller slide in’s also.

what is your tow vehicle? that will make a difference.

I would suspect if the misses wants to join you, a bathroom/toilet would be mandatory? I know that is the case when my wife wants to join me. I suspect a full cabover camper in the truck bed will drag about as much wind as towing a small camper trailer and not make a whole lot of difference on mileage. As Bobo mentioned, one of the pop up cabover campers has a smaller profile while going down the road and would help increase fuel mileage to some degree.

Definitely get the wife involved in the decision. The bathroom/shower is very important to the ladies. As for your situation, I’d go for the travel trailer. There are a lot of good options these days, and since the sales lots are jam packed, prices are as good as they will ever be. We have a 6000 pound TT and I pull it with a 1/2 ton truck (Tundra). Free standing shower is good to have (TT has it, but RV doesn’t). Also to be considered is the larger gray and black tank capacity in a TT.

And worth mentioning is that post-coronavirus manufacturing seems to have been less well done by the manufacturers, it might be good to get a used one built before 2020. Since the RV and TT craze has died down as the world gets back to a semblance of normalcy, there are zillions of used units on the market. See RV Trader online.

Thanks for the Reply, in your opinion does the 6k make to much more of a difference then something like 3k with a half ton?

when it comes to gas and mile per gallon, forgot to add that part.

Yes, weight towed will make a difference. Towing the TT, I get about 10 mpg. A lighter TT would probably get me up to 12 mpg or so, but that’s a guess. I get 15 to 16 mpg towing nothing.

And what PMK said about wind resistance is very true. A TT catches a lot of wind. I’ve wondered what a more aerodynamic TT would do to mileage. For instance, an Airstream or Casita or Oliver.

Okay so the weight diffence doenst make a ton of diffrence. that good to know. on a truck thats not the tundra, something like a f150, would it be more of a dramtic mpg loss because its a smaller engine, like down under 10mpg, if that makes sense, still trying to decide the best truck for the buck in terms of tow and price and gas burn.

I towed about a 7500lb trailer this spring break with a 2023 F150 5.0 v8, 8 to 10 mpg was the average.

thanks for the numbers Herbie, i was hoping the f150 would get a little better mpg but its good to know the actualls!

Since these things don’t get used as often as you think, I like the pop up tent trailers.it doesn’t take a monster truck to pull it. Stop and stay in RV camps.

To be considered is cooling in the Texas heat. Insulation matters. Most TTs can lower the inside temp by about 20 degrees, and that’s about it. If the TT is to be used in the summer, keep an eye on the day’s high temp, and look for shade.

good point 603!!! I have a friend that bought a new ~24' at the beginning of last summer, has had numerous trips back to the dealership in regards to the a/c not cooling the trailer down. They inspect and show that it is blowing cold air, but evidently it is under insulated to get the temp down to a comfortable range during the summer heat

Coating the roof could help that issue.

Our next purchase will most likely be a mid-sized cargo/camper van for our future travels....

Our Grand Design 2150RB is well insulated and has a 15,000 btu AC, and it still struggles on a 90+ degree day. It has a slideout, and that’s where there’s no insulation. It does cool faster than our Winnebago Sprinter RV, which has very little insulation. The AC is a 13,500 btu unit. I’ve wondered if a newish Airstream with no slideouts would cool faster.

If I had it to do all over again, I might go with an Airstream big enough for the wife and I and a 3/4 ton truck, instead of having a TT and the Sprinter Van. But, the wife loves the slideout on the TT and absolutely loves how we can travel in the Sprinter Van, so as Darryl Royal said, I’ll dance with who brung me. And change nothing.

But I still wonder about how well an Airstream cools. We used to have one, for 20+ years, but only used it on deer leases in cool weather, so I have no fresh info.

I have a mobile home on my place. When we go there on Friday afternoon for a weekend in the summer, we open the door and step back. Too hot to step inside. Give it a short time to cool down to outside temps. Then go inside and start the window AC units. Next, pull the bedding back to let the mattress cool down. Go to Walmart to get some stuff.

The alternative is for me to make the 150 mile round trip to start AC Friday morning. Go back in the afternoon and it’s OK.

I am surprised that the Winnebago van isn’t better insulated.

I have to admit that I was very surprised. With the TT so we’ll insulated, I never thought to ask about the RV insulation. Below freezing, there’s a risk of damage.

Something more along these lines….