Coachmen Clipper Cadet

[Zatarra]

Hi,

Anyone live in a Coachmen Clipper Cadet full time? I have been looking at them. Seems small enough but still has everything that I'd like: Toilet, shower, closet for clothes, stove top, bed, microwave. Seems like a good one to live in without having to get a big one. I've seen them for $9,995.00. It would just be me, no pets.

[Kirk W]

First of all, welcome to the Escapee forums! We are flattered that you have chosen to come here and we promise to do our best to help you and to support you on your RV adventure.

 

In looking at the web advertisements for the Clipper Cadet, it seems that the largest one is the 17' cabin length, and 21' hitch to bumper. I see a few things that could be problematic, but the real key to this is where you plan to live in it and your own personal needs. I'm guessing that you live alone, and that makes it much less complicated. The biggest problem that I see is the lack of storage space for your belongings. We own a KZ Sportsman that is only 2' longer than yours and we have spent as much as 5 continuous months in ours with two of us. But we are people who have long lived in smaller than typical RVs for our lifestyle and we are not physically large people. The point being that your physical size will play a major role in your ability to live comfortably. Another problem is that trailers of that size have only minimal storage space and as a fulltimer you will need to be able to carry all of your belongings with you, which we do not have to do.

 

The Cadet is also an ultra light, as is our Sprotsman and experience has proven to us that the very light weight RVs keep weight down buy using aluminum framework and only small amounts of insulation. That tends to make them comfortable only in fair weather and difficult to heat or cool in temperature extremes. Along with that, the very small RVs usually mean that you spend a great deal of your time living outside, under the awning or at a picnic table, which we do. Again that makes it best for use in good weather and not a great choice for long periods of weather that keeps you inside.

 

There is no question that it is possible for someone to live in that trailer, but most people would not be happy in it for very long and even fewer people would find it comfortable if they found themselves in areas of very high or very low temperatures or very long periods of rain or other bad weather. You may well be able to do this, but most of the people that I know would find it very limiting. We can live very happily in our slightly larger RV but only when weather is mostly good and temperatures are moderate with few periods of poor weather and we can't begin to carry all off our earthly possessions with us when we travel in it. My advice, be very careful and consider some of the models of at least somewhat larger size and more all weather in design.

[trailertraveler]

Welcome to the Escapees Forum!!

 

Whether you can be comfortable in a trailer that size and make and model is something no one else can tell you. However, there are a number of singles that do fulltime in small travel trailers. Here is the website of one of them. I am not aware of any that are members of this forum, but perhaps some will post replys to this thread .

 

Just about every question about travel trailers on this forum is answered with a comment about the lack of storage space. If you were to actually compare the storage space of a travel trailer of a given box length (coach length not total length) with the storage space of a fifth wheel or a motorhome of the same length, I am not so sure that there is much difference. If the square footage is the same, there is only so much space no matter which design. If you put a hard locking tonneau cover or a cap on a pickup or tow with a full size van, you will have lots of storage space.

 

An issue that I think is more important than storage space is the cargo carrying capacity. Many of the smaller trailers have very limited carrying capacity (often less than 1,000#). The carrying capacity usually includes any water carried on board, so the amount left for possessions is even less.

 

I would suggest that you look at the Winnebago Micro Minie trailers (some models have 2500 - 3000# of cargo carrying capacity) and also some of the fiberglass egg trailers such as Casita, Escape, Scamp, Oliver and Bigfoot.

 

Again, Welcome to the Escapees Forum!!