This spring we decided to sell our 2005 Forest River Surveyor 235RS camper and upgrade to a 2015 Lance 2185.  The Surveyor served us well since purchasing it in 2012, but the boys are growing up and sharing a bed had meant more and more scuffling over space, blankets, and one of them kicking the other.  On top of that the floor space was tight, and with the Land Cruiser we now have plenty of towing capacity.

Our old Surveyor 235RS trailer.

After looking around I discovered that I could count the trailer models with triple bunk options manufactured this decade on two hands.  I seriously considered the Dutchman Aerolite 2423BH/242BHSL, which had a really cool storage and lift system for the bunks.  However the carrying capacity was quite low – so low that we wouldn’t be able to carry water, bikes, and all our remaining gear together – and Dutchman confirmed the rating was limited by the axles and not just the tires.  Also it was a full 4′ longer than our current trailer, which meant I might have to give up our nearby alley parking space.

After far too much analysis on size, capacity, quality, and price, we ended up deciding on the Lance 2185.  In terms of the layout it had everything we wanted – triple bunks, a slide out dinette, a walk around queen bed, and a (convertible) sofa.  At about 4500# empty and 6000# gross weight it was a fairly light weight trailer, and best of all it was only 16″ longer than the Surveyor.  I searched RVT.com and RVTrader.com, spoke to the local Lance dealer, and then started looking nationally for a good price with the intention of picking it up or shipping it back to us.  In the end we ended up purchasing a 2015 Lance 2185 from Camping World in Wauconda, IL, as it was almost half the cost of a similarly equipped and delivered 2018.

…with slide out

Our new trailer