Mom & Dad have had a camper since '84. First one they had was all livng/sleeping space together. It was a 24 footer. Camper always seemed cluttered or was a pain to make the beds each day/night. They traded it for a bunk house. Queen bed in the front, jack knife sofa, table, and then bunks in the back. It is a 30 much nicer to camp when you aren't have to make beds all of the time. Neither camper had slides.
A couple of years ago Monica and I bought my Aunt's old 28' camper - no slide. Bed in the rear, table, and couch in the front. Same problem as Mom & Dad's first one. Also once the 3rd child came along and her stuff, it was pretty crowded. We completely remodeled this camper, but unfortunately, even though I replaced the floor, the structure itself was still weak. Should've passed on this camper, but I thought I knew it because it was my Aunt's and I didn't look it over close enough. So like has been mentioned before, check the ceiling, walls, & FLOOR.
So finally in June we started looking pretty seriously for campers. Wife insisted she didn't want to spend more than $10k. Problem was she wanted "everything" and didn't want a little camper. We looked at a bunch of campers and I read on a lot of camper forums and talked to several people. For the price points, it is hard to beat a Jayco. They have several different quality/price points. We ended up with a 2009 Jayco JayFlight G2 32BHDS.
Jayco 2010 We were able to negotiate a pretty good price because we were at the end of the model year, but more than double of our original $10k "budget". One of the things we liked about it was a 2 year warranty vs. the typical 1. They also had in our opinion a "nicer" overall appearance and seemed to be made just a touch better. Also included a few niceties that others charge extra for including a power awning (still not 100% sold on that one though). We've so far used it 1 weekend and took 1 9 day trip with it. We are also going to use it for a weekend again in a couple of weeks. Now with that being said, we bought too much trailer for our tow vehicle. This trailer is 8,000 empty. Probably close to 9,500 or more loaded. I'm towing it with a '99 Chevy Silverado 1500 ECSB 4x4 w/ 5.3 & 3.73 gears. I won't win any races, but on the 9 day trip we took the camper to Lake Cumberland (about 250 miles each way) w/o any issues. I have changed the springs on the truck to a set of springs off a 2500. That helped a lot, I also updated my weight distribution system. I did have a 7500/750 set and updated it to a 12,000/1,200 set. Did that before I ever left the dealer's lot because the 750s had too much "arch" in them and I knew they weren't heavy duty enough for the load. When we upgrade the truck in a year or 2, we will probably make the leap to a 3500 SRW (Hopefully Duraxmax/Allison combo) as if we were to haul any firewood or anything at all in the bed, I could still be overloading a 2500 quite easily.
BTW, the slides and the rear bedroom made a world of difference. Just seems like so much more room inside. Nice for those days when you are stuck inside because of the rain. We also bumped our AC from the typical 13.5 BTU unit to a 15k for $143. If it gets hot, it does a better job at keeping up. Was nice at the Lake when the humidity was really high.
Someone else mentioned the bathroom. Ah yes, that is important. We ruled a few out because of the size of the bathroom. Ours is actually a pretty good sized bathroom as it has a door to the outside. That makes it really nice at the honey station. Also make sure it is a straight shot to the tank from the toilet. This can be an issue since you aren't using much water to flush.
Depending on how you are going to use it, may want to look for heated/enclosed underbellies. Our Jayco has it, but really isn't considered a 4-seasons camper. More of 3 season. Some like Artic Fox are more considered for 4 season camping.
Stool/shower combo would get it done!
