Magazine Recomendations

[John Watts]

Does anyone have a magazine that caters to the small camper trailer crowd they would recommend? I think I would like one helpful to beginners. My wife and I have some fair amount of tent camping experience and are currently looking to move up to a small camper and I would appreciate something to study before jumping in with both feet. I have gleaned much from this and other similar forums, but I think there is much more to be learned. I understand my late Father-In-Law was the culinary editor for “Trailer Life” many years ago, is this publication still available? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Kevin K]

Trailer life http://www.trailerlife.com/
Also http://www.rv-links.com/publications.htm

[Darwin Maring]

Good Sam club has a most excellent magazine that they put out each month titled "Highways". I read it from cover to cover. This month they have a DVD that you can purchase that takes U thru the steps of winterizing.

[Brian B-P]

The general quality of RV publications is a significant step below that of publications of a similar nature for a larger audience, such as the car magazines. Trailer Life seems to be the top of this very low pile, and - with no offense intended to the hardworking people to create it - it seems that most articles are services to advertisers. In this magazine, and to an even greater extent in the lesser publications, there is little attempt at critical review or technical accuracy. The answers in the columns to reader's questions are often inadequate and not infrequently blatantly wrong.

Magazines specific to trailers are rare, but that makes sense to me because most topics of interest are really RV issues (e.g. maintaining the plumbing system), not specific to trailers. The trailer-specific ones - about towing and trailer chassis configuration - would be the same for other types of trailer (cargo, boat...) but I don't think they have enough material or audience to rate a serious publication.

A publication specific to small RV trailers? You're reading it! This is a niche so small I can't see printed magazine as viable.

[Byron Kinnaman]

I find Backpacker a pretty good magazine. Lots of cool lightweight stuff, and articles on traveling lightly. Much can be applied to traveling lightly in our light little trailers.

[Art Davis]

Most of the mags are oreinted toward the big rig. A special offender in this regard is Trailer Life. If you want to find info on how to use a dishwasher in a forty foot motor home with a granite center island in the kitchen, it is fine.

[Darwin Maring]

Do U reckon that if we put a washer /dryer, dish washer and hot tub in a Scamp someone might do a mag just for us?

[Donna D.]

Do U reckon that if we put a washer /dryer, dish washer and hot tub in a Scamp someone might do a mag just for us?

Probably not, but we'd love to post the pictures in the Albums

[Darwin Maring]

Just about all magazines earn the major portion of their profit from advertisers and not from the magazine buyer and it is based on total distribution so they will give you a special rate such as 3 years for $30. That’s 36 issues and postage for $1.20USD. I just sent in for this subscription. Popular Science and Mechanics do the same and we get Fortune magazine for almost nothing.

The GoodSam magazine comes with your subscription to the GoodSam club and it does have some advertisements in it (A lot of GoodSam Advertisements also) however their Action Line is priceless and they have different articles each month that covers most of the questions asked on our web site. Tires, batteries, solar power, winterizing, weight and balance, sway, and you name it. The cost is in the mid to upper $20s for the membership.

We get Consumer Reports and the cost for that is in the upper $20s and no advertising at all in it. No advertising = higher cost for the mag and it has great articles and of course gives you input on different items each month. HDTV is in this months issue and gives you the info you need should you be looking at new TVs.

[Vivian]

Camping Life Magazine is an excellent publication: http://www.campinglife.com

[CharlynnT]

http://www.rvtimes.com/

RV Times is available online. The letters read like this forum, and most of the articles are also written by RVers. It is not based on small RVs -- there's lots of talk about slide-outs, etc, and the ads are geared to high-end stuff (which I find fun to gawk at).

But there's lots of basic how-to on, you know, grey water, furnaces, fridge won't work, towing capacity of vehicles and so forth. Based in British Columbia, but also catering to snowbirds, so plenty of US info as well.

[Brian B-P]

I regularly read RV Times, and I particularly encourage people in western Canada to have a look and find potential suppliers of the things they need. I pick it up in printed form (you get all the ads that way, and they are part of the value) in Save-On Foods stores.

While the people at RV Times try hard, the technical content - typically as answers to reader letters - is as shaky as that in any RV publication I've seen. I suggest taking it like a post in this forum: good material to consider, but in no way authoritative. The editorial value is in facilitating the sharing of information, not in ensuring technical accuracy.