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Post edited 8:50 pm – January 16, 2011 by thebbqguy

I attended the Tampa RV Super Show today and just returned with a handful of brochures.  RV Shows are great. I enjoyed comparing several manufacturers side-by-side.

I hoped to see a larger variety of Sportsmen Classics floorplans at the show (namely the 19SB), but there weren't many variations. The ones they did have (mostly 14s) appeared to be sold for the most part.

They had several Sprees as well, but I'll admit that I was a little disappointed with the shower arrangement and design in those. The shower doesn't seem very durable with the faux wood grain material. The Spree is a little disappointing to me and my wife in that aspect, otherwise I'd say it's fine. The shower caused us to cross it off my shopping list.

Let me say that the selection of small, lightweight travel trailers loaded with options is much larger than it was 2 years ago when we last attended the show. There are 6 or 7 travel trailers that remain on my shopping list, but 3 or 4 have the edge of those.

I've put together an attachment that lists those still on my list with some of the primary considerations. Let me know what you think. The shopping list attachment is posted at the following link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/s……361349630

I'm interested in hearing some of your observations concerning my shopping list compared to the Sportsmen Classic features and benefits. I'll be honest and tell you that the Gulfstream Visa and Aerolite Shuttle 188 are presently at the top of my list with the MPG 181 with the Platinum package in a close 3rd place. Once I am able to actually see the Sportsmen Classic 19SB I suspect it will move up the list to at least 2nd place depending on the final price.

If we'd have been ready to buy today, I could have gotten a good deal on the Aerolite and they were selling the Gulfstream Visa's like hot cakes for $16.9k. There was a HUGE interest in the Visa's.

I agree with you on the shower design. The Escape seems to use a similar methodolgy with a faux shower approach. I'm afraid I have a lack of confidence about the durability of the shower.

The price of the Sportsmen is certainly attractive. It's the most affordable travel trailer we saw today. They had several of the 14's priced at $9,995 on the flyers they were handing out. Versus a pop-up type camper, an A-Liner, or even an R-Pod I think Sportsmen Classic wins on price hands down.

If you look at the mods section of this board, someone posted about making a mod to the shower to make it more waterproof using a 5 piece shower liner found at Lowe's.  I looked at that with interest but for now, and we haven't been using the shower much, we have a squeegee that we use on the walls after the shower.