The Bantam by Trail-lite

In 1998, we decided that a camper might be beneficial to us. (Pete's back just wasn't handling the great outdoors very well.)  I was basically brought up in an RV of some kind or another and wanted to raise our children like wise.  Pete, on the other hand, wasn't as familiar to rv camping as I was.  So the games begun for our hunt for a unit that we both would be happy with. Our adventure started out looking at what we would be able to tow with our minivan.  It was a newer model and has a tow package on it which gave it a tow rating of 3500 lbs. With both of us being total greenhorns to purchasing and towing a rv, we started looking at trailers not knowing they would be too heavy for us.  The reason for this was I really had my mind set that if I was going with a rv, I wanted a "real bathroom".  We pulled into a dealership we pasted by on our way to one we found in the phone book.  It looked kind of fly-by-night.  He had pop-ups on the lot and some trailers.  We talked to him about our dilemma and he offered us this broshure on a "Bantam" by Trail-lite.  Ok, it looked nice and had a shower/bath, weighted seemed doable but I had never heard of Trail-lite before.  We took the broshure and went on our way. We went to 4 other dealerships and of course all of them told us that we could pull the smallest units on their lot which we didn't feel comfortable putting the van to its maximum limits.  One thing that still concerned us is that either they didn't know of the Bantam or they heard of this Bantam but it's structure, in their opinion, wasn't strong enough.  Pete and I have great communication so we went home and talked.  We tried to do some research on the web and through other contact on how long Trail-lite has been around, what their track record was and if the infomation that the Trail-lite dealer was giving us was true.  It took some time but Pete got the phone number of Trail-lites main factory and spoke with the owner himself and he assured us that the dealer was correct. Ok, now our paranoia is settled down and we went back to the dealer to make our purchase.  This occured in Febuary of 1998 and we recieved the one of the first Bantams that the dealership received.  Talk about being the guinea pig but we felt comfortable in our decision and I have never regreated it ever. I love our Bantam.  We have had absolutely no problems with it.  Now, hybrid campers are a dime a dozen and everyone has seen one of one form or another but to know I was an original owner of the first line out is something to be proud of.

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