Camper Terms and Definitions
- Outdoors Made Simple
- Sep 23, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 13, 2021
When it comes to finding a travel trailer, the learning curve can be steep! 12V, deep cell, GVWR – there are a lot of terms that are new! We’ve tried to compile everything we had to learn while shopping for our camper into this list – find something missing? Let us know if the comments and we will add it!
You can filter by some of these features in our ultimate travel trailer guide. Don’t forget to download the free camper feature checklist to help you narrow down your key camper features as you search for a new (to you) travel trailer.
Table Of Contents
Camper weight/tow capacity
You can also see the post about towing for more
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) is the maximum loaded weight of your that vehicle or trailer can take. This is the key (in my opinion) number to know because most RV manufacturers list this in their RV specs. This is the number I use in my trailer guide. This number relates to the trailer itself or the car itself but not both together. There is a lot of confusing and contradictory information about this online.
Dry weight is the weight of the trailer when it ships from the factory with no added gear, water, or food
Carrying Capacity or Cargo Capacity is the total amount of gear, water, and food that your trailer can carry.
Tonge weight is the amount of weight the tongue will put on the hitch attached to your tow vehicle
Camper type
Travel Trailer: A trailer that is towed and used for camping. I generally call anything that isn’t one of the types below a travel trailer
Caravan: This is also a travel trailer, more commonly used in Europe and Canada
Tear Drop: Tear Drop campers are named because they look like a drop of water with a rounded front and point at the back. This is a very common shape for very small campers which typically have just a sleeping space inside. On this website there are relatively few tear drop campers because I’ve limited the list to those that sleep at least 3.
Pop-up: This type of camper folds into a small box, generally 6-10 feet long, 8 feet wide and ~5 feet tall. They will fit into a standard garage and tow easily because they don’t have as much drag. Almost all Pop-up campers have canvas sides like a tent and a hard roof over the center.
A-frame: This is a style of pop-up trailer which folds into a box but has hard sides and comes to a point when the sides are raised. This type has the benefit of the storage and ease of towing of a traditional pop-up camper but without the canvas sides.
Hybrid: A hybrid camper can generally be entered without raising the roof but has some type of pop-up features, either extending beds or a roof that will raise an additional amount with some canvas. These can be a good way of extending your interior space while still having the benefits of easy of entry and loading.
Power Sources
Power in a camper is a little bit confusing until you get used to the terms. There are 2 types of electricity you need to know about:
120 Volt (V) electricity is the standard electrical voltage used in homes in the US
12 V electricity comes from your battery
If you are running off of 120 V power, you are most likely plugged into shore power at a campsite. Your normal household outlets will work as well as your more power intensive appliances like an air conditioner.
If you are running off of 12V or battery power, that means that only your 12V outlets and appliances designed to run on 12V power will work. For most campers, that is your refrigerator and maybe an induction cook top if you have that instead of gas. A normal, power outlet will not work.
You CAN use appliances (like your air conditioner if you have one) when using only battery power but you must use an inverter or generator and they take a lot more energy.
Some people want to have an all electric camper so they do not need to depend on propane (LPG) at all. These are not common but you can find one. You can also convert from the gas cooktop that is generally standard to an induction cooktop yourself, lots of information about this online. An induction cooktop uses an electromagnetic field to heat up a pan while leaving the cooking surface cool to the touch and without heating up the space. You have to use special pans on this type of cooktop.
Bathroom
One of the key reasons we got a travel trailer was to have a bathroom. There is more than one option, who knew?
Wet bath: This is a toilet/shower/(sometimes sink) combination. This means that when you take a shower, the whole bathroom gets wet. Usually there is a shower curtain that pulls around you or at least covers the door. The benefit of this is that you save space.
Separate Shower and Toilet: In this confirmation, the shower and toilet are separate like a normal household bathroom. The benefit of this is that you have a separate space to shower and the whole bathroom does not get wet. The downside is that it takes up more space.
** Regardless of which type of shower you have, do not expect to take long showers in a small travel trailer unless you are in a campsite with sewer hookups (so your grey tank can be emptied often). Even then you would need an on demand hot water heater to have more hot water than 10minutes. **
Flush toilet: This is basically the same as your household toilet, you flush waste into a tank and then you dump the tank using a hose into a dump station when you are done camping.
Non-flush toilet: Also called porta potty, chemical toilet, dry toilet. These toilets require you remove a container from the toilet to dump the waste into a toilet or dump station. You will have to dump your waste regardless of what kind of toilet you have, this version just requires you to separate a tank from the toilet vs. connecting a hose to the waste tank. You will also need to add chemicals to this toilet to prevent smells. The benefit of these are that they don’t require black or grey tanks in the camper and they are smaller and more compact. There may or may not be a curtain or wall containing the toilet area. You can read more here.
Cassette Toilet: Similar to the non-flush toilet but these are permanently installed in the camper and generally look like a normal toilet. Instead of dumping a black tank using a hose, you remove it and dump it in a toilet. Read more here.
Composting toilet: These toilets are also “dry” in that they do not require black tanks. However they separate liquid and solid waste to prevent the waste from turning into sewage (the combination of the liquid and solid is where the smell comes from). The liquids go into a bottle which you empty into a toilet or dilute and sprinkle on the ground. The solids turn into compost which you can throw away. There is a lot of information on this on the internet. Try this post to get started.
Bed sizes
I find bed sizes to be pretty confusing. A lot of manufacturers will list a bed as a “double” or “queen” but when you look at the dimensions, you realize it isn’t quite the standard size. Here are the standard (US) bed sizes plus one additional term you might see in your research.
Small Double: this is less than a standard double sized bed but larger than a twin bed.
Double (or full): 54″ x 75″
Queen: 60″ x 80″
King: 76″ x 80″
Bunk beds: This is 2 beds one over the other
A note about bunk beds. Just because something doesn’t show a bunk bed on the standard layout doesn’t mean it doesn’t have one! Manufacturers are pretty cleaver about how they work these into the camper and save space. I’ve tried to indicate bunk bed on any trailer that has it as an option but it is always worth asking because sometimes the option is not obvious.
Refrigerators
There are 2 main types of refrigerator:
2 way refrigerator: Runs on either 12V or 120V electricity. (Generally, if you are running a refrigerator off of 120V electricity, you are plugged into to a power outlet at a campsite.)
3 way refrigerator: Runs on 12V, 120V or propane (LPG).
Why choose one vs the other? Many people who are planning on boondocking* or even camping at campgrounds without hookups will choose a 3 way refrigerator because you can run a refrigerator for longer on propane than if you rely on your battery. Even though we are planning on boondocking, we chose a 2 way refrigerator because we have lithium batteries and solar panels and the 2 way refrigerator was larger.
*boondocking = camping on public land outside of a campground, generally without services.
Solar
Generally you will have 2 options for solar with a camper: enabled or equipped.
Solar Enabled means that the wiring exists for you to plug in an external solar panel, often called a “suitcase” style because it folds into a suitcase when not in use.
Solar Equipped means that the camper either comes with or has an option to add roof mounted solar panels.
There are pros and cons to both of these and many people use both depending on what their needs are.
Windows
I have a rough guide I use for evaluating how many windows a camper has. Generally the less expensive trailers have 2-3 windows, one on each side of the camper and maybe a 3rd along one wall if there is space. I call 2-3 windows standard. Some campers have large windows in the front, back or both. I call >3 windows more than standard. Whether this matters to you is definitely an area of personal choice. We used this rule when looking for campers personally because having a lot of windows was important to us.
Customization and Interior Styling
Some camper manufacturers allow for a huge amount of customization (extra windows, move the bathroom etc) some do not. Depending on what you are looking for this may or may not matter to you. Keep in mind more customization generally means more cost.
Interior styling is another feature that may or may not matter to a given individual/family. There are some manufacturers who tailor their models to a customer looking for something specific like retro styling or modern interiors. This can be a good way to narrow your search if this is important to you.
Trailer Brakes
Many states require trailer brakes on campers >1500 lbs (not all, we live in Oregon where it is not required but recommended). Generally, you should have trailer brakes if the trailer is more than 1/2 the weight of your tow vehicle. Even more generally, get trailer brakes if they don’t come standard, better safe than sorry!
Trailer brakes apply brakes to your trailer tires when you apply brakes to your vehicle tires. You need a brake controller installed either via your car wiring or as a wireless option in order for these to work.
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