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Last Updated on March 23, 2025 by Paul Clayton
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What Travel Trailer Has The Best Resale Value
Quite a few factors go into a travel trailer’s best resale value. For one, how an owner treats, maintains, and prepares it prior to resale has a significant influence.
Key Takeaways
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Resale Value Factors: About 70% of a travel trailer’s resale value depends on the owner’s maintenance, care, and preparation. The remaining 30% is influenced by factors such as build quality, materials, craftsmanship, and brand reputation.
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Best Travel Trailer Brands for Resale Value:
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Airstream: Iconic design, high-quality build, and luxury features contribute to strong resale value.
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Jayco: A long-standing brand with a reputation for durability and eco-friendly manufacturing.
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Gulf Stream: Offers a variety of customizable floorplans with high-quality craftsmanship.
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Heartland RV: Known for spacious, eco-conscious designs with high ceilings and premium interiors.
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Starcraft RV: Durable build with enhanced insulation and a strong structural warranty.
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Coachmen: A well-established brand offering multiple award-winning models.
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Grand Design: Prioritizes customer satisfaction, offers extensive pre-delivery inspections, and provides a 3-year structural warranty.
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KZ-RV: Spacious interiors, multiple layout options, and ease of towing make it a great choice for various camping needs.
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While important, these factors are only about 70% of the influencing factors. The other 30% include elements beyond the owner’s control, such as the quality of construction and the elements used, the craftsmanship used by the manufacturer to assemble and engineer the travel trailer, and due diligence.
The only way an owner can influence this unseen, yet essential element is by purchasing a notable brand. It is always a great idea when purchasing a travel trailer to select a brand that is well trusted, so that you actually have an idea of what to base your expectations off of.
It would be a disservice and nearly impossible to mention one travel trailer brand that offers the best resale value, as numerous others have consistently shown strong resale numbers.
This article aims to highlight them, which can hopefully help you select where to purchase your next travel trailer. Let us begin!!
What Travel Trailers Have The Best Resale Value
Airstream
Airstream is perhaps the most recognizable RV brand in the world. An Airstream is instantly recognizable thanks to its shiny silver-coated exterior. Regarding brands with a high reputation for quality and durability, Airstream is one of the first names to be mentioned.
While Airstreams might be among the most expensive travel trailers, they are well worth the cost. The first Airstream was created in the 1920s as a mobile tent that could be placed on top of vehicles.
One of the reasons why an Airstream travel trailer is popular and retains its value better is simply because of how iconic it looks. The design features a cleanly cut shape, making it very identifiable.
The quality of an Airstream is so good that older Airstreams are still used by RVers today, while the modern ones are full of luxury. At almost $38,00, the base model Airstream has quite a high starting point; however, it retains its value better than a similarly sized competitor.
The company offers customers around 9 varying travel trailer models. Every model has unique, customizable floorplans, ensuring that you can choose the Airstream model best suited to you and your family.
Jayco
Jayco is the perfect brand for individuals who love the outdoors and take care of it. As one of the most recognizable brands, the Bluebird has been seen on several RVs, travel trailers, and fifth wheels. It is perhaps one of the most quotidian brands out there.
Jayco believes in investing in their customers and the environment via the Jayco eco-advantage pact. As a brand, it works tirelessly to reduce its carbon footprint during manufacturing processes and the type of materials used to make its travel trailers.
The brand always seeks new methods to reduce energy consumption and waste. This philosophy applies to its travel trailers, which are designed to improve fuel efficiency and handling.
Jayco has developed quite a following as a reliable company that has been in operation for more than 50 years. Numerous families have tried Jayco and stuck to the brand for generations, showing how much quality and longevity the Jayco name is associated with.
Gulf Stream
Founded in 1971 back in Indiana, Gulf Steam is perhaps the best and most popular brand. It originally began making handcrafter furnishing, so it is no surprise that its travel trailers are very detail-oriented.
While the brand is typically known for its RVs, it imbibes the same manufacturing quality into its travel trailers.
Currently, Gulf Stream produces 13 lightweight trailers and destination and toy hauler trailers. This means there are numerous designs and floorplans from which to select.
One of the popular models is the Ameri-Lite, which comes with over 15 floorplans. This means there is quite a large degree of customization from one Ameri-Lite travel trailer to the next. You can select a price range that suits you and your preferences.
There are floorplans with options for private bedrooms and others for increased storage. Given that it is so popular, it is no surprise that a Gulf Stream model can be found at just about any RV dealership
Heartland RV
This popular brand is quite known for toy haulers and RVs. Its travel trailers also come with several wonderful perks as well.
With Heartland, customers feel like they are being considered, and that is evident in the spacious and luxurious feel of the travel trailers, even in the basic model trims. Heartland offers nine major travel trailer models, one of the most popular ones being the Sundance.
Most of Heartland’s travel trailers have high ceilings and can be customized with cabinetry. Numerous lightweight trailers are available in addition to bigger ones, ensuring a Heartland travel trailer for every kind of customer.
A unique selling point of a Heartland travel trailer is that the company tries to create products using the greenest means. Heartland recycles as much as possible and aims to reduce its waste. This is an attractive feature, particularly for the subset seeking eco-camping.
Starcraft RV
Starcraft travel trailers are popular for their comfort and convenience. This is evident in the range of floorplans available, with some providing sleeping compartments for over 6 adults.
Starcraft products are solidly built and known for being durable. The travel trailers are created using TuffShell vacuum-bonded lamination.
A typical Starcraft travel trailer has fiberglass sidewalls, metal backers, and welded aluminum frames. These features ensure the trailer is better suited to all experiences and weather systems when you take it on adventures.
Starcraft ensures its travel trailers have a heated, insulated, enclosed underbelly. Regarding warranty, you get two different warranties: a manufacturer’s warranty and a structural warranty lasting 3 and 1 year, respectively.
The roof has been created using Magnum Roofing, which ensures the roofing system will last quite a while. This feature ensures that the roofing of its travel trailers is 50% stronger than that of competitors.
Coachmen
Coachmen is a hugely popular brand when it comes to recreational vehicles. Since its entrance into the RV industry back in 1964, it has created numerous travel trailers and other RVs.
As a trusted brand, Coachmen concentrates on its customers, and this is evident in its principle and tagline of remaining dedicated to enriching customers’ lives.
To this end, they provide a wide array of travel trailers from which customers can select. There are 12 varying models, all with numerous divergent floorplans.
The Coachmen brand is so renowned for excellence that 3 models have been awarded best in the show: Apex Ultra-Lite, Northern Spirit/Spirit, and the Catalina Legacy Edition.
Coachmen welcomes every customer with its vast array of lightweight and bigger travel trailers, which ensures that just about every lifestyle and customer is catered for.
Grand Design
This RV brand values its relationship with customers more than anything else. Its business model is based on doing the right thing, which is evident given its popularity among RVers.
When Grand Design says it is customer-focused, it ensures customer satisfaction becomes the top priority. This travel trailer company ensures superior value and more features for your buck.
Additionally, every travel trailer purchase includes a 3-year structural warranty. Very few travel trailer brands are doing this, which is safe for Starcraft and Jayco.
Another great feature about this brand is that they take your satisfaction so seriously that the travel trailer is first sent to a PDI before sending it to a dealer.
PDI is an acronym for Pre-Deliver Inspection. The products are inspected in-house to ensure they clear a stringent checklist of over 200 items before they are cleared to ship to dealers.
This lets customers know that a high price has been placed on quality, so customers have responded by getting a travel trailer from Grand Design.
Grand Design should be considered a luxury brand, as you get high-quality detailing. However, this quality comes at a cost, as a travel trailer from this brand might cost more than others. Thankfully, this also translates to above-average resale value.
KZ-RV
KZ-RV is owned by Thor, which can count several of the most popular RV companies as its subsidiaries. KZ-RV is no different.
This brand produces a travel trailer that offers ample living space for those individuals who want to spend more than a bit of time camping.
This, however, does not mean RVers who want something a bit more short-term have to look elsewhere. Every product created by KZ-RV has more interior space than many competitors.
Prospective customers can select from numerous layouts, including lounging areas, sleeping areas, kitchens, full-shower restrooms, and dinette.
For customers interested in having full kitchens, KZ-RV offers options with microwaves, stoves, pantries, and refrigerators. You also get numerous bed options, with sizes as large as queens.
A travel trailer from KZ-RV has an excellent interior and exterior entertainment system, ensuring that camping is always an exciting time with this brand.
What makes this brand of travel trailer unique is that you do not require any fanciful towing hitch to tow this travel trailer, and that could save quite a lot of hassle.
If you require more space, KZ-RV offers low-profile travel trailers, which ensure more height and roof storage.
Final Thoughts
Selecting just one travel trailer with the best resale value would be a major disservice to anyone looking for answers. The list above contains brands that have consistently created gorgeous, functional travel trailers filled with quality and craftsmanship.
This attention to detail has ensured that the travel trailer models offer some of the best resale value figures. That being said, these brands only account for a portion of the factors that influence resale value. You also have to ensure that you maintain your travel trailer.
