# Buying A 2008 21Rs



## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

Hello all you Outbackers!

This is my first post here and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Scott and I live in CA. My family and I (wife and 2 young kids) have always loved going out camping.

I sold our Gulf Stream travel trailer a couple months ago and have been looking for an Outback 21RS and just found one! It's a late model 2008 and looks absolutely new, I can get it for $12,500 OTD, I believe that's a good deal, what do you think? The resin I want the 21RS over the 210RS is because we do a lot of dry camping and the holding tanks are much bigger in the 21RS. The holding tanks in our old Gulf Stream was a little smaller then the 21RS and bigger then the 210RS and I could get between 3 to 4 days of camping before I had to dump, So I'm hoping to get 4 to 5 days with the 21RS. So are there any known issues I should look for? All comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

So if everything works out I should be a new owner of an Outback 21RS by the end of this weekend!!!

Thanks,

Scott


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Welcome...Welcome...Welcome.

Glad you found us.









Congrats on the new Outback. You're going to LOVE it.
















How tall are you and your wife? The reason I ask is the BIG change in the newer models is the King bed in the back, where your feet point down the trailer, not across. I'm 5'10" and I was a bit cramped in our previous 28RSS with the Queen bed. Holding tanks can be worked around, smaller beds can't.

Again...welcome!!!


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Oh...if you decide to buy, here is a great PDI list to use when going over the trailer

http://home.comcast.net/~tannerjim1/Master%20PDI.pdf

Give yourself at least 2-3 hours to complete. Don't bring kids...they will get bored and distract you from the task at hand.


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## ftwildernessguy (Oct 12, 2009)

Congrats on the 21rs. We have a 210rs and for the size of this trailer, I don't think there is a better floorplan available anywhere. I see it has the Maxx Air covers - I plan on adding them to ours this spring.


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## GO WEST (May 25, 2009)

Is it new? Even if it's preowned, the $12,500 is a good price for an 08 model. I really labored over a couple of new 2008's that one dealer took off the lot of another that was going out of business. One was a 21RSLS (I think those were the letters...it didn't have a few options (outside kitchen, diamond plate, aero propane bottle cover) to make it serve a different price point) and I got them to $13,500 + TTL. The other was a 25RSS for $16,200+ TTL so your price out the door is good indeed. It sounds like you know what you are doing and will make good use of it.
Enjoy!


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## ORvagabond (Apr 17, 2009)

Scottps said:


> Hello all you Outbackers!
> 
> This is my first post here and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Scott and I live in CA. My family and I (wife and 2 young kids) have always loved going out camping.
> 
> ...


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

Looks great and appears to be identical to ours. From experience, I would like to recommend a couple things.

One of the first things is to buy some extra hold downs for the propane bottle cover. I believe it is this one from www.northerntool.com. I can pretty much guaranty that you will get somewhere only to find that one of them has snapped an a corner of your cover has shifted. I put a floor under my propane bottles which blocks the wind trying to lift the cover off, which seems to help quite a bit.

The other thing would be to install a black tank rinser if it doesn't have one already. I did it like this. It really makes a difference as to how much smell you get from the black tank.

One last thing. You will find that when it rains or you use your AC, the water will drip from the rain gutter right in front of your compartment door that is next to the front door. When I level, I try to put the front end just a touch high so the water runs to the back of the trailer. It's fun to try and get stuff out of your storage compartment with water dripping on you.


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## john7349 (Jan 13, 2008)

Welcome to Outbackers.com

Looks like a great trailer. We bought ours new in Feb 2008. Still glad we did! For 2 - 4 people it is a great size. They can speep 8 in a pinch ( very cozy







). I think your price is good. Be sure to get that PDI that *Oregon_Camper* mentioned. It just might solve some potential issues.


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## Tyvekcat (Aug 28, 2007)

Git - R - Done ! 21RS is a great model.








Knock on wood, havn't had any issues with our 07. Really like the metal plate up front on the 08's. 
21RS tows well, and is not bad at all in getting in some of the smaller campgrounds.

Get you some spare rubber hood latches from Northern Tool for your Propane cover and you should be good to go.

Welcome to Outbackers, Enjoy !


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## ftwildernessguy (Oct 12, 2009)

Our '09 didn't come with the slick contoured covers for the propane tanks - Keystone put on a tall, plastic cover that didn't have an access door - you had to pull the whole cover off to get to the controls on the tanks. I took it off and substituted a soft Adco cover - at least I can turn on the tanks without pulling the whole cover off.


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## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! I'll be picking it up tomorrow. Thanks for the PDI list; luckily I've already done 90% of what's on it, and I'll defiantly order the new latches for the LP tank cover. I like the mod thefulminator did under the LP tank!

Can't wait to get this trailer on the road!

Thanks Again,
Scott


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## Ridgway-Rangers (Apr 18, 2008)

Congrats on deciding to get the Outback. You will not be sorry. This site has folks with a wealth of information for you to draw from. Mostly, enjoy the new 21RS.
Brian
P.S. Where in CA are you?


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## Silvrsled (Jul 24, 2008)

holy crap that is an awesome price, especially in California which I found, when looking for ours, tends to be higher than most other places.


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## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

Thanks again every one for all the comments and suggestions. Well its home sitting in my driveway and I&#146;ve already started loading it up with some of my camping gear. I love the floor plan of this trailer! My kids love the bunks. I&#146;ve already started the personalizing mods! I started with putting filers in the water lines, one at the water pump and one just before the toilet. Yes the toilet, in my last trailer I had a big problem with calcium buildup in the toilet line only, and when it would break apart it would clog up my water valve on the toilet so I put a filter there and it fixes that problem. Second I&#146;m putting up curtain rods and curtains on the bunks. Does anyone know where I can get sheets for the bunk cots?

To answer Ridgway-Rangers, I live in San Diego. I see Silvrled lives here as well!

To answer Oregon_Camper, My wife and I both are short, I'm 5'7" and my wife is 5'3" so the Queen bed in the 21RS works out for us. I would of liked the 210RS with the King bed but I didn't want to hassle with the smaller holding tanks with all the dry camping we do.


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## clarkely (Sep 15, 2008)

welcome to the site & Congrats!!


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## Matt T. (Mar 27, 2010)

Scottps said:


> Thanks again every one for all the comments and suggestions. Well its home sitting in my driveway and I've already started loading it up with some of my camping gear. I love the floor plan of this trailer! My kids love the bunks. I've already started the personalizing mods! I started with putting filers in the water lines, one at the water pump and one just before the toilet. Yes the toilet, in my last trailer I had a big problem with calcium buildup in the toilet line only, and when it would break apart it would clog up my water valve on the toilet so I put a filter there and it fixes that problem. Second I'm putting up curtain rods and curtains on the bunks. Does anyone know where I can get sheets for the bunk cots?
> 
> To answer Ridgway-Rangers, I live in San Diego. I see Silvrled lives here as well!
> 
> To answer Oregon_Camper, My wife and I both are short, I'm 5'7" and my wife is 5'3" so the Queen bed in the 21RS works out for us. I would of liked the 210RS with the King bed but I didn't want to hassle with the smaller holding tanks with all the dry camping we do.


Did you ever find where to buy the sheets? I'm looking for a place myself? Thanks.


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## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

Matt T. said:


> Thanks again every one for all the comments and suggestions. Well its home sitting in my driveway and I've already started loading it up with some of my camping gear. I love the floor plan of this trailer! My kids love the bunks. I've already started the personalizing mods! I started with putting filers in the water lines, one at the water pump and one just before the toilet. Yes the toilet, in my last trailer I had a big problem with calcium buildup in the toilet line only, and when it would break apart it would clog up my water valve on the toilet so I put a filter there and it fixes that problem. Second I'm putting up curtain rods and curtains on the bunks. Does anyone know where I can get sheets for the bunk cots?
> 
> To answer Ridgway-Rangers, I live in San Diego. I see Silvrled lives here as well!
> 
> To answer Oregon_Camper, My wife and I both are short, I'm 5'7" and my wife is 5'3" so the Queen bed in the 21RS works out for us. I would of liked the 210RS with the King bed but I didn't want to hassle with the smaller holding tanks with all the dry camping we do.


Did you ever find where to buy the sheets? I'm looking for a place myself? Thanks.
[/quote]

Yes, we found some twin t-shirt sheets at Walmart that had elastic all around the bottom that fit the bunk mattress very well. But there is a guy on Ebay that sells fitted sheets for campers. Prices are a little high but I ended up buying the mattress pad for the Queen which was reasonable. The quality was outstanding compared to the RV places around town. His link on Ebay is, http://stores.ebay.com/AB-Lifestyles-HOME-Store?_rdc=1


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## MBrady (Apr 15, 2010)

I purchased an 08 25rss for the same reasons, tank sizes. The newer models for some reason came out with much smaller tanks. When I started looking for a trailer, this is my first, everyone I spoke with said you need at least 50 gallons of fresh water and forty for each black and grey tanks to realistically consider dry camping. Not sure how true that is, but just wanted to say my thinking was similar to yours in making our purchase.


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## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

MBrady said:


> I purchased an 08 25rss for the same reasons, tank sizes. The newer models for some reason came out with much smaller tanks. When I started looking for a trailer, this is my first, everyone I spoke with said you need at least 50 gallons of fresh water and forty for each black and grey tanks to realistically consider dry camping. Not sure how true that is, but just wanted to say my thinking was similar to yours in making our purchase.


Yes, tank size for me is a big deal especially with all the dry camping we do. With two adults and two small kids in my last TT we would get 3-4 days before we had to dump, and we weren't that conservative with the water. It had a 45-gallon fresh, 35 gray, 35 black. Now with the Outback having 50-F 40-G 40-B and if we start being a little conservative with the water we should get 5-6 days easy of dry camping. I don't know how much research you did, but I did a lot before choosing the Outback and I found it to have the largest holding tanks of any other TT manufacture. And I'll have to ad the nicest floor plan!


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## MBrady (Apr 15, 2010)

I agree with the best floor plan. I looked for almost a year at just about everything that was out there. Cam down to an 08 or 09 outback. I liked the large dinette in the 09, but didn't like the cabinet color and the switch to smaller tanks. Also we really wanted to keep the length of the trailer as small as possible and the 09 250 was almost two feet longer. good luck with your new trailer


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## Scottps (Jan 21, 2010)

MBrady said:


> I agree with the best floor plan. I looked for almost a year at just about everything that was out there. Cam down to an 08 or 09 outback. I liked the large dinette in the 09, but didn't like the cabinet color and the switch to smaller tanks. Also we really wanted to keep the length of the trailer as small as possible and the 09 250 was almost two feet longer. good luck with your new trailer


Looks like you and I are one of the rare ones that prefer the smaller TT's. I look at it as if you're not a full timer get the smallest TT you can get away with. Good luck with yours as well!


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