Today’s RV review is of the 2024 Prime Time Tracer 270BHSLE travel trailer. Depending on your experience looking at RVs, you might have the same question I had when this popped up on my feed.
Who in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is Prime Time Manufacturing?
Prime Time is a division of Forest River that was started in 2009. The company’s website follows suit with every other brand of RV manufacturing talking about how great they are and that they wanted to build a better RV … blah, blah, blah.
But what we have here is very much an entry-level bunkhouse RV that could be worth considering depending on what you’re going to use it for.
I’ve been thinking…
Lately you may have noticed some change in how I look at things. We all use our own realities to make judgments of everything from what is a beautiful day to whether you should actually buy that RV. As some of you may know, we use the living heck out of our RV.
So when I evaluate RVs, I always consider what this thing is going to be like for lots of use. But, let’s be honest, a lot of you buy an RV and use it maybe 2–3 weekends a year. That’s actually pretty typical. I was told my year’s worth of travels is about equivalent to what the RV industry expects a normal owner to do in 5–10 years.
Hey, another way I’m not normal!
What’s inside the Prime Time Tracer 270BHSLE
If anything, this is almost your typical mid-sized bunk model trailer. There are bunks in the back, a front bedroom with an RV queen-sized mattress, and a main living space.
In that main living space is a hide-a-bed sofa and a four-place dinette.
The kitchen, on the camp side, features almost exactly what you’d expect in this trailer: a three-burner stove with a worthless, tiny oven and a microwave.
But by virtue of having a round sink, there is actually a good amount of counter space here.
There are also cabinets overhead and a pantry back by the bunks.
Good features in the Prime Time Tracer 270BHSLE
I don’t mean to bemoan this trailer at all, as there are some features that surprised me at this price point.
For example, the bathroom has a rather large shower and a nicer shower head. In that squared-off shower there’s actually a step. Not something I would expect at all.
This also almost seems to want to be a fifth wheel with a shallow cabinet at the front of the main living space, above which are connections for a TV—but the TV is not included.
Since so many people want either a super fancy TV, or just something from the thrift store, or just no TV, it makes sense that there isn’t one in here. Now, if we could convince RV companies to stop shipping RVs with mattresses, we’d have something here.
I was also surprised by the fact that this is a laminated trailer with aluminum framing instead of a wood-framed trailer. So, for those who want something a little better than average but don’t want to pay for that, perhaps this might be a consideration.
Some surprises in the Prime Time Tracer 270BHSLE
A few things really surprised me in this trailer, starting with the fact that this has a manual tongue jack. Gosh, I haven’t seen one of these in a mid-sized trailer in a lot of years.
With something as large as this, you are absolutely going to want a weight distribution hitch with sway control. Hooking that up with a manual tongue jack is going to make you hate the world. Don’t even leave the dealership without having them put a power tongue jack on here. Seriously.
This also has the traditional folding metal trailer steps, and I applaud this. While I like the stability of the now-common steps that you’ll find in most trailers, to me they’re very inconvenient. I was happy to see these steps.
You can always take these and put these Lippert Solid Stance Step Stabilizers on them, if these steps don’t suit you.
Another thing I liked was the fact that, instead of an outside kitchen, you get more storage under the rear bunks with a door to the outside. I think more people need storage than an outside kitchen, though maybe that’s just my thinking. What do you think?
What I would change about the Prime Time Tracer 270BHSLE
I’m no fan of low-grade tires and suspension, even if you’re not going to use the trailer very often. These low-end pieces transmit more road irregularities to the cabin than something better would, so you’ve got a factor in this wearing out more quickly.
And, yeah, get a power tongue jack—if you didn’t see that I mentioned that already.
Conclusions
Overall this is a pretty average product that I hadn’t heard of. It makes me wonder why these big RV companies have so, so, so many brands of trailers.
It would seem that paying all these marketing and design and factory people to build something not much different than something else adds to the cost of doing business. But that’s just me and common sense.
This isn’t a bad choice, and I’ve seen this listed under $30,000—which is pretty affordable for a laminated trailer of this size.
But what do you think? Have you heard of this brand? Do you own one? I’m always happy to see your comments below.
More about these RV reviews
These RV reviews are written based on information provided by the manufacturers along with our writer’s own research. They are based on information from a single unit and may not reflect your actual experience. Shop your RV and dealership carefully before making a buying decision. We receive no money or other financial benefits from these reviews. They are intended only as a brief overview of the vehicle, not a comprehensive critique, which would require a thorough inspection and/or test drive.
Tony comes to RVtravel.com having worked at an RV dealership and been a life long RV enthusiast. He also has written the syndicated Curbside column about cars. He also works closely with a number of RV manufacturers to get an inside look at how things are done and is a brand ambassador for Rockwood Mini Lite with his wife, Peggy.
You can also check out his RV podcast with his wife, Peggy.
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It looks like a nice trailer for families – just noticed the toilet was right next to one of the bunks…hm….:-/
I thought Prime Time was an existing company that FR bought at a bargain price during/after the “Great Recession”, like they did with Palomino and Coachmen. I may be wrong about that, but you would think they would start consolidating or closing some of those dozens of divisions now that RV sales are cratering.
Do convection-microwaves really cost that much more than a useless 17″ propane oven + a conventional microwave? In addition, having two ovens means wasting a second cabinet space that could be more useful for storage. I cannot understand RV bean counters’ decisions on where to save money and where to spend money. It is certainly not based on customer satisfaction!
The “Bean Counters” aren’t making decisions on whether it has a tiny oven + conventional micro. They watch total cost. It’s up to marketers, designers, and engineers on the specifics. Unfortunately, many of those in the RV industry probably never camped in an RV. 🙂
“Now, if we could convince RV companies to stop shipping RVs with mattresses…”
RV makers put in mattresses? Where do they put them? I’ve looked on the bed but never seem to find anything resembling a mattress! 😉🙂
It hurt my back and rear end just looking at the mattress and seating in this RV!
Love the humor you inject on serious topics in your reviews. 👍
Thank you, Tony! 🙂 It does seem odd that RV manufacturers (e.g., the much-maligned Forest River) have so many brandnames under which they produce extremely similar products. I can see having levels of quality/price (e.g., good, better, and best), but not this many (what? 5 or 6?). It seems counter-productive, but so does having almost weekly recalls. Thanks for the review and safe travels! 🙂
Right? As for the number here’s just what I come up with sitting here: Wildwood, Salem, Cherokee, Prime Time, East-To-West, Palomino, rPod, NoBo. And that’s just the start.
But it’s not just Forest River – Thor is just as prolific.
Considering that each brand has a designer but then sales reps who get paid very well it would seem to be incredibly inefficient.
Wow! So, at least eight?!?!? Amazing! I can see keeping a brandname around for a while (e.g., Tiffin), but eventually it seems that some consolidation would occur. That, or the brands eventually become the one of the levels of RV (e.g., Tiffin becomes “best”), but not one of eight levels of RV. I’d insert a “shaking his head in disbelief” smiley here if I could find one. Thanks, Tony, and safe travels! 🙂