That headline above is something I never thought I would write. I’m sure that somewhere, someone is checking a box on their Bingo sheet for ridiculous trailer terms combined into one. Yet, a tiny house plus an overland trailer is perhaps the best way to describe the Forest River No Boundaries RV Suite. It tries to be so many different trailers at the same time. Normally, that would probably be a bad thing, but the RV Suite is one of the more memorable travel trailers I’ve seen lately.
And yes, it really is a travel trailer. It looks like a destination trailer, but Forest River assures me it’s meant to be dragged around the country behind your truck. 40 ft trailer
I should explain. There are different classes of trailers out there. On one end, you have the typical travel trailer, which is more or less a hotel room with wheels. On the far other end, you have the park model, which is a trailer designed to be plopped down at a campground for years at a time. A lot of folks will remove the tongues from their park models! Somewhere in the middle is the destination trailer (below), which sort of borrows traits from both park models and travel trailers. A destination trailer is supposed to stay in one place for a season before taking off to somewhere new. You’ll still find holding tanks and stabilizer jacks with destination trailers, but they trade aerodynamics and weight for more interior room and amenities, sometimes including partial second levels!
Of course, there are other types of trailers out there as well, including tent trailers, teardrops, and all sorts of off-road and overland trailers. Somewhere in there is the tiny house trailer, which is like a park model, but will often be built to code for a full-time residence. Someone who wants to haul a trailer deep someplace where there aren’t roads won’t choose a destination trailer, but an off-road unit. Likewise, you aren’t really going to spend a season at a campground in a teardrop.
The No Boundaries RV Suite wants to be a bunch of different trailers at once. It has the kind of interior that you’d expect from a destination trailer, a porch like you’d might find on a park model or tiny house, off-road tires, a metal skeleton, huge tanks for long off-grid stays like an overland trailer, and portability like a travel trailer.
Forest River, one of the largest RV conglomerates that doesn’t have Thor in its name, has been brewing a line of adventure trailers for a while. In 2017, it launched the No Boundaries line of compact adventure trailers. No Boundaries is Forest River’s take on the overlanding trailers that are so hot today. Before the pandemic, Forest River wanted to expand this idea even further. That finally happened in 2020 with the launch of the IBEX line.
Now, if you look at an IBEX and a No Boundaries trailer side-by-side, you’d have to squint to find any real differences. Well, at first, No Boundaries catered exclusively to the market of shorter under 5,000-pound adventure trailers, while IBEX got as long as 30 feet and as high as 7,000 pounds. Of course, other differences came in the form of decal and interior packages. However, things are changing with No Boundaries.
Currently, the largest IBEX is the 24MTH, which is a 30-foot trailer that weighs 6,660 pounds empty. Until recently, the largest No Boundaries was the NB20.4, which clocked in at 5,218 pounds and measured 23’9″. When you look at either an IBEX or a No Boundaries, they look like a typical travel trailer, but with a lift kit and knobbies. Both trailer lines use a Curt axle-less independent suspension. Those bolt to a frame with an aluminum cage top, which features Azdel composite wall material instead of lauan plywood. These trailers aren’t nearly as hardcore as purpose-built overlanding trailers but should be able to survive some trail riding to a camping spot.
As a representative at the No Boundaries line of Forest River informed me, its customers wanted more than what an IBEX or a No Boundaries offered. No Boundaries customers in particular were looking for the ultimate in an off-grid travel trailer. This motivated the design team at the IBEX and No Boundaries divisions to build something completely new.
The 32′ 6″ RV Suite starts off as a box riding on a steel frame. Unlike the regular IBEX and No Boundaries trailers, there isn’t a fancy axle-less independent suspension here. Instead, you get off-road tires but ride on typical beam axles.
On top of this chassis sits the RV Suite box, which consists of an external and internal aluminum cage. Sitting within the cage is Azdel Onboard material for the walls, fiberglass with gel coat for siding, and a PVC membrane rubberized material for the angled roof structure. Forest River says the RV Suite comes with increased sidewall insulation, enclosed termination, and upgraded sidewall construction. Add in tank pad heaters and the RV Suite becomes a trailer that you should feel pretty comfortable in while camping in colder weather.
While the RV Suite doesn’t seem to use the best possible build materials, it is a noteworthy upgrade over the typical build. For example, Azdel (above) will not prevent water leaks, nor will it prevent siding delamination from adhesive failure. However, since Azdel material is composite, you shouldn’t get the rot and extreme mold you can get from the failure of a lauan wall. More brands are turning to Azdel for their walls, which is a good thing. However, ruining a wall is only part of how water damage kills campers.
At any rate, the build of the RV Suite should allow it a longer lifespan, which is also good. Before we step inside, I should note that there’s a sun deck on the rear of the trailer. At first, this deck made me think this was a destination trailer or a park model, but No Boundaries merely stole the idea from those types of trailers. It’s all metal back there and accessed through a sliding door. There’s more than enough room back there to sit in a chair and read a book next to the lake. Your eyes also don’t deceive you, the deck and its overhang are permanent and do not fold.
The No Boundaries representative also told me that since the deck is bolted to the frame, you can carry things back there. You’ll find four tie-downs. The trailer can carry 2,210 pounds of gear, water, and whatever else you want to bring with you. The No Boundaries representative said you could park a small motorcycle on the deck, provided you can figure out how to get the bike past the welded rails and find some more weight to place up front to get the weight balance correct. Forget all of that, I just want to chill on the deck with a fire nearby.
The great ideas continue once you slide open the rear door and walk inside. The RV Suite does not have slides, so it has to be clever with the space it does have. By day, the rear bedroom is an office or a dining room. Then, when it’s time to sleep, a king bed swings down from the wall. Nice! I like that RV manufacturers have started to think about the fact that people still need to work, even when they’re on the road.
Moving forward, now we enter the combination kitchen and dining room. The bench here turns into an L-shaped sofa. For your cooking pleasure, there’s a convection oven, an induction cooktop, and a sink. That kitchen countertop is also solid and sturdy like you’d expect to see in an apartment. Next to the entry door is an electric fireplace and a television.
Finally, at the very front of the trailer is a bathroom of substantial size. You’re getting two sinks in here plus an apartment-size shower with a jet spray function. Other neat features include an onboard washer and dryer, multi-zone heating, a central vacuum system, dimmable lights, and a smart electrical system. The options list is short and includes lithium batteries, a 3,000-watt inverter, 500 watts or more of solar, and a high-efficiency air-conditioner.
Forest River wants you to be able to take this trailer down a fire road before you post up at your favorite spot off-grid. This is further evidenced by the 90-gallon fresh water tank, 60-gallon grey water tank, and 30-gallon waste tank. Sheryl and I used up 46 gallons of water during the week we were at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, so we could stay in something like the RV Suite for nearly two weeks so long as we were able to keep the power on.
You get all of this in a 32′ 6″ package that weighs 7,380 pounds empty and about 9,590 pounds when loaded to GVWR. You can get longer trailers that weigh about the same. However, I think I can see where the weight went. The quality of the materials in the trailer was pretty good. By that, I don’t mean they were like what you’d see in a million-dollar Class A, but they weren’t a big middle finger to your senses, either. Clearly, someone took care to make sure the trailer felt a bit like an upscale apartment. I even dig the vintage-style refrigerator!
I think you can see all of the different pieces at work here. It has holding tanks and a metal skeleton like an overlanding trailer, that cozy kind of interior you get from a tiny house, and the portability of a trailer. I don’t think the RV Suite is the best trailer in any of those categories, but I do like seeing all of these elements baked together into one unit. At the very least, nobody will be able to accuse you of having a boring cookie-cutter travel trailer.
What do you think something like this costs? I expected an advertised price of $70,000 or higher. The price for the No Boundaries RV Suite RVS1 is $51,547 before options. However, dealers are already discounting them. The dealership at the Florida RV SuperShow was selling its optioned example for $46,000. A dealership elsewhere is selling one for $41,729. One reader has asked about the steep discounts advertised at RV shows. In this case, the discount is real but isn’t the best deal you can get. It always pays to shop around!
I’m left wondering if someone didn’t tell the No Boundaries crew that you could charge way more money for a trailer so long as you slap the word “Overland” on it. I won’t say that a $50,000 trailer is affordable, but I expected a much higher price. I’m not sure if the RV Suite is the best at anything, but it is something different and in a cool way. I loved a lot of what I saw with the RV Suite. I’m a sucker for vintage style and that sun deck just sounds dreamy. I just want to park it up at AirVenture and watch planes take off and land.
(Images: Author, unless otherwise noted.)
Forget all of that, I just want to chill on the deck with a fire nearby.
Which is the thing about RV porches – almost anywhere you park you’re going to have a campsite that is also right outside your door that you can put a chair on. I guess at least this one can be used for cargo when you’re travelling.
And that bathroom looks like an exhibitionist’s dream! Maybe they found a new untapped target demographic? 😉
Nice…at at least cheaper than you thought it would be…but that big bathroom is such a waste of space
WHY is the bathroom So Large? It could be 2/3 the size and still be bigger than the bathroom in my parent’s Class A – and I really Do Not Want to look at the toilet every time all the doors are open.
I’d like to read a deep dive into the depreciation of RV’s like this, and RV’s in general. Storage facilities are full of RV’s that rarely get used. What’s the loss in value of a Class A motorhome after 3 years? Talking about depreciation is a buzzkill for sure, but it should be a consideration in an investment of this size. For some of us, anyway.
Blows my mind how many of these are sitting at self storage lots rarely used. We try to use ours 20-30 nights a year….otherwise it just doesn’t make sense to have all that $$$ sitting unused. Imagine paying $$$ to store the RV, making monthly payments, and having it depreciate like a stone. We would not own an RV if we couldn’t park it at home like we do, under a pole barn for protection with power hookups so we can prep for trips at our leisure. We have RVed for many years now. Started in tents, moved to a small travel trailer that we bought used to see if we would like it. Traded it in on a newer travel trailer that we kept for 12 years.Trade in was what we paid for the used RV. We moved to a 5th wheel for better towing in 2016. We researched and got a 5th wheel we plan to keep….well….until we don’t RV anymore. These folks buying a new RV every 3-4 years must eat so much cost in depreciation. Water and Sun are the enemies of RVs. Storing under a cover can make one last and look new a long, long time.
I know nothing about trailers, RVs, and the like, let alone overlanding versions, and I’ll probably never own one. However, I love any vehicle or structure/dwelling that’s semi-self-contained, and able to fend for itself to some extent for a period of time.
Despite my ignorance (and lack of need for a trailer/RV… nor do I really have a place to even park one atm) I usually read Mercedes’ reviews about them from start to finish. Usually, I’m stunned by how much these things cost, but THIS one: the Forest River No Boundaries RV Suite surprised me with it’s somewhat-less-insane starting price in the $50Ks. If I had the elbow room and needed an ADU for guests to stay in, I’d have to seriously consider something like this instead of putting the effort/expense/paperwork into building a permitted bungalow or other small structure.
It’s nice enough without being excessively fancy, seems roomy for what it is, and if you needed to move it once in a while, it strikes me as probably doable with the right tow vehicle. I like it! 🙂
Serious question here. If you use the front room as an office or a living room, where do you put all that stuff when you want to fold down the bed to sleep?
Just popping in to say that I love all these RV writeups, especially the build quality critiques, so thanks Mercedes! Something I haven’t seen but would like to is a little bit of love for toy haulers – when I was heavy into the camper life it was taking my quads and motorcycles out to the dunes to play around. After a trip to Pismo Beach last summer when I finally introduced my wife to duning and she had a blast, I’ve been thinking (dreaming) about getting a UTV to go play again (with age comes cage, and I’m now on the wrong side of 40). Because of the beating these campers take – they have to double as a garage and frequently travel a few very rough off-road miles to the campsite with thousands of pounds of vehicles strapped in the living room – I’d really be curious if build quality has improved from my old Forest River or my friends’ likewise disappointing Weekend Worriers…
Hi Mercedes … I love your articles on trailers. Any chance you can check out a “SafariCondo” sometime? The “R” Series in particular looks great!
I wonder if there’s any economy in buying one of these and parting it out to make considerable upgrades to my house. Maybe then I could use the shell as a shed. Hmm…
Pardon the ignorance, but what is the point of A/T or lugged tires on a non-driven axle? I can see a slight advantage when braking, but if the surface is that loose you probably need to be going slow enough that it doesn’t matter. Mainly it seems like they would increase rolling resistance in most scenarios.
Good question, actually! Regular trailer tires have little grip in slippery stuff, so you end up with your trailer sliding down a hill or bank. Knobbies can help mitigate that. Granted, my experience is with small off-road trailers, so I’m not sure how effective those tires would be on this large unit.
Thanks for the reply! It seems like the physics of a large off-road trailer would be super hinky. I’ve been thinking about a tangentially related issue, which is that EVs with only one driven “axle” only brake with that “axle” if using 100% Regen braking. This doesn’t seem like much of an issue for FWD, other than increased tire wear, but in RWD it seems like it could result in an effect similar to using the e-brake, especially in conditions of low traction. Very curious what happens if you go into full regen in a RWD Ioniq 6 or Tesla Model 3 when driving in icy or slush conditions. Would be a super cool feature to borrow some EVs and do some ice driving/racing!
Increased puncture resistance would be one thing I can think of. Plus there is the more rugged look.
I’m just here to complain about vessel sinks and ugly fake-grey-wood laminate.
(The rest of it is pretty cute, but my gosh: BOTH of my least favorite decor things.)
I’m with you there. I don’t mind the look of vessel sinks as much as I don’t like the fact they don’t have overflow drains. It’s a cheap sink made to look trendy and expensive.
And the flooring? Probably “LVL”. Which stands for “Luxury Vinyl” flooring. Which is just regular vinyl flooring that the Marketing Department got hold of and renamed.
But… all that said… not bad.
I hope you’re not shopping for a home right now. At least one of those is guaranteed in every flipper-spec house. (I also heard you shouted out on a podcast I heard the other day. Something about a dead p-car and a shoey.)
Ugh, I hate flipper-spec houses so much. Flippers who rip out intact, better-quality old stuff in favor of all this cheap twaddle have a special place in house hell.
Heh, was it Everyone Racers? That seems like something Everyone Racers would mention. (Also, the parsh isn’t dead anymore!)
It was Victoria Scott on an episode of Well There’s Your problem. (I had to go look up the episode to find who said it.)
No way! I love that show. (And Victoria!) I’ll have to dig through and re-listen to her episodes.
$45k for that is pretty good these days! The construction isn’t too chintzy, the interior looks pretty nice and that deck is awesome! Plus no slides to fail. I can see these holding onto a bit more resale value than other campers due to their construction and features.
Did they mention an inverter to run that cooktop from house batteries? With enough batteries and solar plus cooperative weather this could boondock for a while.
Edit: I missed the mention of a 3 kW inverter. Should be plenty of power to run the 120v stuff for a few days off-grid on a reasonably sized battery bank.
Will they ever build a DIY kit like kit airplanes or Ikea? It would make transportation much easier.
Overland this aint, but this is a great price for someone who owns a plot of land in the mountains or near a lake or something and needs a cheap home on it without the cost and hassle of building (and permits).
Hopefully that land isn’t in a county where they limit RV/Travel Trailer parking to thirty days.
Take off the wheels, box in the underside. What RV?
Where is this a thing?
Charlotte county, Florida. You can own a plot of land but if you park and plan to live in your travel trailer/RV, they only allow it for thirty days. They do extend it for emergencies such as hurricane recovery. (Two years and counting now)
If you take off the wheels and “box it in” you will still need to have permits, install hurricane tie down on the frame, and have proper sewer/septic hookups, and fresh water hook ups.
The county uses drones and google maps to check for unpermitted structures appearing suddenly so they can fine them.
This is the county that forced a parent to take down their kid’s treehouse because it wasn’t built to sustain 80 mph winds.
I’m good with your kid’s treehouse not coming thru my patio doors during the next hurricane.
I worry less about the tree house than all the lawn furniture, plastic statues, kids toys, wheel barrels, BBQ grilles, and privacy fences that break apart and blow blocks away into everything.
Sounds like some of it could be hurricane safety… but I don’t live where the hurricanes hit full-force so I really don’t know the damage loose treehouse could cause.
The trailer thing sounds like it’s hotels trying to prevent someone from planting a farm of tinyhomes and listing them on airbnb.
Enforcement sounds like a rule-crazy HOA more than a county. County employees usually aren’t that ambitious. Are the drone guys a private contractor getting a cut of fines for violations they find?
Some of it is definitely hurricane safety. After Charlie (Cat 4) and Ian (Cat 5) they are a bit nervous.
I can see wanting to prevent a nonpermitted development popping up. That’s just good sense to prevent this.
This is definitely county. They enforce it on undeveloped land areas as well as regular neighborhoods and gated communities. Yep. I can see them giving a private contractor a deal to make money doing this.
Remember, this county wanted to develop a new downtown district, so they stopped maintaining the area, declared it “Blighted”, and then imminent domained everything at have the value of the surrounding area.
This looks like a dream if you were working remotely, or did work in remote places. I would hate towing this thing up forest roads frequently, but moving it every few weeks or months seems feasible. It looks like a more attainable version of the $400k towable tiny homes you posted a few months back.
Shhhh… Let’s not get people too excited about that type of lifestyle.
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