Front Living Travel Trailer RVs Worth a Second Look

Contributor

Stephanie Hatley

Favorite Trip

Staying at Watchman Campground inside Zion National Park was one of the best experiences of my life! We also love Acadia, and my kids are begging us to return to White Sands.

Home Base

North Carolina

Favorite RV

Our family travels in a 2022 Grand Design Reflection 28BH, but we hope to one day own an Airstream!

About Contributor

Originally from NC, our family has traveled America since September 2021 in our fifth wheel, visiting 29 states and over 50 national park units. We love the roadschooling adventure, learning more about ourselves, our country, and other cultures. Our favorite memories are at Zion and Acadia, where the sweeping beauty has captured our hearts!

THERE’S ARGUABLY NO BETTER RV FLOOR PLAN for movie nights than those with a front living room. While front living floor plans are more common in fifth wheels, we’ve compiled rarer front living travel trailer campers that offer interior living benefits in a smaller package that’s easier to tow. 

Whether you’re a solo traveler looking for a lightweight trailer or a family of five needing a spacious interior, this list has something for everyone.

Key Takeaways

  • Front living travel trailers offer a cozy, social atmosphere by placing the main gathering space at the front of the RV. This makes them ideal for movie nights, entertaining, and a homey feel in both large and compact floor plans.
  • This roundup features a mix of spacious and lightweight models, including standouts like the Crossroads Zinger 259FL, Dutchmen Kodiak Ultimate 3371FLSL, and Forest River Salem FSX 161QK, catering to everyone from solo travelers to families.
  • Compact front living trailers under 25 feet still maximize functionality with convertible dinettes, walk-through bathrooms, and modern amenities, while the largest travel trailers provide luxury touches like king beds, fireplaces, and multiple slide-outs.

What Is a Front Living RV?

Grand Design Imagine XLS 24BSE Floorplan
Grand Design Imagine XLS 24BSE Floorplan Photo by Grand Design

Some front living travel trailer models feature dining and lounge areas in the nose of the trailer, while others only feature a dinette or a sofa. Larger trailers with front living areas offer more amenities, such as hide-a-bed sofas and theater seating.

Many RVers love front living travel trailer floor plans because they offer more gathering space. A travel trailer with a front living room is excellent for campers who frequently host friends and family. The separation of space makes these floor plans feel more homey. The kitchen comfortably flows into the living space to provide optimal cooking and entertaining experiences.

We divided the best front living travel trailers into larger floor plans with a true front living room and smaller campers with a front living or dining area.

Best Front Living Travel Trailer RVs

If you have a larger family or enjoy hosting guests, check out these spacious front living travel trailers.

Crossroads Zinger 259FL

Images by Camping World

Specs
  • Length: 29’11”
  • Dry Weight: 5,360 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 2,240 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

When you walk into the Zinger 259FL trailer, you may think you’ve stepped into a fifth wheel. It’s that spacious with the front living layout. I love the kitchen half-wall separating it from the living room. Here, you’ll find bar stools and plenty of counterspace. On the other side is a loveseat in front of an entertainment center. This front living design truly feels like a home.

The kitchen includes a 12-volt fridge, microwave, oven, and stainless steel sink. The rear bedroom features a queen bed with side wardrobes behind a sliding privacy door. The bath is split, with the toilet and sink on one side of the hall and the shower on the other. 

This Crossroads floor plan is truly unique for a travel trailer. While it’s designed for couples, the jackknife sofa in the living room can sleep up to two small guests. Although it’s still under 30 feet, you might consider upgrading to 50-amp electrical service and a second air conditioner if you’ll be camping in hot climates.

Dutchmen Kodiak Ultimate 3371FLSL

Dutchmen Kodiak Ultimate 3371FLSL Floor Plan
Image by Camping World

Specs

  • Length: 37’3”
  • Dry Weight: 7,651 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 2,029 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

The Kodiak Ultimate 3371FLSL is a large, luxurious front living travel trailer with upscale amenities like a central kitchen island, three slide-outs, and a king-sized bed. Whether traveling full-time or hitting local campgrounds on the weekends, it has everything you need. 

I love how this layout feels more like a fifth wheel. The kitchen and living area blend seamlessly, highlighted by the central island, a booth dinette, theater seating with a footrest, a jackknife sofa, and an entertainment center above an electric fireplace. Easily entertain friends, host a game night, or watch sports.

The central bathroom is separate from the private rear bedroom, allowing easy guest access. The rear bedroom is your private sanctuary, with its king bed, a second fireplace, and a linen closet. There’s no shortage of storage either. With a cargo capacity of over 2,000 pounds, you can tote everything to make your camping experiences comfortable.

Grand Design Imagine XLS 24BSE

Images by Grand Design

Specs

  • Length: 28’8”
  • Dry Weight: 6,124 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 871 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

The Imagine XLS 24BSE keeps your RV length under 30 feet while offering the added benefits of two separate entry doors. The spacious interior includes a rear bedroom with a queen bed, overhead cabinets, and a dedicated wardrobe for storage. The dry bath features a walk-in shower, linen storage, a mirrored medicine cabinet, and a huge vanity counter.

This front living travel trailer features theater seating in a slide-out directly across from a swivel-mounted TV above the kitchen counter. At the front, a U-shaped dinette converts into a 52” x 93” bed—ideal for teenagers or overnight guests.

With two slide-outs, the Imagine XLS feels far more spacious than its 28-foot length suggests. Families with kids or dogs will appreciate the open floor space for play and movement. Dual-entry doors also add convenience. One offers direct access to the bathroom, minimizing dirt tracked through the living area. The other allows guests to come and go without disturbing the private rear bedroom.

Dutchmen Kodiak 310FLSL

Kodiak 310FLSL Floor Plan-front-living-travel-trailer
Image by Dutchmen

Specs

  • Length: 35’9”
  • Dry Weight: 6,850 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 2,830 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 6

You won’t give up privacy when hosting guests in the Kodiak 310FLSL. The kitchen and a walk-through bathroom separate the front living area from your private rear bedroom, which features a queen bed, dual wardrobes, three overhead cabinets, and prep for a second TV.

With extra space from opposing slide-outs, this travel trailer’s front living room offers two hide-a-bed sofas. Comfortable theater seats face the fireplace and entertainment center, which conceals a hidden storage area for books, electronics, camp games, or anything else. Huge cabinets on either side of the entertainment center and sofa ottomans add additional storage space.

The kitchen layout orients the sink at an angle that allows you to watch TV as you finish the dishes, an underrated design element that some campers will love. It also boasts a corner nook perfect for a coffee maker without taking up other valuable counterspace.

Comparisons

Travel Trailers with a Front Living Area Under 25’

These small travel trailers offer unique floor plans with a front dining area. In some, the dining area is also the main lounge space, which is why they fit into the front living category. However, some feature a front dinette and a sofa, offering expanded seating options in small campers under 6,000 pounds. 

Forest River Salem FSX 161QK

Images by Forest River

Specs

  • Length: 23’6”
  • Dry Weight: 3,691 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 1,217 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

The Forest River Salem FSX 161QK is a small RV with a U-shaped dinette in the front. This slideless floor plan offers a split, walk-through dry bath with the toilet and sink on one side and the shower across the hall. The rear queen bed sits between two wardrobe closets with plenty of storage space.

I love how Forest River maximized the space with the large U-shaped dinette in the front. It can be your dining table, a comfortable lounge for watching TV, or a secondary sleeping area. The L-shaped kitchen also uses space well and includes a fridge, sink, cooktop, microwave, storage cabinets, and drawers.

I also love the outdoor storage. Oversized doors provide easy gear access and an outdoor kitchen for preparing meals and extending your living space outside. There’s even an optional solar package for boondocking, which features a 200-watt roof-mounted solar panel.

Forest River Wildwood FSX 169RSK

Images by Forest River

Specs

  • Length: 23’
  • Dry Weight: 4,274 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 1,361 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

Designed for couples but functional for small families or solo campers, the Wildwood FSX 169RSK offers a luxuriously spacious rear bedroom—a rarity for small front living campers. A single slide-out makes the queen bed accessible from either side, eliminating the need to crawl over your partner to use the restroom at night.

The front U-shaped dinette offers impressive versatility: use it as a dining area, lower the table to create a spacious lounge for movie nights, or convert it into an RV queen-sized bed for the kids. The walk-through bathroom is equally functional, allowing one person to shower on one side while keeping the toilet and vanity accessible on the other.

A kitchen skylight adds a nice design feature and natural light to the front living area. A 12V fridge keeps items cool in transit, and dual-swinging fridge doors make it easy to access beverages or cold food from anywhere inside.

Forest River’s Salem FSX lineup offers an identical floor plan with varied exterior graphics. Depending on your region, you may find better availability with one brand over the other.

Grand Design Serenova 160LG

Images by Grand Design

Specs

  • Length: 20’2”
  • Dry Weight: 4,436 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 964 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 4

The Serenova 160LG is one of the newest additions to Grand Design’s travel trailer lineup. We first saw this small RV with a U-shaped dinette at the front during the 2024 Hershey RV Show. It’s compact, but still offers all the essentials with Grand Design’s well-known build quality.

Wraparound overhead cabinets offer smart storage above the rear 60” x 80” queen bed. The kitchen maximizes counterspace by opting for a single-burner induction cooktop and a small single-basin sink. But across the floor plan, it offers one of the smartest bathroom designs in a camper this size. Adding a flip-up sink instead of a traditional vanity maximized space for the walk-in shower, toilet, and upper cabinet. 

Several exterior features make this an upscale front living travel trailer: an armless cassette-style awning with integrated LED lighting, MORryde® independent suspension and shock, and a BAL® 5.1 power stabilizing system are just a few highlights. These combine to make camp lounging, travel, and campsite setup hassle-free.

Forest River R-Pod 171

Rpod 171 Floor Plan
Image by Forest River

Specs

  • Length: 19’
  • Dry Weight: 2,529 pounds
  • Cargo Capacity: 1,500 pounds
  • Sleeping Capacity: Up to 3

The R-Pod 171 is one of the most feature-laden SUV towable campers out there. From near-panoramic views from the rear bedroom to roof-mounted solar with a charge controller and inverter prep, this small camper has much to love. 

They fit a queen bed and a small convertible dinette in this travel trailer under 20 feet. The central kitchen features a small single-basin sink with a high-rise, pull-down faucet and a round sink cover to expand counterspace. The two-burner cooktop and microwave are standard features on even these smaller campers, but a central vacuum is a rarely-seen upgrade at this tier. 

The top exterior features include a shower with hot and cold water, upgraded tires with a factory-standard tire pressure monitoring system, an enclosed and forced air heated underbelly, and a rear accessory hitch for a bike rack or cargo carrier. A 15K BTU air conditioner is plenty large to keep this tiny camper cool in the summer.  

Comparisons

What’s the Difference Between Front Living and Rear Living RVs?

The most significant difference between front living and rear living RVs is the location of the living area. Most rear living floor plans feature a front bedroom and a central kitchen, with the rear living space featuring theater seating and/or sofa(s). In contrast, front living travel trailers typically have a rear bedroom, a central kitchen, and the living area at the front of the layout. In other words, the floor plans are opposite each other.

What Are the Best Months to Buy a Travel Trailer?

Because of consumer demand, RV prices tend to increase during the summer. However, the fall and winter are prime months to save money on used or new RVs. Many dealerships are making room for new models, and owners don’t want to winterize an RV they intend to sell.

Does the 10-Year Rule Apply to Travel Trailers?

Many upscale RV resorts abide by a 10-year rule that bars RVs older than 10 years from entry. These campgrounds don’t want older models arriving because they might look too drab, dirty, or weathered. Whether or not you think this is fair, this is common among many resorts offering higher-end amenities.

Travel trailers are like any other RV. Campgrounds usually ask for your trailer’s year, make, and model. Sometimes, they’ll require photos. If your travel trailer isn’t up to standards, you might not be allowed to make a reservation.


While I love front living floor plans, you may want to compare rear living, front kitchen, or bunkhouse models. Check out these additional resources: 

Do you have a favorite front living travel trailer? Let us know in the comments below.

Author

  • Stephanie Hatley Headshot

    Originally from NC, our family has traveled America since September 2021 in our fifth wheel, visiting 29 states and over 50 national park units. We love the roadschooling adventure, learning more about ourselves, our country, and other cultures. Our favorite memories are at Zion and Acadia, where the sweeping beauty has captured our hearts!

    View all posts
  • Comment (2)
  • Anna Elliott says:

    I love all of these but I wish there were more pics with the floorplans and outside I side views.

    • Carl Corder says:

      Hi Anna,

      That’s great feedback — we can likely add the floorplans to this article in the near future! For the time being, you should be able to find floorplan overviews on the manufacturer websites. We’ve provided links to the specific model in each segment.

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