Owners of Outside Kitchens..Pros & Cons

[grhodes50]

As the thread title states......

I would like to hear from those who have the outside kitchens on their trailers.....both pros and cons.

Looking at Crusaders and might...MIGHT...purchase one in the near future. So just doing a little investigating for now.

Thanks in advance.

[TomStacey616]

I like ours because of the "dorm fridge" to store beer, soda, water, extra food, extra beer.... and the sink is good for washing "dirt hands" when cooking on the stove top. I mainly cook bacon and stuff like that outside.... Con's - I really don't have any.

[Life is great]

We have a Rockwood w/ the outside kitchen and i absolutely love it! When we were looking at a new TT my only request was the outside kitchen and my wife picked the rest. We have had the outside kitchen for 4 yrs now and I will always want it from here on out. We have the fridge, dual burners, sink, little counter top area, double cabinet and a microwave. We weren't looking for the microwave outside but i did put it to good use by putting the bread/rolls in there, keeps them safe. Only issue i had and resolved was the door swung open the wrong way so i switched it to open opposite. When it opens now it hits the spring but i am ok with that since it is fully open when it hits. We cook ALOT outside so we are always using it and have it filled with all kinds of goodies. The less i go in the happier I am.

[Iwritecode]

We have one with a refrigerator, sink, microwave and pull-out propane stovetop. The fridge is really what gets the most use from us as we mainly use it to keep drinks cold.

Pros

Don't have to worry about people constantly going in/out of the trailer for drinks when sitting outside. This includes kids and guests as well.

The extra sink comes in handy more often than you might think. Especially when you have dirty or sticky hands that need to be rinsed off. We also have a quick-change faucet that we can attach a sprayer to. That came in extremely handy one time when one of our kids got sick all over the exterior door right next to the O/K.

The extra microwave is nice but we haven't used it more than a couple of times. We usually forget it's there.

I think we used the pull-out stove one time just to say we used it. More often than not we'll use the one inside the trailer instead. YMMV.

The extra storage is nice as well. It's a good place to put extra plates, napkins, silverware ect... so that we can grab stuff when we are outside eating.

Cons

There really aren't any. My biggest problem is remembering to re-stock everything when it gets used up because everything we have in the O/K we also have inside the trailer.

I guess if you really want to be nit-picky it's extra appliances that you have to worry about replacing if they break. Also one extra sink to worry about when winterizing.

[Flybob]

We have an outside kitchen for the first time in this TT. In the past we essentially had a ginned up outside kitchen which had to be setup and taken down each time. It is nice to not have to go in and out just to get a drink, snack, get utensils, wash up etc. Keeps temp inside where you want it and helps keep insects out. I would never own another one without an outside kitchen. No more outside drink cooler.

[dwayneb236]

My first trailer had a kitchen with sink, 2 burner stone and dorm fridge. I loved using it. The only negative on it was with it being in the rear if you were on a site where it sloped down on the backside you has quite a reach to get to the kitchen. Depending on the ground level it could put you at almost chest height.


My new fiver has a modified kitchen. Has a sink and a small dorm fridge but it's located in the front just behind the front pass through storage. I always use my grill to cook out there. I like it better as the level is pretty constant.


I use the outside kitchens a lot.

[grhodes50]

Thanks all for the quick answers helpful info.
The two models we are considering are the 297RSK (outside kitchen) and the 315RST (no outside kitchen, but better bathroom/bedroom layout).

[clintbonnie73]

Originally Posted by grhodes50

Thanks all for the quick answers helpful info.
The two models we are considering are the 297RSK (outside kitchen) and the 315RST (no outside kitchen, but better bathroom/bedroom layout).

There are no Cons..! Love ours.. Well, i guess one con would be .. it would be nice to have the refriq that runs off of propane for off the grid camping..

[Life is great]

Originally Posted by clintbonnie73

There are no Cons..! Love ours.. Well, i guess one con would be .. it would be nice to have the refriq that runs off of propane for off the grid camping..

Very true, would love to run off of LP but not a deal breaker unless you live off the grid.

[satdog01]

Love, luv the outside kitchen.
Pro, can cook bacon without setting off smoke detector. Have flashbacks of when I was a kid, cooked outside under canopy(if lucky) or else. No traffic inside for drinks. Keep extra s/p shakers outside, paper towels etc. cuts down running in and out of tt for things.
Con! FR did not set sink up with drain, so have to dump the sink after every use! Guess it would be a engineering issue as out kitchen is in the kitchen slide.

[The_Rhino]

PROS: What everybody else said plus it makes it easy to prepare a quick meal on the road and/or when we first arrive at the CG tired & hungry. I always leave a little FW onboard so that we can always wash our hands. Our outdoor sink drains into the black tank so I use it flush & prime the black tank... Resale Value - Before they were more common lots of camping neighbors would stop by to checks ours out & were convinced their next RV would also have one...

CONS: Pros far outweigh cons. However, our stock grill is poor quality & the low pressure SS RV-style grills that would mount in its place are not as good as a portable Weber, etc... Our 2 burners do not heat-up food as fast as the indoor stovetop ones. Not sure why. Like most, ours in in the rear under a bunk so when campsites slope downward in the back the countertop can get rather high. It's another BIG opening that requires a good seal to keep water out... I have adjusted our latches a couple times to keep the seal tight & rain out...

[mikeysotp]

Another big fan of the outdoor kitchen here. We do almost all of our cooking outside. Ours has a 2 burner slide out, sink, microwave, and dorm style fridge. We put a small table out for our Weber Q and have it piped to the gas line so other than an oven we have everything we need out there.

As others have said it also keeps the kids from going in and out a million times which means less bugs and mess inside. It never occurred to me to have the fridge run on propane since we always camp with hookups but I guess that could be a negative for some.

[chriscwilson]

Have one and love it. Fridge isn't the greatest but no more cooler with beer/ice sitting outside. First one we had with the outside kitchen. Like one poster said, one more thing to remember to winterize.

[jeepman71]

Mine just has the grill and the frig but I love it. The only con is that the air conditioning doesn't help.

[RollingDownTheHighway]

we love ours. When we were looking for a new one, it wasn't a "deal breaker" if it had one or not, but now, it may be. It makes cooking, cleaning, etc so much easier and with the fridge also, we don't have people running in and out of the TT. We fill our pots outside for cooking on the stove top, etc. We totally love ours and no issues so far with it.

we have:
2 burner stove top
grill
sink
cabinets
dorm stile fridge that works wonders

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

I agree with everyones pro's.

The only con have is ours is set up with half our grey water capacity is to the outside kitchen only. The rest of the camper; inside kitchen, shower, bathroom sink, goes to one tank. The other is outside kitchen sink only. Wish shower was tied to that tank.

Maybe, new project.

[kfd82]

Only con is wishing I had the bigger one with the dorm fridge instead of the mini fridge. All of them I saw with the bigger fridge also had cabinets up top. Would make for a great outside bar.

Ours is the smaller one with the two burner grill, sink and mini fridge and it works great.

[RollingDownTheHighway]

Here's a pic of mine

[Jeff from Burlington Ont]

We just upgraded our 5ver this year.. and a manditory item was an outdoor kitchen.. I used to build a out door kitchen with a fridge, toaster, coffee maker, lights etc.. it took a long time to set up, it would get rained on if there was a large wind and we had to bring in the awning. we had kids steal all our drinks out of the fridge one night etc.

Our new trailer only has a fridge and upper cabinet, but that was all we could get with the trailer model we wanted. Heritage Glen 368flbhk. I added a toaster and Kurig machine and i am happy as a clam.. Being an early riser, I am the first one up in the morning and like to sit outside with the dog and make my breakfast in peace.

I had to mod my kitchen door to add a gas strut since the trailer only had the ability to latch it fully open against the side of the trailer (no roof..)

[ccsvolsfan]

Outside kitchen was a deal maker for me. Having a sink, fridge, cabinets, 120v plugs, and a drop down TV right beside the swung out grill is my "man cave".