Winnebago Micro Minnie 1808FBS - 2 Year Review! 

It's stored in CA lol

I wonder if the 2023 version is as good as the 2019 version that Keith has.

Strangers?? Weird

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much! I am working on a few new modifications and want to post a 3 year review soon about how everything is holding up!

Thanks! I think keeping it clean and waxed helps tremendously. I use the ProtectAll protectant about every 6 months on it after washing it.

Thank you!! You'll love the camper!

@@keithre1896 Another question. What tires are you looking at for replacement?

The tires that came with the trailer are regular truck/suv tires rather than trailer specific tires. I've done a lot of research on this. A lot of trailers being manufactured are shipping with truck/suv tires, and have read some reviews saying people prefer truck/suv tires on their trailer vs trailer specific tires. Anyways, we have had zero problems with these tires. Not sure if I want to go with an all terrain tire for replacements, or just go with an all around good truck/suv tire. The Michelin Defenders are excellent tires, but then they aren't all terrain specific.

LOL... I'm a Toyota/Lexus customer, and I approve of your message. :)

I have a 2019 1700BH that I pull with a Toyota 4Runner. Great quality with both manufacturers. However, I also got my Micro Minnie for only $21,700 out the door pre-COVID.

Dont do it!These are built like garbage.Can you say endless money pit!

@@tonybrock1457 Yes, after more research we decided to get a Casita. Much sturdier construction and being all fiberglass it will stand up better to the humid Florida weather. Unfortunately, we have to wait a year and half for delivery but the wait will be worth it. Thanks for the input!

@@glennkemp7450 Thanks for the input! We decided to go with a Casita. It's way smaller, but built to last especially in Florida's humid climate.

​@@tonybrock1457wow

We thought the same thing about the TV when we first bought it, but the trailer is small enough that when we sit in the bed area and watch TV, it is perfect. I think on a longer trailer, it wouldn't be a good location.

@@keithre1896 I could do without the TV completely, a large laptop will be plenty!

Hi Pam, this is Re. Thank you for your question. Keith is great about the nuts and bolts of the camper. Me, I am more about the fun add-ins-like the pillow! I found it on amazon. Here is the link: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075YVQBWG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It's a bit pricey at $119 but I really like it. Pros- great color, quality and firmness to sit on the bed upright and watch TV or read a book. It is large enough to almost cover the entire length of the bed. No show of wear n tear after 2 years. Cons- it is large. So when you sleep you need to move it to the bench seat. Keith is 6'2 so he has to slump a bit and not sit totally upright (not the pillow's fault) but its perfect for me 5'5. Hope this was helpful. Good luck on your upcoming purchase. Let us know what you ended up getting!

Awesome! The ProtectAll is pretty easy to find. I bought the big jug since I use it on other stuff as well. Amazon has it here: tinyurl.com/2s45xcek - you can also buy smaller containers of it. It's worth it in my opinion. A little goes a long way.

Thanks! Yes , the bed is situated side to side, and one person has to crawl over to get out. I usually am on the inside since Maria always gets up in the middle of the night. So not an issue. I think it would be nice to have a walk around bed, but this was a small compromise for sticking with the 1808FBS for size and versatility. We camp at a lot of places where if our trailer was even one or two feet longer, it would be a real hassle! Regarding changes, I believe Winnebago makes incremental changes every year to their models. Was there a change you were referring to in general? I have heard that quality of the 2020-2021 models was not good, possibly due to shutdowns and changes in assembly resources. Ours is a 2019 and is very solid and have had only minor things come up along with normal wear and tear.

@@keithre1896 Thank you for taking the time to provide such a helpful response... there’s a 2108DS model with a Murphy bed that looks interesting and might provide a compromise that’ll work for us. It’d be a little longer trailer but hopefully the quality like yours will be high. We looked at a 2018 this week, a 2108DS, and its quality was not top of the line but certainly acceptable for our next - and smaller- RV. Thank u again! Larry W

The Murphy bed models really eat into your below deck storage space, or garage as they call it, everything in a camper is a trade-off I love my storage space for tables and chairs and barbecues and stuff, much of the reason I own a trailer is to go places and live outdoors but my 1808 FBS has all the amenities to live comfortable indoors as well.

Absolutely ZERO issues with the slide! I just do very basic maintenance about once a year and lubricate the slide. That's it! It's very reliable.

Forgot to mention the warranty part of your question: I am not actually sure. When we bought the camper, the owner's packet came with all of the individual vendor component manuals, along with individual warranties. I think what would be applicable here is that the Schwintek warranty would apply if there's issues.

Thanks! The GVWR of our camper is 7,000 lbs. I know that Winnebago updated the axles on the newest models and I see that the 2021 1808FBS has a GVWR of 5,000 lbs. The loaded weight of our camper is somewhere around 4,200 lbs, so having a 7,000 lb GVWR is pretty crazy. My tow vehicle is a 2018 F-150, and the GVWR is 7,000 lbs, and GCWR is 14,400 lbs.

@@keithre1896 Hey Keith. Thanks for the video! Great info. Wife and I are looking into this setup. What are the specs on your truck?

Hey Rob, our truck is a 2018 F-150. 5.0 V8 - 3.55 rear axle. Tow package, crew cab short bed. It's a workhorse of a truck! Tows beautifully. Love the linear smooth power of the 5.0!

That's awesome! Power is probably the easiest to harvest, store, and maintain. Water/sewer is another story. Solar is great for harvesting the power, and storing the power in a lithium battery bank guarantees the best usage of the power, since you get faster charging and full 100% discharge, versus all other battery types that only yield about a max of 50% discharge before you need to recharge. In winter, you'll obviously get less sun for solar harvesting, so a good generator is needed to charge your batteries. Or if you are permanent, then you have other options like wind. For water, I honestly don't know since it could depend on where you are, and if you get rainfall. But sewer is the big one that requires either you to deal with the black water manually, or only generate grey water. And use nature for your bathroom needs.

Solar charging capabilities vary greatly in different parts of the country. Will you have the trailer in a wooded or full sunlight at your property? How many days of sun does your location get per year?

No issues ever with leaking! I check the roof yearly and apply Dicor to areas that need it. Pretty easy maintenance, and no issues so far!

Yeah, I read they got rid of the oven on the new Micro Minnies. That's too bad, we use ours all the time, especially useful when we dry camp, which is pretty often! Our 2019 has two 3500lb torsion axles, I saw the new ones have a lower GVWR. I think the reason they put those bad mattresses in is because they are so lightweight, but we put a topper on and it works great. I considered putting a new mattress in and adding more structural support, but the topper works great. And the slide can slide out just a little if you want to use the camper without the slide all the way out. I haven't seen the new cabinet doors , so not sure what those are like.

That's awesome! The biggest issue with full timing is ventilation and proper ongoing maintenance. If you're going to be going from one place to another, be prepared to perform maintenance on a higher frequency schedule. As well as keeping the tanks flushed. If you'll be on hookups, then that helps with having to maintain the DC side of things as much.

The frame/superstructure of the camper is aluminum

Definitely! The slide is variable and can be extended anywhere from 1% to 100%. It’s very accessible!

Many thanks, Keith .

We’ve been looking at a 1708FBS , as our concern on the 1808 is possible issues with the slider unless parked “ dead”level , plus overall slider reliability , and drain on the 12v batteries. Would appreciate your comments, thank you.

I have not had any issues with the slide when the camper isn't perfectly level. I know that it does slide out easier when it's level, or mostly level. We always level the trailer anyways when we get somewhere, since the fridge needs to be level too if it runs on propane. The good news is that Winnebago uses the Schwintek slide system, which is a very good quality slide. Have had no issues with it. I just occasionally spray a little bit of slide lubrication on the slide gears. In terms of battery usage, it runs native on the 12v side of the camper's electrical system, and battery usage is very minimal for a full slide in or out process. That's never been a concern. I want to do a video on electrical parts of the camper, which I touched on in my inverter video, but one of the first things I would do is ensure you have good battery capacity if you plan on dry camping. We use 2x 6v batteries, giving us about 242 ah of battery. I'd like to add more or run lithium at about 200 ah when lithium prices drop. Hope that helps!

We bought the camper in late 2018, but it's an early 2019 model. I think they made changes to the 2019 models halfway through the year, but ours is probably more of a carryover of the 2018 features. That's awesome, hope you guys love your 1700bh!

@@keithre1896 Yes Winnebago does that every year I think. We have the newer 2018. I noticed we have the same decor as yours (valance fabric)

@@exploringnewhites l4504326thank

Yeah, we set up a wedge pillow on the bed, and watch movies on the TV. Good view and works great!

Doesn't come with a slide topper from the factory, but I've heard of folks installing them after market.

Yeah, it's a compromise for having a smaller length trailer, but we knew that going into it. The 2108FBS adds about 2 1/2 feet in length, bigger bath too, which is nice. I sleep on the inside, and never get up in the middle of the night, or rarely. So, for us, this model works out great, and is a good overall length for tighter places.

The only thing I think I mentioned in the video was the water heater made a bad ringing noise when it was powered on, either via gas or electric. It turned out to be the circuit board, and I got a replacement board from Dinosaur electronics, and it works like a dream now, no noise! I am gearing up to post a 3-year review of the camper. A few small things have cropped up, but nothing major. Look for the video when it comes out!

@@keithre1896 Yeah, I have seen that. It is quite unusual for an RV to not have any issues for 2 years. Is this typical for Winnebago? There are people on RU-vid trashing that too.

@@mehmetdtx I've heard issues with the Winnebago campers that were made during Covid, where quality control has gone down hill. I don't have personal experience with that since my camper was made in 2019, and the quality has held up really well, with normal wear and tear. I want to do yearly reviews though to reveal how it ages, and yes, going down rough roads there's stress put on interior things like cabinets and moulding, but it's nothing major. Also, things like regular maintenance, like staying on top of maintaining the roof and seals makes a big difference. I do regular maintenance looking for caulking that needs to be touched up or roof dicor that needs touch up.

You can if you use a generator. The AC is the most power hungry appliance in the camper. You need a 2,000-3,000+ watt generator to run it. The start up of the AC uses the most power, and some folks use a soft-start add-on, which allows them to have better luck using a 2,000 watt generator. Otherwise, you need to use traditional RV park hookups to run the AC. In some cases, where people have modified their battery banks to run high Ah Lithium arrays, then use a 3,000 watt inverter, they can run the AC, but it will drain the battery bank very fast. But, an average stock camper can't run the AC on battery.

We tow with a 2018 F-150 5.0. It’s a workhorse, tows beautifully!

@@keithre1896 thank you

Was curious to know if you ever found the answer to this question. I would love whatever info you came up with. Thanks

Yep, absolutely, and has an outside venting hood fan over the stove.

I talk about it a little bit in the video I made for the review of it. Here it is in case you are interested - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M5KcZtL1WlU.html I don't really talk in detail about how I ran the wiring in that video, but the video shows the location better. I ran the DC wire back behind the microwave, and poked through to where the fridge is to the left of the microwave. I installed the on/off power right above the microwave, and then down the side of the fridge to the DC distribution panel, which is right below the fridge. I attached the pos/neg leads to an empty spot on the DC side of the distribution panel and installed a 3amp fuse. All in all , very easy!

I must say, I'm a very very handy guy and can build or fix just about anything from a dog house to a transmission utility substation but your video might be the best one out there when it comes to this subject. Congrats and Thank you. About the Anderson, since this is almost a 600 dollar device, what is the bang for the buck when for 150 bucks or so, one can use a bar type. Concerning the hot spot, does not that need a subscription to a carrier? @@keithre1896

Thank you for the awesome compliment!! Regarding the Anderson hitch, we've tried a total of 3 hitches. The first one was the regular bar type with the friction attachment for sway control. I didn't like that one due to having to disconnect the sway bar to back up, it just wasn't as easy to use as we wanted. Then we tried a Blue Ox hitch, and it was good, but overkill, and releasing the tension on the bars was really not easy if the camper wasn't level or straight, and Maria couldn't do it by herself at all if she wanted to. So I sold both of those, and got the Anderson. It's a little pricey, but the ease of use and how well it works made it worth it. I figure you only need one WD hitch, and might as well get the one that works best for you. The Andersen is insanely easy to hitch and unhitch with no tension bars or anything. Our trailer is pretty small, and it works great. I suppose if we had a really big trailer, maybe a different hitch might be better, I don't know. But we're super happy with the Andersen hitch!

@@keithre1896 Keith & Re, so the backstory is because of yours and Re's video, we bought the exact unit about two weeks ago and already love it. Detailed operating manual is far from detail but we figured out most everything. I did not figure out one item which you may be able to tell me in a few short words. In the control panel there are the switches for the neccesities and two black toggle switches, one feeds the outdoor LED strip and the other feeds the ?????. Thanks in advance.

Congrats! It's a great camper, size is perfect for almost any situation, boondocking or smaller sites, or RV parks. Very versatile. The other black rocker switch should be for your light on the ceiling as you enter the camper. There's also a switch on the light. So if you turn the switch on the light on, then you can just use the rocker switch to turn on and off that light. I never use it, I always just use the switches on the lights themselves.

We were able to get this off the lot new for a little over $21k. That was back in late 2018. The camper is an early 2019 model.

I'm pretty blown away at how much they cost nowadays! We bought ours new in late 2018, and cost was about $21k.

He said he spent $25,000 on the 2018 Micro Minnie.

I think this video was excellent. How can you demonstrate broken wiring, etc.?

Thumbs down to David for complaining about a helpful free video.

Let's see some of David's vlogs