2017 Starcraft Launch® 16RB

2017 Starcraft Launch® 16RB pictures, prices, information, and specifications.

MSRP

$18,328

Type

Travel Trailer

Rating

#5 of 115 Starcraft Travel Trailer RV's

2reviews

User Reviews

2 reviews

enjoyable but has had issues

By Larry Gerding (I am an Owner) on Jul 14, 2017

Purchased our unit 1 year ago. Have had it on 6 trips. All of them within a couple of hours from home except we took it to Florida in the winter for 2 weeks. It tows nicely behind a Honda Pilot. Gas mileage is 10-12mpg depending on flatness of roads. The mattress in the unit is thin. We purchased a ... foam mattress to make it more comfortable. I also mounted a swivel arm to mount TV on. We do not use the shower because the stall is to small but use it for storage instead. I built a shelf unit out of PVC pipe and thin plywood to hold laundry baskets where we store our clothes. The aisle in the unit is to narrow to allow 2 people to walk past each other but we knew that going in. We have had several problems with the unit. The LED rope lights under the awning melted and burnt a hole in the awning. This was replaced by the dealer without argument but it took close to 2 months to get it fixed. Next the valve on the toilet snapped off during travel and ended up flooding the floor when water was hooked up. I ended up fixing this myself. The valve is made of plastic to keep the weight down. The reason the valve snapped was because who ever installed the pipe feeding the valve put stress on the valve by not making the pipe long enough. The last problem I had was with the brakes. I was on my way home from our last trip when I noticed that the brake controller was telling me that they were not connected. Thank goodness I did not have to make any sudden stops. After troubleshooting it when I got home I found a wire that feeds the brakes was broken. Who ever ran the wire made it to short so that when the axle was extended probably when I hit a bump)it stretched the wire and snapped it. I also repaired this myself by replacing the wire and making it longer and stronger.

Rating breakdown

Performance

Interior

Quality & Reliability

Value

Read More
Solid. Fun. Liveable.

By Charles Rathmann (I am an Owner) on Jun 18, 2017

So I still have my frame backpack and gear somewhere in the garage, but have not used it since I met my lovely bride 15 years ago. She grew up with pop-up campers, and expects a higher standard of living when camping. We had a couple pop-ups over the years, and both value the experience of the tented ... sleeping experience a pop-up's bunk ends offer. But at a recent RV show, my bride saw and fell in love with the 2017 Starcraft Launch RB. The advantages over a pop-up are more convenient setup, less canvas to worry about, protection from the elements and greater tolerance to unlevel sites. I like that Starcraft campers seem to have a higher ground clearance than many other campers, which makes them more tolerant of uneven terrain without scraping. The fit, finish and interior design are very appealing. Our last pop-up had a glide-out dinette and we feared losing some room. But on our recent week-long trip we were not hurting for storage space and all four of us could coexist peacefully during a couple of heavy storms that came through. We have also found the mechanicals to be very simple to operate. Never having used the plumbing on our pop-ups, we were confident enough to try out filling the water tanks and using the dump station at the end of our trips. The grey and black tank capacity is not huge so we use these features sparingly on a longer trip. The weight of the camper is also manageable, and we can easily tow it with our Chevy Travese. The taller trailer meant we needed to add sway bars and the additional 1,000 pounds in weight over our old pop-ups made it a good idea to add an electronic brake controller. But as long as we keep our speed down, the trailer tows fine. And again, the higher ground clearance makes for a more relaxing drive as you pull the camper out of a gas station parking lot or something where there may be a bit of a slope down to street level. The camper has some features we will not use, like the cable TV hookup and the DVD player. Again, hybrids are a great option for those who want a more robust camper but still want more of an open air sleeping situation. Some of these standard features seem like of overkill for a camper designed more for outdoor living. But if it helps Starcraft sell units to people who expect cable, more power to them. If I had to nitpick something, we kind of miss the standard feature of a pop-up that allows you to mount the stovetop on the outside of the camper. Cooking inside is fine when there is really nasty weather, but really you should be doing that outside if you are camping. Right? There is a mounting bracket available, but it is not cheap. We were able to buy a very nice stand-alone camp stove for less than that bracket would have cost us. We did cook inside once during inclement weather, and everything worked fine. Overall, I rate this camper highly. It is a very satisfying combination of form, function, fit and finish.

Rating breakdown

Performance

Interior

Quality & Reliability

Value

Read More