What even IS this thing?! 2026 Walkabout 22MAX Keystone New Series Travel Trailer

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:02]Hey everybody, Josh RV nerd at Bishious RV. Finally getting my hands on a Keystone walkabout here. I know it's taken me quite a while. I'm kind of glad I waited though because they've made some updates and some upgrades since the initial stuff that you may have seen out there and I've got word of a few more things that may be coming down the pipeline. So, I'm excited to go through this thing today. This is the 22 Max.

[00:00:21]Um, this is a very interesting departure for the Keystone family right here. If uh I had to oversimplify this for someone who's familiar with this channel, um it kind of feels like an Ember and a Keystone had a little bit of a a little late night fling one night after one too many barley pops and this thing showed up 9 months later after a shotgun wedding. But what does that mean? Okay, so it's going to be a very similar layout to one of my personal favorites, the Keystone Cougar 22 MLS, but there's a lot of stuff that's done different on this. First of all, the entire skin. This has a painted aluminum skin package, very similar to like a Brinkley Model I. If you've ever seen a paint package on a big fifth wheel, they look really good longterm. This RV already is painted. Now, it does have some sticker decals on the outside, but the base skin itself is painted. It is a laminated wall. Originally, when these were made, they were a single composite wall with a wood product on the interior panel. for lack of a better way to say it, is now a completely inorganic wall and floor construction. So, composite walls and floor, aluminum, etc. Uh, so a lot of long-term longevity factors there. It's extra tall inside standard dual air that you can run on 30 amp.

[00:01:41]These the the the I don't even want to call it a skylight in the slide out because that implies it's made of plastic. It's an automotive windshield in the slide ceiling that thankfully you can pull a shade on and block the sun so you don't end up scorching your scalp or anything like that. Independent suspension, hot cold camp, rated holding tank, heat pads, 440 solar, 200 watt inverter. I've I mean I've run out of time for my intro here. This thing is loaded with crazy fun stuff and I'm really curious to know what you think about it as we go. Now, anytime I approach an RV, especially something new, the first question I ask myself is like, who is this for? This is a different animal. This is obviously not for everybody. There's going to be people look at this go, "This is absolutely stupid." There's also going to be people looking at this go, "Oh man, sometimes we go boondock and sometimes we go moochocking where we uh you know, we're in the um the kids driveway visiting the grandkids or something like that. This is the one, this is an RV that could do both jobs really well. I don't know that there's necessarily one person for this. It's an interesting thing. I see little opportunities. I personally would tweak around, but overall I kind of get what they're going for. But a lot of this RV is different. Like you, this this part right here almost reminds me of a Surveyor 204 MKLE where you have the little mini dining bar and a dinette. Um some people might say it might be better if you you move this that or the other thing, but you got to keep in mind you've got things like a furnace under that bench and you have your converter fuse box under the other bench. So the the the dinette is kind of fixed in place. The thing is if you don't care about this, you can always just get rid of these stools. And I mean that could be a quick little gear access point. You could put, you know, this could be a pet pals, pet bed, pet dishes, or anything like that could go down there. I could see a lot of different uses for it.

[00:03:29]There are also some power outlets down there that are easy to miss. But speaking of the dinette, a single leg telescopic kind of post means it's far less of a knee knocker. Not a complete no knee knocker. Don't get me wrong, no dinette I think is super comfy by any means, but that could fold down into a small sleeper. The entertainment setup on this is interesting to me. If I sit over here at the theater seat straight across from it, like the idea here is I think the idea with uh with a walkabout is you do spend time outside, but you very well could spend time inside. This isn't just exclusively an off-road camper. I could see this being a park camper. The suspension alone is one of my favorite parts of this because I I I truly feel after all my years and experience, if you want to keep an RV out of the shop, find an RV with a better suspension. And in my opinion, this is arguably one of the very best out there. But the TV compared to everything feels a little underwhelming to me. Now, a lot of people don't go camping to watch TV, but it's there. It just kind of It is 12vt, by the way. It just feels like I don't know. It just feels like a thing. You won't find heat vents in the floor of these, by the way.

[00:04:38]I know I'm moving the camera really slow. I don't like whipping the camera around. Uh makes me makes me motion sick. And I got to imagine it does a similar thing to you. Now, we are 6'10, 82 in from floor to ceiling, and it's a linear ceiling clearance, meaning taller sidewall, meaning bigger shower, taller slide, etc. We also have dual air standard capable of running on 30 amp service. We have the 18,000 BTU Furion Chill Cube, and up front, a standalone direct dump 8,000 BTU supplement air.

[00:05:09]Um, now that chill cube again, if you're mooch docking on 15 amp household extension cord power, make sure first of all you're using a heavy duty extension cord. Secondly, um, you uh, you could run the chill cube just off that. So again, if you're doing the driveway moochocking, you have some sweet opportunities there. Uh, well, as long as we're spinning around here. I kind of like the the patterned almost looks like off-road tire print on on the uh the the quilting of the uh the theater seat over here. Notice how it is cuddle compliant if I'm not mistaken. I haven't actually checked this. Yes, indeedy doodly, as Ned Flanders would say. We do have ourselves a fold down armrest and that is a manual rip cord variety. Uh a power theater seat. Some people really like them, but power if you are off the road can be a little bit tricky. Now, we got to talk about this cuz this is neat, but it could obviously give some people some some big time heart attacks. The atrium wind windshield, roof shield, what do we what do you call it? So, the the whole idea here is that you get to experience the great outdoors. I mean, when you're sitting in this seat, the the views, the sense of space while here in an enclosed area, it's really unique and really fun and really cool. Now, let's be also very real about this. If you are in screaming hot sun country, yeah, that's not insulated like the rest of the RV. Um, thankfully, let me stand up here real slow. You do have a blackout shade that you can pull on this thing. Now, on the back side of that blackout shade is a radiant backer. If you've seen Brinkley windows, it's basically that. But here's the thing. This is a windshield grade glass. It is a windshield type seal and install. It's not a conventional camper plastic skylight. The big question other than the heat that I think people are going to have is yeah, but is it going to leak? I mean, anything will if you don't take care of it. I think obviously the question is, is it going to leak straight from the factory? So far, we haven't seen a lot of that. This product is new. the real cards on the table answer here. I don't know. Nobody does.

[00:07:21]It's new. It's never really been done.

[00:07:24]It's never really been tested.

[00:07:26]I Anyone who has been an early adopter of one of these, I would love to hear your experience. Do you like the glass in the slide roof? Do you hate it? What is your opinion? Cuz I can understand both sides of the equation, but I don't know the reality versus just the theory of it. And I think that's the most fair thing that I can tell you. So, moving on from there, um, while we're at the ground, look it up. You do have the lightsaber style dimmable lighting through this thing. Overall, it does lighten and brighten up in here very well. I want to give them credit for trying to at least use a decent mattress. Same basic mattress you find in like a uh some of the newer, bigger Brinkleys right now, like a they call it I think it's called like a 10 in. I don't know if it actually measures 10 inches. I know that when you get a Subway foot long, it's only 11 in. And a 2x4 is not a 2x4. So, whatever. But it is a 60x 80 queen size. Now, obviously, you have the power headboard incliner kind of feature right here. A little bit of a day bed, day lounge. My personal two cents, I don't like this open cavity above the bed. I would rather that have been enclosed and that have been traditional storage. I I think the outlets are in a decent location over here. You uh you know, a conventional phone cord would still be able to dangle down over in that direction. Um, if you wanted to, I suppose you could throw a king bed in there. It would slot a little bit under the sideands, uh, or under your side wardrobe closets, rather. But if you wanted to put a wider bed in, you could. It wouldn't. It's not what it was intended for, but I I I suppose you could do that. But when it's up out of the way, I kind of like this big open space you have right in here.

[00:09:09]And you know what I thought about this?

[00:09:12]Not that you asked or anything, but the first place that my brain went was ebikes. So, I don't like transporting a a fairly costly off an ebike outside of the RV where people can touch it and the weather can get to it and 100 other things. What I like to do, I've got a folding electric um 3.0 with their new XP4 or whatever. Get like there's like these big 42galon um tote tubs that you can fold it down, slot in there. Now you have handles to pick this thing up real easy. I could slide those suckers in here lickety split real easy and have them readily available to go when we get to our destination or dog kennels or I don't know what else you think you could shove in here. Now spin around the other direction coming back into the kitchen.

[00:09:59]You might notice this is a floor flush.

[00:10:00]It's actually a very deep rack and pinion floor flush slide. That might mean that it gets a little bit tight for road mode, but I will verify that. I will close the slide up in a few minutes or you can jump ahead cuz we do chapter mark these videos for you. Uh first of all, quick note, the dinette of course does fold down into a sleeper. I realize that I haven't demonstrated this, but if I don't mention it, it's someone will ask. So, if this was something you were going to ask and I saved you from it.

[00:10:26]The TV can pivot around. It is a double jointed swing. You know what? Now I'm wondering if I'm laying back here in bed and understand right now I'm just kind of sitting on the end of the bed. How well can I see it?

[00:10:38]>> Uh, dang.

[00:10:42]Pretty good. Actually, pretty good. This over here I thought was really interesting.

[00:10:48]Instead of making the pantry 4 ft deep where you got to reach into it with your armpit and still not reach the back of it. It's unconventional, but they gave you all these little individual compartments. And I actually think although yeah, you have to kind of put a knee on the dinette to climb over here to get to some of it, it may actually increase your total functional storage capacity.

[00:11:13]I don't know. What do you think about that? Now, this cabinet door swinging open this way, I think they did it just for visual reasons because I think it would be more functional in what looks like this big blank panel. But there was a spot under that and they said, "Nuh-uh. No space goes to waste.

[00:11:32]I I just I like that. I like that policy and that practice. One of my only nitpicks. No real dedicated place for a waste basket in here, but I could find a spot for I'm like I like certain aspects of this otherwise. Oh, we got to talk about this. The countertops. People have asked me, "Hey, is it thermal foil? Is it solid surface?" It ain't neither of them. It's a composite type countertop.

[00:11:55]Um extremely heat resistant. I don't personally want to recommend. I had some somebody kind of give me insight and info into this where it can handle like 400 degrees in one concentrated spot for up to one minute. I don't I don't like that. I just want to say be smart. If you're going to put a scalding hot cast iron pan or something, put a freaking hot pad under it, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:12:18]Just be smart about this. Now, I think this is pocket screwed lumber core cabinetry, but here's what we can do. We put our phone in selfie mode. Yep. We peek up there and we can actually see pocket screwed lumber core. That's a way that you can shop for those. So, it is basically like a little bit of a sticker wrap. Notice the sink cover. I'm going to put that in its transit position in just a minute. Um, not exactly counter flush, but uh I I'm not mad at it. I'm not mad at it at all. Little pocket over here under the fridge. Instead of wasting it, they open it up. First place my mind went was like dog dishes or something like that. It is fairly deep.

[00:12:55]I think what I would do is I would get like a a rubber mat or tray that I could slide out and then push back for like purposes. I don't know. Solid drawer space in here. This could be a bit divisive. No propane oven. Nor is there an option for one threein-one electric oven, air fryer, convection, microwave with a twoburner, dual high output stove top. I stress that because three burner stove tops is one high, two low. Good location for power outlets over here.

[00:13:26]But this over here behind the fridge, that's cool. Like I like that. I think that is really cool myself. And the the the beam lighting that they have through the slide out there actually very illuminates it very nicely. Like overall, I'm pretty pleased with what I've seen here. One little note, the taller ceiling is both a blessing and a curse back here. Have you ever seen builders of a floor plan like this where the countertop height in the slide does not match the countertop height in like the rear kitchen area? That's for fire code reasons. With the taller ceiling they have, they are able to make all the countertops one height, but with the taller ceiling they have, there's no real good place on this rear wall for a power outlet. So you have one outlet very far away from the countertop in that upper left area. So hey, I try to be fair. I try to tell you the awesome with the maybe not. Now the taller ceiling and this mega skylight up here means I mean glorious glorious headroom.

[00:14:32]You know what? I haven't checked. Let me look around the corner here. I'm wondering if this has a shower miser system. It does not. That's actually a surprise. It feels like the kind of camper that would have a shower miser water saver system. If you don't know what I'm talking about right now, if you're a boondocker, that can help you avoid wasting fresh water into the gray tank for no reason while showering. Um, if you're a park camper like me, serves you no purpose whatsoever. So, I don't know. Maybe a thing. What do you think?

[00:15:02]Should that be a thing that they include? Let me know. Space around the toilet. Actually, I was expecting worse.

[00:15:07]Was not terrible. Same composite countertop you see here that you saw in the rest of it. One of the only other little uh things, but I could upgrade it. I could make it work, is uh just a conventional dollar store 4 inch fart fan versus something a little bit larger and a little more substantial. But again, little stuff like that you can you can upgrade after the fact. It would be nice it was just done there. Now, I'm suspecting this is going to get awful tight real quick, but we're going to close the slide and check out the travel access. Ooh yeah. Oh crap. It gets real close now. Now, it's hard to tell because the slide floor and the main floor matchy match. Technically, it's a lot easier to walk on the interior edge of the slide lip right here, which you should not do. So, I'm going to have to be really careful like Indiana Jones on a small ledge and tow tap on the actual main floor. So, I don't do that. But, that's the downside to that big spacious rack and pinion floor flush slide is that it gets more bossy when it comes to travel access. Now, I've left the bed in the up position. I could see it like it's fine for it to travel like this, but in the down position, um, you know, you can obviously close this. I mean, there's a ton of room here, but this is what I'm saying. This itself could almost be like a functional cargo space in transit. Actually, hold on. Let me open the door behind me and slide back here, you know? So, from the entry door, you just have a straight shot in. And that kind of opportunity right there, that's stuff that people don't always think about. And I just checked the tag.

[00:16:38]This thing has the cargo capacity to actually use it that way. Now, it doesn't have tie downs or anything, so you got to be smart and careful about this, but there are opportunities here depending on what you want to do. Now, when I looked at this thing, I I I I was afraid it was going to be a little bit too heavy and not have enough cargo capacity. I was very pleasantly surprised to see this thing has like 2100 lb of uh available cargo carry.

[00:17:05]That's solid. Now, standing here, I don't know what the holding tank uh capacities are, and I don't know what the hitch rating is. Uh with a front drop frame, this could be a little bit of a chunky monkey on the hitch. So, I I don't I don't know that it will be half ton towable for a lot of scenarios. You got a 3/4 ton like gas or something, you're going to yank this around pretty much all day long. There may be some half tons that'll do this, but you start talking mountain towing or something, it might be a horse of a different color.

[00:17:36]Speaking of different color, I mean, look at it, you know. Uh, this is it is a laminated sidewall, but it has an aluminum skin, a painted aluminum skin.

[00:17:47]That's the base light gray. Now, the darker gray, black, the orange accents that you're looking at, those are decals, so those could be a little more susceptible to weather, but the base skin itself is going to continue to look really, really well. Um, uh, up front here, power tongue jack. Actually, this is interesting. This is a threepoint leveling system. It does have autoleveling. You'll see leveling jacks just behind the tires, but at a glance, you're like, "That's it. No front stabilizers." It still has front and rear stabilizers, manual. So, it's it's a three-point leveling, sevenpoint stabilization. And if we really want to get stupid and throw the tires in there, it's an 11point contact system, but it's a three-point leveling, 7point stabilization system. It should be pretty darn solid. I have a lot to cover, so I'm just going to start right up front here. Obviously, it has a windshield, and this is one of the very first times I've seen an RV builder actually include a cover, like a protection system for it here.

[00:18:54]And now that I've seen it, makes me kind of wonder why. Very similar, if you're familiar with an Ember Overland camper, I know I've covered all of them on this channel, literally every floor plan.

[00:19:04]This is a powdercoated exoskeleton. Now, really key factor, if you look, you can still see an exterior silicone sealant.

[00:19:13]Under these points, though, they do have Eternabon lashing. So, this RV actually has interior exterior sealants. And that Eternabon stuff, if you know anything about it, it is legitess, ladies and gentlemen. This is a front drop frame compartment, which means lots of space for gear. That's one of the reasons I'm shy about calling this just half ton towable. end of sentence because uh you go loading this up, you could overload the payload rating on your your half ton pretty easy. Little fishing pole holders in case you're going to get off the beaten path. Although the bottom couple there do sort of fight with like your solar stuff and disconnects and whatnot.

[00:19:51]Uh 440 solar package standard, 2000 watt uh inverter package standard. You can see the uh the base level docking center that they have over there as well. the um you know slam latch swinging doors.

[00:20:06]They do have a magnet hold back on those. The newer um lighter weight composite stable steps with the more adjustable feet to better marry up with wonky campsites cuz this thing is intended to get I'm not going to call this a hard overlander. It's one it's a little big for that. It's a little heavy. But two, um it's it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Anyway, in my head, this is a very comfy off the pavement glamper. Now, maybe I'm calling it wrong. I don't know, but I'm not I'm just not saying it's not a rock crawler is kind of what I'm getting at. I just don't want to like sometimes people see cool tires like, oh, off-road. Well, that could mean different things to different people. But whether you're going to go down the highway or uh you know off the pavement, that true four-wheel trailing arm independent suspension right here, it's one of the best best systems out there. I've towed different trailers with different things and that is just amazing. Now, they didn't really have room for a camp kitchen.

[00:21:08]So, they they gave us a couple little hang off the side toys here, which you could always just not use, but just a little utility prep table. Just a little collapsible almost like one of those little collapsible dog dishes. It's not a sink. It's just a little hand wash basin or something like that. So, you can fold that up. You could take it off the camper. This over here, well, first of all, because we have this, this is the longest spray hose I've ever seen.

[00:21:35]This is This is really really cool. But it's here for a reason because of yonder drawer with the funny little light bright pegs in it. This is designed intentionally to be something where like if you've got some muck boots and I've been told size 14 muck boots can fit in here. You can spray them off, drain it out, and then obviously being reasonable when it's done, slide that shut. This is a waterresistant compartment that does have a forced air heat duct into it. The idea is it's essentially like a blute dry a boot dryer. A glove oven. A gloven. It's a gloven.

[00:22:10]It's a built-in gloven. And notice how they're doing the uh the slam latches and stuff all the way around. Um the underbelly enclosed force air heated holding tank heat pads. You see the uh you know this has a telescopic removable ladder uh but it actually has enough space to store it. There's two things on this RV that one surprises me and the second one I I would be interested to see them playing with the idea and it sounds like they might already be. I am a little surprised this doesn't have a hitch on the back of it to like bring along a generator or something like that. Now, the product manager, the guy that devised all this, I mentioned that to him. He goes, you know, that would kind of feel right on this. So, it's very possible they consider that, but I don't have any confirmation of that. The other thing is it is currently still a membrane roof.

[00:23:04]And I said, you know, with the kind of thing you're building here, some variety of fiberglass roof would seem really appropriate and would feel good. And he said, you know, it's funny you say that.

[00:23:15]We're prototyping some things now. So, I can't make you promises, but they are looking into options and opportunities.

[00:23:22]My voice is echoing down the other end of this uh empty building right here.

[00:23:26]And I thought somebody else like a murder hobo was coming in this place to get me. I got a little scared for a second. We're good. Um if I mean if this footage sees the light of day, you know I made it out alive. Uh it is a single sewer outlet back uh you know behind the rear leveling jack.

[00:23:42]I I think we pretty much covered it here. Rack and pinion slide.

[00:23:48]I don't know, guys. What do you think?

[00:23:51]What do you think? Did they nail it? Did they fail it? So, what do you think everybody? Is this a sink or is this a swim? Um, I wasn't sure really what to think of them because I'd only kind of I I'd touched one before, but I never really went through it in detail.

[00:24:07]I kind of came around I kind of came around on this, but obviously at the end of the day, you can like it all you want, but money talks. So, I'm going to leave you a link in the description where you can check our website. You can see pricing, availability, all of that stuff. And I might look up some similar floor plans from some other builders, but there's not a whole lot of product that's really similar to this out there.

[00:24:31]It's a bit of a different animal. So, let me know what you think, and we'll uh we'll see you in the comments section.

[00:24:37]So, take care, stay safe, have fun, and happy camping, everyone.