This chapter done, what next?

[davelinde]

It's hard to believe I joined this forum over 15 years ago and this is the first time since 2004 that we have not owned an RV. When the kids were little we had a bunkhouse and that was great. The kids got bigger and we did a few long stays (6 months) in the bigger toy hauler we got, also great. I got a used HDT to tow the hauler and it was a blast to have so much truck.

But now the kids are gone, the maintenance on the HDT was more than I wanted so it was sold. The hauler is bigger than we need so this weekend it was also sold.

DW has informed me that she wants to revisit our plans to spend an extended time driving the US - target to do that is 2023, so time to plan. The current thinking is a Class C of some sort with a 4 down vehicle in tow. It will be just the two of us, no kids or pets. We have grown to like "easy" for setup maintenance and operation. Has anyone here had similar experiences with a our sequence of RV? What are the pros and cons and considerations? We've got a few RV shows between now and a purchase, so I'm ready to collect ideas.

[davelinde]

happy2rv wrote:
My family and I have had the opposite progression.

If I go back further in my history my immediate family did zero RV though I was close to an uncle (worked for him, best man in my wedding) who not only had RV (Class A and now a travel trailer) for a short time in the 1970's he owned a campground! On my wife's side they were always tent campers... When we married we backpacked (stopped that fast) tent camped (for a while), borrowed a pop-up (a few times) then jumped to the 5ver.

I'm still mulling the compromises and your summary was very well thought out. THANKS!!

You are spot on that I really need to decide how we will travel, since that makes a big difference in what matters.

[happy2rv]

My family and I have had the opposite progression. I grew up around motor homes. The year I was born my parents bought a 24' Winnebago that we traveled the country in. Our family owned that RV until I was 16 or 17 years old, probably at least 5 years longer than anyone should have. When I was around 16 or 17, they bought a Minnie Winnie class C built on a Toyota pickup chassis that would barely pull itself and had no hope of towing anything. They owned that for a couple of years and finally traded it for another Class A which my parents owned for several years.

Once I started my own family, I knew we wanted to experience RV travel. We started when my son was very young, with an older 24' Class A. It was all (really more) than we could afford at the time. My wife's family lived about 1800 miles from us and we traveled at least once a year to see them. We made that journey many times. We flew Delta and we drove a minivan at least once each and these were miserable trips with a baby in tow. We drove that first RV several times and it was much more enjoyable than flying or driving the minivan. After several years we sold that RV.

After going without an RV for a while, I happened upon a repossessed late model Class C for a bargain price. That's the first RV we ever towed a car behind. Having the car in tow made a huge difference in our travel enjoyment. However, the 21' was really too small for our family and after experiencing the first breakdown that left us stranded in the middle of nowhere on a holiday weekend DW was ready for a new RV. It didn't take much to convince me so we traded the Class C for a brand new Class A. We really enjoyed the Bounder. However, DW's family moved and we weren't making the long trek once or twice a year any more and work and school prevented us from taking extended trips so it began to sit too much to justify the monthly payments and maintenance costs. So we sold it too.

We went several years without an RV, but I really wanted to get back to RV traveling. About a year and a half ago, we bought our first travel trailer. We're still too busy to use it nearly as much as we would like to, but we hope that situation improves. Like the OP our son is grown but still travels with us on occasion. We are approaching retirement and hope to travel extensively when we retire. In the meantime, we will enjoy weekends and occasional longer trips as we can fit them in.

We haven't decided what our retirement RV will be. DW likes the space of a fifth wheel. I still like many of the conveniences of a motor home.

So, what are the pros and cons of each? As I see it, this is my list. Some of these may seem obvious, but I'll list them anyway.

Pros for motorhomes:
1. Comfort - motor homes afford the ability to utilize their facilities while in motion or without leaving the vehicle. I know this will touch a nerve with some of the safety police, but I've traveled many thousands of miles sleeping in my bed or driving while someone else was sleeping. Even if you don't use the facilities while in motion, it's nice to be able to pull into a rest stop and go back to use your own restroom without ever leaving the vehicle.

2. Security - We try to avoid parking in "sketchy" areas, but there have been times we stopped in rest areas or Flying J's to get a few hours sleep when we were in "lets just get there" mode. It's nice to be able to jump up, hop in the drives seat, and drive away without leaving the vehicle if something spooks you.

Pros for travel trailers / fifth wheels:
1. Maintenance - Since trailers don't have engines or drive trains, there is far less maintenance on the trailer than a motor home. Obviously if you have a dedicated tow vehicle, this will negate the benefit. However, my tow vehicle is my daily driver. I would be maintaining it whether I tow or not. If you have a motor home and a towed car, that's two engines and drive trains to maintain.

2. Space - the cabs of motor homes take away from their usable space. I don't think I've seen a motor home where the driver and passenger seats effectively integrate into the living space. This effectively shortens the living area by 3-4 feet. In a trailer or fifth wheel the entire length is usually living area. Fifth wheels are particularly good about effective living areas.

3. Price - Again, assuming you use the tow vehicle for other purposes and don't have to purchase a dedicated tow vehicle, the travel trailer or fifth wheel can be significantly lower in cost. In my current situation, I owned the truck before the trailer. I use the truck as my daily vehicle and would have to maintain it anyway. There is additional wear and tear on it from towing, but again in my case this isn't significant. Our travel trailer cost somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of the motor home we owned. I intentionally didn't list price as the first consideration, but it is part of the equation.

Con for fifth wheel:
Fifth wheels tend to weigh a lot, especially pin weight. The pin weight of even the so called half ton tow-able fifth wheels is over the limit for most half ton pickups. I'm not going to say there isn't a half ton pickup / fifth wheel combination that falls within the weight ratings, but I haven't seen one. This means that a lot of fifth wheels are in the heavy duty 3/4-1 ton dually truck range. I've seen people using dually trucks as daily drivers, but for most of us that's just not practical. Unless you use the truck for other purposes, this puts you back in the business of maintaining an engine and drive train specifically for the RV.


Ease of setup:
Our travel trailer is the first RV we've had with a residential refrigerator. One of the advantages to not having a traditional "RV" refrigerator is that the RV no longer has to be spot on level to negate the risk of damaging the refrigerator. Many motor homes have automatic leveling jacks and most trailers don't. Other than leveling, setup is pretty much the same.

We leave the weight distribution hitch attached to the truck when we're traveling so to me there's not a lot of difference between disconnecting the travel trailer from the truck and disconnecting a towed car from the motor home.


Without considering cost or maintenance, and having the leisure to use it at will, I would probably have a luxury class A with high end SUV towed behind it. Unless someone gives me a winning lottery ticket, I will likely never be in the position not to consider those things though. It's not just the ability to pay, for me it has to make sense. I can't make sense of owning a $100K+ RV and maintaining it for the amount of time I can use it right now. When we retire, I will consider how much time we will be in travel mode vs living mode. If we're traveling constantly, I would definitely lean toward the motor home. If we spend more time parked and living in it, I believe the travel trailer or fifth wheel will be preferred.

Bottom line is each type has advantages and disadvantages. You will have to decide how you will travel and what's important to you. As you have experienced already, what's "right" may change over time, especially if the way you use it changes.

[Grit_dog]

Extensive traveling to me says moho and toad for sure.
Nowhere near planning, but just thinking....kids are 13 and 16, got a few more years to go yet, but I'm solidly in the super C/ small class A pusher camp currently. More likely an A because bang for the buck seems higher with used diesel A's than diesel super C's just more to choose from = lower price for comparable miles and size.
Priorities would be fuel mileage, because travel means travel to me, not 200mi every 5th day on average, but rolling don the road burning some serious dead dinosaurs.
Towing something, toad or a toy trailer would be a must for me, so towing capability and economy doing it would be a priority.

Just where my head's at on this.

[ependydad]

Going for long trips or even fulltiming, cargo carrying capacity would be at the forefront of my mind. I've seen some Class C motorhomes with sub 1,000 lbs. of cargo carrying capacity.

Mind what it can carry and what you typically carry (are you light-packers or are you over-packers?).

[AJR]

OP I think you are on the right track with your thinking.

A class C in the range of 30’ to 31’ real length fits in two parking spots. The house (floorplan) is your decision.

After two TTs, a 36’ class A and a 30’ class C. I have found my travel home. A 31’ class C with a slide I do not need to put out. I travel alone with a medium size dog. But a second person would not be an issue I think.

I have found that the Chevy 2400 class C makes for a much more pleasant drive in adverse conditions. Any class C beats a TT when it comes to setting up at the end of the drive. With 50gal fresh, one each 30gal gray & back tanks I only need to hook up electric when in a campground if necessary due to weather conditions and stay for up to ten days without messing with water or sewer connections.

Also, only three steps to get into it and three doors to get out of it are other class C pluses over a class A.

I travel with or without a tow. It all depends on where I am going. Just spent two nights at a friend’s place without towing the car. Dry camped with the generator the first night. Drove the camper to breakfast the next morning to have better food made by someone else.

Just things to think about.

[Lumpty]

What we have, a 24' C on a heavier duty E450 is the ultimate compromise. It does nothing great but isn't really terrible at anything either. A small house on a 14,500 GVW chassis makes for more than 4,000 lbs of NCC. We have 44 gallons of water, and 30 gallons each of black and gray capacity. Makes for the ability to comfortably boondock up to a week if just the two of us. With a 158" wheelbase, we can back into a parking spot, overhang the rear and not take up any more room than a shortbed crew cab pick up. There still are 3 sleeping positions (corner and overhead bunk queens and the dinette bed. We've now had it for 8 years, and intend to replace it in 4, and keep coming up with another of the same exact unit, except maybe with a dinette slide this next time around.

We have just started hauling around local transportation, and in a similar minimalist compromise, I bought a 50cc scooter that still can accommodate riding 2-up. My wife is still getting used to the idea, and riding around on the back of it, but does admit it serves the basic purpose well.

[kellem]

Hmmm we're also right there.

Getting ready to retire, kids gone and we are struggling with which way to go.

At present, a 28ft trailer has the nod simply because I'm an avid fisherman and my rotomolded bass boat slides into the bed off truck....yeah kinda limits our choices if I want to continue fishing at all the lakes we camp at.

[FrankoToo]

Will be following this thread closely. The wife and I are in almost the exact same boat. Both kids are out of the house and we recently relocated to a new state. The Cyclone after sitting for a year is now up for sale and we're trying to decide where RV life will take us next.

Best wishes wherever this phase in life takes you.

[lucy6194]

Dam spell check should be navion

[lucy6194]

Just traded 5th wheel for Winnebago nation 25.5 feet.

[valhalla360]

I assume you are comfortable towing and don't mind a truck.

I wouldn't toss out 5th wheels all together. A smaller 5th wheel is easy to tow and just as quick to set up (assuming you have a toad with the MH). We recently moved from a 28' to a 34' 5th wheel and really...I kind of wish we had stayed smaller. It's not a big issue but the smaller one was big enough for the two of us while still being more manageable.

Really it comes down to RV layout and how much stuff you want to take along.

[toedtoes]

Really look at how much room you want. I have a 21ft class C. It is great for ease of setup - just back in and level. It's big enough to have room for my needs. It has the cabover bed. I skipped the tele, microwave, etc, so my electrical needs are the least of my concerns. I can go well over 10 days without an issue. My limit is based on water. I have a 40 gallon fresh water tank that lasts 12 days with no showers but no major conservation in other needs. My 20 gallon grey and black tanks fill equally, so it's pretty perfect.

Due to the height and width, it is difficult to park in major cities, but I have no problem elsewhere. So, no need for a toad. By always putting things away after use, it is easy to drive off for a day trip and return.

A friend has a Toyota Sundrader. It is smaller than mine in all dimensions, but still has the same basic amenities. She can drive most anywhere and can easily park in cities. Again, it has a cabover bed.

A 24ft class C is the smallest you'll see with a dedicated bed below. It will likely be a corner bed. 26ft and up will more likely have a dedicated bed with access on both sides. GVWR will be your catch - many are limited. You really want to determine your weight needs first.

Gas mileage is going to be 7-10mpg regardless of size, etc. So you can figure out travel time on one tank from that.

A smaller class A might be a good option. Something under 32ft. Your wife might find driving it OK. And it is likely to have a greater GVWR.

I suggest you start visiting dealers and sitting in various sizes and classes. Look at the weights and tank capacities and make notes. Then you can start to determine which have what you want in a comfortable layout.

[davelinde]

Our pockets have only medium depth...

The kids are not 100% gone but not likely to ever camp with us again. We miss the kids a LOT and we don't miss them much at all - if that makes sense? It IS a nice time of life.

For the travel plans - we intended to see the US circa 2008 or so and life just got in the way. Then we ended doing non-RV trips while the rig sat depreciating in the back yard. We want to do the RV-restart to see the US while we are healthy and able.

[DutchmenSport]

Not having kids, it's a wonderful opportunity for the Mr. and the Mrs. of the family to get re-aquainted again. You finally have time for each other without having to have kids in the mix of everything, or making plans around the kids or their activities.

Enjoy this time in your life. It only gets better! It's a great time to set the love-flames on fire again between you two.

My opinion, you sound like a candidate for a CLASS-C, or a smaller A. It's a magnificent world "out there", just waiting to be discovered by you too.