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Pablo

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My head is spinning. Retired 3 years ago.

I know we want some type of van. Nice camper van. Class B. Don't want to get bogged in the details yet but we want to pull into campsites, civilized or remote and camp. NOT hotel hopping.

We want to go new places, meet up with my brother in his Sprinter mid coast, OR, CA. Or just go to National Parks or go to many local places.

I dunno maybe very low miles some years.

I asked elsewhere about a MB Sprinter. Well I guess that's out!

I open to all input except snark. I mean even where to start. Good, bad will absorb.
 
I would spend some time on https://www.rvtrader.com/ getting an idea of what's out there. You may want to consider a class C as well, there are some really good looking units out there.

I think you already ruled out a trailer?

We have spent 390 nights in our trailers in the last 5 years, so we are somewhat qualified to give some advice. There are others on this site that also have RVed for a long time.

Some food for thought.

  • The longer you are in the RV, the smaller it gets. Try to envision living in it for a couple months at a time.
  • You'll need a vehicle to get around in and it's a pain to hook and unhook a class B/C
  • It can be hard to park a class B/C in many places.
  • Your first RV is where you'll make mistakes, then you'll buy a second RV that better suits your needs. Try not to be normal or like us and buy the right RV the first time :)
  • Check out potential places where you would camp and see what type and size of sites are available, buy accordingly.
  • The larger an RV gets, the less sites you'll be able to fit into.
  • Be careful of covid and post covid build quality, as it's a huge problem in the industry.
  • Slides make the RV feel much larger
 
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Neither of us wants a trailer, we have rented trailers. The towing part is the easy part. The rest is a PITA, frankly.

Yes no matter it's not a compact car.

Great advice. Thanks!
 
Pablo said:
The rest is a PITA, frankly.
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It sure takes a while to get used to setting up and knowing what to do and more importantly when not to do. Now that it's old hat, we can be set up in < 20 minutes.
 
How about focus on FORD chassis offerings?

Seems at first I was avoiding, now maybe not.........
 
Hi Pablo. You mentioned over at BITOG wanting to be able to do #1 but not #2 in the camper. Makes no sense and I don't think there are any toilets that only handle #1 anyway. The nice thing about being self contained is being 100% self contained. When we're traveling we stop for gas only, food and sanitary matters are taken care of in the trailer, we never set foot in the gas station/convenience store. When you're in a campground you really don't want to use their shower/toilets. The procedure for emptying the black tank is the same if it contains just liquid or solids.

The best recommendation I saw in the BITOG threads was find something to rent that you could be interested in and spend a couple of days at least in it. If you think to yourself "it feels small but we can live with it" it will be too small.

About the PITA part of trailers, you still have to level a van, hook up the electric, water, and black pipe if you have full hook-ups or stop at the dump station and empty if you don't. The only part you delete is backing up and unhooking a trailer. And Wayne is correct about a camper van being a PITA if you want to stay a couple of days and tour around. You get to set it up and take it down every time you come and go.

I've camped in pop-ups and trailers my entire life and started towing them in early 20s so the whole experience is normal. We see lots of the vans you're thinking about in campgrounds with couples (and dogs) so people like using them it seems.
 
Pablo, I say used... somebody else takes the hit and there are tons of RV's available that have barely been used.
Friends of ours just bought a Class B... they started out looking at Sprinter chassis until they saw the price point and had me in their ear telling them no one ever saved any money driving a diesel..

to make a long story short they were in the same boat as you, and just were undecided and I took em one day to several of the big RV dealers down here in Fort Myers just to window shop... and with that they ended up deciding on a Winnebago Solis.... which they then found a 2020 model with 19,000 miles on it I think they paid 75 k for it.. its pretty nice and its perfect for what they need... as they have no plans on spending week upon week in the thing..

them class B's are perfect for short term travels.. I wouldn't want to live in one though..
 
one other thing I know for sure is most people who go thru the RV life cycle and continue to go RVing generally go thru at least 4 or 5 RV's before they know what they want and end up with something they actually like
. Problem for you is not getting bogged down in what other people prefer and figuring out what you want..or can live with and without.

in our case my wife wants a real bed... that a person can walk around without stooping or bending over. she alse requires the ability to get in the refrigerator with the slides in, wants to sit across from the TV without her neck craned and also the ability to get in the bathroom with the slides in.. but that is her and I am just along for the ride when it comes to what keeps her from whining...... me I dont want anything longer than 35 feet but really would be happy if it was 30 or less.. so the last 2 of my fifth wheels have been just under the 35 foot mark.. first one was 32 which is a bit more manageable.

I only probably have 1 RV purchase left in my life, if I do it again and that will probably be a motorhome of some sort...
 
MSCH brings up an excellent and very important point, what are your wife's must haves to be happy while traveling? Keep her happy and your trips will be good. My boss also wants a real bed, a shower that doesn't have the toilet in it, access to toilet and fridge while on the road. Our model has a full width bath, I see wasted floor space, she likes it so I like it. We were out 31 days in our 21' (actual) travel trailer with 2 50lb dogs and it went fine. I think we hit minimum size for us to be happy. I wouldn't mind 4-5 more feet of length but don't need it. We'll run this outfit until we're done long distance traveling then we'll downsize tow vehicle and trailer and likely number of dogs when the old one leaves us. We enjoy the whole experience and a big part of that is me making sure everything is in perfect working order.

I like a trailer & tow vehicle because I just don't want to maintain/license/insure another ICE machine.

This doesn't help you pick a travel van but maybe give you more things to consider and help make a good choice.
 
Azjeff said:
Hi Pablo. You mentioned over at BITOG wanting to be able to do #1 but not #2 in the camper. Makes no sense and I don't think there are any toilets that only handle #1 anyway.
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I just meant no pooping unless you really have to. NO stinking the joint up. I didn't mean no toilet.
 
MSCH said:
Pablo, I say used... somebody else takes the hit and there are tons of RV's available that have barely been used.
Friends of ours just bought a Class B... they started out looking at Sprinter chassis until they saw the price point and had me in their ear telling them no one ever saved any money driving a diesel..

to make a long story short they were in the same boat as you, and just were undecided and I took em one day to several of the big RV dealers down here in Fort Myers just to window shop... and with that they ended up deciding on a Winnebago Solis.... which they then found a 2020 model with 19,000 miles on it I think they paid 75 k for it.. its pretty nice and its perfect for what they need... as they have no plans on spending week upon week in the thing..

them class B's are perfect for short term travels.. I wouldn't want to live in one though..
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Nailed it. Week tops, maybe 10 days. If longer some days will be hotel/restaurant,
 
Azjeff said:
MSCH brings up an excellent and very important point, what are your wife's must haves to be happy while traveling? Keep her happy and your trips will be good. My boss also wants a real bed, a shower that doesn't have the toilet in it, access to toilet and fridge while on the road. Our model has a full width bath, I see wasted floor space, she likes it so I like it. We were out 31 days in our 21' (actual) travel trailer with 2 50lb dogs and it went fine. I think we hit minimum size for us to be happy. I wouldn't mind 4-5 more feet of length but don't need it. We'll run this outfit until we're done long distance traveling then we'll downsize tow vehicle and trailer and likely number of dogs when the old one leaves us. We enjoy the whole experience and a big part of that is me making sure everything is in perfect working order.

I like a trailer & tow vehicle because I just don't want to maintain/license/insure another ICE machine.

This doesn't help you pick a travel van but maybe give you more things to consider and help make a good choice.
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My wife could live in the woods with a stick and a stream near by. Not joking. Wilderness woman. I'm the guy who needs to hose off my pits and crotch daily.
 
Azjeff said:
MSCH brings up an excellent and very important point, what are your wife's must haves to be happy while traveling? Keep her happy and your trips will be good. My boss also wants a real bed, a shower that doesn't have the toilet in it, access to toilet and fridge while on the road. Our model has a full width bath, I see wasted floor space, she likes it so I like it. We were out 31 days in our 21' (actual) travel trailer with 2 50lb dogs and it went fine. I think we hit minimum size for us to be happy. I wouldn't mind 4-5 more feet of length but don't need it. We'll run this outfit until we're done long distance traveling then we'll downsize tow vehicle and trailer and likely number of dogs when the old one leaves us. We enjoy the whole experience and a big part of that is me making sure everything is in perfect working order.

I like a trailer & tow vehicle because I just don't want to maintain/license/insure another ICE machine.

This doesn't help you pick a travel van but maybe give you more things to consider and help make a good choice.
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No better advice!!
 
Pablo said:
My brother tore the roof top AC unit off his Sprinter and put a healthy fan up there.
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That suited him, but I'd be very careful doing that. It will really hurt your resale value and no A/C in Washington is probably ok, but when you travel south, you'll want A/C or you'll be baked to death.
 
Wayne said:
That suited him, but I'd be very careful doing that. It will really hurt your resale value and no A/C in Washington is probably ok, but when you travel south, you'll want A/C or you'll be baked to death.
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He lives in SoCal. I think the AC was marginal, TALL and very inefficient. He actually loves the fan - must really draw up and out!
 
If you need room, you'll want to step up to a class C. If you want a LOT of room, you'll need class A.

I like the concept of class Bs, but I have never owned one. As we age (no kids with us now) we just don't need much more than a place to lay our heads and get dressed/undressed and prep some food for outdoor cooking. We don't cook in the RV we have, and we don't stay in there to "recreate", because to us, being outside is what RVing is all about. I think a class B makes sense for those who really just need a tiny motorized house with some minimal creature comforts.

Also, if you're not going to tow anything, then you'll get much better fuel mileage out of a class B than a C as well. If you intend to tow, you may need the greater chassis capability and engine power of the larger chassis in a class C or A.
 
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