Some Thoughts on Full-Timing - RV Type & Size
This is the second in a series of "Thoughts on Full-Timing" articles I'm posting and this time we talk about the "best" RV type and size. If you missed the last one on budgets you can catch up here: https://braysaway.ghost.io/ghost/#/posts
Since going full-time over a year ago we have been asked many times "what's the best RV?" So, here's our thoughts after living in one and having had several different types.
Your budget and desired camping experiences will impact the type and size of RV you purchase. We all have different incomes, savings and therefore different budgets for this lifestyle. Some people love the idea of a motorhome and they do have certain advantages such as having access to everything inside the rig while on the road. We used to have one and my wife could get up and make lunch or use the restroom while we cruised along. Once, we were stuck in a traffic jam and she even fired up the generator and microwaved some dinner and turned on the TV to see if there were reports about an accident or anything ahead of us. Once we were trapped in crawling traffic on I-35 near Dallas and I had my daughter who had just gotten her license, drive for a bit while I hit the bathroom and stretched my legs a bit.
The downside is that they are generally very expensive and if the engine has issues you are out of your house while it’s repaired. Also, you will probably want to have a vehicle with you, so you have to hook that vehicle up for towing. I found that hooking up our jeep to our old motorhome was much more tedious than hitching up our current 5th wheel to our truck. However, a motorhome is convenient to just pull into your site, hit the leveler and bang, you are camping! One big thing I would suggest is that you always consider buying a diesel! Take it from someone who had a gas motorhome and tried to go up into the Colorado mountains - you won't regret it!
We love our 5th wheel over a travel trailer simply due to the head room. Since we are full-time, it is very nice to have the higher ceilings that a 5th wheel generally provides. I also prefer the hitch system of a 5th wheel versus a travel trailer both in terms of simplicity and in terms of road handling. A travel trailer hooked to the very back of your truck will sway a lot more whereas a 5th wheel runs extremely smoothly. In the 4 years we’ve had ours, I have never felt any sway from the trailer. We used to have a travel trailer and when a semi went past it would physically move the truck around with it! There's just something about having the pin weight from the 5th wheel squarely over your axle that just makes the ride very stable. Of course, having dually's on the tow vehicle doesn't hurt either!
Now for size. I have to say that there are times when having a smaller rig would be nice such as a van or truck camper but given the amount of time we spend in our RV now, I’m happy to have the extra room. I know people who full time in much smaller RVs and are very happy so it comes down to your personality and personal goals in camping. Some people want to get off the grid all the time and I respect that but it’s not our style. We are much more likely to stay in a campground with some form of hookups. There are also length limits in a lot of campgrounds. State and national parks sometimes have 35 or 40 foot limits on their sites. That's one reason we kept ours around 35 feet.
Van campers are very popular right now, though also very expensive generally more expensive than our 5th wheel and Ram 3500 combined! They are popular and I see people getting completely off the grid with them. Class C campers were what we looked at first when looking to buy our motorhome but at that time the max weight of the Class C was about 1000 lbs over the dry weight of the vehicle off the assembly line. You had to get all your stuff, fuel, water, clothes, yourself and any other passengers onboard yet. The salesman said they get them back with broken axles all the time because its so easy to overload them. The small motorhome that we bought had 6000 lbs of cargo room before hitting max weight and we never got close to that. Class C's come in all sorts of lengths and I think I've even seen some toy haulers.
At that time they hadn't come out with the "Super C" that has a semi style truck and frame that can hold a lot more weight. Had they been out we might have gone that way. I haven't priced one but if I were looking for a motorhome I would definitely check them out.
Then there's the Class A's and we know a lot of people who love them! They range in length from fairly short to well over 40-45 feet. Prices are all over also with some well over a half million dollars. Those were definitely out of my budget!
Finally, there's the travel trailers and 5th wheels which also come in all sorts of sizes from smaller 20 foot models to giant 44 foot models. Many of the largest are also toy haulers so if you have an ATV, motorcycles or even a small car you can haul that along with you. A lot of our friends who have toy haulers don't even use the garage part for toys, they just like the ability to have the ramp as a deck of sorts and some even have a drop down deck on the side also. They use the garage section as a completely designable living space!
Just remember to check the total weight of the rig and all you plan to haul and be sure it's below the RVs total weight limit and is within the towing capacity of your truck or to put it another way, buy a truck large enough to handle the weight!
Bottom line: there's no best RV for camping but there are best RVs for the type of camping you want to do so start by thinking about that first and then bounce it against your budget!
