Sometime this summer we decided to get serious about trying rving as a retirement activity. We both like to travel and have done a good bit of travelling before retirement, both in the USA and overseas. It seemed the perfect chance to travel around the USA and Canada at our own pace with our own stuff going wherever we want.
The first challenge was figuring out how to travel. We could keep our minivan and stay in hotels and eat out. We could buy a trailer and tow it behind our car or truck and camp out. We could buy a motorhome like my parents and tow a car and camp out.
The first option was ruled out due to the limited amount of stuff we could haul around and that we would have to pack/unpack all the time. We decided on the second option because of the divide and conquer aspect. The trailer would have all the living components and the truck all the motor components. Trucks can be serviced anywhere and the trailer would be simpler than a motorhome.
We went to the “America’s Largest RV Show” in Hershey PA in September 2016 to look at trailers. Below is the Chuck with the RV Show in the background.
We quickly ruled out travel trailers and focussed on 5th wheels because they are more stable and safer during towing. We walked through about 100 trailers and saw some amazing floorplans. They really are like 1 or 2 bedroom apartments with sofas, tvs, fire places, bunkbeds, etc. We picked out some nice ones to pursue further.
Then Chuck looked a trucks and discovered we would have to buy an enormous truck to haul the trailer. One guy I talked to had a $60k turbo diesel F350 Ford truck that he used for towing. We would have to get something similar. It seemed like too much considering that we are not truck people, we would have to drive it all the time for errands, and the mileage is not that great. Adding the truck cost to the trailer cost and it didn’t seem like we would save money over just buying a motorhome.
So we changed gears and decided to look at motorhomes. Maybe my parents actually knew what they were doing! The class B vans were quickly ruled out, they are just too small for full time living for 2 people. We looked closely at class C trucks because the cab is kept intact including air bags and a big engine in front to protect you. The problem is that the cab area becomes somewhat useless while living in it because the floor is lower and the seats cannot be turned around.
We then looked a class A bus types because the driver and passenger seats can be turned around and the floor levels are the same. I bought some RV rating software and read some blogs and decided that Tiffin, Newmar, and Winnebago were the best manufacturers and restricted our attention to those. Also I decide on gas motorhomes because diesels were too much money.
We looked through many floorplans and finally came up with a Winnebago Vista 31BE. This is a 32ft class A that packs a lot into it. It can sleep up to 10 people, has 3 tvs, a generator, automatic leveling jacks, etc. I went onto rvtrader.com to look at all Vista 31BE available in a 250 mile radius around me and came up with 6 of them. They differed in having a ladder or not, stainless steel sink or porcelain, and slide topper or not. After much negotiation over email we settled on one with all 3 of these features for about 25% off the msrp of $117k.
We bought it on the way back from a trip we were taking, and took turns driving the car and the rv back from the dealer to our home. The dealer took us on practice driving runs where I managed to hit a tree branch, but no damage. Driving back Naomi hit the curb with the exhaust pipe, again no damage. Here we are with the RV just prior to embarking.
Frankly I am surprised people are allowed to drive these without any training beforehand. They are massive, and there is much less room for error in fitting in your lane, turning corners, and fitting into driveways and gas stations. They require some practice before you can tell if you are going to fit somewhere or make a turn.
Chuck is in the passenger seat, swiveled to be part of the living room. The wood flap just behind him is Naomi’s new office — a fold-down desk.
Our RV is now sitting in its rented parking space (our driveway is too small) waiting for us to get ready to leave on our trip in 2017.