We began noticing RV's after that. After the sale of our last home I began a search for one.
A trailer would've been financially a much better choice. However, we don't have a vehicle that could tow a trailer of the size we would need. The little experience I have had with towing a trailer is not something I have enjoyed. I also had a great deal of difficulty finding a manageable size of trailer that had sufficient sleeping capacity. There are a few fifth wheels that would do the Job but there are too many of us to fit in even a extended cab pickup.
My tow vehicle for a trailer would've had to have been a Suburban or a Ford Excursion. They are the only vehicles with sufficient seating capacity and sufficient towing capacity to pull the kind of trailer I would need.
I don't have either of those kinds of vehicles and the ones in the price range that I could afford have well north of 150,000 miles on them.
One other factor that tilted me to a motorhome was the kind of travel we do. We are not going to one place and staying there for an extended period of time. We like to go to lots of places and spend a short period of time in each place. Sometimes that means that overnight stay somewhere that we aren't planning on exploring. Very few travel trailers have generators but most motorhomes do.
Since we were planning on spending lots of time on the road we figured that getting there should be a large portion of the fun. With a travel trailer the children would be stuck in the seats until we arrive. If we want to have lunch we would have to stop and go back into the travel trailer to prepare lunch. Since no generator was available then lunch would have to be something that did not have to be warmed up.
All made the choice a motorhome. There are two basic types of motorhomes. A class A, a class B, or a class C.
Class A motorhome's are the big bus type motorhomes. I quickly found that most of these are set up for two people. We need to be able to sleep at least five and up to seven or eight. I do not like the solar oven created by the enormous front windshield on the class A's.
A class B motorhome is basically a van and can comfortably accommodate two people at most.
A new type of motorhome that could be considered a big class B is the new sprinter vans. These are the type of motorhome I like the best. Unless they are heavily modified, the outside skin of the sprinter vans is original metal produced by the automobile manufacturer so they won't rot and they are stronger than the wooden sided class A's and class C's. They are highly fuel-efficient. Airstream makes some great sprinter vans and there are several other well-known and not so well-known companies that make some innovative sprinter vans. I suspect that one of these is in my future.
For now the sprinter vans won't work for me. They are new and have not depreciated fully so they are out of my price range and they are set up for two people.
That left the class C. Class C's are the ones that traditionally have the bed over the cab and are built on a van or truck frame. They seem to be set up better for families than for retired couples. The newer models of these have blurred the lines between the class A and the class C. Many of the new ones have entertainment centers above the cab instead of a bed.
Because a class C is built upon a truck frame made by a major truck manufacturer just about any mechanic can work on the engine part of the truck and getting parts for them is not much of a problem. The cab portion of these vehicles is quite strong and should do well in case of a crash. A class A is likely to come apart in a crash.
One of my big concerns with the motorhome was and still is safety. The rear portion of the class C and all of a class A is basically wood which will come apart in an accident. A rollover would be extremely bad in either of them. Many class B's are not much better. Class B's tend to have tops that are put on by aftermarket manufacturers. These tops are often attached with sheet metal screws and will come off in the event of a rollover. While many of the seats in the back of class A's and C's have seatbelts they really wouldn't do a lot of good in a crash because the seats are more like what you would find in a house instead of seats well-suited for a vehicle.
The class B's and C's tend to be overloaded. That is they tend to have more weight on them than the suspension safely handle. Some manufacturers such as Lazy Daze and Nexus don't overload their RVs. For many of the other manufacturers even the newer RVs that tend to have heavier duty suspensions are overloaded with slide outs and other whistles and bells that add so much weight the heavier frames don't do any good.
I visited several dealer lots and many ads on craigslist. My looking at newer RVs both travel trailers and motorhomes left me decidedly unimpressed with the quality and innovation of these machines.
Wood is subject to rot and simply doesn't hold up in a crash. In fact, it is a danger when it breaks. Many of the RVs have flat roofs. Who in their right mind builds a flat roof on a vehicle? Let's make a nice big spot for the water to collect find any hole in it so it can run down and rot the wood.
The 1970's models had some innovative designs but I did not like the running gear of vehicles that old. Thanks to Japanise competition the manufacturers made lots of improvements to vehicles in the 1980's and 1990's. The color schemes in the pre 1990's RV's can be hideous.
I found little difference in the design, layout, and quality of the RVs from the 1990s up through the current models. The truck part of the newer ones is better but not significantly that I can see.They're basically the same thing with a few more slide outs, plug-ins, and a better entertainment system.
There is one type of class A motorhome that was built right and to which the comments above do not apply. It is the GMC motorhome. I'll include a separate post on this one.
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