Newbie looking for a change and a solve for family.

[marc2912]

Hi all, I'm new to the RV world overall though I got to experience here and there throughout my life. Recently my wife and I have come to re-evaluate priorities and what we want to spend our time doing. We've come to the conclusion that we'd like to travel more and work on balancing more quality time into our day to day.

We have a 3 yo boy with another on the way in a few months. My wife is a teacher in a private school and I work in the world of tech. Past this school year though we're thinking she's going to take some time. This means that we have nothing tying us to where we live now (suburbs of NYC). We're seriously considering packing it up in the spring/summer and moving to a quieter area (cheaper too) and getting an RV to travel more and enjoy life. My wife would be off and I can work remotely which means we could travel as long as I have access to web I'm good to go. We would be travelling with our dog too.

We've (mostly me) have been doing a lot of research and are working on figuring out what we'd travel in. My preferred solution would be a diesel pusher class A. I really like the room and overall feel. Issues here are layout, they overall suck for families. There are a couple of ok (not great) layouts with bunks but they have drawback. Not really separate for kids trying to go to sleep in quiet as you finish out the night. The best we found is the all star 3950. Some issues I have with it are engine location, people complain it's loud and permeates heat into the living space, and rattles the kitchen to hell. The plus, I can easily enclose the kid space. I love the 4 captain's chair. it means the kids have real chairs for their car seats.

For on site transport I'd tow my mini cooper. Pros is we have a car on site, cons is motorhome needs to be able to tow. Cooper is all electric so it probably needs to be a trailer queen, not sure i can tow tires on road an electric car.

I've looked at 5th wheels. Layouts ARE MUCH BETTER for families, like sooo much better. Cons, I don't want to buy a large truck/ SUV to tow, the rest of the time we are very cautious of our footprint. I get that getting whatever we drive to it's destination is going to consume considerably. When we're there or when we're home we have made it a point to try to limit that. (I don't want this to turn into is an electric car better or worse, to each their own). I'm not a huge fan of maneuvering a giant 5th wheel or tow behind, I'm sure I could get used to it but it's not something I'm looking forward to (I drove 30+ ft box trucks for years and flatbeds) . I like the access to the rest of the coach for the wife, etc, while in motion. The cab section of a coach is also more appealing than a truck / SUV or class C. We overall want to maximize on having as much room as possible too.

Sorry for the wall of text. Just figured it would give more context as who I am and why I'm here.

To note this isn't meant for you to solve all my problems, in fact if I've learned anything so far is that it's all tradeoffs.

Anyways, cheers.

Marc

 

[Germanrazor]

Well I am sure others will chime in. There are advantages and disadvantages to either or. If I were going to FT it I would be in a Class A. Monthly trips and all with a home to go back to, a fifth wheel would be my choice. In fact, I have a TT now as we are newbies and wanted to make sure we liked the camping life. We do! So in a few years a Fiver will be in the drive!

The advantage to a coach for full-timing to me is when you are on the road from site to site…..the family can go to the rear and relax. Plus, no un-hitching and leveling like a TT or Fiver would be. Yes you still level and hook up sewer lines and all but is a bit easier than the other to a degree.

Just my observation talking to other campers and walking campgrounds when I arrive. Good luck.

 

[marc2912]

Well I am sure others will chime in. There are advantages and disadvantages to either or. If I were going to FT it I would be in a Class A. Monthly trips and all with a home to go back to, a fifth wheel would be my choice. In fact, I have a TT now as we are newbies and wanted to make sure we liked the camping life. We do! So in a few years a Fiver will be in the drive!

The advantage to a coach for full-timing to me is when you are on the road from site to site…..the family can go to the rear and relax. Plus, no un-hitching and leveling like a TT or Fiver would be. Yes you still level and hook up sewer lines and all but is a bit easier than the other to a degree.

Just my observation talking to other campers and walking campgrounds when I arrive. Good luck.

Yeah we've been renting and going out to find just that, if we like it. I think you hit one of the important one on the head, being able to go out back when we're doing long drives and also something i touched on but not in depth is the fact that on some longer trips I'm still going to be working and that extra space is going to be really important.

The other big one I had mentioned is really not wanting to buy another vehicle just to tow, especially one that I'd really not use the rest of the time.

 

[Germanrazor]

With a TT or Fiver you will certainly need a HD, SD or some sort of work truck capable. I like having a truck and one that can tow my tractor too. Therefore, having a big Super Duty is quite pleasing….lol

 

[tims5842]

Marc,
Welcome. First, don't flat tow ANY electric car. You won't have it for long. They do not have any conventional transmission that allows you to disengage the motors from the wheels and you will burn them up. Maybe in the future some auto maker will figure out that there is a market for a flat tow capable electric car, but it doesn't exist yet. You also can't just put the front wheels on a tow dolly. The rear wheels have degenerative brakes which basically have generators on them to add energy back into the batteries. You will burn those up towing. There was just a great article on this in one of the RV magazines last month. Get a small flatbed trailer and load it up.

I just posted to your other thread, but I'll comment here again - layout is the first thing I would pay attention to. Both for parked space, as well as while on the road if I was going to regularly change locations. Keep in mind for beds that a number of the Class A's today can be retrofitted with a pulldown (electric) bunk over the driver/passenger seats. This might give you another separate space without going the bunk route.

 

[marc2912]

Marc,
Welcome. First, don't flat tow ANY electric car. You won't have it for long. They do not have any conventional transmission that allows you to disengage the motors from the wheels and you will burn them up. Maybe in the future some auto maker will figure out that there is a market for a flat tow capable electric car, but it doesn't exist yet. You also can't just put the front wheels on a tow dolly. The rear wheels have degenerative brakes which basically have generators on them to add energy back into the batteries. You will burn those up towing. There was just a great article on this in one of the RV magazines last month. Get a small flatbed trailer and load it up.

I just posted to your other thread, but I'll comment here again - layout is the first thing I would pay attention to. Both for parked space, as well as while on the road if I was going to regularly change locations. Keep in mind for beds that a number of the Class A's today can be retrofitted with a pulldown (electric) bunk over the driver/passenger seats. This might give you another separate space without going the bunk route.

Hi Tim, thanks for the answer. As I said the mini would have to be a trailer queen. Didn't think there was any ways to tow wheels down and honestly even for ICE vehicle I'm not a fan. Regenerative brakes is on all drive train motors, so on the mini it's the rear. It just uses the drive motor as the regenerative motor.

Layout has def been the biggest issue. I really loved the 3950 for that, good bed setup all the way back (beds not bunks) and 4 captain's chair is just not something you find anywhere else. Pulldown are tough considering kids age, in fact even on standard bunk we'd have to do some retrofitting.