B or B+ (or even a small C?)

The Unity will limit where you can go, and if you can go, you will cringe a lot like driving many roads less than 16 feet wide with no shoulders. I'm sure Unity owners will disagree but you get used to what you drive and compensate in many ways. Heck, a large Class A owner will call you a wuss for this. Width of a C is just a nuisance. You guess correctly about the height. Over 10 feet introduces a lot of considerations. That is the real limit on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier as there is a cliff overhang on the going west direction. The Needles Highway tunnels in the Black Hills will give you pause with 11 foot height limitations. The Daniel Boone National Forest 15 mile drive is nearly impossible with the narrow road (15'-7" measured in one spot) and its tunnel with anything other than a B. Those are just a few examples and I love to drive those kind of places.

As for tanks I usually go an average of four days between dumps. It is about a 5 to 10 minute operation. 10 if no one is waiting behind you and 5 if there is. As for showers I actually prefer the campground facilities. No RV is going to give you the luxury of a 3-5 minute full blast hot shower. If you want a shower in your B you are better off with a full service campground hookup as you can then not worry about dumping and you get better water pressure through your shower head with a city water hookup. The other debit with a B is most are wet baths with a couple of exceptions. You can let them drip dry or better squeegie or sponge them down a bit. Our shower curtain surrounds the shower area.

Most national parks have campgrounds that can accommodate any size RV. It is the national monuments (Natural Bridges in Utah comes to mind) and a lot of national forest campgrounds that are going to shut you out. Plus, a B can park in the oddball left over little sites or even in some tenting areas. Many a time I have lucked out that way. The last time was this month in Galveston, TX at a county RV park. The Class A in line ahead of me could not fit in the last site available. I could. Score on for the B team. :)

I understand the zoning for living. We have an electric tri-fold sofa that quickly converts to a bed with the touch of a switch. And we have two seats up front that turn around to a table. Still the sofa/bed is an either or situation and when the bed is down it feels like the B is constricted and it makes it difficult to get into the back cabinets. I don't like any of the current twin bed designs and see no need especially for the twin bed designs that act as opposing sofas. So, I am working on a design that will be unlike anything on the market today. A few DIYfers have done a better job in solving this than the commercial converters, IMO. Small Class Cs are not a lot better. They give you more width to feel less constricted but the slideouts are what really gives you space. But slideouts introduce a lot more give and takes if you really fancy the touring, stealth and go anywhere ideal.

Sebtown wrote:
We have a rule that nobody s$&@s in the van, this way we have gone as much as two weeks without dumping our 10 gallon black water tank on our AS Interstate. We prefer state and federal campgrounds and fo the most part find the facilities acceptable. At 22ft long we have never been turned away from anywhere and I love the 22.5 average mpg.

We have that same rule but I drink a lot of beer. ;) Actually it us usually the gray tank that rules when you dump.

JMHO, the Trend has a lot of compromises because it sits on a chassis with very little spare CCC. As an alternative, Phoenix Cruiser can make one of their models on a Quigley 4x4 chassis and they are a tad narrower than the usual 102 inch.

Another idea is to see about a Sportsmobile upfitted 22 foot Transit when they came out. They have high roof models. I've thought about this in a few previous posts, but the higher roof might allow for a false floor, giving space for bigger tanks.

Why not rent something like you're thinking about and see if you like it? I love my Coachmen B class. It's an older unit but is just fine for me. Except for that shower. I think even you'll have headroom trouble in it and I'm 6 foot. I use it to keep coolers and clothes in. I have an exgernal shower and just hang a blanket around me and wash outside.

We don't have any problem using camping site facilities - after all, we have been tent camping all our lives... :) But, it is sometimes a pain in the neck, especially when the washroom is located far away... I have a feeling that we will use the RV's washroom often. As for the showers, since we are both small, I have a feeling that we will use it quite a bit too, if there's enough water. We will have to learn to conserve water when we take shower but it is nice to have that option. We shower every two or even three days when we camp, so I doubt this will change. LTV Free Spirit (not the version with slide) has 37/42/20g tanks which is nice but dining and bed area is shared, so that won't work for us either... :( Other than that, no B class (that I have researched so far) offers larger than 10g black tank. In fact, the largest grey tank in this group is also only 21g, so overall, the tank capacity is definitely a compromise I'll have to deal with if I choose to go with the B class.

I do plan to rent different type of RVs. I see some places that rent out B class, but I don't see any B+ rentals around here though...

I haven't really looked at any gas B or B+ RVs because I'm afraid of their bad gas mileage and also their performance on the grades (we expect to visit Rockies every year), but I recognize that Diesels cost more to maintain. I have heard about Ford Transit platform which will be powered by both Diesel and EcoBoost (where the latter solves the high altitude power issue but gets rid of Diesel headaches). Perhaps the Transit + EcoBoost might be the answer but I'm not sure when RVs based on this combo will be out.

Class B appears to be expensive but they appear to use high quality materials. If you get the high end gas Class A MH from Newmar of Tiffin, they cost quite a bit more than these Class B's. Given their lower volume, I think the price is reasonable.

Tiger Adventure Vehicles look too small for us....

One thing we will not do, is to stay in motels. As mentioned already, we are quite small - we even slept in twin beds before and it wasn't that bad... :)

Davydd's comment on where Unity can go (more like cannot go) is very interesting. We would like to travel many different places so those are interesting points indeed. What are the real differences between National Parks and National Forests? Being from Canada, I've never been to National Forests before. Do they have scenic hiking trails? Or is it more for those who likes to camp cheap in the wilds with less conveniences? I'm curious, what do you mean by " So, I am working on a design that will be unlike anything on the market today."?

Wow, that's a lot of typing! :)

Thanks for posting this question. We're considering the same choices.

Acei wrote:


Davydd's comment on where Unity can go (more like cannot go) is very interesting. We would like to travel many different places so those are interesting points indeed. What are the real differences between National Parks and National Forests? Being from Canada, I've never been to National Forests before. Do they have scenic hiking trails? Or is it more for those who likes to camp cheap in the wilds with less conveniences? :)

We have a 25' class C and do run into places where we can't go because of our height, width and length such as the places mentioned already - Going to the Sun road, roads in Black Hills, the tunnel in Zion - but rarely find campgrounds where we won't fit. Traveling on skinny back roads is not a problem. I can't help any with your decisions about which class B to buy but I think sticking with a B is best for your type of camping and traveling.

As far as the difference between National Parks and forests - National Parks are usually more developed but that's not always the case. National forests allow dispersed camping but most national parks do not. Some forests have a lot of activities, others are undeveloped wilderness. Camping fees for national forest vary widely from free to over $20.00 a night. I believe that national forests are managed more by the state than the federal government.- correction as Davydd, post below, points out they are managed by the federal government. I mistakenly thought that the states had input because of the vast differences in the way forests are managed from state to state.I'm not sure why this is. This is a great site for more information - http://www.fs.fed.us/locatormap/#

Good luck with your decision!

The National Forests are managed by the Federal Government not the states. There are a lot of equivalent state forests with campsites that are managed by states. This is true in Minnesota where I live. As for the differences, the National Parks are our treasures. They have prominent features. i.e. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, etc. Forests are just that, forests. National Monuments like the Natural Bridges NM I mentioned are usually feature areas on a smaller scale though some can be bigger than some national parks. I suppose it is just management and what presidents and Congress acts on.

The Minnesota and Wisconsin national forests campgrounds list many as allowing only 22-26 foot RV lengths. I imagine they were originally set up for tent campers before RVs got more popular. Backing in, maneuvering and parking can be extremely tight. That eliminates larger Class C's and A's and trailers. There usually are no hookups but with some water available in the campground and some vault toilets. The National Forest Service has been improving some of the more popular CGs to accommodate larger RVs and even adding electrical hookups. But they are rare.

As I said, forests. National Forests usually don't have any amenities like hiking trails though many in the upper Midwest are located on lakes with a boat launch.

Sebtown wrote:

We have a rule that nobody s$&@s in the van, this way we have gone as much as two weeks without dumping our 10 gallon black water tank on our AS Interstate.

Without getting into "potty talk" I am surprised at the arbitrary use of the commode. A full service bathroom with sink, toilet and wand shower, make a Class B a fully self-contained RV. The envelopes of tank chemicals are sized and formulated for holding tanks several time larger than the 10 or 15 gal. tanks of a B, so the concentration of chemicals is much higher. When we dump, I use rubber gloves, wash out the hose and spray tilex in the storage compartment after stowing the hose. The grey water tank always governs the timing of when to dump anyway. We have never had a problem with our waste water tanks.

Is anyone aware of a B class that's under 10 feet in height? I think the Winnie Rialta was but of course they're discontinued. The comment about the lack of shower headroom affects me too. I'm 6'2" and haven't been able to use the shower in any rv and just stoop over a little when I'm inside. We have a popup shower tent I use but it shrivels you in colder weather. That where those sponge bath wipes come in handy like we used in Iraq.