Can I Pick Your Brains About Smaller Class C's?

I would suggest taking a look at a Four Winds Five Thousand. We have had ours for 8 years and like it. It is 23.5 feet long and we like it because we can get into tighter spots that larger RV's can not get in to, yet it is a full class C with all the accessories the larger ones have. We were lucky bought it used less than two years old with only 3,000 miles on it paid 35 grand in 2005 it was in mint condition when we bought it.

It can sleep 6 although that is kind of tight, it is perfect for four or maybe 5 adults on a long trip. FOr one couple no problem lots of room. 3 kids can easily fit into the overhaad bunk though lots of room up there, although the dinette and the fold out couch beds would be a little too short for a tall person to fit in to I think maybe a 5'10 or 5'11 max person could sleep on those beds. The newer model Four Winds might have a longer bed so check them out. I think they made a 26 or 28 footers as well.

One note though, I would suggest getting the GMC chassis instead of the Ford for the simple reason that you will have a lot more leg room in the front seats with the GM compared to the Ford. We checked out both the Ford and GM versions and the Ford makes the passenger squinch their feet close together due to the larger engine size. The GM engine is smaller it's a 6 liter V8 but it can still tow up to 5,000 pounds I believe. We found the GMC much more comfortable up front.

As far as the bed, we use the 3 inch memory foam from Costco on top of original, best bed in the house.

Jayco used to make a 27 foot with two slides, one in the bedroom to give you a walk-around queen. Grayhawk 27 DL I believe was the model. We seriously considered it, but ended up with the Granite Ridge 3100 ss. We had a27 ft Minnie Winnie and it was pretty agile, could get in and out of any place, better than the 31 footer. Everything is a trade off. My wife has driven both, even pulling a boat, she does fine.

'05 Winnie B+

Same Year and floorplan as our 22', but it's higher quality, larger (23.5'), slide (no interference w/ drivers seat AFAIK), Ford, but alas, 2 separate makedowns, though they each give MORE than half a queen.

OK, I'm willing to be educated. Maybe I am overlooking something by not considering Class B+ RVs. I assumed they were cramped and had either wet baths or tiny baths. I also assumed that they were unable to accomodate a queen bed. It appears that the line may be blurring.

Any RV is going to have to have a separate queen bed. Walkaround would be ideal but probably not likely/practical I am learning. We do not want an RV with a bed we have to make up every night or climb up into. An overcab bunk seems perfect for the grandkids. Am I wrong to assume that B+s don't have this?

At this point I don't have mobility problems, I am trying to avoid the trouble of hitching and unhitching as well as stabilizing that is now what we have with our TT. I am probably going to do most of the driving but my wife is willing to help IF SHE FEELS COMFORTABLE with the new rig. She isn't comfortable driving the current rig at all. Given my health issues, her help would be much appreciated.

You folks have been great with ideas and suggestions. We have been RVing for 12 years now all in TTs. I realize that there are compromises we have to make but there are a few that we aren't willing to make. The 2 things that are a must are the queen bed (60" width)and some comfortable inside seating as we camp in the great Northwet. Everything else is negotiable.

snowdance wrote:
Lots of good reading here. I agree the big thing is driver and passenger comfort. If you can not recline the two seats you will find little comfort. They become your recliners in a small rig.

A kitchen that really works is a must usless you eat out every meal. Having a kitchen that is not in the middle of the rig is nice. We went with a rear kitchen.

Places to set. A dinette has little setting comfort after a short while so a need for some place else to set. We have a couch which I rebuilt for comfort. I sleep on the couch and its as nice as a bed at home. My wife sleeps on the dinette in comfort after we changed the foam to 7 inch. We do not mind making them up each evening as it only takes a couple min. We use a fleece blanket on the bottom. No need to tuck it in as it stays put. We use very light backpacking sleeping bags unzipped for comforters. Get cold zip them up. To store them we just stuff them in a laundry bag. No folding or rolling just stuff. We keep them in the over head bunk area that we use for storage only.

Our bath fits us well and has a place in the shower for me to set. Some thing about being 75 years young..

We have lots of hanging storage and drawers. We have infact added a couple after finding some areas that could have them so made some.

We like our small rig because of where we like to go. A bigger rig would mean we would have to give up 60% of the back country we love so much.

And yep my wife lets me drive is from time to time.. :-)

I'm surprised someone from the Class B Camper Van Forum hasn't demanded your post be moved over there!

Small Cs and B+s are functionally Camper Vans for many of us...not too big like long Cs and A-class, not too small like B-class (though some of these are getting very long).

Ol Yeller says he wants bigger than B, but small enough for wife to be comfy driving, as she did not drive when towing the TT. In tight parking lots and narrow streets, a 22' B+ is great.

A 22' B+ with a makedown bigger than king bed, big chevy cab, no slide, full separate dry bath for perhaps $20-28k used seems the ticket to me. for the OP and wife. Martha has been our sole driver for 8 yrs and 40k miles.

Only mechanical deal was a faulty starter.

For that barrel chair, you could always put a swivel on the passenger seat.

We made sure our Aspect was usable closed up also.
Even some class A's are not useable closed up.

mlts22 wrote:


There are times when it is good to run with all slides in. Wallydocking comes to mind.

We use ours as our bedroom when staying at my folks' place. We are parked in the street when we do it so the slide can't be deployed.

Lots of good reading here. I agree the big thing is driver and passenger comfort. If you can not recline the two seats you will find little comfort. They become your recliners in a small rig.

A kitchen that really works is a must usless you eat out every meal. Having a kitchen that is not in the middle of the rig is nice. We went with a rear kitchen.

Places to set. A dinette has little setting comfort after a short while so a need for some place else to set. We have a couch which I rebuilt for comfort. I sleep on the couch and its as nice as a bed at home. My wife sleeps on the dinette in comfort after we changed the foam to 7 inch. We do not mind making them up each evening as it only takes a couple min. We use a fleece blanket on the bottom. No need to tuck it in as it stays put. We use very light backpacking sleeping bags unzipped for comforters. Get cold zip them up. To store them we just stuff them in a laundry bag. No folding or rolling just stuff. We keep them in the over head bunk area that we use for storage only.

Our bath fits us well and has a place in the shower for me to set. Some thing about being 75 years young..

We have lots of hanging storage and drawers. We have infact added a couple after finding some areas that could have them so made some.

We like our small rig because of where we like to go. A bigger rig would mean we would have to give up 60% of the back country we love so much.

And yep my wife lets me drive is from time to time.. :-)

+1 on getting the salesperson to close 'em up, and then go and see if you can make the restroom, or perhaps hit a bed.

The absolute best floor plan I've encountered that works with the slide in or out is the corner queen one. I was looking at a Solera 24s, found it decently roomy, then realized when I saw the window that the slide was in.

There are times when it is good to run with all slides in. Wallydocking comes to mind.