Class C basement washer and dryer

Thanks. I’m going to take the dryer. Bought it used for $30 but haven’t ever put it in the RV. It was a little too big for the old 22 ft rig but I love this huge basement area. We also went the economy car route and will do a local pickup and return. Never have done this city visiting before so I didn’t consider it seriously at first. About $500 for almost 2 weeks so more than a washer. But we won’t have to move the RV if we don’t want to and laundry should not be a problem.
You might look for small used dryers. They are 110 and would take up less room in the closet.

EMD360,

I'll give you my thoughts, though they may or may not help you much. We always have our towed with us, so we could make trips to a laundromat if need be. And we have a 36' Class A, not a "small" motorhome by most standards. But we did usually travel with the full family.

When we ordered our rig back in 2004, with 4 young kids, we knew we'd be needing storage space and didn't want to give up the utility closet to a washer/dryer unit. However, for a very modest additional charge, we WERE able to get a "washer/dryer prep" package which put the hot & cold water controls, drain and AC power in the utility closet should we wish to upgrade at a future date. That upgrade, I believe, also increased the water heater size from 6 gallons to 10 gallons, which was a good idea for a family of 6 any way.

Here we are 17 years later and still have the same rig, and hope to keep it rolling for quite some time. In all of those years, for our extended trips, we usually used coin operated machines at the campground. And that worked fine. We'd just schedule a "down day" during our stay to do the laundry.

But over the years, we also realized that MANY more times than needing our clothes washed, we needed our clothes or towels dried. That is, we came back from the beach, we got caught in a downpour, etc. and we had wet clothes and/or towels which needed to be dried. You can imagine with 5 and 6 of us in the rig, we could generate quite a pile of wet clothes if we got caught in a good drenching. You can't just hang them up in the shower, or bedroom or other part of the motorhome because we pretty much had 5 or 6 people plus a dog or two, so the rig didn't have much space to just hang clothes to dry. Hanging them outdoors isn't an option if it's raining or at night.

In those situations, a clothes dryer would have been really handy. Every time that happened, we were at a campground which had 50A service, so a small, electric 240V dryer would've done the trick for us nicely. Heck, even a 120V dryer would've been better than nothing. At least we could dry our clothes and/or towels.

So lately, we've been thinking about giving up the closet to a washer/dryer combo unit or just a dedicated dryer. We're leaning toward the dedicated dryer. Our clothes generally don't get THAT dirty that they need much more than an occasional spot clean or light rinsing. So we could wash them, if needed, in the sink and just toss them in the dryer across the hall from the bathroom.

If we really did need something larger cleaned, then we'd use the campground or laundromat facilities. But a clothes dryer on board would be handy. However, every time I broach the subject with DW, she's still reluctant to give up "her" closet, so I'm not sure if we'll ever follow through with the idea.

I just wanted you to know that you have company in thinking that a clothes dryer alone could be sufficient. I don't remember hearing from anyone on these forums over the years who has installed just a dryer. It's usually a combo washer/dryer unit, usually with an assortment of very mixed reviews.

My advice to you is that since you already have the dryer is to install that and see how that works out for you. If you feel you need the washer after that, then you can deal with that issue at a later time.

Good Luck in your decision, and please let us know what you decided and how it works out for you. :)

~Rick

Rent a car. Pick economy for cheapest rate . They will give you whatever they have and its usually an upgrade from economy at no extra charge to you.

EMD360 wrote:
Yeah that’s my situation. No toad a few weeks in a small park and no laundry at the park. It’s by public transportation and could take laundry I guess. It’s AZ so we might not even need a dryer. I spent hours in researching portable machines. Could put a full portable washer like the Magic Chef with normal rinse and spin in the basement. I see one for sale used. Can put a 15”x15”x 28” in the closet. Would have to protect from water damage. There are only one or two machines that size. Of course there are smaller ones too but my husband wears jeans so I need something big enough to wash them. New this would also be about $100. But they have a small spinner basket that has to be used after the wash and it has to be manually filled with no auto shut off and then refilled for a rinse then removed wet and spun dry a small amount at a time. Seems like a lot of time consuming work.

Way more time consuming than driving a very maneuverable RV to the laundromat once after a week or 2. Unless the laundromat is like 150 miles away or something.

Yeah that’s my situation. No toad a few weeks in a small park and no laundry at the park. It’s by public transportation and could take laundry I guess. It’s AZ so we might not even need a dryer. I spent hours in researching portable machines. Could put a full portable washer like the Magic Chef with normal rinse and spin in the basement. I see one for sale used. Can put a 15”x15”x 28” in the closet. Would have to protect from water damage. There are only one or two machines that size. Of course there are smaller ones too but my husband wears jeans so I need something big enough to wash them. New this would also be about $100. But they have a small spinner basket that has to be used after the wash and it has to be manually filled with no auto shut off and then refilled for a rinse then removed wet and spun dry a small amount at a time. Seems like a lot of time consuming work.

* Now we are thinking of renting a small economy car!

While traveling , if you need to wash a small amount of clothes, place them in a HD contractor bag with soap, place inside the shower. Let it agitate while you bounce down the road.
We have a sport-brella that has a reflective foil type liner , we set it up next to the campfire. The large umbrella spokes allow us to hang clothes to dry.

It fits two chairs to keep wind and cold off your back while sitting at the campfire. Raises the temp too. Its cozy on cool nights.

https://www.omegasports.com/sklz/sklz-sport-brella-premiere-red-white-blue-stripes-47793?gclid=CjwKCAjwoP6LBhBlEiwAvCcthFv6x8yRhMhgcpygCiMGFgx6UrjxdTPwPZp0VxpT7sC6dPi7VpOeBxoCoXcQAvD_BwE

I personally don't think it's a great use of the limited space in an RV to carry laundry machinery around. I know others here wouldn't consider an RV without a washer and dryer, and that's fine too; different strokes for different folks and all that.

If you're traveling around, it's not that big of a deal to stop at a laundromat while en route between destinations. It's often even possible to time it up with lunch or something else where you'd be stopping anyhow. If you're going to be staying in one campground for weeks at a time and said campground does not have laundry facilities--and especially if you don't have a toad or similar local transportation readily available--then getting to a laundromat is a bit more troublesome. However, in my fairly limited experience, a substantial portion of campgrounds which feature full hookup sites also have coin laundry facilities available on-site.

If I’m going to wash by hand I think I’d just use a plastic tub and one of those cheap agitators. I think I’ll do most of this laundry with hookups but no laundry facility. Would have to drive to a laundromat.

I realized the used small machine would not fit anywhere. I would have to cut out the bed platform to get it in the basement. But I have been researching on Camping World and Amazon. These twin tub washer/spin dryers would fit in the closet sideways. Most are gravity drain but this one has a pump. Can only spin half a load at a time but the fast spin removes much of the water.
Think Gizmos
Washer capacity for all of these is about 8 lbs. comments say they handle queen sheet sets or a couple of pairs of jeans.
I may ask for one for Christmas.

* The twin tubs are too wide for the closet. It is only 20” deep and the narrowest is about 22” wide.