Downsizing
My wife and I are considering downsizing from a 40' 5th wheel to a camper van 21'-24' long. Looking at Roadtrek and Airstreams right now. Difficulty with 5th wheel range from 2 blown tires and $9,000...
Forum Discussion
We have never had a large rig and over thirty 37 years of RVing, we have always had Bs or Cs. Two of the Cs were called B+ but as we all know they are Cs.
We had a 1996 Roadtrek 190 P we bought new and loved it for years. We got the itch to buy a new "B+" when we first had that term used and bought a BT Cruiser that was 24 feet long and really enjoyed it for a few years, but missed the abilities of a B. In 2006 we bought a new Roadtrek 210P tricked out to our specifications. We wanted the twin beds instead of the couch that converts to a bed because we wanted all that big storage area with rear door access that the twin arrangement provided.
We sold our Roadtrek in 2013 and it was purchased by a lady in Houston. We had purchased a Phoenix Cruiser 2350 Class C (they call them B+) and it is a great motorhome almost 24 feet long but more narrow than most and with less height. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Phoenix Cruiser and it is really considered one of the better Class Cs built today. We boondock for weeks at a time and the PC works perfectly for that purpose. BUT....we missed our Roadtrek! When the nice lady that had purchased the RT from us decided to sell last summer, we bought it back from her!! She had taken excellent care of it and it was essentially just like when we sold it to her a few years ago, and she had only driven it about 5K miles. It is now in a garage attached here at our home in Oklahoma City.
I go through all this story to make a point and the point is that different kinds of use dictates our preferences. Nothing we have ever owned beats our Roadtrek 210P for performance, reliability, usability and touring. We kept the Phoenix Cruiser and will probably spend much of the summer in it up in cooler climes. We tow a Jeep behind it and that is a hassle.
Our Roadtrek has more storage than the Phoenix Cruiser. That is not a guess but a fact after measurement of cubic interior and exterior storage capacity. We use the RT for touring and the PC for long term camping and boondocking for periods of a week or more in one place.
Simply put, a B is a lot less hassle to drive, park and utilize than even a small C. A B by definition is a van. A C by definition is a truck. A van is easier to handle, at least for me, than a truck.
I suspect we will sell the Phoenix Cruiser in a couple of years and just keep the Roadtrek. Class Bs simply give more flexibility than anything else and prove less is more in all the junk you carry when you travel. Our tank capacity in the RT allow us about five days of careful unhooked usage. I can whip into any place to buy gas and not worry about a toad behind me. Add up the Phoenix Cruiser, the hitch equipment and the Jeep and we are talking 45 feet going down the road, twice the Roadtrek.
Paul
We had a 1996 Roadtrek 190 P we bought new and loved it for years. We got the itch to buy a new "B+" when we first had that term used and bought a BT Cruiser that was 24 feet long and really enjoyed it for a few years, but missed the abilities of a B. In 2006 we bought a new Roadtrek 210P tricked out to our specifications. We wanted the twin beds instead of the couch that converts to a bed because we wanted all that big storage area with rear door access that the twin arrangement provided.
We sold our Roadtrek in 2013 and it was purchased by a lady in Houston. We had purchased a Phoenix Cruiser 2350 Class C (they call them B+) and it is a great motorhome almost 24 feet long but more narrow than most and with less height. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Phoenix Cruiser and it is really considered one of the better Class Cs built today. We boondock for weeks at a time and the PC works perfectly for that purpose. BUT....we missed our Roadtrek! When the nice lady that had purchased the RT from us decided to sell last summer, we bought it back from her!! She had taken excellent care of it and it was essentially just like when we sold it to her a few years ago, and she had only driven it about 5K miles. It is now in a garage attached here at our home in Oklahoma City.
I go through all this story to make a point and the point is that different kinds of use dictates our preferences. Nothing we have ever owned beats our Roadtrek 210P for performance, reliability, usability and touring. We kept the Phoenix Cruiser and will probably spend much of the summer in it up in cooler climes. We tow a Jeep behind it and that is a hassle.
Our Roadtrek has more storage than the Phoenix Cruiser. That is not a guess but a fact after measurement of cubic interior and exterior storage capacity. We use the RT for touring and the PC for long term camping and boondocking for periods of a week or more in one place.
Simply put, a B is a lot less hassle to drive, park and utilize than even a small C. A B by definition is a van. A C by definition is a truck. A van is easier to handle, at least for me, than a truck.
I suspect we will sell the Phoenix Cruiser in a couple of years and just keep the Roadtrek. Class Bs simply give more flexibility than anything else and prove less is more in all the junk you carry when you travel. Our tank capacity in the RT allow us about five days of careful unhooked usage. I can whip into any place to buy gas and not worry about a toad behind me. Add up the Phoenix Cruiser, the hitch equipment and the Jeep and we are talking 45 feet going down the road, twice the Roadtrek.
Paul
