Forward kitchen?

Busskipper, we are looking for a variety of reasons. We have been fulltime in a 34' Suncruiser. We are looking for a bit more room for living and for cargo storage. Also am tired of the laundromat visits! We don't have much in the way of belongings but still at weight limits.
We are not looking specifically for a front kitchen, just observed there are many in the resale market.
Could cashflow a new gasser but not a new DP. It would have to be in the 3 year range to feel good about the price. I am liking the floor plan in the Q series of the Bagos, just haven't found the right one available yet. Keeping a look out at PPL and at AZ local dealers.
Thank you to all of you for the comments/questions. Lots of things to consider.

We had a 41' DP with the front kitchen. It was fine...get the floor plan YOU like.

Ours is a Monaco SKQ layout.

After a year of searching, back in 2010, we found this, and a couple similar Thor and Forest River layouts. We bought the Monaco used for what the others cost new. And do not regret it not one lil bit.

I loved out mid-door in our gasser. You walk out in the rain, you are under the middle of the main awning, nice and dry.

This doesn't exist in a mid priced DP. You get a front door, and this wienie little door awning that leaves a 6" gap between it and the main awning. I live with it, you will too.

I loved my front door in the old gasser. I could hop out to get fuel or whatever, the DW wouldn't even need to put down her iPhone.

This doesn't exist in any DP. After 5 years in our Monaco, DW is finally starting to hit the retract the step cover when I get off the highway. I also moved around the switches on the dash so I had a step cover switch I could reach.

Our gasser had a TV on a STEEK in the middle of the dash, I hated it. I had to hotwire it so my kids could watch movies on the road (that was a lil distracting...)
I've actually seen DP's that had 1 TV over the dash, and a second somewhere else in the cabin! (why in the hell would anyone need 2 TV's in the same room? no offense to anyone who has that

Our Monaco SKQ has one TV, a 42", on the back wall of the main salon.

The other front kitchen layouts mentioned either hid the TV behind the retracted slide, or had the TV on some sort of mechanism to let it stick out.

Our Monaco SKQ, the fixed TV is fully visible with all 4 slides in.

The only drawback I've found is, with the slides retracted, I can't get to the pantry where I keep my Tequila!

The DW might say this is not a bad thing.

Over the past 5 years, we've looked at a lot of other coaches and floorplans...
I'd really like a tag axle, and the extra capacity that comes with it.
I went over a cat scale a couple weeks ago, front was 12k, max 13k. rear was 20,840, max 20k...
2 weeks ago I put a motorcycle lift on, Figure I added a thousand to the all ready overwieght rear..

I'm not sure there is a perfect coach layout.
There certainly is not one that is perfect for everyone...

For me and us, our Monaco 40 SKQ is as perfect as it seems to get

We have a Winnebago 42AD, which is a forward kitchen model. It doesn't have a bath and a half. It's also true that the front seats are not part of the living room. The living room has an L-shaped couch and a loveseat so we don't really have any problem with seating space in the living room. The kitchen is large and we have a bedroom with a king-sized bed.

We did have a front axle weight problem. When we first took ownership, the front wheels had more weight on them than the drive axle. We adjusted the ride height of the tag axle. This resulted in less weight on the front and more on the drive. It took four trips to the scales while the dealer was adjusting. When all was done, the front wheels were still a couple of hundred pounds overweight. Freightliner advised that the weakest link on the front axle were the tires. Going up a tire size would increase the capacity. When it became time to replace the tires, I put 295s on the front instead of the 275s it came with. We're now in spec. One of the benefits of a heavy front axle is that it makes the ride and handling much better. Look at the more recent model years Winnebago. They have bigger front tires that the ones in the rear.

We have looked at dozens of other floor plans and we haven't found one we like better. We're very happy with OUR selection.

Ivylog wrote:
Mr.Mark, like you we recline to watch TV and it's nice to see what's going on out front too. Not sure how much bigger one needs a TV to be. I wonder if the full wall slide will last and if the big rear bath and a half will last.

We had never had a bath and a half and I thought it was stupid unfortunately they are in almost every 42' floor plan. What do ya know she looooves it so I guess I'm ok with it now.

We have decided we really like the floorplan in the Winnebago 38Q, now to find similar in a DP! :)
Everyone have a great weekend

Mr.Mark, like you we recline to watch TV and it's nice to see what's going on out front too. Not sure how much bigger one needs a TV to be. I wonder if the full wall slide will last and if the big rear bath and a half will last.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the 'forward' kitchen, there are a lot of people that like it and have bought it.

My thoughts are the same as Ivylog, the front seats are not part of the living area. Also, we find ourselves looking out the big front window when sitting in the living room. (Our driver and passenger seats are not part of the living room seating either because they sit two steps down lower than the 'salon').

In some cases, you might be facing a lake or other type of nice view. If you have the center living room, you can't take as much advantage as you are more in the middle.

We are probably the rare people that like the TV up front at the driver area. We have two sofa's facing each other and we can lie down, stretch our feet out on the sofa and enjoy the TV.

But, you pick what YOU like and will enjoy.

Safe travels,
MM.

Thanks for the replies. Ivylog, I also thought the front seats would not be useful in this configuration. Maybe will move this floor plan to the back of the list.