How many feet is too many?

PghBob wrote:
I want to bring up a point that I didn't see posted yet. With a Class C unit and some gas powered Class A rigs, it's not the length or storage area that are most important. IMHO, it is the OCCC (Occupant and Cargo Carrying Capacity) that is (maximum weight of all people and stuff you can carry in a given RV).

A new Ford E450 chassis has a gross maximum weight of 14500 pounds. All E450s are delivered to MH factories the same. Where they vary, is the weight of the house "box" and options the various manufacturers put on the chassis.

You need to find the sticker that lists the OCCC in each rig you are considering (do not depend on the sales rep to provide accurate info.) and determine if the OCCC will meet your needs. Some factors that reduce your OCCC are length of the RV (longer generally reduces OCCC), slideouts, automatic leveling systems, and other options.

Now this is important. We have been inside new rigs at the shows that would have been overweight with just our 4 family members on board, no stuff (food, water, clothes). This includes Class A gassers as well as Class C rigs. Yep, they had eye-candy though. No, the sales rep didn't know the OCCC.

So, when considering your unit try to determine how you will use it most of the time. Will you need to carry food or clothes for long cross country trips? Will there be family friends along for the trip? Mostly be used for weekend getaways to the beach? This will guide you to your weight requirements. Once you know this, you can find a floor plan that meets your needs. Remember, it is not how much storage you have, but how much weight you can safely carry.

Good luck on your search.

Wow! Thank you. We would have never thought of that. Where does one usually find the OCCC sticker? There is so much to know. I'm glad I'm starting early researching.

mlts22 wrote:
This is one reason I prefer the older Ford chassis, because on a shorter class "C", you can have a lot of OCCC left.

The good old Ford van chassis isn't dead yet. Thank Goodness you can still get 2016 genuine real Class C motorhomes built on the good old Ford E350 and E450 chassis - some short ones too.

Our 24 footer is built on an under-loaded E450 and we have around 2000 pounds of extra weight carrying capacity left AFTER loading it up fully for a trip. Bigger than needed brake swept areas for long and safe brake life and a 4:56 differential for great towing, grade climbing, and off-pavement crawling on gravel/dirt roads.

Some of us will really hate to see the good old Ford E350/E450 and Chevy 3500/4500 vans - along with their real engines - fade into history. :(

Very good observation. Some Sprinter rigs are riding the razor's edge of being so close to the GVWR that you could pass gas in the rig and be over the OCCC.

This is one reason I prefer the older Ford chassis, because on a shorter class "C", you can have a lot of OCCC left.

I want to bring up a point that I didn't see posted yet. With a Class C unit and some gas powered Class A rigs, it's not the length or storage area that are most important. IMHO, it is the OCCC (Occupant and Cargo Carrying Capacity) that is (maximum weight of all people and stuff you can carry in a given RV).

A new Ford E450 chassis has a gross maximum weight of 14500 pounds. All E450s are delivered to MH factories the same. Where they vary, is the weight of the house "box" and options the various manufacturers put on the chassis.

You need to find the sticker that lists the OCCC in each rig you are considering (do not depend on the sales rep to provide accurate info.) and determine if the OCCC will meet your needs. Some factors that reduce your OCCC are length of the RV (longer generally reduces OCCC), slideouts, automatic leveling systems, and other options.

Now this is important. We have been inside new rigs at the shows that would have been overweight with just our 4 family members on board, no stuff (food, water, clothes). This includes Class A gassers as well as Class C rigs. Yep, they had eye-candy though. No, the sales rep didn't know the OCCC.

So, when considering your unit try to determine how you will use it most of the time. Will you need to carry food or clothes for long cross country trips? Will there be family friends along for the trip? Mostly be used for weekend getaways to the beach? This will guide you to your weight requirements. Once you know this, you can find a floor plan that meets your needs. Remember, it is not how much storage you have, but how much weight you can safely carry.

Good luck on your search.

31-ft Class C with "wide body" which is 102" instead of the older 96" width. Your mirrors stick out farther.

We wanted a rear queen bed along with dinette and sofa plus a pantry. There were some "28-ft" that offered most of that. The 31 provided all that and an extra pedestal chair in the living area.

We can get into the "30-foot" sites. Class C's have a comfortable steel cab with airbags and shoulder belts along with easy in/out for stops. Being lower than an A can be helpful but comes at the expense of outside storage volume. Sounds counter-intuitive but Class C (at least on Ford E-Series) doesn't turn as tight as Class A of the same size. The big radius hasn't held us back, but it requires a little more planning in maneuvering.

We just spent around 11 weeks and 10,000+miles in our 24 foot Class C - but there's just two of us and a dog. That's all the length we care to heat, cool, clean, gas up, drive, and park. Sometimes 24 feet is even too long for getting into the real out of the way intimate and scenic little camping spots all over the U.S..

I'd recommend going as short as you can possibly tolerate. As others have said, the layout is more important than the length. Believe it or not, Class C width is also important - for not only getting into many out of the way intimate and scenic little camping spots - but also for crossing the many bridges and traveling the narrow county roads with no shoulders in so much of the Eastern U.S..

IMHO if going over 30' you would be happy with a Class A. Dick

DrewE's post made me think about some of my early days camping, and Vermont State parks.

Many state parks, and this is especially true in Vermont, were established many years ago when camping was done with tents. The sites were sized to accommodate tents and were a lot smaller than sites in more modern campgrounds. A lot of these state parks still use the same sites, that's the way the trees have grown over the years. The same is true in many other areas.

So, how long is too long? That depends on a lot of things as many other responders have already indicated.

Personally 27 foot is the max we would go. You probably would never have any problems with a longer unit at RV parks and RV Resorts however State, county and some federal parks have 27 to 28 foot limits. Example is Montaña de Oro State Park 27 foot max length.

I don't think most parks or campgrounds have an overall length limit. Individual sites often have various limits based on topography and trees and whatnot, and obviously a short RV can fit into a long site but not vice-versa. The longer you go, the greater the number of sites you can't fit in, and sometimes the more likely that they're all reserved when you wish to camp somewhere. (If only two sites in the campground are suitable, it's much more probable that they were both reserved than it is that all fifteen that a less large RV would fit in are taken simultaneously.)

I have a 32' (overall) class C. There are certainly a number of sites in Vermont state parks that I wouldn't fit in, at least not well enough to be practical. There are also quite a few sites I do fit in. I've also had some occasional minor challenges at private campgrounds during busy times; planning further in advance and getting reservations earlier would prevent such issues.

On the whole, I don't find this size to be a big detriment for getting sties. However, to pretend that size can never be an issue is just plain silly. For that matter, there are a good many camp sites in the VT state parks that you can't get into with any vehicle or trailer—they're walk-in only tent sites. There are others where much larger than a pop-up or a teardrop or other small trailer won't work.

The width of slides when deployed can occasionally also be a constraint. (I have no slides, so that part is easy for me to figure.)

I would guess that the people with 40' RVs that never experience any difficulty in finding sites don't tend to stay at the sorts of campgrounds that often have small sites. You really need to figure what sort of camping you like to do. Smaller sites often tend to go with more primitive campgrounds and fewer amenities (and hence often lower prices).