Ocean Mist, when I first bought my motorhome they had a 35 footer and a 38 footer on that lot that were identical, other than the 3 feet. I looked at both and decided on the 35 footer, only because of the access issues. Like I already said, as it turns out, access would not have been an issue between a 35 footer and a 38 footer. The 38 foot motorhome would have cost me about $1500 more than the 35 footer. Petty cash in the grand scheme. And although 3 feet doesn't seem like much, that 38 footer had 3 more feet in the basement storage compartment, a little more room in the bathroom, and several more feet of cabinets. For short trips that isn't much of a difference, but if you want to go out for months at a time that extra three feet would have made a huge difference.
Since my wife loves to bring everything along when camping, in my 35 footer I have lots of stuff store under my diningroom table, and my basement is packed to capacity. Three extra feet would have fixed that problem. Of course then my wife would probably have just brought along more junk.
People are talking about national forest campground and boon docking. All fun stuff, but if there is a place you can't get into with a 40 footer, you probably won't want to take your 35 footer there either. Those places are for tent trailers and small Class C's and Class B's.
