Moving on...
Dear B+ friends,
I wrote a month ago saying we traded in our 213 on a new Winnebago Vista 26HE. We’re on our way home from a trip to Texas so I thought I’d give you some impressions of the move in case some of you are tempted to do likewise.
The major reason for the move was that there really is no way to travel or sleep a third person on a 213. We have a granddaughter and her mother would not let us take her without an appropriate seat anchor. We also wanted to have friends come with us cycling and there was no place for them to sleep. There also wasn’t much storage space, but that wasn’t a deal breaker.
So, big step from 21 foot B+ to 26 foot A! Well, to get the seating and sleeping we wanted, a quality C was no cheaper, had much less storage space, and had a Ford chassis with very tight cab space. Sprinter-based C’s were another $25K and smaller, and the Ram Chassis had a max hitch tongue of #200, which would have limited our carrying capacity.
The 213 was 22 feet bumper to bumper, and the 26HE is 27. It will still fit in two parking lot spaces end to end with the bikes on the back. It’s a little taller, marginally wider. It is HUGE inside with a bed we don’t have to make up nightly, and, unique to Winnebago, has a tether anchor for a child seat.
What’s not to like? Well, the mileage for one. I could get 10-11 with my 6.0L Chevy, this trip was in the low 7’s. The Sprinter guys can brag about mileage but I can buy lots of gas for $25K. At the start of the trip I would have said the Vista is more work to drive, but 3,000 miles later we are both comfortable driving it. It is more affected by wind and trucks but not much. It has a short wheelbase so turning around is fine.
There you have it. If anyone has questions, let me know.
I wrote a month ago saying we traded in our 213 on a new Winnebago Vista 26HE. We’re on our way home from a trip to Texas so I thought I’d give you some impressions of the move in case some of you are tempted to do likewise.
The major reason for the move was that there really is no way to travel or sleep a third person on a 213. We have a granddaughter and her mother would not let us take her without an appropriate seat anchor. We also wanted to have friends come with us cycling and there was no place for them to sleep. There also wasn’t much storage space, but that wasn’t a deal breaker.
So, big step from 21 foot B+ to 26 foot A! Well, to get the seating and sleeping we wanted, a quality C was no cheaper, had much less storage space, and had a Ford chassis with very tight cab space. Sprinter-based C’s were another $25K and smaller, and the Ram Chassis had a max hitch tongue of #200, which would have limited our carrying capacity.
The 213 was 22 feet bumper to bumper, and the 26HE is 27. It will still fit in two parking lot spaces end to end with the bikes on the back. It’s a little taller, marginally wider. It is HUGE inside with a bed we don’t have to make up nightly, and, unique to Winnebago, has a tether anchor for a child seat.
What’s not to like? Well, the mileage for one. I could get 10-11 with my 6.0L Chevy, this trip was in the low 7’s. The Sprinter guys can brag about mileage but I can buy lots of gas for $25K. At the start of the trip I would have said the Vista is more work to drive, but 3,000 miles later we are both comfortable driving it. It is more affected by wind and trucks but not much. It has a short wheelbase so turning around is fine.
There you have it. If anyone has questions, let me know.
