If you plan to home school and stay at SP's NP's etc. many do not have full hookups. You only have 53 gals of FW, that will go very quickly with 2 adults and 2 small children. I would look for one with 80-100 gals FW. The second thing that I would look at assuming you will be teaching while your husband is driving is do I have enough room to work with all the 4 slides in( a full wall slide maybe better. The eng should be secondary in you thinking both will get you to where you want to go. The Fred is heavier with less HP so I would test both from 40 - 60 mph and see which is quicker with less eng noise. The faster one on the flat will pull the hills better. My guess is that the Fred will be nosier at idle, quieter at WOT climbing a hill because of lower rpm that the Ford. Only you can decide on the power and noise level is acceptable to you. You can live with that for a year but the water and layout may be harder to live with.
