Sightseeing in a C w/no toad

Thanks to all for the insights and advice. I appreciate it very much.

Safe journey to all.

Ron

I am going to be no help here at all except that what I have may start some thoughts that work for you...

We have a very small old A (that is why I read the C forum) and at 23.6 (w/ spare), we can get to and park just about any place a large van can go.
We don't usually drag the toad just because it is not worth the hassle or cost.
We usually carry two folding bicycles under the dinette table because they are just too convenient to leave home unless we KNOW we won't want them. (They are clean and safe there - too.)
If we get to someplace and decide we really want a car, we rent one. That often has turned out to be less than the cost of the additional fuel that it would have required to drag the toad. (And, we didn't pay for the extra axles on the toll roads either.)

I hope this is some help.

Matt

pnichols wrote:
It depends upon what you mean by "sight-seeing".

Last October we traveled on the "Not Recommended for RVs" valley loop road in Monument Valley. Our 24 foot Class C did just fine on that topsy-turvy road with some carefull maneuvering. However, the friends traveling with us in their 24 foot Class C would not try it, so for them at that time at that place a towed vehicle would have been just the ticket.

We go off-road quite a bit with our Class C. "Hate to" are strong words .... but I guess they express my feeling about towing anything behind our RV. I do tow our 14 foot aluminum fishing boat at times - but not off-road, not into shopping centers, not into museum parking lots, not into trail head parking lots, not into Gold Rush ghost towns, and not through downtown San Francisco.

In general we like to have our home with us at all times when we're out and about on an RV trip, as that's what we bought it for. It sure is nice to always have a bed, a table, a refrigerator, a microwave, and - last but not least - a bathroom with us at al times!

pnichols,

You and my brother think alike. Maybe one day we will too.

There are two schools of thought, and I cannot dispute the benefits you mention. A few less feet for us would feed the thought of going towless.

We drove that Monument Valley loop with our old motor home. It worked for us but our rig was just 17.5 feet long. It had no a/c and it was hot and very windy there. When we got out of the valley, the interior looked like some kid had fun with a can of red flat spray paint. The engine compartment was all red. At the next town I replaced the air filter. Needless to say I had a big clean-up job once back home.

The worst of the loop is getting down in there. It's a breeze after that first 1/10 or 1/20 of a mile.

It depends upon what you mean by "sight-seeing".

Last October we traveled on the "Not Recommended for RVs" valley loop road in Monument Valley. Our 24 foot Class C did just fine on that topsy-turvy road with some carefull maneuvering. However, the friends traveling with us in their 24 foot Class C would not try it, so for them at that time at that place a towed vehicle would have been just the ticket.

We go off-road quite a bit with our Class C. "Hate to" are strong words .... but I guess they express my feeling about towing anything behind our RV. I do tow our 14 foot aluminum fishing boat at times - but not off-road, not into shopping centers, not into museum parking lots, not into trail head parking lots, not into Gold Rush ghost towns, and not through downtown San Francisco.

In general we like to have our home with us at all times when we're out and about on an RV trip, as that's what we bought it for. It sure is nice to always have a bed, a table, a refrigerator, a microwave, and - last but not least - a bathroom with us at all times!

Even at 20 feet long, parking at busy city places is a pain. One time DW neded to visit a hospital downtown. I dropped her off, then waited for a while at a grocery store where the parking spots were too narrow and too short. When it got crowded, I moved to a school where I got permission to stay in staff parking for a couple of hours. Outside cities, the only problem is occasional difficulty getting a spot level enough for the fridge.

It can be a little stressful at times due to traffic and parking but we have a great time with our kids and love having our kitchen, toilet, TV, etc with us all of the time. We have rented a vehicle a couple of times for specific purposes.

We have a 32' Class C. We don't tow. For us it a matter of $$. My wife has a company car so we can't tow it. And I don't want to tow my truck. Maybe when we retire we will get a car that can tow. We plan ahead as best as we can. We rented a car in noerth Alabama and again in Florida. I find New England to be more difficult to get around than the western states. But we have always found a place to park close enough to walk.

We have a Winne View, which is about 24.5' long. Pretty much all we do is sightsee/tour, and we never take a toad. There is no need for a 2nd vehicle, as we go wherever we want. We go exploring during the daytime, and in the evening we go to a state park and camp for the night. The next day, we are off to our next destination. Occasionally we stay an extra day at a park if we really like it, and since we always travel fully stocked, we have no need to go somewhere else if we are rooted in place for a while. In other words, we go where we want with the MH, and see no need to park one vehicle and then go somewhere else in another vehicle.

For our size of MH, there is no need for advance planning. We have never had any type of problems at all in finding a place to park, even in downtown areas. We might not always be able to park directly on the main drag, but can always find a parking place a block or two off of the main drag. We don't let our size stop us from planning on going anywhere we might ever desire.

I'm with Tatest on this,except I always pull a toad because I'm always headed to some attraction. The historic Triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown all have pull thru parking for RVs at the attractions, but not in the towns.
Yellowstone/Tetons can be driven (mostly) but the bigger the vehicle, the rarer the parking place to pull over.
A lot of the Peter Norbeck Trail in the Black Hills can't be driven in a MH. The drive up to Mt. Rushmore and Needles highway have narrow tunnels, pigtail bridges, and tight 180 degree curves.
BUT - because of that, many of the RV parks in those areas have connections with rental car places like Enterprise.

I do it all the time, at just under 30 feet, it takes planning, but also depends on what you want to do.

I don't use the RV to visit major cities or their residential suburbs. Most of my travel is between the Appalachians and Sierra Nevada, where businesses, farmers, and ranchers routinely bring large vehicles into town, and OTR trucking is an important part of the overal traffic, so parking, gas stations et ak tend to be designed to accommodate large vehicle combinations in town. Frequently visited tourists sites have RV and tour bus parking areas.

If I am going to someplace for an extended visit, particularly to a metro area but also just to a campground or park for an extended stay, I will pull a toad. The RV gets parked for the duration, the toad gets used to get around.

But for the type of travel where I am moving every day, I like to leave the toad at home, because it makes the getting around problem much more difficult. It almost forces one to park the RV for the day and use the toad, because the combination is about twenty feet longer and it can't back up.