We know we want small, but how small?

I think a lot depends upon where you like to travel (I see you're from NH). If you like to visit the more densely populated cities and touristy attractions along the New England coastline, then driving and parking a smaller B will be a lot less cumbersome, not to mention often sliding under the radar in RV restricted parking lots, and restricted parkways (greater NYC area). I have a stealth RT170P and with the footprint of Chevy Suburban, can pretty much drive and park it anywhere there's roof clearance - standard parking around SW New England where I live seems ~18'.

Everyone has a different tolerance for tight spaces... I'm fine with small spaces as long as I can stand upright. Since your purchase seems geared toward driving/touring rather than camping, I personally advice straying on the smaller size <20 ft..... and on the stealth looking size, including passenger plates if you can get them.

I also have a Pleasure-way Excel, I have had 3 of them and the reason I stick with them is because of the interior room. It is a wide body Class B, has a rear electric sofa bed which makes it easy to set up into a very large bed for sleeping and it's very roomy inside when it is used as a sofa. It has a lot of windows so it is light and bright inside. The sit down bath/shower is small but useable. The spare tire is under the chassis so it doesn't get in the way for parking and you can parallel park in any standard size spot on just about any street. These were discontinued last year as Ford no longer makes the E series van that it was built on but there are still a few of them in dealer lots that you could most likely get a good deal on. The msrp on these units is under $100,000.00 and if you were to find one I'm sure they would offer a good discount on it.

Nick

We have owned two C Class RVs: one 23 ft the other 28 ft. Our current B PW Plateau TS is 21ft11ins. Quite frankly there is a tendency for rv owners to talk themselves into claustrophobia when in fact, a lot of us spend a good part of our time OUTSIDE and often cooking outside too. We sleep, watch tv etc in the evening--going shopping or sightseeing en route or when parked in an RV Resort. Bigger isnt necessarily better and can often make RV use a problem for those who dont want to tow a vehicle. As this is a B forum I think the OPs should distil the merits of those from B owners and migrate the merits of those from C owners(searching that forum). It becomes less confusing for them and we dont argue with each other who has the best rig. Happy shopping.
PS: We often spend a week or more at one location without suffering any psychological or physical side-effects.

We started out with a 34 foot - 3 slide 5th wheel and a Silverado 2500 HD. Would have been a good decision if we had wanted to go south for the winter and find a park to stay in, or as friends do go to a camp ground in the summer and fall for 3-4 weeks at a time. Apart from the hassle of hooking up and unhooking, was getting in and parking in many campgrounds and getting around towns as you travel on the way. My wife hated it 24/7.

We then looked at small Class "A",s and Class "C",s and concluded that they offered some benefits over the 5th wheel rig, but the more we looked and talked to the people who owned them the more we realized that if we bought one of these we would probably end up towing a small vehicle.

We have owned a Class B PleasureWay Excel TS (built on a Ford chassis) for 2 years now and have and qualified automobile mechanic can woork on the engine. The rest of the equipment in the "house" is made by the same companies for virtually all other RV's. In addition we have found the following:
(1) Yes it is a compromise when it comes to taking s lot of "stuff" with you (most of which you will learn you don't really need). After all it is supposed to be a vacation.
(2) We can park anywhere with ease and my wife loves to drive it.
(3) If we want to go to the beach for the day we can have all the convenience of a MH and be packed and gone in 15 minutes. And because we have a built in generator we can stop anywhere we want.
(4) Yes when travelling we have stayed overnight in a Walmart lot, a Casino lot, etc., when we just wanted someplace to sleep and get on our way. One night we had dinner at a restaurant and celebrated with a little too much wine and the manager said we could park overnight at the back of their parking lot.
(6) We live out of town and can go visit friends in the city and stay
in our MH in their driveway or a nearby park avoiding the hassles of being in someone else's home.
(7) We often go to the theatre in different towns 2-3 hours away around us and take our van and make a little "over night" out of it sometimes staying in a municipal park which many small towns have.
(8) There are many weekend/overnight "happenings" we attend such as Bluegrass Festivals and Jamborees around our province in the summer.
(9) We have never done it but I know people who even though there unit is winterized, take it to the ski hills

My wife and I were shopping this morning and a PleasureWay pulled in near us. I introduced myself to the older couple. They were driving 2 1995 PW built on a Dodge chassis with over 200,000 KM on it. Retired, they had spent every one of the last 10 winters in Florida/Texas/Arizona travelling around. Previously they owned a 24 foot Class C and much preferred their current vehicle. They live in the country but have a daughter with a family who lives in the city and said whenever they visit her they stay in their PW in their driveway and love the peace and quiet and freedom to leave whenever they feel like it!

Recommend that you Look, Look, and Look some more (it can be frustrating). And every time you get a chance talk to people you see in the a grocery store parking lot or wherever and try to discover just how they use their vehicle (regardless of Class A, B or C) and see how their use would fit with yours. Perhaps even rent one and go on a vacation.

IMPO the most important thing is to read the forums postings, ask questions as you are and think long and hard on hour YOU and YOUR WIFE will use the vehicle and make your decision based on that

You might also consider a truck camper. They range from small to larger with triple slides.

Handbasket gave you some good advice. I fell in love with the first Sprinter based motorhome we saw but while waiting for new models to evolve we bought a 2 year old Road trek 200. On several occasions after parking on a city street we observed that we would not be able to park there if 2 feet longer. After 6 years and 90,000 miles we bought a 5 foot longer Sprinter based Winnebago Via. We like most things about it but sometimes miss the ease of driving and parking a 20 ft class B.

I love my B. My lady friend is less enthused. I've never fooled with the plumbing system as I usually either stay in campgrounds with bathrooms and power supply, or I use it for day trips to car shows and such. I'm 6 foot and stand up quite comfortably. The shower though, is about 4 feet tall. That's why I've never bothered with it.

I can park anywhere an older full sized car can park. 76 inches wide and 18'6 long. The biggest issue was backing up but a cheapie back up camera from AutoZone took care of that.

I'm a single RVer. My first RV was a Roadtrek. After all, it was just me. But to make it that small, everything has to do double duty. The kitchen is also the shower, since its the only spot with a drain. The bed is also the dinette. The toilet is also a closet. If I pulled into a CG and hooked up, I had to unhook to go anyplace and sometimes returned to a CG that was now full. It was too tall to fit in a parking garage and too long to fit in a single metered site on the street. And it got lousy gas mileage.
They still sell them, so somebody must like them, but I'm not one of them.

Neither do I.

TOMMY47 wrote:
If you want to cheat on Craigslist, go to searchtempest.com. It searches ALL Craigslist locations within any distance from your zip code for the product you want. Really simplifies things.

I really dont understand why Craigslist thinks a search engine is cheating, I really dont.