What Size Class A

I did what you are planning to do. I am a Ford guy but ended up with the W22 Workhorse chassis. It is bigger than I wanted, has slides I did not want and is not Ford based but I love the layout.

Around 2002 Ford and Workhorse made many improvements. The W22 chassis had a brake recall. Make sure that was done. Old tires are expensive to replace. Replacing original shocks are not cheap but necessary. Oh, plug wires can be cooked if not shielded from exhaust manifold on some units.

Hope this helps.

How on earth can we possibly tell you what to get lol. Just look at the completely different points of view you already have.

I'm sure you pretty much know already about what size will work for you. What we did was go to a couple of non-pushy RV dealerships and just went into a ton of MHs to really get a feel for the different floor plans.

If it's just the two of you then I guess mid 30s in length should be fine. For us having a large bathroom was a huge want as well as some decent storage.

I've heard of people here and there saying how much they love their small motor homes and really pushing the virtues but I can't remember too many people saying they wished they had bought a smaller one. I like having all the room and comfort I can otherwise I would just go back to a popup and small suv.

It all depends on the kind of RVing you intend to do. You're from California. Is that going to be your main place to go? If so, and if you enjoy state parks, you know that Calif probably has the smallest site sizes than anywhere in the the U.S. Having said that, you're from southern California and the desert parks have bigger sites.

We have full-timed for 16+ years and our first choices are always public parks or boondocking. We enjoy scenic places and campsites with some degree of privacy. We haven't had any problems getting our 40' motorhome into these kinds of places. We use many of the same parks that we did with our 33' 5th wheel. We use national parks, national forests, county and city parks and of course, just finding 'our' perfect spot for boondocking. However, our main RVing is west of the Mississippi although we've been east many times but it takes a little more researching the public parks for size but we still found plenty for us especially the Corp of Engineer parks. So size really shouldn't hold you back from public parks - unless it's solely in California. :)

As for slides, one or two would be very sufficient, especially if you go to public parks with trees. It would be difficult with more slides to open them and still fit between various trees. I would say that one in the living area is the first choice and perhaps one in the bedroom. We specifically ordered ours new with a two-slide model because that's the kind of campground sites we enjoy. It's been plenty of room for us.

You'll hear talk of some private parks starting to enforce the 10-year rule although if the RV is kept in excellent condition, those kinds of parks will sometimes waive the restriction if your RV looks good. It's mainly for 'keeping up appearances' in their park, but those kinds of parks aren't for us. However, if you're concerned with this then you should probably be looking at one about six years old or so. Then you can enjoy it for a while until it reaches that 10-year mark.

Good luck in your search!

We full time in a 33' Country Coach Allure with 2 slides. Plenty of room inside but short enough to have a good turning radius and fit into state parks. Before that we had the same basic floor plan on a 32' Winnebago Sightseer with one slide. Since we were not full timing, it suited us perfectly at the time.

I suggest you rent a class A before buying. You can make better decisions that way. We have rented class C,s and class A Gas and Diesels before deciding which to buy. I have bought over the years a 20'C, 31'A and now own a 40' Diesel.

gemsworld wrote:
Get a 30 foot to 35 foot Winnebago with a Ford chassis. Forget a DP with all the bling. Been there, done that. Total waste of money.

Buy as new as you can afford. Good luck!

I think that all depends on personal wants and needs. We've done the gasser route and that didn't meet our needs nor what we wanted for fulltiming. For us it is not a waste of money.

I going to give you a different approach! When I first started RVing in 1976 an "Old Boy" told me not buy anything smaller than a 24' coach! It was excellent advice for me!

Bigger is not necessarily the question. Consider the quality of the coach, mechanical components, where you like to camp, and your space needs.

We chose a Monaco Safari Trek to get the living space of a 38' coach in a 29' package. We like the first-class quality and the large bathroom. We like to camp in USFS CGs and state parks, and sometimes we boondock. Our Trek works well for us and many other loyal Trekkies.

Of course the Trek is unique - we have no bedroom. Our bed is in the ceiling and comes down at night. Why tow a bedroom - it's wasted space most of the time.

Each person finds the coach that meets their needs. I would purchase quality before length. Find the coach that meets your needs.

We just started in July. We purchased a very high quality American Heritage 45E.

As a professional yacht captain, I've seen millions of dollars wasted as clients bought small and "inched up" in size until they finall got the yacht they really should have purchased initally. The other mistake I see often is buying something which APPEARS to offer the same thing as another brand at a much lower price. Nobody can REALLY do this, so don't fall for it.

Remember, as in anything else, quality matters and it costs more...initially at least. With a high line brand you will get higher quality, better components, and features you may not even appreciate until you use them...for example, heated floors, multiple high power pure sine wave inverters, central vacuum, dishwasher, washer/ dryer, etc.

Last, don't buy a new unit. Used is best in this rapid depreciation environment.

All the Best,

Stan

We shopped for well over 2 years and tried every mid 30ties we could find and ended up with a 40' foot Newmar, couldn't be happier. Don't worry about size, buy quality, there is no cheap Motor Home, Buy quality and enjoy, buy cheap, and fix it all the time.

I'd be looking for some thing like this monaco