Family doing 3 month summer trip, Class C or Travel Trailer?

Now for comments pertaining to the question at hand.
If you want or need a pickup truck, now is the perfect excuse to get one. But you need to be comfortable towing a large trailer through the mountains and windy weather. Not for everyone.
If you get a C, I would not do it without a toad, but that could open up some great adventures if you had a little Jeep or something you could get 4 wheel with. Although I've taken a full size truck over a lot of "jeep trails" in the mtns.
My only experience with a C is friends rented one last year visiting us in AK. I could take my truck/camper a lot of places the C wouldn't go, if you'll be getting off the beaten path. Kids loved the C and we let them move around in it when on the road, slow AK back roads. It would have been near impossible to get them to sit strapped in at the kitchen table for hours at a time. They liked the house on wheels. I'd prefer to not have that argument with the kids every half hour.
This is a good question as every RV is a trade off. Truck campers too. They are way expensive for how much room you get if you want a spacious rv and you'll need a big @ss truck for any decent size TC where you can tow a fair size TT with a stout newer 1/2 ton.
A C is going to be a super pooch and even worse mileage if you're pulling a toad than if you get a newer pickup with 350-400hp and a reasonable TC.
If I was deciding between the 2 today, I'd go truck and TC hands down, but I'm comfortable pulling about anything anywhere.

Veik wrote:
The idea is to spend time at national parks, state parks, and nice campgrounds, not in a motel or hotel.
I have rented C-class multiple times.
C- class rentla for 90 days will run close to 20 grand.
I rather spend that money buying an RV and selling it later.

Hey Veik, you have to understand, a lot of people on here have nothing but time on their hands, so "advice" usually gets waaaaay off track as you've seen! Lol. Everything from someone's complete RV life history to you should get a tent or stay in a motel. Lol
As you can obviously do the math, $20k down the drain to rent plus all the same associated operating costs other than unexpected repairs is wasting money.

JaxDad wrote:

Veik wrote:
One thing I do not look forward to is unhooking/packing C-class everytime we want to go grocerry shopping or to a National park for half a day.

IMHO, and after a couple decades doing this, it's as much work or more to hook / unhook a TT as it is a Class C.

Yep about the same to unhook. except with the C you gotta put stuff away before driving.

donn0128 wrote:
Didnt mean the kids. Planning is one thing. Making the purchases, making sure of everything you need, getting everything sorted out, packing could take months to prepare for an extended trip. How about bill paying? Mail forewording? Medical, perscriptions etc? Got that all sorted out yet?

Someone with 2 little kids is probably still young enough to plan a 3 month trip in the 2 months left before summer gets here. Lol. #bluehairs

If you would be purchasing your first RV and know little about them, it will most likely never be your last. You will get your feet wet with your first one and then you will start thinking about features, layouts and size of what else is out there.

When we bought our first TT, an experienced owner at an RV repair shop told me that it will definitely not be our last and I thought to myself he's totally wrong. Well, that TT lasted only one year until we decided it was too small and cramped... Probably lost over $5K in depreciation and mods & upgrades.

Renting a CLass C may seem expensive but compare that to depreciation and other expenses of buying something. That is one reasonable option plus you can tow your car. If getting a TT, I would get something with a sofa in it and at least one slide so that the family can all sit and watch TV or do whatever together. If doing a lot of travelling around the PNW, there are lots of hills (6-7% grade in Cascades) and you don't want to have too big a TT for a 1/2 ton TV (if 1/2 T is what you get). Something with bunks would be better than setting up the dinette every night for sleeping, except the could add too much weight (longer TT). If buying a used RV, be very wary about water damage as it's often difficult to spot without testing/inspection by an expert. Before paying for an RV, I would hire an experienced independent RV tech to go over it.

I would suggest going to an RV show and wander through the various class Cs and TTs to get a sense of what will suit your family.

Have fun and drop in for a visit at our CG in Birch Bay, Wa. :) The state park there is excellent camping too.

Have you read the thread "trip report:a perfect family trip. It is 21 pages! Great read and pictures! You can find it in the search bar.

I'll just add that in my opinion, there is no better way to travel with a family (especially with young children) than in a motorhome. That said, you will also want another vehicle for travel. If one of the kids gets "the sniffle's" or something else at night, you don't want to uproot the family to go to the local pharmacy. Most front wheel drive cars (not AWD) can be towed on a dolly. If you happen to have a (pre-2015) Honda CRV, then it can be towed 4-down, which is even more convenient than a tow dolly.

Oh...one other word of advice, I wouldn't rush into any decisions. These are relatively major financial decisions you're making (for most folks) and it pays to do your homework and not rush. If it doesn't work out for this summer, there's always next year.

Good Luck in your decision process.

~Rick

Public State Parks in Orgon,
The Oregon State Parks are beautiful but local Oregon folks tend to make reservations way in advance and generally for the week ends. For me I don't want to have to deal with having to move and find another RV Park every weekend. Oregon State Parks tend to have smaller sites and not easy to maneuver around if the park if you have a larger RV 30' plus. I always use private RV parks and make reservations about a week in advance to avoid an RV park that is full. Just what works for me:)

djgarcia wrote:

2gypsies wrote:

bikendan wrote:
Veik, if you are talking about this summer in the NW and haven't made reservations for any public campgrounds yet, you'll probably be out of luck for the more popular ones. you might find a weeknite site available for one night.

you'll probably have to go to less popular ones to find something.
most popular places are booked up 9 months in advance.
you'll have better luck with private campgrounds.

Sorry, I have to disagree. We've been in Oregon & Washington spring, summer and fall without reservations at the public campgrounds.

Just curious, can you list a few names of Private camp parks and or towns where you were able to stay without reservations in Oregon?

As stated, we do mostly public parks, not private. Here's a sampling from my extensive camping list:

Fort Stevens St. Park
Bullard Beach St. Park
Bastendorff Beach Co Park
Sturdivant City Park
Cape Blanco St. Park
Champoeg St. Park
Stub Stewart St. Park
Indian Ford Nat'l Forest, Sisters
Trillium Lake Nat'l Forest
Clyde Holliday State Park
Grant Co. Fairgrounds
Collier State Park
Joseph Stewart State Park
Idaho Power Co - McCormick Park - Oxbow
Crystal Crane Hot Springs - Steens area
Emigrant Lake County Park - Ashland
Broken Arrow - Umpqua Nat'l Forest
Armitage Co Park - Eugene
Richardson Co Park - Eugene
Harbor Vista Co Park - Florence
Sutton campground, Siuslaw Nat'l Forest - Florence

Carl Washburne State Park - Florence (guess this doesn't count because we gave Heceta Head Lighthouse tours for the site)

Numerous boondocking spots through the state.

We've gone to Oregon for many years so all the above weren't done in one year. We also enjoy the shoulder seasons rather than the family times of July & August.

We typically pulled in early week and early morning as campers are leaving. If we couldn't stay the whole week because of the site being filled by reservation on the weekend we always had a boondocking spot in mind as a backup.

I've made one month long cross-countries twice in a pop-up, the most recent last July. Rolled the dice and made plenty same day reservations in route but National Parks require planning. We did 4 days in Yellowstone but booking about this time for July, we had to do midweek, no hookups. Yosemite would have been a no deal. CA coast ditto. All depends on where you want to go on how long you need to plan/make reservations. We stayed outside Yellowstone as a walk-up the first night because we'd had a blow-out and were behind schedule but only got that spot because our pop-up was small. I definitely agree that a small rig makes it easier to flex. I have teenagers now so setting up a PUP isn't a big deal. Wouldn't want to do that with small kids but agree the hybrid is worth considering because of size and tow vehicle requirements.