A long good bye :-(
Well after selling my truck and camper in the spring and a lot of looking it is time to say good bye to the world of truck campers. It was fun but I am now the owner of a new to me class c motor home and so far very impressed.
I really cannot believe how hard it was to buy a motor home, there is a lot of garbage out there and a lot of dishonest/ difficult sales people both with businesses and privately. I spent an hour or two everyday looking at what was on the market, I contacted dozens if not hundreds of people about their units and was just about ready to give up. Many private sellers were so vague and misleading that I was ready to explode on a few. One person in particular I had made an appointment to go and look at his unit 1 minute after he listed it, was leaving at 6am the next day to drive 3 hours to look and he gets back to me a couple hours later after we had agreed to meet the next day saying "I have other people that are interested and may sell it while you are driving up". Are you kidding me?
With a number of private sellers and businesses I would ask questions about the unit they were selling and get either no response, a very vague response or a misleading response. "Yes it has a generator" and then when I ask how many watts they don't respond so I go to look and no generator. A number of businesses outright lied about the unit to my face, one sales person (the manager of the company) tells me about a unit I am test driving and one thing during the conversation that stood out to me was "We bought this unit from an older couple that divorced to help them out" then the next day I go in to ask some more questions about the unit and the guy I talked to the previous day was out so the head sales person tells me "This unit was perfectly maintained by a middle age couple and they upgraded to a larger unit". As it turned out they also changed their story about the features and issues with the unit so I ran away fast from that one.
Looking back I think the greatest thing with buying a truck and camper was the fact that I could buy a truck and camper separate. So once I found the camper that I liked I could then look for the truck that I liked. This was also the hardest thing with buying a class C. Many camping units were nice but the truck part was horrible (worn out, under sized engine) or it had a great truck but a horrible camper (yes the truck only has 10,000 km's on it but the camper has been leaking like crazy for 8 years and is junk!!!). If I did not so want, and need the ability, to go from the front to the back I would have went with another truck and camper months ago as the ability to customize the two units was really tempting me.
I had also looked at a lot of class B units and for the ability to go from the front to the back I loved them but the manufacturers build them so low to the ground that I could not take them in so many places. Add to that the fact that a used class B in good shape was still around $60,000 - $100,000 and I could not bring myself to buy one - I wanted to be able to afford to camp after I bought it.
So after owning the class C for over a week I have settled in to the good and bad about it. In the first hour of owning it I thought I made a huge mistake as the unit handled so badly and the noise was so loud that I was just about in tears. Then after a stop to fuel up and taking some time to start adjusting things I was a lot happier, closed all the windows properly, moved gear around, adjusted things and it was so much quieter. Then the first night camping I was so happy to not have to move my camera gear that I was in heaven - shoot, stop for supper, shoot, stop for bed and my gear was fine where it was. Half way through the night I realized that this was not a comfortable unit to sleep in, my shoulder was so sore and my back ached that I knew that I needed to do some changes. The second night I took a sleeping pad from my tent camping days and it was as bad if not worse then the first night. So the other day I went to a specialty company that builds RV beds and benches and they took out all the foam and replaced it with new and gave me a mattress topper as well, I have not slept on it but I have tried it and WOW it is so soft now.
I have to keep reminding myself that with the truck camper I had done modifications to it for years to get it where I wanted it, and with the class C it will take me some time as well. Added carpet and underlay to it the other day and that not only made it a lot more like home but made the floor warmer and silenced some of the echoes. Now I have to tear apart a cupboard as they have a pile of wires running through it and they rattle when driving. SO each time I feel disappointed I just remember all the time and adjustments to the truck camper.
So here is a list as of today of the good and bad that I have found when comparing it to my truck camper, there are a lot more good that I am not listing as this unit is 19 years newer than my truck camper but that would be unfair to compare those things .........
Good
- Able to go front to back
- Heat keeps both the front and back warm
- More storage space in the camper
- More floor space without the camper being a lot bigger
- Better laid out (kitchen is at the back so can cook and not be in the way of others)
- Lots of outside storage but would not say they are huge - Love the fact that they are sealed up and closed. I used the truck bed for storage with the TCer but it was not weather proof.
- Larger washroom, I am not sitting against the cold wall when on the toilet
- ONLY a couple sample calculations but it seems like I am getting in the 13mpg range, truck and camper was 11mpg on the same route
Bad
- Had to buy as a unit and could not pick and choose the truck and then the camper
- No four wheel drive (still not sure that I really need it)
- No bench seat behind the drive and extra doors for my son and dog
- Loss of storage under the rear bench seat in the truck and on the seat (kayak would travel there when it was just me)
- Seems more top heavy or a rougher ride than the tcer, could be that it is a Ford and that it is a E350 and my GMC was a 2500
- Cab over bed may be for two people but just for two, TCer had more space up there
- Need a way to insulate the windows / cab at night as there is a lot of cold air coming in the back from there
Well it is down the road for me over to the Class C side of things, of course I will still hang around here but now it is to learn the tricks of the class C people!!
Safe travels everyone.........
I really cannot believe how hard it was to buy a motor home, there is a lot of garbage out there and a lot of dishonest/ difficult sales people both with businesses and privately. I spent an hour or two everyday looking at what was on the market, I contacted dozens if not hundreds of people about their units and was just about ready to give up. Many private sellers were so vague and misleading that I was ready to explode on a few. One person in particular I had made an appointment to go and look at his unit 1 minute after he listed it, was leaving at 6am the next day to drive 3 hours to look and he gets back to me a couple hours later after we had agreed to meet the next day saying "I have other people that are interested and may sell it while you are driving up". Are you kidding me?
With a number of private sellers and businesses I would ask questions about the unit they were selling and get either no response, a very vague response or a misleading response. "Yes it has a generator" and then when I ask how many watts they don't respond so I go to look and no generator. A number of businesses outright lied about the unit to my face, one sales person (the manager of the company) tells me about a unit I am test driving and one thing during the conversation that stood out to me was "We bought this unit from an older couple that divorced to help them out" then the next day I go in to ask some more questions about the unit and the guy I talked to the previous day was out so the head sales person tells me "This unit was perfectly maintained by a middle age couple and they upgraded to a larger unit". As it turned out they also changed their story about the features and issues with the unit so I ran away fast from that one.
Looking back I think the greatest thing with buying a truck and camper was the fact that I could buy a truck and camper separate. So once I found the camper that I liked I could then look for the truck that I liked. This was also the hardest thing with buying a class C. Many camping units were nice but the truck part was horrible (worn out, under sized engine) or it had a great truck but a horrible camper (yes the truck only has 10,000 km's on it but the camper has been leaking like crazy for 8 years and is junk!!!). If I did not so want, and need the ability, to go from the front to the back I would have went with another truck and camper months ago as the ability to customize the two units was really tempting me.
I had also looked at a lot of class B units and for the ability to go from the front to the back I loved them but the manufacturers build them so low to the ground that I could not take them in so many places. Add to that the fact that a used class B in good shape was still around $60,000 - $100,000 and I could not bring myself to buy one - I wanted to be able to afford to camp after I bought it.
So after owning the class C for over a week I have settled in to the good and bad about it. In the first hour of owning it I thought I made a huge mistake as the unit handled so badly and the noise was so loud that I was just about in tears. Then after a stop to fuel up and taking some time to start adjusting things I was a lot happier, closed all the windows properly, moved gear around, adjusted things and it was so much quieter. Then the first night camping I was so happy to not have to move my camera gear that I was in heaven - shoot, stop for supper, shoot, stop for bed and my gear was fine where it was. Half way through the night I realized that this was not a comfortable unit to sleep in, my shoulder was so sore and my back ached that I knew that I needed to do some changes. The second night I took a sleeping pad from my tent camping days and it was as bad if not worse then the first night. So the other day I went to a specialty company that builds RV beds and benches and they took out all the foam and replaced it with new and gave me a mattress topper as well, I have not slept on it but I have tried it and WOW it is so soft now.
I have to keep reminding myself that with the truck camper I had done modifications to it for years to get it where I wanted it, and with the class C it will take me some time as well. Added carpet and underlay to it the other day and that not only made it a lot more like home but made the floor warmer and silenced some of the echoes. Now I have to tear apart a cupboard as they have a pile of wires running through it and they rattle when driving. SO each time I feel disappointed I just remember all the time and adjustments to the truck camper.
So here is a list as of today of the good and bad that I have found when comparing it to my truck camper, there are a lot more good that I am not listing as this unit is 19 years newer than my truck camper but that would be unfair to compare those things .........
Good
- Able to go front to back
- Heat keeps both the front and back warm
- More storage space in the camper
- More floor space without the camper being a lot bigger
- Better laid out (kitchen is at the back so can cook and not be in the way of others)
- Lots of outside storage but would not say they are huge - Love the fact that they are sealed up and closed. I used the truck bed for storage with the TCer but it was not weather proof.
- Larger washroom, I am not sitting against the cold wall when on the toilet
- ONLY a couple sample calculations but it seems like I am getting in the 13mpg range, truck and camper was 11mpg on the same route
Bad
- Had to buy as a unit and could not pick and choose the truck and then the camper
- No four wheel drive (still not sure that I really need it)
- No bench seat behind the drive and extra doors for my son and dog
- Loss of storage under the rear bench seat in the truck and on the seat (kayak would travel there when it was just me)
- Seems more top heavy or a rougher ride than the tcer, could be that it is a Ford and that it is a E350 and my GMC was a 2500
- Cab over bed may be for two people but just for two, TCer had more space up there
- Need a way to insulate the windows / cab at night as there is a lot of cold air coming in the back from there
Well it is down the road for me over to the Class C side of things, of course I will still hang around here but now it is to learn the tricks of the class C people!!
Safe travels everyone.........
