24. Or. 30

BillHoughton wrote:
When we traveled to Victoria, BC, Canada, a couple of years back, we were grateful for our 23 foot Class C; the ferry won't accept anything longer than 24 feet.

A "short" unit like ours gives far more choice of campsites, and, now that I'm used to it, I treat it like a very large VW bus; we regularly tourist around in it. Not sure I'd feel that easy driving a 30 foot long rig.

So I think the choice depends a lot on how you want to travel. If your main goal is going somewhere and sitting there, a longer rig will give you more room; if your travels are more mobile, a shorter one will be more nimble.

What ferry was that? Lots of big rigs coming and going all the time on the ferries.

When we traveled to Victoria, BC, Canada, a couple of years back, we were grateful for our 23 foot Class C; the ferry won't accept anything longer than 24 feet.

A "short" unit like ours gives far more choice of campsites, and, now that I'm used to it, I treat it like a very large VW bus; we regularly tourist around in it. Not sure I'd feel that easy driving a 30 foot long rig.

So I think the choice depends a lot on how you want to travel. If your main goal is going somewhere and sitting there, a longer rig will give you more room; if your travels are more mobile, a shorter one will be more nimble.

I am realy thankfull for all your comments

Gaetan

Addressing some of the comments about getting a couch + dinette + separate bedroom in 26', look at 2011-2014 Coachmen Freelander/Leprechaun 26QB (27QB in 2011) as checking all the boxes, while still being able to fit in 2 parking spots. Ignore the 26QB floorplan drawings that show the bath door swinging toward the bed. Our 2013 26QB still has the door as shown here, doing double duty to create a private BR.



The extra 2' over a 24' model gets you a private BR, a corner bed that's at least much easier to access, a couch & dinette, and seat belts for 9 (consider day trip with friends), while still leaving plenty of cargo capacity. With the slide in, a few cabinets and stove are inaccessible, but you can still reach the sink.

We find this model to be a good unique compromise.

Edit: there are newer 26' floorplans that achieve similar features with a walkaround rear bed slide, but the tradeoff is you have to slide/convert the bed to use it which can be a pain if you're often on the move, as well as the extra rear slide weight, maintenance, etc.

We rented occasionally for several years before buying, and had a variety of makes and lengths from 24 ft. to 32 ft, with and without slide-outs but mainly with slide-outs. 26' seemed to be the best trade-off between room and handling, however 26' units typically have corner beds.

When we went to buy and found a 28' dual slide model with walk-around rear queen we went for that. After some time has gone by an interesting phenomena has taken place: the rv seems plenty roomy on the inside but looks increasingly small on the outside. I have stuffed it in some small mini-mall parking lots utilizing backing the overhang over curbs/landscaping. It feels more now like a 24’ when I was first driving class-Cs.

The max we drove was a 32' and seems to have more wind issues and tail swing but that was fairly early on and long before I was aware of suspension upgrades. Drove that 32' by accident through an old, narrow section of a Mt. Rainier campground and barely got around (dented a hubcap on a roadside rock, successfully popped out the dent) and then drove on down to Crater Lake.

Our unit can be fully utilized with slides in also as only a couple of lower drawers in the rear wardrobe are blocked by the rear slide. We have camped that way in ice and snow conditions to not have the slide awnings ice up.

Lovers of short Class C's are very vocal. You can park a 27 footer in most forest campsites. TC's and 22-24 foot Class C's are a little better at handling on dirt roads in primitive areas. As stated 26-27 footers offer much more comfortable sleeping with rear bedrooms, and auxiliary sleeping areas for kids, and MORE STORAGE SPACE. If you are in your late 50's you may NEED the rear bedroom, etc. If both you and your partner are in good health, no arthritis, athletic, and can sleep anywhere, you may do well sleeping in the front overhead bed, etc., of a short class C much like in your TC.

azdryheat wrote:
It's an extra 4 to 6 feet, not a big deal.

4 to 6 additional feet "is" a big deal to some, including me.

We travel primarily to national parks, national monuments, national forests, and BLMs. An extra 4 to 6 feet would be challenging.

Another question is whether or not mobility outweighs interior comfort. If you like to setup camp and stay put for a while, then longer is better. But if you are on the move often, shorter is better.

ADDING: I should have also mentioned that our 24 footer accommodates just the two of us. We are seniors with a rear corner double bed and it works for us. But it's not for everyone. If you are a senior with limitation, an easy access bed is very important, and that is found only in longer units. A lot of senior couples appreciate twin beds which can be found in mid lengths around 25-27 feet. If we had a family of 4 or more, then a longer unit like camperdave just bought is going to provide a lot more needed space of all kinds.

I just went from a 24' trailer to a 30' motorhome. I am already in mourning about the good spots I can no longer stay in lol. But other factors were at play. In a few years when the kids are in college I fully anticipate going to a 22 to 24' motorhome.

I purchased a 30ft Class C as my first RV. Maybe a little big, but I love it. Shortly after, my brother liked the ideal of RV'ing and purchased a 26ft. After 6 months, he upgraded to a 30ft. We both have 3 kids each and the extra room out weighs the park-ability.

winnietrey wrote:
We have had our 24ft with a slide going on 15 years, we have taken somewhere around 15 to 20 road trips from 2k to 6k miles each. To each his own, of course, but we would never go larger, for the following reasons.

1) We are much more road trippers/explorers, than going to one location and staying
2) space, layout, matters much less to us, than the ability to go anywhere
3) we thoroughly enjoy, wondering what's up that road without having to worry if we can turn around.
4) In 15 years, we have stopped at many roadside attractions, restaurants, points of interest, towns, that sort of thing. Where anything larger than a 24 would be much more difficult to park, if not impossible. Even a 26 will overhang you to much, in some situations, where the lots are small and narrow
5) As we do not plan anything, we have always found if there are only 1 or 2 campsites left, we have a 95% chance of fitting. The larger you go that percent decreases

So in my humble opinion, if you are more the road tripper, non planner type, like us go smaller, if not go larger

Outstanding comments!!

That almost exactly describes how we use, travel, sightsee, explore, and camp in our non-slide 24 foot Itasca Class C on a Ford E450 chassis. We even take it off paved roads out in the boondocks to hunt for rocks and camp. It's good ground clearance (we have over-sized tires on it) and low differential gear ratio combined with the V10 of the E450 make this very easy. We do not have to step up a floor height change to get into the rear bed or bathroom area - while still having a huge outside storage cabinet under the rear bed area - because the whole motorhome is of a "basement" design. This basement design also provides for 7 generous outside storage cabinets ... we don't need to carry anything on the roof (it has a built-in roof ladder) or carry anything strapped on the outside to the roof ladder.

The back corner bed has a pull curtain on a ceiling track to completely close it off. The other back corner contains the shower and toilet. The sink in this area is outside of the door that closes off the shower and toilet area so one of us can use the rear sink while the other is isolated showering or using the toilet. We have a swiveling and sliding lounge chair opposite the dinette and I let the DW use it while I use the dinette. I use the overhead cab bed so she can have the rear bed fully with her bad back.

We have double kitchen sinks, a flip-out to extend the kitchen counter, a microwave, a three burner stove, an oven, and a 6.3 CF propane/electric Norcold adjustable-temp refrigerator that so far has actully worked well in all outside temperatures that we have encountered. The MH came with an outside shelf for a small outside TV, and has a built-in outside radio, and CD player - all of which we rarely use. However, we sometimes use the outside 120V receptacle there. It also has an outside shower, with a remote switch for the water pump.

We can find a parking spot in most towns to sightsee and of course can hookup camp or drycamp in just about any spot, except for highly slanted tent campsites. We can just about go anywhere a 2WD truck camper can - that our 101 inch outside width doesn't prevent. For us small but fully equipped is the way to go for maximum flexibility and versability -> given that we're only two people and one small dog.