70 to 80 years old ! with a class C

[J_herb]

Is their any one that is 70 to 80 years old with a class C that sleeps in the over head bed ? is it hard to get in and out and for making up the bed. Thinking of going from a trailer to a small C 22/23' and want a small C for ease of parking at stores and site seeing places.

[Jayco-noslide]

74 and have a Class C but it has a full queen bed crosswise in the slide and I wouldn't even think about trying to sleep in a bed over the cab. I get up too often and too many aches, pains, stiffness.

[Bumpyroad]

this gives me an idea. perhaps I should trade the wife in on a 20 year old so she could climb the ladder easily and I could use a sofa sleeper.
bumpy

[my440]

My wife sleeps in the cabover bunk.
I sleep down below on the table foldup under the ladder.
When I'm in my bed and she climbs into hers the view of her backend is not at all what it used to be.
Perhaps my next class c may have a floor level situation.
Or... if she reads this thread perhaps I'll be in a tent.lol

[ksg5000]

Older I get the more often I have to take a pee - no way I want to climb down a ladder in the middle of the night in the dark. I would suggest you try out the dinette bed - in some rigs it's comfortable in others it's terrible ... in mine it's the very comfortable.

[The_Logans]

I'm 70, and I end up in the bunk when the wife and dogs get to the regular bed ahead of me (sigh).

A ladder with flat comfortable rungs is a necessity!

I just leave an open sleeping bag up there, and flip it open and slide in. Don't zip it, just lay in it and flip the top over me if it's cool or cold.

We looked at class B's, but the low ground clearance and limited storage wouldn't work for us. Also, we love the large amount of storage in the Class C cab-over area.

[PSW]

To the OP, I would also add that if you are going to boondock very much, be mindful of the size of the tanks. A lot of smaller Cs and most Bs have pretty small tanks. That was a major factor in our Phoenix Cruiser purchase: less than 24 feet and 38 gallon black tank. Also, our PC has a feature whereby you can, if you run out of gray tank, put the balance of the gray into the black.

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but tank size if not checked out can be just as inappropriate as external dimensions and beds to those of us that love the National Forests and BLM lands.

[Community Alumni]

Winnebago, Thor and other RV makers offer 22-23 foot Class Cs with corner beds and overhead beds.

[Bordercollie]

If you were to injure yourself getting out of the overhead bed in the dark or otherwise just by a fall, you might not be able to use the overhead bed, although you would probably have an alternative jackknife sofa or convertible dinette, neither of which is very convenient/comfortable. A common 27 foot motorhome with rear bed is only a little less maneuverable than a 22-24 footer. A short rig with rear twin beds may be available. You might find a Roadtrek van conversion more to your liking but with it's own compromises and high cost.

[J_herb]

OP here, Thank You for all the input some good things to think about.
WE want small as we do a lot of dry camping going up gravel roads to Forest & BLM CGs. need a C with good ground clearance don't want one with low hanging tanks or plumbing. This is a year or two out, will be looking at longer Cs for the bed to be at the back, good idea to rent one to see if this is the way to go. after the Holidays will start looking at new and used ones.

[magnusfide]

J herb wrote:
Is their any one that is 70 to 80 years old with a class C that sleeps in the over head bed ? is it hard to get in and out and for making up the bed. Thinking of going from a trailer to a small C 22/23' and want a small C for ease of parking at stores and site seeing places.

I don't. Cab-Over is used for storage and small grandchildren. No one else in our family is comfortable up there and miserable if you have to use the bathroom at night. We use the fold out sofa and the Queen (and tents when there's more of us). Our next one will have twin beds and a convertible sofa :c

There's plenty of Cs that are 22-23 feet and have twins or beds at floor level.
A couple that come to mind:
Born Free
Phoenix Cruiser

Also there's class Bs that are easy to drive and park.
with 'normal' beds.

[Bumpyroad]

I strongly urge anybody considering buying a RV with the cabover bunk, that they rent one for a trip and see how quickly it gets old.
bumpy

[Snowman9000]

I'm not in that age bracket yet. But I find that getting down from the OH bed is harder than going up. If I am half asleep and groggy in the middle of the night, I don't enjoy getting down.

I think the Phoenix Cruiser 2350 would be a great design for a solo traveler, and would be easier to drive and park than our 101" wide Sunseeker. Although I don't want to paint a bad picture there; I find the Sunseeker reasonably easy to drive, and park. But a narrower unit would be even better.

Also, there are some nifty B+ designs coming out in the new Transit and Promaster chassis. All of the big companies are going to have them. They are in the same width range as the Phoenix Cruisers.

[Bumpyroad]

plan for the future. you might be spry etc. enough now but what about in 5- 10 years? and as mentioned, getting up once or twice in the middle of the night?
bumpy

[PSW]

In thirty years of owning RVs, we had one C with the bed overhead. I was in my early 40s then and found it to be a nuisance for our needs. We had another small C (24 feet) with two couches that made beds. We now have a Phoenix Cruiser less than 24 feet that is 93 inches wide and it is a dream. The corner bed works fine for us although it is a bit of a hassle and many folks won't touch them.

Personally, I would never consider an overhead bed but that is just personal preference. I also have found a direct relationship between hassle and length of the rig. A few extra feet brings lots of benefits but also increases problems in accessing parking, making tight turns and accessing fuel. Put a toad behind a 26 foot rig and you gotta really plan for pulling into get gas. Now, for a lot of folks the extra length is worth it but it is not for us.

Incidentally, we have owned three Bs and one Chevy 20 van we converted ourselves for traveling and occasionally overnighting. I suspect when we start having a few more infirmities that come from aging we will be back to a Class B van. Take a look at the Phoenix Cruiser 2100 for a possible interesting thought to your selection.

Paul

[AJR]

My rig (see sig) has two steps to get into it. A scoot around rear RV queen bed in back with lots of outside storage under it. It takes up a tad less than two parking places. The 2010 chassis has a decent enough turning radius to get around in small towns and parking lots. I found it is more convenient to tow a car and have a base camp.

The cab over is great for inside storage. I carry a 5’ ladder up there along with tools, sleeping bag, cleaning items and several of those twelve packs of pop.

I could crawl up there to sleep. However at night I suspect I would come down allot faster than I went up. At 73 I am not as nimble as I use to be.