Driving a 27ft Class C in Mount Rainier NP

[AnneM]

Background: We're a family of four, well versed in road tripping in the US and Canada (a total of more than 10 months on the road in two separate long road trips). Currently planning for the summer of 2015. The general plan: Seattle to Alaska and back (10 weeks).

I am the designated driver :C . I've driven all over the place, including some of the more challenging mountain passes of the West, but this was all in a minivan. I've never driven an RV in my life, but we do have this fantasy/plan to buy an RV when we retire and travel some more in North and Central/South America (probably 10-15 years from today), so I'm looking forward to finally experiencing driving and living in an RV.

For the long term "plantasy" I have my sights set on a truck and a 5th wheeler. For now however, we're going to rent, and the only thing we can rent is a motorhome. I'm thinking 23-28 feet class C motorhome should be within our budget.

And now, to my current question. I was thinking of starting our trip with a visit to Mount Rainier. We've already visited Washington and spent time in Olympic NP and other wonderful places, but never in Rainier. Looking at the park map, looks like the Wonderland Trail (park road) is a winding road with lots of switchbacks. I would absolutely relish driving this in a minivan, but I'm not at all sure about a motorhome? What's mountain driving like with a motorhome of this size? Should I skip it and wait for when I've had more experience driving it?

[AnneM]

pnichols wrote:
Were you going down in 1st gear and worrying about brakes?

It seems like it would take a pretty steep slope to in addition needing a lot of brakes in 1st gear given the 4:56 differential that's in an E450 Class C.

That sounds very technical :E I think once I know what kind of rental we'll have I may come back for more tips.

[pnichols]

Were you going down in 1st gear and worrying about brakes?

It seems like it would take a pretty steep slope to in addition needing a lot of brakes in 1st gear given the 4:56 differential that's in an E450 Class C.

[Liberty1776]

Going up no problem. Coming down with steep grades and frequent switchbacks requires close attention to use of brakes, .... You may have to stop at a turnout coming down to cool brakes if you drive up to Sunrise.

This was totally our experience. No problem overall - ours is 28 ft. We stopped a couple times on the way down to make sure the brakes didn't overheat... It should be a fun trip for you!

[AnneM]

Thanks for the tip! Heading there now!

[PghBob]

You might be interested in the Alaska and Canada forum for a tremendous amount of info. On the main forum page, scroll down to the traveling section. You will find the Rving in Alaska and Canada forum.

You note that you are planning to travel in August. Will your trip carry over to September? Be advised that a number of campgrounds begin to close up in September in Canada and Alaska, and that winter can start about mid-September in various areas. Please, if you haven't done it yet, check out Roll Call Alaska 2013 and Roll Call Alaska 2014 in the Rving in Alaska and Canada forum for all kinds of important information to know. Best wishes for a successful trip. Bob

[AnneM]

Thank you all so much! What a wonderful forum for RV advice! We won't be towing with this being a rental. If we visit the park, we'd like to hike some and from what I've read trailhead parking fills up quickly. I'm trying to picture this in my mind and somehow I have a feeling that once I manage to get an RV into its campground parking spot, it may not be that much fun to move it around the park for hiking purposes. I wish we could rent a fifth wheeler for the trip, or tow a smaller car, but rentals for overseas tourists seem to be limited to motorhomes. I'll give this some more thought, but at this point I'm thinking maybe we should avoid Mt. Rainier as a first destination. We're heading up north, but were told it's best to stay around the rental company for the first day or two, in case we find something that needs fixing, so I was looking for a destination near Tacoma/Seattle. Maybe Mount Rainier isn't the best option for that though. Maybe we should just drive through the Cascades to the Lake Chelan area for the first couple of days and head up north from there instead.

As for rental costs, no, they're not cheap. Including full insurance, renting a motorhome costs anything between $100 to $250 a day for a 25' vehicle. It depends on how far in advance you make the reservation. Right now, if I were to try and book one for August, it would be in the $250 range. Waaaay out of our budget. I talked to the local agent and she said she's hoping we could go under $100 a day for a long rental, if we book in September (for August 2015). $100 for the RV + $30 a night for campgrounds (we plan on sticking to provincial parks CG's in Canada, at $12-$15 a night, so I'm averaging). With a minivan, rental would be $45 and motels $80, so it's a little bit cheaper. However, those are the rates for the lower 48. From what I've seen, we'd be pressed to find accommodation in Alaska and in some areas of Canada for under $120, or even $150 a night, in the height of season. In which case, the RV option becomes the cheaper one. As for gas, from what I've seen it should be 2.5 times more expensive than a minivan, so an additional $1500 to the entire trip. Coming from Israel, gas prices seem very low to us (half of what we pay here), so that's ok 😉

Right now, I'm working on a detailed plan so I'll have our dates ready come September. Fingers crossed that we get a good quote on the rental making this plan come true.

[RambleOnNW]

Back when we were first renting motorhomes we rented a 32' Class C and did a road trip through Mt. Rainier NP and down to Crater Lake NP. I don't remember any particular issues with the size other than when I mistakenly drove the 32' into an old campground loop at the Ohanapecosh campground. Could barely find my way around it and ended up popping off and denting a hub cap against a rock on the side of the road. The dent popped right out so no problems in the end...

Take a look at http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/camping.htm, max RV lengths are 32' and 35'.

Look though the C forum for driving tips such as watching your tail swing with your mirrors. Every time I drive the 'C' today I automatically damp down my driving motions due to the larger size, larger turning radius and heavier weight...have fun...

[Rainier]

I live about 45 minutes from the park entrance. My advice is to go with a smaller RV which will make you feel more comfortable when it comes to driving the winding roads if the Park. Alder lake has a great campground just outside the park entrance (approx 15 minutes from entrance). Most of the camping within the park has no hookups and you will need to check RV size requirements for some campgrounds. And yes, Wonderland trail is a hiking trail in the park and not a driveable road.

Good luck!

[cgmartine]

Have you considered the cost of rental? I just returned on a two week trip thru Arizona, and after tallying up the costs of gas, campgrounds, and other miscellaneous items, it was quite expensive. I own my rv, but I was seeing quite a few rentals out on the road and I guess they were paying a fortune for the daily rentals. Getting at most 9 miles per gallon, on my 31 ft. class c, it seemed I was having to gas up every two hours. RV'ing is certainly not cheap. In fact, staying at moderately priced motels would have cost quite less.

[fortytwo]

Going up no problem. Coming down with steep grades and frequent switchbacks requires close attention to use of brakes, unless you have a Diesel engine. Gas engines provide a bit of braking, but not enough for steep grades. You may have to stop at a turnout coming down to cool brakes if you drive up to Sunrise. Forty years ago they had a campground in the meadow up there. One of our all time favorites. Had a "big" 23 foot Class A back then.

[Rolin]

We toured Mt Rainier in a 24ft long x 8.5ft wide motorhome. We were not towing anything. No problems navigating the roads. We spend the night in Cougar Rock campground. There was no moon and it was very very dark. Great for star gazing...

We made sure that we got to Paradise Lodge early in the morning because the parking lot fills up fast and you can't stop if the lot is full.

You could make a loop through Mt Rainier NP, then up through the North Cascades NP checking out some of the interesting little towns like Leavenworth, Lake Chelan, or Okanogan along the way.

Enjoy.

[rjstractor]

I can't think of any roads in MRNP that would give a 27' C too much trouble but you may want to double check the research that you've done- the Wonderland Trail is not a road, but a rather challenging hiking trail.

[PghBob]

Hi and Welcome! You might not want to hear my opinion, but here goes. I remember a sales rep telling me once that driving a 27 foot Class C RV was just like driving a car. It's not. RVs are longer, wider, taller, and heavier than most cars and vans. You need to be concerned with rear-end swing anytime you are in close quarters, like gassing up and in some parking lots/campgrounds. With your driving experience in vans, I think you would be OK starting out on Interstate highways or highways that are two lane, but well maintained. My recommendation is that you spend a few days driving the rental on highways and parking it in campgrounds to get the "feel" of the unit. Once you are fairly comfortable driving the RV around on "normal" roads, then you can advance to the more challenging mountain switchback/steep hill type roads. BTW, our family of four likes our 27 foot RV. Anything smaller could be a tight fit for your family and would likely have less storage space. Best wishes for a successful RV vacation next year.

Bob

[scroller95969]

I drove our 24' class C pulling a 10' cargo trailer (38' combined) to Ranier 3 years ago. It was a little tight in spots but doable. The park speed limit is 35mph in most places making it easier. Had a little bit of a nail bitter on 706 past Paradise going toward White River campground as they had half of the narrow road torn up and I swear when we had to pass within inches of construction equipment on the canyon side my outside dual was hanging off the road (wife assured me it wasn't. It must have been a couple thousand feet drop off at that point. Dropped the trailer at the White River campground and took the MH up the road to Sunrise. Didn't have any problems but I am sure glad I dropped the trailer. Can't wait to do it all over again someday. Hope this helps, Jeff.