New Winnebago View

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

Wednesday I took delivery of my new 2016 Winnebago View 24J 25' and then promptly put 1000 miles on it. My previous rig was a 2006 Forest River Georgetown SE 33' Class A. I couldn't be happier with the change.

The comfort, handling, and overall drivability are much closer to my Chevy Silverado than any motorhome I've ever driven. It makes the F53 chassis under the Georgetown feel like a Mack Truck with loose bolts!

Inside, the craftsmanship is even more differentiating. The Winnebago is like a custom-built apartment. I was utterly shocked to see real steel furniture springs under the dinette seats, as opposed to the high-density foam that is standard in the industry. Everything is so logically thought-out, it doesn't feel like a 24% smaller RV. Likewise, we find the Mercedes seats to be much more usable than the captain's chairs in the class A.

Sorry for the stock photos, but they're way better than anything I take!

[marc515]

Congrats, and safe travels!

[LisaD]

Congratulations! I'm going to get one also. The Non-cabover version with the big extra skylight. It's just SO nice isn't it?

[bobojay5]

I'll have to disagree with the OP on the handling/stability of the View class C vs the ERA class B.
We've had both, and the ERA w/30k miles we've put on it feels like a sports car compared to the Navion (same as View) that we put 20k miles on. The ERA is right at 1200 lbs lighter than the View/Navion.
The only thing we miss about the Navion is the bathroom size. The ERA has even more inside storage than the Navion floor plan we had (IQ)

[Dakzuki]

Jack_Pine wrote:
We like these but were concerned about storage and toad. There are only 2 of us so the upper bunk will help with storage, we think.

We want to pull Wangler, it is 4,500 lbs. Wish they would up the tow capacity.

There are people that tow Wranglers with them but I wouldn't recommend it. Fully laden it leaves about 4000 lb left for a toad to stay within the published limits. As far as storage capacity goes, if you are clever you can get quite a lot of stuff in it. We went on a month long trip in ours and we had plenty of room for stuff. We converted our overhead to a dedicated cargo area (from a bed) with a net to keep stuff up there.

[Jack_Pine]

We like these but were concerned about storage and toad. There are only 2 of us so the upper bunk will help with storage, we think.

We want to pull Wangler, it is 4,500 lbs. Whish they would up the row capacity.

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

Snowman9000 wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
I wonder if this size of rig can be used toadless for longer trips.

Absolutely!

It helps to be creative as far as organizing your frequently used kitchen and bath items. Basically to make things easy to stow while still being easy to use when you need them. And keep a neat clean ship so it's only a few minutes work to get ready to drive to town.

This is what we did, even with our Class A. Out in the morning, back in the evening. If you get caps for your sewer hoses, you can leave virtually everything connected to the campsite and just reconnect to the motorhome when you pull back in.

Once we get level, we put markers on the ground that tell us exactly where to put the tires when we pull back in.

[Snowman9000]

mlts22 wrote:
I wonder if this size of rig can be used toadless for longer trips.

Absolutely!

It helps to be creative as far as organizing your frequently used kitchen and bath items. Basically to make things easy to stow while still being easy to use when you need them. And keep a neat clean ship so it's only a few minutes work to get ready to drive to town.

[Dakzuki]

BTW, The brain trust for these RVs resides here if you didn't already know:

Yahoo Skinnie Winnies

View/Navion Mods

View/Navion Tech

[Dakzuki]

mlts22 wrote:
I wonder if this size of rig can be used toadless for longer trips.

Depends on what one uses the toad for. Ours is a 4x4 so the Skinnie Winnie can't do that.

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

mlts22 wrote:
I wonder if this size of rig can be used toadless for longer trips.

We don't intend to toad with it. The desire for the smaller rig was to be able to setup/breakdown camp very quickly and move out of the campsite for daytime acitivities. When we were test-driving various size RVs, we included a multi-turn loop at a Cracker Barrel restaurant during lunch time to simulate worst-case traffic conditions!

That having been said, I do have a Jeep CJ7 I can pull if the need arises.

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

RckyMtnVia wrote:
We downsized from a DP and could not be happier with our Via on the Mercedes chassis. It is so easy to drive and now after a 6 hour day of driving with stops, I am not fatigued at all. It is also so simple to set up at an rv park and get ready to leave. We love traveling on smaller back roads and would not go back to a large DP.

The Via is a great rig as well!

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

Butch50 wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
I'm curious about it as well, especially with the new updates to the chassis. How is it for long runs on the highway? Fatiguing?

Not my rig but I have a 2015 Winnebago View Profile and contrary to what you might think the rig drives great. I have had other MHs and I think this one by far drives the best of any of them. For a class C the driver position is higher than most C so your legs are bent more and just makes a better driving position at least for me.

To the OP congrats and welcome to the Winnebago Sprinter family. Time to go enjoy it now.

I agree with Butch50, the drive is pretty effortless. We did 9 hours in it Saturday with what felt like less effort than 4 hours in my class A.

We actually expected to buy the Winnebago Era (pure B), but found the View to be more stable than the Era.

So far my only complaint is that the steering wheel is very slick, hard plastic. Because it's slippery, I find myself gripping it fairly tight which can be fatiguing to the forearm. I plan to add a lace-up leather cover to the wheel to make it easier to hold.

[SomeoneTakeTheW]

ron.dittmer wrote:
Very Nice! Safe travels.

I love your floor plan. It is the same as ours but you have the big upper bunk. Ours being a B+, we have the TV and cabinetry in that (smaller) space.

We had a very big challenge back in 2006/2007 finding a decent rig that could fit inside our garage. We clear the door height by only 1.5"

I originally thought the upper bunk would be less desirable since it's just the two of us, but the extra storage comes in pretty handy.

The Phoenix Cruiser is a great streamlined package.

[RobertRyan]

SomeoneTakeTheWheel wrote:
Wednesday I took delivery of my new 2016 Winnebago View 24J 25' and then promptly put 1000 miles on it. My previous rig was a 2006 Forest River Georgetown SE 33' Class A. I couldn't be happier with the change.

The comfort, handling, and overall drivability are much closer to my Chevy Silverado than any motorhome I've ever driven. It makes the F53 chassis under the Georgetown feel like a Mack Truck with loose bolts!

Inside, the craftsmanship is even more differentiating. The Winnebago is like a custom-built apartment. I was utterly shocked to see real steel furniture springs under the dinette seats, as opposed to the high-density foam that is standard in the industry. Everything is so logically thought-out, it doesn't feel like a 24% smaller RV. Likewise, we find the Mercedes seats to be much more usable than the captain's chairs in the class A.

Sorry for the stock photos, but they're way better than anything I take!

I can see why Pleasure Way has dropped the E350 from its lineup except for one model. MB makes some great riding Vans. Been in a few in Europe, some of the smaller models they currently do not sell in the US