Shopping foe New Class C 30 - 33 ft

A few years ago at the Tampa RV show we were looking at a fancy Nexus C about 30’ long based on the Ford E450 chassis. I asked the salesman what the payload was and it was less than 1000 pounds. That’s absurd.

When it comes to weight-overload, the Achilles' heel are the 4 rear tires, not the rear axle or frame, and certainly nothing up front. The condition is made worse with a shorter wheelbase, placing even more of the load on the 4 rear tires.....hence rear-tire-blow-out made easy. Adding the main 55 gallon fuel tank and most often the fresh water tank are behind the rear axle, that makes the condition worse yet.

We have a 2005 31' class C and love it. has 1 slide but a large frig with ice maker, all the windows have awnings, satellite, walk around queen bed and more. We'll probably drive her till the wheels fall off... We normally spend 2-2.5 months at a time in her, and total for the year around 4-5 months. We love the space and convenience. yes she's big and always packed close to max weight but you just allow for that. Wouldn't have anything else. We tow either a car four down or our Harley's with us.

Dave

Double ditto on the Phoenix Cruiser. We don't full time and the rest of the family prefers to travel in their own vehicles to the campground. Our Phoenix Cruiser 2551 we bought used and love it. Usually it's just Herself and myself and the most family we've ever had with us were three grandchildren who preferred sleeping in their tent next to the mh. En route the three were buckled up on the sofa and the chair behind the passenger seat.
Addendum
Even though the 2551 and 2552 are only 27 feet long it has enough clothing closet space and storage for us to do a two or three week trip with no problem. Many motorhomes have dinky shirt closets or no closets at all.

azdryheat wrote:
Stay away from the THOR name - very poor construction.

X2!!

Stay away from the THOR name - very poor construction.

Vicmendes3 wrote:
Researching New Class C Motorhome, between 30 to 33 ft. New to RVing and looking forward to travel and spending time with my growing family. Retiring soon. Any suggestions, good and bad. Thanks

Hi Vic,

Retiring soon implies you and your wife will travel most often just the two of you. A growing family assumes children and grandchildren.

If your plan is to accommodate your children and grand children in your motor home, you really should look into a Super-C because you will surely over-load a typical class C with people and belongings. A Super-C is built on a more capable truck chassis with tires that can handle the load, not a van-style chassis with tires that will blow out all the time from over-loading it with your entire family.

If your plan is to caravan with your large family, each in their own vehicle and bringing their own accommodations via tents and/or trailers, then I suggest you consider your purchase to be geared for just the two of you. At that point, you need to think about the places you want to travel to. If your focus will be our country's national parks, monuments, forests, and BLMs, you really don't want to be any longer than you absolutely need. Once you get into the van-style 30+ foot length, you will have troubles in the parks, and even just the two of you, expect an occasional blow-out, especially with two or more slide outs where the weight of the rig on the "E" rated tires becomes questionable.

My opinion....30+ length rigs are great for parking and living in for extended periods. You need to ask yourself if that is your plan. A get-away parked by the lake for two or more weeks is great to have the extra room. But cross-country travel up & down byways of mountains and canyons off the beaten path, a shorter rig with weight-margin will provide much needed mobility and a lot more comfort in a different way.

Here is a typical van-style class C that easily gets over-loaded in the longer lengths and with slide-outs.


Here is a truck-style class C (Super-C) where you can load it up with all your family and not put them in danger.


Many retired couples find something like this 27 foot long rig ideal.


Retired ourselves, my wife and I own THIS 24 foot rig and love it for our travel style. The few times we are not alone, our family and friends prefer to caravan.

I would suggest buying used first, especially since you're new to RVing. Often times there are myriad little things that you just don't know to look for or avoid or seek out until you've done some RV camping on your own (and it's not always possible for us to list them, as the specifics can vary from person to person). If you buy new, trading to something else is likely to be a lot more costly due to the rather steep depreciation.

Renting a motorhome for a weekend or week would not be a bad idea, either, for getting your feet wet.

My wife and I own a travel trailer, and were thinking of upgrading to a class, then my car that had the towing hitch died as we were heading out for a trip. we ended up renting a 30' class C RV from Cruise America and we feel in love with the size and the room. The RV's from Cruise America are stripped down to the minimum items and we really liked it. So we started looking, Just last month we bought a used 2011 Fleetwood Tioga Ranger and we are very very happy with it.

Watch the movie "RV" with Robin Williams! :)
Maybe rent an RV and go on a trip to get you familiar the systems and to get a better idea of what you like in an RV.
Going in cold and buying will leave you wanting more/different.