too toad or not to toad that is the question

[Danford50]

as a new owner of a 30 ft class c , I have seen some motorhome owner not pulling a toad, just wondering what you do once you park in the campsite? my plan is to go west and see some of the national parks just wondering will I need a toad in order to be able to see the parks, I only have for a toad a 2013 honda civic and a 2015 f150 , and neither of them can be flat toad.

[suprz]

We don't have a toad, but do bring my wife's motorcycle along on a hitch mounted carrier. Don't know if that is an option for you guys. But once we get older and don't feel like riding a motorcycle any longer, I have no doubt we will tow a car

[sullivanclan]

We have traveled to many NP here in the West and we typically just take the motorhome. When we travel cross country, we too just take the motorhome and whenwe stay in one area, like to see family we rent a vehicle when we get there. On occasion we will use our old jeep as a toad, when we know in advance we are going to explore.

[dcason]

We have a 25 foot and in the past have not had a toad. It worked out okay. For the wild west this year, we bought a jeep...so we can take some of those dirt roads and explore our world...or to scope out potential boon docking spots without driving in first.

No toad has not really hampered us in national parks, however, we go in october/november so the crowds are not horrible...and we usually pick off times to hike or go earlier.

30 feet is long however to drag around.
Might want to think about replacing one your cars with a little **** car that can be toad flat.
Donna

[pnichols]

For off-highway travel we have added stronger latches and extra bungy cords to keep all cabinet doors secure on dirt roads (learned from experience!). All our drawers came as stock with gravity locks so none of the drawers have ever opened on their own yet (knock on wood).

On washboard roads, the solution in a motorhome is NOT to go fast to try and "smooth them out" ... like SUV and PU drivers often do (I don't agree with this approach in those vehicles, either). The solution is to to go slow and pick your track very carefully. Duals in the rear help to make sure that at least one rear tire on each side is not down in the rut - this helps keep your differential and spring hangers from hitting rocks in, or in between, the ruts. Going carefully of course also includes crawling across (dry) washouts at an angle. All this ALSO ASSUMES you try it only in dry weather with dry roads. If you get caught out there after a rainstorm, you better wait it out for the roads to dry! A Ford E350 or E450 chasis is, after all, basically a "truck". It's primarily the coach box part that you have baby along on dirt roads.

We have traveled in Death Valley on a 4X4 offroad to a campsite in the middle of nowhere at 7-10 MPH in order to avoid washboard shaking and sharp rocks. Our longest rough surface trek so far has been about 25 miles each way into the Oregon Outback at 7-10 MPH for around 2 1/2 hours each way so as get way out there where the Oregon Sunstones are. We of course do have to pass up a lot of places we would like to crawl back into with a jeep or an ATV, but most of the time the trade-off for not having to tow something behind is worth it. I have given some thought to carrying a two-wheel-drive Rokon offroad crawling motorcycle in a front carrier (for best Class C handling), but have never acted on it. When we had our home-built Dodge B250 van camper we did carry a Honda Scrambler offroad motorcycle on the back in a carrier I built - we even explored out in the desert with this with the dog sitting on the seat in between us!!

There's nothing like the feeling of satisfaction and joy when getting out there in pristine boondocking country with clear and dark night skys, no other people around (except maybe traveling companions), and with all the comforts of home .... especially when you accomplished it in a "poorman's version of an expedition rig". About the only difference is a rich man would be able to get there much faster without breaking their wine glasses after spending all those big bucks! (We use paper cups. :B )

[Snowman9000]

Phil, about the dirt roads. I get the sense you go onto rougher ones than my wife will tolerate. All the shaking, pitching back and forth, rattling of contents, going at a crawl to an unknown end, we just don't do it. Now if it's smooth dirt, that's fine. Or if we KNOW there is a great spot within a 1/4 mile, then ok. It's the uncertainty of a payoff as much as anything. That's most of the fun in a Jeep. Not so much in our MH.

[FunTwoDrv]

We also tow behind our 30' C. We tend to stay in one place for several days and find the car to be very useful. My advice is to look into the lightest dolly you can afford and tow the Civic on your trip out West.

Gary

[Cobra21]

pnichols wrote:
We have a 24 foot Class C and do not tow - except occasionally our boat to lakes. We do all of our other RV touring, sightseeing, shopping, and exploring with the Class C itself. Some of our "exploring" is off-pavement and we still use the Class C for even this, as ours basically has the ground clearance of a standard pickup and after all ... it is a "truck" underneath that's carrying the coach. So if careful, one can drive almost anywhere a 2WD pickup can and with a refrigerator, beds, lounge chair(s), sinks, and a toilet with you all along the way.

Part of what a motorhome means to us is fast camp set up and tear down, so we just take off and return to our campsite with the rig when out and about on RV trips. We even have friends with a 24 foot Class C and they don't even call it a motorhome. They call it their "truck".

We also do this with our 21 foot motor home. If I always felt the need for a toad, I would have just kept our suburban and travel trailer.

[pnichols]

Snowman9000 wrote:
Our current trip is at 3500 miles, with another 3000 to go. We have remarked to each other that a toad would have been way more trouble that it would have been worth. We just pull off the road anywhere we want. Any little scenic turnout on the mountain highway, little store, park in town, any gas station, etc. Camped in some small forest CGs and off BLM forest roads. The flip side is we can't take the 4x4 dirt roads for sightseeing and ghost towns around the mountain. We are traveling probably 2 days out of every 3, so that's a big part of the reason the toad would be a drag.

By this point of our ownership, getting ready to move takes almost no effort. We never hook up a water hose or sewer hose. We don't lay out a big "camp": Two lawn chairs, and sometimes the grill. This trip, we did not even bring the DISH stuff. It's summer, after all.

Indoors, we have the a lot of the kitchen and bath stuff well-organized and the often-used things are kept out, at the point of use, in organizers that stay put going down the road. The toaster is velcro'd to the dinette table. Salt, pepper, pens/pencils/scissors, note paper, certain pills sit next to the toaster in a sticky bottomed black plastic tray from Wal-Mart. I built some luan cabinet organizers for dishes and pots and pans. We cut back on some the kitchen stuff. The result is that we don't have to move stuff to get to other stuff. So it's easy to put things away too.

Dirty clothes get put in the laundry bag right away. Bed is straightened when we get dressed. Laptop and tablets stash away easily. Chargers are in the TV cabinet, always plugged in to a power strip with individual switches on the outlets, which is plugged into our inverter. Basically everything has a place that is both accessible and at the same time travel-ready.

It gets easier as you fine tune it.

That's just about exactly how we travel in our 24 foot Class C. However, we do also take the Class C on dirt roads.

[Snowman9000]

Our current trip is at 3500 miles, with another 3000 to go. We have remarked to each other that a toad would have been way more trouble that it would have been worth. We just pull off the road anywhere we want. Any little scenic turnout on the mountain highway, little store, park in town, any gas station, etc. Camped in some small forest CGs and off BLM forest roads. The flip side is we can't take the 4x4 dirt roads for sightseeing and ghost towns around the mountain. We are traveling probably 2 days out of every 3, so that's a big part of the reason the toad would be a drag. 😉

By this point of our ownership, getting ready to move takes almost no effort. We never hook up a water hose or sewer hose. We don't lay out a big "camp": Two lawn chairs, and sometimes the grill. This trip, we did not even bring the DISH stuff. It's summer, after all.

Indoors, we have the a lot of the kitchen and bath stuff well-organized and the often-used things are kept out, at the point of use, in organizers that stay put going down the road. The toaster is velcro'd to the dinette table. Salt, pepper, pens/pencils/scissors, note paper, certain pills sit next to the toaster in a sticky bottomed black plastic tray from Wal-Mart. I built some luan cabinet organizers for dishes and pots and pans. We cut back on some the kitchen stuff. The result is that we don't have to move stuff to get to other stuff. So it's easy to put things away too.

Dirty clothes get put in the laundry bag right away. Bed is straightened when we get dressed. Laptop and tablets stash away easily. Chargers are in the TV cabinet, always plugged in to a power strip with individual switches on the outlets, which is plugged into our inverter. Basically everything has a place that is both accessible and at the same time travel-ready.

It gets easier as you fine tune it.

[JimmyRV]

The Logans wrote:
Much more cost effective to call Enterprise....

This^^^!!

Sometimes they even deliver right to your campsite. Never had a problem finding one nearby or on the way to our camping destination.

[pnichols]

We have a 24 foot Class C and do not tow - except occasionally our boat to lakes. We do all of our other RV touring, sightseeing, shopping, and exploring with the Class C itself. Some of our "exploring" is off-pavement and we still use the Class C for even this, as ours basically has the ground clearance of a standard pickup and after all ... it is a "truck" underneath that's carrying the coach. So if careful, one can drive almost anywhere a 2WD pickup can and with a refrigerator, beds, lounge chair(s), sinks, and a toilet with you all along the way.

Part of what a motorhome means to us is fast camp set up and tear down, so we just take off and return to our campsite with the rig when out and about on RV trips. We even have friends with a 24 foot Class C and they don't even call it a motorhome. They call it their "truck".

[Snowman9000]

We have yet to tow. We will this winter on our long snowbird trip.

We rented once from Enterprise. Each half of the transaction took the better part of half a day due to waiting for their ride, getting the ride, and driving the car to or from their place.

[tatest]

I don't tow when touring and sightseeing, do tow when taking the RV out to the lake to leave it there a week or two. Current tow is a manual transmission Honda Fit, previous was a manual transmission Ranger pickup.

[The_Logans]

Much more cost effective to call Enterprise....