Comparing RV's Question

Ah, okay. Thanks for that wbwood.

logsend wrote:
Thanks for the information. Since we've never been to a 'motorcoach resort' we have no clue what that is. ;)

2gypsies what you do sounds like what we'd like. Open spaces, beautiful views, quiet places. Though I'm not keen on pulling my beloved Jeep behind a motorhome she's my baby and daily drive I waited a long time for her and my husband jokes that I'll be taking her to my grave.

Here's what a motorcoach resort is like.

Thanks for the information. Since we've never been to a 'motorcoach resort' we have no clue what that is. ;)

2gypsies what you do sounds like what we'd like. Open spaces, beautiful views, quiet places. Though I'm not keen on pulling my beloved Jeep behind a motorhome she's my baby and daily drive I waited a long time for her and my husband jokes that I'll be taking her to my grave.

More than likley, you will be able to take a Class A (and even Class C's) to more parks than you can with any type of trailer. A lot of places cater to the motorcoach crowd. Just this past July 4th, we stayed at the Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort where it doesn't allow any type of trailers. It does allow Class A and C's with a minimum length limit. However, there is another place across the island where trailers are allowed. But so are coaches. Haven't seen a trailer only place. Well except for that Airstream Trailer Park I once saw...

I just posted this in another forum where the OP was asking the difference between a 5th wheel and motorhome for boondocking.

You're asking about 'campgrounds' rather than RV parks, I believe. 'Campgrounds' as in state parks? If so, you would easily be able to take a motorhome to state parks, Corp of Engineers parks, most national parks and out West, a lot of forest service campgrounds. Absolutely no problem if you do you research on the campground. We've done a lot in the eastern and western states at 'campgrounds'.

Someone here just posted that you need a pop up to boondock. This is absolute.y not true. You can easily take a motorhome boondocking and here's our take on it:

From our experience, yes you can boondock in gorgeous places with a motorhome. We do it all the time with our 40' motorhome. We've never tried real boondocking (staying at WalMarts is not boondocking) east of the Mississippi because we now love the West. We've done a lot in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho and really, just about all the western states - even California.

We start off by consulting the Benchmark gazeteers for planning. They are available online and sometimes in major book stores, national parks and other places. They are published for only the western states and one book for each state. Therefore, the maps are large and easy to read. Public lands are marked clearly on them as are good, wide gravel roads. We have found that most of the roads printed on the maps are good gravel roads as opposed to using a forest service map which includes narrow two-tracks.

A real plus with a motorhome vs a 5th wheel is that if we haven't been on those roads previously and are unsure, we'll drive to the area, disconnect the Jeep and scout out before driving the motorhome onto the road. (We also do this for national forest campgrounds, national parks, etc. We scout first.) Naturally, we wouldn't take the motorhome on a high clearance road or on a narrow twisty road but good gravel roads are just fine.

In the West you'll have lots of choices without getting into thick forests. We love open views and find great places overlooking a small lake or stream. We've done the Quartzsite, AZ thing often but only to meet up with friends. To us, that's not boondocking. That's parking with thousands of others.

We've stayed at national wildlife refuges, fisherman's access sites, in national forests, on BLM land and in regular campgrounds including most of the major national parks. The only thing I cannot stress enough is to do your research. We have honestly never been turned away from a place because we couldn't fit.

We haven't received any damage to our motorhome by boondocking and haven't gotten into 'tough spots'. The only damage we've ever had was received the first year we bought the motorhome and it was in a private RV park with boulders edging the site including at the edge of the site/road where we had to make our turn. We learned our lesson on that one. Seventeen years later and plenty of 'off-roading' with the motorhome and no more damage. It can be done!

Most of the restrictions are based on length and not the type of RV. If you want to go on back roads, you need to look at pop-ups that have been modified to have more clearance or comes with more clearance. You can also add clearance to a small trailer. Otherwise, you need to look at your budget, what you can pull if you go with a trailer/fifth wheel and what you need in the floor plan.

We are going through the mind numbing process of looking at various models or fifth wheel and class a. It's just two of us and a Great Dane (maybe another dog later on) that will be traveling. We like the beach, the mountains, we love history and we want to start taking 2 week long summer trips to see other parts of the country. We're staying under 35' for anything we get. I suspect we will have a better idea of exactly what we are aiming for after we go to the PA show. Right now we are just trying to navigate through all the manufactures, floor plans etc. Going and seeing how they are made has left us a little surprised. We expect the quality to reflect the price tag and so far that hasn't really been the case in some of them. We are learning and we will be researching for a while that's for sure!

tjfogelberg wrote:
We're still trying to figure out what people do with all that extra storage in their "basements". :)

Judging by the contents of the basement in my parents' Class A, it's much like the basement of a house - it just fills up ... mostly with stuff that got used once and isn't likely to ever get used again.

It's not just about where "you can take it" but how you will get it there. One suggestion would be to camp out at a local campground and walk around and talk to different campers. Also, watch as new rigs pull in and set up camp. Very instructive! We're middle of the road with a 27' Class C. We're still trying to figure out what people do with all that extra storage in their "basements". :)

We like all types of campgrounds and our moderately sized rig allows to get just about anywhere. (There are definitely places we would have had to steer clear of if we had a bus).

Todd

logsend wrote:
Thank you. Both. From reading a million and one things we got the impression that a class a diesel pusher at a campground might not work because of the weight in the rear and that you could get stuck. We don't have any experience with campgrounds, rv parks etc. So we have nothing to go on as far as conditions being favorable for one type more than the other. So we want to add that to a pro or con list.

Did that make any sense at all??

You have to be careful with any large RV once you pull off of the highway. It isn't only weight of rear. Overall heavy RVs are not like driving a car, for example, off the road. You have to even becareful pulling off onto the shoulder of a highway due to weight. You can get stuck. I saw that yesterday. Tractor trailer pulled off on shoulder of 4 lane highway and buried itself in soft shoulder. Campgrounds, referred to as boondocking can have narrow roads, soft roads, limited height, etc. In addition some campgrounds just can't accommodate longer lengths of RVs. Private RV parks usually are not a problem. Even on some highways you have to be more aware of vehicle height Vs driving a car. Some states require class B drivers license over 26,000 lbs. These are all things you may want to consider depending on where you plan on camping or RVing.