Do you ever wish you had went smaller in RV choice?

[jonrjen]

We began small and grew over the years into the 40' RV size. Both in a Class A and 5th wheel.

We have been looking at getting out of the Class A triple slide pusher into something more grandkid friendly I keep telling myself. But I am starting to wonder if this is really the reason for downsizing into a less expensive RV. In our search we started looking at TT in the under or around 30' size. Before long it moved back into the 36' to 40' 5 slide 5th wheel selections. I had closed a deal on a Wildcat 35' (40'overall length) bath and a half, but had a family matter arise that had to be taken care of and didn't close the deal to ownership level.

But, while looking and looking and looking I have also come across a travel trailer that is a discontinued brand by Keystone RV called the Vantage. The Vantage is a 29' travel trailer that looks like an Airstream covered in grey fiberglass....kind of. Meaning that it is very aerodynamic and wide body design. Over all length of 34' and about 10'4" in height with a total loaded weight max of 8,800#. My 2013 F350 diesel wouldn't even know it was there. The frame design on the Vantage is a bolted together with limited welding construction. IE: not a Lippert frame. The Vantage also has only one shallow slide out.

While I am impressed with the Vantage, I think what I am realizing is that one of the features I am really liking about the set up in the size.

[nolra]

From 28ft 5th wheel to a 17' Casita.
From $200 month storage to $0
From 15mpg to 21+mpg
From queen bed to sleeping on a 24x74" cot.


Personally I prefer the smaler trailer. We use the Casita way more than we did the 5th wheel. When I go solo I just use my old AWD Astro van. Has everything I need to camp anywhere I want.

My wife would probably love a 40 ft RV with 4 slides but she isn't the one that has to take care of the darn thing.

I'm not retired and just do long weekend for the most part. When I retire in a few years I may completely change my attitude. Might have more time to take care of something a little bigger. Maybe a 19 fter.. (-:}

[ncrowley]

We are probably in our last RV - a 39 foot class A. Started with a tent, then to a pop-up, then to a 29 foot trailer and now to the class A. We are living in it right now while we are waiting for the house to be built. We plan to do a lot of traveling in the summer - I just retired and we now have the time. Yes, there are some nice things about the smaller RVs but we are really enjoying the coach.

[Vapor_Trails]

I want a TC. Wife wants a Class A. We'll probably just keep what we have until it falls apart.

[Veebyes]

Nope. No desire to go bigger or smaller. We are in our first & hopefully last trailer.

It is big enough to have all the amenities NEEDED for long term travel yet small enough to get into almost all state parks. She who must be obeyed, has her 4 door fridge, loads of galley working space & an entertainment area that can easily be viewed as she works in 'her' space.

In 7 years of always keeping eyes open nothing has been seen that better suits our needs, larger or smaller.

[timmac]

jonrjen wrote:
We began small and grew over the years into the 40' RV size. Both in a Class A and 5th wheel.


But, while looking and looking and looking I have also come across a travel trailer that is a discontinued brand by Keystone RV called the Vantage. The Vantage is a 29' travel trailer that looks like an Airstream covered in grey fiberglass....kind of. Meaning that it is very aerodynamic and wide body design. Over all length of 34' and about 10'4" in height with a total loaded weight max of 8,800#. My 2013 F350 diesel wouldn't even know it was there. The frame design on the Vantage is a bolted together with limited welding construction. IE: not a Lippert frame. The Vantage also has only one shallow slide out.

While I am impressed with the Vantage, I think what I am realizing is that one of the features I am really liking about the set up in the size.

Going from a 40ft to a 29ft might have problems with to small down the road, you might want to think this all the way thru.

I to have increased in size over the years but I also knew not to go to large since I am not fulltiming, I think I found my prefect size of 33ft with 2 slides, and yes it has a King bed..

[jerem0621]

It was a happy day when I saw my 31 ft TT pulling off when we sold it.

We are back to tent camping and could not be happier!!!

27 mpg while traveling. No 65 mpg speed limit! On the tires Woo hoo!!!!

[lbrjet]

Nope.

[JJnLilly]

Went from a single slide fifth wheel with actual length of 32' to a triple slide unit that was actually 36+' and weighed 12K empty. Realized that it was nice to have space, but much of it was wasted (do we really need to have room enough to dance in the living room) so found our current unit - a 30' two slide unit with plenty of space for us a a GVW of 11K. One of the biggest reasons for downsizing to was stopping. The Ram could pull the big unit without a hitch, but the thought of stopping 7 tons was not pleasant.

[Desert_Captain]

Phil, Yes you can sleep up there with no interference from the TV. As I said that bunk is 8' long so unless you play center in the NBA your feet just won't reach it and if they do just swing it out for the night. The TV mount can be positioned in many ways to meet your viewing needs and then just snaps into place, snug to the outside wall, for secure traveling. The cabover bunk is a bit of climb as there isn't anyplace to mount a ladder but we found a very lightweight two step folder that facilitates access and comes in handy for lots of other uses.

Parking our butts in each corner of the dinette and leaning back is as comfortable as any couch or chair and makes for good TV viewing. It would be nice to have a lounge chair but no place to put it. For $350 Nexus will change out the base on the passenger seat to a swivel allowing it to face the dinette and that improvement is at the top of short list of things to add. I also plan to go with a couple of Fantastic Fans for my two manual vents and just ordered the Rand McNally 7720 GPS from Amazon. Should be here in a couple of days, can't wait to start learning how to use its many features. :C

[pnichols]

DC,

Thanks for the summary.

What an idea for the TV location ... it looks like you can still sleep in the overhead bed with your feet between the TV's lower edge and the mattress?? If so, what a great place for it. I've never would have thought of that place to put it. I guess it's swing bracket can be screwed right onto the solid forward facing side of the cabinet above the entrance door?

Also, I see that you have a swing-out top next to the sink for more counter space.

Our floorplan differs slightly, though, in that we have a lounge chair on the right side of our entrance door (when you come in) under our cabinet that is where your cabinet is that your TV bracket is attached to. It looks like our entrance door is a couple of feet further back from the front than yours. We have no cabinet right over the entrance door. I wonder how Winnebago squeeked out the room for our lounge chair ... as we both have 24 foot rigs?

Again, great rig ... and what a bonus getting the 55 gallon tank in it just like our E450. That really gives us lots of no-worry generator runtime at campsites. Like your Generac, our Onan is quiet and there are no downsides to using it as necessary (especially in the Oregon outback during the summer for comfortable A/C). Those 4KW built-ins are well worth the ~$3K adder they get for them.

[Desert_Captain]

pnichols wrote:
Desert Captain,

Your Nexus 23P is a sweet little rig! It's floorplan is very similar to our 24 foot Itasca Spirit's floorplan. Does the dinette make into another bed?

I like that HUGE furnace capacity you have ... I believe it's around 35,000 BTUs, which is very generous for a 24 footer. With it's heated tanks, you should be nicely set up for cold weather camping.

How did you wind up with a Generac instead of an Onan? I also see that you stayed with the E350 chassis instead of the E450 ... you probably have a bit softer ride in the back of the coach than we do.

I'm curious ... where and how did they mount a 26 inch TV in the 23P? I've scratched my head many times trying to figure out where to put a 26 incher in ours such that it would be both out of the way when traveling but nicely viewable when camped. We do have an overhead queen bed - I guess the 23P maybe doesn't - so the TV is up there?

We take ours everywhere ... offroad too ... including such places as into the middle of nowhere 25 miles North of Plush, OR. FWIW, our Wilson rooftop antenna and amplifier got us onto the Internet way out there!

Enjoy your small C!

We could not be more pleased and having put over 6,000 miles on her in the last couple of months I doubt that there any surprises in our future. We found this gem used, with only 6,205 miles, a mere 8.8 hours on the genny right here in Tucson at La Mesa RV.... for $47K. :B I think the original owners lusted for something larger and reportedly moved up to a 36' Class A. I was ready to fly to Elkhart Indiana to pick up a new one but could not pass this by.

Nexus has switched to the Onan Cummings allegedly due to greater access to parts. The Generac would not have been my first choice but has performed flawlessly and is so quiet my Honda 2000 hasn't seen any back up work. Sure is nice to just push a button and have 4Kw purring.

The furnace is beast, yep, 35,000 BTU's, but up in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah in late September it kept us nice and toasty even in temps down into the upper 20's. Haven't needed to run the tank heater but as winter approaches I am sure it will get some work.

The E-350 Chassis is a nice ride and with 3,368# of payload on a GVWR of 12,500# we will never run out of capacity. Weighed it once up in Oregon with one third of grey, black, fresh and fuel in each of the tanks, firewood and the backup Honda and we came in at 10,050#. The 55 gallon fuel tank was a pleasant surprise, LMRV told me it was only 40. this gives us 500 miles of range with a 50 mile cushion.

While I doubt we will ever use it the dinette makes a nice size double bed, the faux leather (they call it "Pleather"), is buttery soft and supple, hmmm, maybe I should make that in to a playpen sometime (but I digress) :W The cabover bunk is 8' long and 58" wide, we use it primarily for a TV lounge, reading, napping and the infrequent guest(s). The 26" Vizio is located in the upper right of the pic, a little hard to see and the DVD player is in the glass fronted cabinet immediately to the right. The mount swings out and it can be viewed from the cabover, dinette or the full size queen in the rear left corner.

Dirt roads cause me little concern as long as I can squeeze this tall boy through the trees without moving too many leaves. It came with Michelin LTX M/S 2's (which I was very happy to run on my last truck), so I can scratch tires off my "what if " list. We travel with two I-Phones and a Tablet all tied into the same Share plan so anywhere we have a Verizon cell signal (almost everywhere), we have the internet.




The rig is fueled up and out front as tomorrow I am taking my visiting BIL up to the Superstition Mountain to Lost Dutchman SP after the obligatory bowl of Chile at Tortilla Flats. Have reservations at Roper Lake for the weekend after next and for Zion for the entire Thanksgiving week. Now if I can just figure out where to go in december..... :S

[Handbasket]

I'm a mostly-solo traveler, rarely a camper. I started out with a 19' class B Roadtrek, moved to another 19' Roadtrek, then to the 19' Tiger CX. I've been totally happy with that for almost 8 years now. Absolutely no urge for bigger.

Jim, "Either you like bacon, or you're wrong."

[pnichols]

Desert Captain,

Your Nexus 23P is a sweet little rig! It's floorplan is very similar to our 24 foot Itasca Spirit's floorplan. Does the dinette make into another bed?

I like that HUGE furnace capacity you have ... I believe it's around 35,000 BTUs, which is very generous for a 24 footer. With it's heated tanks, you should be nicely set up for cold weather camping.

How did you wind up with a Generac instead of an Onan? I also see that you stayed with the E350 chassis instead of the E450 ... you probably have a bit softer ride in the back of the coach than we do.

I'm curious ... where and how did they mount a 26 inch TV in the 23P? I've scratched my head many times trying to figure out where to put a 26 incher in ours such that it would be both out of the way when traveling but nicely viewable when camped. We do have an overhead queen bed - I guess the 23P maybe doesn't - so the TV is up there?

We take ours everywhere ... offroad too ... including such places as into the middle of nowhere 25 miles North of Plush, OR. FWIW, our Wilson rooftop antenna and amplifier got us onto the Internet way out there!

Enjoy your small C!

[Kittykath]

Love, love our 38' fifth wheel, but we probably would never pull it around. Don't even own a truck. It makes a nice stationary cabin, parked 1/2 the year in a small county campground.

However, we're currently looking for something small, a second RV. Basically a bed/kitchen on wheels, and convenient enough for me (momma) and my sisters to pull around. Since we got the camping fever 5 years ago, thinking of sleeping in a motel bed gives us the creeps.