Forum Discussion

HadEnough's avatar
HadEnough
Explorer
Dec 13, 2018

Help Me Figure Out the Dream?

Hi,

I am going to open up here. I don't like to reveal a lot online but I need some help selecting an RV.

I currently full time in an older Dodge Ram 2500 and Arctic Fox single slide truck camper. I also full time in a couple sailboats. One an incredible, 50ft world cruising catamaran which is incomplete and I can't continue building personally due to epoxy sensitivity so extreme it knocks me out for days. The other an older but very seaworthy 50' monohull cutter rig.

I'm looking for life advice as well as practical advice.

I'm trying to do some world traveling.

None of my toys here are 100% ready or ideal for global travel at this moment.

The catamaran would be by far the best option. It's one of the fastest and best boats in the world if complete but there are thousands of hours of work left with toxic chemicals my body can't take anymore to get it ready. I'd also like to spend those thousands of hours traveling not dying from chemicals.

The monohull is just about ready to go, capable of world travel but monohulls are terribly uncomfortable. Outside helm, rocking and rolling at anchor, living all tilted (heeled) over for extended periods while traveling. Not ideal.

That leaves an RV. A good RV. But I can't seem to find the dream RV that has the space of these boats yet is practical for my uses which include urban as well as rural stays.

I want to set it up to be completely off grid in every way other than getting fuel. My current truck camper is like this now but I'd like to add even more capability.

I need room. Plenty of room. A girlfriend and a cat are with me. But I also need it to be compact for visiting urban areas in addition to rural ones. I often stick my truck camper in the heart of huge north American cities in paid parking and enjoy it like an apartment in that city for a while.

I've been looking at the triple slide truck campers. The main problem with the Arctic Fox I have now is there is no couch. The dinette of a truck camper is horribly uncomfortable and that leaves a bed. Not healthy to lie in bed all day. (I run my busineses remotely so I work while traveling)

So I'm looking for an elusive dream. Something with a couch or 2 (dinette not even needed), a bed and an awesome kitchen with oven and a refrigerator at least the size of my full size Norcold. It should fit in a single parking spot and be able to be put on a RoRo to ship to Europe. It should be reasonable to drive in Europe. Or.. if a truck camper, maybe I can leave the camper behind and drive the truck in Europe to get into small places. Then I'd like to ship it to Southeast Asia and travel there. It should fit into a parking space but still he huge inside. Triple slide??

Any thoughts?
Seeking Advice
  • bikendan's avatar
    bikendan
    Explorer
    Dec 18, 2018
    4x4van wrote:
    Have you considered something along the lines of a Winnebago Revel? Or maybe a Sportsmobile? Actually, quite a few Class B or B+ rigs might cover your bases for overall size vs living space.


    The OP has already stated that a RV is no longer a consideration, a few posts before yours.
  • Matt_Colie's avatar
    Matt_Colie
    Explorer II
    Dec 18, 2018
    pnichols wrote:
    Veebyes wrote:
    Of course if you are a certain distance offshore you can simply pump it out yourself. Everything else living poops into the ocean.

    Ugh, ugh, ugh ... but everything else living in the ocean does not use TP after they poop. :S

    As a lifelong waterman that used to liveaboard, I can tell you that the paper is just a non-issue. Back in the days before holding tanks or even macerator pumps, it was not uncommon to see little brown balls floating in the harbors. This is why we never swam in the harbors. Cities did no better. As a student a the Maritime College, we frequently saw "Bronx Whitefish" in the ebbing tide, but no paper was seen.

    Matt
  • pnichols's avatar
    pnichols
    Explorer II
    Dec 17, 2018
    Veebyes wrote:
    Of course if you are a certain distance offshore you can simply pump it out yourself. Everything else living poops into the ocean.


    Ugh, ugh, ugh ... but everything else living in the ocean does not use TP after they poop. :S
  • Veebyes's avatar
    Veebyes
    Explorer II
    Dec 17, 2018
    Emptying holding tanks in a boat is a major hassel. No problem for the RVer. Everyone knows that the stuff flows downhill. Easy. With a boat special equipment is needed dockside to suck it out of the holding tank.

    Of course if you are a certain distance offshore you can simply pump it out yourself. Everything else living poops into the ocean.

    Foot for foot, lots of room in a RV. All they are basically is a square box with wheels. Not so with a boat, especially a sailboat. Boat designers however make much better use of interior spaces than RV builders. So much wasted dead space in RVs.
  • 4x4van's avatar
    4x4van
    Explorer III
    Dec 17, 2018
    Have you considered something along the lines of a Winnebago Revel? Or maybe a Sportsmobile? Actually, quite a few Class B or B+ rigs might cover your bases for overall size vs living space.
  • pnichols's avatar
    pnichols
    Explorer II
    Dec 17, 2018
    I'm curious about when living in a boat ... boy it sure must be a PNTB hassle to deal with the emptying of the black waste??

    That brings up visions of those longer-term RV folks in RV parks dragging around those big blue tanks with wheels to get rid of the stuff.

    The above - and what the boaters must have to do - doesn't look at all like my cup of tea.
  • ppine's avatar
    ppine
    Explorer II
    Dec 17, 2018
    Lots of people live on the water. My uncle lived on boats for 20 years up by Seattle. I had another uncle that bought a 55 foot mahogany boat in Los Angeles and ran it up the San Juans.

    Most boats are pretty small inside.
    Sounds like the cat is pretty roomy. Cats have two stable positions, right side up, and upside down.
  • HadEnough's avatar
    HadEnough
    Explorer
    Dec 16, 2018
    Nice to meet a fellow nautical type here Matt. Thanks for the input.

    The plan is figured out now.

    We are keeping the cat for coastal/Caribbean. Selling the monohull. Keeping the current truck camper. Flying to foreign countries and getting an Airbnb instead of sailing to them or shipping an RV.

    Thanks for all the input. It was all ready and carefully considered.
  • Matt_Colie's avatar
    Matt_Colie
    Explorer II
    Dec 16, 2018
    HadEnough wrote:
    I appreciate your input Matt, but where are you getting your information about catamarans from?. Breaking up? That's never even happened in history. This isn't some random piece of junk. It's a corecell/glass epoxy resin infused meticulously built Catamaran with finite element analysis computer stress modeling dictating the entire design. One of the best in the world.

    I've been actively sailing and traveling by boat for 25-30 years now. Full timing it. I think I've Had Enough with boats which is where my username here comes from. I've been from Venezuela to Nova Scotia and everywhere in between. A lot of it on smaller catamarans. And monohulls. And I've spent time doing professional charters.

    Now certainly a vast majority of boats are more stable inverted. Just look at all the power vessels that end up capsized. With no keel, they stay that way. But this cat was also set up for the rough stuff in case I was too dumb to do my weather homework. It has absolutely nothing below the waterline in storm mode. No rudders, no keels, no props, absolutely nothing to trip on. It states all over and stays upright. All of that retracts.

    Way off topic for an RV forum. Sorry folks.

    Anyway, you're definitely right about the chemicals. I can't do them anymore. Severe epoxy problems.

    Issue is I want to travel. In something comfortable. And see places. And have a home that goes everywhere. But it's time to go international.

    Had,

    You may have a good plan for an offshore cat. The two that I personally participated in the rescue/recovery of were both on the large side (50+ & 60+LOA). The larger failed rigging and that damaged a hull. That side flooded and the other was close before we got a pump aboard. The smaller failed the main beam. This caused a loss of the rig. While we were able to recover the hull, it was determined to be not economically salvageable.

    In my time doing righting moments of ocean yachts (I have been employed as an NA), I never saw one that had a stable 2. Some of the go-fast ocean racers can have a stable 2, but to comply with the rules of said races, they have to have a means to self-right. There is also very little flooding allowed regardless of attitude.

    Whatever, I do wish you fair wind and smooth sea.

    In my recent years of dirt based RVing, I have seen many examples and situations that demonstrate that there is a dichotomy of types. What can do well off road, simply cannot be a comfortable living in long term. Those that are comfortable as to living space should not venture off good pavement. I have seen countless examples there.

    Whatever, I do wish you cheap fuel and smooth roads.

    It looks like we know much the same water. My only deck license was a a coastal pilot Cape Cod Canal to Cape Henlopen less than 100 tons undersail. That has long expired. My parent's last home was in Mystic. But when living on the 13ton ketch we (the family, M,D 3kids & wooly dog) were somewhere between Stone Harbor (ME) and the Virginia Capes. Lots of points south of that later but not with the home.

    Matt

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