~1 year from retirement

[dadwolf2]

Getting close to retirement and trying to decide what our next RV might be. We love our truck camper but wish we had a comfortable place to relax. The dining room booth just doesn't cut it for us on long trips. We aren't planning on full timing but we've found that our TC is best for the shorter trips, not the 1-3 months we think we'll be traveling after retirement.

So our dilemma: We love the TC maneuverability. We love the ability to get into any sites that are available. We just want a more comfortable place to relax. Do we have to go to a 30ft trailer or large motorhome to achieve this? We looked at the motorhome option and the model we both liked was 1/4 million (cough, cough)!! We then looked at a 30ft Arctic Fox travel trailer. Pretty nice but will we go crazy with the loss of maneuverability compared to our TC? Do you have any thoughts/suggestions?

[dadwolf2]

JimK-NY wrote:
So you just want a comfortable place to sit? Something like a couple of big recliners should do it. Now what about a dry vs wet bath. Certainly a dry bath would be better. While you are at it look at the kitchen for convenience. Do you want nice wide countertops, an oven, a microwave, a large refrigerator? While you are at it you might want to upsize just a bit more so you have your own laundry.

This is how people start out with huge RVs. Ask any RV salesman. They will help with a process. I have no idea what is right for you. I can only tell you my wife and I resisted the tendency to go big and years later are still happy with the decision. We went full time, along with our 2 cats, in a 9 1/2 foot Northstar Igloo. Our recliners were a couple of zero gravity chairs which hooked onto a bracket on the rear ladder. Years later we even traded them in for light weight folding aluminum chairs. With a small size and a couple of solar panels, we did not need RV parks or equivalent sized campgrounds. We did not tow tens of thousands of pounds of stuff so we traveled a lot and stayed in National Park, national forest and often BLM dispersed camping areas.

Years later we are no longer full timers, but often travel for months. The current trip started in NY in the beginning of August and so far has included: Badlands NP, Big Horn Mts, Yellowstone, Glacier, Olympic NP and the Washington, Oregon and Northern California coasts, then Great Basin NP, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Arches, and lots and lots of places in between. You can imagine, I don't sit all that much. I would rather travel instead of towing a recliner.

Your plan has lots of merit, although good weather and limited bugs would make that more doable!! : )

[dadwolf2]

jefe 4x4 wrote:
Wolfman,
Say it isn't so. Retirement? Last time i saw you, i think at Expo2013, you were just a kid.
What I can say is things change when you've been in the 4WD RV biz for a while. It's difficult to predict what will be important to you 5 years from now. So, don't try to over plan, long range, and rather get what works for you right now knowing that whatever it is will be a passing fancy anyway.
After 50 years of building Jeeps, Scouts, Land Cruisers, and 4WD trucks, only our snow car, a locked 1999 Jeep XJ and my 2001 Dodge Cummins remain. Oh, and Jeanie's 2011 Grand Cherokee plus a lot of memories.
Baja 1971: 200 miles south of Puertocitos on the Gulf of California in our long gone Toyota FJ-55/Chevy V-8, power lok rr axle, 3 spare tires, 78 gallons of petrol, Warn winch, stack. It seemed what to travel and camp with at the time.

jefe

Jefe, it's been too long. We've been Jeepin non-stop since 2015 with lots of Overlanding (I've led multiple Mojave Road trips), ran the Rubicon in 2017, and trail leading many local Jeep runs. But the Mrs. is now rehabing her 2nd knee replacement. I agree that things change as we seem to frequently be on a 5 year plan of change and like you, my 2005 Dodge/Cummins remains.

[dadwolf2]

Optimistic Paranoid wrote:

dadwolf2 wrote:

So our dilemma: We love the TC maneuverability. We love the ability to get into any sites that are available. We just want a more comfortable place to relax.

Do you have any thoughts/suggestions?

Does it have to be either/or?

I remember seeing a blog post by a guy who converted a cargo trailer to be a really nice man-cave to pull behind his rig. He had an A/C on the roof, a large screen TV mounted on one wall, and a super comfortable recliner to relax in. Think he also had a small fridge and a microwave in there.

Could you pull something like that with your current truck camper? Set it up as a base camp and use the truck camper to mount exploration trips around the area?

The Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailers forum has a sub-forum devoted to those cargo trailer conversions. You'd be surprised at how nice some of those conversions could be.

Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailers/Cargo Trailers

Interesting because the thought of a nice "man/woman" cave has crossed my mind.

[Camp_woof]

As I just put a deposit down on a new Bigfoot 10.4 ... I hope a foam backrest pillow placed against the camper wall works! It works for other 90 degree surfaces.

Next best for me would have been one of the big slide out campers, plenty of comfort there.

And with TC you have a truck, so if you want a trailer instead for the winter, that might be an option.

Dave

[jefe_4x4]

Wolfman,
Say it isn't so. Retirement? Last time i saw you, i think at Expo2013, you were just a kid.
What I can say is things change when you've been in the 4WD RV biz for a while. It's difficult to predict what will be important to you 5 years from now. So, don't try to over plan, long range, and rather get what works for you right now knowing that whatever it is will be a passing fancy anyway.
After 50 years of building Jeeps, Scouts, Land Cruisers, and 4WD trucks, only our snow car, a locked 1999 Jeep XJ and my 2001 Dodge Cummins remain. Oh, and Jeanie's 2011 Grand Cherokee plus a lot of memories.
Baja 1971: 200 miles south of Puertocitos on the Gulf of California in our long gone Toyota FJ-55/Chevy V-8, power lok rr axle, 3 spare tires, 78 gallons of petrol, Warn winch, stack. It seemed what to travel and camp with at the time.

jefe

[JimK-NY]

So you just want a comfortable place to sit? Something like a couple of big recliners should do it. Now what about a dry vs wet bath. Certainly a dry bath would be better. While you are at it look at the kitchen for convenience. Do you want nice wide countertops, an oven, a microwave, a large refrigerator? While you are at it you might want to upsize just a bit more so you have your own laundry.

This is how people start out with huge RVs. Ask any RV salesman. They will help with a process. I have no idea what is right for you. I can only tell you my wife and I resisted the tendency to go big and years later are still happy with the decision. We went full time, along with our 2 cats, in a 9 1/2 foot Northstar Igloo. Our recliners were a couple of zero gravity chairs which hooked onto a bracket on the rear ladder. Years later we even traded them in for light weight folding aluminum chairs. With a small size and a couple of solar panels, we did not need RV parks or equivalent sized campgrounds. We did not tow tens of thousands of pounds of stuff so we traveled a lot and stayed in National Park, national forest and often BLM dispersed camping areas.

Years later we are no longer full timers, but often travel for months. The current trip started in NY in the beginning of August and so far has included: Badlands NP, Big Horn Mts, Yellowstone, Glacier, Olympic NP and the Washington, Oregon and Northern California coasts, then Great Basin NP, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Arches, and lots and lots of places in between. You can imagine, I don't sit all that much. I would rather travel instead of towing a recliner.

[SugarHillCTD]

I'll throw my experience in here.

Over the past 20 years we have had a few TCs with one 28' TT in there when the kids were still with us.

Last fall we were looking for something a little more comfortable. Cathy wanted a dry bath, a couch and a bed she didn't have to leap in to.
I wanted SHORT. Having had a 28' TT, I remembered the limitations

We thought of Class C and B. But our 3/4 crew cab was pretty new, had low miles and was paid off.

Found a barely used 2016 27' 5th wheel. $20k. Minimal investment.

This way we retain the truck as a daily driver and when hitched it is 40' from the front of the truck to the back of the trailer.

Yeah not as maneuverable as a TC, but easy to pull and has what we were looking for.



We aren't pulling a huge trailer down the road and the truck handles it better than the TC.

[Kayteg1]

jimh425 wrote:
I do agree that the windows in a Class A are awesome.

There is always 1 side gain for other side loss.
When I was driving Prevost - my feet were just inches behind front bumper and there wasn't much between me and front panel.
Head-on accidents don't happen very often and Prevost excelent brakes were giving confidence, but the thought what would happen to me in case of frontal accident never left my mind.
With truck you have big front and several airbags for protection.
Another story is that here, in Las Vegas I drive 5 miles of 45 mph street that has 6 traffic lanes and center turning lane.
No month will pass without head-on accident or car ending on the roof.
That on perfectly straight street with excelent visibility.

[Grit_dog]

And the last few posts are why mfgs make many different types of RVs!
Posts are funny when people defend their choice as the only "best" choice.
I can think of days when I would still be sitting there stuck if I took a Class A where we went with the TC and pickup and days where staring through the windshield of a diesel pusher would have been better than through the windshield of a pickup with a white whale in the bed!

[jimh406]

Tom/Barb wrote:
I don't know what type Diesel Pusher you've traveled in, But for me even a entry level coach beats a truck every day.

Maybe you haven’t driven a newer DRW Crew Cab with all the bells and whistles. It doesn’t get much more comfortable. The manuevability of my F450 compared to any motorhome is night and day difference. I do agree that the windows in a Class A are awesome.

[kohldad]

Keep the TC for your first trip or two so you can make quick whirlwind trip of the states to get a glimpse of as much as you can. Then when you think you are ready to slow down, get a 26-30' TT to tow behind the TC. That way you have the larger rig to relax in but can still get off the beaten path for a night or two get away. That's our plan soon. Figure 2 or 3 years in the TC then will revisit where we are. Right now, we just enjoy having everything with us all the time. And I say this only a week after a 3 week 3,800 mile trip where we spent every night in a different campground except for two nights in Sleeping Bear Nat Lakeshore because it was a holiday weekend.

[Tom_Barb]

Kayteg1 wrote:

Tom/Barb wrote:
After just completing a trip to the east coast for a month, I can not imagine doing that in a TC, Yes Back when We were 30-40 we did it with 2 kids, But not any more.

We left Butte Mt at 0600 this morning, arrived Oak Harbor Wa. 18:00 tonight. Our Coach ran 70 all day.
Can imagine doing that in a truck camper, 150 gallons of fuel does have its advantages, as does being able to have lunch on the run.
Long milage days come much easier in a Class A DP

Don't know how do you drive the camper, but my new truck is way more comfortable than any diesel pusher I have seen.
You don't hear the engine, most of the time you don't hear wind noise, usually the only thing that disturbs listening to Opera music is tire noise, but with Michelins it is not bad neither.
The 320 miles range on tank ain't bad neither. Even I did drove 700 miles daily in motorhomes years ago, the 300 seems to be good day on my retirement.
Than I can fill up my truck in less than 10 minutes. Try that with DP.
Not even saying that with TC I do zigzag in rolling traffic, when with DP you are stuck on slow lane.

I don't know what type Diesel Pusher you've traveled in, But for me even a entry level coach beats a truck every day.

[Tom_Barb]

I don't know what type Diesel Pusher you've traveled in, But for me even a entry level coach beats a truck every day.

[Ralph_Cramden]

TxGearhead wrote:
Get the smallest Class C you can get on a Ford E450 chassis. You will have to compromise on something. Otherwise just get the biggest Class A DP you can afford. Truck campers aren't big enough for extended trips, and are too much trouble for a weekend. Putting $100,000+ into a truck and camper isn't good financial sense, unless you already have, or need, a truck.

The truck makes a lot more financial sense than any RV ever made, be it now or in the past, and that applies from popups to a Prevost, none of them make financial sense. A new truck comes with a decent depreciation hit but not even close to the hit taken with an RV. Especially so with the 120 and 240 month term loans they push on these things, especially class C's and A's. What a losing proposition financially.

The best is the working family who buys a 30' stick and tin bunkhouse worth maybe 13K and pays the MSRP of 25+K, then finances it for 120 or longer with the minimum required down. A lot of that going on right now, and that bubble is getting ready to implode. Camping World is pushing that scenario as hard as they can. Just go on one of their lots and fake interest to a sales person for one of the stick and tin rigs theyll have sitting in a line of 20 or more visible to the front highway. They're bait for suckers.