RV Shopping

Have you ever narrowed a search down to two products and found that you oscillate back and forth between them, causing you to be powerless to make a decision? That is the case with us as we look toward our retirement RV (still a few years off… thankfully).

Over the past six months, we have watched numerous YouTube videos and scoured the magazines and websites to try to narrow our search toward the perfect solution for our traveling dreams.

Perhaps in a situation like this, it is best to start with what is important to you. Here’s our list:

• Small enough to maneuver without the need of a “toad” (towed-behind car)
• Small enough to park wherever we want to go
• Bathroom and tanks large enough to be usable for showers, etc.
• At least one extra seat belt for those occasions when we would invite a grandchild along
• At least one extra convertible bed

Until yesterday, we had pretty-much narrowed in on a Class B van. We like that you can park them anywhere you can park a car. The easy driving would not necessitate a toad, nor would the towing capacity support such a venture.

One of our favorite vans has been the Winnebago Travato 59K. We like the openness of the interior with all of the windows it has to offer. We like the rear bath and the fact that it doesn’t have dualies on the back (two less tires to buy). We like that it has a gasoline engine in the Dodge ProMaster chassis.

The 59K has some pretty serious drawbacks though; at least for our wish list. For one, it doesn’t have a third seat belt and it doesn’t have an extra bed. And though we like the rear bathroom in this Travato, we do not like the way you have to snap in the shower curtain. Those are only a few things, but they are deal-breakers for us.

We looked at the Travato 59G and man, does the inside feel dark and small! It does have the extra seat belt and convertible bed, but the double bed in the back seems small and we don’t like the way it folds up with no usable seating space incorporated. Another deal-breaker.

We would like to take an in-person look at the Hymer Aktiv 2.0. It looks to have a lot of the amenities of the Travato 59G, but the bed is larger, spanning the entire width of the back of the van. The bathroom is half-way up the narrow walkway, so that may seem very small to us. We suspect that this van will also cause us concern that we will not be able to overcome. There always seems to be give-and-take when it comes to a van.

Yesterday, we took a look at a couple of Class C motor homes that were slightly larger than a van and offer so much more by way of our wish list. We took another look at one we had seen in the spring; the Winnebago Fuse 23A. Wow, is this a nice motor home for couple-travel! It has just about everything we would want: extra seat belts, extra bed, dry bath (including a separate, enclosed shower stall). This RV is nice!

There are a couple of things we do not like as much about the Fuse. For one, the size is a bit larger than a van; large enough to cause some driving and parking concerns. We hear there are National Parks and city destinations that allow a Class B van, but not a Class C motor home to park. So then what? Pull a car? We really don’t want to do that. We are currently exploring a couple of other options that people have done: 1). Occasionally rent a car, or 2). Use Uber or Lyft when we want to go where the Class C isn’t permitted. We need to look further into these options.

While we haven’t landed on the perfect solution for us yet… if it exists, we are sure having a good time looking and are thankful that we are a few years away from making a decision.

We have our calendars marked for the Pittsburgh and Erie RV shows! Will we see you there?

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