Getting the RV..
As you know we have both spend good part of our lives on the boats, anything from tiny 30ft’s to 200ft’s. They are not much different except bigger the boat more specific your job becomes and there are more people around.
As boating was kinda out of picture with 2 big dogs and neither of us can relax on a boat anyway, cause it’s always been work and it’s too ingrained into us not to keep working and caring about the boat.
So RV was next way of start traveling again.
Then came the question.. what kind, how big, how long we want to be able to “dry camp”* , where we are going to store it when not on the road, how much can it tow, how is it to drive, etc. etc.
*Dry camping is when you go off the grid and relay on your own water, electricity and waist tank capacity to say it shortly.
First we did the Craigs List and general online scan but it really did not help much as you really need to get into it and touch it before one can make any decision about anything. That meant that we needed to find it within 100 miles from our home. After this light pulp went off we did a weekend trip seeing 3 different RV types and narrowed it down to…
We needed floor space for 2 dog beds, room to cook and walk around inside with out pumping into the kids
Storage to put camping chairs, table, outside carpet, grill, bike wheels, stabilizers when parked, extra solar panel, etc.
heating, cooling, big enough black/gray tanks for 3-4 day dry camping
Diesel and that it can tow Ian’s boat trailer and better gas miles, note that if you plan to spend most of your time in California it’s getting hard to get Diesel 2 anymore!!! Only Bio Diesel and that will ruin your engine!!!!
short enough that we can park it front of the house and enter National Parks with
and last but not least, easy enough to pack and unpack the show when moving to next place
We walked into La Mesa RV and saw most of the types presented there. Mercedes van that is common everywhere now was WAY too small, we are not big people but we could not even turn in there and having 2 dogs. Not for us! So Class C motorhome it was. We did think about towing a motorhome model, toy haulers (which were actually quite nice to live in) but maneuvering when going off road can be tricky and we needed to buy a new truck!!! AND can not tow tow… cause we need to tow Ians boat as well! So one unite motor home it was.
Found our 2020 model 24ft Sunseeker/Forest River with full side pull out and loving it! Done some modifications in last 2 years…
changed dining table settee into a sofa bed. This dining table and U shape seating around it is pretty common solution on every RV but as we do not do kids… we changed it to sleeper sofa that was easy to order online
Put carpet tile on the floor. Great sound insulation and more comfortable for us and dogs. Can be replace tile by tile when gets ugly. Got it from Home Depot
Got pillow top mattress cover for the bed as the mattress is not really made for … humans!!!!
Ian installed an outside shower head to back of the buss.
Put in bigger battery bank and inverter (so we can make coffee/charge phones etc without starting the generator) they can be funny in some RV parks and National Parks about when you can use generators
….. and that’s the biggest add ons!
We rented a Class C motor home 4-5 years ago and drove it up to Sierra’s for a boat race. It was good but had NO insulation and road noice was unbearable when driving. Everything rattled and squeaked inside. Did not hear the radio or each other! There are great Class C models out there for less money but take it to test drive to a highway before deciding anything. It’s good to remember aswell that if you want to go up to snow with cold days and nights, you will need gray/black water tank heaters! Some things are easy to add on but some are impossible. Also want to add that take full road insurance as you can not change a tire yourself. You have 2 different type of tires + to get huge jack.. there is no storage for any of that or… you can sit on the ground when eating… as you just lost your storage space for the chairs!
