Originally Posted by suesheboy

The Fleetwood/Colemans come with an extra outdoor hookup for a small stove. Mine also has an extra outdoor shower - awesome for camping at the beach! A must add-on is to bolt on a grill mount for a tiny propane grill and hook it up right up to the big tank. Heat and grease outside, no table with a hot grill to knock over (or pack). Tiny grill packs later inside the camper (in the shower for easy cleanup of any smudges.)

Pop-ups in Florida are perfect. They suck in 40 degree or colder weather. Mine has a chemical toilet which I never use. I only use the pop-up now in Florida during the winter.

One thing no one is mentioning is after a hurricane or home disaster (fire, flood etc) any RV or trailer becomes a second home with power and lights etc as well as being the perfect bug out vehicle.

A ton of used RVs came up for sale in NY and NJ from people who used them after Sandy and no longer want them. I am glad I got my before Sandy as my Sister and her family used it for 4 weeks until they were able to move back home.

Originally Posted by crockett

This is what I can tell you of my experience, all trolling dyna aside.. I've been on a semi permanent road trip going on two years this coming March. I started in a class b, used a slide in on a Tacoma for a bit then switched to a Westy that I just used over the last 8 months. All together I've traveled about 20 thousand miles the last 2 years.

What you need to do is understand how you intend to use your camper. Do you intend to stay in one place and drive something else daily? Do you plan to travel a lot and depend on the RV as your daily driver?

Have you driven anything that size before? If not go rent a Uhaul truck for a day and see how much you e joy driving it around. Again if you are just parking it somewhere and driving a second car then nonbiggie, but daily driving a RV gets old real quick. Hence the reason I've opted for a smaller and practicable driver vs big.

Also on solar.. understand that those types of RV s are not designed to actually boondock or stealth camp. They are designed to be hooked up to shore power at a campground. Added to this, I've yet to ever see a competent solar install by an RV dealer.. (just throwing that out there)

They usually oversell you on hardware that is over priced and under installed.. added to this things like the fridge which comes with any RV (the 3 ways) are worthless on solar. Meaning if you expect to fully power your rig off grid on solar, you really need to buy a quality 12v fridge and and in best case scenario have a completely isolated wiring system for anything you intend to run off solar.

Originally Posted by ExtremeBank_Adam

We have a class A RV, a 35' Tiffin Allegro Bay. We bought it used for what I think was a great deal, then spent $3000+ on new tires, upgraded some electronics, and now it mostly just sits in our yard (although we try and use it once a month or so).

But, even though it's not used all the time, I'm glad we bought it... when we do use it, it's really nice to have a home on wheels. I love the room of the class A, even going down the road. Stopped with the slideouts extended makes things even better. We have 50 amp electrical, dual A/C units, auto-leveling jacks, an in-motion DirecTV system (so we can watch satellite while moving), our bathroom is pretty roomy, I can actually fit in the shower (6'2", 225 lbs), our tanks are large enough that we won't run out of water (or have shit coming up through the toilet), and it drives pretty darn good for being so large.

That said, there are a few things I will do differently on our next one. Our next one will be larger. They don't get any wider, but the extra length would be nice. I think next time we'll look in the 39'-40' range, with an extra half bathroom. The extra room should allow for a king sized be, too. The queen bed in ours is too small for my liking. I'll also be getting a diesel next time. Ours is gas, and it works fine for most trips, but I could definitely feel it having issues with large hills and through the mountains, and that is without pulling a trailer or toad (tow behind vehicle). The diesels are also rear engines, which I would prefer, and are considerably heavier. I do have some issues when passing (or getting passed by) semi trucks on the highway. Our RV is only 20,000 pounds, and you can feel yourself being pushed wide by the trucks beside you.

But, I don't foresee trading ours in any time soon... what we have works great, and for 90% of our travels it serves it's purpose. Most of our trips are to the Keys to go diving, but we did take a 2500 mile round trip this year to Rocklahoma (outside of Tulsa, OK) coming home via St. Louis, without having a single issue.

And, we use it for work, too... (tax break!), with a site and DVD line featuring life on the road.

Here are some pics of ours...

Bike Week this year in Daytona:


At Rocklahoma (man, was it nice to have A/C, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a comfy bed!). I tried not to blow the generator exhaust into the tents of the people next to us, though


Gateway Arch in St. Louis:


In the Keys after a diving trip:


Me diving a shipwreck, without the RV:


One of our box covers (even though that's not our RV on the cover):


Yes, my wife can drive it, too:


And, I leave you with a pic of us working (BTW, who's driving this thing?):