Six months full-timing in the brand new Winnebago Travato

[bspurling]

We bought our Winnebago Travato right at the start of 2014 when it was fresh off the production line... and we've been full-timing in it ever since.

At the six month mark we'd clocked up over 20,000 miles, covering most of the Deep South, South West, and the Pacific Northwest

If you’re looking for a great combination of small and self-sufficient, the Travato is brilliant. But it’s aimed at a specific type of RVer - one who prefers mobility over space! It has its fair share of design flaws and issues too, as a number of other topics on this forum have discussed.

We have loads more details - the good and the bad - on our website: http://travato2014.wordpress.com

With the Travato’s floor plan Winnebago have done something wonderful. They’ve taken a floor plan only found in the class C View 24J (aka Navion, if it’s an Itasca) or the class B+ Via 25P (Itasca: Reyo), and ingeniously crammed it into a Ram ProMaster chassis. This floor plan has four great features:

1. Self-sufficient — We wanted to be able to go at least a few days without hooking up, and not by relying on campsite showers either.
2. Mobile and discreet (relatively!) — We didn’t want to look too much like an RV. Big white curvy lines scream “RV”; the extra width of a class C’s coach makes tight parking impossible.
3. Permanent bed — We’re full-timing, so we couldn’t be doing with turning our table into a bed every time we wanted to sleep.
4. Booth-style dinette — We’re not just travelling, we have things we want to do. Things that require laptops, or pen and paper. Tiny little removable tables perched uncomfortably far from leather sofas… Not going to cut it. We wanted a permanent table, with the extra space afforded by the booth-style.
5. Corner shower and corner bed — We prioritise mobility and style over queen-size beds with a foot of space around it. Anything other than a corner bed with a corner shower room squeezed in beside it is a colossal waste of space by our reckoning.

There's loads of other great features, and HUGE design flaws too! As mentioned, it's all on our website. Would be happy to answer any questions from anybody considering the Travato, or pick up any feedback from others already using the van.

Brian

[rtz]

It seems like a window should be over the sink. Any reason why a window there wouldn't work?

[bspurling]

No idea I'm afraid. I don't even know whether Winnebago or Promaster are responsible for those types of design decisions.

Roadtrek have announced a new model based on the Promaster chassis, and Winnebago have got a new version in the rumour mill too. Maybe there will be some big improvements in 2015...