Deciding on which class B to buy.

[B-4now]

Originally Posted by Rok

Thanks Gerry,

I'll check out the Pleasure Way Excel.

..............Rocky

We have a 2000 Pleasure Way Exel (Dodge 360) (very low mileage and literaly in showroom condition) that we purchased last fall.

It came with a front stabilizer.

We have driven it approx 600kms/375miles at speeds up to 120kmph/75mph with no issues.

On this trip we logged 18.5mpg (imperial) 15.4mpg (US)

Looking forward to the warm weather so be can get some more road time.

[shezonit]

Two people in a Class B..... You must be in love. I have a permanent bed in the back. That was the dinette, so i have nowhere to sit, except my bed. i can swivel my front seat and use a little table. This is a vast improvement when i am stationery, but it looks funny going down the road like that.
I have a big closet and an enclosed bathroom. Etc etc.
However...... After 2 long winter seasons in it, I find making the bed is a pain and every time I need to service or check any of the systems..... They are under what used to be the dinette benches, so the entire bed has to be dismantled. I think I understand those electric sofas now. BUT where is all the stuff-- the water tank, pimp, furnace, water heater, generator? In my 20 ft rig, it is all under the benches. Where does it hide when there is an electric sofa?
Recently I spent a few days with a friend in her Leisure Travel Libero. OMG. Yes it cost 100K. But she has permanent bed, and an east west dinette that turns into a very comfortable bed for the guest. Also a shower stall. Also a spacious feel to the kitchen, lg refrig. It is all in 25 ft, wide body, so her rig is 2 ft wider and 5 ft longer than mine. It was like a little studio apartment.
Myself I am now looking for a good used Lazy Daze......

[Rok]

Not to get mushy, but, yes we are in love. We've been married 10 years and a little bit, and we're still best friends. The small quarters will be a challenge, yes, but my wife likes sleeping in a tent--more than sleeping in a house. Me......give me a mansion, but I'm willing to try a little mansion on wheels. We think we can handle it, and if we can't, we'll take turns taking the rig out solo.

Before laying the money down for this we studied hard and made a lot of hard decisions. We even read a book that told us that with a Class B, you can count on occasionally staying at a hotel for a full bed, a great shower (or two) etc. We know that is possible. She has done the "B" thing, so she knows what she is up against. I don't. I hope to be pleasantly suprised. If I'm not, well then we will figure out what we should have bought in the first place.

We believe in a concept called Peak Oil. We know some people don't believe in it, and that's O.K. We also know that we can't do much about it by changing our personal habits. We're not going to lifestyle our way out of it. It will take a monumental change in personal habits of the people of the world, and especially the U.S.

So, it's kind of a smoke 'em if you've got 'em mentality for us, but we still can't see letting our carbon footprint get to the point of a 6-8 mpg rig. So the choice for us was something really small.......or nothing. It is a very personal choice. We'll expect to meet a lot of people on the road. They seem to be friendly out there.

So, anyway, we've got an adventure coming. If it doesn't work out, that will be O.K., it will still be an adventure. One of the (many) things that made us choose the Great West over the Pleasure Way (our second choice) was the transferrable warantee. PW doesn't have it, GW does. If, in the next three years we decide to do something else, the next person will still have some of the warantee to work on.

One of the beauties of a little rig is that we can just park it in someone's (hopefully flat) driveway, plug into their power (or not) and sleep away.

We'll see how it works.........and if it doesn't ......well, it's on to the next thing.

...........Rocky

[Vermont John]

I have enjoyed reading all the posts. Here is my perspective.

Try sitting in the bathrooms with the doors closed. When we did this, we ended up leaning toward the Pleasure Way and Leisure Travel B's as they had wider bathrooms, as opposed to the Road Trek, which is narrower. It mattered to us, but may not for you. So, we bought a used Leisure Travel, but almost bought a Pleasure Way - it was a matter of the best deal. We did not look at Great West simply because there were none for sale in our area at the time.

We absolutely love our B. We bought it primarily to drive between our houses in FL and VT. However, I use it to go to the store often. We use it for shopping trips. Last week we went to the Savannah Irish Festival. We parked it on the street, no problem. I am constantly surprised at how much I enjoy having it. It is a great base for hiking, bicycling, winter sports and the beach.

We tend not to sleep in ours, but stay in motels and inns.

To be honest, if you plan to sleep in it, I'd look hard at the B+ and maybe even smaller Cs. A salesman at camping world warned us, however, that you lose mileage when you go with a full C. However, there are some nicely streamlined ones out there.

The issue is a dry bath. If you're going to stay in it a lot, and do not want to use showers at campgrounds, I think I dry bath is a big help for two people.

[Rok]

Hi Ver. John,

We won't mind using the shower, etc. in a campground, and we might get a nationwide LA fitness membership that will give us another place to shower. But I recently went through the process of getting rid of some plantar warts on my feet and it took forever and cost a lot for trips to the foot doc, etc. I don't want to risk having to go through that (or worse) again. I never wore thongs (er, flip-flops I guess they call them elsewhere) in public showers before, but I guess that is becoming more common. (My wife does it at motels.) The fact that we CAN get a little spitbath in the rig when we want is a nice feature. I think that in our rig we will have to pull out the tt roll if we use the shower and that might get to be a pain.

We might end up using it more like you do, but we'll probably stay in State Park campgrounds often because my wife likes hiking. I did sit in the little enclosed bathrooms in all of the units we considered to get the feel of the experience. I have very broad shoulders and what might work for an average Joe won't necessarally work for me. The Pleasure Way had the best bathroom of all the Class B's in my opinion, but the Great West is a close second. After ordering our GW, we found out that the bath enclosure has been redone on the 2013 GW and there is supposed to be a couple of extra inches of shoulder room both sitting and standing, so that was a pleasant surprise, and I'm looking forward to comparing the new GW bathroom to the Pleasure Way's.

Thanks for your comments.

..............Rocky

[markopolo]

Congratulations on ordering the new Great West Van Rocky. This topic is very informative and should help lots of people who are trying to decide if and what to buy. Not everyone will choose the same brand but the message to focus on your key needs and wants is what comes through loud and clear.

I look forward hearing more from you as you start on this adventure.

[sebtown]

I've been following this thread with great interest but finally decided a new B was not to be. Today we brought home a 2007 Airstream Interstate on the 06 freightliner sprinter. I'm one happy guy tonight!

[markopolo]

Congrats to you too sebtown - fun times ahead!

[Rok]

Congrats sebtown.......Airstream is a good rig. The only problem we found with them was their price. They are well built. The people at our local MB dealership said that the mechanics like working on the Airstreams best because they don't mess with the stuff on the chassis too much. Happy mechanics= better repairs and service. (But, they never had seen a Great West come through that they could remember, and from what I've heard GW doesn't mess with stuff much either.)

..........Rocky

[sebtown]

I would have bought a used Great West sight unseen based on Davyd's chronicles alone. This Airstream came my way and it was just too good to pass up. Who knows maybe a GW will be in our future too. Took the Airstream on a 100 mile drive partially along the coast highway and some other 2 lane roads today, it performed flawlessly and averaged 24.6 mpg! I'm stoked, let the trip planning begin.

[lenlewandowski]

I bought a Roadtrek Ranger in October 2012. After a few short trips and two long trips (we have about 8000 miles on it so far) I can most assuredly not recommend the Ranger.

The water heater is installed in an awkward location where you can't see the dials. We have not received an owners manual so we don't know how it works but there doesn't seem to be any way to drain it when you winterize.

The inverter charger is also installed in an awkward spot where you cannot see the lights and switches. You can barely reach the switches to change the mode. It seems like a nice unit. It would be useful if I could see it!

The cabinetry seems slapped together. One of the cabinet doors doesn't even cover the cabinet opening. The latches on EVERY cabinet either stick or rattle. one latch broke off as we tried to get the door open.

I could go on but you get the idea. Just not the quality I expected from Roadtrek. This is my first RV so maybe I am unrealistic.

The main thing that continues to irritate is the lack of an owners manual. When we picked up the RV we received a 190 manual with a Ranger sticker slapped on it. Most of the systems are totally different. Mostly useless. And since we were newbies we planned on depending on this manual. We recieved no help from the dealer, R/T customer service or Jim from R/T. We were promised the manual before we left for a January trip. As of today...nada.

I'd stay away from the Ranger and personally I would not buy a R/T again.

[markopolo]

That is very disappointing to hear Len. That is one of the models I thought might be good for me at some point.
If you can post make and model numbers of your appliances like the water heater I'd be happy to help find manuals online. They'd be better than nothing.

If you have a Tripp Lite inverter then you really only need two modes; Charge Only and Auto. You can make a small switch for that and mount it nearby to give easier control. Here are the details for making a remote switch: http://www.classbforum.com/phpBB2/vi....php?f=12&t=20

Be persistent with Roadtrek and get any item that fails fixed before your warranty runs out. You are right to expect an owner manual and I don't think you are being unrealistic in your expectations of quality. Class B brands are known to be high quality RV's.

We can make a new topic for the Ranger if we find manuals for the various components to help other Roadtrek Ranger owners.

[Rok]

Hi Len,

Sorry your not happy with your rig. It is designed to be pretty basic, though, but that doesn't explain poor workmanship. Good luck getting stuff resolved.

.......Rocky

[Rok]

Originally Posted by sebtown

I would have bought a used Great West sight unseen based on Davyd's chronicles alone. This Airstream came my way and it was just too good to pass up. Who knows maybe a GW will be in our future too. Took the Airstream on a 100 mile drive partially along the coast highway and some other 2 lane roads today, it performed flawlessly and averaged 24.6 mpg! I'm stoked, let the trip planning begin.

With that mileage, it must be on of the units that were produced before the new pollution stuff was mandated. Airstream is a great name and the product looked good when we tested it. I don't know what the difference was for the older models vs the new models......oh, wait......your's might be on a 2500 chassis (The one without the dualies.) Is it? That would partially explain the better mileage. The only issue with those units is that you have to watch your payload weight, IIRC. The 2500 Chassis isn't rated quite as high as the 3500 but it is still damn good. I think Airstream has gone to all 3500 Chasses now on their Interstates, but I think we were offered a 2011 or 2012 2500, though, so the change is recent. Nonetheless, it is a great rig, and the quality of the appointments is very nice. Catching a great condition used one is choice.

We had Airstream like push-button hardware customized onto our GW Legend cabinets we liked it so much.

On one hand, I kind of wished you hadn't found the used Airstream since that would mean one more GW Driver on the road to meet and blog with. But, I'm glad for you for your find and that you're happy with it. I would be, too.

............Rocky

[bugsbunny]

Sebtown,

I was wondering how you came across your used Airstream. I have started looking around on RVTrader and a few large RV dealers - any suggestions?

I have a silver bullet Airstream MH presently and planning to downsize this year, but prefer the bath behind the driver and thus the 2005 to 2007 AS and of course the GW and PleasureWay because of that design.
Thank-you

[sebtown]

Believe it or not, I actually found it on Craigslist! I live in the wine country of No. Calif and have been watching out for one in both the SF and Sacramento markets. As luck would have it this unit was less then 100 miles away and everything the seller said was verifiable. I too prefer the bath behind the driver but I also wanted a 5 cylinder for the milege. My advice is to watch all resources and be ready to pounce when you see the right one for you. I probably had a dozen bookmarks for CL, rv trader, assorted dealers, clubs and newsletters.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by bugsbunny

I have a silver bullet Airstream MH presently and planning to downsize this year, but prefer the bath behind the driver and thus the 2005 to 2007 AS and of course the GW and PleasureWay because of that design.
Thank-you

Great West Vans bathroom is toward the back next to the bed. Pleasure-way Plateau and Leisure Travel Vans Free Spirit have similar plans with the bathroom right behind the driver.

[stanw909]

Pics please !!!!!!

[Rok]

Originally Posted by stanw909

Pics please !!!!!!

Haven't got pics yet, our delivery was delayed about a week. We wanted a rear view camera installed and it was back ordered.

..........Rocky

[Rok]

Hi again, everyone.

Our rig is close arriving.......just a few days now. There was an issue with the rear view camera setup. We thought the new rear view cameras on many of the new Sprinter based units are really slick. The Airstream Interstate, the Winny ERA, and the Pleasure Way Plateau that we drove all had what appeared to the same unit on them. We asked Dave at Great West if he could rig our unit with one of them, and he said "Sure, it shouldn't be any problem. When it came to searching the internet to find out what brand these companies were using, he couldn't find it. So he bought us a super fancy split screen half mirror, half monitor that turns into a full mirror if you turn the monitor off. He says it's slick and we should be happy with it.

After doing this, he found out that the other companies were installing a cheap no-brand unit from China that sells for around $40 on e-bay. They clip on to your existing rear view mirror. (We thought they were slick, but we did notice that the contrast & brightness buttons didn't work all that well on some of them and one of them had a kind of static interference on it.) Dave didn't think it was a good idea to use something that cheap, so we're getting a better unit--cool. But it did delay the delivery by about a week and we were going to take a day or two test run during that week. So, now our maiden voyage will be a real trip.

..........Rocky