Full-timing in a Class B RV

[PatDarrah]

I've recently bought my Class B and I have my house up for sale.
And if and when the house sales, I'll be going full-time in my B.
Or so thats the hopes anyway.... As of now I use my B as my daily driver ( have to its the only vehicle I currently own. )
And don't have any problems to speak of doing so.

So here is to a sale soon and the start of a new journey....

[Rok]

While on our maiden voyage, we found the space in our sprinter sized Great West Legend SE limiting. I doubt that we will consider full timing for quite a while and our personalities would have to change quite a bit for us to consider such a move. At the end of our maiden trip, we visited an RV dealership and walked around in a few of the rigs that we looked at before making our purchase, and we looked at some larger units we didn't consider initially. For us right now, we still have a number of things that tie us down to our house for extended periods of time, so full timing is really out of the question, even if we were predisposed to try to do so.

If we were to try to chose the move to fulltiming, I might want to go into something a bit larger like the Leisure Travel Unity which would be much more comfortable to full time in. The problem is that with every increase in size, even the small increase to something like the Unity size, you lose some agility and there are a number of places where the Unity couldn't go where our Legend SE could. In fact there were several places we found that the extra 1' 4" of a Legend XE would have prohibited us fitting.

The bottom line is that we are just not ready to make that drastic of a change just now.

.........Rocky

[Mike]

We've been in that situation for about 5 years now. On the fence between the smaller class B travel method, and the need for the increased space and comfort of a larger RV option. The B lacked some of the amenities we desired in a motorhome, and we actually started looking at small class C models, because they had the comfort items and room, but the fuel economy was the deciding factor at a time when oil was approaching $150/bbl.
When we started RV-ing in 2008, the class B seemed to be the best option (more nimble, and best gas mileage) to tour and see the continent on shorter trips (our longest to date was 21 days) because we had deadlines and commitments, like you. Now that we've done some significant North American touring (over 100,000 miles), and figured out which places we prefer to spend time, we've chosen the towing option. We figure we get more usable daily living space and comfort with a small travel trailer, and also have the short hop convenience of the tow vehicle. We can "drop and shop" when we get to an area we like. The trailer becomes "base camp" at the camp site, and the tow vehicle becomes the errand runner.

We may get worse gas mileage (although our GCVWR is similar to the 2002 Roadtrek) getting the "train" out into the field, but we should gain some of it back when we disconnect.
More importantly, we think we'll gain more comfort, convenience, and amenities from a trailer, but that remains to be seen.
I'll try to post up any glaring pros/cons as we explore this alternative travel method.

[Rok]

One thing that we found on our first trip was that in RV parks there are many more travel trailer & truck combinations than Motorhomes--many many more. And there are many more larger motorhomes than Class B's. Class B owners are, indeed, in the minority out there. That said, I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to have a class B if they could, but don't (because of financial reasons, availability, parking, no time to travel, etc.).

For us, though, a class B is just about right for our needs.

.........Rocky

[Mike]

IMO, class B vans are still the best touring option available. With few exceptions, they get the best mileage in a self-contained motorhome for someone who is going to be on the move, seeing the sights. That was our choice 5 years ago, and for those reasons. We noted and accepted what we felt were the shortcomings of our Roadtrek, as a wholly self-contained option, that being primarily the interior space restrictions, which caused the converters to come up with some innovative ways of trying to provide all of the amenities of the larger classes. Some of those innovations simply haven't worked for us over the years, and we decided to try a (slightly, I hope) different way of travel, that we hope will give us the best of both worlds, touring and destination, with almost 50% more usable interior space, and full residential style amenities, in exchange for the mobility and some of the fuel economy.

I'm still amazed at the few people who actually "full time" in a class B, although from what I can tell, they aren't entirely full time. Most have a docking station or home base somewhere, like the rest of us, where they rest and relax and maintain their vehicles for a short while, after months on the road. But it's close enough. I hope we can be possibly 1/3 timers, staying out for a minimum of 3-4 months at a time, instead of 2-3 weeks at a time with the B.

You're going to probably enjoy the flexibility, mobility, and fuel economy of the class B the most. After that, everything else you discover about them that you like is "gravy", as they say.
Enjoy.