Official RV Thread

Creekwood

Creekwood

Well-Known Member
GOLD Sponsor
Apr 26, 2009
5,816
Oakville and Georgian Bay, Ontario
Boat Info
'97 330 Sundancer, Raymarine C80 suite with radar, Mercury 310 Hypalon w/8hp Yammie 2stk
Engines
2X 454 carbs w/ vDrives
Thinking of the bucket list thread, I thought about one of my plans to do the “70 degree great loop” by RV and I am starting to realize how little I know about RVs. So I am starting this thread to get some advice about RV ownership, including what brands are good, what engines and transmissions are the most reliable and serviceable. That kind of thing. Before I pull the trigger I want to be as educated as I was about mid-size Sea Rays before I bought mine back in 2009 (I browsed CSR anonymously for about a year before narrowing my choice). Yeah I know there are RV forums I will join too, but after the years here, there are a few of you I feel are pretty knowledgeable. It will be a good off-season thread for us northerners too. So here goes.
 
So I recently found out that you need an upgraded licence to operate a Class A diesel motor home. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I didn’t know until a friend bought one and told me about the requirement.

So this is the kind of unit I am thinking of (as long as the ad stays up).
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-rv-motorhom...el-pusher-a-class-42-plq/1587710148?undefined

Seems like there are often units like that around that pricing. Is that like buying a 1982 390 or more like a 2005 390? Lots of questions I don’t even know I have yet, so feel free to dump advice when you have time to type away over the next few months.
 
That's a nice rig, I could definitely go for that, but I don't know that much about them. I never really considered a motor coach because I have always owned and always will own a full size pick up truck and I don't want another motor vehicle to maintain. Just like boats, there are trade offs for every type. I'll just hit a few of them.
Motor coach you can use the bathroom while underway, trailer not.
Trailer you have a vehicle when you get to your destination, MC you have to have a vehicle you can tow without harming it or buy a dolly or trailer for motorcycle or?
Trailers are easier to back than a coach pulling a car or dolly.
Coaches are shorter overall length than a trailer and tow vehicle (usually) which means when you get to your RV resort or campground after you unhook your car or dolly, you will have an easier time of maneuvering into your site.
There is some space lost in a MC to the cockpit so a 35' MC is not the same living space as a 35' trailer.
A 5th wheel trailer is larger than an equal length bumper pull trailer, but a bumper pull trailer is not as tall (bridge clearance, tree branches etc) as a 5th wheel.
The top of the line RV resorts only allow Class A motor coaches and fifth wheels, no tents, bumper pulls or pop ups etc. Some of the really snobby ones:)only allow Motor coaches.
Many U.S. state and national / federal parks have a 35' maximum length limit. Some have larger sites but in this bigger is better world, they are the first to be reserved out. Having a larger rig can limit your availability.
Most rv's can operate on 50 amp service, some can operate on 30 amp service some can operate on either, you may be limited to what you can run on your rig like number of a/c units etc. (just like boats) Know what you can run and not run and what the park offers vs what your rig needs because most parks will not allow you to run your generator and if they do, there are definitely hour limitations.
A good MC is way more expensive to purchase than a good 5th wheel and diesel truck.
Truck beds are no longer lost to a fifth wheel hitch, they are removable in 5 minutes without tools, letting you use your truck for hauling other things as long as your truck has the "5th wheel towing package" which allows for the boltless hitch.
The list can go on and on. Winter is coming, maybe you can get to an RV show and check them all out.
Know that no matter what you buy, they can require more maintenance than boats and a DIY'er has a leg up. Things break, an RV going down the beautiful smooth, no pothole roads (not) we have in both our counties is equivalent to your house going through a level 4 earthquake. Getting an appointment for repair at an RV center can be a miserable experience right now as the RV industry is running flat out just like boats.
All that said, we loved RV'ing for years and gave it up when we moved out of trailer boats because we just couldn't justify in our minds owning a bigger boat and an RV and trying to make them both work while both working. Now that we are retired and have traveled the bucket list places on our boat, we are going to give it a shot again.
As far as the special license goes, I am not familiar with the Canadian laws and frankly have not paid much attention to them here because I never gave up my CDL-A when I retired. Maybe others can speak to that, I know that there are limitations to size/weight.
There's a start. This should be a fun thread to follow.
 
P.S. I like your "70 degree loop"
We met some people while looping that had named their boat Chasing 80
:)
 
Creekwood said:
So I recently found out that you need an upgraded licence to operate a Class A diesel motor home. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I didn’t know until a friend bought one and told me about the requirement.
Creek, I don't want to be blunt but your friend lied to you. I'm not aware of any state that requires more than a regular drivers license.
So this is the kind of unit I am thinking of (as long as the ad stays up).
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-rv-motorhom...el-pusher-a-class-42-plq/1587710148?undefined
As was mentioned above, most parks have a 35' limit on RV length (this only applies to motorhomes, not a truck/fifth wheel combo). When I started looking for an RV I was looking at 39'-40'. The more I researched the more I read about the 35' limit so I limited my choices to that size.

Seems like there are often units like that around that pricing. Is that like buying a 1982 390 or more like a 2005 390? Lots of questions I don’t even know I have yet, so feel free to dump advice when you have time to type away over the next few months.
Click to expand...

Check out an RV website called IRV2. It's a lot like CSR. Good people, good source for information.

Your choice of a Monaco is a good one. It's good quality, well constructed and very comfortable to drive and live in while you're traveling.
 
@my3sons, thanks for that input. Our plan would be to buy a motor coach and use it only for a few years when long road trips have appeal.

For the winter/spring in the short term, I really want to spend some time seeing the continent. I have travelled a lot for work and with my parents as a kid, so I have seen almost all of Canada and a lot of the US. My wife has not. Both of us have spent a lot of time in Florida and in the NE (Maine) but want to experience the US in a slower way too. Longer term, we'll buy a place in Florida or long term rent, so an RV would be a 3 to 4 year ownership.

We have a cottage on Georgian Bay that we intend to tear down and rebuild a house. So that, and my baby Sea Ray will be our summer. Its not a lifestyle change. It will be temporary. We are thinking it would be great to have as a home base up north during our rebuild too. There is a large campground about 5 miles from our cottage, which would be really convenient.

The fifth wheel is something we are considering too. The ability to unhitch at destination and be mobile is attractive as compared to towing something. But those coaches are so nice. Pro's and cons for sure. I have an uncle (former professor at Penn State) that bought a 5-th wheel after he retired and travelled around to see his kids (my cousins) and came up to see us at our cottage. It was a really nice rig with dual bump outs (probably not the right term). We had to cut a bunch of branches in our driveway when they arrived, so I understand the 5th wheel height issue! He pulled it with a v10 gasser HD pickup (not a dually) and told me that the mileage was "ghastly". So will go diesel either way.

Keep the feedback coming.
 
We have (4 yrs) an '04 Monaco Monarch SE DBD 36' w/2 slide-outs & 1 1/2 bath. I started 20 years ago with a Class C Minnie Winnie, then a Class A 33' Pace Arrow w/no slides. 99% of our use is in the winter as a ski condo. We are still gas with an 8.1 but it does have an Allison transmission that they use in the diesel coaches. Any longer than 36' and I would definitely be looking at tag axel units and diesel. Ours came with a short queen & at over 6' that was the first I got rid of. We have a washer/dryer combo unit in our boat (use it & like it) and this RV is plumbed for one but we haven't gone there yet. I guess because our longest RV trip has been 4 days.
 
Last edited:
The Bill Collector said:
We have (4 yrs) an '04 Monaco Monarch SE DBD 36' w/2 slide-outs & 1 1/2 bath. I started 20 years ago with a Class C Minnie Winnie, then a Class A 33' Pace Arrow w/no slides. 99% of our use is in the winter as a ski condo. We are still gas with an 8.1 but it does have Allison transmission that they use in the diesel coaches. Any longer than 36' and I would definitely be looking at tag axel units and diesel. Ours came with a short queen & at over 6' that was the first I got rid of. We have a washer/dryer combo unit in our boat (use it & like it) and this RV is plumbed for one but we haven't gone there yet. I guess because our longest RV trip has been 4 days.
Click to expand...

The washer and dryers are nice, especially because most of the RV's now have a large dedicated area for them that accepts regular residential vented stackables. The problem with them is the gray water. Really have to be in a facility with full hook-ups or else resolve yourself to lugging a caddy back and forth to the dump station, or moving the rv. (Creekwood, know that RV grey water can not be just let loose like the boat, look for an RV with big grey water tanks, preferably one tank for each station, like bathroom-shower and lav, kitchen, 1/2 bath etc.) We know folks that boon or moochdock a lot and they do their dishes in a dish tub so that they can then dump the dish water down the toilet to reserve space in the gray tanks because their gray tanks fill sooner than their black tanks.
We have a king mattress that is as hard as a rock, we are searching for a suitable replacement, what did you get for a mattress?
 
quality time said:
...the golden era is from the early 2000's up to around 2009 with pre DEF engines.
Click to expand...
Great observation, and the depreciation for the first few years on a new rig is insane! We had access to an '04 Alfa 40-footer, and absolutely loved it (wife and I). 400-ish HP Caterpillar got around 10 miles per gallon. Like with the boats, it's just something you budget for. Three slideouts makes it feel more like a small apartment rather than a land yacht. Unless you're inclined to boondock, most campgrounds you'll visit with something like this will have full hookups, thus negating the waste tank size concerns.

Since we still have regular use for a pickup, we ended-up going the fifth-wheel route. As was pointed out earlier, this allows you to have a separate vehicle once you're dug in at your site. Trust me; you do not want to drive one of these Class-A behemoths around town any more than you absolutely have to! That, and that's one less engine to maintain and registration to pay. There is still some on the trailer, but nothing like a full-on powered RV.

As for the ease of access while traveling in a motor home over a fifth-wheel, I'm finding that as we age, we no longer are in a mad dash to get to our destination, and can now afford the time to take regular potty breaks and read the roadside historical signs. Retirement, thy name is Spring '22!
 
Nater Potater said:
Great observation, and the depreciation for the first few years on a new rig is insane! We had access to an '04 Alfa 40-footer, and absolutely loved it (wife and I). 400-ish HP Caterpillar got around 10 miles per gallon. Like with the boats, it's just something you budget for. Three slideouts makes it feel more like a small apartment rather than a land yacht. Unless you're inclined to boondock, most campgrounds you'll visit with something like this will have full hookups, thus negating the waste tank size concerns.

Since we still have regular use for a pickup, we ended-up going the fifth-wheel route. As was pointed out earlier, this allows you to have a separate vehicle once you're dug in at your site. Trust me; you do not want to drive one of these Class-A behemoths around town any more than you absolutely have to! That, and that's one less engine to maintain and registration to pay. There is still some on the trailer, but nothing like a full-on powered RV.

As for the ease of access while traveling in a motor home over a fifth-wheel, I'm finding that as we age, we no longer are in a mad dash to get to our destination, and can now afford the time to take regular potty breaks and read the roadside historical signs. Retirement, thy name is Spring '22!
Click to expand...
I was thinking that with Uber and Lyft just about everywhere, you could just use that transportation method at destination. I guess that doesn't work if we are at Joshua Tree though. hmmm.

So, lets find out the scoop on towable cars. I know that any FWD car can be towed on a dolly. Is that the recommended route? I see Jeeps being towed often, but not sure if the new 4WD systems allow that anymore.
 
Creekwood said:
I was thinking that with Uber and Lyft just about everywhere, you could just use that transportation method at destination. I guess that doesn't work if we are at Joshua Tree though. hmmm.

So, lets find out the scoop on towable cars. I know that any FWD car can be towed on a dolly. Is that the recommended route? I see Jeeps being towed often, but not sure if the new 4WD systems allow that anymore.
Click to expand...

https://www.thervgeeks.com/towing-a-car-behind-an-rv/
https://www.google.com/search?q=tow...i22i29i30.15309j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
 
Creekwood said:
So, lets find out the scoop on towable cars. I know that any FWD car can be towed on a dolly. Is that the recommended route? I see Jeeps being towed often, but not sure if the new 4WD systems allow that anymore.
Click to expand...
A front-wheel drive on a dolly is a sure bet, but, if something like a Jeep or similar is more your style, it does take some research before flat towing. Not sure about brand-new 4WD's but, as a for-instance, my 2016 Ram 3500 auto-trans has the ability to disengage the transmission, thus allowing it to be flat towed any distance. There's a little button on the dash just under the 2WD/4WD selector knob that lets that happen.
 
We have had pretty much all manner of RVs. We started out years ago with a truck camper so we could tow our jet boat in Idaho. We worked our way by way of RV 4ft-itis up to a class A with a toad. We found that we missed too much with that big rig towing 4 down. Loosing the ability to back up causes you to not risk pulling into some of the interesting things to see along the way. If you are the type that likes to travel the main hiways to an RV park destination and stay for an extended period. Think Snowbird, then that rig you showed a link to would be great. If you want to see America like Charles Kuralt did on the great TV show "On the Road", thats the wrong rig. We wanted to be more able to get into the cracks and crannies of America and finally found the rig for us. Of course we are retired so it's a couples RV, (oh,darn no fighting grand kids). Check out the line made by "Coach House".
https://www.coachhouserv.com/
 
My son has a Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. Dry weight is 6600lbs but we weighed it loaded up and it was 8100lbs. Has 2 slideouts. He was living in it for 2 years on the job sites and put 9000 miles towing it. He bought it new and never had an issue with it. He is selling it now since he changed jobs and is no longer using it.

My step-son just bought a 2021 Grand Design Imagine 3250BH this spring. He has a 2020 Tundra with 9800lb tow capacity but he can't legally tow it with that so I towed it home from the dealer with my 2018 2500 Ram 6.4 Hemi. It weighed 9300lbs empty off the showroom floor but they did leave 53 gallons of water in the fresh water tank. We had 1300lbs of tongue weight and he also weighed it with his truck and he was over his GRAWR (rear axle max) by about 400lbs. He did shift some weight around and emptied the fresh tank and towed it about 200 miles round trip with his Tundra but said at very low speeds trying to back it up his trans high temp light came on.

So not sure if you are interested in anything like this but just sharing it with you in case.

Sons truck with his 2670MK after we arrived in Baytown, TX. I went with him then flew back a few days later:


My truck with the 3250BH on it:
 
We spent a couple years off the water and in an RV touring the USA national parks (even ventured into Canada a couple times during the trips) until covid slowed us down last year. We have a 24' class C because we intended that as our only tour vehicle for the most part. It has all the amenities we need but still small enough to remain relatively maneuverable. It took planning, but worked well for us. I didn't want to drag around a towed vehicle for the few times we actually needed to have a car. When we were at a national park for some period of time, we rented a car. Many of the parks have excellent transportation systems so a car isn't really necessary. We also used Uber where it was available. So it all worked pretty well. With that size of rig, we sacrifice some interior comfort. We have a side chair and dinette for seating other than the cab seats. It was ok for our 62 day trip, but wouldn't be something real comfortable to "live" in. With a larger motor coach, the better plan would likely be to move the coach from area to area and tour each area by car.
IMG_1259.JPG
1 total route.JPG
 
We went to the Tampa Super Show yesterday. First time for us, quite a show. Thought I would say for those of you that have not seen a Newell, check out their web site. We had to stand in line for a while to get on it and we almost said the heck with it, but I really wanted to see a rig that cost almost $1M more than anything else there. Holy smokes! Gorgeous.
6B1344A5-79F2-44F0-86FF-C07755256691.jpeg
 
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