Motor home size considerations

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bzerull

bzerull

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Joined
May 20, 2019
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For those of you with a motor home (we are considering moving from a trailer). What is a good size to be able to drive around in, through parks, in town etc without giving up too many creature comforts? I don’t want to have to pull another vehicle and I don’t want a waterless toilet. Your thoughts, experiences would be greatly appreciated.
 
We have a 28 ft class A (29'5" bumper to bumper) and traveled around the US for about 20,000 miles over about 5 years before we bought a small cheap car to tow around. Since starting to use a tow car in 2021, I have taken one circa 900 mile solo trip without it. What I found is that traveling without a TOAD car requires a lot more planning when it comes to planning random stops, and is limiting, for us the reason we ended up getting a TOAD car is that we found we were hanging around campgrounds, and not seeing the sights we had driven many miles to get to. Also having a TOAD car has allowed us to go out and explore, drive down random roads, and not have to pre-plan every outing.

So while it was possible to travel around the US in a 28 ft class A without a TOAD, I think it would be a LOT easier in something under 26 ft long, and perhaps more importantly less than 10'6" tall, our coach is 11'7" and overhanging limbs can be a real issue in much of the US particularly on secondary streets. Almost all streets in the US will have 10'0" to 10'6" clearance, as this is the height range of common delivery trucks (UPS, FedEx, etc.)

p.s. note my avatar photo of our coach backed into a standard parking space overhanging a curb at a roadside tourist destination.
 
Our first motorhome was a 25' class A and we figured that we didn't need to tow anything. We carried 2 bicycles and didn't tow anything for several years. Then we decided to set up our little pick-up and tow it for longer trips only, but that worked out so well and was so easy that after the first trip towing, we only traveled without the tow vehicle when out for a weekend. Towing 4-down is not inexpensive but it is so very easy that most who try it never look back.

To get back to your question, the size issue is mostly a matter of opinion. For ability to get around and to find places to park, the van conversions are by far the most flexible. If by "drive through parks" you mean to visit our national parks and monuments, in busy seasons any RV would be challenging whether class A or class C. In our most popular large parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Everglades, you can probably manage as long as you stay under 30' in length and keep your maneuvering skills sharp. Anything larger than a van will be a challenge to park in the busiest parks. Many parks, like Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon have such parking and traffic problems that they require visitors to park and ride the shuttle. That means that the parking is also crowded and tight.
 
I've never had a motor home, only bumper pulls and fifth wheels. But, after having a 41 foot fifth wheel with 4 slides, (IF) I were to get a motor home... I'd get the biggest thing I could get. Even with a 41 foot trailer and a 22 foot long truck (total length 62 feet), I've had no problems navigating anywhere. BUT! I do pick my route and sight seeing activities very carefully. It just takes a little more planning when you are bigger!
 
bzerull said:
For those of you with a motor home (we are considering moving from a trailer). What is a good size to be able to drive around in, through parks, in town etc without giving up too many creature comforts? I don’t want to have to pull another vehicle and I don’t want a waterless toilet. Your thoughts, experiences would be greatly appreciated.
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A class C would be better for knocking around in if you're going to go exploring and such. The lower height specifically.
 
As a lot of you know, I am alone and driving a 32' C without a toad. I decided when I started out that since I am short and alone that a toad would be more trouble than it is worth. Yes, it is sometimes a pain, but I have not had very many places that I could not visit. Big box stores are easy, and for other places, I usually check Google maps. Often, stores where I want to go are very close to malls or big box stores. In other places, I park on side streets. Almost every museum and such will have at least a few spaces for big vehicles, especially if they are the kinds of places buses might go to.

I think a bigger consideration is your travel style--are you doing mostly driving or mostly camping in one place? If I had a camp host job, I would have a toad. Ditto if I planned on staying one place for a month or so. However, I tend to stay only a week or two at places, and am still in sightseeing mode. I do plan my trips, however, so that when I go out, I will try to hit two or three stops--grocery store, drug store, post office, museum, etc.
 
This is fine at a destination, the problem is wanting to stop somewhere midway on a travel day. Think wanting to see the worlds largest ball of twine or something and it is 80 mile short of where you plan to spend the night.
 
A 24' Class C is not any longer or wider than a long bed dually pickup. I would prefer that size but after seeing our 30' my wife wouldn't downsize. So if that maneuverability suits you don't even look at bigger ones :)
 
Suggest you rent one to get a good idea what you really want. Been on the fence myself going class A or C from my 5th wheel. The super C’s look great but need deep pockets for those. The freightliner chassis ones have my attention.
 
bzerull said:
I don’t want to have to pull another vehicle
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UTTransplant said:
Drop the big MH at the campground and take the tow to small sites.
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Not the best answer, but I do think that you may be too hesitant to tow a vehicle. I was once that way also, but once I tried towing on all 4 wheels, I was amazed by how easy that is and soon thought nothing of stopping in a parking lot to drop the tow car for a short trip and then hooking it up again. It isn't a cheap solution but is an easy one.
bzerull said:
That’s why I’m looking for advice from motor home owners.
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I think that you are right in this but you do need to realize that most of us do tow and have for long enough to think little of the issue of unhooking and reconnecting things. With practice, I never timed us but doubt that either way took as long as 5 minutes and it certainly was not difficult to do. In fact, as mentioned earlier we did start traveling with a 25' motorhome and yet quickly changed once we discovered how easy towing was. If you do not tow anything then you have to break camp even to run back to the grocery store for that 1 item that was forgotten. Some people just prefer to travel with a trailer of some type and you may be one of them.
 
Back in my boating days, there was a common term used for new boaters that had just gotten into the lifestyle called "two foot-itis", which represented the soon-to-be urge to get a larger boat, being 2 feet longer.

When we bought our first motorhome in 2008 we bought a used 32' Tiffin. Four years later we traded that rig in for another used 34' Georgetown. Then six years later we bought another used Sports Coach 36' DP. We are now at the size that we are content with the size and amenities of our rig. With our first MH, we started without a tow, and being a newbie driving a motorhome 102" wide I didn't have a problem going to the supermarket, around towns, campgrounds (state, C.O.E., and private). The next season we added a rack to it to carry my 1000cc vintage Kawasaki motorcycle with us. Wow, this opened up our exploring of the towns and sights to see wherever we were camping. This led us to buy our first Master Tow Dolly, used for 3 months for $925. It was cheap, easy, and fast for us to load and unload my wife's Toyota Rav4. We put somewhere near 40K miles or more on that dolly without ever having a problem, or having to drop the car and dolly to turn around or back up.

We kept that dolly until a couple of years ago, before our 8K mile country trip. I bought another Master Tow, this one has hydraulic surge disc brakes.

Now towing our Kia Sportage on the dolly and our 36' motorhome, 57' total length, we still don't have a problem going to most supermarkets, big box stores, certainly campgrounds of all types, or take back country roads that maybe Google will direct us vs our Garmin RV GPS. With this setup, there has been only one instance where I had to remove the car to back up after making the wrong turn into a campground where I turned into a closed gate entrance.

I have confidence in my driving ability that I'm comfortable driving just about anywhere with it. So that is my advice to the OP is once you gain your confidence driving a different larger rig, especially if you go with a 28-30 foot class A, you should not have a problem going wherever you want. And, to make that even easier you can look at 26-30 class C's that have a lower height and are not as wide as a class A.

To the post on Super C's, yeah they are pricey. However, there are some models out in the RV world built on the Dodge (err RAM) chassis with the 6.7 Cummins that are super nice and a lot less expensive than the Freightliner models. Added to that are a few Ford 550 chassis models using the Ford 6.7 diesel that are less than the Dodge but still very nice.
 
We did buy a used Winnebago class C 24’. We’ll give it a whirl and let you know. Also, as of now we are also keeping our Grand Design trailer which we do love. So right now, our plan is to do stationary camps with the trailer and do more touring with the motor home. I have no problem towing with a motor home, I just don’t want to. We’ll see how it goes. I’m 75, not getting any younger and we always wanted to try a motor home, so here we go! I very much appreciate all of your comments. Have a great summer and wonderful camping.
 
bzerull said:
We did buy a used Winnebago class C 24’. We’ll give it a whirl and let you know. Also, as of now we are also keeping our Grand Design trailer which we do love. So right now, our plan is to do stationary camps with the trailer and do more touring with the motor home. I have no problem towing with a motor home, I just don’t want to. We’ll see how it goes. I’m 75, not getting any younger and we always wanted to try a motor home, so here we go! I very much appreciate all of your comments. Have a great summer and wonderful camping.
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Congrats on the new adventure. A 24' motorhome should be very manageable.

Our 41' Super C has a 29' wheelbase. I finding that driving a semi-truck is easier. My parents have long had gas Class A motorhomes 28-30', and that's been a very good size for them. Still maneuverable in a Walmart parking lot, and not a huge liability if you get tangled up in tight side streets.

I think you will find no matter the size of your motorhome, you will want alternate transportation at your destination. Having to pack up your home for a day trip is actually a lot of work. Unplug, unlevel, slides and awnings in, roll up hoses, put everything back inside and get the inside "travel ready". Depending on your mobility, bringing e-bikes may be a good option. But I believe a 24' Class C should probably also be able to tow a small car if it came down to it..
 
Well, there are two kinds of camping. Those that go for the R&R and peacefulness of a nice rural campground to sit and read, fish, hike, etc. while never leaving the CG. And, then those types like my wife and I who like to camp And visit the region around the CG, whether our local state park 36 miles away or going across the country.
 
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