CHOOSING A CAMPER/RV
Looking for a camper for summer trips or to become a full-time RVer?! Here are some of the questions we went over before purchasing our fifth wheel.
RV OR CAMPER (Motor or No Motor)
We started out looking for RV’s because it sounded nice to drive somewhere, park, and sleep all without having to set up. We walked through Class A and Class C RVs. Class A RVs are the vehicles that are MASSIVE and typically have a flat front. Class C RVs look like they have a truck front and a bed on top of the cab. Class As are supposed to be easier to drive, but I think that depends on preference. The layouts of RVs are pretty great. You can easily stop quickly and grab something out of the back. There are also some smaller options for single people. The negatives are that you hear everything rattling around while you are driving. You have a motor that will need maintenance and therefore costs more money. You also can’t navigate as well on back roads because you are really big, and finally, if you don’t like camping, you have to sell a really expensive RV instead of just the cheaper camper. We ultimately decided on a truck and a camper because we will likely also want a boat one of these days. We can also unhook in the mountains and just drive the truck around, and because we didn’t want the maintenance of an RV motor.
CAMPER PROS
Can unhook and drive back roads
Cheaper upfront even with truck
Used selection is larger
CAMPER CONS
Long total length with your truck
Need a powerful truck too
RV PROS
Easier to park and go
RV CONS
Have to listen to plates rattle while driving
Maintenance on the motor
Biggest vehicle on the road
Hard to get on back roads
Not a large used selection
Expensive
FIFTH WHEEL OR PULL BEHIND
We chose a fifth wheel over a pull behind because fifth wheels are easier to drive especially through the mountains because they attach to your truck in the bed which makes them feel like they are a part of the truck. If we wanted the same amount of inside space, our overall length would be much longer. The only reason we found to consider a pull-behind is that they are much cheaper and lighter, so you can pull them with an SUV and not spend as much.
CHOOSING LAYOUT
I don’t know what we will want in 3 years from now or when we have multiple kids in a camper, so we got a camper that really fits our life right now. We want to do a LOT of remote living and therefore have room for just us two to be comfortable. We also both work remotely so we need two spots for us to set up computers for 8+ hours a day. Therefore, we needed a desk and no bunkhouse. We could have gotten both but not for under 40 feet long. Most National Parks won’t allow any camper over 40’ and I wasn’t comfortable driving with a massive camper for our first. Ours is 35’ and still has plenty of storage. We also looked into toy haulers because we’ll eventually have motorcycles again. We don’t right now, and it’s not a focus for us yet, so we decided to wait on that too. We have enough room for bikes on the back of our camper and 2 kayaks underneath. Then on the inside, there is room for at least one other couple or 1-2 kids to stay with us on short trips. When we want a bunkhouse, we may consider selling and moving on to something bigger - but that is years away (probably). Also, we wanted an outdoor kitchen because we plan on trying to keep the heat outside in the summer months.
CHOOSING BRAND
To me, this was the hardest decision because just like cars, every camper company brand has positive and negative reviews. We even have a friend in a lawsuit with Forest River, so we were trying to stay away from them. We read enough to learn that Keystone was/is one of the bests on the market. Their Montana line is about as good as it gets. The issue is that they are HEAVY! Even our 3500 Diesel would have a hard time pulling a Montana because of the weight of the real wood and everything else inside. After also seeing the hefty price tag on Montana too, we stumbled upon a Grand Design. Grand Design is a really new brand in the industry. They started manufacturing in 2016. The reason their young age isn’t an issue is that the owners of Grand Design started Keystone. They sold Keystone around 2012, and since, Keystone has gone down in quality. Also, Grand Design has a building that inspects every camper that is built. Although you would think this is normal, most camper manufacturers build by hand instead of automation and therefore can have human error. Grand Design hoped to eliminate those small issues by inspecting each rig before leaving the warehouse. I love that my camper is built by a company that inspects their work.
AGE
We looked at many 10-20 year old campers because they were much cheaper, but since we planned on traveling A LOT, we didn’t want to put in 6 months of work just to get the camper up to our standards. We also planned on living in it for multiple months at a time, so we needed the advances in technology like a self-leveling system to make it easier to drop the camper and go.
QUESTIONS
If you are in the market for a camper or RV, please let us know if we can answer any questions for you! We’ve now owned ours for over a year and LOVE the lifestyle it has afforded us.
Safe travels!
Kara