I still want a bus. But I’m not ready for one.<\/p>\n
When I first looked into the RVing life, I gravitated towards the class C models. While smaller, their layout made more sense to me: I could use the back bedroom as my study and sleep in the over head cab, giving me more floor space for daily use. But I began to hear horror stories of carrying capacity on class Cs, so I started to look at class As, which sort of automatically led me to look at buses.<\/p>\n
Soon as I started to shop for a bus, I began to feel very uncomfortable with my plans. I finally accepted that I was trying to learn too much in too little time. I just did not have the time nor knowledge to learn what I needed to learn about bus conversions to buy smartly. Also, the amount of choice in Canada left to be desired. I had no idea what I was looking for and fishing in a very small pool of candidates. It was a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n
Later, when I’m properly retired and have years of RVing under my belt, I can get the bus of my dreams. For my current plans, a bus just adds too many variables.<\/p>\n
So, I went back to looking at class As. Originally, I had budgeted a lot for my rig, but I knew I had to scale that plan down when I decided to give up full-time work for at least a year. The rigs within my new budget were older. Through research and inference, I began to realise that a lot of these older rigs really didn’t have all that much more carrying capacity than does a class C. Why buy a 35′ or 40′ rig when a smaller one would actually give me more usable space?<\/p>\n
I test drove a 40′ rig and doing so showed me that I didn’t have to fear driving such a behemoth. I could now look at smaller rigs for reasons other than ‘I’m scared to drive a class A!!!’ The more I researched class Cs, the more I liked them. Their smaller size is better suited to the sort of RVing I want to do and will be easier to heat in winter.<\/p>\n
So, it was a question now of finding the perfect match of manufacturer, length, floor plan, and the all important carrying capacity.<\/p>\n
Figuring out my optimal floor plan didn’t take long. I want a rear twin bed model. I could use one bed as a sofa and replace the other one with a desk. Once I’d settled on this floor plan, I seriously narrowed down my options for the other three requirements.<\/p>\n
I Googled, searched discussion forums, read, read, read, and did a ton of math. I made some phone calls, read some more, and perused the for sale ads.<\/p>\n
Finally, I found two local RVs matching all four criteria.<\/p>\n
One is a Glendale Royal Classic, 31′. The other is a Winnibago Winnie Minnie, 28′. Both are roughly the same age and the same price. The Royal Classic is a high end, luxury model. The Winnie Minnie is in the same league.<\/p>\n
One of them is just about as perfect as I could ever have dreamt of, factoring in some compromise, and offers almost twice the carrying capacity as the average class C its size. I didn’t believe the math, so I ran it by a few other people. It checked out. It’s a gorgeous coach, twelve years old and still looks brand new, with a layout that would give me the illusion of having no less than six rooms. Solar panels, inverters, and the very tow bar I want to buy are also negotiable as a package deal. If the inspection checks out, and I have no doubt it will, this coach will be confirmed as being a gift from the gods.<\/p>\n
I went from ‘thinking about full-timing’ to ‘shopping for a rig’ in a very short amount of time. I’ve had to take a crash course in everything from calculating RV weight to 12V electricity 101. The amount of research I did and the questions I asked (some of them probably sounding idiotic to those in the know) really helped me figure out exactly what I need for my current project. It’s not what I want; I would love to head up the 417 in a gorgeous Pr\u00e9vost conversion, but it’s what makes sense for me at this time of my life and for the type of full-timing I plan to do in the next year or two.<\/p>\n
So, which did I choose, the Royal Classic or the Minnie Winnie? All in good time, faithful readers, all in good time. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I still want a bus. But I’m not ready for one. When I first looked into the RVing life, I gravitated towards the class C models. While smaller, their layout made more sense to me: I could use the back bedroom as my study and sleep in the over head cab, giving me more floor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}