Where Has All the Storage Gone?

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PancakeBill

PancakeBill

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Joined
Apr 9, 2005
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Benson , AZ.
Back in my sales days I would hear this often, a couple trades in their xx' motorhome on a new xx+' motorhome, then they start transferring their stuff.  Where has all the storage gone?  We had more drawers, closet, fridge etc.

Well this time it was our turn, went from 35' no slide to a 37' 1 slide.  Then again, we are also moving out a a 7 year 3 bedroom residence, and we tend to accumulate.  Hard to say goodbye to stuff.  Today, we are getting closer to getting on the road, the 35' has been put into storage, will sell in the spring.  so, now, it is get the stuff out of the apartment by Sunday, have a cleaner coming join to take our load off on Monday, and Tuesday we get the signout. 

The 37 is full!  Been mostly aware of weight etc, been very watchful of what we are taking.  Only 1 deep fryer!  Tough job, but we have done it in the past, we can do it again.

So all together to the tune of, (well you like know),  Where has all the storage gone, long time collecting,  one more time.

 
When we switched from a 33' Class A with no slides to a 34' Class A with a single super slide, we had no problem fitting everything in, but with all the storage space differences in size, shape, etc., figuring out what went where was a challenge at times. The one loss of space that was really problematic was going from two half height pass through bins down to one due to the slide. It took some juggling to sort that one out and get all the long stuff into the one spot.
 
well, the Winnebago with the res/ac used up a bay and there is a 1/2 height that that was a full height], plus it is a Tetris game, what will fit where.  Interesting, but at least we have everything out of the Southwind and it is out of sight.

 
We had the same experience as Dutch. I have had 4 different RV's, each one a little bigger than the last. And I swore that each was smaller then the one I got rid of.  Then I spent time readjusting to the different size and shapes of the new rig, and lo and behold, it all fit plus some.  A "Tetris Game" is a good description of the process.
 
Try quickly going from a three bedroom house, two car garage, a workshop the size of a two car garage, and a 10x23 shed into a 33' class C that was bought for camping, not fulltiming.  ;D
Barrels of fun.
 
We went from 29', no slide to 37' and one slide.  I had several things(like the dog pen)that wouldn't fit in the new coach because of the drivers side storage bays being hooked to the slide instead of staying with the frame.
I appreciate not having to hit my head on the slide when getting stuff out of there, but I sure would have appreciated at least one full width bay more.
 
We went from a 28? with one slide to a 33? with 2 slides. The new one had 50% more outside storage. And we filled that sucker up then started getting rid of stuff. I couldn?t believe how much kitchen storage I lost. And then there was that lovely space in the old one alongside the bed where I could pile books. I lost that with the bedroom slide, extra room when the slide?s out but not when it?s retracted.
 
We popped into our dealer yesterday for some odds and ends and had a look around the stock in the yard.  We saw a couple of really nice trailers but the outside storage bins were non existent.  Where do you keep the BBQ, chairs, cleaning stuff, hoses, etc.?  Very odd.  Some nice storage inside but you wouldn't keep those things indoors.

We are still happy with our current choice which is good, although we were surprised at how good a few of the prices were for the size of the trailers and 5th wheels.
 
Dishwashers, clothes washer and drier, residential refrigerators, fireplaces, bigger inverters, more batteries, more televisions,,,etc

All the fancy doodad stuff slowly takes over. 

 
DW is talking about getting rid of the Splendide W/D combo.  Look at all the storage we will gain she says.  We have only been in new rig a week, still have access to sticks and bricks, so doing all laundry there for now.  That ends on Tuesday though. 

I will wait, not just going to pull and leave by side of the road, but she needs to try it first.
 
Even in light travel trailers I've seen a lot of storage lost to "feature creep" in recent years: Big fancy outdoor kitchens with full sinks and refrigerators compared to our flip-down 2-burner range tucked into the wall behind the kitchen sink. Queen and double-wide bunks in place of our two coffin-sized stackers above a full-length storage cubby. Roomier bathrooms. Bulky overstuffed recliners. Fireplaces. 60" TVs. And so on.
I blame human nature, because those storage-sucking features apparently sell RVs. I've yet to see a similarly-sized trailer with as much storage as ours, but I don't think Keystone sold very many of them as the model lasted only a couple of years and I've never seen another one in the wild.
 
We have been looking at a LOT of fifth wheels and see some of the same thing. Some are set up pretty good for storage, and some we're "what were they thinking?" " Were they even thinking at all?" We looked at a new Pinnacle that was fantastic until we got to the bedroom. It had one little wardrobe about 20" wide for hanging clothes. It was set up for side by side washer and dryer. I guess they assumed one would use the dryer area for a wardrobe. In the front where a wardrobe normally is, they had a couch going all the way across. Totally useless in my opinion. Why would someone need a couch in their bedroom?
 
Our 35' 5th wheel has tons of outdoor storage compared to our 29' TT but is lacking kitchen cabinet space. We had a huge pantry in the TT that we really miss. We love the 5er's floor plan but after 3 years we're still trying to figure out indoor storage!
 
To look at things from a different perspective, maybe one has too much stuff. ;D
 
I want a U-haul towed behind my hearse, with tag, 'taking it with me'.

and as long as we are still here, it is important to keep our sense of humor.
 
PancakeBill said:
I want a U-haul towed behind my hearse, with tag, 'taking it with me'.

and as long as we are still here, it is important to keep our sense of humor.
Click to expand...

Agree. Sometimes it's hard to express humor while writing on a forum.
 
kdbgoat said:
To look at things from a different perspective, maybe one has too much stuff. ;D
Click to expand...

Yep, take only what you need. Filter out all the one time use items and you'll free up a ton of space.
 
PancakeBill said:
Back in my sales days I would hear this often, a couple trades in their xx' motorhome on a new xx+' motorhome, then they start transferring their stuff.  Where has all the storage gone?  We had more drawers, closet, fridge etc.

Well this time it was our turn, went from 35' no slide to a 37' 1 slide.  Then again, we are also moving out a a 7 year 3 bedroom residence, and we tend to accumulate.  Hard to say goodbye to stuff.  Today, we are getting closer to getting on the road, the 35' has been put into storage, will sell in the spring.  so, now, it is get the stuff out of the apartment by Sunday, have a cleaner coming join to take our load off on Monday, and Tuesday we get the signout. 

The 37 is full!  Been mostly aware of weight etc, been very watchful of what we are taking.  Only 1 deep fryer!  Tough job, but we have done it in the past, we can do it again.

So all together to the tune of, (well you like know),  Where has all the storage gone, long time collecting,  one more time.
Click to expand...

Even the really small RVs have the same issue. We just went through the upgrade process as well, but we went from a 2005 Pleasure-Way Class B RV to a 2018 Winnebago Era Class B RV and found exactly the same sort of thing, even in Class B RVs where there is not much storage to begin with.

Our Pleasure-Way had 2 external storage compartments. They were not big, but they were big enough for us to store our fold-away chairs in them as well as our leveling blocks, electric cord and water hose. The new Class B RVs are almost all built on the Mercedes chassis and they have no external storage compartments. None. Zero. Zip. When I asked the sales people where we were supposed to put our stuff they suggested a tow hitch cargo carrier, but I personally do not see why the manufacturers decided that we did not need any external storage.

I thought we were going to end up with either a Class C or a small Class A (24 foot Thor Vegas), both of which my wife refers to as "real RVs", but we found one Class B with some internal storage behind the rear sofa, and that is what we ended up with. Still, why the loss of all of the storage locations?
 
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