Bought 2006 Roadtrek Adventurous Freightliner

On Friday, Dec. 4, we're flying to St. Louis to pick up a 2006 Roadtrek Adventurous on a Mercedes/Freightliner chassis. 50K miles. Van City.

Depending on the weather, which looks pretty good at the moment, we plan to drive the 1,000 miles back to Denver Friday Night and Saturday. I bought new Michelin all weather LTX mountain snow tires for a total of $822.20 less a $70 factory rebate. They'll be installed next week. Insurance at State Farm was a little over $720, including coverage for towing and window replacements.

How we decided:

1. Reviewed many posts on this and other boards as well as at the Roadtrek Yahoo Group.
2. Test drove Roadtreks, Pleasure Ways, Coach House and another C.
3. Decided a king bed is a must.
4. Decided we didn't want a C, because we want mobility and plan to travel, not park.
5. Decided on a B because we have space to park one and maybe build a garage for one.
6. Evaluated Roadtrek 4x4 Lextor. Decided I would hit my head to often in it and the 210.
7. Focused on the Advernturous and other Dodge Sprinter Rvs. Like the head space, sitting high above the road, the windows, the king bed, the chassis.
8. No decent used Adventurous available in Denver. Was heading east for TG and decided to visit Van City. There was no pressure from John, the salesman. We applied the pressure. Drove several units. Really liked the Lextor and a Pleasure Way as well as the new Adventurous. Finally settled on what looked like the best used unit on the lot for us. Didn't want to buy new and take the depreciation, pay the taxes, etc.

Unless we take a trip south over the winter, we won't get in our first overnight in the unit til next April or May. DW has sketched out vacations for the next 10 to 15 years.

Good luck with the new RV and the trip back home! Let is know how it goes...

Enjoy the new RV. It sure is easy to plot out years and years of travel. And then when you're traveling, you find more and more places you want to visit and/or return to.

Enjoy
Wendy
p.s. Enjoying those single digit temps in Denver?

Wendy said:

Enjoy the new RV. It sure is easy to plot out years and years of travel. And then when you're traveling, you find more and more places you want to visit and/or return to.

Enjoy
Wendy
p.s. Enjoying those single digit temps in Denver?

Click to expand...

When we flew out of DIA this morning, it was cold! Will be a bit better Sat but then snow Sunday. So we're in Columbia, Mo, thinking, do we have to do 14 hrs Sat to miss Sunday snow? Ugh.

Left Van City just after sun set, drove a couple hours in the dark before deciding our 10-hr day was enough. Dan and John at Van City did a great job of prepping the Adventurous and orienting us. Even fixed a few things along the way. They're real pros.

The unit drives very well. It doesn't sound like the '77 Mercedes 240 D we had for 10 years. Moved right along at the 60-70 mph speed limits. Slowed a couple of mph for some long upgrades but was still doing 65 or better. We really enjoy sitting high above the highway and looking out above most of the traffic. Since we've never RV'd, we're not trying winter camping. Courtyard by Marriott for us tonight.

Correction for the opening post. We looked at the RT Popular 190 4x4, not the Lextor, which is a Pleasure Way. Also, DW informs me we paid $675 for the insurance, not $720+.

I'm Oldedit's happy spouse...Don kept saying he wanted a larger-size Class C (better value for the money?!) but I just wasn't comfortable with driving a bigger vehicle...and I felt that if we didn't tow a dinghy to use when parked, it would be a problem running to the store for milk/eggs/bread. Couldn't resolve that conflict, and really didn't want to be driving a large vehicle towing another vehicle. Can't wait til we get beyond a snowy winter and take our first real camping trips...we have friends to drive to Colorado's FlatTops wilderness and park for a few days of dry-camping quite often...they and the moose families watch each other across the river for 3-4 days at a time, usually midweek. Convinced me this could be a lot of fun!

So after a 3+ months of ownership do you still like your RT? Are any interesting warts showing up with the vehicle or the conversion? We are presently trying to untangle all the choices and get a Sprinter conversion as well. The short list is Roadtrek, Airstream, & Sportsmobile. There are advantages for each. Did you look at Airstream or Sportsmobile?

WS in AK

We just attended the Roadtrek Rally at FMCA in Albuquerque. This was our first outing, and it was baptism by cold weather. The rig is great. But there was an electrical problem. Turns out that the battery separators that separate and sync the vehicle 12 volt battery and the two 6 volt house batteries have to be replaced fairly often. This is because engine heat causes contacts to corrode. As a result, the engine doesn't recharge the house batteries as they are supposed to. Blue Sky RV out of Elkhart, IN, fixed the problem for $196. They recommended that we carry a spare separator. This didn't bother us because we expected to fix some things on a 2006 Adventurous with 50K plus.

This is a vehicle that you can easily drive 70-75 mph and get 20 mpg. We drive 65 just to save fuel. No hurry.

Out of the 60 some Roadtreks at the rally, about 15 were Adventurouses, and everybody is very happy with them. An advantage of the Roadtrek is that there are active regional Roadtrek chapters of FMCA around the country. And most hold one or two rallies a year. Roadtrek was the only B van and maybe the only brand that had its own rally. People are friendly and very helpful, which is the major reason we attended the rally. Roadtrek was the only B van maker with vehicles on display at the rally. And one of their regional reps came buy our rally to say high and chat.

My brother has told his neighbors about our Roadtrek Adventurous. They want to know how we researched an picked the unit. Instead of doing the smart think and cutting and pasting from this thread, I wrote a new essay. Hope it helps.

We spent about three months researching RVs and looking at them.

Here's a thread where I report on our experiences.

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=27398.0

First, we read a lot of posts on web sites and articles in magazines, etc. We also talked to friends who own Foretravel Class A motor coaches and live in them full time. The Foretravel is the best Class A (bus) for the money, they agree.

http://www.foretravel.com/

Then we test drove. Finally, we decided what kind of RVers we wanted to be. We are drivers and travelers, not long-term parkers or full timers. At most, we'll spend 2 or 3 weeks in the RV with time outs in motels for showers.

I was hankering for a bigger rig, but Susan convinced me that she wanted a "B" van that she could drive and that wouldn't require a toad (car towed behind the unit). We always find places to park when we go shopping and out to eat. You can't do that with bigger Class A and Class C coaches.

We never looked at travel trailers nor 5th wheels because we didn't want to buy a pickup and tow.

After testing vans built on Ford, Chevy and Mercedes Sprinter van chassis, we went for the Sprinter, which is a bit more expensive but gaining in popularity. The Fords provide little foot and leg room for shot gun seat passengers. Both Fords and Chevys offer less head room than the Sprinter. The Sprinter gets 20 to 25 mpg at 70-75 mph vs 10 to 14 for the Ford and Chevy.

When I drove a Ford-based van at high speeds it scared me into slowing down. The Sprinter is a dream to drive for both Susan and me. Our first trip was a 13-hour dash home from St. Louis, where we bought the van. Our second trip concluded with an eight-hour dash. Very easy driving, almost as easy as in our Lexus Rx 300 and 330.

We picked a used Roadtrek because that's the most popular brand, it has regional and national rallies and clubs and it probably will be the easiest to maintain and resell. A Sprinter regional rep recently told me that half of the units they're making are Sprinters. Of the 60 Roadtreks at our natonal rally last week, about 15 were Sprinters. Their owners love them.

Here are my bookmarks:

Start here: http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?board=2.0

Keep a close eye on the various web sites where RVs are listed. Gives a feel for price vs vehicle age, milelage, size, etc.
http://www.rvt.com/

http://www.rvsearch.com/

Also watch auctions on eBay. They're mostly ads for dealers and a lot of auctions  never produce  sales. But you never know.

http://www.roadtrekchapter.org/roadtreksforsale.htm

http://www.roadtrekchapter.org/

http://myroadtrek.homestead.com/

http://www.rvforum.net/joomla/

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings/forum/21.cfm

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/sprintervan/

This place is in Portland. Might be a good idea to talk to them about the Sprinter Van. That they are in Portland would give your friends a good place to have a Sprinter van serviced.

http://upscaleauto.com/sprinter_store.htm

http://sprinter-source.com/forum/index.php

We also belong to the Yahoo groups for Sprinter Vans and Roadtreks.

I've been driving a 2006/2007 Roadtrek RS Adventurous on a Dodge Sprinter for four years and still love it.  Hasn't failed us yet. 

We're at the Hop, Skip and Jump rally in UT. At the moment we're in Bryce. Susan just baked a real fruit cobbler in a collapsible bowl in her convection oven in the RV. Then, she promptly used the Samsung microwave as a broiler and fixed a couple of NY Strip steaks for a salad she's taking to tonight's potluck.

So we're completing our first full week of camping in the Adventurous. We've put another 900 miles on since last Wednesday, after driving through snow, sleet, hail and a bit of rain. We think we can do the full 3 wks without going to a motel. The camp grounds' showers are clean. I don't think we'll ever shower in the Adventurous.

I'm thinking about adding sway bars and new shocks, because driving in high winds at high speeds on curvy roads doesn't feel so good. On I-70, we frequently slowed to 60 because of the wind, light snow and even hail.

The unit used a quart of oil in the first 2,700 miles we drove it. The oil is dark, and I'll have it changed when we get home.

When it's cold and I'm driving, my ankles get a little colder than I'd like. We haven't quite figured out how to fix that. Otherwise, the heater works great.

As noted, our baptism into RVing has been in ice, not fire. We heat the place up before we go to bed. Then turn off the heat strip and/or furnace until we wake up in the morning. Then I reach up to the thermostat and turn on the heat for about 10 minutes before we crawl---literally---out of bed. Then we turn the heat off for the day. Last night got down to 30 or so with no problems. Tonight, we're expecting 24, and the camp ground has asked everyone to disconnect the water so it won't freeze the pipes.

Things we'd like to see in the Adventurous:

1. A rewrite of the manual. It's a pain.
2. A slide behind the driver's seat. This is a cramped space, not a place you want hang out in in bad weather. We do think a C or A would be more comfortable, but we like being able to drive everywhere at 20 mpg or better as well as the low taxes, insurance premiums and maintenance costs.

Time to potluck. More later.

Don

Since our 3-wk trip in Utah and Western Colorado last May, we've driven to Eugene, Oregon, Sonoma Valley, back home to the Denver area and to Western Michigan and Central, IL, and back home.

Next week, we're headed SE via Tulsa, Memphis, all around  FL and up the E Coast before heading home via, Nashville, etc. This will be a 4,000- to 5,000-mile trip over 5 to 6 weeks, unless we get homesick earlier.

By Christmas, we will have put about 16k to 17k miles on our Adventurous. Obviously, we're having fun with it and wearing it out as fast as possible!

Along the way, we've put about $1,200 into maintenance and repairs, $700 into a cabinet behind the driver's seat, $1,000 into a new Macbook Pro w. a 10-hour battery, $100 into a antenna that gives better wi-fi reception in RV parks and $700 into an iPad for my Scrabble playing DW, $300 for a used cover for the van, $200 for a used Sirus-Xm radio, $300 for a new radio that works with the XM better, $200 for a bike rack and $300 for bug screens. Susan's invested in bed pads and a comforter. I also just upgraded my Verizon MIFI to 3 GB a month at $35/mo., compared with $40/mo. for 250 mb when I bought the iPad. You have to negotiate. I figure the van is costing us about 50 cents a mile for fuel, maintenance, depreciation, licenses, insurance, etc.

We get 25 mpg at 65 mph, 20 mpg at 75.

Campgrounds run from $20 to $50 a night. We save tons on meals.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you are having a hoot!

We're on the fourth night of our SE trip. Some more thoughts about our Adventurous.

You need to check the oil every 5k miles or so. Usually needs a quart or so. We're using Mobile 1 sw 5-40, but had to go to Walmart to find anything close, sw 5-30, and it only come in 5-gal bottles for about $25.

When a red light goes on saying you need coolant, be sure to get the kind that is good with aluminum engines. I found that at Conoco. Turns out that I only needed to top the coolant/anti-freeze off with about a cup of liquid. Very sensitive sensor, I'd say.

Cabinet latches in Roadtreks aren't very good. Today, a door opened and I hit my head. That made me angry enough that I slammed it shut. Too bad that the mirror isn't shatter proof. DW taped it so the glass won't fall out until I can replace it.

Susan's found a lot of great stuff for our Van. The greatest is a small Lasko ceramic heather. We are using it instead of the propane furnace and the electric heater because it is so effective in our B Van and so quiet. It has a thermostat that works well enough, and we sleep much better now, even at 25 degrees.

The van gets drafty in cold weather. It makes me wish I had a Class A. The extra space would be so nice. But the unit's 20 to 25 mpg at 75 to 65 mph respectively, and its flexibility still make it a winner.

A "B" van is for people who like camping with a dry bed and don't mine the one-butt everything. If you can't stand being in small spaces, buy something else. We're former sailors and find the van pretty spacious, except when we don't.

When the weather is nice, we increase the space in our van by using the picnic table that's in most RV parks or one of the small tables we carry with us. Tonight, we're on Dauphin Island, AL. It's nice out and we're sitting here with the sliding door open, happy as clams. Except clams are in big spaces, I guess.  ;D .

I also have the 2006 Road Trek Adventurous and have made several modifications.  If you are still monitoring the forum, let me know and we can share some mods that might be mutually advantageous.  The neatest mod is having a paint shop "paint" a black window on the left side to match the newer Adventurous' models.  I also scrapped the foam mattresses that came with the unit and put in high density memory foam which improves the beds 100%. 

After putting 17,000 miles on our Adventurous last year, we have done absolutely nothing this year due to weather, health, guests and other obstacles and alternatives.

Next week we'll be doing a rally with the Escapees, and we may drive 1,400 miles to Portland or 1,000 to Illinois, depending on how a family medical situation turns out.

Our plan to tour Colorado and fish and paint water colors this year has not worked out, obviously. Next year, maybe.

Today we drove 580 miles in 10 hours from eastern Idaho to western Colorado on a return trip home to the Denver area from Portland, OR. Drove about 460 miles Saturday. Will do about 240 Monday.

The Adventurous has become our home away from home. On the road, both Susan and I are very comfortable driving the 75 mph speed limits in the West. Yesterday we averaged slightly under 20 mph and today a bit over 21 mph even though we drove at higher speeds today. I think we climbed more mountains yesterday.

And we love sleeping in our own king sized bed in the van. In terms of driving comfort, if a Lexus Rx 330 is a 10, the Roadtrek Adventurous Sprinter van is about a 7.5 or an 8.

Why am I writing this now? What do you do when you're brain dead after a long day of driving and a mid-day caffeinated McDonald's latte that makes your ears ring? I could have driven another three hours to get home in two days, but I don't like to drive after dark when the deer and the antelope play on busy highways.

I'm glad it truly has become your home away from home! Sprinter owners join the RV Forum all the time.

Oldedit said:

Yesterday we averaged slightly under 20 mph and today a bit over 21 mph even though we drove at higher speeds today. I think we climbed more mountains yesterday.

Click to expand...

I'm guessing you meant "mpg" rather than "mph"? 21 miles per hour is pretty slow on the interstates

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Wendy

Wendy,
Yep, mpg.