Having looked at the floor plans for a lot of Class C and B motorhomes, all I can say is that none of them meet our needs, but a couple come close. RV designers must be men, and they must be young.
They build units with small, inaccessible corner beds, rear baths and kitchens that limit exterior storage and cabinets that are light and fragile. They put beds over cabs that are inaccessible to many of their aging customers. And too many have lousy web sites that leave out important details.
Finally, they use the Ford E 450 chassis that is very uncomfortable for people who like to drive several hundred miles a day. Some of the units are built in ways that make them hard and expensive to maintain, and dealers for some of the majors seem to be unwilling to support their own brands unless they've sold the unit that is 500 to 2,000 miles from home. Continuous quality improvement and quality assurance seem to be unheard of in the halls of RV makers.
Our Roadtrek Adventurous, which is on a 2005 Sprinter Van chassis has a king size bed in the back and pretty good storage under the bed, which is not a power sofa. The head is ok but there is no dinette, which we'd like.
The Triple E 24 Ft "B Van", which is being carried by Vancityrv.com in St. Louis, comes close to our needs. It is a true 4-season unit, and it offers a queen murphy bed. But who knows whether you can operate the bed manually when the power bed fails? And VanCity is a long way from Denver. They're good folks. They sold us our Roadtrek, but I don't want to drive 2,000 miles round trip to buy an RV. Finally, the unit is on the Ford E 450 chassis, which offers terrible foot space for the front seat passenger. DW and I split driving 50/50.
Similarly, a Triple E subsidiary, Leisure Travel, also offers the Sprinter Van with a murphy bed and dinette, but it doesn't have much exterior storage because the plumbing for the bath is in the back of the coach. And like Triple E, there doesn't seem to be a viable Leisure Travel dealer in or near Denver who stocks the vans. Van City sells both. Our hesitation with the Leisure Travel murphy bed is for the same reason that we're wary of E Travel's. What happens when the bed's power system fails as it surely will. Who will fix it? Can it be operated manually? The Triple E and LT web sites don't say, and I haven't asked anyone.
The Triple E and LT videos do a heck of a good sales job, but there are some unanswered questions and design flaws in both products, imho. So we're sticking with the Roadtrek, which has a king sized bed and is small enough to go just about anywhere ---tight city streets, state campgrounds, boondoggling, Starbucks, etc.---without costing us higher insurance premiums, license plate fees or investments in another RV.
Am I an outlier, or what?
They build units with small, inaccessible corner beds, rear baths and kitchens that limit exterior storage and cabinets that are light and fragile. They put beds over cabs that are inaccessible to many of their aging customers. And too many have lousy web sites that leave out important details.
Finally, they use the Ford E 450 chassis that is very uncomfortable for people who like to drive several hundred miles a day. Some of the units are built in ways that make them hard and expensive to maintain, and dealers for some of the majors seem to be unwilling to support their own brands unless they've sold the unit that is 500 to 2,000 miles from home. Continuous quality improvement and quality assurance seem to be unheard of in the halls of RV makers.
Our Roadtrek Adventurous, which is on a 2005 Sprinter Van chassis has a king size bed in the back and pretty good storage under the bed, which is not a power sofa. The head is ok but there is no dinette, which we'd like.
The Triple E 24 Ft "B Van", which is being carried by Vancityrv.com in St. Louis, comes close to our needs. It is a true 4-season unit, and it offers a queen murphy bed. But who knows whether you can operate the bed manually when the power bed fails? And VanCity is a long way from Denver. They're good folks. They sold us our Roadtrek, but I don't want to drive 2,000 miles round trip to buy an RV. Finally, the unit is on the Ford E 450 chassis, which offers terrible foot space for the front seat passenger. DW and I split driving 50/50.
Similarly, a Triple E subsidiary, Leisure Travel, also offers the Sprinter Van with a murphy bed and dinette, but it doesn't have much exterior storage because the plumbing for the bath is in the back of the coach. And like Triple E, there doesn't seem to be a viable Leisure Travel dealer in or near Denver who stocks the vans. Van City sells both. Our hesitation with the Leisure Travel murphy bed is for the same reason that we're wary of E Travel's. What happens when the bed's power system fails as it surely will. Who will fix it? Can it be operated manually? The Triple E and LT web sites don't say, and I haven't asked anyone.
The Triple E and LT videos do a heck of a good sales job, but there are some unanswered questions and design flaws in both products, imho. So we're sticking with the Roadtrek, which has a king sized bed and is small enough to go just about anywhere ---tight city streets, state campgrounds, boondoggling, Starbucks, etc.---without costing us higher insurance premiums, license plate fees or investments in another RV.
Am I an outlier, or what?