RVs & Campers For Dummies. Christopher Hodapp

larger diesel-pusher Class As, you’re literally driving what is a giant commercial truck or bus under the floorboards. Consequently, they’re among the most expensive RVs on the road to operate, maintain, and have repaired. Just changing a flat tire on one of the larger rigs is a major undertaking, and you can’t do it yourself. One single tire on the biggest Class A motorhome can cost you more than a set of four tires plus a spare for your Toyota. Class As must be serviced at RV dealerships or commercial truck centers.

      

In Chapter 5, we talk about doing your homework before you buy. If you’re seriously talking yourself into buying a low-priced Class A motorhome — new or used — make sure you read reviews from other owners and ask questions on Internet RV forums before plunking down your money. Cheap motorhomes can turn into hair-pulling, spouse-blaming, buses full of headaches and repair costs. They’re cheap for a reason, and they won’t have anything approaching the level of quality, workmanship, and reliability found in a more expensive unit.

      Class B motorhomes

Class B motorhomes (like the one in Figure 2-3) are the opposite of the big Class As in size — they’re the smallest self-contained coaches on the road. Some people still use the ’70s term van conversions to refer to these, because Class Bs are basically heavily modified delivery or passenger vans.

      Manufacturers typically buy Ford Transit (gas or diesel), Chevy Express (gas), RAM ProMaster (gas), or Mercedes Sprinter (diesel) vehicles to build them, and they range in size from about 17 to 28 feet in length. Because of their limited size, Class Bs are best suited for a single person or a couple. Some claim to have sleeping space for up to four people, but that’s really only practical if the other two passengers are young children.

      Big features, small packages

      On the inside, Class Bs manage to cram lots of living amenities into a tiny space. They have a kitchen with a stovetop and microwave, a TV, a bed that folds away (usually into a couch) when it’s not needed, heating and air conditioning, and a little bit of storage space for clothes. They also have a small bathroom with a toilet, shower, and onboard water tanks so you never have to use a porta-potty at an outdoor fair again. And they have a built-in generator to create your own electricity when you want to stay in the great outdoors, far from the closest electrical hookup.

      Photograph courtesy of Christopher Hodapp

      FIGURE 2-3: A Class B motorhome.

But make no mistake: Unless you’re a minimalist loner or an experienced champion of the tiny-house movement, a Class B motorhome really isn’t suitable for full-time living. Class Bs are great for the weekend camper and the impromptu trip. They’re popular for tailgating parties, as well as corporate owners. We’ve also met lots of Class B camper couples who were newlyweds and honeymooners, if you know what we mean.

      Class Bs are so versatile that they can double as a second family car. A Class B will usually fit into an ordinary parking space, with a great go-anywhere style. Some even come equipped with four-wheel-drive options. And, depending on the design, if you have a grim, unyielding homeowners’ association (HOA) governing your neighborhood that forbids parking RVs in driveways, most Class Bs look like a regular van on the outside. (Just be aware that they’re too tall to fit in an average garage.)

      Yays and boos

      Because of their smaller size and lighter weight, Class Bs get far better mileage than any other motorhome. They’re easier to drive and maneuver, and their engines and vehicle systems can all be serviced at your local car dealership or service center. Like their bigger motorhome cousins, the back-end living space is accessible from the front seats, even when you’re on the road. Just don’t come looking for lots of excess space. If you’re trying to camp, you’re going to run out of room for gear fast, but you can easily tow a storage trailer for longer trips.

Some standard Class Bs may have a lower ceiling than a bigger motorhome or trailer, so if you’re tall, make sure you can deal with it. Before you buy, tour as many as you can find, walk around inside and make sure you won’t whack your head on a low-hanging air-conditioner or constantly trip over a recessed floor in the bathroom.

      SUPER BS

      In recent years, manufacturers have pushed the limits of Class B sizes to make them bigger and add more amenities. These Super Bs or B+ motorhomes are still regular vans underneath, but they’re taller and longer, with more room — typically, they’re 30 to 32 feet in length. Unlike a standard Class B, the manufacturers cut away everything but the van’s front cab and add their own fiberglass body behind it. The biggest ones can sleep as many as four very friendly people, as long as you all keep the word snug in mind.

      Super Bs often have a slide-out section to get even roomier inside, and the rooflines on these bigger Bs can be higher, too. Most Class Bs have a pretty low ceiling, but Super Bs either start out as a taller cargo van or add a raised fiberglass roof. A high-end Class B+ like a Coach House has a singular appearance, much more like a streamlined Class C motorhome than a van, with a remarkable level of amenities for the size. A Super B like the Thor Compass may just as well be called a Class C, the boundary is so fuzzy.

      Photograph courtesy of Christopher Hodapp

Speaking of bathrooms, Class Bs and some small travel trailers feature a wet bath to keep from having a separate space-hogging shower stall. A wet bath has a drain in the floor and a handheld shower head so that the entire bathroom becomes your shower stall. Although it saves lots of space, it means that all your People magazines, your toiletries bag, and anything else in the bathroom will get soaked. Depending on the arrangement, you may be standing right up against the toilet while you shower or even sitting on the toilet lid as you attempt to shave your legs.

      The price range of Class Bs can be frustrating. Even though they’re much smaller than their Class A competition, they aren’t priced that way. Square foot for square foot, Class Bs are the most expensive of all RV types on the road. They commonly start at $90,000 and can go upwards of $200,000. Even used Class Bs tend to retain high resale value.

      Class C motorhomes

      Class C motorhomes are the midsize option of motorized RVs: smaller than a Class A, but bigger than a Class B. They’re generally built on a truck frame from Chevrolet/GMC, Ford, or RAM, and the front ends commonly look like a medium-size delivery truck. Some of the biggest Super Cs (see the nearby sidebar) are built on a Ford F-550 or F-650 truck, or a Freightliner truck with a Cummins diesel engine.

Despite all the variations in size, the usual dead giveaway that you’re looking at a Class C is that there is an extended storage or sleeping area hump sprouting out over the top of the truck cab, while the rest of the body can be boxy (see Figure 2-4). The living area also often sits lower to the ground than it does in a big Class A, so you have no steep stairway to climb up when you go in and out the main door. Class Cs generally run between 21 and 45 feet long.

      From a distance, Class Cs look like a big box of living space hung on the back end of an existing truck cab. In the business, this is called a cutaway frame, because it uses a truck or van front end, and cuts away the rest of the truck to add the RV box on the back. This setup permits the vehicle to utilize all the airbags, in-dash climate controls, and other safety systems built in by its original manufacturer. The front seats are fully open to the rest of the motorhome, so like the other types of motorhomes,