Like all motorhome owners, we give a lot of tours.
It seems that whenever we’re on the road and stop, at a rest area or for fuel, someone comes over and starts asking questions. What they really want is a peek inside. So we oblige.
I bet, though, that because we travel in a Type B, we give more tours than owners of other coach types. Folks are just naturally curious about how two people can get around – let alone get along – in such a small vehicle. So we oblige, opening up the sliding door and inviting them inside.
We show them the rear sofa area that makes into two twin beds or a comfortable king with the push of a button. We open the door to the bathroom and point out the flushing toilet, the shower, the sink. Jennifer always demos the galley, with the induction stovetop, the microwave/convection oven, big refrigerator and various pantry and cupboard storage. And I talk about our solar power and a diesel generator and how we can be totally off the grid for days at a time, all self contained in remote areas where larger vehicles would fear to tread.
But after we have done the tour and enthusiastically shared our love of RVing in our little motorhome, probably the most common question we get is why a Type B? Why not one of those giant Type A motorhomes? Or even a Type C.
I have a stock answer.
Small home. Big yard. We like the slogan so much we once had T-shirts printed up with that saying on the front.
No offense to Class A or Class C owners, but we’re really hooked on small motorhomes and the Class B in particular because of the mobility it gives us to not just see the country, but truly be in it. We can go anywhere in our Class B RV and when we do, everything we need is with us. All I have to do is step outside and we have all the room in the world.
We don’t spend a lot of time in campgrounds. I’ve written here before about our love for boondocking, for camping in wilderness spots in state and federal forests, preserves, lakeshores, deserts and prairies.
That’s the inspiration behind the “Small Home. Big Yard” slogan.
We’ve driven over 160,000 miles over the past six years in a Roadtrek Class B. We are in a Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL 4 x 4 now, which, like many other Type Bs, is built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis. It is plenty tall enough to walk around inside without bumping your head.
And it really does take us everywhere. We drove to to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado a few years ago, 14,115 feet above sea level. We were the only RV in the parking lot up there.
On that summer trip, we even hauled a 21-foot travel trailer with out Class B so my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters had a place to stay with us. We unhooked the trailer for the ride up Pike’s Peak but we towed that travel trailer up and down the Rockies for the better part of a month, including the nefarious Wolf Creek Pass (10,856 feet) in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
My Roadtrek parks in regular parking spots, which is a great convenience when hitting fast food restaurants or visiting national parks or places with limited parking for big rigs.
And I get about 15 miles a gallon.
It parks in my driveway. I don’t have to pay for storage when it is not in use. In fact, it is always in use. I drive it around town as a second vehicle between trips.
We’ve never tried a Class C or Class A so I have no other reference point other than the small motorhome lifestyle we’ve been enjoying these past four years. But I know a lot of new B buyers have downsized from the larger coaches. I’ve met them all over the country and they tell me it’s just so much easier to travel in a Class B.
Small home. Big Yard. That's the small motorhome lifestyle.
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