We Just Bought a 2nd RV!

We have a big announcement to make… a reveal of our newest RV…a new motorhome we just purchased that will join the fleet, so to speak, giving us a second RV to help us explore more remote areas we can't get our fifth wheel into.

If you want to skip the reading, here's the video reveal:

Over the years, we’ve had a lot of RVs!

We started out in a pop-up camper, moved to a small travel trailer, then, after the kids grew up and we neared retirement age, we jumped into the van life movement!

We bought a used Class B. That was almost 15 years ago, and we kept trading up. We upgraded to a new Class B van… then B+ RVs…. we even bought a travel trailer that we towed with one of our Class B vans. We moved up to Class C motorhomes and, for the past two years, fifth wheels.

Our current Fifth Wheel is a 35-foot-long Montana High Country. We love it and we have no plans to get rid of it. Our Montana is what we will use for long camping trips and extended RV tours, like our upcoming caravan tour of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans. 

But as much as we love and will keep camping on our fifth wheel, we’ve missed traveling the back roads, getting off grid way out in the boondocks, and doing impromptu stops in out of the way spots. We missed the convenience of a small motorhome.

So for the past year and a half, we have quietly been shopping for a second RV, and we have toured, walked through, and reviewed more than two dozen Class B and Class C motorhomes. 

We’ve looked at motorhomes from most of the big RV makers as well as those from smaller and direct-to-buyer manufacturers … even a huge half-million dollar expedition-type vehicle, just for the fun of it.

All the time we were making these videos, we were not so secretly shopping for our next motorhome. 

Mike & Jen’s 10 Must-Haves

After all our reviews and walk-throughs, for our next motorhome, we’ve boiled our must-have list down to 10 deal-breaking requirements:

• #1 Rear twin beds. We don't want a Murphy bed or a sofa that converts to a bed. We want beds that are always ready to be used. No assembly required!
• #2 Lots of lithium battery power – enough to run the AC and everything else we need all night, to be able to get back into boondocking and remote off-grid camping, with fast charging and a beefed-up inverter.
• #3 As uncomplicated a design as possible – Our B+ or Class C motorhome also needs room for plenty of fresh water and lots of storage.
• #4 Innovation and the latest in RV technology – This is 2025. There are much better ways to construct RVs and control the systems they use than what we have seen from most of the RV manufacturers
• #5 Quality construction – We don't want leaks, mildew, loose staples and screws, vinyl wall coverings or pressed wood.
• $6 Lots of carrying capacity – It's embarrassing to the industry that some B+ and Class C RVs have less than 1,000 pounds of carrying capacity for passengers, pets, gear, water, etc. 
• #7 An ability to tow a vehicle – Our baseline goal in the RV we buy needs a hitch with a 7,500 pound towing capacity and/or a tongue weight rating of 750 pounds..
• #8 Twin reclining loungers. We love them on our Montana fifth wheel and we really want them on the Motorhome we end up buying.
• #9 Instant hot water – We really like hot showers!
• #10 No propane – and we want everything in the electrical system and plumbing to be as green as possible

So those are the things we want. They may not be on your list. We’re all different, but for us, those are our ten non-negotiables. For a long time, we weren't sure we could find a motorhome that checked all 10 of those must-haves. But we did. And we completed the purchase just this week. And now it’s time for… the big reveal!

It's a 2025 Embassy RV Cape Cod motorhome.  It’s 25.5 inches long, on an All Wheel Drive Ford Transit cutaway chassis, 10 feet 10 inches high, and it has a Gross Cargo Weight Rating of 11,000 pounds with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 15,000 pounds.

We picked it up directly from the factory in Elkhart, Indiana. Buying at the factory turned out to be a huge benefit. Instead of having to go through a dealer and paying all those middleman fees, Embassy RV is factory-direct. We saved thousands just from buying direct.

Embassy is not a big RV maker. They make specialized vehicles, disaster relief vans, mobile medical vans, Salvation Army kitchens… and RVs. But they do have a very loyal customer base for their Class B vans and, since last year, the larger Cape Cod.

We plan a whole series of videos coming over the next few weeks on our new Cape Cod. But here are some head-turning highlights that convinced us to make this purchase. The Cape Cod has no wood. It is made of composite materials and has a one-piece roof. That means no leaks. It has the best insulation we have ever seen on a Class B motorhome.

It has no black tank. You’re going to be surprised when we show you what we selected for a toilet and how it works, because it’s something we once said we would never even consider. Well, things change and improve, and we bought what we thought we’d never have.

The Cape Cod has no propane. It has 3-zone hydronic air & water heat. It doesn’t have a slide, either. But at first glance inside, you might think it does.

It has a massive 920 amp-hour lithium battery bank, enough to meet our needs for days. The technology on this Cape Cod sets a whole new standard of connectivity and convenience. It even has an extended capacity fuel tank… 36 gallons instead of the standard 25 gallons.

It has no solar. It's not needed. All that lithium, combined with a super-efficient air conditioner, all that insulation, and a massive 3,500-watt inverter – the biggest we've ever seen on a Class C RV – makes this a boondocking delight.

How Much Does It Cost?

I know. You want to know the price. We added some extras that many people wouldn't get, but the cost of this is a tad under $200,000. Based on our year and a half of shopping, other B+ or Class Cs we shopped for in the same general class would cost $250,000 and more. 

That’s the factory-direct savings again. Embassy RV only makes two of these a month. They are not mass-produced, which, in our experience in buying this unit, means more individual attention.

As much as we like this, it’s not perfect. One thing we learned during the shopping process is that there is no perfect RV. But this is the one that fits our needs better than anything else we have found, and we can't wait to take it on its maiden voyage.

Next week, we’ll have a full walk-through video – inside and out. Put your questions in the comments below and we’ll try to answer them in the next video. Till then, Happy Trails.