We Married Up to a Class C Motorhome
Some women do not know how to be alone. They hop from one relationship into another. That was true for us as well. We went from breaking up with Sally to finding a new love…all within about two weeks.
Now that we knew that a travel trailer, Sally, was not for us, we needed to find another RV. This time, we didn’t want a casual relationship with the RV. Even though we had only been RV-ing for a couple of months, we could already picture ourselves going on extended trips. We were going to be spending fairly significant money this time around so we were looking for a girl ready for a serious long-term relationship.
I cannot tell you how many hours we spent on RV Tinder (a/k/a RV Trader) searching for the perfect RV. Of course, the “perfect” RV does not exist. It was fun to look. And addictive.
Why Did We Choose a Class C Motorhome?
We quickly dismissed fifth wheels as these are towables as well. We were leaning towards a traditional Class C motorhome for a couple of reasons:
Based on our research, we believe that Class C motorhomes are generally safer than Class A motorhomes. Class C vehicles use a conventional truck chassis with front end having a “crumple zone” with airbags in both the driver’s and passenger seat area. Class A motorhomes, in contrast, have a vertical front end, and some do not have airbags at all.
Class C motorhomes are usually considered easier to drive because the drive like trucks. Both Kasie and I have owned pick-up trucks most of our lives.
Class B motorhomes were too small for what we wanted.
“Super Cs” looked cool and safe, but we were intimidated by their size and expense.
What type of Class C Motorhome Should We Chose?
Our criteria for the RV had also evolved significantly since we first started looking just a few months earlier in February 2019. In some ways, we learned what we wanted in the “new girl” by comparing her to what we liked, didn’t like, or didn’t use in terms of our soon-to-be-ex. Here is what we had learned about Sally, our 2019 Coachman Spirit Ultra Lite 2245BH:
Bunkhouse floor plan.
Sally was good to bunk with, but she needed to be more accessible. With Sally, we had removed her lower bunk and stored our bikes (with the wheels off) in the rear bunk area. Ideally, we wanted indoor storage that would enable us to store our bikes inside without having to remove the front bike wheels. After doing some measurements, we knew that we could modify most Class C bunkhouse floor plans to accommodate the bikes by removing the top bunk.
A Real Bed
Sally’s bed needed an upgrade. Rather than a murphy bed, we wanted a regular queen (preferably king) size bed. We were already tired of folding and unfolding a murphy bed. A regular sized bed would also be good for sleeping with so many dogs.
Outdoor Entertainment Was no Longer a Priority
Sally’s outdoor entertainment area (TV) got little use. An exterior cable jack, which we would connect to a small portable TV, was all we really needed.
Outdoor Kitchen Was No Longer a Priority
Sally’s outdoor kitchen area received little use as well. As long as we could connect our portable gas grill to the propane, that would be sufficient.
Storage Space
Sally needed more trunk for our junk. In short, we wanted more space. That meant an RV with one or more slides, and a lot longer RV.
In short, after just a few months on the road, we just didn’t need a lot of things that we thought we needed in an RV. Likewise, there were things that we quickly learned were “must haves.” I don’t regret dating Sally because she taught us a lot about what sort of relationship we needed with an RV.
What Class C RVs with Bunkhouse Floorplans Are Available?
We narrowed down our search pretty quickly to the following:
We read and watched tons videos about our options. (It’s amazing how much one can learn from YouTube in particular so keep posting, people!) We ultimately honed in on the Jayco Greyhawk because it seemed to have finishes that appealed more to our style (e.g., stainless steel vs. plastic sinks, darker cabinets) and also came with two air conditioners, automatic leveling jacks, and an electrical management system. In short, the new girl we were interested in was both pretty and smart. It was time to “swipe right” and actually go meet her.
Buying our First Class C RV from Camping World
Fortunately, our Camping World (now Gander RV) had two Jayco Greyhawks 31Fs in stock. Unfortunately, this was Camping World. I had read so much bad stuff about Camping World online that I was really concerned about dealing with them. Yet, I understood that if we were going to go out on a date with a Jayco Greyhawk, I might have to deal with the equivalent of her drunken slacker of a dad.
Say hello to “Birdie” — Our 2019 Jayco Greyhawk 31 F
The first thing that went wrong with Camping World is that they didn’t even know they had two identical twins on the lot. When we asked to meet the girls, we pointed out that they had mislabeled a 31F as a 31FS online (and apparently in their records as well). It took a while for the “back office” understand their own inventory. We waited patiently while they walked the lot to discover the 31F sisters.
Our Camping World sales guy turned out to be alright though. He’s the brother in this dating analogy. He understood that his corporate dad had a bad rap, but he was hoping to marry off his sister to someone nice. We took a nice long test drive that went remarkably smoothly. It wasn’t dinner and a movie, but we felt good about meeting the girl, her brother, and where the relationship might be headed.
Then, the second thing that went wrong with Camping World happened. After playing a little hard-to-get, we started negotiations by asking Camping World to tell us their bottom line price (knowing that would not really be their “bottom”). Our sales guy handed us a piece of paper from the back office with a price that was about $2K higher than what they were advertising online. Higher? I vaguely recall standing up and walking out, mumbling something about a bate-and-switch. I’m pretty sure I dropped both the four-letter and five-letter f-bomb (the latter referring to “fraud”). I was not a happy camper.
Our sales guy ran after us, blamed the back office, and ultimately, smoothed things over. After some back and forth, we settled on a reasonable price for both our purchase of Greyhawk and our trade-in for Sally.
Technically, we got a divorce and a new girl – all in one day. The paperwork took some time, but here we were….getting hitched again.
A week later, the girl was in our driveway. Now that we had the girl, we needed a name for her.
Welcome to our flock, Birdie.
