I find myself watching a lot of YouTube these days with the stay at home orders still in place. Needless to say, I have watched a lot of RV review videos over the past 2 months in search of finding the perfect RV for us. I have a feeling that I am not the only one who is always in search of the perfect RV however I have come to the conclusion that finding a "perfect" RV for us may not be possible. I think that getting close to perfect may be the best that a person can hope for.
The first step in finding your perfect RV has to start with defining what it is you are looking for. Interestingly, what is the perfect RV for you today may not be the perfect RV for you tomorrow. We have owned 9 RV's (no that is not a typo....9!) over the past 15 years and I am sure each time we bought one we thought it was going to be the last one we would ever own. Each time, we thought we were getting an RV that was "perfect" or close to it only to find out at some point in the future that it was not as perfect as we had originally thought. We bought our first RV, a 2005 Thor T@B, because it was light enough that we could tow it and it honestly was just cute. We had lots of memorable trips in it but after a couple of years, we realized the perfect RV would have a bathroom in it. So we traded the T@B in on a slightly used Fleetwood Resort EXT. It was perfect...or so we thought. It had a slide out bed, a bathroom, a sofa and more. But after about 6 months and deciding to take a seasonal lot, we found out it maybe wasn't perfect for the current situation. It felt a bit cramped for a trailer that we were going to park on a lake lot so we traded it in for a much larger used Jayco with a slideout, walk around bed, two recliners and more. I am sure you know where this story goes next.
I won't continue to bore you with our entire trailer history but I think you can see a theme....there really is not a perfect RV and even if you find one today, your wants and desires may change in the future.
We have loved our current T@B over the past two years but we would not say it is our "perfect" RV for today. Watching all of those RV review videos over the past couple of months from some of our favorite channels such as Matt's RV Reviews, Princess Craft RV and RV Reviews by The Air Force Guy has made us start thinking about what our next perfect RV might look like. Below is a list of items we would want to see in our next RV that we are currently lacking:
1. Larger Bed Space - Our preference would be a walk around bed or at least a corner bed with greater headroom allowing us to both sit up in bed. The real downside to our current bed is not only that one of us has to get up so the other person can get out of bed but also that the person on the inside is really squeezed into what we like to refer to as the "wedge." It is a tight fit on the inside and is definitely not for anyone with claustrophobia.
2. Larger Grey Tank - We can only boondock for about 3 days with our 18 gallon grey tank. The 30 gallon freshwater tank is more than adequate and honestly we have never had an issue with the 12 gallon blackwater tank. It seems like no matter how much we try to conserve grey water, 3 days is our absolute max before we have to empty it. We'd really like to be able to go at least 5 days without having to dump the tank so a minimum of 30 gallons of grey space would be need.
You can see that it's not a big list actually. Some people might think we'd add a dry bath to the list but honestly we love the bathroom in our 400. We called it our "luxurious wet bath." Since day one of ownership, I have said it is the driest wet bath on the market and it doesn't bother us at all. If I could just add 3' onto our 400 I am sure I could add the larger grey tank and possibly even get the walk around bed or at least create a larger sleeping area with increased headroom. Unfortunately that's not really an option so for now I can only dream of a T@B 500.
So that means we either have to keep what we have or we have to look for something different. If we were to go with a completely different RV, it would not only have to include the above items that are missing from our current trailer, but it would also need at a minimum:
1. 200+ watts of solar mounted on the roof
2. Lithium Batteries
3. 1500 watt inverter
4. MaxAir Fan
5. High quality build construction
6. High quality components
7. Superb Customer Service from the manufacture
Sure, we can install items 1-4 either at the time of purchase or at a later date.. It's 5, 6 & 7 that are more difficult to find. I do believe that there are RV's that have those qualities in today's marketplace. Much depends on how much you are willing to spend on an RV. Also, we want to have a trailer that weighs less than 5000# so that we can tow it without issues using our 2016 Toyota Tacoma. So far we have found a couple of possible options that might just be our next "perfect" RV.....at least until it is not. And I won't lie, Matt has reviewed a few smaller (under 30') motorhomes that we could see ourselves happy in. They unfortunately are just more money than we would want to spend at this time on an RV.
Will we be getting a new RV in 2020? That I do not know at this point. It's always fun to look and consider all options.
Your perfect RV will most likely look a lot different from ours. You may desire something much larger or something with options like electric stabilizers or an on demand water heater. Figuring out what works for you will be the first step in looking for your perfect RV.
What would your perfect RV look like and what features would it have? Do you have a manufacture that you love? Let us know in the comments below.