HOW WE FOUND AND PICKED OUR RV

My wife’s new found interest was during a road trip in December, so I started doing quick research and found a few motorhome models with bunk beds but I definitely wanted her and the rest of the family to see that the idea and floor plan options were doable but it would require seeing some. So far her only interaction with RV’s was my parents old and small Winnebago Chieftain, and my parents current Fifth Wheel, which while big, was not set up for a family. I found that the Jacksonville RV show was going to be held in February and figured that would be a great way to sample some models without being too pressured to buy yet. When we went to the show we asked around to see motorhomes with bunk beds in them, and were disappointed that none of the dealers had any on display, but one of the dealers had brought a used one that he had on a back lot he was hoping to sell, but it was not set up to be in the main display, and even though I told him I couldn’t buy at that time he did agree to show it to us. He also explained that most Class-A motorhomes and most Fifth Wheel trailers were designed for the retired couple and not really for families as much as the Class-C’s and Travel Trailers. He did admit though that if we really wanted to fulltime comfortably for a year or more that we needed to be looking at something with storage and the Class-C’s and travel trailers probably weren’t going to have that as much.

The motorhome he showed us was a gas model and had the typical bunkhouse motorhome floor plan of a slide out on the driver side with the dinette and couch in it, with the kitchen on the passenger side. The front seats could be turned around so there was seating for five without using the dinette. Going farther back there was a side bath on the driver side with a hallway to get to the back bedroom, and another slide out on the passenger side that housed the bunk beds next to the hall across from the bathroom, and a wardrobe at the back in the bedroom. This floor plan was the same on every bunkhouse motorhome I had seen online except that some had a third slide out for the master bed that would yield more floor space in the bedroom. Online searches also showed that these models were all fairly new as motorhomes with slide outs were also fairly new and any floor plan with bunk beds needed the slide out feature for it to work. There were no Diesel Pusher motorhomes with bunk beds at the time at all (remember this was several years ago).

Typical Bunkhouse Motorhome Layout at the time.

My wife was not overly impressed but agreed that it was doable. My kids and I on the other hand would have settled on a teardrop trailer to be able to go on a trip like this, so this was about pleasing mom. The kids did like the RV and the dealer let us look it over for quite a while and we all got used to the idea. After hanging out in that RV, I wanted to look around the show and to show my wife some of the other options that were out there.

We looked at a couple of large Class-C motorhomes but there just wasn’t as much living area in them. They slept the right number but the kids would need to share the overhead bead, and that wasn’t ideal (mom wasn’t going to get up there either). We looked at a few travel trailers and though a possibility, as some of them had bunk beds, they seemed rather lacking for storage space. Then we went into a monstrous fifth wheel that had two slide outs in the back to have a separate kids bedroom, the kids also had their own half bath. The front had a large bedroom and full bath and the living area even had an island in the kitchen. Wow was all my family could think. The thing was over 40ft long, and the motorhome we had looked at was only 33ft. Mom was hooked by the extra half bath as that was her biggest concern for a family. The kids liked the extra room in the back. The only drawback we could find is that the main living area only had a dinette and a couch for seating and the TV was not at a great angle for viewing. There were a couple of these type models at the show and it looked like I had some more research to do.



Fairly Typical Layout for Bunkhouse Bath and a Half Fifth Wheel Trailer

For the next year I researched RV’s focusing on Bunkhouse Fifth Wheels. The criteria was bunk beds, an extra half bath, and trying to find one with a suitable living space with hopefully more than just a couch and a dinette. I was also trying to stay between 35 and 40 feet. As I didn’t have one yet I was also researching trucks and knew I would need a 350/3500 crew cab. Wife was hoping to not have a dually but would consider it. The price for all these considerations was getting much higher than I had envisioned. The fifth wheel trailers with the above criteria had only been around a few years, especially the extra half bath option, and was very difficult to find something used with those standards. Adding the price of the truck was bringing the total price close to or maybe over the price of the motorhomes I had been looking at. At least with the motorhome we could pull my Classic Bronco for a toad ("towed" get it ;) have to understand RV slang) and wouldn’t need to buy another car. This Bronco was kind of a family heirloom and was also not going to be sold, so it would have to go into storage the whole time, and that was another expense to think about. The other car we had was an Explorer and too big to be towed behind a gas powered motorhome. Anyhow I had lots of options on the table but didn’t really love any of them.

Wife wanted the extra bathroom, and for this whole idea to work you know the saying, "if mama ain’t happy….."

Kids needed bunk beds, and liked the idea of their own room, but admitted that they also wanted to be able to hang out as a family and the seating options in the bunkhouse fifth wheels were not ideal as someone would need to sit at the dinette if we were to watch a movie together. They also weren’t as keen on being cooped up in a truck for long days.

I liked the idea of a second bath but was actually more focused on the living area seating issue. I also wished I could bring my Bronco with us to do exploring once out west.

The next year rolled around and we again decided to go to the RV show. We still didn’t have a set model in mind, but had several options that weren’t perfect but we wanted to see how they felt in the real world, now that we had refined our wants. We went into the show with little expectation, still knowing we weren’t even near ready to buy, but still trying to get a feel for what was out there. We were also planning to buy used when the time came so this was more of just a fun outing with some research added on. Remember I still had four years till retirement.

We walked into the show and the first motorhome on the left was a bunkhouse. You can easily spot bunkhouses because they have the upper and lower bunk windows near the back of the RV. It was much bigger than the one we saw at the show the year before. We decided to go in and the layout looked exactly the same as that used one from last year, but had more modern colors and paint. RV’s with full body paint were becoming the norm verses the exception now. It was very nice, had lots of people in it and was a little hard to explore for it. It was rocking quite a bit from all of the people and didn’t have its jacks down so my wife who gets motion sickness easily wasn’t too happy with being in it. I looked into the side bath and thought small, just like all of the ones I had seen online. I did like that it had the third slide that put the bed out a couple of feet and saw that it indeed made a difference in the floor space in the bedroom especially when you wanted to pass someone. Then I got to the rear bathroom and saw that the shower was….. WAIT A MINUTE!!! Didn’t I just look at the side bathroom!? I totally missed that it didn’t have a shower in it. I had to go back and check even. I couldn’t believe it. A Class-A that had an extra half bathroom in it!? "Honey look at this, you’re not going to believe it"! It had a very large rear bathroom with a good sized shower in it, AND it had a half bathroom in the hall across from the bunk beds.

Fleetwood Bounder Classic 36H Floor plan

We were all pretty hooked, but this thing was brand new and pretty expensive. Could the price for a used one come down at all when we were actually ready to buy? Would there even be a used one for sale in a few years if we wanted one? Now we really had some stuff to think about and a new option on the table. We kept looking and found a few very nice bunkhouse fifth wheels, but had the same complaint. Although they could have a private room for the kids at the back with its own half bath, the living space didn’t have more than just a dinette and a couch. In the Class-A’s they had a dinette and a couch and also the front two chairs that could be turned around for seating, and those actually faced the TV that was on the wall of the half bathroom at the back of the living area. We explored several more RV’s, even lots that we knew wouldn’t suit us but were fun to look at, when wouldn’t you know it, there was another Class-A bunkhouse with a bath and a half. Different manufacturer but basically the same floor plan. The jacks were down on this one and as it was farther toward the back in the show, was much less crowded. We spent more time in this one, looking at the way things were set up, trying out different seating options for the whole family to see the TV, pretending to use the bathroom and even the shower to shave legs (wife’s, not mine). Everything just seemed to work. The kids were even excited with the idea of not being as cooped up in a truck and having more seating options even when traveling and they too, just like their Dad, were thinking how much fun it would be to have Daddy’s Bronco when we traveled. This model had a little sister version in that this manufacturer and model line also came with the basic floor plan with just the one side bath and was a few feet shorter and less expensive. It was very nice too and we kept it in mind because the price was more to my liking. I still did lots of research, on RV’s but kept coming back to those bunkhouse, bath and a half Class-A’s. They would be perfect, just a little too new for my liking.