My wife and I were recently discussing our upcoming long-term tour of the country. I will be 62 years old and we have both dreamed of traveling the country and seeing everything we have always wanted to see. We own 32ft. travel trailer and a dual Dodge 3500 diesel engine that we would be towing it with. For some reason, I started to think that it would be nice to get a Class A. Apparently, she had been thinking the same thing. So we went to the distributors.

Having no idea what to look for, what kind of budget would be needed for the platform, or even operating costs, we decided it would be a good idea to ask as many questions as possible. We are not new to the RV world, having lived full time in a fifth wheel for 10 years has taught us a lot. We are familiar with the problems of freezing water lines, tank discharge, assembly and disassembly. How to save storage space and purchases while living on a budget. So we knew what we wanted inside. But an A-Class is totally different from a fifth wheel on the outside.

We had to look at things differently going out on the road. Our current fifth wheel is 42 feet. length. It is a toy transporter or a garage unit. The rear of 14 feet. it was used as an office instead of transporting toys (motorcycles, ATVs, etc.). Outside storage was simply the basement area. With a Class A you have much more storage space. But even that seemed to raise questions. Why did some models offer transfer and others not? Why do some models have a lot of storage space and others do not? Also, almost all Class A RVs have a generator, why? What kind of maintenance do they need? How big would we need? How long will it work etc? It seemed that the more we started looking, the more questions we had. So the really important question, gasoline or diesel.

We really needed to narrow down the selection and get an idea of ​​the costs of an A-Class. If you’ve looked around the A-Class, you know that diesel units cost more than gas units. Sometimes much more. But are they worth it? Our first problem was actually justifying a Class A on top of the platform we already have and pay for. My son answered that. His feelings were that a Class A offered more options. If he’s on the road and it broke down, he had his TOAD (because he towed behind the Class A to get around town) that he could unhook and drive to get help. Second was storage. Regardless of the type of Class A (petrol or diesel), it still has a lot more storage space than a travel trailer. The operating costs of a Class A compared to the truck and trailer are also better. My truck gets an average of 8 MPG towing the trailer. A Class A diesel is about the same. But once camped my car (TOAD) gets 30 MPG and the truck 16 MPG. Gasoline is currently 30 cents a gallon cheaper than diesel. Our total travel cost would be cheaper.

Next was the size of the platform. We found that if you’re going to keep your camping expenses low, your best bet was national and state parks along with dry camping. Many parks have a limit on the size of platform they will allow. The closer you get to 40 feet, the more parks you limit yourself to. 36 feet seems to be a sweet spot. Plenty of storage space and convenience and small enough to fit in the maximum number of places. It’s funny how a little information can go a long way. Just knowing that we wanted to stay around 36 feet. helped eliminate many of the platforms.

So now to tackle the big problem, gasoline or diesel. At first, this seemed like an easy problem. Gasoline is cheaper, gasoline-powered RVs are cheaper. All Class A offered a comfortable ride. All Class A offered enough storage space. Having worked on engines in my youth, I knew that a gasoline engine would not have the life of a diesel, but I also knew that I could rebuild or replace them fairly cheaply when the time came. SO gas was… but why were diesels much more in demand? That bothered me, so I started asking questions. Diesels seem to get better mileage, get up and down the mountains more, have more towing capacity, have better basement (storage) areas, and generally last much longer. When I applied my math skills to the numbers, it turned out that diesels had a lower operating cost, better resale value, and lasted longer than gasoline RVs. Now I was really torn, gasoline or diesel? Enter my son-in-law, mechanic. He had a simple tip…get a diesel. They’re quieter (the engine is usually in the rear), they come with a bigger generator (more electric to run things), and they’ll last forever. Now we knew what to start narrowing down our search to. A diesel rig about 36 feet long.

Living space has always been a concern for me. Sometimes it makes me a little claustrophobic. Add a few people in a small space (think elevator) and I’m close to losing it sometimes. So living in an 8 foot wide house on wheels could be a problem. The answer is to slide out. Diesel RV can have a lot of slippage. These expand the interior room quite a bit. But the more slides, the more expensive the unit and the more potential problems. After some thought, we decided that two slides would suffice and a large slide in the living room would be our minimum. After all, we only sleep in the bedroom. But we eat, read, entertain and relax in the living room.

We no longer have children living with us so our next thought was a single room. Then the mother-in-law said that she would love to travel around the country. My wife also mentioned the fact that she would love for the grandchildren to travel with us from time to time. I know that some of you also have children that you can’t leave at home (although you may sometimes want to). We saw some Class A that have bunk rooms and they were actually very nice. That can be an option.

It was time to look at the budget. We had a basic idea of ​​what we now wanted in an RV. The problem became how much we wanted to spend and whether we could afford to buy what we needed.

I’ve always had expensive taste. Going to RV shows, I quickly learned that if the price of the RV was under $300,000, I really didn’t seem to like it. I also knew we couldn’t afford $300,000 on a new RV. Sitting down with the budget and financial information, we discovered what we could afford. We have a slightly different situation than most of you and it is a pending settlement of an insurance claim for my wife. For us, the deal will be a determining factor in how much equipment we can buy. But by now, we knew that a new computer was not in question, a used one would have to work.

New set of problems. Used means someone else’s problems. Now there are all kinds of things you can do to limit the problems you run into. Insurance and aftermarket warranties, good reviews before the sale by a qualified mechanic, talk to the previous owner, buy as new as possible, read opinions on forums, ask questions of professionals and users. In short, do as much research as you can.

So how is it used? Doing research on the web, you can find all kinds of used Class A platforms. Some with very low mileage. All different sizes and all different ages. Taking my list of requirements, I started looking at local dealerships, then eBay, then web searches. I can tell you this; there is no shortage of Class A diesel RVs for us to look at. Good Sams will cover a platform up to 14 years old. But every year it becomes more expensive. So you can cover yourself from major problems.

So there you have it, how to select an RV. With a lot of research and a little luck, you can find the perfect gear for your travels. Decide what you need, what you want, and what you can afford. Then look at local dealers so you can see what they say you must have versus what you want. Then search the web for units in your price range.

There are plenty of good quality checklists on the web to use to see your dream RV once you’ve narrowed down a few. Use them too. Do you know a good mechanic? Take it with you; It never hurts to have an impartial eye on an important purchase.