Laying out the basics

[aadler]

For anyone unfamiliar with the fundamentals of RV living, I decided to offer a little background, to provide contexts for my travel (or daily-life) posts. This so whoever might actually be interested can follow what I’m saying without having to do online research to decipher what I mean. (And I’m providing this helpful graphic as illustration.)

First, in regard to RVs themselves, there are two basic categories: towable, and motorized.

Towables are those that are pulled by another vehicle. The five main types are fifth wheels, travel trailers, toy haulers, pop-up (expandable) trailers, and truck campers. (Truck campers aren’t technically ‘towable’, since they sit in the bed of a truck, but are put in this class nonetheless because transportation still comes from another vehicle, the truck itself, which was and can remain independent without the camper.)

– Travel trailers are those that are pulled by connection to a bumper-level hitch. Trailers can be pulled by a variety of vehicles, but the tow vehicle has to have a tow capacity greater than the weight of the trailer. Pickup trucks are the most used tow vehicles, because of their greater tow capacity, but some SUVs are fully capable of pulling some of the smaller trailers.

– A fifth wheel differs from a travel trailer in that it connects to the tow vehicle by a type of hitch inside the bed of a truck. This offers the advantage of better maneuverability, and the design of a fifth-wheel usually provides some additional space for the use of the owners.

– A toy hauler can be a travel trailer or fifth wheel, but has a ramp opening in the back, making it essentially a towable with a small ‘garage’. Owners can thereby bring small vehicles, motorcycles, or other ‘toys’ with them. (Alternatively, some owners will transform the garage space into extra living space with couches and maybe a TV, and even a ‘back porch’ when the rear platform is left out and open.)

– A pop-up camper — also known as a “fold-out camper” or “tent trailer” — has a collapsible roof and fabric walls with screen windows. Pop-ups can fold down into a compact package, much easier to tow than a full-sized trailer, and their lighter construction means they can be towed by almost any vehicle capable of towing. Because they are “set up” and taken down for each trip (and aren’t well suited for extremes of high or low temperatures), they lend themselves more readily to short-trip or vacation travel than to long-term RV living. Overall, they provide an experience more similar to expanded tent-camping than to the RV lifestyle as generally understood.

– A truck camper is loaded and unloaded from the bed of a full-size or mid-size pickup truck. If you already have a pickup, a camper is the quickest, cheapest, and easiest way to try out the ‘RV life’. They have less interior space than any of the other options, and contain fewer interior amenities unless you move into the higher-end, more expensive models. (Also, because of the lesser space, it’s not a good choice for more than one person, unless they really really really like each other.)

Motorized RVs (or motorhomes) are those providing their own motive power. The three basic types are Class A, Class B, and Class C.

– The Class A is the biggest and generally the most expensive. They look more like buses than anything else. The main advantages are in living space and storage area (lots of both).

– The Class B is also known as a ‘camper van’, and looks like an oversized van (which it is, the differences being in the interior furnishings). These are the smallest, and easiest to find parking for, but have very little living space and storage area.

– The Class C is sort of a compromise between Class A and Class B. Usually built on a van or truck chassis, they are more maneuverable (and require less parking area) than a Class A, while providing more usable space than a Class B. Fuel mileage is also intermediate, better than the ‘bus’ but not as good as the ‘van’. Susan’s and my RV is a 24-foot Class C, Itasca Navion (made by a subdivision of Winnebago).

Of course, there’s plenty of leeway in these categories. Some campers mounted on trucks are so complex, the complete assembly could easily be mistaken for a Class C motorhome. Additionally, the shortest stock Class A is actually shorter than the longest Class B, which in turn is longer than the shortest Class C. (Remember, biggest to smallest is A, C, B, not ABC.) So the sizes are a general rule, but the real classifications are based on design rather than overall length.

Online resources say the Class C is the most-rented, which makes sense to me: more manageable and less intimidating than the big buses, but providing ample space for somebody taking a quick vacation. During our own travels (two years, so far), I’ve found that the Class C is less represented in the various RV parks. Towables are the most predominant; among the motorhomes, Class A is three to five times more plentiful than Class C, and Class B is frequently nonexistent or having only a single representative.

That’s basic background, then. There’s a lot more about RV practices and the various issues we run across, but the above can be seem as a framework from which to understand whatever else comes up.