New member looking for a recommendation

[Philippe]

Hello everybody,

I am based in Californie and have been RV-ing for close to 30 years, usually taking a trip every 3 of years in a rented 25ft+ motorhome.

We are looking into acquiring a class b but are new to this RV category. Here are some of our criterias:

* Length less than 21ft
* A bed system that does not force us to make it every day (power lift, murphy, permanent)
* Bed width at least 60in
* A shower

Any suggestions?
Looking forward to learning from everybody!

[Urlauber]

My suggestion would be to spend some quality time watching Youtube reviews/walkthroughs. There are quite a few 18 and 19ft campers these days and best would be to get familiar with the floor plans, and then go to a dealer and actually check them out in person.

We spent about 3 years of researching, and it resulted in now having a great time when out & about in our little van. Incidentally, we bought a camper which had been used for 5000 miles and was almost new, thanks to someone who apparently did not spent quite as much time before the purchase.

[GeorgeRa]

Our example of decision process. There is a lot of trade offs in the selection process varied from person to person. In our case openness was one of key objectives. In 1977 we experienced the first, very open Westfalia layout and still consider it to be our best option: lots of windows (no shower cabin) and spatial layout during daytime. These goals in 20’ van contradict no bedtime preparation in lieu of which I designed our rock and roll sofa bed to be deployed in seconds. See the nighttime vs daytime layouts.

[Philippe]

Thank you George and Urlauber.
We will follow your advice.

[Hatteras Jim]

Avoid Diesel Sprinters

[Sensfan]

Originally Posted by Hatteras Jim

Avoid Diesel Sprinters

Before we bought our Class B in 2012 I asked my brother-in-law, who owns a commercial truck repair garage, if we should buy diesel or gas. When I told him that we would be doing a lot of remote area travel, he recommended that we go with a gas motor, indicating that there will be limited Mercedes diesel repair garages in unpopulated areas.

[N147JK]

Permanent beds and showers are real space hogs. They eat up huge amounts of interior space and block windows. We're glad our van has neither. BTW, it takes us all of 3 minutes to make up our bed for the night. The rest of the time the interior is open, bright, and spacious.

[Hatteras Jim]

Originally Posted by Sensfan

Before we bought our Class B in 2012 I asked my brother-in-law, who owns a commercial truck repair garage, if we should buy diesel or gas. When I told him that we would be doing a lot of remote area travel, he recommended that we go with a gas motor, indicating that there will be limited Mercedes diesel repair garages in unpopulated areas.

Your brother in law gave you great advice. My 2013 Sprinter has been nothing but problems with the scrubbing system since new. Too many times in remote areas we got the dreaded "10 starts left". Try finding a sprinter service dealer in the U.P. of Michigan. Just got it back from the garage last week after replacing the DEF heater and pump. Prior to that it was for NOX sensors, mostly. 55k miles and still having problems.

Only bright side is that I have never paid for a repair to the SCR system. Even now, it is covered up to 151k miles and the year 2025. With this last repair, Ma Benz has officially spent more in repairs than I paid for the vehicle.

[EthosKelly]

So this is an older thread please tell me what you ended up with . I am new to Class B , just started reading posts on this forum recently , we have a Entegra Ethos with full Lithium , the dealers seem to ned more training in the operation of them and maintained everything. We like it as it has twin beds with room to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking my wife . Love the unit s we can boondocks 4 days easy with the soon .

[Dogman]

Do hope you have found your dream Class B?

But if not, it may help to know, I came across this website listing all Class Bs. Open the link on the left side you can select what you like and quickly narrow down your search. click HERE

Enjoy and Happy Hunting!

[booster]

Originally Posted by Dogman

Do hope you have found your dream Class B?

But if not, it may help to know, I came across this website listing all Class Bs. Open the link on the left side you can select what you like and quickly narrow down your search. click HERE

Enjoy and Happy Hunting!

That is a commercial site that sells RVs, isn't it?


The list of models and brands seems to list only the stuff they have in inventory, it appears, as it includes a quantity and I didn't see any with zeros.


I always recommend to those that are researching that it is OK to use the commercial seller sites to see pics and floorplans of what they are selling, but don't necessarily believe anything they say about them without independently confirming the information. RV sellers have the reputation they have for a reason and their information is often heavily biased, or outright incorrect, IMO. The same is true of a lot of the private sellers, I fear.



RV shopping, be it for a B or other type, is very much a "buyer beware" type of adventure so care is needed.

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by booster

That is a commercial site that sells RVs, isn't it?


The list of models and brands seems to list only the stuff they have in inventory, it appears, as it includes a quantity and I didn't see any with zeros.


I always recommend to those who are researching that it is OK to use the commercial seller sites to see pics and floorplans of what they are selling, but don't necessarily believe anything they say about them without independently confirming the information. RV sellers have the reputation they have for a reason and their information is often heavily biased, or outright incorrect, IMO. The same is true of a lot of the private sellers, I fear.

RV shopping, be it for a B or other type, is very much a "buyer beware" type of adventure so care is needed.

Booster

You make some good points and I agree to a point. Here is shopping for a Class B under 21' feet long. I know of a few campervans, but truly just a few. I came across this website sometime back and there are one or two others. But my focus was to show a selection of Campervans under 20' feet. On the Website, as I stated on the LEFT-HAND SIDE PAN DOWN they break down campervans by lengths. True this may not show all. But just a way of helping him locate something in the size he was looking for. I wish I had a better website that listed all-know RV Campervans. But that was the best I had at the time. As for floor plans, they are also shown when clicking on the model

The funny thing about this post, if I had checked the date of posting I would not have posted as it was last May 2023. I don't know of any other website with more of a cross-section of class B models.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Dogman

Booster

You make some good points and I agree to a point. Here is why, he is shopping for a Class B under 21' feet long. I know of a few campervans, but truly just a few. I came across this website sometime back and there are one or two others. But my focus was to show a selection of Campervans under 20' feet. On the Website, as I stated on the LEFT-HAND SIDE PAN DOWN they break down campervans by lengths. True this may not show all. But just a way of helping him locate something in the size he was looking for. I wish I had a better website that listed all-know RV Campervans. But that was the best I had at the time. As for floor plans, they are also shown when clicking on the model

The funny thing about this post, if I had checked the date of posting I would not have posted as it was last May 2023. I did not have or know of any other website with more of a cross-section of class B models.

I understand, but also I think we all need to be careful about links to places that are selling things without letting the newbies know that they are selling the vans so reference only and not necessarily all options. As I mentioned, as a reference to find what may be out there, commercial sites are fine and there are a lot of them to use. Places like RV trader come to mind.



A complete list would be wonderful if it were available, especially if it included the niche builders, but it might be futile with the relatively high rate of new builders and closing builders in the RV markets.

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by booster

I understand, but also I think we all need to be careful about links to places that are selling things without letting the newbies know that they are selling the vans so reference only and not necessarily all options. As I mentioned, as a reference to find what may be out there, commercial sites are fine and there are a lot of them to use. Places like RV trader come to mind.



A complete list would be wonderful if it were available, especially if it included the niche builders, but it might be futile with the relatively high rate of new builders and closing builders in the RV markets.

Booster

I checked out your suggestion (by NAME you posted) and the site you suggested did not show, nor did it list the Campervan by their "Length" which was requested by the initial post. Also, in keeping with site rules, you may be posting commercial websites by name. I have not done so if you would like to review my post above.

The question is where to find a listing of all Class B's and then with the ability to narrow that search some 20 diverse ways.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Dogman

Booster

I checked out your suggestion and the site you suggested did not show, nor did it list the Campervan by its "Length" which was requested by the initial post.

If you are talking about RV Trader, it does show length setting in the search criteria. Click Class B RVs and then scroll down the left side search refinement settings. Not every place does, but many do.

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by booster

If you are talking about RV Trader, it does show length setting in the search criteria. Click Class B RVs and then scroll down the left side search refinement settings. Not every place does, but many do.

Booster

Okay, I did and at first, I was seeing nothing on the LEFT SIDE of my SCREEN. I had to reduce the size of my font to bring in the LEFT SEARCH BAR. The problem was after selecting it stated ((("21 FEET AND OVER"))) when I entered 21 feet, which is what the POSTER was asking for. The website you suggested (NAME OF SHOWN ABOVE) only wanted to show larger sizes not less than 21 feet. The website for me, I found to be very labor intensive for myself.

Now, I'm wondering, how would you use the site to find something smaller than 21 feet. Not longer than 21 feet? I'm not trying to be difficult. For myself I just find it to be a very hard website to use.

This is my last post on this subject, as I think my point has been more than made. These kinds of post make folks stop wanting to help others with anything.

[booster]

That is not what it says on my screen. You set a min and max for length. Leave "any" in minimum and set "21 feet" in maximum and you get everything 21'and under. If you want only under 21' set it at 20' maximum. Just like many other sites.


We are wandering way off on this so if the mods want to take these out, no problem with me.

[Philippe]

It's been a year since my original post and we are still looking... We've narrowed down our options to the Roadtrek Pivot and the Westfalia Wave. We are leaning towards the latter at this point but need to see it in person. We appreciate the bed size + orientation, large storage in the back, awning windows, cassette toilet, battery+solar, and fresh + grey water capacity.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Philippe

It's been a year since my original post and we are still looking... We've narrowed down our options to the Roadtrek Pivot and the Westfalia Wave. We are leaning towards the latter at this point but need to see it in person. We appreciate the bed size + orientation, large storage in the back, awning windows, cassette toilet, battery+solar, and fresh + grey water capacity.

Good to see you are making progress, best of luck with getting it all finalized.