Priority for your next coach

[mricet1005]

We are shopping for our first motorhome. I listed Livability (adequate space and storage with an efficient floor plan) as my number 1 priority, but all are almost equal priority. For us, it's not so much "fit & finish" which I interpret as more cosmetic, but for me its about reliability (quality). I don't need bling. Affordability is also a factor since I do not have unlimited budget.

At this time we don't plan to be full-timers, but do plan to take extended (2 - 3 month road trips / leisurely vacations and I am making judgments about what we need for that. Based on our tent camping days, I don't think we will enjoy the typical RV parks, but will mostly frequent state parks, national parks, BLM and national forest sites, etc.

While a newbie, I have learned a lot by trolling this forum for the past month.

[bruceisla]

Originally Posted by StevenNSteph

A typical full-timer drives between 4-8K miles a year. That breaks down to driving your coach a grand total of 0.8 - 1.1% of the time during the whole year. That means 99% of the year you are doing something other than driving so for me drivability is by far the smallest concern. Livability and then a decent fit and finish. I don't need luxury since the coach is really just a hotel room on wheels and the real adventure lies outside of it. JMO.

My priorities are probably similar.

DP with side rad, Full King bed, Dining table and chairs, The quietest air conditioners available, paddle ceiling fan in bedroom, all other fans Fantastic or Maxxair, Residential reefer (not too big), Mid TV (with a maximum of 2 TVs), convection microwave, no rear bath, no rooftop sat system, and ... the most important, NO CARPET.

[Jupiter]

This is a timely thread for me. I would rank livability as our top priority. DW and I just had a discussion today about what we like and what we don't like about our coach (2013 Journey 36M) after living full-time as snowbirds for the past two months. A person really gets a feel for the likes and dislikes living full-time for a period. I'm pleased (and relieved) to report that we have very few dislikes. Seems like all floor plans are, at least to some degree, a compromise and so perfection is probably unrealistic for most of us.

We agree that our primary dislike is a cramped bathroom. While this floorplan has a really nice large shower, the toilet and washbowl are simply too close. However, having a separate washbowl in the bedroom is a definite plus.

While our basement storage is quite large in terms of cubic feet, the basement storage is primarily centered on a low frame large pass thru pull-out tray which can be accessed from either side. But the down side is that you need to open two large swing doors to pull the heavy tray outwards to get to items in the middle of the tray. There is little other compartment storage otherwise. I preferred having many deep compartments for storage instead, but can understand and live with the advantages of having the low-centered centralized pass thru storage.

Likes:
tile floors
bed in-line with chassis
counter space
MCD shades
TV's & surround
galley, lounge and bedroom storage
residential fridge
ceiling fan in bedroom
full wall slide (as long as it keeps working well)

minor dislikes:
noisy A/C's
rear camera picture quality
no bathroom window

All said, we're pretty happy with what we chose as our last coach… I think.

cheers,
Joopy

[rwjsim]

I think for us its livability. Took us over a year to find the model we liked.