I lived in a motor home for a few years. If I had to do it over again, I'd either get a sprinter van, or a Class B, or a 5th wheel. This van would be more versatile than a motor home.
There were several times I needed help from a mechanic. You can't just go to a regular mechanic anymore, because they don't have a lift that can lift the motorhome. Or they'd flat out refuse to even look at it when I called them. Even when I'd tell them "I need help with xyz, it's a 350 small block chevy engine, can you take a look and see if it needs to be lifted at all?" Nope, it's an RV, won't touch it.
There were many times I needed to drive into a city to purchase something. Parking a 24' motorhome in a busy city is very difficult to find a space, whereas if I had a cargo van or a truck separate from my 5th wheel, it would have been a piece of cake to pop into town, get supplies, and get back on the road. This caused me to avoid cities altogether for the most part. I got a nice stack of tickets for even parking the motorhome on some neighborhood streets while I visited friends, for the sake of being an RV parked on a public road (Burlington, Vermont: I'm not paying your tickets, you can keep them).
There are some roads I wanted to access that I just plain couldn't drive to. This one is more personal, but I spent a few months base jumping in Moab, UT and there are some trails that I had no problem driving a small car to, but the motorhome just wasn't going to make it. And it's not like I could turn the motorhome around on the trail / road, nope, I had to back that bitch up with very limited sight. It was a nightmare.
Family of three. We go everywhere. Slept in it in downtown areas parked in the street. Every time I see the bigger rigs at campgrounds they have so much stuff. Stuff they have to set up and tear down. We rarely stay at campgrounds but if we do it’s a one minute plug in. Up and gone just as quickly. We can go places the bigger rigs can’t. Like down the narrow winding road to the site on the 200ft cliff overlooking the Atlantic in Newfoundland. It’s just a van and people don’t give it a second look. Pull over in a neighborhood for the night and sleep. No biggie. Our kid is seven and been to 47 states. Because it’s not a hassle to set up and tear down we don’t have to commit to one place for a few days to justify the set up and tear down time. Lastly, it’s not a bad daily driver if you need it to be.
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u/porkavenue 17h ago
It’s probably 25-30 in upgrades, plus your time. Cheaper to buy a motor home