Seeking Advice: Travel Trailer vs. Motorhome

[ActionJackson]

Interesting responses. However, I would add that there are huge differences between small diesel “ Sprinter” style rigs and full
size Ford E-450 30 + foot models. Our E-450’s C class rigs have all been quiet and drive easy ( no swaying like narrow wheel width rigs). You really need to identify what size rig you are needing and feel comfortable driving and buying. Smaller rigs are more compact and easier to drive and park whereas long rigs have way more space but are harder to drive and park.

 

[Superseneca]

With a trailer your vacation starts when you are set up at the campsite. With a motorhome your vacation starts when you leave the driveway.

 

[CHERV]

trailer vs motorhome class c

we are seniors 83/73 yrs young and have been RVing for 30+ yrs. switched to a Jayco class c in 2019 and never looked back. my bride and I share the driving. it is important to have a second driver for emergencies and she does it well.We DO NOT have a vehicle to tow but use ENTERPRISE rental and they are terrific. they pick us up and return us to the CG. Time to enjoy what you worked so hard for, the grandchildren will get what's left. if you don't spend it that will.

 

[koko-JAY]

As a retired couple, we would never go back to a trailer. You'll indeed love the ease of set-up. Our motorhome now has 85,000 miles on it and still looks and runs as if it were brand new. Happy camping!

 

[Roadrower]

Love our Class C

Hi. We have had our Grayhawk for 8 years and have never towed a car. We do, however, usually aim for National and State Parks, both of which are typically motor home friendly. With google satellite images, it is usually easy to find restaurants and grocery stores with big enough lots to accommodate us - or we simply call ahead and ask. We do give up some freedom to roam for the freedom of not having to tow (hook, unhook, increased difficulty maneuvering in and out of gas stations, etc, cost of another vehicle). We travel with a cat and having a motor home works well for that. Great when traveling with others for them to have the table to work on while riding. Snacks and bathroom breaks done the fly (though this can be dangerous for obvious reasons). If we want to do city visits, we park in the outskirts and use public transportation or Lyfft. If we are going to stay for a few days, we do Enterprise car rental. Cheaper than adding the extra gas needed to tow, insurance, maintenance etc for a tow vehicle. Having said that, we are in the minority; most motorhomes tow. We do not travel in the winter. We haven't had any problems with letting it sit, though we do start the engine, move it a bit to change where it sits on the tires, check for mice, and run the generator for an hour with a load once a month. Fighting mice is harder in a motor home as the chassis and truck parts may hide small entry holes that mice can use, but you can't get to to plug up. Thinking of adding electric bikes. Enjoy!

 

[VKC]

Personal Choice

We have owned a Whitehawk travel trailer for the last 9 years and are considering moving into a Class C motorhome.

I'm seeking advice from others who have made the switch. What are the pros and cons of having a motorhome vs. a travel trailer. The biggest sticking point for us is not being mobile once we get to the campsite. We don't want to tow a TOAD because then we're back to towing something.
Has that been a big deterrent for those who move to a motorhome? What do you do to be mobile once you get to your destination?

Can anyone point me to other threads on this topic? Thanks for any thoughts you have.

I have camped in everything from a TENT to a CLASS A . I now have a Class C Jayco 29MV and tow a CRV. To me it is the best set up possible. It is a personal preference but I love the Class C.

 

[gunafulltime]

You do need to factor the cost of purchasing a toad, the maintenance of the toad, and the towing of a toad. If you already own the toad, that's a plus. Additionally, anything that's towed from a motor vehicle adds to the amount of situational awareness required and decreases the rig's mobility (at least to some degree).

While traveling in a small Class C has many advantages, motorhomes have their challenges, too. With a trailer, it's nice to be unencumbered when we leave our campsite to tour around or shop. With a motorhome, you have to hook and unhook from the campsite utilities every time you go somewhere. Of course you can rent a car, but that's more expense and coordination for the trip.

All RV types have their pros and cons. For us, it just comes down to the cost of a new motorhome. Plus, since we would not want to rent cars, we would need to purchase a toad and its hitch which adds to the cost (as do car rentals). If we were able to afford a new Class C and a toad, we would probably strongly make the purchases. There are many attractive aspects to the motorhome experience, especially as we age.

 

[Toad-ESC]

So we had considered such also and...

So my wife and considered the same and came to the conclusion that with a class A or C if you want to go into town or tour you will be towing a vehicle. We went with a travel trailer so that we could disconnect and use our tow vehicle to sight see...

We have owned a Whitehawk travel trailer for the last 9 years and are considering moving into a Class C motorhome.

I'm seeking advice from others who have made the switch. What are the pros and cons of having a motorhome vs. a travel trailer. The biggest sticking point for us is not being mobile once we get to the campsite. We don't want to tow a TOAD because then we're back to towing something.
Has that been a big deterrent for those who move to a motorhome? What do you do to be mobile once you get to your destination?

Can anyone point me to other threads on this topic? Thanks for any thoughts you have.

 

[Jagiven]

I would recommend renting one before purchasing one. I've rented a few over the years. Number 1 thing we did not like was all the road noise and rattles from the stuff in the kitchen cabinets.

 

[CHERV]

we do not have a car to tow behind our class c so we use Enterprise rental and they are great. they pick us up at the CG return just to CG. beats the purchase of a TOAD and insurance, maintenance, registration/inspections. spend about $2,500 yearly on vehicle rentals. a no brainer.

 

[VKC]

Great point but some places do not have car rentals and I made a trip and had reservations for cars and Enterprise dropped the ball at two of the places. I also keep some “stuff” in totes in the Honda and unload them at CG.

 

[CHERV]

we travel the northeast from Maine to New Jersey and have never had any issue with Enterprise rental. they are most accommodating. one thing we do is book a rental months in advance and no problem. in 30+ yrs of RV we take stock of items not used in 2 yrs and remove them. it doesn't take long for stuff to accumulate. in our travels we have witnessed RV'S with so many storage compartments bulging with stuff like they emptied out their house.unnecessary additional weight and efficient use of space.

 

[CW5AVRet]

Lots of very valid pros & cons about motorhomes vs. towables. We love our motorhome. This is our first & hopefully only RV. We were steered to MH for a reason that I haven't seen mentioned yet: medical/injury condition. My wife is a retired elementary school teacher with a very bad back after some 30 years in the classroom, hefting heavy bins full of schoolbooks, rearranging desks to separate talkative neighbors, and so on. She's now had five surgeries on her back and neck.

End result, she just cannot sit in one spot or position for more than an hour or so. So that rules out even the most luxurious truck, unless we want to stop for a stretch break every hour, which we don't. I removed the OEM trifold sofa & put in loveseat recliners (with the seatbelts from the sofa still attached) for her to sit in. She can also sit in the dinette (seatbelts there too). Or she can go back & lay on the bed if her back pain is too much for sitting. We know, unsafe & illegal, but we do everything we can to minimize risk and only on the open highway with no stops or sharp turns.

Another issue I haven't seen specifically mentioned is pets. We've never owned a towable, but it seems to me there are two choices: let the dog(s) and/or cat(s) run around loose in the truck with you, or put them in cages for the whole drive time. We have three cats who travel with us. They crawl back in their beds, and they know where their catbox is when nature calls (in the shower). This works very well for them & us

Best of luck in your search!

 

[VKC]

Great information. That initially led me to the MH because of the hooking up of the trailer. I have had 4 surgeries on my neck and back and need a 5th one but it is behind my lungs so I am reluctant.

 

[Kenbarb2023]

We have owned a Whitehawk travel trailer for the last 9 years and are considering moving into a Class C motorhome.

I'm seeking advice from others who have made the switch. What are the pros and cons of having a motorhome vs. a travel trailer. The biggest sticking point for us is not being mobile once we get to the campsite. We don't want to tow a TOAD because then we're back to towing something.
Has that been a big deterrent for those who move to a motorhome? What do you do to be mobile once you get to your destination?

Can anyone point me to other threads on this topic? Thanks for any thoughts you have.

It might just be me but in a motor home you are in an environment all day long driving and at the end of the day, that environment is the same. No change. In our tt, we’re in the truck driving and at the end of the day we have a totally new environment to be in. I like the change but again it might just be me.

 

[gunafulltime]

Interesting point. I get it. There is a an added lift to our spirit when we park the truck and enter the TT as our temporary home.

 

[Camper_bob]

We started out tenting, but both our parents owned various RVs growing up.

We decided to go all-in in 2014 with a large travel trailer (28BHBE). At that time it was just my wife and I and the dog. We did fine. Then our son came along in 2016. Our trailer was a bunkhouse, so it was fine, but our truck was at its limit, so we upgraded to a 3/4T Ram (gas engine), and were fine again. The trucks were always my daily drivers, and I used them at the deer lease quite a lot to haul feed and water up and down the goat trails out there. My Ram had plenty enough payload to haul spare fuel, generator, spare water, air compressor, tools... which I loaded up when we would take cross-country journeys with the trailer. If we needed to stop for some rest, I'd plug in the generator and we'd have AC in the trailer. It was a bit of a pain, but totally workable.

It was that scenario that got us thinking about a motor home.

Then one day we were sitting in stand-still traffic, and our son (then ~3 YO) stated he had to potty. Parents know that at that age, your elapsed time between notification and having to stop to change clothes is VERY short. Normally I would just pull off the road, and he would head back to the trailer and get it taken care of, but we couldn't do that as I was stuck in the 2nd of 5 lanes, not going anywhere. So the wife grabbed my Gatorade bottle (some guys, especially hunters, may understand the bottle; these days we just carry those disposable urinal bags...) and climbed to the back seat of the Ram to try to help him out. Let's just leave it at this; there was pee everywhere. She finally got him taken care of, cleaned up, strapped back in, and then plopped back down in the seat and said "we need a motor home".

So we traded the trailer in on a 29MV, sold the truck, and I bought a used Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Jeep was my daily driver, and I outfitted it for flat-tow. FWIW, I LOVED that Jeep, and would still have it but for an electrical gremlin, so now my primary toad (and daily driver) is a JLU.

Now, when anyone needs to potty, they just go. When anyone is hungry/thirsty, they just make a snack or grab a drink out of the fridge. Oftentimes we need to work while on the road, and that's super easy at the dinette. My boy can watch movies while we drive. My wife can work on crafts. I'm the primary driver, so DW can make me snacks when I get hungry. When we stop for fuel (which is less often in the motorhome than in the truck) I can set the pump to pumping and hop in the camper for a bio break without worries about waiting for a stall, or the cleanliness of the facility (they're our germs). Stopping for the night is much easier because we're completely self-contained and our rig is completely functional without putting out the slides. We had these last few advantages with the trailer too, but it's just easier with the MH.

We considered not getting a toad, or towing the truck, but at the end of the day we no longer needed a truck, and I still needed a daily driver, so we just chose one we could tow. We don't always tow it, but the advantages of having your own toad are numerous, and one of the biggest is complete independence. If I lose a tire on my rig, I'm not stuck waiting for roadside assistance. I can dismount the wheel/tire, throw it in the Jeep and go get it repaired or replaced (yes, I carry the tools to dismount a wheel from the MH). There are very few places we go where we're staying close to the rig all the time, so we have the freedom to go wherever we want (literally... it's a Jeep!) whenever we want. Plus IMO, towing the Jeep with the MH is "easier" than towing the trailer with the truck, though I never really found either that much of a challenge.

Sure, there are some additional challenges. With the toad, you cannot reverse, so you need to plan your maneuvering a little differently. I'm not afraid to unhook the Jeep if I need to, it takes me less than 5 minutes, and much less if I really get after it. It is an additional powertrain to maintain, but I'm a bit of a gear head and maintain/repair/upgrade ALL of my stuff anyway, so that's not such a big deal. Usage is another challenge; I know it's better to use it more, but we just don't have the chance as much as I'd like (more usage is a goal of mine this year), and I know the power/drive trains suffer because they're sitting so much. Since the truck was my DD, the trailer could sit for a long time and it wouldn't make much difference. Fuel mileage is a wash since both my vehicles were gassers, but if your TV is a diesel, that's a potential +1 to truck/trailer. Inside space is about equal in our case except for the shower, the shower in the BHBE was enormous, and I miss it sometimes. But a fifth wheel could offer a significant upgrade to space. Driving comfort is another challenge. I'll admit, my truck was generally more comfortable, and it is safer for the occupants in the event of a crash. But I use a memory foam pad in the MH, and that has made a significant difference. I have put in up to 17 hrs of "seat time" in the MH, and I don't think I could've done that in my truck. Granted, I don't really want to do it at all, but my MH is not uncomfortable.

Then there's the "entry fee". Since I need a DD anyway, I'm not going to consider my toad, but the truck needed to tow a large trailer could get pretty expensive, and in many cases could not act as a DD for some people. In my case, the truck and my Jeep were about a wash. Which brings me to the RV itself. Yes, the Class C was MUCH more expensive than any trailer we would've purchased. But if I were getting into a fifth wheel and a 1T truck, those differentials may narrow quite a lot.

But we're really happy traveling this way, and we very much look forward to our trips. This configuration just works really well for us. I agree that there are SO many options in the RV world, you just have to pick the best option for your circumstances...

 

[440scout]

How often do you travel? A motorhome is another engine you need to maintain, and engines don't really like sitting. Seals dry up, belts start to dry rot, things go bad. If you're driving it every month or two, you're probably fine. If you drive it once in the fall to Florida, and once in the Spring back home, expect some problems.

Depending upon where you go and what time of year you go, you may find that these new electric bikes can help you go mobile. We have lots of friends in Florida that don't toad a vehicle behind their motorhomes anymore. They have electric bikes that can go 30+ miles on a full charge that they take to the beach, to the pickleball courts, to the supermarket a couple times a week, out to dinner, etc. Add some saddlebags and you can carry your groceries, etc. If you need to go someplace further, call an Uber.

Then again, if you are going to Yosemite, you may find that a bike isn't a viable option and Uber is few and far between. Or if you aren't going to warm locales all the time, you might not want to be riding a bike in the 40 degree weather and rain.

Everything is a tradeoff.

Another disadvantage to a motorhome is refilling the propane tank. Because it's not a portable tank you must drive to a place that can refill the tank. No more easy propane exchanges. Also if your motorhome breaks down, it could be in the repair shop for a week or more. Then you have to stay in a motel.

 

[KurtPal]

We have owned a Whitehawk travel trailer for the last 9 years and are considering moving into a Class C motorhome.

I'm seeking advice from others who have made the switch. What are the pros and cons of having a motorhome vs. a travel trailer. The biggest sticking point for us is not being mobile once we get to the campsite. We don't want to tow a TOAD because then we're back to towing something.
Has that been a big deterrent for those who move to a motorhome? What do you do to be mobile once you get to your destination?

Can anyone point me to other threads on this topic? Thanks for any thoughts you have.

I don't have any experience towing a trailer but I have a wrangler behind my motorhome and I don't even know it's back there. Cost vs convenience. My wife and I will be starting out full time this July we want comfort and convenience, and the ability to go where we want when we want, and yes cost is a factor for us. I would think towing a longer trailer behind a full size truck would take more consideration while driving, but as I said I have 0 experience towing a trailer. Yes, access to the interior comforts while on the road without stopping is pretty nice.

 

[Camper_bob]

Another disadvantage to a motorhome is refilling the propane tank. Because it's not a portable tank you must drive to a place that can refill the tank. No more easy propane exchanges. Also if your motorhome breaks down, it could be in the repair shop for a week or more. Then you have to stay in a motel.

I look at this as a wash since tank exchanges are a rip off anyway. MUCH more cost efficient to have your portable tanks filled at a propane fill station. Really, since I don't participate in tank exchanges (unless I need a new tank), it's not more difficult to fill the RV's tank in my situation. I also carry a portable tank sometimes, and I intend to put a connection on my on-board tank ("Stay-n-Play") that will allow me to connect a portable tank, and/or run my regulated grill or propane fire pit from the on-board tank. It may be a little less convenient, but it's really no big deal if you're paying attention.

Funny story about having my tank filled that speaks to this potential disadvantage though: I had forgotten to fill my tank, and we were getting a little low. No one to blame here but that man in the mirror, I simply wasn't paying attention. We were out with some friends sitting around the campfire chatting, and a propane truck drove by through the campground. I immediately jumped up and started running after him. Now, I'm no spring chicken, and I wear XXL clothes. Everyone got a kick out of seeing my fat arse sprinting through the CG in my flip-flops. Confused the heck out of my friends since I just jumped out of my chair and started running without a word. I eventually caught him, and when I did he admitted he'd seen me for a bit before I caught up to him... He figured to slow down just a little, and figured I could use the exercise! LOL!! We all got a good laugh, and I got my tank filled on-site that day. I handed the guy a decent tip for his "unscheduled" stop!!

Needless to say, I pay a little closer attention now. On our last winter trip North, it was no big deal for me to stop at a Tractor Supply and top up my tank before we got into the really cold area/weather. Also, I'm fortunate that the storage lot where I store my rig deals propane too.