We had been looking at RVs for a long time, focusing mostly on class B versions. Class B RVs are on van chassis and stay within the van footprint, as a result the Class B RVs are very manageable compared to their larger siblings. Most Class B can be driven in cities, parked in normal spots, and genarraly fit into tighter situations than you would ever consider for a much larger Class A or Class C (when most people think of RVs they are usually envisioning Class A or C).
We decided on a 2017 Winnebago Travato. We chose the 59g floorplan and waited for the 2017 1/2 models to come out with their few nice mid-year improvements.
Continued after the jump!
One of the first things I did was de-badge it. There were lots of large "Winnebago Touring Coach" and "Travato" badges.
One of the big advantages of the "deluxe granite" color option is the nice auto-like appearance. So de-badging was in order. It looks nice and clean now:
Now that was taken care of, we needed to represent! Go Ducks! Our inaugural road trip in the van coincided with the Oregon Ducks appearance in the NCAA Final Four. A good time to set this up. My wife has a Cricut which she can use to make all kinds of cool stuff. She made the vinyl decals for me.
Our inaugural voyage was from Portland to Anaheim and back. We took four people and our dog, and spent 5 days. It was a blast. We did some boondocking, and some hook-up camping. Here is our first hook-up camping. This was at Morro Bay state park in California.
There I was able to really test all the water and electrical systems for the first time. Unfortunately we had a heck of a wind storm that evening, so we didn't do much outside - but that did allow us to see what it was like spending time inside the unit playing cards and whatnot.
When the family was in the back, the dog would take the opportunity to steal the co-pilot seat.
Over the course of the trip we drove about 2500 miles and overall averaged 15.5mpg. That's not too bad. There are a good many mountain miles in there, and about 50% of our return trip was driving straight into a 15mph head-wind for hours. There was also a significant amount of in-city driving around Los Angeles doing touristy things, and lots of traffic. Our best tank we got 17.6mpg. Our worst tank was 13.1.
We are still dialing in the use of the RV, figuring out where to store things and how to set things up. So far it has been really fun.
I did make one mod already, that was to install Sumo Springs. I won't go into it in detail, there is good info at The Fit RV about them. But here they are in case you were curious:
The purchasing process was really bumpy. We didn't have the best time there but eventually it all worked out. We are keeping the list of the little things that you find in every RV that you always have. That's what warranties are for. So far the only serious thing is the propane shut-off mechanism doesn't work well, so they're replacing that. Until that gets fixed we don't use any of our propane appliances - but that's not too much of a hassle right now. The parts are on order...
Well, that's about all I have about our new toy at this time. Keep checking back and I'll keep you up to date with our Travato experiences!
We decided on a 2017 Winnebago Travato. We chose the 59g floorplan and waited for the 2017 1/2 models to come out with their few nice mid-year improvements.
Continued after the jump!
One of the first things I did was de-badge it. There were lots of large "Winnebago Touring Coach" and "Travato" badges.
One of the big advantages of the "deluxe granite" color option is the nice auto-like appearance. So de-badging was in order. It looks nice and clean now:
Now that was taken care of, we needed to represent! Go Ducks! Our inaugural road trip in the van coincided with the Oregon Ducks appearance in the NCAA Final Four. A good time to set this up. My wife has a Cricut which she can use to make all kinds of cool stuff. She made the vinyl decals for me.
Our inaugural voyage was from Portland to Anaheim and back. We took four people and our dog, and spent 5 days. It was a blast. We did some boondocking, and some hook-up camping. Here is our first hook-up camping. This was at Morro Bay state park in California.
There I was able to really test all the water and electrical systems for the first time. Unfortunately we had a heck of a wind storm that evening, so we didn't do much outside - but that did allow us to see what it was like spending time inside the unit playing cards and whatnot.
When the family was in the back, the dog would take the opportunity to steal the co-pilot seat.
Over the course of the trip we drove about 2500 miles and overall averaged 15.5mpg. That's not too bad. There are a good many mountain miles in there, and about 50% of our return trip was driving straight into a 15mph head-wind for hours. There was also a significant amount of in-city driving around Los Angeles doing touristy things, and lots of traffic. Our best tank we got 17.6mpg. Our worst tank was 13.1.
We are still dialing in the use of the RV, figuring out where to store things and how to set things up. So far it has been really fun.
I did make one mod already, that was to install Sumo Springs. I won't go into it in detail, there is good info at The Fit RV about them. But here they are in case you were curious:
The purchasing process was really bumpy. We didn't have the best time there but eventually it all worked out. We are keeping the list of the little things that you find in every RV that you always have. That's what warranties are for. So far the only serious thing is the propane shut-off mechanism doesn't work well, so they're replacing that. Until that gets fixed we don't use any of our propane appliances - but that's not too much of a hassle right now. The parts are on order...
Well, that's about all I have about our new toy at this time. Keep checking back and I'll keep you up to date with our Travato experiences!
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