We bought an RV!

Yep.. you read that correctly. We’ve wanted to “go tiny” for such a long time researching tiny homes/shipping containers/sprinter vans and finally bit the bullet on a Class C 2007 Winnebago View 24H. I refer to it as a “van” which the real van lifers probably don’t like, Jeffery keeps calling it a “truck” which the real truckers probably don’t like, but in all reality it’s technically an RV. It’s 24 feet long and weights around 10,000 lbs. Apparently, our year model was the year that Dodge and Mercedes worked together so the exterior has a Mercedes logo but the interior logo is Dodge.. random but it has something to do with the chassis (I’m not mechanically savy). It’s a diesel engine and we’ve been getting between 11-13 mpg depending on how smooth we drive her. We named her Winnie.

Why did we buy the van?

We bought the van because we wanted the freedom to travel domestically during 2021. When COVID happened, a lot of our international plans were cancelled and that sucked. We did some domestic travel out west in November of 2020 and saw how many RV’s and vans there were on the road. We paid a lot of money on rental cars, flights and hotels and figured that it would be cheaper in the long run to buy the RV and travel that way. Plus you don’t have to backtrack to sleep every night at a hotel when you’re in the middle of no-where. You can just sleep in your van!

How much was it?

I’ll be honest, the main reason we were attracted to Winnie was because of the price. We bought at the peak of the market in the RV and #vanlife world (post-COVID). We originally wanted a sprinter van. We were looking specifically at a Mercedes Interstate but they were running around $120-$150k and we were not about to pay that price (you can buy a few rental houses for that price!) We also weren’t a fan of the size of the bathroom in the Interstate. Our View had low mileage, 2 previous owners and a much larger bathroom. Winnie ran us right at $40k with tag, title and taxes. It was the largest expense we’ve ever had other than rental properties and housing but we’ve been pleased with her so far.

How’s it going?

So far, it’s going great. The only issues we’ve had have been mechanical. We replaced a fuel filter, air filters and had to fix a boost leak. We’ve spent about 4 hours fixing issues. The only gripe we have is the sleeping situation. Our van had 3 separate sleeping options when we bought it- an XL twin size bed above the cab, a full size futon fold out couch, and a twin size dinette/bed. Jeffery is 6 foot 3 inches so none of these options were working out well for him. We removed the fold out futon and built an office desk space so we could work remotely while traveling so that left us with 2 options. I took the dinette bed and Jeffery was up top (which he did not like). It’s very tight up there and it makes you feel like you are sleeping in a coffin (no offense Winnebago). We ended up bringing a twin sized fold-up bed frame and mattress from our home and every night we’ve been setting it up inside the open floor space in the van with the slide extended. Jeffery can fully extend this way and it’s working for now.. Ideally, we’d like to have a queen bed so we can sleep together and have plenty of room for our heads/feet to extend.

Where are you parking?

We have parked all over! We spent a few days with family plugged into their homes, parked in the city in Chicago, rest stops, parking lots and campgrounds. We can literally park just about anywhere that has a standard sized parking spot because of the size of the RV. We overhang the back of the spot by a few feet but people are still able to move around us with no issues. So far, we’ve been using sites like Campendium and Passport America to help us find places to stay. I’ll have a separate post about all of the RV apps we’ve been using but these have been our top two so far. I’ve linked Passport America below, they usually offer 50% discounts to campgrounds which is great to save some money while on the road.

Where to next?

Short answer, it depends! With Jeffery’s current job he may be facing relocation to Ohio. This would mean we’d have to completely uproot in Georgia and move out of state. He would start going in office (he’s been remote for 2 years) and I would either have to go remote (my company is based in Georgia) or find a new position. For now we’re taking weekend trips in the Winnebago and seeing as much as possible!