The View backed behind our house. The big power mirrors and rear view camera make it pretty easy to maneuver, given it’s size.
Shortly after buying the Audi A3 for my daughter, I woke up one morning to a text from my mom. “We’re going to have to sell the View, your Dad just doesn’t have the energy for it any longer. Just wanted to tell you in case you would be interested”.
Well, I hadn’t gone to bed thinking about buying an RV, no. But I was interested. I knew that after some recent health setbacks, my parents had rediscovered the joy of flying versus driving long distances. Well, I guess it is a relative “joy”. You arrive quicker, anyway. We had a “bunkhouse” travel trailer we used quite a bit when the kids were smaller, and really enjoyed it. We would still have it, but they outgrew the kid sized beds, about the same time being cooped up in a travel trailer with mom and dad wasn’t fun anymore.
Mom and Dad had one RV or another for going on the past 20 years. They started with an Airstream trailer,
then a gas A Class,
then a diesel pusher or two. In 2015, they decided to downsize to a more manageable RV from the 40+ foot thing they were driving.
Our View behind the house again. The rear slide is for the queen bed. The entry steps are power deployed, and put themselves away when you shift into “D”. Lower skirt doors left to right are storage, Onan generator, and outdoor TV.
They special ordered this Winnebago View from the factory, loaded up just the way they wanted it. Full body paint, check. Diesel Onan generator (though they never camp anywhere without full hookups), check. Chromed aluminum wheels, check. Heat pump on the roof, check. Extra bed over the cab, check. Convection oven/microwave, check. L-shaped sofa/dinette, check. Heated holding tanks, though they winterize it and don’t use it in the winter, check. DVD home theater system with three TV’s, yada yada yada.
The side slideout is the L-shaped sofa, which serves as a dinette with a removable table. No room is wasted; door under rear slide is large storage under the bed. Skirt door at the rear corner has all water and power connections. Door under the side slideout has wastewater connections and valves.
It was intended to be their last RV. They wanted something smaller, easier to drive, and cheaper to maintain. With a side slideout for the dinette/sofa, and a rear slide for the bedroom, it was quite roomy for a couple.
The front cab seats swivel all the way around for more seating when parked.
The bedroom slide is “deployed” here. Because the mattress flips up in half to close the “bedroom”, and then it’s a about a twin size – I thought it was the best mattress in UK of the kind, as its even still usable by one person, without the slide. TV swings on hinges towards the front for easier viewing, and to access cabinet behind it.
The kitchen has an LP gas stove (under the hinged metal cover in this picture). The fridge runs on LP gas, 120 volts when you are plugged in to “shore power”, or 12 volts when you are driving and want to conserve your LP gas.
With the Onan diesel generator, you can camp where there are no connections. Of course, you can camp without a generator, but by running it during allowed hours in, say, a national park, you can use the microwave, run the AC during daylight hours, use the TV, charge the house batteries, etc. It uses about 3/10 of a gallon per hour and is connected to the same 36 gallon tank as the drivetrain.
Middle part of bunk flips up for easier cab access….when flipped back into place, it has latches for the ladder to be in the middle of the bunk. This shows the “stowage” position for the ladder.
With the optional bunk bed over the cab, it would work for us and our youngest, who is almost 16.
Taking delivery in the Summer of 2015 at age 70, they planned to use it for 10 years or so and then call it quits.
In the Summer of 2016, my Dad had some sudden health issues involving surgery, from which he has somewhat recovered. But, he doesn’t have the stamina or ability to drive for hours he used to, and taking days or weeks to go somewhere (or nowhere in particular) doesn’t appeal to them any longer.
After an initial burst of usage, they logged 13,000 miles in it the first year and barely 6,000 miles the past two years. After three years and about 19,000 miles, they wanted to exit the highway, literally and figuratively.
The first question of course, was how much do you want for it? I had not paid it much attention and maybe stepped in it one time. I didn’t recall what model year it was, even.
It is titled as a 2016 Winnebago View, riding on a 2015 Mercedes Sprinter 3500 chassis with a 3.0 V6 turbodiesel. The MSRP was $138,000.00 and that’s about what they paid, ordering it as they did. They had taken it to a couple of dealers who told them they would buy it outright from them for $50,000.00. My Dad was guessing the dealers would then try to get $80,000.00 or more for it. He had no interest in trying to sell it himself, with all the scammers and criminals out there.
If I wanted it for the $50,000.00, it was mine, as he would much rather me get the “upside” than some dealer. And, he could still visit it at my house.
My wife and I went the next weekend to look at it. Knowing my parents as I do, I knew it would be in BETTER than new condition, I just wanted them to give me a walkaround. They have always kept it waxed and serviced (though hardly any service has been called for thus far).
They had carpet cut and bound into a custom fit “mat” for the cab area carpet. They added extensions to the dual rear wheel valves so you can check the air easier. They had the clear 3M “bra” applied to the front end. He added padded arm rests to the hard plastic Sprinter door panels, which I thought were factory. He replaced the drawer and cabinet catches with heavier duty ones after a drawer flew open in a curve. He added a trickle charger to the chassis battery under the driver’s floorboard, and to the house batteries under the entry stairs. He amassed a medium box of new spare parts, one of every item he read online might fail and leave you stranded. He kept a log book of every fillup and DEF fluid topoff. And so on, it’s a retired person’s paradise of little projects.
What little service had been required (front end alignment after you load it full, one bad ABS sensor, and one oil & filter) had been done a couple of hours away at a Freightliner Oasis garage. These are heavy duty truck shops that set aside space to cater to the RV crowd, and have “boot camps” for new RV owners. This usually means a dozen or so full hookup campsites on premises in case you need to hang around for a part, a dog park, a nicer lounge area for the RV folks, and special training and lifts so they don’t damage the RV parts while they wrench on the underside.
The service required by the Mercedes chassis is really minimal. Mobil 1 0w30 ESP oil and filter every 20,000 miles (or every 10,000 miles, if you use something easier to find like Rotella synthetic 5w40). Fuel filter every 40,000 miles, it’s up on top of the engine where it is easy to access. The tough old Mercedes 5 speed automatic needs fluid and filter at 40,000 miles, and then every 80,000 after that. I’ve got the filter and fluid in my garage from some other Mercedes, and you can get under the RV to do it without any kind of lifting. “Every 9th oil change” is the differential and coolant, which is an odd way to express it.
Like the Audi, the Sprinter uses diesel exhaust fluid. It holds 4.5 gallons and uses it at a much faster clip than the Audi, as you might imagine. Dad reports about 1,800 miles per gallon of DEF. The DEF tank and filler is under the hood of a Sprinter chassis/cab, so it doesn’t interfere with the upfitting.
It will tow about 4000 pounds. They flat-towed a Subaru with a stick, so you can leave it in neutral. I could buy a tow dolly and tow the ES350 since it is front wheel drive, but a final decision on that can wait. A local rental through Hertz or Enterprise is pretty cheap, so if you are going to stay put in one place for a week or more, rent a car if you want to. As Uber spreads, it’s a great way to get a ride to a nice dinner or local sights as well.
We are taking our maiden voyage close to the house next weekend, but we plan to drive the View about 1400 miles round trip to move our son into college this Fall. And, probably drive the 5200 miles round trip to California in 2019 to see our daughter, and visit some colleges along the way with our youngest son. We could fly, but I’ve always wanted to drive across the country. I’m going to start branching out further from home for my half marathons since I could pull up the night before and just sleep in the View (I’m one of those people who can’t sleep in hotels). Sounds like some potential CC material!
I have mixed feelings on these. I am not a camper, so that utility would be lost on me. However, the ability to essentially haul a free hotel room around with you has some appeal, along with the ability to stretch out and walk around a bit while someone drives.
It sounds like you hit the sweet spot for buying one – pristine condition from someone you know and for a great price.
Gee, when my parents ask me if I’d like something of theirs, it’s usually something like Grandma’s old blender. Or worse. When my folks moved out of their house, Dad made a special effort to ship his old toilet snake down to me.
But regarding the RV… these are really growing on me. I love camping, but as I get further into my 40s, tent camping is losing some of its appeal. This size of RV makes a whole lot of sense, since it’s roomy enough for a family of four, but still manageable to drive into town.
However, the price of new ones is astronomical, and I can’t fathom buying a used one. Getting the chance, however, to purchase a lightly-used example from a (trusted) family member would be a no-brainer!
Ideally, I’d take mine with less luxuries, but that seems nearly impossible to find, from what I recall from looking at RV-dealer websites.
Good luck on your upcoming trips — looking forward to hearing more about the View!
What an impressive piece of kit. I shudder to think what it cost your parents per mile. Ouch.
We just upgraded our camping rig from a tent trailer to something with (mostly) solid walls. Feels like the lap of luxury.
Photos please!
What a deal! Depreciation on new motorhomes can be brutal.
It’s not what I would want for our type of camping in the boonies, but that’s why I’m building ours from scratch. Although that’s taking a bit longer than expected…
I wonder how all those slide-outs and other complicated feature will age? I don’t know that I’d want this for the long haul, due to the likely maintenance.
Looking for the update
These Sprinter and Transit class C rigs look nice but they are very pricey and no provision for hauling gear. I’d like something like the European class Cs with the “garage” compartment in the back to hold bicycles or a collapsible kayak. I guess i could set one up with a small box trailer to securely haul bikes and maybe a motorcycle.
Then again I may be better off with a light camper trailer and a van or pickup.
Lily has this magnet on our fridge. $138K could buy one nice motorhome or many years of nice motel nights.
PS: That Airstream sure is good looking.
I’m with MikePDX: I can stay in as many five star hotels as I want on just the oppurtunity cost of such a device.
But to each their own.
My wife’s parents are avid campers, pretty much from when the snow melts until it flies again they are camping somewhere. (Plus usually a couple trips over the winter) My wife inherited the “camping gene” from them, so we have been going 6-8 times every summer ourselves. We have a 25-year old, rodent-gnawed pop up currently. My wife is looking at self-propelled rigs like the one above, but new they cost as much as our house did… ? and used ones tend to be in (sometimes much) worse shape than advertised. Someday we’ll have a nice rig like this… Enjoy your awesome rig, OP, I’m jealous of it!
I’m with the stay in a hotel brigade on this one. My father made an International Metro into a camper. Total cost was about $100. Granted that was 60 years ago but it was still a cheap rig. I just don’t see any economic savings in these new RV’S. Even if I could afford one, which I can’t, parking something so big in a tourist area can totally blow.
All excellent comments! There are many ways to look at these RV’s, pro and con. I don’t think of them as saving any money, though they MIGHT, depending on how you use them.
We would never have bought something like this new, or used at the dealer price. And it is hard to find a good, clean used model, though they are out there.
For those of you in other parts of the country, I suggest RV dealers along I-95 in Georgia and Florida. They have lots of nearly new RV’s they have rented, so they have been maintained. And, they have lots of nearly new RV’s where people realize their “dream” of hitting the road isn’t all it was cracked up to be or they get too old to do it, and they sell them back to the dealer.
My parents’ depreciation per mile was nuts…..but, being retired, they drove it to the beach and stayed for a couple of months in the winter. They would drive most of the way across the country to where my sister and her family live, and stay for a month. They would take off with no plan at all and stay gone for a month. So, they had more overnights than the mileage might indicate.
As we are still working, my wife and I might stay gone for a week at a time in it. It won’t be a “savings” versus a hotel, but:
1. We like the camping experience. You have your own pillow and bedding, and you don’t have to live out of a suitcase. Space is tight, but you “settle in” and don’t pack and unpack with each new town, if you are seeing multiple sights.
2. Campgrounds vary, but are generally underappreciated. Since we bought our camper trailer in 2007, there was only one campground in GA we visited that was sketch and I marked down as “never return”. Most of them are quite decent and quiet hours are strictly adhered to. Ask for a “premium” or “patio” site when you book or arrive. These are often unadvertised and a few dollars more gets you a patio or deck, outdoor furniture, more private area, chiminea, more tree cover, etc.
2. We like being able to eat and cook our own food. While I like going out to eat as much as the next person, I DON’T like to do it for an entire week or more. My wife is pre-diabetic so staying close to her diet is important.
I’ve slept in tents and 5 star hotels, they’re all great. Something for everyone!
Hear hear. Five years ago we spent a summer driving across Canada, and would not have even entertained the thought if we’d had to stay in motels. We stayed in 30 places, in the same bed every night.
Congrats on your rig. I look forward to updates!
My parents, who never were campers, bought a trailer about a year ago. And to their credit, they’ve been getting a lot of use out it. Granted, at about $20k, the payback is a bit sooner than a $138k RV, though they didn’t have the truck either so they had to buy that too.
I went looking with them, and it was a lot of fun going inside of them and checking them out. The space utilization is pretty amazing, with no nook and cranny unused. Incidentally, the layout of the kitchen in their trailer looks almost identical to yours, with the fridge/sink/microwave in the same place more or less, right next the door.
One thing that amused me while looking at these is just how many TVs they like to cram into them. Does an RV that’s maybe 25 feet long really need 3 TVs? My parents aren’t big TV people (I’m not either), so one of the first customizations they did was to remove the one TV that they couldn’t delete and built a spice-rack type shelf in its place to hold various odds and ends.