We finished our last post in January and while it seemed like an ending, it was not. We still have decisions to make about our RV ownership. But there’s one decision that we did make, and that is to hold off on doing any additional repairs and just get out there and enjoy having an RV!

After leaving the RV show in Florida we didn’t know what to do. We were excited to see all of the new offerings, but to be honest nothing really spoke to us enough to trade up. If there was an RV that had the matching “advertised” capabilities as the Roadtrek, then we certainly would have made a move.

As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, I work full time and a small RV has given me the freedom to venture away from home for 2 to 3 days at a time and remain completely self contained. Our 2 longest adventures so far have been to the Roadtrek factory in Canada, and the RV show in Florida, both about a week or so away from home.

Hiding under the palms on our trip to Florida

Yes, we’ve experienced many, many bumps in the road, but don’t let this discourage you from considering a Class B RV, or any RV for that matter. I’ve learned over time that problems will arise, and sometimes will take several attempts to get fixed. I don’t know if this is just the way it is, but repairs that you would think should take a couple of days usually take a couple of weeks, sometimes more.

Since the main systems seem to be working on our RV, we’ve finally had the confidence to hit the road and enjoy the sights, and for a change not have to focus on getting problems repaired. At the same time we’re taking notes on how we use our RV, and if we do make a change we want to pick the RV that best suits our needs.

I am glad we made the decision to purchase a van on the Sprinter chassis. I am still a little nervous about finding diesel in the less travelled areas, but we’re averaging about 18 mpg so a tank of fuel goes a long way. The van is also very easy to drive, and easy to park too. I have no problem parallel parking or fitting into a standard parking space. We are still much longer than a standard car or truck, so if we park in a shopping center I prefer backing into an end space so the back end is against a curb. I do wish that the stock navigation system was better (the screen flickers when going over bumps – bravo Mercedes), and the backup camera has a very narrow field of view, but these are minor annoyances that we can live with.

Stopped for the evening at Camp Walmart

The CS Adventurous has a bench sofa in the back that converts to a bed. The cushions just don’t give us enough support, so we’ve added a foam topper to the bed and it now works great. Once we set the bed up on the first night out, it’s just too much work to disassemble it in the morning. It’s a bit of an ordeal to put the topper away – we roll it up, bag it, and use a portable vacuum to compress the bag into a zippered fabric cover we made just for this purpose. The comfort it adds to the bed is worth it though. And luckily we have three seats in the front which convert to a nice dining area, so keeping the bed set up works for us.

Would you like fries with that? Our co-pilot Penny says absolutely!

I’ve taken my punches at Roadtrek for their quality control issues, but I will give them credit for designing a nice looking van, and the floor plan works pretty well for us. Speaking of quality control issues…