Do I Buy a Motorhome or an EV?
A follower emailed this week and asked us:
If you had it to do over again would you still buy your Class A or go straight to your EV?
When I finished the email, I thought it was something worth sharing with everyone. Hopefully, if you've been pondering this same question, it will help you as well. Or even if you're not considering an EV, it'll shed a little light on going bigger vs smaller, Class A or C vs a Truck Camper, etc.
Let us know what you prefer as your mode of travel in the comments below! Do you have another question you'd like us to answer in the Blog or Vlog? Submit it here!
Scott,
In regards to your question about EV vs Class A, I would reply with less of an answer and more with a series of questions back to you, b/c we loved our Class A and miss many things about her on a daily basis, but for the kind of travel we have elected to pursue at this point, the EV is a better fit, so I don't think it's one over the other, it's just different.
The overarching question has to be what do you want out of the rig?
Do you want to go overseas or stay strictly on North America?
I ask this question first because it's quite simple, if you want to go overseas at all, then a Class A just won't due and an EV is your best bet. However, if you want to stay on the North American Continent maybe spend some time down in Mexico, then your options open up. You can consider a Class A, a Super C or if you really want 4x4 consider a nice 1 ton pickup truck with a cabover that has slides, you get the creature comforts of a traditional motorhome, more space than an EV and still have 4X4 that takes you most anywhere you want to go, but between truck and camper you're going to spend less than 1/2 of what say an Earth Cruiser costs. A truck camper isn't really the best option for overseas travel, b/c you want a globally serviceable chassis and the reality is a 1 ton chassis from the States is not. You are not going to find parts for the modern emissions components on your Ford F-350 in Mongolia.
Where and when do you want to be able to travel?
If you want to be able to go skiing in the mountains in the winter, then I'd say EV or 4x4 with cabover, if you want to escape cold weather and spend your winters in FL or AZ or Baja, then I'd say Class A or Super C. If you want to travel overseas, you should consider Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and DEF Fluid. Lastly, fuel sources should be considered. If you need diesel to run your engine, it's much more convenient to have a stove, heater, hot water heater that also runs off of diesel versus having to find propane as well. If you do have propane, you'll have to have propane tank adaptors for each of the countries/regions you'll travel to.
Who will travel with you and what kind of room do you want to have for family and guests?
You can find EV's that will fit more people, but you'll spend considerably more, whereas you can get bunks and pullout couches and drop down beds and dining tables in Class A's/C's. We have found it very limiting to not have room for guests. Our parents like to come and travel with us on occasion and if they sleep in the EV with us, their bed is over the fridge. Imagine asking a guest to move their bed in the morning when you need your coffee creamer, it's a challenge. Plus there's nowhere for their luggage to be stored. On the flip side, it's a nice excuse to get an AirBnB when they come to visit, we get a break from the EV and everyone has plenty of room to spread out, so it's always about the compromises you'd prefer to make.
What do you value most in a vehicle...comfort, room, storage, being able to go anywhere, on any road, any time of the year?
If you want lots of room and comfortable places to eat and relax, then a Class A is your choice, if you like living "out of the vehicle," would rather sit outside in a comfy camp chair, but be at the end of a road you had to kick into 4x4 to get to, then hands down an EV or Truck Camper.
What is your budget?
Consider what you can buy in a Class A, a Truck Camper or even a Super C vs an EV at your chosen price point. We were very hard pressed to find an EV for the price we did and we made a LOT of sacrifices. Not to say we couldn't have had more creature comforts, we chose our price point because we were adamant about not going into debt to buy this rig. Thus it was our choice, we had our reasons and we were willing to do with less to meet our financial goals. To get the same creature comforts and high end look in an EV as you can in a Class A, you'll get into the $250k-300k or MORE range in an EV (examples: an Earth Cruiser is $300k baseline and you live in something that feels like an igloo cooler, GXV has a show build Adventure Truck (so one of their lower end rigs) on sale for $270K and a used Turtle (their entry level rig) for $185k right now). Having said that if your budget allows, the quality and craftsmanship in an EV will far surpass anything you can get in the newer Class A's unless you go with a Tiffin or Newmar and even then the RV's are still not made with the same quality as the EV's.
Last question: What are your intentions: full time or part time living?
Class A's/C's are easy for full time living, you have ample space and storage. EV's built to go overseas tend to be in the 21'-24' range and a good chunk of that length is taken up by your truck cab that doesn't double as living space like your cabin space in a Class A, so you live in a much smaller space and have considerably less storage. Having said that after 9 months in Denny, we have really fine tuned what we truly need to LIVE and what we actually use regularly vs what we were just used to always having at hand, but could honestly do without. Full Time living is very doable in an EV if you try to go from the angle we did: Pretend you're backpacking around the world and pack your personal items accordingly. Then stock your truck to be able to: cook/BBQ, maintain the vehicle, carry items like paper towels and toilet paper, allow storage space for food items, adventure gear and off season clothing/shoes. When you're done with that whatever extra room you have is the icing on top that you can relish. It requires a minimalistic mindset, but the benefits of developing that mindset seem to expand daily. If you plan to use the rig for a few weeks or even a few months here and there and you return to your home base for day to day life, then the limited space of the EV will be totally fine and you'll love the flexibility the smaller rig gives you. You won't have to worry about finding parking because you fit in a single parking space, you won't have to worry about getting turned around if you get lost, or narrow streets in old towns, you can plan to go anywhere and do anything you want without consulting Google Earth to see if you can fit there. That is PRICELESS and such a relief after 7 years of being 46' long and having to address such matters every time we drove the Class A/tow trailer.
Hopefully this helps you narrow things down a bit :)
R~