Drawbacks/advantages of an American RV over a European motorhome

[chenderson1965]

Hi,

I have just retired and are going to buy a motorhome for touring in both the UK and mainland Europe. We’ve done a fair amount of research and concluded that we need an A class between 7m and 8m.

Looking around at what’s on the market it seems that you can find American RVs at what look like extremely attractive prices compared to UK/European alternatives and often offering more space. One of the reasons for this is clearly that they tend to have very large engines and therefore much higher fuel consumption as well as because they usually left-hand drive.

What I’m wondering is whether there are any other advantages or disadvantages it that I might be failing to see given my inexperience and lack of knowledge. For example, one listing I was reading seem to suggest that the electrics were 6V rather than 12V. I’m not sure how much of an issue this is?

What other factors should I bear in mind (both positive and negative) when considering an American RV as an alternative to a UK/European model?

Thanks a lot.

Chris

 

[olley]

All rv's are 12volt, the mains voltage they are built for is 110volts not our 240. Normally a transformer will have been fitted so all the american appliances work ok and you may have some/many 240sockets fitted.
Generally they are well equipped with large fridge freezers, aircon cab and roof ect.

They are usually wider than European vans which is a plus on site, but can make manoeuvring on to your pitch more difficult.
Drawback is as you have mentioned fuel consumption.

 

[tuscancouple]

We had an RV for eleven years, visited all over Europe and had a great time. As Olley has said they use a bit of fuel, ours was 6.8ltr, V10, however they can be converted to run on gas which gives a much better consumption. Need to be sensible on which routes you choose, they are typically long, ours was 9.4m and wide. However when on a campsite they are unbeatble, loads of space, three slide outs, full size fridge/freezer, cooker, shower and proper toilet. Just like being at home!

We moved to a PVC as after eleven years we wanted to visit those places that we couldn't get the RV into

Mick

 

[olley]

I have been looking at downsizing to a European but I am getting some serious moaning from the wife. With two slides once pitched up you have loads of room inside which she loves.
As a compromise I have been looking at rv's like the Concord.
At over 7.5tons she can't drive ours, it would be nice to have someone share the driving hence downsizing.

 

[tuscancouple]

I've had to get used to banging my head in the PVC, something that never happened in the RV, however there are upsides. We've already been to some places that we just wouldn't have done with the RV. Parking is a sight simpler as well!

Mick

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[Julian Dearson]

For me, being 6'5" a European was really a non-starter. We started with an old 1996 Winnebago Brave and about three years ago upgraded to a 2007 Winnebago Sightseer. We absolute love it and spend as much time in it as we can.

Our's is a 35" 10 tonne beast fortunately on LPG, I get about 7 mpg but on the basis of LPG being half the price of unleaded/diesel the fuel costs are a little more palatable. In my experience general running costs are IRO £1000 a year for servicing etc. but obviously this can be impacted by mileage and age of the RV.

We rarely use large sites and have never had an issue getting on a site, although we always check with the owner and I also use Google maps/streetview etc. to do as much research as possible. We are regularly told by owners we are the largest van they've ever had! Currently we are on a little CL site in the Pennines on grass without any problems. I have never had any issues with either van being LHD and indeed when on the continent it feels even easier. I will comfortably cruise on the motorway at 60 and once of the main roads I rely on a decent motorhome designed sat nav to steer me right; I've never had any problems.

There is no doubt in my mind that the level of equipment and build quality on an RV is superior to any European van. We have double slides and have acres of room, full-sized fridge; decent sized freezer; walk-around double bed; king-sized sofa-bed; masses of storage; external shower (useful for washing the dog!) to name but a few benefits.

In terms of electric we have 13 240v sockets all available when we are on hook-up; three leisure batteries; an invertor for use when not hooked up providing power to three 240 v sockets; a 5.5KW generator that we use when occasionally when not hooked-up to provide power to all the 240 v sockets.

Last thing is to find a decent guy to work on the van; we use Dave Evans near Cannock in the Midlands but obviously depends on where you live.

I hope this helps but happy to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers, Julian

 

[Sus3v]

Living in a small cul-de-sac, an RV would prevent anybody else from accessing the road... or my neighbour accessing his bit of the shared drive if parked on driveway - lol. Therefore, RV envy of internal living space in our chum’s US megabus is limited ? and we happily PVC. There’s an RV shop in Bicester if you are nearby Dreams or something, I guess you could visit and see inside a few there. Good luck and hope you find The One for you

 

[SuperMike]

We have had our beautiful Winnebgao Sightseer 31E for nine years now. At 10.5t, it can only be driven on an HGV license, the test for which I took especially to be able to drive it.

PRO's
Space when parked up and the slides out it is not the biggest, but huge by comparison to a Eurovan
It has a proper toilet with a 35g black holding tank.
It has water pressure better than at home and a 75g fresh water tank.
It has a proper full size walk in shower with a 45g grey water holding tank
It has Full Air Conditioning if you have a big enough electrical connection. If not start up the built in 5.5kw Onan.
It has a proper walk around 5ft bed.
For a disabled person whose walking is poor (Management) its great with plenty to hold onto.
It has proper hydraulic levelling jacks
It has a 2.5t payload and a nose weight at the towbar of 500lbs
The sound of the engine is to die for.
Any spare part is easy to get, waiting no more than about a week to arrive from the States
It was built with a central monitor being fed by three cameras, showing on the screen what is going on. For example indicate left and it shows down the left side. Great for hiding cyclists. Indicate right and you can see all down the off side, great for pulling out.
A transmission than is nothing short of stunning. Six speed Allison that is silk smooth.
Built in 35g domestic LPG tank.

CONS
The cooker is crap being an American Broiler rather than a conventional oven.
It is difficult to manoeuvre in a tight campsite.
Small French type towns are a no no.
Petrol consumption is about 10mpg if driven carefully, 0.9mpg if I go mad, but I don't care
American wiring is weird.
The headlights are like candles. But I fixed that, because it was down to the weird wiring.
If they ever take my license away, then I would still be tempted to keep it just to look at .

I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on but as already said any questions, please ask. Also visit this forums sister site ............ https://www.rvoc.co.uk/forum/

 

[Camping Gaza]

I am no expert, and Horses for Courses, but I think size and operating cost makes it a no go for me. I cannot imagine burning that much fuel with the sorts of miles I do.

Some of the euro vans seem like a good size and fuel economy.

Having been round in a small van for 3 years now and I use it everyday, food shopping, trips to the diy store etc its just right even though sometimes I think an overcab bed would have been nicer, but then I look at the fuel consumption, the motorway performance, it drives like a car, and It sails up hills overtaking everything, and I think, yep that's ok.

I can park it almost anywhere, and as I live mostly in France, small villages are not a problem even in the smallest places.

When in London I can park it on any London residential street.

I can stay on Aires where a lot of large vans simply don't fit as they are small, some with only 2 or 3 spaces, and some in the center of a village with very narrow streets and tight turns for access. Impossible in a truck sized van.

I can get in some underground car parks and supermarkets that have height barriers (Van is 2.5m)

If you will be touring on holiday, you will spend a lot of your time outside, so perhaps this is a consideration too.

I think one of the biggest things to think about is once you are stopped and camped, how do you get around, shopping etc? So another form of (motorised, you can only do so much on a pushbike) transport for me anyway is essential to have with you. Towing a car or carrying a motorcycle.

 

[olley]

And there you have it, no size fits all.

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[jongood]

Ive looked several times at RV's. IMHO you do get a lot for the money, I don't think the mpg really matters, there are exceptions but most mh's dont do high annual mileages so the difference in comparitive cost between a euro a class and a large engine RV isnt actually that large.

The biggest downside for me is the width and the lack of a garage so added to your 30ft+ rv is a trailer to put motorcycle or car on.

 

[emjaiuk]

When moving from a caravan to a MH w went straight to a RV , and kept it 20 years! Like most things in life it's swings and roundabouts. We had one of the first A frames supplied by Alan Bee, and I wouldn't have been without a Toad. Fortunately, in those days I didn't have to pay for ferry tickets, otherwise that would have been expensive. Depending where you live, sevice and maintenance needs careful thought. As has been said, the water/waste capacity comes in very handy, we once spent about 8/9 days on the old Sete beach road without having to worry about waste or water, but conversely it wasn't that easy finding somewhere to dump. If we were doing it again I'd probably fit a macererator and a very long hosepipe. Now we have a European van, we find a removable cassette very useful. We also now use aires almost exclusively, but wouldn't dream of doing that in a RV


Malcolm

 

[olley]

We use Aires, if you can fit one of the larger 8-9 meter euro vans in then we can fit. Scotjimland spent around 3 years touring France and Spain in a 36' Georgie boy almost exclusively in Aires.

 

[Snowbird]

During the last 20 years of retired motorhoming I have ran just about every motorhome imaginable from a 38ft RV to a PVC, including a fifth wheel and an American travel trailer. When overwintering in Spain for 6 months of the year the RV is king and is unbeatable. Over the last 20 years circumstances have changed and I have moved from long terming in one place to touring, and then back to long terming again several times. Am now running a 7.5 metre Hymer tag with Smartcar on an Aframe, but as we now know exactly where we want to be at any given time of year and we generally stay for a few months in the same place, I am increasingly being drawn back to owning another RV. This would give me the facility to tow a trailer with tow car and motorcycle on it. Having ran American vehicles of one sort or another for most of my adult life, fuel consumption is something that has no interest to me, if you own em, you gotta run em. I have tried the PVC route, with en extremely well equipped van and drove it to southern Spain and Istanbul, and although it was fast, powerful and easy to park, I felt like a sardine in it when parked. RVs, like any other large vehicle are only a white knuckle ride for the first half hour, then they are no different to driving your family car. Your choice of vehicle will mainly be dictated by what you are going to do with it.

 

[tacr2man]

The big thing to make life easier with an RV is preplanning , the internet makes this so easy now . If you are looking at moving every day and wanting to drive along minor roads then you will experience the downside .
The way to get the best is area touring , ie go to a central spot by major road , park up and go out with a toad , or scooter/motorbike. I had a max size Diesel pusher , long distance on autobahn is effortless , full air suspension , engine 35foot+ behind you , fully adjustable armchair , high up visibility , set on 60mph , and hills dont exist . When you park up its big as a small bungalow . Built to function , not down to weight constraints . The only reason I sold was i needed a more rugged vehicle eg why I now have 6x6 to go where I now want to . 14mpg to shift 12 tonne isnt bad in comparison .

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[Allanm]

We had a 20 year old 10m Winnebago which we bought to use as somewhere to live while we refurbished our house in France.
It was only after we bought it that I found out it was an extra wide bodied model!

Drawbacks with ours was obviously the width, bit scary side by side with a large truck going north on the Dartford crossing and through roadworks on motorways and toll booths in France. We even had to fold the mirrors in when boarding the Channel tunnel train otherwise they hit both walls as we drove between carriages.
The steering isn’t as precise as you would expect.
Difficult to park and you are at a serious disadvantage if you want to visit small villages and drive on narrow mountain roads.
Did I mention the width?
15mpg from the 6.5 litre V8 turbo diesel
Impossible to empty grey and black waste into a raised Elsan toilet point as seen on many campsites, unless you fit a macerator with pump.
Crap headlights as standard......

Positives, of ours.
Loads of room, very comfortable seats ( full size seats for 10) automatic gearbox, full size fridge with huge freezer compartment, full size shower, massive fresh water tank, massive grey and black waste tanks.
Full size cooker, built in coffee machine and combo microwave. Marble worktops with double sink. Very efficient heating with air con and built in generator. (Both can be used when travelling and lpg generator will run everything in the van.)
Masses of storage and payload between 1.5 to 2 tons.
Built in 26“ tv, 2 more tv’s ( one in dining area, one in bedroom) king sized island bed.
Lovely sounding very smooth engine, high seating position, very smooth ride with none of the normal crockery rattles as you travel.
Relatively cheap and easily accessible spares.

Would I buy another? No, not unless we moved to America. It was far too big for us to use to travel as we like doing.

This is where it was most useful, in the front garden while we worked on the house. ( the ramp was for our elderly Labrador.)

 

[funflair]

Lots of fans of the American RV here and I can understand that and if I wanted something to live in a at race meeting or or long term in Spain then I could see the argument for RV, we went down the Euro-van route primarily for layout and size as we don't want/need anything bigger than 8.5 metres and we definitely want as big a garage as possible and don't really want the extra width of an RV. I get the impression that RV's are not as well insulated as our Euro-van (somebody might correct me) with double glazed cab side windows and heated and insulated double floor, weight also has to come into the equation as I can only drive up to 7495kg and I doubt that many RV's will come in at under 7500kg.

As somebody else said "it depend what you want to do with it".

Martin

 

[mikebeaches]

I've had to get used to banging my head in the PVC, something that never happened in the RV, however there are upsides.
Mick

I / we had the same problem just changing from a coachbuilt to a pvc!

But found an easy solution, though not sure it will work on all the different models / conversions?

A length of water pipe insulating foam just splits and clips over the piece of wood that causes all the damage to the head. We buy 2 x metre lengths from Poundland and just use a single piece to protect the occupants of both front seats when climbing in or out of the cab.

It can obviously be bought from any hardware or builder's merchants. And it doesn't last forever, because it loses its grip after about a year. Could glue it in place, but prefer not to - just like to be able to remove it without leaving any trace if selling the van etc. It still looks reasonably neat insitu.

Economy Pipe Insulation Wrap

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Apologies for going off topic...

 

[Snowbird]

One more thing, if considering an RV, make sure you have a HGV licence and beware of RVs under 7.5 tons. If buying an RV, 16 tons is the optimum. Few RVs under 7.5 tons are built for long term use and will not stand up to rough treatment. Under 7.5 is a sticks and staples RV. Even some of the supposedly premium brand heavyweight RVs have the Cummins 5.9 engine instead of the 8.3. The 5.9 is OK in a pickup truck, but not in a 16 ton vehicle, and although its an excellent engine will not stand up to prolonged use at maximum power as many have found out at considerable cost.

 

[olley]

I think the insulation is worse, while I have double pane windows all over they are in metal frames without a thermal break so plenty of condensation, and the walls have about 1"of polystyrene insulation, the yanks just wack a big heater in of over 10kw.

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[tacr2man]

Just been reminded by swmbo another + is full size washer/dryer and massive wardrobes

and negative sitting out on white line if you are passenger in UK

 

[simsy56]

We have a Coachmen Concord 300 triple slide, not as wide as an A-class, and not as high. At 9.4m in length it is not the smallest RV, but for us, it is perfect.

All the comforts of home, and like a bungalow when sited. So comfortable to drive, and running on LPG, it is not wallet emptying at the pumps.

Plenty of fresh water, and large black and grey holding tanks. Hydraulic levelling, generator, and enough outside locker space to satisfy our needs.

More than enough room inside for lounging, dining, cooking, and even ironing. And what we like most of all is the separate rear bedroom with walk around queen bed, so comfortable, and a nice array of her and her wardrobes, and her and her drawers (i can have a corner of one).

This is our 3rd RV and we are enjoying it immensely.

Craig

 

[zac]

We looked at RV's 2 years ago when we were on the look out for another motorhome and like many have said you do seem to get a lot more for your money. I even took my HGV (C+E) so i could drive one (not the main reason but certainly helped) but in the end it came down to the fact that we would be mainly using in the UK with the odd trip to Europe once a year (work commitments). The RVs are a bit wider i think 2.50/2.51m as opposed to the 2.38/9m for euros and of course there's the length. I would have to no issue driving one but some of the sites we have been on have only just fitted us and we are 8.5m in length but its the width that is crucial for us. May be later on we will get one when i dont have to worry about work so i can travel more but at the moment for us we will stick to the euros. We are all different and if suits you then go for it

 

[jongood]

We have a Coachmen Concord 300 triple slide, not as wide as an A-class, and not as high. At 9.4m in length it is not the smallest RV, but for us, it is perfect.

All the comforts of home, and like a bungalow when sited. So comfortable to drive, and running on LPG, it is not wallet emptying at the pumps.

Plenty of fresh water, and large black and grey holding tanks. Hydraulic levelling, generator, and enough outside locker space to satisfy our needs.

More than enough room inside for lounging, dining, cooking, and even ironing. And what we like most of all is the separate rear bedroom with walk around queen bed, so comfortable, and a nice array of her and her wardrobes, and her and her drawers (i can have a corner of one).

This is our 3rd RV and we are enjoying it immensely.

Craig

How do you get about on the ocassions where you can't be next to where you want to be?

 

[simsy56]

It is horses for course

How do you get about on the ocassions where you can't be next to where you want to be
We have e-bikes on a tow ball rack, may get a Smart on a trailer for the longer spells in Spain, or rent a car when we are there. They are cheap enough.

Craig

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[jongood]

It is horses for course

I'm not knocking it at all I'm genuinely wondering what the best solution is.

 

[simsy56]

We have 2 e-bikes on a tow ball carrier. We have been thinking of a Smart car on a trailer for long spells in Spain.

Craig

 

[Ivory55]

Having never owned an rv. I would think with the slide outs walking about and past each other with ease must be really nice. Even a washing machine in some.

 

[olley]

We towed a car on a trailer to Portugal a couple of times, but now we just use public transport or hire a car.

 

[simsy56]

One thing that is handy on a USRV is the tow ball receiver. A standard 2" receiver that accepts a vast array of tow brackets. All interchangeable.

Craig

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