Living with 35 feet

[Craigderby]

Evening all

I'm looking for a bit of advice please.
We're about to change our motorhome, and an RV has always appealed. We were thinking around 30ft, which would be 7ft more than we have now and I felt we could still get to the places we'd want to go.
However we've seen one which is 35ft and like the look of it.
In real life how usable is a 35 footer? Obviously great when parked up, but we tend to only stay in one place for a couple of nights before moving on.
From your experience would it be just too much trouble?

 

[funflair]

Depends where you want to go but I would have thought 30 feet OK but 35 feet would be a bit restrictive if you don't want to plan ahead and park up for a reasonable period.

I trust you are OK with the weight as I guess at least one will be over 7500kg

Martin

EDIT should have added that we are just under 28 foot and get on OK without much planning at all but don't want to go any longer.

 

[Craigderby]

Hi Martin
That's what I'm thinking. It sounds great in theory, but as we have a tendency to just decide on the day where to head to it would be more difficult. Foreign trips I'd be happy to park up for a fortnight, but not in the UK. We tend to head to the coast, and parking in just about any seaside resort could be an issue.

Weight isn't a problem.

 

[Larrynwin]

We have had a 33ft and a 30ft RV , the 30ft was the better option with less restriction on sites and now after three years with a 22ft a class eurovan the convenience of smaller size for me is emphasised.

 

[Gromett]

Having had a large bus and a small van my view is it depends on what you use it for.

If you are moving regular, stay as small as is practical. If you are staying for a long time in each location then increase the size.

For me I was plannning on touring Europe for 2 years and chose a small van because I was expecting to be following the sun and living outdoors most of the time, with the van basically a mobile bed and shower room etc.

However, after 10 years fulltiming and not moving half as much as I ought to, I have decided to go much bigger...

There really is any hard and fast rules. However I do feel the middle ground is the worst of both worlds. I think either go big or go small to get the maximum benefits of the size you choose

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[tacr2man]

I run at 40foot , just needs a bit of extra planning , haven't found it that much of a hassle in Europe so far . It does cut down on suitable sites compared with a 7mtr , and obviously forget about much parking in town , unless there are bus parking available I generally dont do that much in town travel with it , but anywhere with a bus route is passable . The ideal Moho would be a Tardis , so it comes down to what you want out of the experience.
So the difference that 30ft compared with 35ft isnt that much when it comes to access IMHO

 

[Jim]

Length can cause some issues, like 29 point turns to get on a pitch but generally length just follows you down the road causing no problems. It’s the RV’s width that can ruin your day. Oh the stories I could tell.

 

[CazPaul]

Another 5 foot doesn't sound much but stick it on the back of what you already have and it is.

 

[Julian Dearson]

I have had a 35ft RV for almost 3 years. For a year we lived in her, in the UK, on site generally for 3/4 weeks at a time. She was absolutely awesome for that. Before we went full-time we would use her fairly regularly at holidays but generally not for ‘a couple of nights and move on’ kind of trips. The one thing we always have to do is plan, meticulously. I am pretty happy with having a crack at getting her most places but generally I will have done as much research and planning as is physically possible, including, in some cases, visiting sites in our car to check out the access. You rarely can turn up ‘on spec’ because of the size and a lot of site owners will be put off by your size, that said a lot are really helpful. We have used everything from large fully serviced sites to small 5 van CL and CS sites. I cannot remember ever booking something without calling and talking to the owner/warden first.

In our previous 27ft RV we were away a lot of weekends (2 or 3 nights at a time); with the big van we did this rarely, generally wouldn’t bother for less than 3 nights, although we only stopped full-timing last autumn so things may be different moving forward.

We have a friend who has a 31 footer and he is away in his at weekends over the spring/summer quite regularly.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Julian

 

[Craigderby]

Thanks for all the replies, it's really appreciated.
Having slept on it, we've decided it probably is too big for the sort of places we go, so we'll stick with looking at ones which are a little shorter.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[GraSue]

If you like the freedom to tour easily don't go over 30ft long, but also very importantly don't go over 96 inches wide (2.4 metres).
The width will give you more problems on the road than the length. Over 30ft long will then give you problems getting on sites.

We had our own RV's for 14 years (lots of journey planning needed) and drove 40 and 43ft RV's all over Europe during the summer, so not nervous about the driving.

We now have a N&B Flair at just over 30ft long and 96 inches wide and tend to think it is the maximum size for touring (we will probably use 20-30 Aires and campsites in 3-4 countries over the winter.

Hope that helps.

 

[Chasingthesun]

Hi we have traveled since August though France,Spain, Portugal and back into Spain in our 34 feet with 2 slides RV and over used the toll road once in France.
It’s the second year we have done it with no problems at all
We have stayed on campsites, Aries and wild camped.
We have been motorhoming 15 years and owned the RV for the last 3
And love it only sorry that we didn’t buy one 15 years ago.
You can’t beat the space and comfort when you are away for months.