As the summer travel season begins, the Wendlands are eager to extol the benefits of trekking in a Type B motorhome.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
June 2014
Like many motorhome owners, my wife, Jennifer, and I give a lot of tours.
It seems that whenever we’re on the road and stop at a rest area or for fuel, someone comes over and starts asking questions. What they really want is a peek inside.
Because we travel in a Type B, I would bet we give more tours than owners of other coach types. Folks are just naturally curious about how two people and a 70-pound dog can get around — let alone get along — in such a small vehicle. So, we open up the sliding door and invite them inside.
We show them the rear sofa area that makes into twin beds or a comfortable king-size bed with the push of a button. We open the door to the bathroom and point out the flushing toilet, the shower, the sink. Jennifer always demos the galley, with the induction stovetop, the microwave/convection oven, the refrigerator, and various pantry and cupboard storage areas. And I talk about our solar power and diesel generator, and how we can be totally off the grid for days at a time, all self-contained in remote areas where larger vehicles would fear to tread.
But after we have done the tour and enthusiastically shared our love of RVing in our little motorhome, probably the most common question we get is, why a Type B? Why not a much-larger Type A motorhome? Or even a Type C?
I have a stock answer. I use it so much I had it printed on sweatshirts and T-shirts that we wear. It depicts a Type B motorhome and the four words that I think best answer the question: Small House. Big Yard.
No offense to Type A or Type C owners, but we’re really hooked on small motorhomes, and the Type B in particular because of the mobility it gives us to not just see the country but to truly be in it. We can go anywhere in our Type B RV, and when we do, everything we need is with us. All we have to do is step outside and we have all the room in the world.
We don’t spend a lot of time in campgrounds. I’ve written before about our love for boondocking, for camping in wilderness spots in state and federal forests, preserves, lakeshores, deserts, and prairies.
That’s the inspiration behind the “Small House. Big Yard” slogan.
We’ve driven about 80,000 miles over the past two years in a Type B. Our first unit was a 2006 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous. We traded it in for a 2013 eTrek in December 2012. Both units, like many other Type Bs, are built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. They are plenty tall enough to walk around inside without bumping your head.
And they really do take us everywhere. We drove to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado last summer, 14,115 feet above sea level. We had the only RV in the parking lot up there.
On that trip, our motorhome hauled a 21-foot travel trailer that enabled my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters to stay with us. We unhooked the trailer for the ride up Pikes Peak, but we towed that unit up and down the Rockies for the better part of a month, including the nefarious Wolf Creek Pass (10,856 feet) in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
Our Type B fits in regular parking spots, which is a great convenience when hitting fast-food restaurants, or visiting national parks or similar places with limited parking for big rigs. And it gets about 18 miles per gallon. Sometimes as much as 20 under the right conditions.
It parks in our driveway. We don’t have to pay for storage when it is not in use. In fact, it is always in use. I drive it around town as a second vehicle between trips.
But there are some trade-offs.
In Florida back in February, I came down with a case of the 24-hour stomach flu. This is never a good experience. But in a Type B, all I can say is that Jennifer was really glad about the “Big Yard” part of our mantra. When one person is ill, the other person needs as much space as possible. Even Tai didn’t want my company. Fortunately, we had great weather and Jennifer had lots of things to do outside while I let it run its course. But if it had been rainy or cold and both of us were confined to the coach, our love affair with the Type B would have been seriously tested that day.
We also can’t bring as many toys as we would like. I carry a lot of photo and video gear with me as I travel. So much, in fact, that I bought a cargo box that fits on the back trailer hitch. The box is often used to store a grill, a couple of chairs, our water hose, electrical cords, and a bunch of other things for long stints on the road. But when we hook up the box, we can’t take our bicycles. Someone suggested I install a front hitch and mount the bikes there. I thought that sounded like a good idea. Jennifer nixed it right away, though, saying we’d look like the Beverly Hillbillies.
We would like to have a larger refrigerator. Some Bs now come with a 7-cubic-foot unit. Our fridge capacity is a little more than 3 cubic feet, which means we need to restock it about every three or four days.
And, of course, we have no washer or dryer, no extra beds for guests, and we often trip over our dog, Tai, who likes to lie in front of the bathroom door at night.
Those are the only frustrations we’ve experienced. I’m not saying we wouldn’t like a bit more room. We’ve never tried a Type C or Type A, so I have no other reference point other than the small-motorhome lifestyle we’ve been enjoying these past two years. But I’ve met Type B owners all over the country who tell me they once owned a larger motorhome but find it easier to travel in a Type B.
June brings summer and the official start of a brand-new travel year, so Jennifer and I are even more enthusiastic about our motorhome adventures. We’ll be sharing them with our FMCA family in Cape Cod at a Roadtrek International chapter rally in Brewster, Massachusetts, June 8-11, and at the 90th Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase in Redmond, Oregon, August 13-16.
In between those dates and afterward, we’ll be pretty much nonstop on the road, reporting about the interesting people and places we encounter and evangelizing the motorhome lifestyle as we travel across North America, telling others about our “Small House. Big Yard.”
You can follow our travels on our FMCA blog. Hope to see you out there this summer.
Veteran journalist Mike Wendland, F426141, FMCA’s official on-the-road reporter, travels the country with his wife, Jennifer, and their Norwegian elkhound, Tai, aboard the couple’s Roadtrek Type B motorhome. Mike can be reached at openmike@fmca.com.