Saturday, November 7, 2015

Looking Back: Three Camping Seasons in our 2013 Lance Travel Trailer

As Heather posted earlier, we are currently awaiting delivery of a new 2016 Winnebago Brave 31C. Our "off the production line" date from Winnebago is November 10th, so we're hoping to take delivery from our dealer before Thanksgiving 2015 (Christmas at the very latest). We'll be trading in our 2013 Lance 1885 when we purchase the Brave, so I figure it's a good time to recap our experiences going from tent camping in 2012 to three seasons of towing and trailer camping in 2013 through 2015.

First and foremost: I would gladly buy a Ford F-150 Ecoboost again as a tow vehicle for any Travel Trailer under 10K pounds. Our 2013 Ford F-150 Super Crew 4x4 with the 3.5L EcoBoost V6, 3.73:1 axle ratio, Max Tow package, and 157" wheelbase (6.5' long bed) has been an absolute pleasure to tow with. It pulled our Lance (24' long, 5700 pounds GVWR) all over Virginia, from Colonial Beach to Charlottesville through the Shenandoah Mountains to Luray without ever breaking a sweat. Our longest tow was from Virginia down to Florida and back again, and I probably spent 80% of the trip with the cruise control on. I've never once felt any trailer sway, always had power to spare (even uphill in the mountains), and the tow-haul mode is damn near flawless at controlling speed when coming down steep inclines. I love that truck.

As for the Lance 1885? I would recommend the Lance brand to anyone looking for a lightweight Travel Trailer. Ours has been great to us, be it when cold-weather camping in below freezing temperatures or during the hot and humid mid-atlantic summers. The only two problems we experienced that were NOT directly attributed to owner stupidity and inexperience were 1) a leaking plastic water heater check valve, and 2) a ill-fitting and damaged Atwood Stove bushing. Both of these issues we resolved ourselves after some research on the Lance Owners Forum, which is one of the best brand-specific camper communities we've come across. Very helpful folks there.

So what were the problems we encountered that were our own dumb fault?
  • Hooking up the 12V battery backwards, not realizing that on an RV white=negative and black=positive, and blowing both 40 amp reverse polarity blade fuses in the fuse box as well as the reverse polarity fuse protecting the DVD/CD/AM/FM radio system. (Yay fuses that protect against human error!)
  • Attempting to tighten the nylon water heater drain nut with a metal crescent wrench while the water heater was on, causing a short and blowing the 2 amp mini-blade fuse protecting the water heater's control board. (Yay fuses again!)
Meanwhile, we purchased and installed a ton of upgrades to make life easier while camping:

Finally, Heather spent a lot of time recovering the interior cushions.

So why are we getting rid of our beloved Lance 1885, after having spent so much time and effort getting it setup and "shaken down" perfectly?

For starters, we need more space. Heather and I now regularly take our cat and dog camping with us, which we didn't factor into our original travel trailer purchase. So just like we originally agonized over purchasing the 1885, we've been agonizing over three separate RV upgrade scenarios:
  1. Keep the F-150, find a bigger trailer.
    Pro: cheapest option
    Con: limited by what the F-150 can safely tow (9400 lbs assuming a fully loaded truck, < 32' long)
  2. Buy a F-250 or F-350 super duty truck, find a bigger trailer.
    Pro: we could tow whatever we want without worry
    Pro: we could look at TTs > 32' or Fifth Wheels
    Con: cost
    Con: diesel trucks are really loud (we currently live in a apartment complex)
    Con: where the hell would we park an F-250 or F-350? (again, we live in an apartment complex)
  3. Go Big or Go Home: get a Class A motorhome.
    Pro: it's a Class A motorhome. Hell yes.
    Con: cost (it's another vehicle, so it will require it's own maintenance)
    Con: did I mention the cost? (insurance, registration, plates, safety and emissions inspections)
    Con: holy shit, the cost. (100K entry level, up to a million+ for fully custom diesel pushers)
    Complicating factor: everybody who we’ve ever spoken to about Class A motorhomes says the same thing: “just get a diesel pusher.” Gasser Class A's can’t tow dinghy vehicles as well as diesel pushers, you regularly end up flooring the accelerator driving uphill (which can apparently be loud as hell in the cockpit), and they don't handle as well as diesel pushers (though Blue Ox will gladly sell you some aftermarket products to help alleviate this).
We immediately decided not to buy a super duty truck, so option 2 was out almost immediately (and fifth wheel trailers along with it).  So we researched the hell out of larger travel trailers, and narrowed our list of contenders down to:
  1. Winnebago Ultralite 27RBDS - 30’7”, 7700 lbs (1340 cargo capacity)
  2. Dutchman Kodiak Ultimate 279RBSL - 30’8”, 7600 lbs (1512 cargo capacity)
  3. Cruiser RV Enterra E-29RBS (now discontinued) - 31'11", 9310 lbs (3200 cargo capacity)
Which led us to the Hershey RV show in 2014 and then again in 2015. After speaking with the folks at Winnebago Towables and Cruiser RV, we wandered again over to the Winnebago Industries area to check out the 2016 Brave. We loved it. Not a little bit, a LOT a bit. We'd been eying that retro styling since they re-launched the Brave back in 2015, and we finally decided that a 2016 Brave 31C was what we really wanted.

So yes, after three glorious seasons of "glamping" in our 2013 Lance 1885, we're trading our travel trailer in for a Class A motorhome. Are we nervous? Excited? Terrified? Pysched? Yes to all of the above. Stay tuned, it's time for the next chapter.

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