After much deliberation and discussion, we decided to take the plunge and downsize our 40 foot Class A Newmar Dutch Star for a 24 foot Class C. Our new motorhome is a 2017 Winnebago Navion 24V, a diesel powered RV based on the Mercedes Sprinter Chassis. We will post a review of the Navion once we’ve completed at least one trip. We feel there are several major advantages of having the 24 foot Class C: size, loading/unloading, less maintenance and things to break, and costs.
Size
Let me preface this section with the fact that we are not full-timers. We believe that the Navion will provide enough storage and living space to meet our needs, while also fitting into a much larger pool of campgrounds/sites and places. In addition to losing 16 feet in length, the Navion is 2 feet shorter in height and 6 inches narrower. We are looking forward to being able to fit in more places. As an example, we have wanted to camp in Yellowstone’s only campground with full hook-ups, Fishing Bridge RV Park, but they have very few sites longer than 36 feet and were always booked 2 years out. Also, when not hooked up, we can easily park in most parking lots, as the RV is only slightly longer than a large pick-up truck, making stops at attractions and restaurants enroute more feasible. We also think we can travel easier with just the motorhome, ie. without a tow car.
The Navion 24V floor plan
Personally, we would probably want at least a 32 foot Class A if we were full-timers, in order to gain the extra storage space, cargo carrying capacity and a residential refrigerator. We have enjoyed spending up to 5 months in our prior Class A, but most of our trips tend to be less than two months in length and we are not ready to give up our brick and mortar yet.
The Navion easily fits in our driveway
Loading/Unloading
We store our RV at a storage lot due to lack of space at our house. With the Navion, we can park it in our driveway to load or unload before and after trips. The Dutch Star did not fit in our driveway and city ordinances did not allow us to park it on the street. While in our driveway, we can plug the Navion in to get the refrigerator cold, run heat to keep plumbing from freezing, and fill up water tanks. We had to set up the larger motorhome at a nearby campground to accomplish these tasks. During Colorado’s shoulder seasons, we also kept the Dutch Star at the local campground between trips to keep plumbing from freezing or need to winterize the entire unit. In addition to the convenience of having the RV at our house, we will save the cost of those local campground fees.
Less Maintenance and Things to Break
The Navion is far less complex than our prior Dutch Star. The Navion has only one small slide, which does not need to be extended to utilize the unit. Our prior motorhome had three slides, one of which would periodically not come in without gathering several other campers to help push it in. We had macerator toilets in the prior motorhome, which utilized more water to flush than the Navion’s gravity toilet. This reduced use of water for flushing is important for dry camping. We had two toilets vs just one now. With the macerator toilets, we did have an electrical issue which caused a toilet not to work until repaired. We’ve had no issues with prior gravity toilets. For dry camping, we are glad to have propane for cooking during hours you cannot run your generator. Our Dutch Star was all electric, which made cooking limited to generator hours.
On the Navion, the generator is easily accessible for performing our own maintenance on it. There is no washer and dryer. We have had numerous problems with washing machines in several prior class A motorhomes. I don’t think we’ve made it through an entire trip without a washer malfunctioning, so I am glad to not have it wasting space. The winterizing of the water system is far easier in the Navion (no washer, only 1 bathroom, no water/ice lines on the refrigerator), which means we can easily do it ourselves. There are fewer house batteries to maintain. Basically, there are fewer bells and whistles to break, meaning less cost and time in the repair shop and more time and money for traveling.
Costs
In addition to the significantly smaller purchase price, there are numerous other cost savings with the Navion. We were able to secure a shorter storage space which rents for less money. The annual costs for insurance, registration fees and ownership taxes are all significantly less. Most campgrounds offer shorter 30 amp sites for less money than the 50 amp sites long enough to accommodate the Dutch Star. The Navion will also get better fuel economy, although we do not know what that number is yet.
Things We Will Miss
Obviously, there are things we will miss about our Dutch Star, but none of these were enough to deter us from the downsize. But in case you were wondering what we know we will miss, heading our list is the heated floors, our toes and Foxy the Cat enjoyed this luxury. We will also miss “Comfort Drive” on windy days. There are those rare occasions when having the second toilet would be nice. We will need to be more selective in what we take along due to less storage space. We will have less sitting space.
On the outside of the RV, we will miss the one click locking/unlocking of all basement doors, going back to manually checking and key locking/unlocking each one. We will miss the water hose and electric cord reels. We will have a shorter range between fuel stops due to a smaller fuel tank. We will miss using our Jeep Rubicon as a tow car, as she weighs too much, but have gotten a Subaru Crosstrek, which should work well.
