Intro – Hi! We are the Runyan family. We are a family of 2 adults, 2 babies, and 2 good sized dogs. Last year, we began our journey of full time RVing. Challenging? Yes! Worth it? Yes! We want to share our experiences, as we have had some unique ones, for anyone who needs someone to relate to. I wanted to start by talking about our camper, and how we landed on it. We actually will be picking up our 3rd camper on Friday. Yes, we are on #3 in less than a year. Sort of embarrassing, but actually fairly normal for full timers, so if you’re in this position, don’t feel bad. I’ll go in depth on our first 2 campers, and why we did not stick with them, but first I’ll cover our process that might help you get a good start.
Requirements: You’ll be living in this, full time or most of the time, so you want to make sure that your needs are met! You do want to be comfortable. Plus, if you’re going to spend a nice penny, get what you want for it. We listed items that were not negotiable.
- A room for kids
- Washer/Dryer
- A lot of kitchen storage
- Dinette
- 3 air conditioning units
- Fireplace (YES this was a non negotiable – I had always regretted not having a fireplace in our first home, and wasn’t going to regret this ever again, ok? Most campers have them now, too)
Wants:
- Big living area
- Good bathroom/bedroom storage
- Good storage under the camper (to fit more than necessities)
First camper: Keystone Montana 377 fl – This camper was pretty awesome! It’s HUGE. It has front living, so the livingroom is really large, which we loved and probably would appreciate now. The kitchen was amazing, as well. I loved all of the storage, counter space, and the bar seating. We actually had a washer and dryer installed, but it was a really weird location, which made it difficult to do the laundry. The bedroom storage was pretty bad, too. There were 2 main reasons why we traded this one in. First, there is a loft above the master, which is where Olivia slept. For a 5 year old and older, this would be the coolest room ever. For a 1 year old, it was not ideal. I did my best to make sure that the area was comfortable and safe, but there was an air conditioner right above her bed that would go off every night around 2am and wake her up. I would end up having to go sleep with her, and I was even freezing. Poor kid. On the topic of air conditioners, there were only 2 a/c units in the camper, so this one worked pretty hard. Second, the clearance on the back end of the camper is super low. Literally as Joey pulled into my moms the day we brought the camper home, it hit the gravel and damaged the back end. It was an easy fix, just super annoying. The day we left for New Mexico, the same this happened just as we were leaving, and this time it actually damaged our water tank. Again it was an easy fix at the dealer, but it definitely put us behind on our first day.
Besides this, the camper would stay really warm during the day, and that was just in Ohio. I’m talking like it would get up to 87 degrees. We knew it would not be a good situation in the desert.
Second camper: Jayco North Point – This camper is pretty cool! Honestly, we traded in as soon as we got out to NM. We had a really short turnaround before I had to be back to Ohio for my brother’s wedding, so we wanted to get the trade done by then. We wanted a Jayco Pinnacle, but inventory is so low, we would have had to pre order an potentially not get one for months. This was available, and had a bunk room for Olivia, and THREE air conditioning units, which was not originally, but became a non negotiable item for us. When we bought this, we added the underbelly heater, knowing that we would be spending some winter months in Ohio. Overall, I have liked this camper. The reason for the most recent trade is that we really need some more space (thus, we plan to go with a toy hauler). Something we had also found interesting, is that the quality of finishes and the actual product isn’t super amazing. Not sure if it’s because we are really living it in, or if it is just the market of campers moving so fast, but we have found ourselves fixing a lot of things that we feel like we shouldn’t be having to fix yet.
Final camper: Alliance Valor 42V13. I was always against a toy hauler. Mainly because I couldn’t figure out how to make the garage feel like a room for the kids. It’s what Joey had always wanted and tried to convince me that we needed. As soon has we had Nora, him and I started looking at toy haulers, and we came across this specific one. Not only did we really like the company and their motives behind how they created the Valors, but this camper in particular is pretty awesome. There are actually 2 decks, a side one and a back one. The door on the back that leads to the deck has a screen door and a paned glass door so that you can adapt to the weather. What got me excited was thinking outside of the box and getting inspiration to actually turn the master bedroom into a room for the kids, and then taking the garage for our room.
Camper shopping is super fun at first, and definitely becomes exhausting after a while. You’ll end up wanting to create your own frankencamper, as you’ll find things you love in one, and hate in that one, and then love/hate in another. I suppose our family is a little complex, too, with the kids and dogs so we had a few more specific requirements. Be super honest with the dealers! Keep looking and looking, you’ll find the right one!
The Nomadic Rodeo 