We hired a “medium” size (24-26ft) C-class RV from El Monte. This was rather more expensive than e.g. Cruise America but while over there we heard a bad story about someone’s experience with them and gather they use rather older vans. Discovered that El Monte and Road Bear are owned by the same company (thl) and Road Bear have nearly new vans which then become El Monte vans after a while. Ours was perhaps 12 months old and had done just over 50,000 miles. Inside was in reasonable condition if a bit worn in places. We chose a medium C-class as this had a fixed bed at the back – no packing up the bed every morning and getting it out again later – and a separate shower, basin and WC in something resembling a bathroom. One thing to bear in mind when choosing an RV is that some places and roads have size limits. We used Harvest Hosts for a lot of our nights (more later) and some sites will only accept e.g. up to 25ft vans. The car park for the Maroon Bells shuttle had a limit of 21ft. Independence pass between Twin Lakes and Aspen has a limit of 35ft. Also, the C-Class RVs tend to have V8 engines which run on gas/petrol and return around 10 miles per US Gallon! They feel huge but have plenty of room inside. The alternative is the B-class which are more like converted large vans but are less likely to have a fixed bed and/or “normal” bathroom.
When booking, check on the bundle deals as some offer ridiculous savings over the prices of the component parts. There are various options in the area of Insurance too depending on how well covered you want to be. One of our bundles including 2 linen kits and a kitchen kit. Each linen kit included a set of towels, 2 double sheets, 2 blankets and a pillow. We asked about and were given a thin duvet and an extra pillow each. The kitchen kit included some stainless steel pans (which appeared to be brand new), cutlery and utensils, crockery mugs and glasses – around 5 of each. The only sharp knife was very long and not very sharp – could have done with a smaller one. There were no tea towels/drying cloths and only a small sponge for washing up so we bought some towels and scourers. We had a 3 ring gas hob, gas oven, microwave and large fridge/freezer which I’ll come back to. We also requested a toaster and “coffee maker”. This was a small filter coffee machine but wasn’t supplied with any filters so we had to buy a bag – 200 was the smallest we could find!. The rings were fine but the oven was less so. I found I needed to light the pilot light with the door closed, but then open the door a bit when I selected a temperature as, with the door closed, the main burner spluttered and went out. After having the door open a while it settled and we could then close the door. The microwave only works with a hook-up or the generator running, as did the air conditioning unit. Use of the generator (and the powered awning) were optional extras.
As serviced sites at campgrounds tended to be expensive ($100/night?) and booked way in advance, we intended to mostly “dry camp” without electricity hook up. As we’d used “France Passion” and “Brit Stops” before, we signed up for Harvest Hosts which allows you to stay overnight at bars, breweries, businesses and farms in exchange for some custom and/or donation, usually around $30. Most didn’t offer hook ups or charged quite a bit extra ($50/night) so we mainly managed without and used the generator to top up the battery and/or run the aircon for a while. Most places have limits on the times you can run a generator as they’re quite noisy – up to 10pm commonly. We’d been assured that the battery would run the fridge overnight as long as it was topped up by driving or the generator but in the case of our van this didn’t happen and the fridge was struggling and becoming warm by morning (we had some quite warm weather). The only time we put anything in the freezer it had thawed by morning. As a result we ran the generator quite a lot and were glad we’d selected a bundle with unlimited generator use. The RV actually had solar panel(s) on the roof (although the people at the rental company didn’t know!) which were good at keeping the fridge running and the battery topped up when parked in the sun.
One of the regular tasks with an RV is to empty the black/grey waste water and/or fill with “potable” (drinking) water. On the RV control panel were some sets of lights to indicate how full the tanks were. Our black waste showed 2/3 full after a couple of days, likely due to something contaminating the sensor according to the campground host who emptied it for me! We found some “gas stations” with RV dumps and water supplies as well as state campgrounds and some other municipal facilities and rest areas. Many private campgrounds also have these facilities but charge for them. If you empty the black waste you need to add a deodorising tablet or bottle of solution afterwards so you don’t want to empty it unless you need to. We found the grey tank filled quite quickly when having a shower.
Our van had an awning (use included in a bundle) which we used a few times and a “slide out” which increased the floor space by about a foot but meant there couldn’t be cupboards above the table. I put a pillow on the driver’s seat as I felt a bit low down without.
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