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Thread: Motorhome Location Vehicle?

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    538

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    The satellite television channels I am frequenting lately seem to be running a plethora of programming and adverts related to RV’s. I am getting excited.

    Having spent a portion of my youth at the periphery of the cinematography business in Hollywood, I am aware of the pleasure, perhaps the necessity of a location vehicle out of which to work.

    I have loaded many Hasselblad film backs at the breakfast table, out of direct sunlight and blowing beach sand. I have done food shots with a stylist cooking the product in the RV kitchen. And many fashion shoots with models dressing, make-up artists smearing and dabbing and hair stylists frizzing away in the motorhome.

    But now living in MA, just the thought of horsing one of these monsters around New England gives me pause. I know of no place to legally park one, excepting a commercial truck stop, an RV campground or an interstate service area.

    You can’t just plop one anywhere you like, as in the Tom Selleck-narrated “Go RV-ing” commercials.

    And then there are the roadside ditches in Maine. Both sides of rural (and some town) streets have 18" deep open water drainage ditches instead of storm sewers. Most are carefully camouflaged with grass and weeds. Just grinning and waiting for summer people.

    If you pull off the road in Maine, you will instantly find yourself with the two right-hand wheels dangling in mid air and your vehicle sitting firmly on its frame. And not a cell phone tower for fifty miles.

    And then there’s the cost. During a recent exploratory trip to the nearest RV dealer in Connecticut, I found a nice Class C model for only $160,000. Class A’s were priced as if they came from Boeing. Nothing at all less than 100K - even a trailer - figuring in the cost of a Chev Suburban to tow it around.

    If I lived (and photographed) in the wide open spaces of the Wild West this would be a very different matter. But I just don’t think the Northeast is set up for this kind of behemoth.

    Several years ago, I purchased a new Winnebago LeSharo. After two trips I concluded than anything nimble enough to scoot around Eastern roads is too uncomfortable to tolerate. Sleeping on the breakfast nook, pooping in a phonebooth while showering with a kitchen faucet hand-sprayer, and spending the evening hunched-over in a room with a 60" ceiling are really not my style.

    So, has anyone managed to make one of these things work for location photography?

    The idea of having a hot pot of coffee and my La-Z-Boy within feet of the tripod is certainly appealing in my golden years!

  2. #2

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    I pull a 22' travel trailer with a Chevy Suburban both of which I could replace for a total of about $10K. It doesn't bother me to poop in the phone booth, shower with a kitchen faucet, or sleep on the dining table, and my ceiling is at least 6'6". However, I understand what you are talking about regarding manueverability. Even in the west it nearly always requires vigilance and quick thinking to navigate an RV, and more so when you are constantly on the lookout for photographic possibilities. You are very limited as to the number of roadside pull-off areas that you can use, especially on stretches of road like highway 1 on the Big Sur coast. Considering how many hotel rooms one can rent and restaurant meals one can buy for the cost of an RV, I would recommend against the RV. When I get more financially able, I plan to make more road trips without the trailer.

  3. #3

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    I've traveled through all of the continental US states and all of the Canadian provinces except Nunavit and Newfoundland in four summer long trips with my family.

    Two years were done in a 34 foot coach, and two years were done in a 40 foot coach towing a Land Rover Discovery.

    I found it to be an excellent way for four people and one large Golden Retreiver to travel around and see things. We traveled throughout New England and did not run into access problems, nor did we have trouble fitting the 34 foot coach anywhere we wanted to go in New England. I will happily admit that the only time I thought we'd made a mistake was returning from West Quoddy Head to Bangor, where the road was torn up and consisted of gravel with about 4" of viscous mud on top - but truckers seemed to think the road was terrible, too.

    The 40' coach we took across the southern US and back, and then up through BC to Dawson Creek, then up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, from Whitehorse up to Dawson, over the Top of the World Highway to Chicken, then down to Tok, followed by Fairbanks, Anchorage, and along the coast for the return. Much of the Alaska trip was on gravel roads ranging from excellent (e.g. Alaska Highway) to horrible. Possibly the worst paved section of road we encountered in four years was the Tok Cutoff, which had horrible heaves that resulted in 4 to 6 inch drops at the end of every paving slab.

    But since you think these things are 'monsters' and that they're unworkable, clearly they're not for you.

    And, of course, smaller coaches (like the van conversions, and the Winnebago you mention), all have more cramped quarters, convertable bunk arrangements, and typically have wet bathrooms (that is, the entire bathroom area serves as shower stall), and you find those arrangements uncomfortable.

    We met lots of people on our trips, including one memorable elderly couple who had been living in a 19' Roadtrek van fulltime for several years when we met them in a small campground in (I think) Vermillion, Alberta, east of Edmonton. They marveled at our 34' coach but prefered the simplicity of living in the little Roadtrek.

    In traveling by RV, attitude counts for a lot. If you're not accustomed to getting things out, doing some task, and then putting everything away, you'll find it impossible. If you constantly worry about not being able to fit the coach somewhere, you'll worry more or less non-stop. If you find cramped quarters burdensome, you'll be claustrophobic 100% of the time. In fact, unless you have a pretty postive attitude, you'll find even more things to complain about than you would in a house with a la-z-boy in the living room.

    On the other hand, if you inculcate the attitude that living in the cramped quarters of the coach, complete with heat, air-conditioning, electricity, running potable water, a toilet, a shower, and a complete, functioning galley including a microwave oven, and probably a TV, you're enjoying a standard of living and spaciousness that the vast majority of humanity can only dream of, you'll find it an excellent way to travel.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    4,589

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    John, that's why they invented Holiday Inn and Best Western. (Personally, I'm a lot like Miss Piggy -- "roughing it" is when they cut off room service at 10 PM.)
    Wilhelm (Sarasota)

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
    Posts
    9,599

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    Anchorage in autumn is the time and place for deals on motorhomes. As far as owning one, I'm skeptical---even more so at $3/gallon gas.

    OTOH, most Motel 6 have bathrooms than can be converted into nice dark rooms (no windows)with very little creative effort (a towel under the door.)

    There is one motorhome I'm rather taken with---the Peterstream. Its an old Airstream trailer that a friend grafted onto the chassis of a Peterbilt cement truck with lowered suspension. The thing would thunder down the highway with the diesel engine at idle, probably getting better milage than most econo-coupes(as I recall you still couldn't stand a box of cereal upright in the kitchen cabinet since the roof was radiused (being an older airstream) Not a big deal considering that the beast looked reall really cool.

    If I absolutely had to have an RV, I'd love to have that one.

    I understand Wal-mart welcomes RV-ers in their parking lots.

    I wouldn't mind having a VW camper, but I'm a closet flower child ;-)
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  6. #6
    Geos
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    257

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    For photography purposes, how about a 4WD pickup truck with a diesel engine (over 20MPG) and a camper back such as the rugged "Alaskan Camper." This would allow one to go almost anywhere (from remote parts of Death Valley/Alaska, to Madison Ave. in Manhattan, summer or winter).

  7. #7

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    We've been battling the RV question for a couple of years now. First, we thought about pulling a travel trailer with the F-150 Super Crew... no sweat, but not a terribly comfortable vehicle for my 6'6" son in the back seat. Then we were all about the Class C motor home, specifically the Four Winds 5000 28'. Great vehicle, but still not terribly comfortable for the passengers, and a bear to go to town to get a carton of milk. Sure, you can pull a toad, but then you have navigational issues (you cannot easily back up, etc.).

    We think that we've settled on a new GMC High-top conversion van for the comfort of traveling (you know, a CD player to keeps the kids entertained for several hours at a time) with the captain's chairs for everyone, the ability to take our two 120lb Newfies, and the added ability to manuver reasonably around the drive-through for some fries and a shake.

    The vehicle we have selected also has the HP to pull a 9800 lb travel trailer so that we have tolerable sleeping quarters for those times that we need to be at location at sunrise, without having to get up two hours before sunrise in order to get there.

    This seems to be the best of all worlds (as far as we have imagined and fantasized about), and we will be able to haul all of our camera bags, tripods, etc. We can also lug a small generator so that we can have power if we're away from a full campsite (Tuweep Valley, at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, for example).

    We haven't found the perfect solution, but we think we're reasonably close. Now, if we could burn biofuel (biodiesel, except that the GMC doesn't offer diesel), or E85 (damn near impossible to find so far) we'd be even happier.

    We're ordering the conversion van in November, and will follow up sometime about how well we did (or how stupid we were).

    Andy & Ann Marie

  8. #8

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    One of these:

    www.scamptrailers.com/index.cfm?PageID=23

    This or the smaller 13' version would be nice once you get your mind around the compact size. The 16 footer can be outfitted with a larger bathroom option. These things are lots nicer than they might seem compared to a huge motorhome or trailer, especially if you are sleeping in a wet tent for the third day and look out and see the other folks -dry- under their roll out awning.

    I want a 13 footer.

  9. #9

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    Check out the website for Sportsmobile, they come in all sizes and many different floor plans. It's worth a look. www.sportsmobile.com

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    9,487

    Motorhome Location Vehicle?

    I once spent 3 months preparing a pitch to Airstream and learned a lot about the RV industry.

    By used. With gas prices heading up and a constant churn of retired folks getting to old to drive, there is a plentiful supply.

    While I myself have the same adversions to RVs as I do to mini-vans, the only one I would seriously be caught dead in is a customized Airstream. Towed by a nice 4x4. Having the separate vehicle makes more sense to me. And I would customize a used one to be photo-friendly.

    As for having an armchair next you tripod, that would take some fancy driving. But what would be nice is a roof-top platform to shoot from - that would get you a lot of shots nobody would ever notice.

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