Say hello to our little friend…a 2012 Itasca Navion 24J. It is ideal for us and how we like to go places. This is not a stepping stone RV. This is THE rig.
And for the interior…
Our RV is 24.5 feet long, 7.5 feet wide and 11.5 feet high. It is narrow enough to fit into a normal parking spot and if there is some overhang available, we will fit if we can back in. It drives like a large van (which technically it is I guess) and gets great gas mileage compared to any other RV or Truck and trailer combo we’ve heard about. Our records show 15.5 to 16 mpg! Yes, it is diesel and I love it on this rig!
We do not feel cramped at all. We have plenty of capacity for food in the refrigerator, freezer and cabinets. The propane capacity is really fantastic for everything it powers in warm weather (we haven’t used the furnace). We like to cook and prep our own food and that has been just fine, (I’ll do a cooking post or two down the road.) We currently carry regular bikes or e-bikes but the RV can tow 5,000 pounds according to manufacturer specs and we’ve seen ALL KINDS of vehicles being towed with these things…some I would NOT tow personally. Every RV is a compromise. This one just works for us better than we could’ve imagined.
My 2 Cents on Practical RV Usage
So here’s the deal…do you want to set up a home base in some central spot like a doughnut hole and then spend a few days exploring the doughnut?
Or…do you want to keep moving from point A to B to C to D, etc. with the flexibility to stop pretty much wherever you want along the way as the urge strikes? We thought we wanted the former but we really wanted the latter.
Our setup time when we pull into a campsite that is fairly level is about 5 minutes. Seriously. Here’s the checklist once the parking brake is on and the engine off:
- Lock the front doors and close the blinds on the front windows
- Open the side door and turn off the auto stairs so they stay down
- Plug in the electrical in the rear of the RV with the surge protector
- Connect fresh water hose with filter and regulator
- Open slide (and awning if desired)
That’s it. Even if the campsite isn’t super level, that process hasn’t added more than another couple of minutes thus far. This is why we chose our rig versus a travel trailer.
We’ve watched couples and families spend close to an hour getting their travel trailers packed up to leave a campsite. I guess because its just the 2 of us and we’re already very procedure-oriented people, we like to have simple systems in place for things like that.
The big takeaway (I hope) from all of my blathering on this topic is this:
YOU have to decide how YOU want to use an RV…no matter what kind it is. We didn’t really know until we took a few trips without an RV but sort of pretending we were already using an RV on those trips. That worked well. We discovered lots of “we wouldn’t have stopped there if we were pulling a travel trailer” or “we couldn’t park there in anything bigger than a Class B” and things like that. Those conversations and that perspective really helped. So if you just want to take your RV to one spot at the lake every weekend or you want a really big house on wheels to take across the country, think very carefully about the pros and cons and you’ll find the right one for YOU.