In this video, I'll tell you why I chose a class b RV over other RVs, why I chose
this specific RV I did the trovato, and I'll answer the question I get most
often how much did I pay for this thing?
What is going on YouTube and greetings from rural Missouri yep I'm still in
Missouri still waiting on my license plates but I should have them next week
and then I'm gonna hit the road I'm heading to Colorado and then to the
Tetons then to Glacier National Forest then over to Mount Rainier National
Forest and then I'm going to shoot down the crater lake and not sure where I'm
gonna go after that so should be some really interesting videos coming up so
if you haven't subscribed yet make sure you hit that subscribe button
alright so my last two RV videos have been doing pretty well I have one with
over a hundred and twenty thousand views and another with around sixty thousand
views and I really appreciate everyone who's watching and subscribing it's been
amazing one of the most common questions that
I'm getting from viewers is why did I choose a Class B RV over other kinds of
RVs if you don't know there are three classes of RVs there's a Class A RV that
kind of looks like a Greyhound bus those are those really big RVs you see driving
down the road the next class of RV is a Class B RV and all that means is someone
goes and gets a van and throws in a bunch of stuff that you would normally
find in an RV in just the van and after that is the Class C RV that's kind of a
cross between a Class A RV and a Class B RV it's the one you're probably most
familiar with and the fourth type of RV is travel trailers and fifth wheels and
everything that kind of falls into that category those are the ones you see
people towing down the road with another vehicle okay so why did I choose a Class
B RV to really understand why I have to give you a Cliff Notes version of
basically my life story so I joined the US Navy at 19 years old and spent a huge
portion of my life traveling the world on ships when you live on a
ship you have a little bed that you sleep in which is very similar to the
bed on my class BRV after I retired from the military I went to law school I
became a corporate lawyer I was working tons of hours and every
night I would come home and I'd watch travel videos I'd watch two genres of
travel video I'd watch international travel videos where digital nomads
hopped from country to country about every month and I would watch RV videos
two of the YouTube RV channels quickly became my favorite we're the Russos and
story chasing you should go check out those channels they're great van life
channels although we're the Russos have just transitioned into a truck travel
trailer type of setup both Joe and Kate from we're the Russos and amber from
story chasing had himer active vans and I fell in love with that band I thought
it was awesome and I told myself if I ever go and travel I'm gonna get a van
like that okay so now the specific reasons why I was drawn to the Class B
RV the number one biggest reason is they're smaller if you've been watching
my channel you know that I traveled the world with one backpack one small 30
liter osprey backpack I am very much a minimalist and a class BRV lends itself
to that lifestyle a little bit more than the bigger RVs the second reason is it's
easy to maneuver no matter how you slice it this is still a ram promaster 3,500
work van that was converted into an RV it's still the same size that it was
when it rolled off the assembly line at the Dodge plant I can park in most
standard parking spots and I can take it to places like New York and DC and not
have to worry about taking it down narrow and congested roads the third
reason is it gets better gas mileage my trovato back here will get 18 to 22
miles per gallon which is awesome and some of the Mercedes diesel versions get
much better gas mileage the next reason I chose a Class B and specifically a
Dodge Ram Promaster Class B is it cheaper and easier to maintain when you
decide to start full-time or Avene there are three main costs associated with it
one is gas the other campgrounds and campsites and the last
is maintaining your vehicle mechanically it's just cheaper to maintain and there
are Dodge Chrysler service centers all over the United States the next reason
is a Class B RV has all the amenities of a bigger RV it's just in a smaller
package and if you've watched my other videos you know I prefer likes to do
size apartments so I like everything in one room and that's what you get when
you have a Class B everything's in one room my kitchen my bathroom my bedroom
everything and finally I wanted to be able to travel just about anywhere in
the US Canada and Mexico and be able to bring my house with me when you have a
bigger vehicle you're limited to where you can go and I wanted to have more
flexibility okay so the next question I get is why the trovato and there are a
bunch of different subcategories of questions that I'm gonna try to answer
right now the first question is why didn't you just build your own van or
buy from a custom builder as far as building it myself goes unfortunately
for me I did not get that builder gene I absolutely suck at that kind of stuff I
am terrible the build quality would be awful it's almost as bad as my cooking I
have nothing but respect for the people who build their own van it's awesome I
love watching their channels I love watching their process that's just not
something that I'd be good at and so that's why I chose not to do it why not
a custom builder or hire someone to build one for me so I actually explored
that option a lot I had numerous conversations with private and
commercial builders the problem I had with that was time the earliest I could
get a vehicle was March 2021 and that just didn't work for me and
winnebago had just dropped the national park edition trovato which had almost
everything I wanted in a custom build anyway but more about that in a second
so that's why I did build or order a custom rig that I consider any other
class be RVs yep I mentioned earlier that I followed story chasing and we're
the Russos and initially I fell in love with the himer
at the time it had the best electronics package and I loved the layout I loved
the European styling of the heimer active that is the vehicle I was going
to get I actually almost bought a used timer active the deal fell through at
the last minute because I had some liquidity problems my money was tied up
in some other things so I couldn't get the cash right away and I didn't want
that person to have to wait on me to sell their vehicle but things happen for
a reason and that led me to explore some of the winnebago products the first one
that I was interested in was the Winnebago rebel it has a very similar
layout to the heimer it has a cassette toilet it has an
induction cooktop it has a bunch of the things I was looking for and it's built
on the Mercedes chassis and it's also a 4x4 which was awesome
but unfortunately the lithium package inside the Revel wasn't gonna meet my
needs okay so that brings us to the Winnebago
trovato 59 KL National Park Edition which is what I purchased I actually
rediscovered the trovato I was already familiar with the trovato specifically
the 59 k4 plan one of my favorite instagramers is a guy named Nick he's
also a retired military member and he's been traveling for like three years and
his Winnebago trovato 59 K he puts out awesome content on
Instagram you should go check him out so I really loved the trovato but at the
time there wasn't a good lithium option for it about a month after my deal to
buy the used himer active fell through I logged on to youtube and in my suggested
videos was a video by fit RV I'd been following them for a while they have a
standard trovato 59 G but in this video they were trying out the Winnebago
trovato 59 KL national park edition this vehicle but with yellow stripes instead
of light grey stripes fit RV absolutely sold me on this vehicle I fell in love
with it if Winnebago isn't giving them a commission on this thing they should be
because I bought this vehicle because of that video
here's the specific reasons why I bought it the National Park edition trovato
is like three of Winnebagos class B's all rolled up into one it has the alloy
wheels the off-road tires and the sumo Springs like the Winnebago rebel it has
the souped up 11600 watt-hour volta power system like
the Winnebago bolt has and finally it has the K layout and the coolness factor
that comes with the trovato it also has two beds which is really really rare in
such a small rig now friends and family can come on camping trips with me for me
it was exactly what I was looking for and if I would have built my RV it's
almost exactly what I would have built all right finally we'll talk about how
much this thing costs and so many people are either really interested in that or
like to kick me in the junk about it if you get the exact same rig I have which
is the 59 K National Park Edition with every single option hunting style
windows the bike rack the ladder anything you can get on the trovato I
have it if you get the exact same version I have you can get it for around
120 maybe a little lower the lowest I've seen is about 117 I know what you're
saying that's a lot of money and I don't
disagree with that I'm in a very fortunate position in my life where I
can afford to get something like this I'm extremely extremely fortunate and I
recognize that if you wanted to get the standard lithium version of the trovato
that'll run you under 110 and if you don't care about the lithium you're fine
with running the generator you can get the non lithium version of the trovato
for somewhere in the 80s and of course you can find used trovato's both the
lithium version and the non lithium version for much cheaper if that's the
route you want to go you're probably not going to be able to find the National
Park Edition used yet it's a brand new vehicle they had a limited run they only
built it in 2020 and a few in 2021 so you're just not
gonna be able to find it used at this point or at least I haven't seen any but
in the future you'll probably be able to find this exact same rig for a cheaper
price hide so that's my video if you enjoyed it give it a thumbs up unless
you're a big big big jerk and then you can give it a thumbs down and make sure
you hit that subscribe button and a notification bell I hit the road next
week and hopefully my next video will be from a different location
take care