I'm standing in my new camper and I can't wait to share what I've got and some RV shopping tips for you Welcome to the channel. I'm Liz and I have an exciting video for you today I have been camping since the 90s and I just bought camper number nine Now I have been full timing for the last four years. Here's the thing about camper shopping There is no perfect camper There's always going to be compromises. If you go small, you'll be more nimble You'll be able to fit more easily into camping sites Travel days will be easier But once you get to the campsite you may find that it's a little cramped living if you get too small You may not even have enough stuff with you or it may just kind of take the joy out of it for you Because you don't have what you need to enjoy the RV life Or you can go too big and you can find travel days be so stressful that you dread them They're you're just too big it's hard to fit into camping sites But once you're in the campsite you enjoy it because you have all your stuff with you So the trick is just to find that happy medium that compromise of getting not too big for you or not too small I wanted to let you know I am giving sneak peeks every week on my Patreon page So join the Patreon community and get the scoop first Now I have had a camper van truck camper Two class C's three fifth wheels a travel trailer and now this Basically what I did in deciding for my next RV is Decide first of all how long do I want a camp? Because if I wanted to camp for two and three days at a time I would definitely go for small and nimble But I had lived in a camping van full time for six months and I can tell you that's just too small for me So I never wanted to do that again I plan on camping for about a month at a time So nimble is not such a big factor for me More important for me was to have the living space so I could enjoy life once I was set up and to make it as easy as possible I Love the idea of a truck camper and that in fact was my very first camper I love them. I think they're really great But my limitation is that I had surgery a year ago if you're a long time viewer You probably remember that I had back surgery Well, I need to have a sit stand desk to work on videos. I need that desk So that pretty much rolled out a truck camper So then I divided the campers into drivables and towables After I had the camper van I had a 30-foot fifth wheel and I pulled that So it seems pretty logical since I've also been living in a fifth wheel for the last couple years Why wouldn't I just get another fifth wheel? I certainly know how to drive one, right? Well, there were two things that stopped me Number one was that I would have to get a three quarter ten or one ten truck to get another fifth wheel Well, you know trucks are not that easy to find nowadays And they certainly aren't cheap and honestly I really didn't enjoy driving the truck around I really felt like it was hard to get in and out of parking spaces. It just felt too unwieldy And I have to say even with the whole the practice I've had I don't like backing a fifth wheel I found it took a lot of time and it just was really stressful And I ruled out a travel trailer. I'd had one before I don't like towing them I don't like dealing with weight distribution systems and I also find them not as safe as a fifth wheel to tow And in fact, I actually totalled a travel trailer so that was out for me So that moved me into drivables. I thought well I liked the nimbleness of the camper van, but just too small So why don't I get something bigger like a B plus or a class C? I looked at maybe 24 feet or something like that But instead of just having the RV and nothing else I knew I would need to tow a vehicle and I really wanted to keep my Ford F-150 I really like having the four-wheel drive ability If you visit a lot of national parks like I do you know there are some rough roads leading to good hiking spots And I didn't want to have that close to me. I wanted to be able to go anywhere I really hundered on the Navion The view that kind of thing these are smaller Class C's B plus camper vans that seemed like they would have enough space for me And I even could figure out a place to put my desk But no matter what camper you're looking at In addition to looking at enough storage you really need to look at cargo carrying capacity The Navion had enough storage but not enough cargo carrying capacity for me And I realized that I would be overweight so I had to rule it out The other thing to look at is towing capacity I knew the weight of my truck and I have to be sure that whatever I got could pull that truck Or I'd have to buy another vehicle So that leads to guess what ding ding ding a motorhome I have a class a motorhome a drivable diesel pusher And I am super excited So when I made this decision okay I'm going to get a class a I've been interested in them for the last couple years It's the one kind of camper I've never had before I knew I wanted to have diesel pusher because I knew it would have enough power to tow my truck The first ones I looked at were 40 feet, 42 feet, and I realized too big I don't need that much length So I decided I needed to get something about 38 feet The next thing I looked at was age I had decided to get a 2012 or older so I wouldn't have to worry about death Which can be really expensive Death is an additive that diesels need that came out right around 2012 I didn't want to deal with that The next thing I decided was to go actually before 2008 The reason why I wanted to get something older was that during the great recession A lot of these motorhome companies to stay in business cheapened the build quality These classics in the early 2000s are still on the road People love them and they're well built So I have a 2005 Alphacea Motorhome It did not come from the factory with the full body paint So that's just a great bonus What I really liked is that it has enough cargo carrying capacity Plenty of storage, a perfect place for my desk I mean it has everything even a washer and dryer And it can tow my truck You may remember in last week's video I mentioned driving a personal record of 750 miles in one day That was because the owners of the Alphacea had just dropped the price by $10,000 It was now being sold for book value And that didn't even count the full body paint Which was only done a few years ago I didn't want to lose out on buying the motorhome Plus the sellers Wade and Tina were super nice They were generous with their time, both times I looked at it And even went with me to a local campground to help me set up What I wanted more than anything was to buy from people I felt good about I knew I would have lots of questions weeks or even months down the line Wade and Tina were simply the best people Heck when they found out it was my birthday they even had me over for dinner So thank you so much for making the buying process as easy as possible So I'm going to give you a full tour next week If you can't wait, join the Patreon community I am giving regular sneak peeks every week So that you get the scoop first Find me on Patreon What are your tips for picking the right camper? Just leave a comment and I will see you in the next video And remember these are exciting times to push past fear Build confidence and live amazing