We never thought we'd switch....

When we were contemplating the decision to sell our house and start living full time in an RV, we did a ton of research. We read books about full time RV living, we talked to full time RVers, we read online reviews, blogs, and RV manufacturer websites. We shopped for RVs in 3 different states. When we had narrowed down our choice to a pickup truck and a fifth wheel, we purchased a fairly expensive book with recent independent reviews and ratings of all of the fifth wheel manufacturers. I remember asking one of the RV salesmen, "How many pounds of stuff will we take with us as full timers?". He said "About 2,000 pounds". I wrote it down. I took notes of all of our research and conversations. Then, after much research and shopping, we selected a 2014 DRV Mobile Suites Fifth Wheel -- highly rated and designed for full time RV living. We were sure we'd made the right decison, and that the DRV would be our home for at least the next ten years.  But, not so. Sam and Betty are gone.

"What?" you say? If you've been following us, you know that we've been very happy with Betty (our DRV fifth wheel).  She's beautiful inside and out. Terry loved Sam (his Dodge Ram 3500 Dually truck). So, what happened? In December, we got Sam and Betty weighed by Escapees. It wasn't our first weighing, but it was our first time getting individual wheel and axle weights since going full time. Here's the problem:

Sam passed all of the tests. He had more than enough towing capacity and weight carrying capacity. The problem was Betty - she was overweight by 1,300 pounds!  The photo above is from Betty's hitch and it shows she can carry up to 2,710 pounds. Unfortunately, when we sold our house and downsized nearly everything we owned, we had no idea how much the stuff we kept weighed. Would you? Betty had tons of large cupboards and we didn't fill them all, so we figured we were fine. We'd purchased a fifth wheel designed for full time living, and we hadn't filled all of the cupboards. We couldn't possibly be overweight, right? WRONG!

As soon as we realized that Betty was over loaded, we had a decision to make: A) Unload 1,300+ pounds, or B) trade her in for an RV with a higher carrying capacity.  Why? Well, driving an overloaded RV down the road is dangerous. Any component on the fifth wheel could break and cause an accident, and someone might get hurt. This was a risk we definitely didn't want to take.

To determine if Choice A) was feasible, I created a spreadsheet and started weighing everything we thought we could live without:

After 100+ rows in the spreadsheet, we still hadn't achieved our 1,300+ pounds of weight reduction.

So, on to Plan B. We started shopping for a replacement RV, even though Betty was only nine months old. We learned that nearly all fifth wheels can carry only about 3,000 pounds of stuff (or less), and we have 4,100 pounds of stuff. While shopping at Holland RV in San Marcos, CA we met Kevin. We explained our problem to Kevin and he started showing us new and used motor coaches. Motor coaches can generally carry more weight than fifth wheels. Kevin was all excited when he showed us this 40' Newmar Dutch Star with a "tag wheel".

Kevin kept talking about the "tag wheel" and Terry kept nodding. I had no idea was a tag wheel was. Note the double wheels in the back. The rear-most axle is known as a 'tag wheel' and having a tag wheel means you can carry more weight - a LOT more weight! The 2015 Dutch Star can carry 9,491 lbs!! Sold!

Well, it wasn't quite that easy. We spent 3 days with Kevin at Holland RV,  dickering over the price and looking at other motor coaches. We walked away twice. In the end, we both had fallen in love with the 40' Dutch Star. The exterior paint job is beautiful - the best I've seen. And the inside is gorgeous. So, we traded overweight Betty in for Veronica, our new Dutch Star. We took a big hit on the trade in, but we're happy with Veronica:

 View from the front looking back

Kitchen with dishwasher

Bedroom with king sized bed

Master bathroom with washer dryer

Veronica at the beach in California

Yes, we named our new motor coach "Veronica" (after Betty and Veronica in the old Archie comic books, maybe). Terry is very happy with Veronica's 450 hp Cummins engine. We're both happy that she is a foot shorter than Betty and we don't have to worry quite so much about low bridges.

We also had to buy a new 'Toad' (e.g. towed vehicle), so we purchased a used 2014 Jeep Cherokee that can be towed 4 wheels down. We couldn't think of a name for the Jeep, so we're calling him "The Toad".

Veronica and The Toad 

- Amanda in Coronado, CA