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| - We rented this RV for our trip through northern Arizona and southern Utah. We drove through campgrounds of Grand Canyon, Sedona, Page (Lake Powell), Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park.
Although the concept of using a minivan is sound, there are many unacceptable deficiencies as for the usefulness of this type of camping vehicle. Our party consisted of three adults.
First the pros:
(1) Since the vehicle is essentially a minivan, anyone can drive it and it is easy to maneuver around the town for shopping and sightseeing.
(2) Gets slightly better gas mileage than truck based RVs.
(3) Better performance in incremental weather due to lower and narrower profile.
Then the cons:
(1) The penthouse mat had hundreds of glass particles and when I tried to brush them off with my hand, I got my fingers, hand and arm cut; I thought they were dust particles at first. The mat needed a vacuum clean before the RV was rented to us. The situation was so bad that we needed to pitch a tent to save our limbs and down sleeping bags. I surmise these particles came off the fiberglass shell of the penthouse roof.
(2) We had the older style penthouse roof that only opened on the one side. Although the electric opening and closing feature was nice (the engine needs to be turned on however), the 45 degrees opening made the hinged side not only very claustrophobic, but also lacked head room for adults. In other words, the penthouse will NOT sleep two adults comfortably; the newer manually operated penthouse would probably sleep two adults, however. Therefore the older style RVs with electrically operated shell that opens to 45 degrees sleeps only three adults COMFORTABLY and NOT four as advertised.
(3) The two cooking stoves provided works well in lower elevations, but is very difficult to heat to a boiling temperature at higher elevation. The butane gas canisters are retail grade and were not effective in elevations above 6,500 to 7,000 feet. Furthermore, the ignitor lighter provided was out of fuel and we had to buy another one on the way,
(4) Our RV had an exhaust pipe problem...it rumbled at start and every time we stepped on the gas pedal.
(5) These RVs are very underpowered with all the additional equipment installed on the vehicle after production. The additional generator to recharge the second battery to power the refrigerator and other electrical items saps so much power from the motor that it is very difficult to keep up with traffic on 75 MPH speed limits in AZ, UT and NV. On cruise control, it would automatically downshift to second gear on even a slight incline raising the RPMs to over 5,000 RPMs! The additional loads on these engines are such that the mileage per gallon suffers tremendously. It didn't help that our RV had over 141,000 miles on the odometer and it drove as if it was not maintained well. The brakes juddered badly and I suspect the rotors were not changed when the pads were changed last.
(6) These RVs do not have much storage space for luggages. Therefore, make sure you pack light if there are more than two adults. Otherwise you would need to rearrange luggage loading on a daily basis and/or pitch a tent to store your luggages while the interior is setup for dining during incremental weather.
(7) Only the front windows open on these RVs. Therefore, it is very uncomfortable to sleep in the RV during hot nights. As for the penthouse, one of the vent window zipper was broken on our RV and it was impossible to get a cross flow of air into the upper sleeping area. The ventilation fan is there, but is very noisy.
(8) The garish cosmetics of the RVs attract a lot of attention. We ended up spending quite a bit of time showing RV details to interested onlookers. Would have liked to be paid for free advertisement.
Overall, I would only recommend this van to people who are young couples (e.g., two adults) and/or are willing to put up with all the deficiencies. Make sure you request the manually operating penthouse since it will provide more room and since this type is newer the likelihood of having glass particles on the sleeping mat is lower. Furthermore, request a newer model RV with lower mileage because the company cannot maintain these RVs with regularity apparently since there is so much demand for these RVs. I was told all the vans are sold out throughout September and early October 2015. We did get $100 plus tax discount when we returned the RV...for our inconveniences.
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