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> and gas money

I cannot stress enough how absurdly expensive it is to keep an RV moving on the road. They are built in by far the least weight efficient manner imaginable and consume gas or diesel as if prices hadn’t changed since 1986. It is wild how little manufacturers have spent on R&D to come up with more weight efficient solutions.




It’s wild how little manufacturers have invested in anything, like basic quality.

It’s a garbage industry full of garbage vendors selling unremarkable trash, YoY.


In Europe it's a completely different story:

a) the majority of RVs are designed to be driven with a standard car license, so fully loaded must weigh less than 3500kg

b) The vans that are used as base of RVs all run on diesel, and have a fuel consumption of around 8l/100km or 30mpg. Add around 20% for a Class B RV.


Don't forget the Saab 900 Toppola camper!



Aren’t all van based RVs considered Class B? I thought that was the definition. And wouldn’t they be lighter and get better fuel economy versus the Class C’s that are based on a van chassis?


There are class C's built on van chassis.

The definition is that class C is constructed on a cutaway chassis, constructing new "RV walls" at the RV factory, and class B uses the original "vehicle walls".

A class B will get generally better fuel economy than a class C, because it's more aerodynamic, narrower and not as tall. Of course, a class B will have less interior room.

https://rv.org/pages/class-c https://rv.org/pages/class-b


That's just because old rich buyers don't want campers with space efficient ergonomics and energy efficient materials, they want movable bungalows.


"Tiny houses" take that inefficiency up a notch. Using materials and designs with no regard for road weight.


tiny houses are not typically expected to move around often. the wheels are generally a formality to get round certain zoning rules. that you can move them is a side benefit.


I believe that's OP's point.

RV's are even less-efficient / less effective tiny houses.

Put another way: the constraints imposed by adding mobility to an otherwise static design are significant, and the inherent compromises large.




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