My situation is atypical in the RV world, and my own priorities/tastes/lifestyle are also a bit out of line with the norm, but for what it's worth.......
I live full time in an "RV". No other home, storage shed, family's house to crash in, etc. My RV IS my home and it's the one and only.
Mine is a trailer, and a pretty small one by most "RV full timer's" standards. It's a Winnebago 1800BH Micro Minnie. It's called an 18', but it actually measures about 21' from hitch to bumper. It's basic but has everything I need......3-burner stove, decent sized fridge, actual shower, double sink, good sized bed, and I've converted what was a double bunkbed (meant for kid's when camping) to storage so I have a good amount of that. It's got a double axle, extra duty axles, is lifted a bit for ground clearance, a bit of extra insulation, and the underside is enclosed/insulated for the cold months. Build quality is certainly not "high" quality, but honestly it's decent enough and I wouldn't call it junk (though there are a couple of things that could be improved)....I'm satisfied for what it is.
I do NOT need a big heavy duty vehicle to pull it. My tow vehicle is a Ford Ranger, and it has always had plenty of power/torque/oomph for the job.....doesn't dog on hills, is smooth and steady, handles excellent, and I have zero problems with this setup. I DO use a sway/equalizer hitch rig (which works great).
As for weight.....my trailer, FULLY loaded with all my "stuff", full water/propane/etc. tanks, stocked fridge/pantry, and basically everything that I own, comes in at around 5600 pounds. Admittedly I do have some "stuff" in my truck as well, but not all that much. Honestly in total I think I have more than enough "stuff", and I could pretty easily drop a few hundred pounds of excess if I needed to. But my truck is rated to pull up to 7500....I'm almost 2000 pounds under that at my heaviest.
GVWR (TOTAL allowable weight of fully loaded trailer) is 7000 pounds, and of that the CCC (total cargo capacity) is 3300 pounds.....I'm well under those numbers (by like 1400 pounds).
Whenever I'm "in motion" (which is often for many months at a time), I pretty much always "boondock" and have adapted to being basically off-grid the vast majority of the time. I almost never stay in RV parks (which are crazy expensive, usually horrible experiences, not at all "the lifestyle" that appeals to me). A lot of that time I'm in pretty remote places in the mountains, and so I travel quite a bit of rough dirt roads....which is no problem with my setup. I've installed a decent sized solar rig with lithium batteries, and my electrical needs are relatively small, so power is never really a problem. I'm frugal with water, and with a 31 gallon on board tank, and perhaps 2 or 3 five-gallon jugs in my truck I can easily go 2+ weeks without needing a fill up. As far as my black tank goes, if I'm smart/careful (pee in the woods, use public restrooms when possible, dig catholes sometimes, etc.) again going 2+ weeks before needing to dump is generally not a problem. If I'm super careful and play it smart, going much longer than 2 weeks - 3, 4, more - (for water/dump needs) is definitely doable.
At times, such as now, I'm "parked" for a while (a few months while working a regular job). It typically looks like my current setup: I'm parked on a rancher's property and have made some sort of "rent" agreement (which is MUCH cheaper/workable than RV parks or somesuch). There's electric available for me to plug into. I've built a hookup connecting me to a septic line, and I'll donate this to the rancher when I eventually depart. There's no direct water hookup but there's a well house close enough that hauling water and filling my tank (every two weeks or so) is easy to do. This situation works great.
My RV is not a toy, or a play thing. It's not a "camper". It's my home.
Honestly, I don't "get" camping with an RV, especially these monster rigs that so many have these days.......when I camp I go minimal, I don't WANT all that space/complexity/amenities/hassle/expense - I want things to be simple, basic, compact, and easily mobile.
But that's just me.
this is home:
The point of all this is............if your needs in life are relatively "small", you are pretty self sufficient, do NOT have to have things like big expensive toys, don't want/ need a huge (or any) TV or tons of electronic gadgets, etc...... than there is NO need to have a huge (and expensive) RV, NO need to have a big powerful (and expensive) truck, NO reason to stay in (expensive and silly) RV parks, and you can skip and/or ignore a large majority of all the trappings of "RV life" that most folks tell you are must-haves. Now, I'm not saying you have to be an ascetic or a monk.......you can absolutely have things like internet and air conditioning, you can eat well, you can take showers, poop in a toilet, you can do things like build & fly rockets, etc. It's just that you don't NEED "all that" just to live a decent life. And if you pare down a bit from all the "stuff" that most people think they need, doing it all while living in an RV is totally doable without huge expense or hassle.
again, for what that's worth......
s6
