Why We’re Saying Goodbye to Our Diesel RV After 5 Years of Fulltime Travel

If you’re surprised, then imagine how we feel! In February 2014, with zero RV experience, we emptied our two-bedroom apartment in Austin and moved into a 10-year-old Tiffin Phaeton. We named him Meriwether, after explorer Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark. At the time, I was the youngest fulltime RVer I knew.

We’ve always had this RV. We’ve always said it’s the perfect home for us. We’ve never regretted buying it.

But life has changed, along with our family, goals, and preferences. And so it’s time to say goodbye to our Class A diesel RV after five years of fulltime travel.

Here’s why.

1/ Our Family Has Grown

Since 2016 when I was pregnant, we knew our days in Meriwether were numbered. Although he sleeps 6ish (realistically 4 adults and 2 kids–the dinette is on the short side), there’s only one dedicated sleeping space in the bedroom.

We knew we would want Caspian to have a place of his own by the time he was five or six.

2/ It’s Too Big for Us

When we were first looking, we were hoping to find a Class A diesel RV in the 34- to 36-foot range. Big enough to spread out and be comfortable, but short enough to fit in more state and national park campgrounds.

When we found Meriwether, he was too good of a deal to pass up. And for many years, we loved the 40-feet of spaciousness.

But as of 2018, Meriwether is too big for us. Even with an active toddler. We aren’t very nimble on travel days and can’t stop everywhere we’d like. And when it’s time to dry camp, we probably shouldn’t be driving everywhere we have been (::cough:: Upper Teton View).

Ever since we caught the wild camping bug and gone off-grid, Meriwether has felt ginormous.

3/ We Work for Winnebago

We’ve been wanting to share this news forever! We connected with the Winnebago Industries team at the first RV Entrepreneur Summit in 2017. Earlier this year, our online marketing company was hired to run Winnebago’s social media platforms. In other words, when you talk with Winnebago on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you’re actually talking to us!

This has been a dream come true. Not only because we get to talk about RV adventure all day, or because Winnebago is a forward-thinking, highly respected brand. But because behind the scenes, the Winnebago marketing team has become our second family. 

We knew from the get-go that we couldn’t be the online voice of Winnebago and live in a Tiffin. That’s not cool! But we also had to give it some time as we determined big picture next steps for our family.

What’s Next for Meriwether?

Our Class A diesel RV is officially for sale. We would love to see him continue down the road in 2019, on to more adventures.

This won’t be an exhaustive sales-type listing. We can discuss specific questions privately if you’re interested. But here are a few important notes:

1. Meriwether is a 2004 Tiffin Phaeton 40RH. 2004 is the coach year. It is actually on a 2003 chassis.
2. Just over 88,000 miles.
3. We’re not handy, so we haven’t done any remodeling other than surface stuff (curtains, some painting). You’d be getting a fairly blank canvas to customize as you like.
4. Meriwether’s front end cap has a special Vortex coating to protect it from rock chips. It’s pretty snazzy.
5. All six Michelin tires were replaced in 2017. So they should last until summer 2022 (we recommend replacing diesel tires every five years no matter what they look like on the outside).
6. Our Splendide washer/dryer combo was replaced in mid-2017.
7. Both our slide toppers were replaced in November 2017.
8. We upgraded to AGM Lifeline batteries in December 2017, so they’re basically brand new.
9. We have kept exhaustive service and maintenance records here on the blog. Read through to see what has been repaired or replaced, and when.
10. We have a minor repair list we’ve accumulated during this year of travel. The fridge cooling unit will be replaced at the beginning of December, and we’ll try to knock out the few other little things around that time. Anything that isn’t fixed before sale can be reflected in our price negotiations.
11. Meriwether has been extremely reliable, as we’ve always taken maintenance seriously. On average, we’ve traveled 250 miles every two weeks. This guy just wants to go!

Asking price: $55,000

We will be in the Oklahoma City area this Saturday through late November. We’ll be in Central Texas for December. We’d be happy to give interested buyers a tour during those months.

If you’ve been following along, you know we have a big trip planned for 2019, when we’ll be taking our Jeep to the interior of Mexico. If he’s still for sale, Meriwether will likely be in San Antonio from January through March, available for touring.

We want Meriwether to go to the right home (wait, he is a home…), so we’ll be as flexible as we can during this whole process!

We’ve been going back and forth about this decision to sell our RV. Our 2019 travels center around the Jeep, so we didn’t want to have Meriwether sitting in storage somewhere. But at the same time, we were nervous about selling him and being literally homeless–other than our rooftop tent on the Jeep! As of right now, the whole living-out-of-our-Jeep thing is an experiment and we don’t know how we’re going to like it.

But it’s time for another leap and we’re officially ready. Anchors away!

-B