And it lives in California! Her name has yet to be determined, however the factory calls her a 1999 Tioga 23B. That’s way too complicated for a name, but I want to wait until we meet her in person before naming her. And yes, it’s a girl.
How she stacks up:
- Ford chassis (7 liter, V10 engine) with 22,500 miles on it
- More than adequate power, will climb hills easily. Fantastic low mileage.
- Twenty-three feet long, 11 feet high, and 8 feet wide
- I love the size. It’s big enough that we’ll have enough space for two and won’t be living in a van, but small enough that we can park pretty much anywhere and make it into any national park. It’s shorter (height and length) than the McKenzie we were looking at. The trade-off on height is having more clearance (for underpasses) but less exterior storage. I like having clearance and don’t want to have enough stuff to require all the basement storage that the McKenzie offered.
- I love the size. It’s big enough that we’ll have enough space for two and won’t be living in a van, but small enough that we can park pretty much anywhere and make it into any national park. It’s shorter (height and length) than the McKenzie we were looking at. The trade-off on height is having more clearance (for underpasses) but less exterior storage. I like having clearance and don’t want to have enough stuff to require all the basement storage that the McKenzie offered.
- Comfortably sleeps five, theoretically sleeps six (seven, creatively)
- Convertible sofa sleeps two, overcab bed sleeps two, and convertible dinette sleeps one adult or two tiny people
- Thirty gallon fresh, grey, and black water tanks*
- I’d love a bigger fresh water tank, but for the size of the RV these are expected figures. (Fresh water is what comes out of your faucets/shower head and is drinkable. Grey water goes down your sink and shower drains and is not drinkable. Black ‘water’ is whatever you flush down your toilet. Grey and black water all get dumped in pretty simple and clean processes.)
- Fifty-five gallon gas tank
- Nice! And for a five ton truck it gets decent gas mileage – around 11-12 mpg. (It’s much heavier than the 10 mpg Hummer H2, for example.)
- Nice! And for a five ton truck it gets decent gas mileage – around 11-12 mpg. (It’s much heavier than the 10 mpg Hummer H2, for example.)
For the uninitiated, think of the RV as a house built on the back of a small and low-to-the-ground flatbed truck. It has everything a house would, just in a smaller space: full kitchen, bathroom, shower, wardrobe, electricity, plumbing, storage, heat, a/c, beds…. AND YOU CAN DRIVE IT PLACES!
And… here she is:
Our RV! A 1999 Tioga 23B. (The awning is extended in the photo.) Click to enlarge.
We’ll likely be picking up the RV at the end of July. I’ll be posting in the future about how we are making the delayed (July) pick-up work for both us and the seller.
See that thing above? That’s our HOUSE from August until…? š
posted by jayhorowitz
Our Take on Freedom: Escaping the 9-to-5 Before 25 
Very nice, indeed! And, very low mileage. The great thing about RV’s is that they’re rarely used by most of their owners, rarely driven and depreciate the most over the first two years. I’m sure you got a great deal. Most people don’t know that you can in fact buy an aftermarket warranty from insurance companies for used cars. I’m sure about RV’s. You may want to check into one through a national carrier. I got one for a luxury car I bought used and it was the absolute best purchase I made. It saved me a ton of money in the long run. Just a thought. You’re going to have a great time!
I remember looking into an aftermarket warranty for the McKenzie and finding way too many exclusions in the fine print to be comfortable with. It may have just been the provider I looked into, but it seemed a bit sketchy to me. I’m glad it worked out well with your luxury car though.
Regarding mileage, it’s funny what you usually see on the market. From the same years, there are mostly either RVs with 80,000 miles on them or RVs with 20,000 miles on them. The middle is of course filled in somewhere, but the majority of the RVs I’ve seen fall into one of those categories: the “drive cross country, up the Alaska Highway, down to Mexico, and back each summer” type, or the “drive to Florida, park, and drive home” type. š
Congratulations! Sounds like it’s better than brand new – all broken in and new enough not to be broken down š
Welcome to the blog, and thanks! That’s what I’m hoping for!
Congrats! Also, sorry if I missed this, but what is your plan going forward? Are you planning to travel across the country, campground to campground, or pretty much stick to one area?
Hey Josh! We should probably post something about our plan(s) going forward, because I don’t think we’ve explicitly said anything about them. In a nutshell, we’ll be picking up our RV at the end of July, making our way to Burning Man at the end of August, and then… who knows! (Probably more RVing for 6 months to a year, then maybe a return to the Caribbean and then maybe some more longer-term international living. Hard to say though, as it’s all so far away.
[…] We Found Our RV 8 05 2010 Background info: The RV we just purchased is out in California. We’ve only seen it in photos. We wanted to buy an RV out west so we […]