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After living in our 40' Country Coach diesel pusher for 7 years, we decided that it was time to buy a home and downsize our RV, but we didn't want to give up any of the features that we had become accustomed to in our big coach. Sure we wanted to have a smaller RV with all the benefits described in the June 2014 magazine article on downsizing, but we had become so used to many of the comfort features of our big coach that we decided to be creative in our search for alternatives. After much searching, we finally found an RV that has ALL we could ask for in a small footprint. Our new RV has a king sized bed, a Splendide washer/dryer, dual 50 amp service, a large kitchen with pantry and large counter top for food preparation, a large comfortable sofa, a large hanging wardrobe closet, massive storage drawers and plenty of space for lots of clothes and camping supplies, a nice sized dinette table plenty large enough for two, and double opposing living room slides that make our current living space as large as the one in our old diesel pusher coach. How is this all possible? I'll explain briefly... My wife has severe allergies, and using any laundromat is completely impossible for us as she would immediately break out in a severe rash if she used a washing machine that anyone had used standard laundry detergent in. She has strict limitations on what she can use for doing our laundry. So thus started the search for a small coach floorplan capable of installing a Splendide washer/dryer. After searching for over a year and looking at hundreds of RVs, we finally found the perfect solution to our needs. We purchased a Monaco Safari Damara 252DS. Here is a summary of the modifications I made to this RV: 1. Installed Splendide washer/dryer 2. Removed the fold out standard-sized sofa-bed from under the sofa and installed a massive 5' x 3' x 10" drawer under the sofa 3. Installed 2 gigantic full-extension slide-out drawers under the dinette seats 40" x 20" x 12" 4. Removed the old TV and installed a new Samsung 32" LCD TV on a swing-out bracket in the same location. 5. Built a large clothing storage cabinet in the void left by the old TV (behind the swing-out LCD TV). 6. Completely rewired the entire RV with dual 50 amp service (100 amp total) so that everything in the RV can be run at the same time without ever blowing any fuses 7. Installed extra GFI power outlets in the kitchen, bathroom, dining and living areas (great for running multiple electric cube heaters in the colder weather) 8. Installed a new Progressive auto-transfer box with monitoring gauge so we can continuously monitor how many amps we are drawing on each 50 amp leg 9. Installed an 50 amp autoformer to automatically correct any low-voltage situations without manual intervention 10. Installed a Banks Power-Pack to boost the horsepower and torque of the 6.8L Triton V-10 - now this "pocket- rocket" passes everything on the road 11. Expanded the size of the exterior outdoor storage bays to accommodate our water softener and extra camping gear 12. Installed Bogart house battery monitoring system so we know the power charge of our house batteries at all times Many RV manufacturers claim to have the perfect downsizing solution for people wishing to own a smaller RV, but I have yet to see even one come close to the functionality and comfort we have packed into our 252DS. Lastly, we have had lots of experience with RV service from many different RV sales and service companies. We decided that we wanted an RV built on a standard Ford E-450 chassis so that we could take it to any Ford dealer to be serviced and not be forced to take it to an RV service center. The 252DS is built on a standard Ford E-450 chassis and I have the complete annual service work done every year at my local Ford dealer for less than $200! That is a gigantic savings compared to service at any of the RV dealers. The moral of the story... it is possible to downsize to a small Class B-plus RV and still have all the features and capabilities of a much larger coach!

After living in our 40' Country Coach diesel pusher for 7 years, we decided that it was time to buy a home and downsize our RV, but we didn't want to give up any of the features that we had become accustomed to in our big coach. Sure we wanted to have a smaller RV with all the benefits described in the June 2014 magazine article on downsizing, but we had become so used to many of the comfort features of our big coach that we decided to be creative in our search for alternatives. After much searching, we finally found an RV that has ALL we could ask for in a small footprint. Our new RV has a king sized bed, a Splendide washer/dryer, dual 50 amp service, a large kitchen with pantry and large counter top for food preparation, a large comfortable sofa, a large hanging wardrobe closet, massive storage drawers and plenty of space for lots of clothes and camping supplies, a nice sized dinette table plenty large enough for two, and double opposing living room slides that make our current living space as large as the one in our old diesel pusher coach. How is this all possible? I'll explain briefly... My wife has severe allergies, and using any laundromat is completely impossible for us as she would immediately break out in a severe rash if she used a washing machine that anyone had used standard laundry detergent in. She has strict limitations on what she can use for doing our laundry. So thus started the search for a small coach floorplan capable of installing a Splendide washer/dryer. After searching for over a year and looking at hundreds of RVs, we finally found the perfect solution to our needs. We purchased a Monaco Safari Damara 252DS. Here is a summary of the modifications I made to this RV: 1. Installed Splendide washer/dryer 2. Removed the fold out standard-sized sofa-bed from under the sofa and installed a massive 5' x 3' x 10" drawer under the sofa 3. Installed 2 gigantic full-extension slide-out drawers under the dinette seats 40" x 20" x 12" 4. Removed the old TV and installed a new Samsung 32" LCD TV on a swing-out bracket in the same location. 5. Built a large clothing storage cabinet in the void left by the old TV (behind the swing-out LCD TV). 6. Completely rewired the entire RV with dual 50 amp service (100 amp total) so that everything in the RV can be run at the same time without ever blowing any fuses 7. Installed extra GFI power outlets in the kitchen, bathroom, dining and living areas (great for running multiple electric cube heaters in the colder weather) 8. Installed a new Progressive auto-transfer box with monitoring gauge so we can continuously monitor how many amps we are drawing on each 50 amp leg 9. Installed an 50 amp autoformer to automatically correct any low-voltage situations without manual intervention 10. Installed a Banks Power-Pack to boost the horsepower and torque of the 6.8L Triton V-10 - now this "pocket- rocket" passes everything on the road 11. Expanded the size of the exterior outdoor storage bays to accommodate our water softener and extra camping gear 12. Installed Bogart house battery monitoring system so we know the power charge of our house batteries at all times Many RV manufacturers claim to have the perfect downsizing solution for people wishing to own a smaller RV, but I have yet to see even one come close to the functionality and comfort we have packed into our 252DS. Lastly, we have had lots of experience with RV service from many different RV sales and service companies. We decided that we wanted an RV built on a standard Ford E-450 chassis so that we could take it to any Ford dealer to be serviced and not be forced to take it to an RV service center. The 252DS is built on a standard Ford E-450 chassis and I have the complete annual service work done every year at my local Ford dealer for less than $200! That is a gigantic savings compared to service at any of the RV dealers. The moral of the story... it is possible to downsize to a small Class B-plus RV and still have all the features and capabilities of a much larger coach!

Hello everyone! We are Tim and Alisa Sheets. We live in Nevada and are in our late 40's/early 50's with grown children and 12 grandbabies & one on the way . We've recently bought a 1987 Bounder and will begin full-timing at the end of April. It's both exciting and scary . We're going to Washington to do a gate attendant job for 5 months up by Spirit Lake. We're looking forward to it; it sounds really pretty there but I'm kind of worried about not having any electricity. We are walking away from our home & selling practically everything we own. Deciding what to put in the motor home is pretty daunting. I don't even know where to start. We don't want to have to rent a storage shed for anything. Any tips for downsizing? Also, I'm used to having a well stocked refrigerator. How do y'all shop and store food with those small fridges? I know that people are able to have TV and internet when they are RVing.... how do you do that? Sorry, lot's of questions. I'll be browsing this site to see if I can find answers. Any hints/tips/advice will be greatly appreciated. ~Alisa

Currently have 40' Damon (Thor) Tuscany and are full-timers. Looks like time is approaching to consider less time on the road. Am considering a smaller 30'-34' gas as will only be using it about 4 summer months a year. Concerned with ride after living in our Tuscany Traveler. Anyone have any experience with a gas chassis equipped with aux. air ride? I know it will never equal current ride but does it help? Is it worth the investment? Anyone else have any considerations or experience, good or bad, when "downsizing"?