Class A, Class C, or a trailer?

Three different vehicles that all get called the same thing. The wrong one is not a bad unit โ€” it is the right unit for somebody else. Here is how they actually differ.

Decide the shape first. Layout, engine and price all come after that.

The difference, in one look

Two units we handled. The front end tells you which class you are looking at.

Class A motorhome, flat front with no section above the driver
Class C motorhome with a section built over the driver cab

Class A โ€” flat front, nothing above the driver. Built on a bare commercial chassis.

Class C โ€” the section over the driver's cab is the giveaway. Built on a cutaway chassis.

Class A

The big one. A living box built on a bare commercial chassis โ€” the same kind of chassis that goes under a coach. Nothing sits above the driver, and the windscreen is the whole front of the vehicle.

Typical lengthRoughly 28 to 45 ft in the US market. Any specific unit is measured, not assumed.
Driving itIt drives like a coach. You feel the width and the length, and you feel them most where you park.
Who it suitsPeople who want the most room inside and accept the size outside.

Class C

Built on a cutaway chassis โ€” the driver's cab is the original vehicle cab, and the living body is built behind it and over it. That section over the cab is the defining feature: a bed in some units, storage in others.

Typical lengthRoughly 24 to 36 ft in the US market. Larger truck-based ones exist and go beyond it.
Driving itCloser to a large truck. Ordinary cab, ordinary mirrors, ordinary controls.
Who it suitsRoom without the Class A footprint. It is the shape most people picture when they say motorhome.

Travel trailer

No engine. You tow it, and at the site you unhook it and drive off in your own vehicle. For the same interior size it costs less than a motorhome โ€” but it moves the whole question onto what you tow it with.

What decides itYour tow vehicle: its towing rating against the trailer's weight loaded, not empty.
The advantageYou keep your car. Unhook, and you are driving a normal vehicle again.
The tradeHitching, reversing with a trailer behind you, and somewhere to keep it between trips.

Settle these before you pick

Each one of these changes the answer. Send us yours and we will tell you which shape you are actually asking for.

01How many sleep in it

On a normal trip โ€” not the once a year when everybody comes along.

02Where it is kept

It has to live somewhere between trips. Measure that place before anything else.

03Driven or towed

This is the fork in the road. Everything after it is layout and taste.

04How you will run it

Tell us how you plan to use it and we will tell you what a given unit is fitted with โ€” cooling, generator, tanks, power.

Then it gets inspected

Whichever shape you land on, nothing is bought on photographs. An independent inspector operates the unit and the report reaches you.

Tell us how you will use it. We will tell you what shape fits, and what the inspection found.

Talk to usHow the inspection works