This is PART TWO of our video series on our search for our next RV. If you missed the tantalizing PART ONE, click here to see it!

First off, all I can say is “WOW!!”  There were a lot more of you interested in our next RV search than we expected! We appreciate your excitement, feedback, and suggestions.

We were especially surprised at how many of you chimed in with, “that’s exactly what I’m looking for.”  If you were one of those, then you won’t want to miss this next video, where we take the giant list of features from the first episode and put it into priority order.  We also take a few minutes up front to respond to some of the more common comments.  Here it is:

 

I don’t want to repeat everything in the video, but I do want to give you the tool that I used.  I first brought up this technique in our original 8-Step Program for Choosing Your First RV article from a few years ago.  I call it a “Paired Comparison Tool”, but there may be other names for it.  I explain it in the video, but it works by basically breaking the process of ordering a large list down into a series of simple “this vs. that” questions.  I’ll provide you our completed spreadsheet in Excel format here.  Just click the picture, and it should download.  There are no macros in the Excel sheet, so it should work for everyone.  If you wanted to use it for yourself, you would just need to add your own criteria in the row and column headers, clear out the cells in the grid, and answer questions.  It should tabulate the number of “votes” each choice gets over on the right.

 

 

But Don’t Just Use Our List!

I’ll caution you that unless you’re Stef and me… you probably shouldn’t use our list and analysis directly.  Many of the questions we answered were based not on how important something was, but rather how achievable it was for me as a mod.  So, for example, a “Proper Work Table” sorted way down the list.  Not because it isn’t important, but because it’s a fairly easy mod for me to figure out in any RV.  (It’s actually hugely important.)  But unless you’ve got the capability to add a table, you might sort that one differently.  The same thing goes for 4 season capability.  I don’t want to do those mods again on a new rig, but I CAN…  So that whole mod gene I have imparts a very distinctive color to the list.  Unless you’ve got the gene too, our list might not work out for you.

Here It Is! Our Features, In Order!

When we were done with a whole afternoon of answering 378 “A vs B” questions, Stef and I were left with a list – in order – that looked like the below:

    1. Under 24 Feet
    2. NOT too wide
    3. Dedicated INDOOR bike storage
    4. Quiet DUCTED AC
    5. Cat storage space
    6. Separate areas for sleep and work
    7. Separate wardrobes
    8. NO PUZZLE BED
    9. 4 season capability
    10. Lithium Battery System 20kWh
    11. AWD or 4WD
    12. Large, Non-Absorption Fridge
    13. Large Pantry
    14. Leveling System
    15. Air Suspension
    16. Dual Pane Acrylic Windows
    17. No TV or Entertainment System
    18. No Generator
    19. See Level Monitors
    20. Proper Work Table
    21. No “pictures of wood”
    22. 7 pin wiring harness
    23. Induction Cooktop
    24. Tables for two
    25. Solar nice (not mandatory)
    26. Surge Suppressor
    27. 360 siphon vents
    28. No pre-installed connectivity

That list represents what we’re looking for in our next RV.  In our original 8-Step plan, this would be Step 4.  Done.  I keep telling Stef that going through this process is “scientifically guaranteed to provide us with optimum RVing happiness”.  I don’t know if she believes me or not, but she’s at least going along!  🙂

What’s Next?

The next step for us (Step 5 if you’re following the original 8-step program) is probably the step that everyone is really waiting for.  We’ll take our list, and use it as the standard to evaluate available RV models. We’ve already had tons of suggestions for models there, so you can be sure we’ll be looking closely at them, and we’ll be giving you our impressions of specific models in our next video.  It’s gonna be AWESOME!

(Oh, also.  Stef doesn’t know it yet because it’s super nerdy and she’d probably laugh at me, but I’m going to actually work out a way to give the RV models a score.)

To see PART THREE in this video series, click here!