We bought a USED Class A for Full-time RVing – Sold our Geo Pro 19fbs Travel Trailer
Selling our 2020 E Pro 19fbs for a Class A RV after owning it for only 10 months was not the easiest decision. We had invested a-lot of time and money into the E Pro to have it ready for full-time living. Originally we had planned to live out of our E/Geo Pro camper for 2 or 3 years on the road full-time. After living in it for a month and a half, while towing it with our Jeep Wrangler we realized we needed to change things up. The Geo Pro is a great off-road trailer for long vacations, but it ended up not suiting us for full-time living.
Read along to see why we sold our travel trailer for a Class A motorhome for full-time RV living. We wrote a Geo Pro reviewafter we owned it for 6 months incase you want to know what we loved about it originally, before we went full-time.
Why we sold our Geo Pro Camper – More Space & Working on the road
There are a few different reasons that we felt the need to upgrade to a larger “home”. The main reason was for space and the ability to work comfortably from the RV. Both of us generally work Monday – Thursday and talk to people via Zoom or on the phone. This means we needed space to spread out so we don’t hear each other while working. During our short month and a half of full-time living in the Geo Pro we realized this was a huge problem for us. We couldn’t get away from each other while working and constantly talked over one another. We use a Netgear 797 for all of our internet needs while on the road. We also recently got a WeBoost to get better internet service in remote areas.
Maddie makes phone calls for around 6 hours a day selling Jeep and Off-road parts. James works on zoom for a few hours a day working on depositions which often consist of 5 – 10 people talking constantly. This means that one of us is almost always talking or having to listen to someone while working, which means we needed our own space.
We also now haul a motorcycle while flat towing our Jeep, which gives us an off-road adventure vehicle!
It was almost impossible to concentrate and work because we worked about 5 feet from each other at all times in our travel trailer. This made for some fun and exciting days of talking over each other and constantly having to ask the other person to be quiet. After the first few weeks we realized that we truly needed more space to spread out. It’s not like we are traveling all the time and away from the camper all day like a normal vacation. We are in our camper as much as you or anyone else is inside their normal house. M-T and sometimes Friday we are working a couple hours per day and had gotten so tired of working in the E Pro because of the lack of room and privacy.
Working in our Class A Motorhome – SPACE!!!
In our 31 foot Class A we have almost double the room to work in compare to the Geo Pro camper. We also have a door that can close off the bedroom from the main area of the camper which in turn blocks sound. In the Geo Pro we could only work on the small couch or the bed which were almost touching. In our Class A we can work in the bedroom, dinette, large couch or passenger seat at the front of the RV. We have so much space to spread out while working and don’t annoy the heck out of each other… which is nice (we both would agree).
During the weekends we are generally hiking, kayaking, rock climbing or off-roading which wasn’t the biggest issue. It still is much nicer coming home to a large Class A that feels a-lot more like a home than an RV. We have room to spread out and enjoy time to ourselves in the RV and have a full-time desk/kitchen table. Having a kitchen table/desk that is always out might not sounds like a huge deal, but the Geo Pro had a collapsable table the got stored behind the couch. The table took up half the floor space so we could never leave it out and would put it away everyday after work. Having a table and couch was the #1 thing that James wanted when looking for an RV. It became so annoying and a pain in the a** pulling out and putting away the table everyday.
We bought a Class A for Full-time Living – Jeep Wrangler Towing Geo Pro
So… we knew that towing a 19 foot trailer with a Jeep Wrangler was not the best idea we ever had, but we figured we would be fine. For the most part we were fine, and the Jeep could tow the trailer up small mountains and on rough roads but it still fell short in some areas. Jeep Wranglers are rated to tow 3,500 pounds with a 350 pound tongue weight and the E Pro already had a dry weight of 3,070 pounds. This means that the E Pro already weighed 3,070 pounds without propane, batteries, solar, our gear inside or any fresh water in the tank. We also had a-lot of tools and gear inside the Jeep which probably added another 150 pounds. We did have a weight distribution hitch, which helped level the Jeep but didn’t help with all our tanks full.
With the propane tanks, 2 lithium batteries, 4 solar panels and all of our gear we were probably right at the Jeeps limit of 3,500 pounds. This meant we were never able to fill the fresh water tank until we got within 15 minutes or so of our final destination. The 37 gallon fresh water tank is an additional 300 pounds when full which means we would easily be over 3,800 pounds which is over the Jeeps limit. Wether the fresh water tank was full or not, we were still right at the Jeeps limit 100% of the time while towing if not a little over.
It was also annoying because we never had fresh water in the tank to wash dishes or drink water. We would have to end up buying water battles to drink and it was becoming a hassle. We didn’t want to fill the fresh tank because we knew the additional 300-350 pounds could cause issues while towing. The whole point of buying the E Pro 19fbs was to be able to boondock with the solar capabilities and have fresh water in the tank at all times. Towing with the Jeep Wrangler made it extremely difficult to boondock because we were worried about all the extra weight.
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After 4,000 miles and driving across the United States with the Jeep and E Pro we realized we needed to change things. The Jeep also struggled when going up huge mountain passes and we would end up going 30 mph at around 4,000 rpms. It was a strain on the Jeep and both of us as we had to go slow and deal with a loud motor every time we went uphill.
The Wrangler would have been great at towing the E Pro 15TB which is almost 600 pounds lighter or any of the 12 foot models. We know a-lot of people tow E/Geo Pros with Jeep Wranglers, but not many do it full-time while also boondocking 99% of the time carrying fresh water.
Class A over E Pro – Boondocking Capabilities (Solar & Fresh Water)
We originally had planned on purchasing a Class C motorhome until we realized the Class A motorhomes could hold almost double the fresh water. The Class C’s only held around 45 gallons which was not much more than the 37 of our E Pro trailer. Our Class A holds 75 gallons of fresh water and was actually cheaper than most Class C motorhomes we found of similar style. The Class A also has a-lot more storage than any Class C which was a huge bonus we realized after we purchased one.
Our 31 foot Winnebago Sightseer holds 75 gallons of fresh water, and 4o gallons of black and grey. This will allow us to boon-dock up to 14 days without re-filling our fresh water tank. We could last even longer if we bought water bottles and limited our water usage. Another huge advantage of the Class A over our small E Pro is that our roof space is longer and wider. We are currently working on installing 1,000w of solar to the roof of our RV along with a 3,000w inverter and MPPT charge controller.
The 1,000w of solar is 2.5x that of our 400w E Pro solar system. Our 3,000w inverter will also be able to run our microwave, any coffee maker and blender without worrying about tripping our inverter. The E Pro comes factory with a 1,000w inverter which is just enough to run a small coffee maker or toaster. We can now run a coffee maker, toaster and run most appliances at once with our 3,000w inverter. Another huge difference is that our E Pro trailer didn’t have much room to accompany more than 2 batteries. Our Class A has plenty of room to hold 4 lithium batteries and even more if we need to upgrade in the future.
Overall, we have double the fresh water capacity, 2.5x the solar capacity and plenty of room to add extra batteries for the cloudy and rainy climates. The last HUGE upgrade from our E Pro trailer is that all Class A motorhomes have a generator onboard. This means we can run our AC for a couple hours on those really hot days even if we are parked in the middle of nowhere. We could run our AC off of Solar but it would cost a-lot of money to purchase enough lithium batteries!
Class A RV for Full-time Living over a Travel Trailer –
This is not supposed to be a comparison of a Class A vs a Geo Pro. Clearly a Class A motorhome is going to have alot more room and features that a full-time needs (like us). The whole purpose of this article is to inform future full-time travelers about the benefits of a Class A and how it ended up suiting us better compare to a travel trailer. If we were traveling around for a month for vacation the Geo Pro would have been a great home on wheels.
If you were towing the Geo Pro with a truck, you would have a-lot more room for gear and could have the fresh tanks full while driving. In our case, we believe that the Geo Pro would still not have worked even if we had a truck, because we truly needed more room for working and full-time living.
We purchased a 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 30b Class A motorhome. Our camper came with the 8.1 liter motor which has more horsepower and torque than the standard ford motor. This was super important for us since we are going to be flat towing the Jeep, kayaks, and eventually an enduro motorcycle. The larger motor runs at lower rpm’s for a quieter ride and more power for going over mountain passes. No matter what motorhome we purchased the mpg was going to stink, so we opted for the motor with more torque for towing.
We have now been successfully living in our Class A for three weeks and have been working on remodeling the inside of the RV and adding a complete 1,000w solar system.
sharon
You guys are so inspiring
Thank you! You are inspiring also 🙂
Super inspiring! I know a couple that bought a Big Camper and sold their house to travel a year. That was 22 years ago… they are with Sowers.
Thats a long time to be on the road! We are hoping to do it for a few years until we can save up enough and figure out where we want to live.
Hope you guys enjoy it we love our class c we are doing a road trip next yr to California.. love all your photos
We sure do, its a huge upgrade compare to our old camper and have so much more room! Thats awesome we originally planned on getting a class c, have fun on your trip!
We will be in Cali this winter to get out of the cold!
Loved the reviews! My wife and I are shopping for our first camper and would love your opinion on the E Pro. Towing is not an issue, I have an F250 diesel. We will be using the E Pro to take 2-3 week trips. I like the boondocking capabilities because we will sometime overnight at rest stops or parking lots. If towing and workspace were not an issue for you, would you recommend the E Pro? Thanks
Yes 100% I would recommend the E Pro for someone who is not full-time living on the road!
As you stated, taking our workspace and towing with our Jeep we loved our camper for week trips or cross country trips. It just didn’t work for us full-time needing to spread out and work.
Like you said, you will have no problem with an F250 6.7l, 7.3l or whatever diesel you have.
If you plan on boondocking alot I would suggest adding more solar panels, because 1 panel really is not enough.