We went to “just look”. I had been “van curious” for awhile, after seeing several around Half Moon Bay and wondering about their interiors. Could you sleep in them? Was it like rustic camping or a little more glam? I had cabin fever pretty bad post-pandemic, and still didn’t trust air travel.
I had researched a ton on camper vans and been watching RVTrader for awhile. I examined every model and option and had pretty much determined I wanted a Travato G model (factoring what fit in our price range). It had the bigger bed with storage underneath, a separate “dining” area and a bathroom in the hallway. But when we went to look, we instead decided (after KT stood in the shower) the K model had a more spacious feeling bathroom and less claustrophobic interior, and well, we bought the van. It was used, but the previous model year of the year we were in with only 10,000 miles, so felt like buying new at a discount.
We weren’t able to take it that day, as they had to prep it and get it ready. So it’s not like buying a car, I guess. It took about a week (and boy was I getting antsy!), but finally it was time for us to take delivery. We returned to the dealership and were given a walk through. Having never owned a van before (I did live in a 5th wheel for about 9 months after moving to California, but it was permanently parked in an RV park hooked up to power/water/sewer, so not much to do there), I probably should have taken more notes than I did as we were shown the systems. They also had one of the front seats swiveled to demonstrate that feature, but never showed us how to swivel them. So we learned how to turn on the propane (two switches – one outside and one inside), how to use the furnace/hot water heater, where the water pump switches are, etc.
Given I did not take video/notes, I ended up spending a lot of quality time with the bundle of owner’s manuals we received in a fancy canvas bag later.