We are doing it!

[TLBlanchard]

Its official, the wife and I are going to order the 26RB or RSB, (we made a small deposit already) we haven't decided yet which one is right for us.
We have an appointment with Jim in Kansas for the 25th and plan on the final decision after some study of the actual coach.
I need to try the cab over as I am not a small person, 6ft 250 lbs. The RSB may be a necessity.
Does any one of a like size sleep in the cab over? if so your opinion??
I also have many small questions and a few modifications to order on the coach and need to actually measure for some of them.
I have been lurking here for some time and tried for several weeks to sign up but to no avail. I finally had to use a different computer before it worked.

Sorry for the rambling but there is so much I have to learn about the BF.
The wife and I currently live full time in a 38 ft Safari and have done so for 8 years.
We are down sizing because the larger coach is too big for some of the places we would like to see and the wife does'nt feel secure driving the big rig.
Hope to see you all at a rally soon.
Tom Blanchard

[jobrien]

Congratulations on your new purchase. We went through a similiar experience last year, selling a larger motorhome, but we are not fulltimers.

We decided on the RSB because of the comfort of a real bed, and we also take 2 of my granddaughters with us at times, so the extra sleeping space is necessary.

The bed is tight for the 2 of us. I am 6' and about 220 and my wife is much smaller. It is not the best setup, but it's all about sacrifices and compromise in going from a larger motorhome to a smaller one. The handling and driving of the Born Free is great compared to the class A we had. And the ability to stop places when we want, and not having to tow the Jeep every place makes up for the tight sleeping. I have slept on the couch and it was not bad, but I have not tried the overhead bed yet.

If you have specific questions feel free to email me directly if you like.

Good luck

John

[Judy Harris]

Congratulations - you will be happy with either coach! We have a 2004 26' RSB and both sleep in the bed with 2 small dogs most of the time, but we are not very large - Chucks weighs about 180 and I am, well, of an indeterminate weight but considerably smaller than that. We have the entertainment center over the cab and use it for storage. For long trips, we would really need to change the way we travel without this storage space since the RSB has less other available storage than the RB. The other thing I would point out it that at least in the 2004 models, the capacity of the black and grey tanks is reversed in the RSB and RB models. In the RSB the grey tank is 35 gallons and the black is 21. While I would prefer the larger galley, bath and storage capacity in the RB, I have concluded after 46,000 miles on the road that we use too much water in cooking, showering, etc. to have a 21 gallon grey tank. We prefer to cook most of our meals and shower in the BF. We actually didn't pay much attention to the difference in holding tank capacities before we bought since we were new to rving and it just didn't register as important. I have thought of lots of ways to deal with the issue but have decided to stick with what we have, especially since my husband loves the 26' RSB and would probably trade me in before he would switch to the RB.
What a happy decision to be making! Good luck and hope to see you at a rally.

Judy Harris

[Steve W]

Tom. A suggestion to further confuse you. My wife and I owned a BFT, the one with the twin inclining beds. We loved it, so much so that when we decided to move to a slightly larger unit which would allow us to occasionally take our grandchildren, we ordered a 24RB, but specified the twin inclining beds with the cabover sleeper (grandkids). We have found the twin inclinings beds to be as comfortable as anything we have slept on. In addition, there is the storage space under each bed which may be accessed from either the interior or exterior of the unit. I do not know if Born Free will install the inclining beds in the 26 as they do the 24, but will pass this along as "food for thought".

Steve W

[Ann P]

I am a single full-timer with a 2005 RSB. I used to have a small camper that had a cabover bed and never wanted to climb up and down from a bed again.
While I love the convenience of falling into a full-time bed and being right next to the bathroom, if I had to do it again, I'd probably go with the RB because of the extra closet space and bigger bath area, and I'd use the foldout bed. The entertainment center in the cabover is nice for having a larger TV and all that storage behind it, tho you could also have a bed up there and store things on it...including visitors or a spouse.

I use my little BF shower as a closet and always shower in the RV park bathhouses or at hot springs place , even tho that can be a hassle to haul my stuff. It's worth it to get a nice long hot shower and make the tanks in my BF last longer. If I was just using this for short trips, everything would be different, but this is my house.

For the bigger folks, the 2 single incline beds could be a great idea, if you can get them in a 26' (and why not?). How important is having a decent table with chairs ? It all comes down to your lifestyle and what's most important to you. Frankly, I think 2 people would be a bit cramped living full-time in a Born Free, unless you had the 32', I guess. When I have company here, it's crowded! Good luck- at least you know you'll get a well-made unit with factory support.

[Dallas Baillio]

In reference to the holding tank issue I seem to recall that although the 26RSB (which we have) has a 21 gallon black and a 35 gallon grey water tanks, only the toilet empties into the black water tank, whereas on some other units the shower may also empty into the black water tank, which is larger. I'm not sure I've got this right, but I think you've got the same total capacity. However, I guess if you take more showers than a normal person, or, how should I put this ... you go more often... then it might make a difference! I previously had a unit that had the shower and toilet empty into the black water tank and I found that dumping was better because more water in the black water tank moved the solids more easily. Sorry for the crude details!!

[shilohdad]

In reference to Judy's and Dallas's comments on holding tank capacities, we have a 2006 24RB with 35 gallon black and 21 gallon gray tanks. The kitchen sink and the shower go into the gray tank. The toilet and the bath vanity sink go into the black tank. And, yes, this does not match our usage patterns, either.

In order to help balance out the tank usage, we bought a dish pan that just fits in the left-hand section of the kitchen sink. All dish washing and rinsing water goes into the pan. If our gray tank is getting overly full compared to the black tank, I simply empty the dish pan into the toilet. Using this method, and being frugal in our use of water in the shower, we have been able to pretty well balance the use of our holding tanks so one does not get full faster than the other. Of course, if you don't cook a lot and generate dishes, this might not help!

[Bogiesmom]

Congratulations!! We just picked up our 2007 BFT from the factory on May 7th, and we are delighted with it. Working with the wonderful folks at the factory, and the input from here gave us a great RV for our camping and travels. We do have the twin reclining beds, and they are great, very comfortable to sleep on, with nice storage underneath accesible from inside and outside. Born Free makes a very nice quality RV, and we are "luving" our BFT.

[Barbara & Ken]

In order to help balance out the tank usage, we bought a dish pan that just fits in the left-hand section of the kitchen sink. All dish washing and rinsing water goes into the pan. If our gray tank is getting overly full compared to the black tank, I simply empty the dish pan into the toilet. Using this method, and being frugal in our use of water in the shower, we have been able to pretty well balance the use of our holding tanks so one does not get full faster than the other. Of course, if you don't cook a lot and generate dishes, this might not help!

This is the same trick we learned from Joe and Vicki Kieva's RV Tips video. We also had a 24RB, and we always poured the dishpan water into the toilet. I don't cook a lot, but we still had dirty dishes to wash at least once a day. We shampoo our hair "at the sink," even at home, so we also used a dishpan to catch the shampoo/rinsing water, then poured that water into the toilet. This really helped us extend the use of our grey tank. And it also put extra water and a little detergent in the black tank, which made dumping more efficient.

[TwoShihtzus]

I'm 6 foot 270 lbs and have no trouble getting in and out of the cab-over. However, after a couple trial-runs, my wife and I decided to let our almost-teen daughter have the cab-over, and we sleep in the fixed bed in the back (our teenage son gets the couch). It's cozy, but not so much that it's uncomfortable. We ended up with this arrangement because, we can send the kids to bed and retire to our bed in the back to read or watch a movie on our portable DVD player. A venitian blind installed in the aisle, allows us a lot of privacy.

Once the kids move away, we'll be getting a newer BF, but we'll be staying with the RSB layout.

As to large TV's, I installed a 20" LCD TV on a swing arm just behind the driver seat. I like that location alot better than in the cabover entertainment center. The BF we looked at with the entertainment center was nice, but we felt like we were craining our necks looking up at the ceiling to view tv...

[TLBlanchard]

I thank you all for the replys, I can hardly wait to get this unit on order.
I really want the RB due to the storage space but will have to see if the RSB will be necessary.
The holding tank problem is a concern, our Safari has 50 gallon Gray and 50 Black along with a 100 fresh tank, we normally get 7-10 days without dumping, then it is the grey (shower and kitchen sink go in grey, commode and bath room sink go into black) We could go 2 weeks on the black if we are careful.
I know it will take some getting used to.
Thanks again to all who replied
Tom Blanchard

[TLBlanchard]

Well after over 5 hours with Jim here in Junction City, we ordered the 24 RB. The wife likes it as good as the 26 and we decided that it would fill our needs.
NOW the long wait till it's ready.
Does anyone have the HWH leveling system on their coach? We liked the idea but would like opinions from owners.
Also does anyone have the stationary KING DOME sat system with DISH, specifically the Mod 625 DVR, how does it work with this system?
We tried everything, in the coach, I found that even at 250 lbs and almost 6 foot I was able to use the cab over bed, the shower was a tad tight but usable.
Can't wait to be on the road in the BF
Tom

[Steve]

We have a 2005 24RB and had the HWH installed at the factory. I really like not having to worry about leveling the rig manually. I installed a Moto-Sat dish (see the Coach Modifications section) and the 625 DVR, make sure you purchase the dish that will pick up both satellites simultaneously.
Now the 625 DVR is Great at HOME! When on the road it is a 'bear' to get working properly. It uses two sat dishes (at home) and our rig, of course, only has one, so it is constantly looking for a signal on the 2nd sat dish, it only does this when first powered up and takes about 8 minutes to lock onto the satellite (Dish network). Once powered up the DVR is great, but at night when all is quiet you can hear the internal hard drive running, it NEVER shuts down, then about 3:00AM it gets noisier when it wants to download the programming for the next day.
We put up with this for a month, actually we ended up powering it down every night, then spent 8 minutes or so fooling around with it when we wanted to watch TV. When we got home, I took it out and replaced it with the Dish 301 receiver we used to have, this one is great, draws little power, is VERY quiet and works fine, it also only takes 2 or 3 minutes to power up and we always leave it powered up now.

Steve