Our Four Winds motor home is great
Written: Aug 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: travel on a whim, and in comfort. If you have pets you can take them with.
Cons: Holding tank gages never seem to work and of course the gas mileage is not so hot
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| craftgun40's Full Review: 2000 Thor Industries Four Winds Four Winds 5000 |
My husband and I are both retired, and sort of at that "footloose and fancy free" stage. And now that we are at that stage in our lives, we decided we would look around for a good motor home.
We used to have a older class C motor home, but it was just to big and cumbersome for us. We eventually sold it, but then when it was gone, we missed it.
A few months ago we started looking around for a smaller motor home and looked at Roadtreks and motor homes of that nature, but then one day at a RV lot we came across the Four Winds, and once we went inside of it, we knew this was the one for us.
The Four Winds was less than two years old, with under 8,000 miles on it and still under warranty.
The layout of the inside is what sold me on the FourWinds. When you enter the side door, the kitchen is in the very rear of the motor home, utilizing the space very effectively and actually giving you a larger kitchen area than in our old motor home.
The refrigerator is large and will hold ample amounts of food. The freezer section sits above the refrigerator and I was amazed at how much room was inside the freezer. The freezer also holds freezing level very well, and maintanes ice cubes and ice cream even when running on LP, though it is a three way refrigerator and will run on LP, battery or AC.
The three burner stove runs only on propane, but also has a small oven, though I certainly would not try to fix a 20 lb turkey in it.
A microwave came with the motor home and is comparable to the one we have in our home.
The double sink is located in the very rear of the kitchen.
The bathroom is almost like a real bathroom, it has a shower with sliding door enclosures, the basic motorhome commode, and a sink with lots of storage underneath. Two walls of the bathroom are covered with very large mirrors, which also makes it appear very bright when in the bathroom. There is no medicine cabinet.
Directly across from the door, is a very good sized closet, with two large dresser drawers underneath.
To your left of the doors, the space is taken up by the dinette set on one side, with a large window above the dinette set. The dinette set converts into a bed in seconds, though only for very short people. The area is not large enough for an adult to stretch out in, though our dogs love the spot.
Directly opposite the dinette, on the other wall, is a couch that flips into a fairly comfortable bed in seconds. There is also a large window above the coach/bed. The bed could sleep two, but would be a bit close.
Running all along the top, above the couch, and the dinette set are cupboards, all with mirrors on the doors, again this creates alot of light, and also gives the impression that it is a little larger than it actually is.
Above the driving compartment, in the overhang is the largest sleeping area. It easily sleeps two adults and could sleep three children with room to spare. There are two small windows, one at each end of the bed that slide open and a vent that opens up directly over the bed. I usually sleep in this area and always sleep with the vent open, I enjoy the fresh air coming in.
The driving compartment is equipped with two very comfortable adjustable seats, though the passenger side chair is restricted in the positions it can be placed in, because it backs up tight to the dinette set.
Also the person sitting on the passenger side up front has extremely limited foot room, and I find that I spend a lot of time wiggling around. You cannot really stretch your legs out, and it is annoyingly uncomfortable.
For unknown reasons, this motorhome was created in such a way, that the passenger side seat, does not swivel around to face the back of the coach. In the motor home we had before, and in most of the other motor homes we looked at, the passenger side seat could be turned almost completely around so that it faced into the motor home. This allowed you to have an extra comfortable seat to use once you parked it.
We decided the seat issue was not big enough to prevent us from purchasing this motor home, and I think I just need to "adjust" to it.
The creative layout to the inside of this motorhome, gives the feeling of roominess and eliminates the "corrider" we had in our old motor home. Even though it is much smaller than our old one, it "feels" as though it is much larger.
Our Four Winds is equipped with roof air, has a generator and a awning.
If you are new to the motorhome scene, I strongly recommend that you have all three of these items on any motor home you purchase.
We often stay places that do not have hook ups, and with a generator you can run everything in your motorhome off the generator. The generator starts from inside the motorhome with a push of a button.
A awining is almost essential in owning a motorhome, it provides shade when you are parked and a place to sit under if you choose to sit outside while parked somewhere, it also shelters you from the rain if you chose to sit outside.
We are unsure of the capacity of the holding tanks, as the amount does not appear in any of our paperwork, though we do know it holds thirty gallons of fresh water. The holding capacity is capable for our needs and we have not had any problems or had to make any emergency trips to a dumping station.
The engine is a Ford 6.8 Triton V10 which is much more than adequate for the size of the motor home we have (which is 22 feet).
Gas mileage for those of you that don't know about motor homes is shocking to non-motorhome owners, but it gets 10 miles per gallon, which is about average.
We haven't used the heater yet..and I have to admit that I don't know if we ever will very much. I am sure if we need it we will use it...but if it is that cold wherever we are traveling, maybe we should just keep going till we get to a warmer climate ...
All motor homes come equipped with all sort of gages and gadgets to let you know if your propane tank is low, or your water or holding tanks.
In our old motor home, the gages never worked correctly, and it appears that the gages in this motor home aren't very accurate either.
Yesterday we took it in to get the propane filled as the gage indicated that it was low, but when it was filled, it only needed 3 gallons. The same with the gage that indicates when your holding tanks were full, even after emptying them, one gage still showed one tank was almost full.
In the short time we have had the motorhome, we have made a half dozen short trips, consisting of some only overnight trips and some four day trips.
It is very pleasurable to pull in somewhere, and have a real home cooked meal and salad, iced tea and even a ice cream cone. At the end of the day, you can get a shower, pop some microwave popcorn and watch tv until bedtime.
Owning a motor home as opened up a whole new world for us. We have two dogs that are getting up in years. They are house dogs and at their age, would never be able to adjust to the starkenss of a kennel. When we travel, the dogs go with us, and without a motor home, we were having to find pet friendly motels. Sometimes this was easy, but on a few occasions, from the time we had made a reservation and the time we had arrived, the motel had changed it's policy and was no longer pet friendly. What a inconvenience to us...but that is now in the past.
We can travel anytime we want, not have to worry about the dogs ..as they are with us. We can go on the spur of the moment, as we keep it stocked with everything except any fresh foods we are taking with us.
We can be ready for a trip anywhere in about a half an hour, the dogs are ready in about fifteen seconds. All you have to do is open the door to the motor home, and our dogs "stake" it out and stay right by the door until it is time to go.
Owning the Four Winds is opening up a whole new world for us...as a matter of fact, we are off on another trip next week, to Manistee Michigan.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
craftgun40
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: Michigan
Reviews written: 155
Trusted by: 123 members
About Me:
I am retired, extremely active and enjoy my life, family and dog.
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