2016 Lazy Daze 24-foot Twin King Motorhome RV

by Jim Langley

Purchasing a motorhome-style RV is quite the decision. For anyone in the market, here's a brief history of our campers over the years, how we settled on our 2016 Lazy Daze and a bunch of photos plus a video — in case a Lazy Daze RV is on your short list.

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Beginnings
We started as bicycle tourists carrying all our gear in bags and riding across the USA, so we're experienced with minimalist camping. In the 1980s we bought a 1977 Volkswagen Westfalia campervan, and then sold that and purchased a 1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Westy in 1990. That's still working fine with over 200,000 miles on it.

The photo of it on the right was taken earlier this year while camping at California's largest state park in the Anza-Borrego Desert. A short drive from the campground are a number of spectacular metal sculptures like this serpent.

While Westys are wonderful vehicles, they do not include a bathroom or kitchen and have limited-capacity appliances (the Weekender's refrigerator is small). We wanted our own bathroom with shower and a funtional kitchen with a larger fridge. We also wanted to step up to air conditioning and modern safety features like air bags, etc.

Our Roadtrek Agile SS
In 2013, after researching Mercedes Sprinter Class B RVs, we decided to get a "real" RV and purchased a new Roadtrek Agile SS 20-footer, which we put 30,000 miles on over the 3 years we owned it. That was an amazing vehicle to drive with its nimble size and Mercedes diesel turbo engine and 20 miles per gallon performance.

Its small footprint let us take it anywhere regular passenger vehicles can go, and park in the same spots, too. It had a wet bathroom, which means the toilet is inside the shower. It also had a college dormitory size refrigerator along with a granite kitchen countertop, propane stove, microwave, air conditioner, generator, and so on; all the RV amenties in a tidy, small package.

While we loved these features, we started to feel a little cramped living inside because of its narrowness. There are 2 of us and 3 dogs, which is too many bodies for the tight floorplan. Inside you either sit in the back or front (the front seats swivel to face the back). When you move around you get in each other's way. The bathroom is perfectly functional but so tight that the shower curtain rests on your body when showering.

Sitting inside, the sight lines through the vehicle are blocked by the large bathroom wall and door. That can make you feel a little claustrophobic. We much preferred sitting outside in our folding chairs under the great awning than staying inside.

Deciding to go bigger
You can make the van interior work and enjoy it ( the rear doors open fully for a view and ventilation), but we wanted great views out of larger windows, open sight lines through the vehicle, and windows that open fully rather than the Roadtrek's small louver windows (we were used to these things from the Westys).

We wanted to bring the outdoors in; more room to move around inside without bumping into each other; a full bathroom with separate toilet and shower; larger black, grey and fresh water tanks; plus more propane, etc. for longer boondocking (camping without hookups).

Other shortcomings included having to carry bicycles on a rear rack where they can be stolen or smashed, in even a small rear-ender. I usually removed the bikes at stops and put them in the cab, which was a nice way to protect them but a bit of a pain to have to go to the trouble to move them at every stop.

Also, with both the Westys and the Roadtrek, you enter and exit through a large sliding door. The door makes noise both opening and closing, which means waking up the other person if you need to head out early in the morning. You can instead leave via one of the front doors, yet that's a little trickier when the seats are turned around.

Plus, on the Westys the sliding door opens fully and the whole side of the van lets light and air in and a wonderful view. On the Roadtrek, the door opens fully but most of the air, light and view is blocked by the bathroom. The door opening itself on the Roadtrek is actually only shoulder width so it doesn't provide what the Westy doors do.

Lastly, there's not that much storage space in a Roadtrek Agile SS. Most is under the rear bench seat. You can get a lot under there. But, it doesn't match what you can get in a Westy with its behind-seat storage, plus over-cab tray on the roof that you can strap bicycles, coolers, etc. to.

In order to carry a lot of stuff like we do, including a screen tent, small propane fireplace, dog X-pens (freestanding metal surrounds for the dogs) and so on, we'd pack it inside where ever it would fit, like in the bathroom, on the floor, on the back seat. Arriving at the campsite the first job was taking everything out. Our friends in larger RVs didn't have to unload because their gear was stowed in storage compartments beneath.

Choosing a Lazy Daze Class C motorhome
For these reasons we started looking for something a little larger, something with a full size fridge and separate shower and toilet, something with outside easy-access storage, something with a fantastic floorplan and awesome windows. The maximum length that fits in our driveway is 24-feet, so we started looking at 24 footer RVs in class As (almost impossible to find), Bs and Cs.

Class Cs appealed to us. We could use the cab-over bed for safely carrying bicycles while traveling - since there's the option of sleeping in the rear bed. The class Cs aren't limited to the narrower Sprinter body because they're basically boxes built on top of a chassis. So, the makers can build wider than the van body.

You can get 24 foot Class B+ rigs with bump outs/slides that make these rigs significantly wider, and we looked at a few, however, we didn't find the floorplans appealing. Most had smaller windows and most of these windows didn't open much or at all. Sitting inside, we found the same blocked sight lines we didn't like in our Agile. While those with bump outs felt roomier, we weren't sure we wanted to deal with bump outs (something that might breakdown?).

As we broadened our search, we learned of Lazy Daze, the company that's said to have discovered the Class C motorhome around 1958 (the photo I took at the factory shows one circa 1966). Lazy Daze are known for their handbuilt coaches, exceptional quality and design. Each rig is built for its owners individually and they only do business factory-direct to the consumer. The more experienced RVers we talked to and the more we researched online, the more interested we became because everyone raves about their Lazy Daze or the ones they've camped next to.

We drove the seven hours down to Montclair, California to see one in person. Their 'factory' took us by surprise because it's so old-world. No robots here. It looks like it hasn't changed very much since it opened back when Ike was in the White House. It reminded me of visiting the famous bicycle makers across the USA who build some of the finest two-wheelers in the world almost completely by hand.

To order a Lazy Daze you call and get on their list. You wait months for your name to reach the top of the list. Lazy Daze then calls and asks if you would like to order one, which requires a deposit. Once ordered, you wait, and wait a little more. All told, it took us about 9 months to receive our 2016 Lazy Daze Twin King 24-foot Motorhome. It was hard to wait, but we trusted that the time was being well spent on carefully crafting our new home away from home.

Because we couldn't find a lot online showing the quality of a Lazy Daze when we were deciding which RV to buy, there are many photos below with brief captions to show ours. Click the photos to zoom them in new browser windows. Feel free to email me with questions. Lazy Daze continually upgrades their coaches, so new ones will be slightly refined and you should contact the factory for specific questions if you're ordering yours. The folks we dealt with purchasing our Lazy Daze were wonderful.

To learn about some of the cool accessories we've purchased and recommend for camping and RVing, visit our Great RV Accessories page.

Here's an amateur video I took inside and around our rig.