In Depth Winnebago Freeway Review

This is much, much, more than a magazine type review/advertorial. It assumes you know virtually nothing about motorhomes - it looks at just about every design aspect and where necessary provides a critique. In some sections, we even take the Winnie to bits to take a peek inside to see just how it ticks and stacks up. Lots of suggestions to improve your motorhoming experience as well. The whole aim is to assist new and used prospective purchasers reach an educated purchasing decision, and to illustrate to existing owners the myriad of options open to them to customise their Freeway. Included along the way are tips for getting the most out of your motorhome. If you just want a quick overview, you could be better off reading a companion page on this site as it is more along traditional magazine review lines, but with more photographs. If you would like another viewpoint there is an excellent review by Malcolm Street from Caravan and Motorhome Magazine May 2002 at http://www.queenslandrv.com.au/budget_baby.htm

The Freeway is clearly pitched at caravanners wishing to take the next RV step without blowing the budget. The best advice we have ever received about selecting an RV is to buy the SMALLEST unit that you can possibly live with. The Winnie obviously was our choice. Size wise it is ideal, as it is far easier and much safer than towing a van, as the overall length is just 5.1 metres and the price is about the same as an average small caravan/car combination.

What you get for your money

The finish is up to Winnebago's usual high standard and in fact we could spot no significant superficial differences when comparing it to the $100,000 plus models apart from timber framing in the dinette area instead of metal tubing. The 1753 is essentially a three berth unit as this is the legal passenger load. The photos below were taken on the forecourt of the superb Winnebago manufacturing complex.

Driveability

Many first time motorhomers are instantly turned off this type of vehicle, as they just don't match up to their expectations in the driver's seat. Most are anticipating it to be just like driving a larger car. No matter what any manufacturer's brochure of ANY brand says you are driving a truck! We look at it this way. In getting a motorhome you are entering a stage in your life where you are slowing down.

Once you get your head around this and accept it, you will stop and smell the flowers and the speed and size of the thing will cease to bother you!

Just digressing - this can take a few weeks, so when test driving ANY motorhome for the first time please remember these words of wisdom - particularly if it's your first drive of a diesel! Some "trucks" are more car like than others. Those with leaf springs at the front are the hardest riding. Those with wishbones and coil springs are relatively easy to drive. If you can find one with McPherson struts then you're laughing! Driving at APPROPRIATE speeds for the conditions goes a long way to reducing driver fatigue and enjoying driving more. Trust us you do see a heck of a lot more of our beautiful country at 80 kph than you do in the white knuckle zone doing 110 kph! Don't forget though that there are lots of after market gadgets out there to improve ride and handling. One of the most popular and effective is Bilstein shock absorbers. Air type suspension helpers such as those made by Firestone ($1300.00) are also a good option, all the way up to full airbag suspension. Going down this track you do get a hidden extra in that you can actually level the van using the airbags and the onboard compressor.

Parking

With an overall length of 15.1 metres it is only a tad longer than most large cars. Theoretically you should be able to park it in any normal slot. In real life for us at least this isn't so. Supermarkets etc. pose zero problems. Reverse parking is stressful as you just can't see the guy behind you. We use the two UHF hand held radio method and this does improve things a lot once your little helper gets the hang of "left hand down etc." and remembers it's NOT a caravan! You can, of course, fit a Fresnel lens on the back window. This gives you a "sort of" view of what's immediately behind you, but remember it doesn't indicate true distance. We don't like this system as it ruins the view out of the rear window when parked. There is a very good solution on the Toyota Spacia. This is a special rear vision mirror mounted above the rear window. It looks down towards the road and works fairly well although it still makes things look further away than they actually are. The ultimate solution is to lash out on a reversing camera with a tiny monitor on the dash. These start at $600.00. If you do go down this path makes sure you get one that "mirror reverses" what you see. The el-cheapo's don't do this. As already mentioned, we use a very simple reversing technique. Go out and buy a couple of Uniden UHF hand held CB's - presently under $80.00 each. You have one in the cab and the other person stands outside and gives you the old "left hand down" routine. We have not had a dent since adopting this method in our caravanning days.

Tools and Accessories

You get a small hydraulic jack, a good wheel wrench with an extension handle and a few hand tools. This is all neatly stored at the rear of the outside locker and all very nicely secured. In our view the jack is not robust enough so we have augmented it with another stronger unit. We feel that it is a good move to carry two jacks anyway, as if it fails you are in big trouble! You do need to carry more tools in an RV particularly if you go into forests, on dirt roads etc. and we intend to make a special compartment under the large kitchen drawer. This is quite a large area of "unused" and therefore wasted space. Simply pull the draw out past the stops to access the tools - a much better proposition than taking heaps of gear out of the locker to get at your tools. We intend using a piece of foam and cutting out bits to nestle each tool.

Cab Access

Most people won't have any problems getting in and out of the cab, as the height is good and both sides have conveniently located grab handles and a plastic step. The cab to motorhome access is far from brilliant. Rather oddly the two models have different methods. Ours has a small section of the bed which lifts up to give headroom. Where this system falls down is there is NOTHING to stop it falling down! It is very hard to follow Winnebago's foggy thinking on this one as from a manufacturing viewpoint it must be easier to make the mattress base solid and hinged. The only extra cost is a couple of gas struts.

Having moaned about access, it really isn't very practical at all as one has to literally walk over the seats - not too good as you MUST remove your shoes. So what happens in real life is you use the outside door to access the motorhome. When it's raining you remove your shoes and clamber through. The driver though has to "negotiate" a vertical gear stick so be careful folks! On more up market Winnies they make the gear stick"collapse". No doubt some clever resourceful DIY Freeway owner will come up with a solution. Even though we have found the cab/motorhome access to be less than ideal, nevertheless it is important to have it there in case you feel threatened whilst free camping.

Putting it another way - we wouldn't buy a motorhome without this feature as we feel it is a vital safety feature.

You can, of course, improve things slightly if you permanently remove the centre seat back. You could take this a step further and have the passenger seat modified to fit one person. Doing this would make access a lot simpler, you wouldn't need to remove your shoes, but you would be limited to carrying just the two of you. Lots of thought required before setting to work with the hacksaw!