Tom and I were thinking about getting a new motorhome – the Thor Axis 26.2.  Our Coachmen Leprechaun is a 2020, and although there are many things we like about it, there are also some things we don’t like.

Things we like about the Coachmen Leprechaun 260ds.  Tom really likes the size.  He continues to feel really comfortable driving it and feels like we can go almost anywhere with it.  The size is comfortable for the months we spend in it but there isn’t much floor space.  If one of us is up and moving around, the other one should stay seated.  There is plenty of storage, which is a good thing.  I wouldn’t want to get anything smaller unless we decide we are done with volunteering in the National Parks.

Another thing we like about the Leprechaun is that we have had it long enough that we know how things work.  We have replaced the toilet and had the slide repaired.  Tom knows how to take care of the seals and the tanks.  We know the signs of the tanks getting full.  The motorhome is built on a Ford chassis and we know where to get it serviced.

But there are also some things we don’t like about the Leprechaun.  The primary one is the bed.  We would like a motorhome with twin beds.  Tom and I both sleep SO much better when we sleep in separate beds.  Right now I sleep in the bed and Tom sleeps on the couch.  Tom is very happy sleeping on the couch.  We both sleep well, but it would be nice to both be in the bedroom area.  It is difficult to put sheets on the bed because you can’t walk around it.  When I make the bed I feel like I am wrestling a worthy opponent.  I get my exercise!  The bed is also on a slideout, which means that I can only sleep on it when the slide is open.

The other thing we don’t like is the “living room.”  The couch is uncomfortable for sitting.  We have a dinette that has plenty of seating but it is also uncomfortable for any length of time.  And we don’t use most of the dinette space.  Because the couch is uncomfortable, we watch television in the bedroom.  Which means arranging extra pillows and climbing up on the bed.  It is comfortable enough but we don’t get up and down much because climbing on and off the bed is a pain.

None of these are major problems, but the irritations add up when we are trying to live in the RV for an extended period of time.  So Tom and I are always keeping our eye on what is new in motorhomes.

We recently found a motorhome that we thought looked promising, the Thor Axis 26.2.  It is a Class A instead of a Class C, but it has a drop-down bunk in the front.  I found one at RV Wholesalers in Delaware and Tom and I stopped in to look at it while we were in Ohio.

A young man named Ephraim grabbed the key and took us out to the Axis.  The first difference was immediately apparent – the Axis only has one door.  And it was frozen shut.  The Leprechaun has a door into the interior of the motorhome, but it also has a driver and passenger door.  After quite a bit of work, Ephraim and Tom got the door open so we could get inside.

Tom and I spent quite a bit of time inside the Thor Axis 26.2.  Long enough, in fact, that Ephraim figured out how to start the furnace which definitely made it more comfortable.  There were some things that we really liked about the Axis.  The drop-down bunk was a good feature.  It could drop down if we needed it for storage or an additional bed or rise up to make the RV feel more open.  The Axis has two recliners instead of a couch and a removable table instead of a dinette.

The thing we liked the best were the twin beds and the overhead and underbed storage in the bedroom.  We could both sleep in the bedroom and it didn’t have a slide that needed to be opened.  The beds and the recliners were very comfortable and we could watch television from either.  There was a dedicated desk / workspace in the cab of the motorhome.

But there were also some things we didn’t like.  None of the overhead cabinets had magnetic closures, which meant they could flop open when we were driving down the road.  I didn’t like the bathroom, which had a weird platform for the toilet and shower.  Seriously, how hard is it to make the entire floor one level?  The platform make the bathroom feel oddly claustrophobic.

The main thing we didn’t like was the price.  $182,000!  When we bought the Leprechaun we traded in our much larger RV and fancy truck and ended up paying a small amount out of pocket for the new motorhome.  RV Wholesalers definitely had the highest price we had seen for the Thor Axis 26.2 and they didn’t seem interested in negotiating.  I’ve seen much lower prices online, but the motorhomes are in California or Arizona.

Suddenly, Tom and I discovered something that shot to the top of our list of things we like about the Leprechaun – it is paid for!  We decided that we could do some retrofitting and remodeling of the Leprechaun much cheaper than buying a new motorhome.

For now, at least, we are keeping the Leprechaun.  We might be making some changes to make it more comfortable for us, but we won’t be buying anything new.  Probably.  But, you never know.