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Since we’ve been hinting about this on our Facebook page for a while, it’s time we came clean.

We’re getting a Travato!!

To be more specific, the next Fit RV will be a bright yellow 2016 Winnebago Travato 59G.  Now, yellow isn’t one of the standard colors offered for the Travato, and that requires some explanation.

If you’ve read our blog for the last couple months, it’s pretty obvious we were intrigued with the Travato. And it’s also pretty obvious we get along famously with the cool folks from Winnebago. Recently, when we were in Forest City, Iowa for a factory tour, we saw this little guy sitting in a big row of ProMaster chassis.

Yeah, we feel like it's a "he".

Yeah, we feel like it’s a “he”.

Well when we saw the lone beacon of yellow in the sea of silver and red chassis, it called out to us, in a very visual way. We had to ask about it… and then we started talking about it… and here we are today. We didn’t visit Winnebago with any intention of buying a new coach, but sometimes things just work out.

If you’ve followed the Travato, you’ll know that Winnebago has been rapidly improving and refining the design since it came out. They don’t intend to stop, and this is one of the things that we like about them. When we were talking with them about what we would want in our next coach, they also had a number of new concepts they wanted to try out. We naturally had some ideas we wanted them to incorporate as well. What we finally arrived at would best be described as a “concept RV”.

Our “concept” Travato is going to have some unique features, and I’m sure you’d expect nothing less from my next RV. It will be one of a kind, and we’re thrilled to have Winnebago take this on for us. (Stef is especially thrilled, because I don’t think she was really all that excited for me to build another RV from scratch.) I’ll go into detail on the new features next time I write. Think of our RV as an experiment: some of these things may make their way into production, some may not. Either way, please don’t go to your dealer expecting anything you see in our RV to be available as an option – because we’re not sure if that’s possible or reasonable.

It's safe to say, we won't misplace it.

It’s safe to say, we won’t misplace it.

So what happens now?

Well, our new RV is supposed to be ready during the first half of July, in Forest City. What’s cool about that is that YOU CAN JOIN US ON OUR SHAKEDOWN CRUISE! That’s right; we’ll be taking our new RV on its maiden voyage for the Driftless Adventure, put together by Winnebago Outdoor Adventures.

This isn’t just for Winnebago coaches! If you aren’t familiar with them, Winnebago Outdoor Adventures plans group RV trips for ANYONE who wants to sign-up. This will be, very literally, our first time in the coach, and we’d be delighted to have you along to celebrate with us. This will be a four day trip through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota, but it’s only open to RVs 26 feet and under due to some restrictions along the way. We’ll be writing more about this soon, but in the meantime, you can read about the Driftless Adventure here.

Don’t Worry – We’re Still Us!

If you’re worried that this is the end of The Fit RV as you know it, don’t be!  Sure, we’ll be rolling in a shiny new Travato, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still like seeing what’s new in small RVs. I’m too much of an RV junkie to give that up; so you’ll still see us reviewing RVs into the future. And the RV tips and experiments will continue as well. We don’t intend to become industry puppets, and Winnebago doesn’t want us to. In fact, they actually made a point of saying that. They don’t want us to change a thing we’re doing. So, props to the Winnebegans.

But! Where Winnebago really does want to work with us is in promoting a more active and healthy style of RVing! We couldn’t be happier to have such a cool and well-known partner in spreading The Fit RV message. We (and I’m including the Winnebegans in that “we”) are very excited about this part of our future, and we hope you are, too.

He's an empty van now, but just wait...

He’s an empty van now, but just wait…

So – how’s that for a major update? Exciting stuff, right?

Obviously, lots more details to come, so stay tuned, and stay healthy on the road!