Our Motorhome

Our motorhome is a 2004 Tiger CX, manufactured by Provan Industries in Columbia, SC. The Tiger is a truck-based, Class C motorhome which is built on a Chevrolet 2500 (3/4-ton), two-wheel drive chassis with a 6.0-liter V-8, standard cab configuration, which is the “basic” configuration the Tiger. Provan currently offers the Tiger CX on Chevrolet, Ford, or Dodge one-ton chassis, with gas or diesel engines, and with standard, extended, or crew cab configurations. While the base or standard chassis in current models is four-wheel drive, prior to 2007 or so the standard was two-wheel drive with an option to upgrade to four-wheel drive. Now, to get two-wheel drive, one must make a specific request. Buyers of two-wheel drive Tigers now get a credit off the list price due to the lesser cost of the two-wheel drive chassis. In addition, there is now an optional coach design called the Bengal Tiger, which has the same floor plan but with slightly increased interior headroom. Further information on the Provan Tiger CX and Bengal Tiger may be found on the manufacturer’s website at http://www.tigermotorhomes.com/home.htm .

Until our retirement after Jeanette’s 2007-2008 school year, we used the Tiger mainly for weekend camping trips and star parties at various locations around Colorado, plus a couple of week or ten-day trips to visit family in Texas. Our first extended trip was a leaf-peeping tour to New England in the fall of 2008 which lasted three weeks. In the summer of 2009 we took a three-week trip to northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and in 2010 we took a four-week tour of the Gulf coast, northern Florida, and the southeast coast which covered 6000 miles through 19 states. In between, we have continued to take long weekend trips and week to ten-day trips here in Colorado and the surrounding states. Overall, since acquiring the Tiger, we have visited all of the lower 48 states except Maine and New Jersey on the east coast, and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota in the upper midwest. Our next long trip will be to western Canada and Alaska in the late summer and early fall of this year (2011).

After roughly 36,000 miles in the Tiger so far, I can say we have really enjoyed the opportunities it has given us. We try to travel mainly on the “blue” highways, or non-interstates because they allow more leisurely travel and better sight-seeing opportunities. While we occasionally boondock camp, we usually stay in commercial campgrounds or state parks while touring. Traveling in the motorhome at 12.5 mpg average and staying in moderately-priced campgrounds is roughly the same cost as driving a typical family car and staying at travelers’ style motels. We enjoy the interaction with our fellow travelers in campgrounds, where everyone seems friendly and likes to sit around and chat, exchange travel stories, and perhaps share a glass of wine or beer in the evening as opposed to the coldness of a motel room and dinner in some chain restaurant.