We have started looking seriously at our first redwood. My wife and i went by a dealer and looked at several different floor plans. We are curious to know what some of your experience has been with having a front living area verses a rear living area. What you may feel or the advantages verses disadvantages are?

We have started looking seriously at our first redwood. My wife and i went by a dealer and looked at several different floor plans. We are curious to know what some of your experience has been with having a front living area verses a rear living area. What you may feel or the advantages verses disadvantages are?

Not sure there's advantage/disadvantage to either, it' mostly which one do you like. & works best for you.
Our biggest concern on any rv was that the tv was directly in front of our main seating, not 90 degrees from every seat in the place.
Plus the bedroom/bath configuration, is the shower big enough for my 6'+ 260+ lb hulk & room around the bed.

WE were looking at the FL before we purchased our 38RL...Here are OUR thoughts on that., And only OUR thoughts, and likes... personal preference...
The FL created less space in the basement, smaller compartment and doors
The FL created less outdoor awning space, slideout on curbside up front
The FL had lower ceilings where we would be sitting
The RE caused us to watch TV with our head tilted sideways
The RL cured all of those issues..-- FOR US--

Our thoughts are pretty close to Joe's, we just went with the MB Bath in the nose as we needed a more out of the way for Litter Boxes vs under the Table as they were in our RL

As others noted, it is very much personal preference.

Prior to purchasing, we researched RV's for about 5 year, attending our local RV show twice a year, checking out the various floorplans.

We quickly settled on 5th wheels and as soon as we walked in our first FL, we both went wow, we like it. The first Redwood FL floorplan really worked for us, especially the main seats facing the TV/entertainment system. It also has a full couch across the front, which is claimed by the dogs, and it provides separation between living and dinning/cooking areas..

Lack of an island in the kitchen also makes it easier when living with 2 large dogs. However, the original FL had some negatives - tiny basement, no sleeper sofa and raised slides in L/R.

Redwood have updated the FL many times, but in our opinion none of them even come close to the original FL.

Thanks for the reply. I know this is preference. But I do appreciate the insight of experience and your thoughts gave us things to think about while looking.
thanks
Scott & Mrs Karen
Arctic Cajuns

Yes I must admit after looking for some time at different floor plans. I like some of the older plans myself. They seem to have more space for storage and use. We found a 2014 model that seem s to fit our needs. It is an RL. And it checks all the other boxes off that we wanted.
Thanks
Scott & Mrs Karen
Arctic Cajuns

We have an FL and love it but here are my cons after owning for a few years.
Very little basement storage.

Having to walk through the bathroom to get into the bedroom. Our MH was this way and we said never again but we did it again because we liked the FL. I won't do this again!!!!:dry:

Dining table set up was always in the way so I removed and installed a center island with bar stools and works much better.

Now it's almost perfect for us.

We always enjoyed that big back window on the rear living room 5ers. Not that the rear view is always the best view, but in some campgrounds it can be breathtaking! We never had an FL, but I guess you would get that from the Bedroom which would probably also be a nice experience.

We don't have any view now and I kind of miss it in some of our favorite campgrounds.

Back in 2012 when ordered our FB the salesman was trying very hard to sell us on the FL he had on the lot, we really liked the front living room, but the bedroom was the 2nd biggest let down, nearly no closet space, 2 doors about 14-16" wide, wouldn't do for us fulltiming. The biggest disappointment was the lack of underneath storage, again would've never worked for us, too much stuff!

We have a 2015 31sl, rear living. I love my kitchen island, the bedroom closet in the nose. Our tv cabinets are in the rear but the tv pulls out so we can see it from the chairs. Need the sleeper sofa for grandkids occasionally. When I look at the FL, the kitchen monopolizes the space on the main floor. I believe we would lose storage and kitchen counterspace if we had a FL.

We have a 2013 36RL and we like it, it's nice to have a big rear window to look out (unless you are back-to-back with another RV in a park!). The only downside with our model is that the roadside is a bit dark with only a small window at the back, maybe Redwood corrected that in newer models, a window above the stove would have helped.

I agree Al. Love our RL but the left side is dark. I've thought many times about adding a window above the handrail on the steps. If we had ordered ours I would have. Saw an RL at the Rally a few years ago that had a window there and they said they had it built that way.

As all have said there are many opinions, we had a Rear Living and now have a Front Living that we love.
Our 2014 Front Living Redwood is for many one of the odd models with the seating in the front cap area and the TV mounted in the back of the kitchen pantry. But for us that is one of the things that sold us on the model.
Our FL has lots of interior storage compared to many of today's FL models and yes it does have less basement storage than a Rear Living Model so that is a negative.
The head room in the Front Living area is less but I am 6'1" and it is not a problem for me. Now I have been in many Rear Living models and my head almost hits the ceiling in the bathroom shower, no problem in our Front Living, I cannot touch the ceiling in the bathroom.
Our Front Living Floor bedroom is larger than many due to the addition of width moving the bathroom wall back (towards the front) and adding a dresser, it opens up the bedroom and gives us lots of bedroom counter space and storage plus the bedroom ceiling height is nice, these were a plus for us.
Our Front Living bedroom has opposing slides so it make the bedroom area at the end of the bed larger than a typical single slide bedroom that does not have a Slide in a Slide arrangement.
Our Front Living kitchen has two pantries but does lack counter top space since there is no island.
One thing we liked about our Front Living layout, it is like an apartment on wheels, there are separate areas / spaces for the living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
As you see here there are many likes and dislikes and preferences to any floorplan, you just have to find what works for you.