Road Tested: 2023 Winnebago Travato 59KL

The 9,350 pound, hardy and handsome 2023 Travato 59KL and I spent most of the month of May traversing 2,344 miles going west to southwest, boondocking all the way. (For the uninitiated, that means no external connections to water, power, or sewer services.)

I had no idea where I was headed up to the moment and after I took possession of the $152, 504 unit in Los Angeles. The helpful and jocular Luis at Mike Thompson’s RV in Santa Fe Springs said, “Santa Barbara is nice.” Santa Barbara it was.

I thought I’d spend a day or two at their beach, working remotely, but it was cloudy and cold though tranquil and upscale and civilized, so there seemed no point. I did pick up a toy Fred Flintstone at an antique shop, and it became my talisman/spirit guide for the duration of my test.

A friend in Vermont whom I texted at 4:27 AM from the parking lot of a public library the next morning said “Drive here and I’ll pay for your gas there and back, and you can paint a couple of rooms in our house!” For money, she meant. I was game, and Winnebago said it was ok. A rough price was agreed upon, total gas was calculated and I bid farewell to Santa Barbara.

Then her husband came home and pointed out that they weren’t even done with the drywall, and why were they paying $1200 in gas for a painter to come in from L.A.? That was that.

I decided to aim for the Grand Canyon because I’d never been there, it gave me something to shoot for, and grand indeed it was. I landed, eventually, near Boulder, where I returned the unit to a local dealer and bicycled the 17 miles home.

This is a review of the unit and so my adventures will need summing rather than a blow-by-blow, but my life-changing road trip was full of music, barbecues with strangers, a coffee date, talking to both conservatives and liberals, chopping vegetables, cleaning daily, finding bathrooms, flirting, cussing, listening to podasts and getting to know my rig, which by the end had a nickname, Il Trovatore.

Here are my impressions.

Looks: 10

I quickly grew attached to the mighty-looking, no-nonsense grey machine. I got respect wherever I went and loved coming out of stores and finding my big handsome house immediately. I also loved how vast I perceived myself as being but that I was still able to park nicely in a regular parking spot, just like the cars.

The Drive

It’s similar in feel to the Ram ProMaster 3500 frame upon which it’s based, providing a feeling of brawn and can-do to the driver. The Pentastar VVT/V6 is not ferocious but it does what’s asked of it, and mileage is a predictably mediocre 17-18 MPG. Handling and braking are above average, and most of my K-turns were eyeballed and executed without having to back up, which was great fun as well as less nerve-wracking.

The shift is nice and fat and easily grabbable without looking. It is noisy up front – you’ll have to shout to others and turn the music way up for it to be heard above the engine, which occasionally groans when you try to get momentum climbing hills and you end up apologizing to it. Neither the driver nor the passenger seat recline, something a passenger complained about with particular venom.

Parking was a snap; you’ll go to the supermarket or Wal-Mart or a city street and slot yourself right into a space. The reverse camera covers a vast area, visible in your rear-view mirror, and the Dumbo-sized outside mirrors fold in at the touch of a button. You’ve got to go slowly, but the parking cameras are some of the best I’ve ever tested.

The Goodies

I was given an orientation at the top of the test, retaining some but not all of what the nice man told me. Here is my floor plan.

I discovered how a lot of things work over my test not by memorizing the hefty owner’s manual, but by necessity as I went along, then consulting the manual when needed. I didn’t use, for example, the retractable awning, the bike rack in the back and some of the slide-out tables.

I would have liked to have a proper kitchen table, as I did with the Via I tested in 2012, but my setup of sitting on a couch mattress, small table set up in front of me, was fine for working or eating or writing.

I made most of my meals in the rig using the removable marble sink cover as a cutting board, keeping the 12-volt fridge full of healthy food choices.

I did not use the stove, but made good use of the powerful microwave.

I had more than enough overhead compartment and drawer space, but I also had a huge purple suitcase that never did find a permanent home during the trip and I needed stuff from it during the day. My smaller one fit just fine under one of my mattresses.

You’ve got single beds that can be pushed together to accomodate two, no more. Aside from my very first night when I woke up with laryngitis, I probably haven’t slept better in years. At the end of every day, I felt giddy and full of the adventure of it all, even when I was sleeping between trucks at a stop like a ferret in between two warthogs.

Some minor beefs:

*My potable water tank continued to read “E” for days after I filled it to its 18-gallon capacity.

*The driver’s and passenger seats swivel, but stubbornly. You can’t start the vehicle until they are facing forward, so I only swiveled them once.

*The left speaker of the sound system, which can be heard up front but not in back, sounded as though it was blown.

There are actually a lot of rattles in the Travato, but they give it character. This is not a 5-star, plush-plush, champagne-and-velvet experience, and you don’t want it to be. Gripes were few, though.

There’s a wet bath in back along with some storage drawers and a cabinet but you can rig it so it’s a closet with hangers and such. These fixtures are unique in that when rinsing yourself off, you can hit them with water and it won’t soak what’s inside.

You can also open the back doors and use poles and a provided cover to create a little privacy area for a shower, but I found a Planet Fitness or a Rec center wherever I was and had proper workouts and showers there, though sometimes they were out of my way.

Other features include (optional) dual-paned windows, screen daytime window shades and opaque night shades and a built-in power station with two 110 plugs and two USB plugs. In fact, there’s almost always an outlet near whatever you’re trying to do. An over-cab storage area held a rug and stiff privacy curtains, which seemed to have attachments on them but no corresponding attachments on the windshield. I didn’t mind; I liked the light coming in the windshield at night, and I was too far back for anyone to see without a flashlight.

Outside, you’ve got a detachable rooftop ladder, a roof rack, 215-watt solar panels on the roof itself, and so much more. I did not use the black tank and I only had to dump my grey tank once and found it the simplest thing in the world, as is filling back up with potable water. Winnebago is wise to make most things obvious, either to figure out on your own or with a little manual assistance. You don’t have to be a gearhead to have a sucessful Travato experience.

In sum, it was a rollicking, adventursome, educational time on the road in a more-than-worthy RV. Despite the many hazards and headaches of the road, RVing remains a great American pastime, right up there with drive-in movies, hula-hoops and bowling, and this was a great unit to hit the road in.