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[Oneilkeys]

Exactly a year ago we were going thru the same debate at our house. We had owned a Vegas 24.1 for two years, putting 24,000 miles on it including a four month, 14,000 mile trip to Alaska and back. Although we loved the Vegas, we thought we might move up to the 29-30', F-53 chassis to get a little more room. We went to the Tampa RV show with a check in our pocket to trade in the Vegas and purchase a new 29-30 footer. After going to multiple dealers in the Tampa area before the show and two days at the Tampa show, we bought a new Axis.
After looking at every RV from every manufacturer in the 27- 32' range, we did not find anything that we liked and met our needs more than the Axis. While the larger RVs did proved more room, not one seemed to give us any more real useable room. We we balanced that against the real increase in size and handling as well as the additional "systems" that I would need to maintain, we decided to stay with the smaller E-450 chassis. My wife really did not like the extra step up into the F-53 and I don't think she would ever have driven it. We spend two and a half months in our Axis this summer traveling to Colorado and Utah and not once did we say "I wish we had bought a bigger one." We like to drycamp and boondock in National Parks and Forests and I would have had difficulty shoehorning in a larger unit to some of the sites we were in.
Why did we trade in our 2 year old Vegas (with many improvements and fixes)? Because the 2016 Axis was on an E450 rather than an E350 chassis, it had the 6 spd rather than 5 spd transmission, the new, improved double bathroom doors and the light interior - which we like a lot more than the dark. And I bought the new one for about 1/4 of the price after trade in - zeroing out 24,000 miles.
Go to an RV show and really look at and drive the F-53 chassis RVs. I am not saying that for you they may not be the best. However, after over 50 years of owning large boats and small RVs, I am a firm believer in "the smallest that meets your needs is the best for you". Everyone always wants a "bigger boat". Many of my friends bought that one last big boat and ended up never really using it because it was too big for them to comfortably handle - especially as they got older. For me, I decided the F-53 might be that last "too big" step. We have not regretted it yet.