The 2023 Grand Lodge 42VIEW Is a Large and Fancy Family House Posing as an RV

Wildwood Lodge is just one of the brands of Forest River, a name with a strong following on the RV market. The Lodges are more than towables, as their name clearly indicates: they are off-grid-capable habitats that can easily double as permanent residences, with extra sleeping capacity, storage, and all the creature comforts you need on a daily basis.

This applies both to the Standard models and the Grand Lodge options. The most recent addition to the latter category, the 2023 Grand Lodge 42VIEW, is a proper house on wheels, offering a mix of fancy features with standard ones in a single package that can be anything you want it to be, whether an RV or a permanent home. More than a "house," the 42VIEW is the RV equivalent of a mansion.

Introduced at the end of last year and shipped to dealers in early 2023, the 42VIEW is massive. It's so big that even "massive” feels like an understatement, though it still rides on two axles. With a dry weight of 13,416 lbs (6,085 kg), it's 45 feet (13.7 meters) long and 102 inches (259 cm) wide, not including the two slide-outs that considerably expand available space. If you look at the way in which you can further expand living into the outdoors, under the giant awning or by adding a deck, the 42VIEW becomes the RV equivalent of a palace on wheels.

The RV is a park model on considerations of size and weight, so it's not the kind of towable you wish to hook up every other weekend to head on a short getaway. It offers sleeping accommodation for as many as eight people in absolute comfort, or as many as ten if they don't mind cuddling at night, in three bedrooms and the living room that converts into a guest room at night.

The 42VIEW also offers a fully-equipped and spacious kitchen, a full bathroom, a laundry station, and all the storage space these eight people might need. Finishes are high quality and create a space that feels luxurious but without losing functionality. The two videos available below paint a better picture of that. The official promo mentions something about 42VIEW integrating no less than "five industry firsts" but stops short at what these might be, but we reckon the existence of a second level inside, the two slide-outs, and the extended sleeping capacity are among them.

Indeed, this park model RV has a ground and second floor. Technically, that second floor is lofted, so it doesn't offer standing height, but it still means you have to go up a flight of stairs to get to it and then down a few steps to reach the master bedroom or the bathroom. This is possible thanks to a 12-inch (30.5-cm) drop in the frame where the lofts area, allowing headroom for the bathroom and the main bedroom, respectively. The result is spaces that don't feel constricted and that retain life-size dimensions.

Besides the quality finishes, you also get a set of fancier features that mark the 42VIEW as not your average RV or RV-turned-permanent-home. For example, you get not one but two electric fireplaces, a TV that pops up from a console in the living room, a large L-shaped sectional sofa that triple-folds out into a bed, a laundry station made up of a stackable washer and drier hidden in a cabinet in the bathroom, automated blackout shades, two AC units, Furrion kitchen appliances, and marble-like finishes on all the countertops, including a waterfall finish on the kitchen island.

This is not downsizing as we've grown accustomed to in recent years, but downsizing for the well-heeled. But it's not downsizing for the one-percenters, either, because the 42VIEW remains, despite its size and finishes, a very welcoming and practical space where the entire family can live in comfort for whatever timeframe they have in mind.

Standard features include an on-demand water heater, 40-gallon (151.4-liter) tanks for fresh water, gray and black (each), fully enclosed underbelly, 26-foot (7.9-meter) awning, central vacuum in the first stair of the larger staircase, thick blackout curtains, and Teddy Bear mattresses. The roof is fully walkable throughout and can be rigged with solar panels to cut down reliance on the grid.

The 2023 Grand Lodge 42VIEW comes with an MRSP of $101,000, give or take some change, but can be had for much less at authorized dealers. For example, the unit toured in the second video below is under $75,000 with everything on it. For comparison, an above-average tiny house that makes fewer compromises in terms of space usually retails for around $100K and offers a smaller footprint, fewer berths, and fewer premium features.

What we're saying is that if you're looking to downsize in style, a Wildwood Lodge is a good place to start looking for options.