go rv'ing
 

had the itch to buy a class A for a couple years. doesn't help that the dealership is about a mile from my house. i imagine traveling the country with the wife and kids or maybe taking off for weekends to see the races. anyone ever own one? i'm looking at a low cost hurricane by fourwinds for about 55.000.
steve aka huckleberry;) :p

Just bought a 24' travel trailer. Been 'camping' once. I think we're gonna like it. We plan to drag it all over the US.

The best part is you can stay at the racetrack overnight and tow the car behind.

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look at my signature..i had a 35' class a safari. i really loved it, but when my gal and i split up, i had to sell. too many memories for me to keep it around. gas was the biggest expense..at around 2000 yards per gallon..lol. j/k, maybe 7 mpg. i had some charging issues related to the converter charger..had to replace it and three new deep cycle batteries. other than that and a couple changes of oil, air filter, plugs, the only other major expense was repairing the heater core. we never left arkansas, though..we just hit all the local state parks within a couple hours. i loved the comforts of mine.
ryan

sweet!!! give us some details...
steve

I always wonder about these things. They don't advertise them like they do new autos. There is a dealer near me that has to have 150 various RVs. Millions and millions in inventory. Every dealer I've seen is like this. How do they stay afloat? How the hell do you pick one you like?

OK, just a minor semantics point here perhaps, but people plodding around in RVs are not "camping". Camping involves hiking, packing tents, sleeping bags, campfires, things of that nature. If you want to go explore the "outdoors" with your microwaves, satellite TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators and whatever else - fine. Whatever thrills ya'. Just don't call it "camping". And for chrissakes use the damn turnouts on the mountain roads - that's what they're there for. Thanks.

Have fun.

don't buy one new whatever you do. these things depreciate like banshees. mine was a '90 model, so most of the depreciation had occurred. new it was over 100k. i paid 20k for it with about 70,000 miles on the ford 460 engine..it had a john deere chassis (like a friggin' tank) and all the interior cabinetry was hand made from 'real wood'. that's hard to find today except in the half million dollar rigs. mine was a side aisle, instead of down the center like the traditional design. this allowed for more privacy in the rear. mine was designed for a couple to live in..not family style with extra bunks, etc. mine had a very large bed in the rear with lots of storage and mirrored sliding closet. two roof airs, satellite dish for tv or internet, two tv's, each with vcr/dvd players. large bathroom with a roomy shower. the kitchen had real tile. the front sofa pulled out into a bed that would sleep two if we ever had friends with us. i sold it for less than i could have gotten..it was a woman who'd lost her home to hurricane katrina. i wanted to help her as much as i could. if you want to see pics, pm me and i'll give you a link to a site where i have personal family photos and you can see lots of pics of it. just don't want to post the link on the forum..lol. don't worry..no naked pics. :D
ryan

jeff...lol...relax, buddy! i hear ya! our thread starter called it rv'ing. i promise to not use the word 'camping' in this thread..lol. ;)
ryan

If there is just one or two of you - check out the Airstream Interstate.

It is built on the Mercedes/Dodge Sprinter chassis, is absolutely bullet-proof and very frugal on diesel. I drove one recently, and am now trying to figure out how to sell "she who must be obeyed" on the idea.

We bought a small 23' Class C 2 years ago. As mentioned above, but it used... At least 7 years old where they do most of their depreciation. I changed out the carpet for some nice vinyl tile and Berber carpeting, made a few updates and my '93 looks great.

We use it exclusively for staying at the track and it was SOOOO worth the investment. Air conditioning, clean toilet, running water, beer cooler (er, Fridge), etc... All the conveniences of home at the track weekends.

Not sure I'd own one for just vacations though, but I suppose if I wasn't racing I'd have the time.

My best advice:

1. Buy used (see above for depreciation)
2. Get slideouts, they are awesome and give a LOT more space!

in retrospect, i bought an awful lot of motorhome for no more than i was able to use it. next time i'd likely buy the size of what chris has. i don't know how much a 4-cylinder toyota 4x4 is capable of towing, but it would have to be small. i've actually always been intrigued by over the cab campers on trucks since i was a boy. anyone know offhand if they've been made for compact trucks like mine (same as a tacoma basically, but a 1990).
ryan

Don't forget the queen sized bed!

We bought a 1999 Itasca (Winnebago) Sundancer 29 last December. I LOVE to tent camp, but with two young kids and taking road trips to Cali, the RV is really nice. It has the Triton V10 and gets right at 10mpg, which drops to 8-9 if I'm on the hammer. It had 33K miles on it and has a ton of upgrades. We paid 34K for it and the sticker was 83K new.

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brad..7 years old and a slideout..nice way to buy if you can afford more like that. mine was twice that old, no slideouts..and for me it was still really more than i could justify spending at 20k. i should have bought a smaller unit in the 10k range, but i was worried about getting stuck with a lot of potential 'issues'. i got lucky..mine was relatively maintenance-easy.
ryan

Ryan, I really wanted to avoid the Ford 460 motor as there "seemed" to be a lot of issues with them, the main being exhaust manifolds. I did not want a Chevy, could not afford a diesel, so my options were limited. The real pi$$er is that we lost the drive shaft on the way home when we took delivery. The company stepped up and paid for everything. These things are like P-cars in that you HAVE to maintain them.

yeah, brad..guess i was lucky with my ford 460..other than the heater core rebuild, i just changed oil, air filter and plugs..it never missed a beat pulling that 35' thing around.
ryan

Never had a class A or C but had a cab-over camper on a large 4x4 pickup for a long time. Was nice, I used to take it on pretty rough dirt roads to out of the way fishing spots and so on. Pretty different from the motorhome thing - but ultimately w/ some of the same problems . . .

When you're not using it, its an eyesore parked in the driveway or in front of the house. Your neighbors grumble and eventually so do you. So $50/month to store it in an RV yard somewhere.

When its stored, e.g. over the winter, you forget about it. Eventually you realize you haven't been to the camper in 6 months and the batteries are dead, the tires low, all the same issues as a car that sits in the open for months at a time.

When you're camping, you find a nice spot, get the camper leveled, stairs down, everything set up. Aaah, nice. A couple hours later, you want to get some ice cream at the cute little town nearby. But its too much trouble to pack everything up for a 1/2 hour ice cream trip. So you're pretty much stuck at the campground.

Eventually you realize you're carrying this big vehicle through life and you only use it a small fraction of the time.

If I ever had another "recreational vehicle", I'd get a not-too-large Airstream trailer (the rounded aluminium ones). Vastly more attractive than a traditional slab-sided motorhome/camper, hold value better too (buy used!). Trailers can be stored for a long time w/o the maintenance issues of a vehicle w/an engine. You can leave them set up in camp, while you take the kids for ice cream in the tow vehicle. And the tow vehicle gets used year-round, for daily things, rather than unproductively sitting for 49 weeks of 52.

P.S. Another thing, this one specific to motorhomes. Imagine you're out in the sticks and the thing breaks down. Does Dooger's Autoparts in Nowhereville have parts for a Fleetwood Mega-House RV? Can Dooger's Auto Repair work on the thing? Maybe no and no. If you have a trailer and your tow vehicle is a Ford or Chevy truck, then yes and yes.

john's pretty much spot on. they can be hard to justify for only a few trips a year. if you already have a pickup that can pull a travel trailer, would be a better way to go than buying a class a, since you can disconnect and have something to drive around, unless you plan to buy a sub-compact maybe for the class a to tow. if you're retired and really want to do heavy traveling, i'd probably buy the class a and tow the vehicle, but for the 'every once in a while family', i'd buy a family-style travel trailer and tow it..fewer maintenance issues/not as complex. the more you use it though, the better you get at packing and knowing what to bring, etc.
ryan

Rent one every time you want to use one, you will save a fortune.

I know waaaay too many people who bought one that sits in the driveway or in storage costing them big money every month.
Few things depreciate as fast as an RV.

My parents bought one of those huge RVs with the pop outs and everything.
I asked my dad how he liked it. He said that they could rent a limo to drive them anywhere and stay in a 5 star hotel when they got there, and it would still be cheaper than owning that RV.