How many have left Rving?

[SeektheSon1]

Originally Posted by nothermark

It depends. Your trailer gets the house maintenance costs plus some running gear like tires and you don't usually get much of an electrical system. Assuming you own a suitable tow vehicle the chassis maintenance transfers over to that. The problem is you have to own the truck or whatever. A lot of us went to a C or small A because we did not want a truck for a daily driver. We do tow a car and use that for sightseeing which averages the fuel economy out a lot better than even a small C.

Our tow vehicle will be a well preserved 1995 Suburban that doesn't get driven much. But would finally be used for towing on RV trips. We will have to buy a light rig to use this tow vehicle and we have one in our sights presently. If we decide we don't want it (1995 Lance), or someone buys it before we can get over to see it, we will have to regroup and decide if we want a new tow vehicle for a heavier trailer. (We want to find a quality RV if we can from the getgo, and want a 4 seasons trailer for some cold weather camping) Or, continue thinking about whether we want to buy a Class C. ($$$$$) I guess i was just wondering if motorhomes give folks alot more grief than the travel trailers, etc.? I realize it has alot to do with the manufacturer and if you have a good unit for starters. I really hate it for folks who have a nightmare purchase from day 1. That would poison anyone on RV life probably. I found an RV tech to do the work that we can't do since we will buy used. Hoping that might help with the frustrations anyway. But we are determined to try it, since we rarely travel and want a way to take our little dogs with us. For better or for worse, we will set said one day.....

[LWD1946]

We moved in to our new 2017 Canyon Star one year ago. If we knew what we know now, we would not. We have had so many problems. Have spent more time in a hotel than if we had been taking vacations. It cost a lot more to live in an RV than a house. My husband is marginally handy and I don't do well with constant problems. We work full-time and live in our RV. We thought it would be fun to "pretend" to be retired. Instead of having a leisurely weekend we work on maintenance. Takes longer to wash clothes and if you don't have a place for everything and able to put it back where it goes, you have a constant mess. I talked to one lady that full-times and said if you can't roll with it, it isn't the life for you. Wish I had talked to her before we invested all our money from selling our condo in to an RV.

[rvp986]

We've been rving since I was old enough to remember. That includes my wife as she did the same with her parents when young. My parents loved the outdoors and started rving in the early sixties with a used 1964 Winnebago, 15 or 16 foot pull-type to the best of my recollection. I remember dad pulled it with his 1968 4-door Buick Wildcat (think it was a 1968). Both should be in the Hall of Fame, by now.

I remember the argument my parents had after my mother came home one evening (she was a nurse at the local hospital working nights) and said she bought a Winnebago camper from some old man for $300. Claimed he wanted out of it as his wife and himself just couldn't do it anymore. My dad just came unglued. His comment was you're taking it back because we don't have $300. Mom replied, "We do... it's my money and I've saved it up for this moment and besides... we got the hitch and everything with it!". You know the generation... what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours. After my father gave in, he soon adjusted and started to love rving. Us kids couldn't wait to get to the campground. Always looking forward to the trip and alas... the campground! No AC, of coarse. That wasn't though of, then.

Loved it so much that it had to continue after I grew up, returned from the Army, did some college, got married, had children of our own. Obviously, money being tight, started out with a tent built for four. Leaked during every rain, but packed it in and packed it out. Moved up and into a damaged, hailed out, used pull-type trailer and then on to a Popup. Now that got old, loading the camping stuff and unloading when we returned home after each camping trip. Kids loved it too, while dodging their school activities. In fact they're, today, rving in their own rv's with their youngsters and the grandkids are addicted to it as we were. Something about a campfire and marshmellows. We've been through through seven units, including the tent and popup, pulltype, 5th wheels and now own our latest, a 2018-Vanleigh Vilano 40' 5th wheel, with I might add... three AC's. Times certainly do change. Guess, I could say we love it so much, it's turned into a passion. We are now in our middle 60's and wouldn't have changed things for the world. We're already dreaming of the Class A Diesel Pusher, someday. We'll have to see about that, though. That's our take... and I'm sticking to it! How enjoyable and sweet it is to see our kids enjoying it as well. Hope my opinion counts! Memories last forever?

[larliebler]

Originally Posted by rvp986

We've been rving since I was old enough to remember. That includes my wife as she did the same with her parents when young. My parents loved the outdoors and started rving in the early sixties with a used 1964 Winnebago, 15 or 16 foot pull-type to the best of my recollection. I remember dad pulled it with his 1968 4-door Buick Wildcat (think it was a 1968). Both should be in the Hall of Fame, by now.

I remember the argument my parents had after my mother came home one evening (she was a nurse at the local hospital working nights) and said she bought a Winnebago camper from some old man for $300. Claimed he wanted out of it as his wife and himself just couldn't do it anymore. My dad just came unglued. His comment was you're taking it back because we don't have $300. Mom replied, "We do... it's my money and I've saved it up for this moment and besides... we got the hitch and everything with it!". You know the generation... what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours. After my father gave in, he soon adjusted and started to love rving. Us kids couldn't wait to get to the campground. Always looking forward to the trip and alas... the campground! No AC, of coarse. That wasn't though of, then.

Loved it so much that it had to continue after I grew up, returned from the Army, did some college, got married, had children of our own. Obviously, money being tight, started out with a tent built for four. Leaked during every rain, but packed it in and packed it out. Moved up and into a damaged, hailed out, used pull-type trailer and then on to a Popup. Now that got old, loading the camping stuff and unloading when we returned home after each camping trip. Kids loved it too, while dodging their school activities. In fact they're, today, rving in their own rv's with their youngsters and the grandkids are addicted to it as we were. Something about a campfire and marshmellows. We've been through through seven units, including the tent and popup, pulltype, 5th wheels and now own our latest, a 2018-Vanleigh Vilano 40' 5th wheel, with I might add... three AC's. Times certainly do change. Guess, I could say we love it so much, it's turned into a passion. We are now in our middle 60's and wouldn't have changed things for the world. We're already dreaming of the Class A Diesel Pusher, someday. We'll have to see about that, though. That's our take... and I'm sticking to it! How enjoyable and sweet it is to see our kids enjoying it as well. Hope my opinion counts! Memories last forever?

Your opinion definitely counts, thanks for posting your story!

[Bahamaniac]

We will unfortunately have to leave when my legs stop working. The clock is ticking on me, but will go as long as I can. Until then, there is still so much to see.

[franklin99]

Originally Posted by larliebler

I made the following comment to the service center rep yesterday when I picked up my coach after having some warranty work: "I was very naive about the RV industry when I bought my first coach, and I'm not sure if I would have purchased an RV knowing what I know now". His response was "well it's not like the auto industry".
This conversation made me wonder: how many folks has the RV industry lost over the years because of the difficulties we all struggle with? Obviously not enough for things to change.
I'm going to make the assumption that most everyone on this forum would answer the question: would you do all over again? a resounding Yes, regardless of the problems in the industry, they love the benefits that an RV lifestyle offer. However, I would also speculate there have been many that did not feel that way.

It doesn't sound very promising for us that love Rving.

[neoflyer]

Originally Posted by bobmac

My own advice that I would offer to anyone contemplating the purchase of an RV - if you aren't handy or willing to fix almost all issues yourself, consider another leisure activity. If you are unwilling or unable, your RV will spend a significant portion of its life - particularly if you purchase a brand new RV - awaiting service at a repair shop. Ugly advice to offer but very true.

Disturbing but possibly true. The idea that a person has to be a DIYer to have an acceptable experience with RV's is a sad commentary on the industry.


Ed
'05 HR Ambassador

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by ParkBy3

We recently sold our 45’ one year old Cornerstone after previously driving a 40’ Discovery for 5 years.

I frankly became disillusioned when we spent more time in the shop than on the road, especially after paying a small fortune for the Cornerstone. The service folks we great and always fixed everything we pointed out, but I frankly don’t understand why the customer has to be one to find all the issues. Yep, things break and I was ok with those items, but discovering so many things that just didn’t work or didn’t work very long, we parted ways with RVing.

We did not buy another RV and decided to use Airbnb or pet friendly hotels for our travels.

We looked into the Sprinter Class RVs, but I really don’t want to get into the break-fix-repair routine again. At todays prices, we can rent a lot of places and still have $$$ in the bank without spending half our lives in the service bay of an RV dealer.

We loved meeting new folks and the sights were great, but there are a lot of ways to accomplish the same without all the break-fix heartaches.

For those of you who are handy or love fixing things, RVing is a great hobby with many benefits. For those of us who use a RV to travel or go between events, it was an expensive disappointment.

OK, “flame away”, but I have heard all the admonitions about unreasonable expectations or how complicated a “moving house” has to be and things break. Well for the price and sales pitch, there needs to be much more quality control and post manufacturing checkout for us even to consider to returning to RV ownership. All the best and may your repairs be few and far between!

No flaming from me! I agree with your post. (Except for the part about 45' Cornerstone being a "small" fortune! ) We also looked at Sprinters this past summer but I guess we've lost our enthusiasm.

[rottendan]

I'm not done with rving. We've been camping for 50 years. Tent, van, popup, 23 ft travel trailer, 27 ft 5th wheel and 5 years ago my first new purchase a 30 ft coach. After several attempts at getting it fixed (all sorts of problems from electrical to basic workmanship) I now managed to fix everything myself and made a few upgrades in the process. As I said not done with rving but am done with dealers and useless warranties. At least when I buy used I expect to have a few issues and hopefully the previous owner fixed the stuff the manufacturer didn't do correctly.

[Wench]

Happy Thanksgiving to our coach in the service lot of CW in Tampa! It's where it has been for close to 4 weeks now. "Authorization" is the new curse word in our vocabulary.

Relentless cycle of appointment, drop off, write up, go home, phone calls, emails, phone calls, emails, move up the service chain, phone calls, blah blah blah

It is just a crappy experience all around!

[ke4jr]

It all goes down hill after you sign the contract, even before you pick up your rig! But many RV'ers tolerate it because they dont want to hassle with the dealers or repair centers and since they have the bucks, they pay for the abuse. Peacefully lead to the slaughter house like little good sheeps!
It's a real shame because it's made matters worse through the years as for me, HELL NO!
I will NOT tolerate any signs of lack of service, I expect excellence from anyone I purchase from or perform work on my Winnebago.
We need to become stronger and demand better, ask to speak to upper management if we're not content with anything, be it pricing or service. If we start showing dealers and repairs centers we wont toletrate it and they feel they're going to loose business, trust me IT WILL CHANGE and IMPROVE. But unless we ALL expect better, nothing will happen and they'll continue to get worse.

[JSears]

Most all of my sentiments have been covered here. As we all know RV sales are through the roof at this time. My complaint is that COMPETENT service centers, parks and campground facilities have not kept pace. We started rv'ing in 1975 and the changes have been remarkable, both pro and con. I heartily agree that the rv industry has much to learn from their cousins in the automobile manufacturing and servicing sector.

[marijo1953]

My husband and I travel all over the country for his job in our 41 foot Tuscany DP. He is an electrical engineer and builds or refurbishes power plants. We may be in a location for a year or it may be a couple of months. We went to a motor home because you can't rent even a short term rental without some sort of lease and staying in a hotel is not for us. On top of that short term rentals and hotels are very expensive in comparison to the RV especially when you add eating out to the cost. We are both very handy and handle most any problem that comes along. We love it. I doubt we'll stop even after we retire.

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by marijo1953

My husband and I travel all over the country for his job in our 41 foot Tuscany DP. He is an electrical engineer and builds or refurbishes power plants. We may be in a location for a year or it may be a couple of months. We went to a motor home because you can't rent even a short term rental without some sort of lease and staying in a hotel is not for us. On top of that short term rentals and hotels are very expensive in comparison to the RV especially when you add eating out to the cost. We are both very handy and handle most any problem that comes along. We love it. I doubt we'll stop even after we retire.

This is a really smart way to go in my opinion. It's like a working vacation that makes sense and you are working while you're on it. I really like that concept and I'm glad it's working for you guys. That's where you're putting your RV to work for you!