Community Forums

webby · 10-28-2011, 04:05 PM

Hi,

I discovered this site several weeks ago and have been lurking, reading and learning alot, as part of my research. What a great site with a wealth of information by many great members!

The reason I am researching is that we will likely buy an RV in the coming months, sometime prior to next summer. We live in southern Arizona, and my wife's and my schedules will allow us to escape the stifling summer heat to the cool temps of Northern Arizona a couple of times a month for 3 or 4 days at a time, occasionally for longer trips. We will dry camp in State Parks. We live at approx. 1150 ft elevation, and will be traveling to almost 7000 ft elevation in the course of about 120 miles, so obviously there are some steep up and down grades to deal with, which must be taken into account in the purchase of equipment.

We owned a TT some years back, and think we want to buy a small late model used 5er this time, probably 25' to 28', which will mean buying a suitable TV. I previously owned a 2000 Ford E350 van with a V10 and that engine was powerful and reliable, so I'm thinking to buy a used Ford 1 ton V10 pickup either SRW or DRW, a used 5.9L Dodge Cummins 1 ton pickup, or a 2007 Duramax 3/4 or 1 ton, that most desirable one.

Since those two purchases would likely total in the neighborhood of say $30-35K, for an interim RV for this coming summer, to give us time to make sure that is what we really want to do, we are planning on picking up a used Casita 17' TT, which we can easily pull with our daily driver, a 2008 Toyota 4Runner V8. That way, we can "get our feet wet" again in RVing, before we make the bigger investment we are contemplating. And the Casita TT's have a strong resale market, so we should be able to resell the Casita easily without losing much or any money as long as we have bought right.

So anyway, didn't mean to give the whole rundown -- I know such details and/or discussion are more for various forums, but wanted to give a thumbnail of how I found your great forum, and what our general plans are.

Thanks for letting me join!

shortlance · 10-28-2011, 05:12 PM

Good to have you aboard. Sounds like you have a plan. The only problem with your plan is you will soon see that you will want more and more time to go out with the RV and work always seems to get in the way!

John H... · 10-28-2011, 05:13 PM

Welcome to the forum...

sdennislee · 10-28-2011, 08:58 PM

Welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

Superslif · 10-28-2011, 09:12 PM

Getting away from work is a win / win for both of you....Life is too short to think "work" 100% of the time....

When looking at a future 5er going shorter as you say, will give you more flexibility in fitting into state park campsites. We have few, for a few years now thought about a larger sized 5er (35-37') but besides needing a diesel TV, not sure if I can fit a larger RV into my drive and the fact many of the state park campsites we have used would then be to tight it fit into.

webby · 10-29-2011, 06:44 AM

Thanks to Everyone for the warm welcomes! Much appreciated!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superslif

When looking at a future 5er going shorter as you say, will give you more flexibility in fitting into state park campsites. We have few, for a few years now thought about a larger sized 5er (35-37') but besides needing a diesel TV, not sure if I can fit a larger RV into my drive and the fact many of the state park campsites we have used would then be to tight it fit into.

When looking ahead to our possible purchase of a 5er, though the extra space in a larger 5er is very attractive, a 25'-28' 5er is more practical for our circumstances for several reasons:

1) some state parks we will go to limit trailers to 28'
2) our lot is pie shaped, so our RV space next to our house gets narrower at the back, so a 28' is about the maximum that will fit behind our RV gate
3) with the steep climb in altitude in such few miles that we will be making for a few days stay at a time, we feel if we buy a bigger and heavier 5er, we are concerned that we might wish that we had gone more light and compact. When one is carrying ones "house" with one, there is some kind of compromise to consider there with space/size/weight issues, not to mention fuel consumption.