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Originally Posted by Wingrydr57
Hello everyone! Right now we are in the search mode for a class a motorhome. My thought is to buy a few acres of land in the Wisconsin north woods and build some kind of carport for the mh. Something we could put out the slides and still be able to look outside from the motorhome. Would also have sewer hookup, water and 50 amp service . Also have a small room for laundry and lawn mower etc. just looking for ideas. We would be living in the mh so building a house with a big garage would not be an option
Has anyone done this and has pics would love to see them. In the winter months we plan to snowbird to Florida in an rv park.
Clear skies, Steve
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We looked into buying some land in the north woods of Wisconsin, grading a drive, pouring a slab, and parking our motorhome on it for summer vacations. It quickly turned into an expensive proposition.
Pouring the slab and building the overhead shelter were the least expensive parts of the puzzle. If there isn't electric power nearby you'll have to pay to have it run from the nearest transformer. In our case that would have been 1/2 a mile and it got expensive very quickly.
The next and even more complicated expense was the installation of a sewer system. The septic system is sized by the square footage of the residence it serves. It doesn't matter whether it's a full time dwelling or occupied 1 weekend per year. The soil has to be large enough to accommodate the proper size septic system and drain field. It has to be a certain distance from the residence and any nearby body of water. It has to be high enough to drain properly and be perk tested to be sure it can handle the maximum flow the system is rated for.
The final piece of the puzzle was drilling a well. The property had the be large enough to handle both the septic system and a well. The well had to be upstream a minimum distance from the septic system and drain field. Both the septic system and the well had to meet several additional criteria imposed by the Wisconsin DNR.
What appeared to be a minimal $50,000.00 investment in a piece of vacation property quickly ballooned into a $150,000.00+ expense. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but the overall costs of construction and maintenance didn't warrant the investment. Then there's always the never ending annual property taxes.
For the few times we would have used the property we decided it would be more cost effective and less work to just rent a campsite at one of the nearby TV parks.