Class A for Weekends and some vacation?

[GEM1N1]

Originally Posted by CJ7365

I am 51, and my kids are gone, so its just the wife and I, we do once a month and 2 weeks in the summer months.

I think its worth it with just the 2 of us, and with 2 kids well worth it. I would get a class A with bunks, so when its time for bed, they are out of the living area.

A class A will be easier on YOU, no potty stops, no im hungry can we stop, everything is right there.

When the kids ( 2 boys ) where with us, we had a small 23' class C, it was awesome, and because I was in the Army traveling to new duty assignments it made it a lot easier on everyone.

Im sure the Travel Trailer people will chime in and give there opinions as well.


Most class As have a towing rating of 5000 lbs so you could always tow a car with you.


But if you already have a truck that can tow then a TT might be for you.

X2.. I bought a travel trailer with bunks last year and after using it a few times I sold it and bought a Class A with bunks because of the reasons listed above.

Surf RV trader. You'll be surprised how much Class A you can get for the money if you finally submit to not having a diesel. Just be patient.

After 6 months of searching I found a Fleetwood Fiesta with a GM powerplant and it has all the power I need towing a jeep wrangler.

Good luck. You can't go wrong either way.

[brokenrule]

I think to your original question on buying or renting a class a for a few weekends and/or vacations I would say rent. When looking how much it costs to store, maintenance and deprecating renting is better if you use it just a few times a year.

[Steady_Rest]

Bought a new class A Bounder in 1993 when I was 38 years old. We used it for vacation travels and weekend trips every couple months. The only reason we bought new was after entering that '93 Bounder we knew it was exactly what matched our desires. Much more suitable to anything else we had looked at.
We used that mh for 23 years before buying a new replacement. We tended to travel as opposed to sitting and put a ton of miles on that rig. If we were campers a travel trailer would be just fine. Doing my own maintenance has kept the ownership costs down. The chassis can be maintained at about the same part cost as my 3/4 ton pickup. The coach itself has been very reliable and needed very little maintenance other than cleaning, resealing etc. All the appliances including the water heater and furnace our original and work fine, with only minor work ever needed.
After we purchased our new mh the daughter and her husband took ownership of our '93 and are very pleased with it. So it is still in the family soldiering on. In our case circumstances turned out where it became a good investment in pleasure for the family. Really the only pleasure we squandered funds pursuing. Renting would make a lot of sense money wise, but offer poor convenience. You would have to load everything for each trip and I know I would not have rented for weekend trips. Also if you have the storage space, the rv will be sitting outside beckoning for you to hit the road on a whim. Of course money in something like a Vanguard account is a monetary investment and should be started long before rv buying is considered.

[gswoods]

I love my class A for short trips and everything else. I travel with my wife and twin toddlers. The space is great to have. Plus access to the refrigerator and toilet while traveling is nice. We had a class C, but the floor plan did not work for the four of us. Plus I can pull a trailer, which I couldn't do if I had gone with a 5th wheel.
I have not read through the entire thread. Sorry if it has gone a different direction by now.

[mhaston]

The wife and I have a 35' class A we use ours at least once a month sometimes twice a month and our vacation and we came from a fifth wheel but the class A is so much easier and faster to set up push a button and it levels it self push another button and the slides go out and your ready to have fun

[Hoffs]

What a great read, just what I was looking for. Class A dp for me!! Correct on the rvtrader.com great deals on there with low miles. I don't mind flying one way to a state or 2 over from me and road trip it back. Now to figure out a reliable mfg.

[offtosleep]

Originally Posted by jk70

Hi Betr:

I am 46, wife is 49. How my finances stack up currently: Kids 529 plans are maxed so I don't have to worry about college education

- I have a mortgage with ~$170k in equity. I also have a HELOC of $40k balance.
- Retirement: I have never worked for a company that offered a 401k, unfortunately. That being said we have maxed our IRA's most years so far. We have close to $350k currently in retirement accts.
- My taxable stock accounts are fine, also.

Debt doesn't bother me. Actually, negative equity doesn't bother me either - as long as I have the money to pay it off outright. ie, if I have $100k in a stock account and a class A MH costs $100k, I will borrow the full $100k (if rates make sense) and leave the stock account alone. The math makes more sense this way.

I am actually sitting in a hospital in the midwest (I am from North Carolina) as my son recently received a bone marrow transplant. I sold the pop up last year with intentions on buying a travel trailer. Bought a truck but then got hit with the news that my son would need the transplant. Sold said truck. As i sit here I started thinking about our next camper and thought, "why not a class A". But it may not be the most practical - financially or otherwise.

I agree with you that financially, any RV makes no sense....but where's the fun in that

My family went through a similar ordeal. Difference is: I was the kid. Now I'm the parent. I look back now and realize my parents gave me exactly what you are trying to accomplish.....time together. We had a good outcome and my identical twin brother survived. Life is good. Those experiences my parents gave me/us during that time were what kept us together and are monuments of our childhood.

Good luck and hang on!

[Isaac-1]

I haver been following this thread, and debating on answering, we are empty nesters (semi-emty anyway), I am 48 semi-retired, my wife works full time, local government job so she gets a good bit of vacation time and it goes up a couple of days every year (not at about one month per year), and I have a college age son, who should be graduating in a semester or two. We bought our first class A last fall, I have spent about 3 weeks total in it, about a week total solo, about a week total with my wife, and about a week total with my son, so far mostly 2-4 day trips, though my wife and I have a big trip to Yellowstone planned in a couple of weeks.

So far I think it is worth it, but time will tell, we opted to buy a 2002 model, as it is old enough to be fully depreciated, and hit the point where price has more to do with condition than age, yet new enough to still look and feel somewhat modern. I estimate our ongoing cost of ownership at about $2,000 - $2,500 per year assuming no upgrades are made, this covers insurance ($950 per year), as well as prorated ageing on tires, batteries, etc. I am lucky enough to have free to me indoor storage in a shed on the family farm 20 miles from my house. Based on current sales prices of the same model as we have, but 5 years older, I estimate our 5 year value depreciation at $3,000 or so. Meaning it will cost us something under $3,000 per year, or $15,000 to keep this motorhome, for 5 years, then sell it if we decide it is not for us, assuming no catastrophic failures. Our purchase cost was right at $20,500 ($22,000 with tax), and I have spent another $4500 fixing it up, and doing upgrades, still have a few to go, but it is mostly where I want it now.

[marjoa]

Read Post# 2 at the link below. It may be helpful.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/winn...ip-349939.html

[epj]

I am 70, and have some health issues. Setting up a TT would absolutely wear me out. The class A, pull into the campsite, set the parking brake, level the coach, all without leaving the drivers seat. Extend the slides after shutting down the engine and I'm pretty much done except for the utilities. It is a lot more expensive to operate and maintain than a TT. If we still had the TT, we wouldn't go camping nearby as much.

[Nasdaqsam]

We were in a similar situation years ago it was a no brainer for us. I think a Class shines its best when used how you intend to. We had young kids, occasional weekends and limited vacations. The Class A back then was ideal we could just jump in and go no hooking up setting up none of that the trip to where ever we were going had to be part of the vacation. And for day trips we couldn't have asked for a better situation just grab some friends and make a day of it.

As we are getting ready to retire now and getting back into RVing and knowing how we are going to use one we knew another Class A was what we wanted and really wanted a DP this time. We made that jump recently and are really liking the decision. As this will be a limited use thing for us even in retirement new was just not the right choice so we went with an older high quality coach to get what we wanted in the price range we wanted. We have a big road trip coming up as we whip this ol' girl into shape but have been able to do a great overnight to see some fireworks and a couple day trips to test her out which is bringing back all the great memories from our previous Rving experiences.

[tropical36]

Originally Posted by jk70

I have owned a pop up and rented travel trailers and class A's. I like Class A's but wondering if they are worth it for just weekends here and there and then 1-2 week vacations per year.

Anyone else have a class A that they use "sparingly". A travel trailer seems to make the most sense because I could use the truck for other things besides towing. And if the trailer sits in storage at a cost I don't feel as bad b/c I am using the TV. With a Class A, it's Rving or not and when not it's in storage.

But, I am intrigued by the class A. Convince me or not...

This would be for my family of 4 - kids are 11 and 12

We didn't buy the A, until I retired and still don't use it as much as I would like for one reason or the other.
It's all about cost per mile and depreciation per mile and you'll most likely work on it a good bit, whether you run it or not, so.....

[Philswrench]

Originally Posted by jk70

I have owned a pop up and rented travel trailers and class A's. I like Class A's but wondering if they are worth it for just weekends here and there and then 1-2 week vacations per year.



Anyone else have a class A that they use "sparingly". A travel trailer seems to make the most sense because I could use the truck for other things besides towing. And if the trailer sits in storage at a cost I don't feel as bad b/c I am using the TV. With a Class A, it's Rving or not and when not it's in storage.



But, I am intrigued by the class A. Convince me or not...



This would be for my family of 4 - kids are 11 and 12

Bought our first class A ,99 Winnebago Adventurer, great condition 44k miles , triton v10, 5kw onan, and everything works, paid 19,000$ for it , we decided to try this for a few years on week ends here and there and two weeks a year and if we love it like we do so far we will upgrade

[GEM1N1]

Originally Posted by Philswrench

Attachment 169345 Bought our first class A ,99 Winnebago Adventurer, great condition 44k miles , triton v10, 5kw onan, and everything works, paid 19,000$ for it , we decided to try this for a few years on week ends here and there and two weeks a year and if we love it like we do so far we will upgrade

Exactly what we just did. I had big dreams of a diesel pusher but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on that much coach out of the gate. Bought a 2010 gasser and so far so good.