Class A for Weekends and some vacation?

[tommar]

Originally Posted by jk70

Thanks for the replies. It gives me a perspective on how others do it. I am still working full time and will be for the next 20 years (I am 46) so I will never have a full month off. If I could guess, it would be around 1 weekend/month and 1-2 week vacation/year. Although, the class A's are within my budget it's hard to wrap my head around the costs.

- Truck Cost: $35-40k; Travel trailer cost $25-30k. Can use truck outside of RVing

- Class A Cost: $100-130k. No use outside of RVing.

That being said, I keep getting pulled back into looking at Class A.

What kind of Class A do you want? What year? I paid just $28k for my MH and it has just 66k miles on it. Storage costs me$65 a month... insurance $60. My DW still works but I'm planning on doing plenty of weekend trips. The only type TT I would want would be a 5th wheeler. A friend bought a new Dodge dually pickup with diesel... He probably paid $50k for it. I don't think that its worth the money but each to his own.

[chertman47]

What you need to look at is a 10 year plus old gas coach that has been taken care of. Not like my nephew that has a 2012 with 2500 miles on it bought new. It sits in storage so much that he had to spend $800.00 for a new generator carburetor that had gummed up. These things need to be exercised. Stay within a budget that you can pay cash for, spend a thousand for crush run and put it beside the house -no storage fees. Use it when you can, tinker with it when you can and don't worry about it the rest of the time.

[AITG]

I came out of a big truck camper and into a small class A.
A dually pickup is NOT a substitute for a second car. It's 8 feet wide. It won't fit through a car wash, usually won't fit in a standard garage, parked on the street it sticks out into the traffic lane by a foot and a half and in a parking lot you end up at the far end. My dually ended up as a camper only vehicle but I also have an F150 for "pickup stuff".

[msturtz]

I used to be a big fan of towable RVs. However, it can be very limiting and is a lot more work. We travel to an RV park on a lake every year. When we had a trailer either my wife had to drive separately and tow the boat or I had to drive back and get it myself. That was a 5-6 hour trip each way. Not fun! Now we just tow the boat behind the motorhome. Also, we ended up still needing another vehicle for daily driving anyway so I didn't save anything. I had a $60,000 one ton truck just to tow the RV. We kept the SUV and wife's car bought an enclosed cargo trailer to haul stuff we used to haul in the truck. Works great.

[jk70]

Originally Posted by chertman47

What you need to look at is a 10 year plus old gas coach that has been taken care of. Not like my nephew that has a 2012 with 2500 miles on it bought new. It sits in storage so much that he had to spend $800.00 for a new generator carburetor that had gummed up. These things need to be exercised. Stay within a budget that you can pay cash for, spend a thousand for crush run and put it beside the house -no storage fees. Use it when you can, tinker with it when you can and don't worry about it the rest of the time.

Originally Posted by AITG

I came out of a big truck camper and into a small class A.
A dually pickup is NOT a substitute for a second car. It's 8 feet wide. It won't fit through a car wash, usually won't fit in a standard garage, parked on the street it sticks out into the traffic lane by a foot and a half and in a parking lot you end up at the far end. My dually ended up as a camper only vehicle but I also have an F150 for "pickup stuff".

Unsure whether we would buy new or used. If you looked back at one of my posts I mention that my son just received a bone marrow transplant. Due to his condition prior and post transplant, cleanliness is of the highest order - that's comes form us as well as his doctors. A used coach (in normal times I would never buy new) would have to be so thoroughly vetted...could never have had smokers or a dog or a multitude of things. It will be very difficult to go with used for this reason but I am not ruling that out. The question is whether I spend what I can: I may be able to reach $150k but since this is just for weekends, etc. should I buy an entry level coach ~$90k is something to think of

Unfortunately, where I live I can never park a coach. Per HOA rules and there is no room either way. Storage fees is a cost I will have to endure

I never considered a dually for the travel trailer setup.

[wredman]

We are a family of 4, and many times travel with up to 6 bringing my parents or kid's friends. The motor home is ideal for that, since TRAVELING (the drive) with that many people in most if not all passenger vehicles is not comfortable. Once you get there, most options - MH, TT, 5W - are comparable. But, with the motorhome, the vacation starts when the door is closed.

One thing however, most, not all, DP class As are not designed or laid out for this many travelers. And only recently has the front drop down bunk been popular. This is ideal for our situation, because it is a sleeping station that does not need to be converted every day and night. That feature alone limited us when looking used.

[AITG]

The bottom line is nobody NEEDS an RV. Buy what you want and enjoy your time with your family. BTW: In your budget a Newmar Bay Star Sport is very doable and you will have a coach that's a cut above entry level. You will never regret buying quality

[harleyjt]

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

Again, pretty much what we did. I talked the wife into giving the RV thing a try. Figured buy a used rig for not a whole lot of $$ and see if we enjoyed it. If not, we could sell it and not get hurt too bad. If we did like it, we could trade up in a year or two to something newer. I was extremely lucky to find a great used 2005 Newmar gasser two years ago for $50k. It had only 6500 miles on it and the entire coach was extremely clean. I have sunk more money into since for updates and maintenance. We are using it for weekends and a week long trip a couple times a year as the wife still works. I wouldn't want anything else - the class A is comfortable and I actually enjoy driving it. We have more than doubled its mileage now that we have had it for two years. Wife has decided she likes it, and has enjoyed it more than she thought she would. It also is nice because it allows us to easily travel with our two cats. And, when its lunch time, I just hit a rest stop and we fix sandwiches and have a picnic. Love the class A.
jt

[TripleGGG]

We have done the same thing. Had TT set up on lake when my girls were growing up. Haven't had an RV for years. We both still work but are empty nesters. Bought a 92 Winnebago Sightseer 30', Ford V10 with 28k miles for $16,500. It has a ton of upgrades, new appliances, new tires, 7000w 50amp Onan generator and many other new items that were included in the price, and it looks new inside. New vinyl floors, etc. We love to get out on short weekend trips and will do 1 week trips occasionally. The layout with the slide is perfect for us and Ginger the rescue dog. We could purchase anything we wanted but keeping it inexpensive yet very nice takes the pressure away from feeling like we have to use it every weekend due to having a lot of money in it. Bought a 94 Buick Rendezvous for a toad to dolly. You can camp very well for not a whole lot of money. The best thing is we are having a ton of fun and our money is still making a good return. Before buying a Ford dealership I dealt in used vehicles for years. It's amazing what you an find by just looking.