Gale Hawkins
Murray, KY
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Joined: 07/22/2007
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While I am glad we did our 8000 mile MH trip last fall (the kids now have a MH cross country to talk about the rest of their lives) the $3600 for gas would have been more like $1200 in some of the newer vehicles.
Yellow Stone would have been less stressful had we stayed in Park Hotels. Of the 31 days we did sleep 11-12 nights in hotels because it was just less hassle then driving from a CG the next morning and often the cost was only $25 more per night in some places,
Hopefully when the kids start driving they will be interested making MH trips as well. If we had a Class C the daughter would never come of the cab over.
Having a 14 year old son and daughter personal space is limited in the minds of most teenagers. I found the drivers seat slept quite well and the bed messed up my back so the son and I let the daughter have the bedroom and that worked out quite well.
For the person who is only on the road six weeks out of the year there is little way to justify RV ownership in a financial sense any more than a bass boat, etc. This fact is going to change the face of the RV industry even more as time goes forward I expect.
The cost to feed and keep up a MH would finance more travel time for many families and be less stressful in some cases.
Again I am glad we have the MH because the some 1000 man hours we have spent working on it over the past six years has permitted the kids to gain a lot of home and auto repair skills that would have been hard to me to pass on to them otherwise. We did a lot of upgrades like putting fans and halon fire extinguisher behind the frig when we replaced the cooling unit. We also took the time to refinished the frig box foil coating by recovering it with heat and air 2" foil tape all five sides while it was uninstalled. We removed all the parts and electronics and cleaned and reinstalled them in the process of replacing the cooling unit. We even saw the need to use Door and Window canned insulation that extended the project time. There were many trips to Lowes and proto typing of how to install the fans and to measure results.
My point is our time spent working on the MH as a shop class project has many secondary benefits that will be realized in the years ahead in the lives of our kids.
While doing a road trip by car would have been cheaper guess what? We would have never planned a 31 day road trip by car. We spent $8000 to do a road trip of a life time because I had promised the kids we would go to the Grand Canyon in the MH when they asked for one and got one in 2007.
Our P30 based motor home drives like a dream and runs hard and fast so it is FUN. Having a MH is not cheap but it has changed our life for the better.
Kids need to experience break downs in vehicles and work to recover from the event. A lot of things and relationships will break in their future and the better they are equipped to deal with those times the better the quality of their lives should be I expect.
I promise you that a father who will spend 31 days in a small box on an 8000 mile cross country trip with his teenage kids that one will learn a lot about himself and his kids. It was not always pretty but I did come out of the trip knowing how great our kids really are and how much they appreciated the trip and do understand that it will never happen for many of their friends.
Even on a bad day RV'ing can still be tops. 
Regardless where you may find yourself you have a roof over your head, a bed and food and water. RV's can help break a bad marriage or make a good one better. If it forces one to make more time for the family then it is worth every penny of cost. Where it is an $8,000 (our case), $80,000 or an $800,000 MH it really does not make a difference to the kids. Experiencing the country close and up front is very different than in a class room setting with the best of high tech equipment.
Even posting about our MH experiences helps me keep my focusing skills working. 
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winnietrey
seattle
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Joined: 03/26/2005
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If I understood your post correctly, you are 26, plan to take a 5 week trip across the US in the late summer. With your girlfriend and no kids. And you are thinking of buying a 24FT MH and then selling it after the trip? correct?
buy a tent, or maybe at the outside a suv, sleep in the back, stay in motels on occasion.
You are 26, get out and enjoy life and nature while you can, Time will come soon enough, you will want/need a RV, But at 26 unless you and or GF are disabled that time is not now. Just my opinion but lots or work, hassel and risk not to mention money if you go the MH route
* This post was
edited 02/12/12 07:28am by winnietrey *
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sjn7708
illinois
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Joined: 05/02/2010
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I'm not big on renting. If I had rented first, I would have turned right around and turned the thing in and been done with rving due to the handling issues Ive had, which are pretty common to most class C's. But after getting some help off this forum to correct the handling issues, my unit drives like a big suburban and I love traveling by motorhome. If I had rented a unit and had the same handling problems, I would have just turned the unit back in and never driven an rv again.
I also had a lot of smaller bugs to work out with my first rv, which was new. Nothing major, everything taken care of by the dealer. But if I had to pay for all those little things, that might have turned me off to rving as well. I think all rv's have gremlins.
Having said that, I think any RV is a big purchase for a 5 week run, unless you plan to keep it long term, since it may be difficult to get you money back out of it , even used. But it is a great way to travel.
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alliemac9
Colorado
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Joined: 10/28/2007
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I'm kind of mixed on the advice I would give here. I've always loved road trips and camping and went for five weeks across country with my best friend when I was 19. It was awesome and driving my 35mpg car helped with our college-kid budget. If I had been a few years older with a bit of discretionary funds (that I assume you have given the RV purchase plan), it would have really opened up the options for that trip. We had a blast hopping from NP to NP, but we were so reluctant to spend money that we didn't explore anything that may have a cost.
A few years ago, age 29, my DH and I rented a 24' RV for our wedding/honeymoon (unconventional but fun). It was awesome, and while I still consider myself young enough (relative to the poster's comments above) to car/tent camp, we were surprised how fun and liberating the RV was. We could pretty much go anywhere and always had everything with us. To me, it's like open-road backpacking... You get that same sense of self-reliance, but on a whole different scale. Based on that trip, we started saving and bought our own RV.
So, I'm assuming you've thought about what will work best for you so here are my thoughts on rental vs purchase:
-If you want the theoretic benefit of someone else (the rental company) dealing with any breakdowns or issues, I would use a national company. We rented from a local company because they gave us a great deal, but they didn't deliver on their promises, the unit wasn't very clean, the batteries were not maintained, failed, and we had to replace them and get reimbursed, etc. The handling was SO bad - we are calm, laid back people and were nearly panicked whenever a semi passed us. We ended up losing a day or day and a half of our trip having the darn thing checked out to make sure it was safe enough to keep going. They company didn't care. And it's not like there was another location to switch out units for one that was running better.
-The positive side of renting is having the opportunity to see if you like RV'ing and what features/floor plan would work best for you before you purchase. However, if you can find a used unit in good shape and use it for this trip, and then resell, you may have the same outcome.
-I like popup trailers, but for being on the move, you can't beat a Class C (IMHO). Just pull off in a rest area when tired, walk in back, and get some sleep. Get caught in a downpour while hiking? No problem, your whole house and all your dry clothes are waiting for you at the trailhead (feels like SUCH a luxury!).
-I agree that RV owners who are inherently handy DIYers are probably the most satisfied owners. You have to know how to troubleshoot, regardless of renting or owning.
Good luck with your decision! You really can't go wrong when you get to travel for five weeks, so enjoy!
2007 Coachmen 2430DB + 2 people + 2 dogs
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rehoppe
Denver
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Joined: 01/30/2009
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Will
I have what might be considered an improper question for being on the 'C' forum.
I looked at your profile, while you refer to the trip as 'we'. How many of you are there?
Do you by any chance drive/own a PU truck? If there are only two of you. AND you have a truck already. You might consider a Truck Camper, instead. Less money to spend, easier to resell if you need/want to. Just a thought. My last two TCs have cost me less than $2K each. Used them for 3-4 years and Made a couple Hundred $s on each. Kept the trucks when I sold the campers. Had a tent trailer (old Coleman), same deal.
Had an old Class 'A' first, spent money on it and Still lost $2K when I sold it 3 years later. That was the mid/late 80s, another period of 'bad economy'. Almost went broke in that one.
Just what I've had for experience over 25 years of RVing. And yes I am not rich, so don't spend tons of Money on toys. But I'm retired now and the house is paid for! So it all seems to have worked out.
Your mileage may, and probably Will vary.
Hoppe
2011 Dodge 1500 C'boy Caddy
2000 Jayco C 28' Ford chassis w V-10
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winnietrey
seattle
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Joined: 03/26/2005
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I think maybe the above two posters said it better than me, But what I was trying to say, is at the end of the day by the time you buy a C, pay the sales tax, put money into it, tires, repairs etc,and then try and resell it,unless you are very lucky you are going to lose money, probably a lot. Long term a MH is great, short term not so much.
At you age I would low ball the sleeping part with a tent or TC, and spend that cash on doing really fun things on your trip. Baloon rides, maybe rent a motorcycle, take tours, stay in lodges, eat at high class restuarnts to name a few. Lots of wonderfull stuff to do in the US, espically if you have cash and no kids. It's just a lot easier without kids.
As you get older, kids come along. Houses and jobs come along and on and on. And the door closes on this stuff
If you are flush with cash that is one thing, but if not and it were me I would do this stuff rather than a MH at your age.
Time will come when a MH is a great option, maybe just not now. Again just my humble opinion
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ron.dittmer
Northern Illinois
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Joined: 02/26/2007
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ron.dittmer wrote:Do a search on Starflyte and Telstar. They are older (now cheaper) yet built well... atchlink:top n"> Click Here Now to see a 1998 Starflyte with 48,000 miles. It has the V8 engine which is ideal for better fuel economy with such a small motor home. The Buy-It-Now is higher than most I have seen for that year, but at the same time, a lot of maintenance was done from new tires, brakes etc, and it seems to be in extra fine condition. As with any used sale, if the price is too high for you and it does not sell, after the auction contact the seller and make an offer.
2007 Phoenix Cruiser model 2350, with 2006 Jeep Liberty in-tow
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NewsW
US
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Joined: 02/06/2012
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winnietrey wrote:I think maybe the above two posters said it better than me, But what I was trying to say, is at the end of the day by the time you buy a C, pay the sales tax, put money into it, tires, repairs etc,and then try and resell it,unless you are very lucky you are going to lose money, probably a lot. Long term a MH is great, short term not so much.
At you age I would low ball the sleeping part with a tent or TC, and spend that cash on doing really fun things on your trip. Baloon rides, maybe rent a motorcycle, take tours, stay in lodges, eat at high class restuarnts to name a few. Lots of wonderfull stuff to do in the US, espically if you have cash and no kids. It's just a lot easier without kids.
As you get older, kids come along. Houses and jobs come along and on and on. And the door closes on this stuff
If you are flush with cash that is one thing, but if not and it were me I would do this stuff rather than a MH at your age.
Time will come when a MH is a great option, maybe just not now. Again just my humble opinion
A perfect compromise is a Class B that can (if pressed) be used as a 2nd car.
A few considerations...
Class Bs that are in good shape are much easier to find because most of them do not have worn out drivetrain / chassis even with good mileage.
Hauling around a base load of 7,000lbs /8,600 or more gross is just a lot less hard on the gear.
You will find you do not need the bigger space for now, and a B can be used to access places that a C (even a micro C) cannot touch.
Campsides in the boonies, etc.
There is a whole group of Class B people who do that with Quiqley 4X4s, Expedition vehicles that leave the C and A crowd on the road.
Posts are for entertainment purposes and may not be constituted as scientific, technical, engineering, or practical advice. Information is believed to be true but its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed / or deemed fit for any purpose.
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pnichols
Santa Cruz Mountains
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Joined: 04/26/2005
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Quote:There is a whole group of Class B people who do that with Quiqley 4X4s, Expedition vehicles that leave the C and A crowd on the road.
Well ... maybe yes and maybe no. We do take our Class C offroad. Probably we are a lot more comfortable once we get offroad than we would be in a Class B, too.
* This post was
edited 02/18/12 10:47pm by pnichols *
Phil, 2005 E450 Itasca 324V Spirit
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