How Many Times Have You Changed Your Rig?

bought our first " get your feet wet" rig in 2009. Keystone 5th wheel. it fell apart in 2011 and Keystone gave us a new one,. we traded the new one in for our current rigm a Mobile Suites 5th wheel. it should be home for a long time.

Hi,

In 1987 when I was 22, I bought a used F-350 Supercab SRW with a low value older camper already on it for $3500. A few years later, I replaced the older camper with a 1972 Coachman camper, that had three things my old one did not. Toilet, shower, furnace! In 1995 I got a 27' class C on a 3500 chassis, that turned out to be a extended chassis uniframe type RV, so it did not have the strength to tow my dune buggy.

In late 1996, I bought a 1997 Bounder with the largest bathroom I could find, and I still have it.

For many years, I considered the F-450 cab and chassis with a low toolbox body on the back would make the ideal tow vehicles for a fifth wheel. I went so far as planning to get it with dual alternators, then change one to a 24 volt, and run a 4,000 watt inverter, instead of a generator on the fifth wheel. It could run both A/C units if the battery bank was large enough.

By having two fuel tanks, the rear one is 40 gallons, and midship is 19 gallons. Replacing the midship with a 53 gallon Transferflow.com tank, I could carry more than 75 gallons of fuel, even getting 9 MPG, I could travel from city to city without refueling while towing the fifth wheel.

Lately I have been thinking that a larger solar system will be adequate to run the A/C unit - even without a generator. SunElec.com

I had a 400 watt solar system while full timing in 2005 - 2007. By May 2008, I had relocated to a RV park, and have had hookups since that time. It was June 2013 when I finally moved out of my RV into a home. 400W rated system will collect about 120 AH more than you are using in a average day. The refrigerator, CO meter and propane detector combine to use about 35 AH daily, or what a 120 watt solar panel puts out in one day.

By changing some of the most used lights to LED's, you can save a lot of energy.

How much boondocking do you do? I did a LOT - preferring the open BLM lands very much over the campgrounds that are crowded. The 100 gallon fresh water tank in my Bounder, along with it's 59 gallon black tank allow for camping more than 3 weeks while single in the RV.

My dad suggested that when you buy your first car, it will barely have any of the options that you might want on another car, later in life. You are basically getting what you can afford, and modify to help it meet your needs. Like installing extra lights, changing seating around, ect.

Same thing happens with a RV, such as I bought a basic camper, and then made lists of the RV that I wanted! Towing ability, cargo rating over 2,000 pounds, large fresh water tank, strong engine and transmission. I even looked over the brochures of many RV's and drew my "Perfect" layout several times, with many revisions. I wanted a larger split bath, with lots of space to change clothes, sink on mine is on the passenger side, shower drivers side with the toilet next to it, and hallway by the sink. Doors can shut off the bathroom from the rest of the RV (just toilet and shower) or open to close off both ends of the hallway.

Friends gave me the following hints. Couch on the drivers side, looking out the passenger side windows toward your campsite. Dinette near the passenger windows, so you are looking at your campground. Bathroom can be on the drivers side, it does not matter what side the campground is on. She also wanted larger counter tops. Her last RV had sleeping for something like 10. Stare at something long enough and it folded into a bed! But she would have to fold down the cutting board to let people back into the RV.

I met another guy at a campground. He used to own a RV dealership, and never canceled his business license. Each year he would purchase a new RV and put about 18,000 miles on it, before selling it for about what the wholesale cost was, then buy another replacement.

IT is not very difficult to get a business license, then call it something like "Rouge River Leasing". You can approach a RV manufacture and say "I have a customer interested in a 38R model, with the following options" (list what you want). You should be able to get a wholesale price, especially once your business license is over 5 years old.

Good luck!

Fred.

Bought our FT rig in OCT. '06
Still have it.

Thanks for the replies so far.
Bobsallyh, we also looked for over a year to find, what we think, the perfect floorplan is for us the begin our full timing next year. It has everything we THINK we are going to need.
DH thinks we will change within a year. For me, I have yet to find another 5r with the perfect floorplan and all other necessities, except in a much larger coach, which neither of us want.
Will be a happy camper if she works out for many years, not to mention, it would save us a boatload of $.
Thanks again... Love to hear from other full timers!

We started with a tent trailer in 1974 for vacation and travel purposes. Sort of out grew that and bought a 1977 Prowler Travel Trailer 21' in '77. We destroyed it when it flipped on an interstate in fall of 1987. The 1988 models had just come out and we bought a 1988 Terry Travel Trailer 29' which served us very well until we went fulltime in fall of 2003. We knew we were going to go fulltime in 2003 and started looking at what was out there to fulltime in about 18 months before. Whatever we chose HAD to work and that is why we took our time and along the way PO'ed many salespeople and stealerships. Eventually we narrowed it down to Travel Supreme, Hitchiker, and Alfa. In time, we passed on the Travel Supreme, ended up at a place in Mesa, AZ. that handled both the Hitchiker and Alfa. They stocked both models and floor plans we were interested in. We could walk across the row and back and forth, taking notes and comparing what would work best. After spending seven hours there we went back down to Yuma, telling the salesman we would call him the next day telling him what we decided. About 24 hours later after much discussion we took the Alfa. That was in October 2003 and right now we are parked in Denali, AK. with that Alfa and still fulltiming. Trading or selling for something else, won't happen as there is nothing on the market that compares to what we have. All three of the makes I mentioned are now orphans, but in talking to people who have those brands, they repeat what we say. So the count for fulltiming is one. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Bought a starter RV in 94. Replaced it with our current coach in '99. Hope to never do it again.