Am I nuts?

Bordercollie wrote:
Try to take into account all taxes,DMV registration, insurance, storage lot costs as applicable when considering buying and selling a newish rig. Balance that against the cost of renting. Have you tried tent camping, motels, etc. Motorhome ownership, maintenance and overall cost and effort involved has a lot of "pros" and some "cons". If both you and your spouse are enthusiastic, and both will "pitch in" that's a definite advantage.

We are both very enthusiastic, and it's definitely a bucket list item for me. However, I don't want to to destroy me financially either. I'm definitely a risk taken, so willing to on this :) just enjoying everyone's opinion to make sure I'm thinking everything though. Thanks for the info!

I'd say buy used. The trip is going to cost a lot of money either way you go: buy or rent. Buy a good used unit and enjoy the trip. Sell it when you get back, or keep it and enjoy many more trips.

mgirardo wrote:

Udetective wrote:
Taking a cross country trip with a family of 5. I currently don't own an rv, looked at renting one, but was surprised at how much they. My idea, buy a 2-3 old class c rv, use it for 6 months to a year, taking some smaller trips to get use to it. After the cross country trip, sell it. The age my kids are, we would not use it very often at this point in our lives. Obviously I wouldn't be able to sell for what I bought it for, but looking for advice on what class c holds the most value. Am I completely nuts? Thanks!

Renting an RV for a cross country trip will be extremely expensive. Cruise America charges for mileage, not sure about other Rental Companies, so factor that into the equation. I believe Cruise America gives you a 100 mile/day allowance. They charge 35 cents a mile over that.

Depending on the market in your area, I would expect a 2 to 3 year old Class C that is in good condition will not depreciate that much in 1 year if you keep it in good condition. Most likely a 2 to 3 year old RV is not going to need new tires. If it does - we just put new tires on our Class C back in April. For 6 Michelin LX M/S2, mounted, balanced, taxes, fees, etc., it was $1370 and change. That is about the price of a 1 week rental for a family of 7.

I think you would make out better buying a used RV. I also think you might find that you will use it more often than you think. Our kids were 8 and 6 when we bought our Class C. We used it a lot more than we expected. We took lots of day trips with it to the beach and local parks. When gas was $4/gallon, we did a lot of day trips with it since we didn't camp as much.

We also used it for kids sporting. For our daughter's last soccer tournament, we took the motorhome and camped out in the parking lot. We got permission from a town police officer. It was cold the first morning and her teammates appreciated having a place to warm up. It's nice cooking our own food instead of buying greasy concession stand food all weekend.

-Michael

Awesome stuff. Thank! We have kids in soccer too!

You might want to consider buying a travel trailer instead of a motor home if you have a vehicle that can tow one. They are a lot cheaper to buy and to maintain.

kyhawk wrote:
You might want to consider buying a travel trailer instead of a motor home if you have a vehicle that can tow one. They are a lot cheaper to buy and to maintain.

I have a truck, but 3 kids in the back seat will be tight for that much driving. Prefer the rv and comfort of the family moving around while I'm driving. Thanks.

As others have noted renting a RV is expensive,another alternative is to buy used at a good price but there are downsides to that too,mostly condition and previous maintenance may not be up to par which can be expensive to remedy.

Another avenue is to look at the Rental Market,Click Here for more on that,it is long but has a lot of good information.

Here you have a well maintained unit,it has to be,that will give you good value for your money. There are more than 70 happy owners of Former Rentals with very few problems and most put a lot of miles on them with no problems at all.

I bought a used rental about 4 years ago and have had no major issues. Doing preventative maintenance is the key. I may sell mine next year. If I ever sell it I know it will sell fast because people are always looking for inexpensive starter RV's. The big question will be: How much will I lose over what I bought it for.

Nope, not nuts at all. I bet though... after 1 year ... you will NOT sell it though! You'll enjoy so much, you won't be able to part with it.

I also think it is a great idea, but start shopping as soon as you can, go look at a lot of them if possible. I bought off Craig's list and when you find the one that has been well kept, maintained and cared for it will stand out from the rest. You can also get a feel for what the prices are for the units your looking at, they can and do vary by thousands. I bought from a private owner and that saved us a lot in taxes out here in Arizona, private to private no tax. I did look for a short time at dealers, but felt like they were way over priced and I wanted to deal with the owner of the unit and get a feel for what they were selling and why.

Udetective wrote:
Taking a cross country trip with a family of 5. I currently don't own an rv, looked at renting one, but was surprised at how much they. My idea, buy a 2-3 old class c rv, use it for 6 months to a year, taking some smaller trips to get use to it. After the cross country trip, sell it.

100% BAD idea...!