Class A on a Budget for Full Timer
Hi everyone, So we are new to the RV world (no pun intended). We have a B Touring Cruiser which we love. After one year we have decided- we want to be full-timers. But the B+ is a bit small. Our B ...
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One of the RV magazines did a survey, a few years back and found the responding Fulltime RVers average about 5,200 miles a year . I suspect that to be true of many as I know when we tried fulltiming for 2 1/2 years, the last 12 months we put just over 5,000 miles on our gas Class A.
To me, diesel rigs are designed for folks that run the highways more than that. Now that we went back to a stick house and consider ourselves to be extended travelers, we average between 15,000 and 20,000 miles a year on our diesel tow rig, used for our fifth wheel and truck camper.
The PPL site listed above has lots of good information on prices, that rigs are actually selling for and they ssll more consignment units than anyone else. I would be looking for a gas Class A or Class C, for just two people. Once you are parked, a gas rig is just as comfortable as a diesel rig unless you need a 45 foot one. I really like diesels, as I grew up operating them on our ranch, but a gas engine today will outlast most of us, and everything built around that engine. Makes a bit sad to see a big DP , sitting parked in a campground month after month, moving a few times a year, maybe.
When we were fulltiming, met a lot of others doing the same. Many loved it, some, like us didn't. Met one couple in Crystal River, Florida that had sold their home up north, made a major down payment on a Holiday Rambler, that probably cost a half million dollars for them to buy. Beautiful rig, but they quickly found they couldn't afford to travel extensively all the time so they ended up parked there in Crystal, and had been for just over three years, without the DP ever moving from its site. The guy had gone back to work as a house painter. He and his wife didn't have any idea what to do next, so they drank heavily, on a daily basis. He told me he could have figured out the same, in a used gasoline motorhome and not spent all their assets, as they did. But they were so upside down on their DP loan, selling it wasn't a possibility. We met too many people that the dream of their lifetime turned into a nightmare for them.
The really successful full timers, that we met, had been RVing for years prior to retirement. They had a good idea of what they were getting into. Those that waited till they were 65 or older to start RVing, sometimes found RVing full time wasn't as fun and exciting as they had envisioned, on their income level.
To me, diesel rigs are designed for folks that run the highways more than that. Now that we went back to a stick house and consider ourselves to be extended travelers, we average between 15,000 and 20,000 miles a year on our diesel tow rig, used for our fifth wheel and truck camper.
The PPL site listed above has lots of good information on prices, that rigs are actually selling for and they ssll more consignment units than anyone else. I would be looking for a gas Class A or Class C, for just two people. Once you are parked, a gas rig is just as comfortable as a diesel rig unless you need a 45 foot one. I really like diesels, as I grew up operating them on our ranch, but a gas engine today will outlast most of us, and everything built around that engine. Makes a bit sad to see a big DP , sitting parked in a campground month after month, moving a few times a year, maybe.
When we were fulltiming, met a lot of others doing the same. Many loved it, some, like us didn't. Met one couple in Crystal River, Florida that had sold their home up north, made a major down payment on a Holiday Rambler, that probably cost a half million dollars for them to buy. Beautiful rig, but they quickly found they couldn't afford to travel extensively all the time so they ended up parked there in Crystal, and had been for just over three years, without the DP ever moving from its site. The guy had gone back to work as a house painter. He and his wife didn't have any idea what to do next, so they drank heavily, on a daily basis. He told me he could have figured out the same, in a used gasoline motorhome and not spent all their assets, as they did. But they were so upside down on their DP loan, selling it wasn't a possibility. We met too many people that the dream of their lifetime turned into a nightmare for them.
The really successful full timers, that we met, had been RVing for years prior to retirement. They had a good idea of what they were getting into. Those that waited till they were 65 or older to start RVing, sometimes found RVing full time wasn't as fun and exciting as they had envisioned, on their income level.
