Does buying that 45' rig do it for you?
Bear with me, this is going to take some verbiage to explain. The DW and I attended a presentation at Hershey this year and one guy explained the RV manufacturers' statistic that most new RV'ers tend...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
Everyone is different. I think we were fortunate to buy our last RV first, but it only happened after doing several years of research, most of it right on these forums. We have 4 kids (7,4,3 & 1 at the time) plus a golden retriever. We started looking at rigs to tow behind our Honda Odyssey, then looked at a full-size van towing a travel trailer, then Class C's and then finally arrived at a Class A which we use to tow our Honda Odyssey. :) Numerous posts and questions here with some great advice, guided us to our "last RV". It's a Class A gasser, 36', two sofa, two slide layout. Sufficient storage, we can run fully loaded and stay within all axle, chassis & towing weight limits, which was important for me.
Yes, we spent more (a lot more) than we had originally planned, but we were fortunate to be in a position to do so. We also had a major family crisis (oldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer) during our search which put things in a "skewed" perspective for us. Live for today. The right RV would allow us to spend quality time visiting sights, friends and family that wouldn't have been possible otherwise with her illness.
So, flash forward to 10 years later...it's paid off, I've done some improvements, it'll be getting a new set of tires soon, but it still has what we believe to be the best floorplan for our family. It is all about the floorplan.
Now, I'm "only" 54 years old now, so I can't for certain say this will be our last RV. I did see one 45' diesel pusher which I liked. (Similar floorplan to ours up front with the 2 sofas, but had a full bath in the back and an additional huge closet.) But it's way out of our price range new, and we have learned to live within our space. Or, I've seen a few Prevost units I could live with :) , but we'll have to wait until I hit big on the lottery for that. And since I don't play the lottery...we'll just keep that a dream. LOL
Anyway, my recommendation for anyone looking is to do lots of research which includes visiting dealerships and shows and walk around inside the units. (For the most part, I've found RV salespeople to be not too well versed in most RV related topics (OK...that's about as nice as I could say it! :) ), so I recommend if you have any questions, ask them here to get some real-world opinions and advice from people who really have an RV.) If it has slides (which I highly recommend), make sure everything you need will be accessible when the slides are in so if you overnight in a rest area, you're still fully functional. (At a show they'll have all of the slides out. Oftentimes for a reason.) While we spent more for our rig than we originally expected, I think in the long run it saved us quite a bit as we didn't play the "trade up" game.
Good Luck,
~Rick
Everyone is different. I think we were fortunate to buy our last RV first, but it only happened after doing several years of research, most of it right on these forums. We have 4 kids (7,4,3 & 1 at the time) plus a golden retriever. We started looking at rigs to tow behind our Honda Odyssey, then looked at a full-size van towing a travel trailer, then Class C's and then finally arrived at a Class A which we use to tow our Honda Odyssey. :) Numerous posts and questions here with some great advice, guided us to our "last RV". It's a Class A gasser, 36', two sofa, two slide layout. Sufficient storage, we can run fully loaded and stay within all axle, chassis & towing weight limits, which was important for me.
Yes, we spent more (a lot more) than we had originally planned, but we were fortunate to be in a position to do so. We also had a major family crisis (oldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer) during our search which put things in a "skewed" perspective for us. Live for today. The right RV would allow us to spend quality time visiting sights, friends and family that wouldn't have been possible otherwise with her illness.
So, flash forward to 10 years later...it's paid off, I've done some improvements, it'll be getting a new set of tires soon, but it still has what we believe to be the best floorplan for our family. It is all about the floorplan.
Now, I'm "only" 54 years old now, so I can't for certain say this will be our last RV. I did see one 45' diesel pusher which I liked. (Similar floorplan to ours up front with the 2 sofas, but had a full bath in the back and an additional huge closet.) But it's way out of our price range new, and we have learned to live within our space. Or, I've seen a few Prevost units I could live with :) , but we'll have to wait until I hit big on the lottery for that. And since I don't play the lottery...we'll just keep that a dream. LOL
Anyway, my recommendation for anyone looking is to do lots of research which includes visiting dealerships and shows and walk around inside the units. (For the most part, I've found RV salespeople to be not too well versed in most RV related topics (OK...that's about as nice as I could say it! :) ), so I recommend if you have any questions, ask them here to get some real-world opinions and advice from people who really have an RV.) If it has slides (which I highly recommend), make sure everything you need will be accessible when the slides are in so if you overnight in a rest area, you're still fully functional. (At a show they'll have all of the slides out. Oftentimes for a reason.) While we spent more for our rig than we originally expected, I think in the long run it saved us quite a bit as we didn't play the "trade up" game.
Good Luck,
~Rick
