John&Joey wrote:
So why did the MH sit for so long after your trip. Has the joy left, lost faith in the 'ol gal, kids got other things going on, or did the cost of use just get too great.
It's a shame that older MH have so little value, but the liability of owning one keeps going up ($$$,) and the probability of issues go up with the lack of use.
Might want to break your kids heart, and sell the rig prior to something major going out that will turn the rig into scrap based on the cost of repair. Just my opinion Gail.
The MH was purchased in 2007 to go to the Grand Canyon and Four Corners but family member heath delayed that trip for a few years. Joy has not left but life gets more complex each years with the kids now being 16 for sure.
For sure MH as a travel vehicle makes less sense each year for us because of the cost and just being inconvenient.
In the spring of 2012 I had a tradeshow in Orlando FA the kids went to help. Before the event we did Space Coast and swam in Atlantic and afterwards we swam in the Gulf and did Dolphin Tales and Busch Gardens?? That fall we did a trade show in Grapevine TX and did the Boy Scout Museum and the zoo before heading south to see Austin and the Alamo, McAllen, USS Lexington, Holocaust Museum in Houston, Bourbon Street at midnight on a Saturday by accident and took the coast road from Gulf Port to Mobil and did the tunnel and the old US 45 back home. Both were by a large SUV and motels.
Got to go eat with family now and will continue later on answering your questions.
OK I am typing from the MH. :) While we had 120 volts from a 20 amp outlet fed by 30 amp source with a 12 gauge ext cord at the other parking spot it was leaning a lot and not so comfortable because of the chances of slipping and falling getting in and out of the MH. Here it is 20 amps fed by a 14 gauge cord I think. I noticed the converter and 1500 heater dragged it down to 114 volts so it is OK. If I decide to keep it here I can feed it with the double duplex to 30 amp RV adapter with little voltage loss using the 30 amp rated RV ext cord. Bottom line in thinking about your questions got me back into the MH.
As you can see from my earlier work on answering we are going places and doing things without taking the MH. This last and 2014 New Years the kids should be in MX building homes and holding VBS for the kids so that gets them out of the country. This March we had a show in Boston and did DC and took the boat ride near the base of the Liberty Lady then hit CT, RI, MA, ME, and VT where we saw maple syrup harvesting and cooking and cross a real cover bridge before heading home through PA and OH. Due to falling flat on my back in Sept and having to get a barn and fencing for the mini horses we did not travel farther than 100 miles from home and that was horse related.
On selling it the wife has NO desire to travel but likes having a back up home. I told the son he can have it if he wants it someday and he said he did. With the horses here the daughter is not interested in a cross country at this point at least. It will also serve as a training vehicle for the kids so they will have experience driving a Class A before leaving home. The son is 6'2" and growing so he is more physical able to drive it than I am so we just need to get him some hands on time so when he starts taking it out with friends someday I will know he had the best training available to him. :)
As for the liability going up as they age I think is questionable. The person that goes out and buys a $200K new MH is going to be out about $25K to $50K a year depending on where they borrow the money. Even if they pay cash there is the money opportunity cost.
Sure ours might need a fuel pump, batteries and could loss the engine or transmission like your or anyone else rig. It came with a re-manufactured transmission that now has 33K miles on it and I done the bucket flush twice with a filter change the first time. It had new Dexron VI in it before our last 8K mile trip to the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday it was firmly shifting when the engine would hit 4000 RPM on WOT take offs so both the engine (110K miles) and transmission sound and feel good. We actually had new plugs and wires after the trip but ran well on the $20 set of wires we put on it at 92K miles. We got new tires and Koni FDS shocks before the cross country so we should be good on tires, tune up, shocks and heavy up keep of the chassis for the next 8 years but I expect the son will want it long before that and he knows how to keep it up because he changed the plugs at age 9 and changed out the dash temperature engine sensor the next year and has rotated the tires.
I think insurance is about $600 a year for full coverage with $500 deductible. Property tax is like$80 and tags I think is about $25.
Sure there are going to be some things that will need to be replaced. If the 20+ year old converter goes that will be a couple hundred dollars. Since we robbed it of the new Interstate starting battery and converted one of the two house batteries to a starting battery you could say we are going to need $200 there in the next few years if not sooner since I only plan to by two new DC batteries if we are not going to be much more than overnight at like WM with no AC and not carry the weight and cost of a starting battery. If we took a serious trip I would just rob the chassis battery back from the PU for the trip.
Scrap is a real possibility with any old vehicle. If we had an accident or took a big limb throw the center of the roof it would be totaled for sure. If we were on the road I would just rent a SUV or crew cab PU (we do not tow for several reasons) and load up our stuff and head home and let the insurance company get rid of it.
Thanks for your questions because I really have not thought too much about the MH other than the dirty roof and getting some run time on chassis and generator which we have and are good until spring now.
