Hi,
The advantage of a full size class C is that you can dry camp, and avoid a lot of camping fees. If you install a single 140 watt solar panel, you can be energy independant, and drive a few days, camp for a week or so on BLM land for free.
Yes you will get 8 MPG. How many miles do you plan on driving it? 8,000 miles over 2 years is only 1,000 gallons of gas in 24 months, or 50 gallons a month? Surely you can afford that!. Your insurance will be a little more expensive that that cost over 2 years.
If you are not careful, you could be spending $45 a night for a full hookup site with a shower in the bathroom! Or take along your own bathroom, and only worry about filling the fresh water tank once every 5-8 nights, take a shower daily in the RV, and stop at a full hookup RV campground once every week or so, and dump the tanks, fill the fresh water, and top off the batteries while doing laundry at the same place.
1986 unit. It might have roofing problems. You might need to coat the roof with new EPDM, that might be a $400 project.
You might need new batteries, probably need tires (unless the date code is less than 4 years old, you will need to replace them when they become 7+ years old). Who knows what else might break on a older RV. But you can live in a full size class C, while you can not dry camp comfortably in a smaller trailer, without a bathroom or larger fresh water tank.
It will also save money to have that 6 cubic foot refrigerator/freezer, you can cook at home more often, and not just hot dogs and things over the fire. You can bake cornbread, make a stew, any meal that you might make in a apartment, you can also make in a RV. . .
There is a whole community out there full time in RV's. Thousands of retired folks, hundreds of kids wanting to see the United States, some bringing up children in a RV while visiting the National Parks and home schooling their kids.
SunElec.com sells a 140 watt solar panel for about $229 that has a frame, and 12 volt nominal output. You would install this on the roof, so it makes power all the time. While driving the alternator will not need to put out so much power, saving gas too! You will also need a PWM controller, and some #10 grey romex from Home Depot too. Run the wires down the refrigerator vent to the controller, then to the battery. It will generate enough power to run the pump, some lights, and the refrigerator while you are camped by some lake for a week, waiting for your next adventure.
Escapees.com is a club started by the Perterson's while he was out working as a electrician, full time in a pickup towing a travel trailer, while putting their kids through home school, back in the 60's and 70's. Their kids turned out great, smart, and owners of a huge RV club!
FreeCampgrounds.com offers some free places to camp in every state. I listed some of my favorite BLM camping areas, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!
Good luck writing your book. You might find a lot of interesting stories to write about at Slab City or Ajo AZ. IF you show up at Slab City around Thanksgiving, go to the club there, and introduce yourself. You will find a large group that spends winters there, some even stay during the hot (117F) summers too!
Ajo is a 'low cost' place for retireees to stay while waiting on their SS checks to show up. They can camp there for pennies a month!
Quartzsite is another popular place to show up to after January 1. Actually there is a crowd there from November to around March, when it becomes to hot to stay dry camping.
September to when the snow starts to fly in October it is great to know about the free camping in the National Forest north of the North rim of the Grand Canyon. You could spend months exploring there by bicycle, but gas is really expensive there. You can camp in the meadows for free, 2 weeks at a time. If you do not 'look' like you moved in, the Rangers might think you just showed up yesterday, and they will not bother you. But if you show up, get out a BBQ, and start storing all kinds of stuff under blue tarps, they will ask you to 'move on' sooner than later.
The key is to look like you just got there. You can spend nights near a library, or school, or church in a small town. Judge the town by the bars on the windows. Never wanted to spend a night in a town where the locals think they need bars on the windows. . ..
Good luck,
Fred.
